Beyond the Finish Line, with Founder of Run Tri Bike, Jason Bahamundi Ep. 164

Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Jason Bahamundi of Run Try Bike to the show. A Bronx-born Puerto Rican kid turned marketing guru and endurance sports aficionado, Jason's life is a mosaic of struggle, resilience, and triumph. He gives us a raw and engaging recount of his journey, underlining the profound impact that running has had on his life. Together, we venture into the significance of embracing our multifaceted experiences, especially when it comes to the health and fitness narratives that often go unheard.

Jason Bahamundi, founder of Run Tri Bike, is a passionate and accomplished endurance athlete dedicated to proving that there is a spot at the starting line for everybody and every body. With a background deeply rooted in the world of triathlons, running, and cycling, Jason has not only excelled in his personal athletic endeavors but is committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive world of endurance sports. This led him to establish Run Tri Bike, a platform that serves as a hub for enthusiasts to connect, share experiences, and access valuable resources. Jason's genuine enthusiasm for endurance sports, continues to inspire individuals to pursue their goals and embrace the transformative power of an endurance sports lifestyle.

CONNECT WITH JASON
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
FACEBOOK

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to Ella Go. My name is Lisa. Join me on the journey in having real raw and uncomfortable discussions about fitness, health and everything in between, because, let's be honest, this journey would suck if we don't get our shit together. All right, welcome back everyone. Welcome back to the Elegoo podcast. Today's guest is Jason Bahamundi. Jason, welcome to the Elegoo podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Hi, lisa, thanks for having me on. I'm really excited to join your show.

Speaker 1: 0:49

I'm happy to have you because you know you were gracious enough to have me on, you know, on your, on your magazine, and you know I also want to say that, um, that I caught one of your lives and you really shared a lot of well. First of all, let me back up, based on your magazine, which we'll get more into. It's not your typical athletic magazine, which is something that I was drawn to. And then, on top of that, when you do your lives, you mentioned a couple of things that I said to myself. I need him on the podcast because we got to have the listeners know that there's so many people that have different stories. You think you know them, but you don't. So, with that being said, why don't you introduce yourself to the audience?

Speaker 2: 1:45

So, with that being said, why don't you introduce yourself to the audience? Sure, well, you guys have my name, jason Bahamundi. I am the founder and one of three co-owners of a company called Run Try Bike. An actual company is called Endurance Sports Investment Group, but we do business as Run Try Bike and we are the premier voice of the everyday athlete. And what does that mean? We talk to everyday people who are doing extraordinary things.

Speaker 2: 2:08

In the past, we all have a story that has gotten us to start training for a swimming event, a running event, a biking event, all three as a triathlon. And I want to explore that triathlon. And I want to explore that Like I've always wanted to be the person who is the dinner party host and doesn't say sorry, I don't have enough chairs, but says hey, let's go to the basement and go get another table and bring more people in so that we can keep talking, telling stories, laughing and having a great time. I learned it from my parents, like every Friday night, and my parents' house was always filled with family stories, people laughing. I mean, it was just the way it was and I just wanted to do it now through endurance sports.

Speaker 1: 3:14

That's cool, that's really cool. I love that. With that being said, you have a story as well, and I'd like to ask you just a little bit of the story, if you don't mind sharing, and then tell us how you then got into, you know, being in endurance sports.

Speaker 2: 3:33

So I mean, my story is, I was a Puerto Rican kid, grew up in the Bronx. My parents moved out to Rockland County in New York suburbia, you know and so my world really changed at that moment. Right, I went from being in the Bronx, surrounded by a lot of different ethnicities, a lot of different languages, to being in the suburbs and a fish out of water for lack of a better phrase and I think that's where a lot of my personality started to come out of is. Now I'm fighting to be accepted, to be different and learn who I am. But I took all of that stuff. I went to college, got my master's degree, started working in Manhattan in media, marketing and advertising, which is why the business is. What we're doing today is marketing and advertising, which is why the business is what we're doing today is marketing and advertising, because I've been doing it for 30 years. But that's like the umbrella of it all, right, like there's so many different pieces inside of every one of those components, from going to college, being the first person in my family to go to college, to being the first person to get a master's degree.

Speaker 2: 4:41

I've been married twice, which means I've been divorced twice. I've had my bouts with alcohol. I've had my bouts with disordered eating. I've got a business now that stresses me out every single day, but I love running it. I've done the corporate America thing. I've worked for startups, I've worked for large corporations and I think every one of these pieces is a story that leads you to the product that you're hearing today, and then there's going to be a different product tomorrow because of the experience I have today, and I just enjoy being able to continuously grow, reflect, take what has come into my life on a daily basis and apply that to the future. Simply put, lisa, like life is meant to be lived, and that's what I love doing.

Speaker 1: 5:36

So positive Jason. Can I get like a dose of that and put it?

Speaker 2: 5:37

in a bottle and sell it. I'd be a rich woman. I've got enough to go around.

Speaker 1: 5:41

All right. So obviously you lived and you're still living, and it's very multifaceted your background. So, with all that, how did you get into being active? Is there something that you wanted to overcome or you just naturally gravitated towards that?

Speaker 2: 6:01

Yeah, growing up I played all the typical American sports baseball, basketball, football, hockey and then as an adult you get started in corporate America and days are long and time is short and you kind of get away from it all. In my first marriage she was working for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society came home one day and basically told me I was going to run a half marathon and I was like I'm going to do what now? And it was so humbling. I went to a track to run a mile and, having been an athlete my whole life, I was like this is easy. And I got there and I ran the first 400 meters and I thought that's it, I'm dead, this is never going to happen. I walked the second 400, ran the third 400, walked this last 400, finished the mile. I thought I've conquered the world and from that day it just became one of those things I just loved doing. I just loved being out there, getting active again, challenging myself, seeing progress.

Speaker 2: 7:07

And from half marathon, you know, all the way up to having raced the 250 mile race, like all of it has been under the guise, under the aspect, under this idea that I want to know what more I can do. I hate putting limitations on myself and I want to know what more I can do. I hate putting limitations on myself and I want to see what else I can do, because life again is meant to be lived, and when I'm on my deathbed I want to be able to tell good stories. So live a good story. As opposed to. I sat on my couch all day, every day. My fingers were the thing that got the most work out by flipping channels. Nobody wants to hear that. They want to hear. Almost died running around a track when I was 26 years old, but I survived. The next thing, you know, I'm running a 250 mile race.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Wow, Okay, but Jason, people want to live right, but they choose different things. You choose the 100 miles, running 100 miles and above. You know other people want to travel the world. But so what does that? How does that serve you, Like, what does it do for you?

Speaker 2: 8:14

It tells me that nothing is impossible that.

Speaker 2: 8:17

I can overcome hard right For any athlete. Specifically, there's a moment in time where you're like this is so hard, your muscles ache, you're out of breath, your heart is beating super fast and you're like I can't do this next thing. And then you go and do it. When you're working with your friends. They're asking you to move furniture. Everything seems so impossible. But if you've already done what is impossible in your mind, then nothing else is hard. And so I look back and I'm like okay, I ran a 250-mile race, I can go run a 5K, I've already done it.

Speaker 2: 8:58

I'll give you a great example of this. I used to race Ironman distance events and I had raced one, had already done one, and I went and did an Olympic distance event and I get super anxious in the water. I have really high anxiety when it comes to the swimming portion of triathlon and I jump in the water. It's cold, I swim from kayak to kayak for the first 300 meters and I'm hanging on a kayak and the volunteer she is wonderful, you got this, you can do it, all these other things. And I just said to myself dude, you just did an effing Ironman, you can swim a thousand meters, get going and that's all it took, right, because I knew I've already done something more than what I'm doing now. And that's all it took. And I, you know, I finished that race and I think by doing the hard, nothing seems to be impossible anymore.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Okay, I hear you. I hear you. I'm going to dig a little deeper here. So, you know, I hear what you're saying and someone can be listening and be like man, where does he get that? Like, what is that? Where is that ignition coming from? Because I mean, obviously it's coming from somewhere. You know, as I'm listening to you, someone could be listening as well and say that you know I, you know I would love to do all those things that he's saying, but I'm not, I'm not there. So for you, like, what is what does it? What ignites you to do those things? I know you're saying you want to live and I know you want to say you know, I want to be on my deathbed and talk about all these stories, but I mean, there's something in you that's igniting. What is that?

Speaker 2: 10:46

I want to prove you wrong, plain and simple. I want to prove you wrong, right, look, I'm not supposed to be here right now. I'm a 50 year old Puerto Rican kid who was born in the Bronx during the Bronx is burning time, wow, right. So I shouldn't be here right now. My dad third grade education. My mother had some college courses, but that was it Right. By all rules and guidelines, that kid shouldn't be here right now. He shouldn't have gone to college and got his degree. He shouldn't have gotten his master's degree and finished second in his class. He shouldn't have started his own business. He shouldn't have made his way to vice president of sales and marketing at multiple corporations. None of these things should have happened to him, if you follow society's rules. So I'm going to prove you wrong day in and day out. I'm going to show up day in and day out and I'm going to prove you wrong. Period, end of story. Day in and day out. And I'm going to prove you wrong. Period, end of story. And so I seek hard, right? Look, I started this company in the middle of a pandemic, when marketing and advertising was drying up. I raised my hand and I was like let's start a business to go and try to sell marketing and advertising. I want to prove people wrong, and that's part of the fuel. And once you get going you start to find that you can actually do more than you think you can, and so proving people wrong starts to get a little bit easier, and so you look for the harder challenge. And so then, when you complete that harder challenge, you're like OK, I'm going to go do this and some things you don't set out to do.

Speaker 2: 12:26

I literally just posted on threads earlier today that an answer to a question. Somebody was asking can I do two marathons within two weeks? And I was like look, I ran two 100 miles races within 14 days of each other. You can go and do a marathon, it is possible, but you also have to have the right frame of mind. So the first race I went out. I'm going to go balls to the wall, excuse me as hard as I can. I want to race super hard. I want to do extremely well. The second one I just want to finish, and the reason why I just wanted to finish that second one was because it was to get a ticket to the Western States Endurance Run Lottery. If I finished in 30 hours, I still got the ticket. Even if I finished in 30 hours, I still got the ticket. Even if I finished in 20 hours, I was getting the ticket right. So I didn't put any pressure and additional stress on myself to finish within a certain time of that second race, but I did it and I got my ticket. So again, that's really hard Like, and I saw your face when I said I ran 200 miles within 14 days of each other right?

Speaker 2: 13:22

Most people shake their head and like that's impossible. I cannot believe it. I get it Right and so can you, and it doesn't have to be a hundred mile race. Your a hundred mile race might literally be submitting your college essay today and then, you know, going to work tomorrow at corporate America or whatever. It is Right. Just because I look to 100 mile races doesn't mean you have to look to 100 mile races. Find your heart and whatever it is.

Speaker 2: 13:49

Again, I love the question because I always ask our guests too why do you run? Why do you swim? Why do you bike? You could join the book club, you could go play chess, you could draw, you could become an artist, you could play music. There's a million things you can do. Why this stuff? You can play music, like there's a million things you can do. Why this stuff? And part of it for me is like I said, is I want to prove you wrong and I'm going to go find the heart and I've been an athlete my whole life and so it's just natural to do it in sport.

Speaker 1: 14:14

I think we got our answer. Okay, good, all right. So I was listening to a podcast that you were a guest on and, like I'm hearing all this energy from you and I'm expecting that you know you're gonna come in to this podcast episode with this energy, but then I heard you say on this podcast how you have listened you have ran without listening to any music and then talking about the things that you think about. I think he said something about the Revolutionary War or something like that. I mean, I'm like what the hell, what who? I'm sorry, but I freaking thinking that as I'm doing a run and the fact that your mind went like to all these different places is crazy. So let's, because people might not know what I'm talking about. So let's first. Let me first ask you like, what got you to first of all think about running without any distraction, no music.

Speaker 2: 15:22

So when I first got started, especially with a coach so you're talking 15, 16 years ago and they would set a training run for me, a plan right, do X, y and Z, and I was listening to music and I could never follow the plan because I was running to the music. I love dancing, I love moving, and if the beat is up, then so am I. And yet the training plan is like run easy, and here I am running super hard and fast because the music is in there. So I tried running without music and I loved it.

Speaker 2: 15:57

And then the other part of it too is that when I ride my bike, nothing but the road has to be accessible to my ears.

Speaker 2: 16:00

It's too dangerous to be riding with headphones and music and everything else. And so once you start riding again, if you ride a hundred miles and it's five or six hours with no music, like running for 30 minutes becomes easy without music, right. And so that's kind of where it all started was my heart rate went to the music and not to the training plan, and so success at racing would get harder if I wasn't following the training plan laid out by my plan, and so success at racing would get harder if I wasn't following the training plan laid out by my coach, and so I kind of got rid of it. And then, once I got into triathlon, it became super easy to do, because when you're swimming, I mean, people have underwater music now and I get it, but when I started those things didn't exist, and so swimming you don't have music or podcasts, and riding your bike you don't have that stuff, and so running just became a natural extension of that.

Speaker 1: 16:52

Okay. But I mean, I'm listening to you and you're saying 30 minutes, okay, I get it An hour, all right, but we're talking like you were doing, like the 100 miler I think that's what you said with absolutely no music. Does that take time? Because I'm actually trying to get my groups to do this, because I'd done it once by accident and it was the most cathartic experience I've ever had. I'm like, wow, is this how? I mean you were listening to the sound of, you know, a squirrel rustling in the leaves and you're hearing the breeze and it's like you feel alive, right, and I can't, you know, it's indescribable. So did it take you some time? Because, again, I was only doing it for 30 minutes. You're doing it for way longer than that, but did you do it in increments or you just went? I have a feeling you're going to say you just jumped into it.

Speaker 2: 17:53

Yeah, like that's just my personality. If we're going to do it, we're going to do it right. Like I quit drinking cold turkey, I started running without using cold turkey. I quit eating meat, cold turkey. Like it just just don't do it. And I think a large part of that mindset Lisa comes from is that failure isn't terminal. Right, it's not the end, all be all. So if I go out for a run and I want to run an hour and I get 30 minutes into it and I'm like, oh my goodness, I need some sort of audio, I can do it. It's not a problem. Not to get philosophical, but I think one of the things that social media has done negatively is it has created this space where we define ourselves and then we can't get out of that box because we're worried that our followers are going to no longer like us and it's. Can I curse on this show? Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:51

By the way, you can't bullshit.

Speaker 2: 18:53

Like, seriously, it's total bullshit. And I always use this example I'm the vegan guy. Make sure you don't eat anything but carb, rice and beans and pasta and everything else. Forget steak and chicken and everything else. Then I go to the doctor and the doctor is like you know what? You're really deficient in this particular vitamin, mineral, whatever it is. And the only way to do it is to eat beef.

Speaker 2: 19:21

Let's say, and now you're like do I eat beef? Because Because my followers are telling me that you're the vegan guy and you shouldn't eat beef. And it's like, if I don't, I'm going to die. So, guess what, I'm eating beef. I'm no longer the vegan guy and that's okay, right? I think that's the problem.

Speaker 2: 19:40

Like we've built these boxes for ourselves and we're so worried that some follower and I always use this example. So, jane, if you're in Iowa, I apologize, and we're so worried that some follower and I always use this example. So, jane, if you're in Iowa, I apologize, but we're worried that Jane in Iowa is going to be like oh my goodness, and start typing away. And it's like who gives a shit? Like, seriously, who cares, do the thing that's best for you and don't worry about failure.

Speaker 2: 20:04

And so to answer your question in a roundabout way. It's like just go do it. Go run without the music, put your headphones in your pocket. So if 15 minutes into the 30 minute run, you're like, okay, I made it 15 minutes, I need something. That's okay, you made it 15 minutes, now you have a baseline. The next time you go, try 16 minutes and then 17 minutes and then 20 minutes minutes and then 17 minutes and then 20 minutes, and then, before you know it, you're like you're going to forget your, your uh AirPods in your at your house and you're not going to care. You're going to be like, hey, I got this.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Wow, jason, can you be my coach? All right, so let's go on to the next. So let's talk about the magazine. Like you mentioned a little bit that you it came out of COVID. So talk a little bit more about how that idea progressed. Like, how did you get that idea out of nowhere during COVID?

Speaker 2: 20:53

So I was the vice president of sales and marketing for a company called Travel Host in Dallas, texas, and when COVID hit we were in these beautiful offices, right Floor to ceiling glass. We were in these beautiful offices, right Floor to ceiling glass, overlooking the lake. It was corporate America, the way corporate America is painted in movies. And COVID hits the company has the word travel in it. Like everything shuts down for us.

Speaker 2: 21:23

Bill Schroeder, my mentor. He has to make hard decisions. He basically gets rid of 12 out of 15 people Al, myself and Bill are the only three and he says guys, we are three pirates on this pirate ship. I have no idea where the fuck we're going, but we're going to have fun. And he gives up the building space. He rents a space in the Mexican Chamber of Commerce.

Speaker 2: 21:44

Ok, so we're in the middle of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce in Irving, texas. It's like in a basement, right. They're conducting business, nafta government type stuff and the three of us are in this office space trying to keep this business afloat. But we learn so much about ourselves and about business. And in that time frame, bill gets a phone call. He's a serial entrepreneur. He's always taking calls about buying and selling business. And in that timeframe Bill gets a phone call. He's a serial entrepreneur. He's always taking calls about buying and selling businesses and he looks at me and he hands me his phone and he goes I think this one's for you. And so I get on the phone and it's Texas Runner and Triathlete Magazine. It's the widow of the gentleman who started the company and she's trying to sell the business and she's asking for a big amount of money. So I go through the things that I would need to have in order to even consider buying the business. We go back and forth. I'm like you don't really have anything that I'm willing to pay that amount of money for. Sorry, I can't buy your business. I hang up the phone, I look at Bill and I said I don't need to buy that business. I can start it on my own. So again, I can quit drinking and eating meat and run without headphones. Cold turkey. I started a business. Cold turkey. I started making some phone calls to some freelance writers.

Speaker 2: 22:56

Back in the day I had a blog that was fairly popular around endurance sports, and so I had some connections to people. And so I had some connections to people and I asked every one of them like what is media landscape today talking about? That is ad nauseum that people are tired of. And what are they not talking about that people are interested in? And, like I told you earlier at the beginning of the podcast, like I love hearing stories and they just reaffirm that for me, and so that was late September, early October, reaffirm that for me, and so that was late September, early October got the business going by January of 2021.

Speaker 2: 23:31

And by March of 2021, we issued and published and produced our very first magazine. And so we are now three years into this, three plus years into this. We've transformed ourselves right. We no longer print an actual physical magazine, we produce it digitally and we have grown tremendously from that you know, september, october, timeframe of 2020 to where we are today. And I don't know when this podcast will air, but we literally just launched the Everyday Athlete Podcast Network, where we're bringing in podcasters to conduct their shows under our umbrella so that we can go find advertisers for them. Advertisers can find places of distribution for their message and we'll act sort of like as a conduit. We'll produce the shows and we'll run the ad campaigns for the clients, but also do a rev share with the podcasters so they can get money for their content creation. So we keep evolving, so to speak. But I was on another show and, like I told them, but we have stayed in the business of storytelling, we're just distributing it in multiple different ways now.

Speaker 1: 24:41

Yeah, and I'll be honest with you. You know, when I first and I can't even remember when your um Instagram page, and that's how I got to know what you guys were about, it may have been a couple of years. And when I first like, you know, when you see the words run, try, you know bike, and I'm like, uh, this is one of those hardcore athletes you know they're going to be. It's going to be like one of, oh, one of those, right, but I'll be honest. And then you know what, what you would talk about on your lives, and I've you probably don't even remember this I've caught your lies many times. You know, when you were talking, you were interviewing different people with different stories. And then you know, I, I would get the, the, the um, the article that you guys write about somebody going through something. So I'm like, okay, this is not your typical like athletic, uh, magazine and I'm going to read this so that people can hear.

Speaker 1: 25:42

Um, why I'm saying this? Like, even in what you're about, like it says, at RunTriBike, we're passionate about endurance, sports and the incredible individuals who participate in them. We believe that anyone, regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation or physical abilities, can find a place at the starting line. I mean, come on, is that not just so welcoming and open and making someone believe that they can? Just that mission statement that you have, which I was going to ask you what your mission, that mission statement that you have, which I was going to ask you what your mission? But apparently I just said it is such a welcoming message. I mean, how do other people receive it? I mean, do you get the same feedback that I'm telling you right now?

Speaker 2: 26:39

There is yet to be a person. Well, that's not true. We have had some detractors, but very much with wide eyes and open arms and oftentimes shock that we want to talk to them. They're like we've had. We had one lady who's pardon me, I wouldn't use this phrase, but she did. She's like I'm just a fat lady on a bike and I'm like no, you are a cyclist and I want to know your story.

Speaker 2: 27:09

How did you find your way to the bike and why the bike, and why do you keep riding the bike and all of that stuff? Right, if you listen to our shows, whether you catch them on podcasts or on YouTube, we never ask about paces. We never ask how many miles you run or yards you've swam. And I'll tell you why. Because I don't give a shit. I don't even care about the number of miles I run, like I don't care. I don't care about the paces that people run. Why? Because Lisa's seven minute pace is equivalent to Joe's seven minute pace. It's exactly the same thing and I just don't care about it. What I want to know is how did Lisa get to the seven minute pace? What got her to that point where she was like you know what. I'm going to put my running shoes on. I'm going to head out the door and go for a run today, and maybe you started at 14 mile paces and then it got down to 10 and got down to nine.

Speaker 2: 28:24

No-transcript club soccer in your hometown. You could do a hundred things, but you chose this and I want to know why. And that's where we focus our stories on why people are doing the things that they do. And our ownership group consists of me, the founder, who's a Puerto Rican kid from the Bronx. It includes Lori, my girlfriend, who is from the Pacific Northwest, who deals with hidden disabilities, and Om Gandhi, who is Indian and was overweight and dealing with alcohol issues. That's our ownership group, so we're know the un when it comes to that stuff and so we just want to bring more people in um.

Speaker 2: 29:12

And I'll tell you a story about the detractor. You know, when we launched the business, I had a previous partner and she forwarded me an email from somebody and it literally said so I guess this platform is not for um white heterosexual males. And she panicked and she was like I got to address this and I'm like no, you don't. There are plenty of other places for white heterosexual males to go. They don't have to come here and we are not going to bend over backwards to accommodate somebody who doesn't want to welcome everybody into the group. It's okay. We are not for everybody and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 29:51

And we got another email about a year ago that we had um go big triathlon on uh our cover and they're you know, they support LGBTQIA plus triathletes and um the. The email we got basically said I'm tired of this stuff getting shoved down my throat. I support LGBTQ athletes and have done so for all these years. Please unsubscribe me. And I laughed so hard, like if you support LGBTQ IA plus athletes or people in general, why would you not want to continue to get these stories so that you could share them? Right, like? You're clearly just lying to yourself about this. I'm supporting people, but those are really the only two things in the last three plus years that we've gotten from detractors. I think people are interested in hearing the stories of people that are just like them Mothers, people dealing with issues, alcohol, whatever it might be.

Speaker 2: 30:47

They want to know that stuff. Right, when you go to a coffee shop, the person across the table from you is just like you. They're not a person who's a professional athlete or elite athlete more than likely and so you want to know what they're doing. And basically, we've just created a hub for everybody to share their story and read other stories.

Speaker 1: 31:08

God, jason, that was so good. I think that you know I love it, I love all of it and obviously that's why I continued to listen to you guys. But you are letting people know, really, that they can do it, just like you have that drive, like you have this drive that I can do anything, and you showcasing all these normal people it's telling anybody can do it and it's not you know. It's just like the story, the, the um. I was talking to one of the women in my groups and I was telling her like well, you know, you guys are runners and she's like I.

Speaker 1: 31:52

One of the women said I'm a runner, I'm not a runner, you know, and I'm like you're running, what are you, you know? And it really breaks this perception of what a runner looks like. It breaks the perception of what a triathlete looks like. I mean, honestly, you're breaking freaking walls here and letting everyone know, anyone know that they can do it. I love it, I absolutely love it. I love what you guys are doing. That's just amazing. Okay, so, with all that being said, what are your hopes and goals for the magazine?

Speaker 2: 32:29

It's interesting, right? So I talked to Adam Lee from Community Trail Running about two months ago and we always hear this phrase if I can help one person, I'll be so happy Bullshit. Like I want to help a million people, I want to help two million people. No-transcript the acronym FIT. So it's perfect, right? And so failure isn't terminal.

Speaker 2: 33:26

So take the risk, go do something. Go try something. It may be the smallest thing possible, right? You may say to yourself I don't like Thai food, but you've never tried it. So go try it now. You might like it.

Speaker 2: 33:39

And if you don't throw it out, it's okay. You don't have to subject yourself to swallowing the food you don't care for or whatever it is. Go walk around the block one day and next thing you know, one walk around the block might be two walks and then three walks. But stop limiting yourself Like. We have enough gatekeeping in this country and in the world that you don't need to gatekeep yourself. And oftentimes, excuse me, I get emotional about this because I see these questions oftentimes, and I see people posting these questions too about gatekeeping themselves. I've seen questions like, or comments like you're too fat to be a runner, you're too slow to be a runner, you'll never make it on the bike in an Ironman, you'll never like bro enough. Like we don't have to believe the shit that's tossed at us Again.

Speaker 2: 34:35

I'm a Puerto Rican kid who grew up in the Bronx while it was burning down and I've got my own business today. Right, you can go and do things. It doesn't have to be this grandiose thing either. I think when people think about risk and they think about failure, they think about going bankrupt, they think about dying, and it's like no, like, take a small risk, right, you don't like coffee or you believe you don't like coffee. Taste it and you might actually like it. And if you don't like it, it was like six bucks, throw it out, right.

Speaker 2: 35:09

I was on a LinkedIn thread yesterday and we were talking about I had made ravioli this is years ago and I put too much nutmeg in it and it tasted like garbage, like utter garbage. I took one bite and I was like, oh my God, and I threw it out and I ordered pizza, pizza, right. Like there are solutions to every problem out there. You don't have to be beholden to these decisions that we make and you can change the path that you're on, lori, and I have this, saying right, don't just keep doing something just because of the amount of time you've been doing it. Right, like if you wake up one day and you are like I don't want to run, and then the next day you're like I don't want to run, and then the day after that you're like, then stop running, go find something that you love to do, that's going to set your heart on fire, it's going to make you happy, that's okay.

Speaker 1: 36:03

Yeah, yeah, I love that. Okay, god, the drive you're getting me motivated. I hope people are getting motivated by listening to him. Okay, god, the drive You're getting me motivated. I hope people are getting motivated by listening to him. Okay, what is next for you? I'm afraid to ask what is next for you. Is there anything? I'm sure there is.

Speaker 2: 36:20

I mentioned it earlier. So we're literally in the process of launching the Everyday Athlete Podcast Network. We've got about eight, maybe nine people Let me rephrase we have five people that are going to be launching podcasts under our umbrella. I'm having conversations with four others and basically what we're going to do is we're going to we're a media company today. We produce a digital magazine, we produce website content, we have social media content, we're making a deeper foray into the audio space and I'm kind of just following the Dan Lebitard show from ESPN, right. So Dan Lebitard used to write for the Miami Herald. He was great at it and he was always taking risks, he was always pushing the envelope and he got a show on ESPN three hours and he got for lack of a better phrase sick and tired of the rules and the guidelines that ESPN was putting on him. Don Skipper started Metal Ark Media and under Metal Ark Media they now have website content, they have his own show. They are bringing in other podcasters under their umbrella. I'm just stealing their model and providing it for endurance, sports, everyday athletes, and so we're going to launch this podcast network in addition to everything else and who knows what tomorrow might bring.

Speaker 2: 37:48

We've talked to other individuals about becoming race directors and starting our own races. We've talked to other people about potentially filming races to bring a televised, so to speak, aspect to their events, and so one of the things that I believe in is you should always say yes. When you reached out to me and said, hey, you want to be on the podcast, I wasn't like. I was like, yes, let's go Right. Just keep saying yes, because you just never know what may come of it. Somebody might be listening to this podcast, you know, a year from now, and be like I want to start a podcast. And I heard that guy, jason, who's got the everyday athlete podcast network. Let me reach out to him. Or they might be the CEO of a larger media company and it's like let me go see what these guys are doing and buy the company from him. Hey, let's talk. Just always be open to opportunity, and I and I so I don't know that I can tell you what's next, because I may not have said yes to the opportunity yet.

Speaker 1: 38:53

God, jason, I think we're coming from the same cloth. I think we're coming from the same cloth, good or bad, good.

Speaker 2: 39:03

Always good.

Speaker 1: 39:05

No, that's great. I'm on the same mindset as you are. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. My mother's always like, oh well, what are you going to do on Wednesday? I don't know. I'm still focused on today. Lady, who the hell knows what's going to happen on Wednesday? Jason, I love this conversation with you. You have so much drive, so much energy and I think that, well, I know that what you are doing is phenomenal and it is needed, and you are creating this space where people can and not can't. It's I can, can I? Yes, you can. So I love that about you. I love everything that you're doing with the magazine. So where can people find you?

Speaker 2: 39:55

Because I've been in marketing for 30 years. I've kept it very simple for everybody Run Try Mag. If you go to run try magcom, if you go to any of the social platforms at run try mag, you will find us everywhere on those platforms, except foriktok. It's the only one we haven't gotten on and I your face is no different than the other hundreds of faces as well. Um, and it's just not something that I ever got into specifically, because I'm like there's only 24 hours in the day. I'm trying to do another thing. Maybe, if we get big enough, we can bring somebody on to to manage a manage a TikTok account for us. But outside of that LinkedIn, youtube, twitter or X, whatever you want to call it Instagram, threads, facebook we're there. Our newsletter comes out bi-monthly as well, so you can subscribe to our newsletter through our website, and Run Try Mag is where you can find us.

Speaker 1: 40:51

Okay, great. So you don't want to go to TikTok and do this, you don't want to do that.

Speaker 2: 41:00

No, but I will tell you, like smart enough, I went and claimed the account so that somebody couldn't steal it, so it's under our umbrella if and when we're ready to launch it. Maybe that's the next thing you ask. Maybe that's it.

Speaker 1: 41:11

See, jason, you're one step ahead. Okay Well, jason, again thank you for being on the Elego podcast. Thank you so much. I had fun. Thank you again.

Speaker 2: 41:24

I appreciate your time. This has been a blast and I'm happy to come back whenever you need.

Speaker 1: 41:29

Wow, you guys all heard that when he's like a multi gazillionaire, we'll have him back on. Okay, all right, until next time, everyone, bye you.