Raising Your Personal Standards, Becoming Better Every Day, & Building Unshakeable Confidence with Rocky DeAndrade

On this episode of Transformation Talks, we’re joined by my good friend Rocky DeAndrade.

Rocky is a Massachusetts-based basketball trainer and entrepreneur who has spent the last eight years developing athletes from the youth level all the way up to the pros.

He is the co-founder of X Factor Hoops, one of New England's largest basketball training programs, and Swish Hoop, the basketball tech startup creating smart training tools for players around the world. He is also the founder of Better Everyday, a movement built around one idea: who you become every day is everything.

All the core of all his ventures is helping people perform at their highest level.

If a basketball conversation doesn't sound relevant to your health and fitness goals, this episode may surprise you:

We talked about universal strategies for making progress more efficiently, raising your personal standards, improving your confidence, and many other topics that'll help you no matter what your goal is.

Connect with Rocky here: https://www.instagram.com/rocksteadyrd3/

Better Everyday: https://www.instagram.com/bettereverydayu/

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Let me know any thoughts or questions you have on the episode here: mail@samforget.com

For help losing fat and actually keeping it off, apply for 1:1 coaching here: https://samforget.com/coaching/

Or get started for FREE with my one-stop nutrition guide: https://freenutritionguide.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome back to another episode of Transformation Talks. I am your host, Sam Forger, and today we'll be joined by Rocky DeAndre. Rocky is a Massachusetts-based basketball trainer and entrepreneur who has spent the last eight years developing athletes from the youth level all the way up to the pros. He is also the co-founder of X Factor Hoops, one of New England's largest basketball training programs, and Swish Hoop, the basketball tech startup creating smart training tools for players around the world. He is also the founder of Better Every Day, a movement built around one idea. Who you become every day is everything. And at the core of all of these ventures is the universal theme of helping people perform at their highest level. Rocky, I appreciate you coming on, brother.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Sam, I'm so happy that we got to connect here. And uh, you know, thank you for thinking of me. I can't wait to get into the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Of course. This is going to be super fun. And I think to create a little bit more context before we get into all the questions, I would love to briefly touch upon each of those ventures because you have you have quite a lot going on to give people a better idea of the work that you do and how you help people. So let's let's I think start one by one, or let's go one by one, starting with the player development at X Factor Hoops. So tell me more about the work you do there, and then we'll kind of go each thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Yeah. So X Factor Hoops is a basketball training business, and we are located in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and we service kids as young as eight years old, all the way through our oldest pro players who are around like 26, 27 years old. And um, you know, we we just we have a big team. There's a big team of trainers that that are there. I think there's like 14, 15 of us. Oh wow. And then we have close to uh 800 members. So uh, you know, yeah, it's it's it's awesome. We do group training, private training, and you know, so much of what we do is centered around this idea of better every day, which is funny because that's you know, came from just this model that I've lived by for the last uh almost decade. Um, and so yeah, that's you know, that's what we do there. That's the basketball training piece of what I do. Anything that I do within Mass Premier Ports, that facility, is X Factor. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

That space has evolved a lot over the years because I remember back when we played together close to 20 years ago now, it would have been 2008, 2009, so what, 18 years ago at the time of recording this? There was a training space there, but it's evolved a lot, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:44

It has. And since you've last been there, it's even more evolved. So we're we're reinvesting a lot into the facility. So there's gonna be a lot of changes even from now through like October, it's gonna look like a completely different space. Um just from redoing the hardwood uh area, court one and two, like all of that is gonna be expanded upon. We're adding a lot more hoops, more training space, um, just adding more opportunities for players that come in to again work on their game on their own time and um be able to have this whole ecosystem of hey, I can go downstairs and do a training session with my X Factor trainer, and then I can go use the shooting gun for 30 minutes, and then I can go upstairs and do X Factor performance and go get a good lifting session in. So we're developing this whole ecosystem, reinvesting into the building, and it's it's gonna look a lot different come October, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yeah, dude, that's crazy. And actually, fun fact for anybody listening literally, the only jobs that I have had outside of the fitness space were when I was a teenager, I was a lifeguard, and I also worked at Mass Premier Courts, working the clubs. Those are those are the only things I did prior to doing what I do now. Um, Rocky, you mentioned the performance side of things. And actually, let me pause here. I know I mentioned this to you before we hit record. If somebody's listening to this and they're like, okay, I'm I'm not looking to develop my basketball skills, what's this got to do with me? I do want to kind of get out ahead of that and say the things that we will be talking about today, the things that I will be asking you about, as we know, are very universally applicable to people pursuing a variety of goals, everything from you know, approach, habits, systems, mindset, adaptability. So I do want to pause there and kind of add that little element that we had talked about beforehand.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

Yeah. So I mean, that that's right on. We we do live by better every day at the gym, and that's Ice Doctor, but it's literally also something that I do from just a standpoint of like, I believe that if you work on yourself every single day, like that is where everything comes, like everything will come full circle for you. Like everything's gonna work out for you. You want to do whatever it is that you want to do. If you work on yourself first and then you work on whatever it is, like you're going to be in a much better position and you're gonna feel a lot better about yourself. And so um that's you know, that that is at the core of what I do, but you know, X Factor is just the basketball training piece.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Okay, so we have X Factor, the basketball training piece, and then let's also quickly touch upon Swish Hoops for anybody who's curious about that. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Yeah, so Swish Hoop is is the technology startup that I've been in for the last uh eight years. And what we do is we yeah, I know. Time flies. Yeah. So what we do is we create uh smart training tools for players to develop themselves better on their own. So one of the most important times for any athlete is for their development is the time that they spend working on their game on their own. Right? You can imagine you can go to a coach all you want, and it's great to go to a coach, but if you're not spending that extra time by yourself to actually familiarize yourself with what you learned at a deeper level, you're never gonna fully connect that that's that what you learn from your coach. And and so that's why that is such a critical piece for a lot of athletes that you know, you watch a kid who's always in the gym and they're working on the game on their own, you're like, wow, like, you know, that that kid works really hard. And and if they're doing the things that are are the best things for them, I mean, you'll see it right away. Like their development will go through the roof. Um, so making sure that they're they're working on the game on their own, but also that they're doing it in an efficient way. That's basically the core of what we do at Swish Hoop. So we create these products to help players do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

And what sort of data are these athletes tracking? What are you guys looking at?

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Yeah, so we we start by giving them structure. So they have a bunch of drills and workouts in the app. The app is a free training app, so anyone in the world can download it. Um, and you can get all these drills and workouts that will help you to actually know how to work in your game. And then we create shot tracking tools that will actually track your makes and misses. And then if they follow the drills and workouts, it'll also track the court locations that they're shooting from. So you can imagine if you do Yeah, so you can imagine if you're you know doing uh a three-point shooting drill and you're following along with the the drill that you know you're gonna know, well, from the left corner, I was 15 for 20. Or from the right wing, I was seven for 20. And then on top of that, we also have in-app video which records uh everything that the player is doing. It's optional, but it's it's definitely helpful because now at the end of their workout, they have, if they took 100 shots, they have a hundred clips that automatically break down for them after the workout. So now over time, they can go in and watch their workouts and see the statistics, and this just gives them another perspective in terms of how to develop their game.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I love that. Two things I didn't even think of prior to asking about that, the commonality with the idea of like what gets measured gets managed, whether we're talking basketball skill development, and then obviously with a lot of the work that I do with the nutrition and fitness side of things, obviously work ethic, consistency, you know, you can't go wrong. That's a big piece of the puzzle. But being able to deploy that effort and time in the highest yield places, again, that's another, you know, we see that across all ventures, across all goals, whether it is an athlete who is now identifying, okay, I'm putting up a thousand shots a day, Kobe style, but let me reallocate. I don't even know if you'd recommend that anymore, but say, you know, several hundred shots a day, whatever it is, I now know, all right, don't just go to my go-to moves that I'm already comfortable with. Let me identify these weak points and having the data allows you to uh kind of better, again, just better deploy though those time and effort resources.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Yes. And I think that even, you know, to build on that, it's just it helps people be more intentional. When you're tracking things, you you are looking for specific results, right? You're looking for or you're you're trying to improve something specific. So now when you go actually train your your game, knowing what you're tracking, like it just helps you to then, okay, I'm more intentional on what I'm gonna do. And when you're being tracked too, you're you have that that extra pressure of like, all right, you know, I got a hundred shots right here. I want to have the best percentage possible. Instead of just going out there and shooting to shoot, it's like, no, I'm gonna go out there, I'm gonna shoot the best that I can. And it it changes everything. I mean, I can't tell you the amount of times I've heard a player who uses Switch Hoop that's like, oh man, like you know, I I felt the pressure, like I wanted to do better. And it's like, yeah, of course you did because you're being tracked. And that's that's the point of it. It's like your your workouts, even if all you're tracking is mix and misses, that is critical because now you're gonna be way more intentional with what you're doing. And and that extra pressure is awesome for what it's gonna do to help you translate your work to the game.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah, no, I I couldn't agree more. And to me, it's very similar to say with nutrition, the just general intention of I'm gonna try to make good choices versus actually quantifying those choices. So the player who walks into the gym and let me get some shots up. Sure, maybe some good things happen when you just have, I'm gonna get some, get some shots up, but a person who has more data, more structure, more direction, I would actually isn't a better place. And I would actually argue that it's more motivating as well. And I was actually having this conversation with another friend um yesterday about cardio, because I do think with, and I'm sure you see this all the time as well, you know, people approach a basketball training in a more formulaic way now and lifting, they have specific protocols, but for whatever reason, when it comes to cardio, like people don't always look at a lot of data. Maybe it's just time, like let me, you know, uh just get 20 minutes of cardio in, or you know, let me run for a mile. And again, that can be great. Effort gets you a good chunk of the way there. But if we go a little bit deeper than that and start looking at, okay, what's the speed? What's the incline? What's your recovery time? We don't have to be overly analytical, but now let me knock out some cardio, let me get some shots up. Now we have more direction. You can see the progress that you're making, you can rack up those wins that are motivating compared to a more ambiguous plan. Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Yeah, no, spot on. It just goes back to intentionality and just yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

And speaking of the intentionality, the other thing that you mentioned that I really liked was like the whole premise of the app, one of the main drivers is because yes, you can get some results connecting with a coach or trainer a few times per week. But ultimately, and I always use the example with workouts, even if you're training a few days per week with a trainer, you have 98% of your week is spent not with that coach or trainer. Obviously, it's the same thing. I'm sure if you have an athlete that comes to you, they get after it two or three days a week, they're not really approaching the rest of their week with a whole lot of intentionality that can really stifle their progress, no?

SPEAKER_03 12:06

Absolutely. It's it's it is so critical. Like if if if all you're doing is just, you know, you spend a little bit of time with your coach, yeah, you'll get better and you'll learn some things. But to continue, like the momentum piece of it, right? Like if I if I have a kid who comes to see me on you know Monday and Thursday, well, I expect between Monday and Thursday that they do the do practice what we did on Monday. So that way when we come back on Thursday, we don't have to necessarily start from where we ended on Monday or a little bit regress because they may not have you know put in extra time. But also, if they put more time in between Monday and Thursday, now they get better at it, then on Thursday we might be able to move even faster into something else. Or when we move into something else, because of the work they did on Monday, they just feel more confident with what they're doing. So now Thursday just goes, uh goes a lot better. So, and then even that with like, you know, from Thursday to Monday, it's like, okay, well, what are you doing from Thursday to Monday? And it doesn't need to be this huge amount of work. It's just the idea of if you can do some work, you know, for the the days in between your workouts, well, then you're gonna keep building momentum. And I think momentum is such a critical piece to long-term development because you know, for obviously the standpoint of like physically, yeah, you're gonna develop your skills, or in this case, you know, for somebody who maybe be going to the gym, you know, you're gonna help yourself with, you know, developing your cardio or your strength. But long term too, like you're gonna start to form this identity of like, oh, I'm somebody who like really works on my stuff all the time. So it's like now when you think of like confidence, well, of course you're gonna be more confident because you actually spend time on your own trying to develop what you're doing. And that I think is everything when you when you talk about an athlete's uh ability when they when it comes game time is like do you do you trust in yourself? And and if you if you work on your game on your own, there's a there's a better chance that that's gonna be true for you than like for somebody who just kind of goes to see coach and then doesn't really spend time doing anything else in between.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Definitely. And I do think that most people, again, regardless of the goal, tend to underestimate the compound effect of small actions taking daily. You know, if I you know said to a player, take, I don't know, a hundred shots a day, but they they have in their head where again it's to use the Kobe example, because I was a Kobe fan, oh, it's a thousand or bust, it's not even worth it if I can't do that, whether it's 7,000 steps a day instead of the 10,000 you hear people talk about, try to get 100 grams of protein, even if you can't get 140. If for whatever reason, I think it maybe it's not as glamorous. Maybe we're just, you know, it's it's more uh flashy to do these big, like drastic changes and have these super aggressive plans. But as we know, 100 shots a day taken with a high level of focus, you know, game speed, like the best technique you can possibly produce, 7,000 steps a day, 8,000 steps a day, no matter what. Again, we can extend this to nutrition and lifting. If we look even over the course of a month, 3,000 shots shot with a high level of effort, undoubtedly you'll be a better shooter at the end of that month. So I do think people tend to also underestimate what we're talking about just in terms of the daily impact of things that seem insignificant in the moment. Right. I mean, again, I'm sure you see it all the time.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

And and I think too, like the you know, the diminishing in terms of like if if you're you know going to shoot a thousand shots, then like at some point in that workout, you know, you're you're not gonna be you're not gonna be getting anything out of it. It's like, you know, it it could be a one in you know, one-off thing where you might shoot a thousand shots and like that's great, but like if you're shooting a thousand shots every single day, like at some point you're you're not getting much out of it. So I actually recommend, okay, well, why don't you go in in the morning, go get in 400 shots, come back in the afternoon, get up another 250, 300, and that way, you know, you're putting in more efficient work in the time that you're actually in the gym. Because that's what we're looking for is like how do we maximize the time that we're in there, not just maximize the amount of time that we spend actually working on our game.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, no, I love that. Almost, yeah, pacing the effort. It's I mean, it's what what we talked about earlier in the episode, where again, effort gets you a good chunk of the way there, even if it's not deployed super well. But if you're willing to put in the time and effort, whether it's you know the data collection side of things, whether it's structure, whether it's pacing that effort, why not deploy that in the in the the way that's gonna get you the biggest possible return on that time and effort? And like you're saying, you know, say 500 shots spread out over two shooting sessions over the course of a day, rather than just trying to rip 500 and call it a day, obviously much higher yield.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Yeah. And just like just work smarter. Like instead of you know, just putting, you know, this huge volume of work, well, if you just make those 250, 300 shots super high quality, that might give you better returns and often will give you better returns than just doing a thousand, you know, low quality shots. So it's something to consider for a lot of people and athletes.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

I bet you've seen the same thing with your lifting too. Obviously, we have the mutual friend uh trainer and coach who's also been on the show, Michael Sores, and I know you train with him. I also know you have a uh very busy schedule where you can't be living in the gym just spending all your time lifting. So I'd imagine you do something similar with your lifts as well, where it is a quality over quantity thing, like working as efficiently as possible.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

1000%. Tell me more about that. Yeah, so I don't enjoy being in the gym for like two hours just weightlifting, like not for me. And with what I got going on for business and all that, I'm like, I want to be efficient. We're 30 minutes in, let's get out. So with Mike, we're like 45 minutes to an hour two times a week. That's awesome. Like, that's my big list for the week. And then when I'm by myself, I might do anywhere between 100 push-ups and like 25 minutes of a workout. So it varies. Like, if I know that I'm just, you know, today I gotta, you know, I'm gonna do other things, but like I know I still gotta get in something to get stronger. Well, 100 push-ups to 150 push-ups for me, that's a good day. Like, I'll take that. Whereas I the alternative would be I don't do anything. So I would, I'll take that. If that's my low floor day, great. And then on the other days that I'm by myself, you know, I might go down to the gym in my building, and then I'll go down there for like 25 minutes and get in a short workout. But you know, 25 minutes of of working out, you can get a lot done, and you know, you can you can feel good about yourself when you leave. Whereas again, like, you know, I don't need to be in the gym for for over an hour every single day. If I can do that twice a week, get in, you know, two 25 minute sessions during the week, and then do three days of like 100 to 150 push-ups, I'm good. That's a great week.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

And what's a quote? I don't know if you've heard it before, but I think it'll be up your alley, is that burnout is a byproduct of using tomorrow's energy in advance. And I think about that for again, let to continue with the shot count analogy. An athlete is like, all right, starting tomorrow, I'm gonna shoot, I'm gonna get up a thousand shots a day, but now they probably tapped into the next day or two's energy reserves, whether it's mental or physical energy. You know, this workout piece here that we're talking about in terms of like, okay, you could do that two-hour marathon session in the gym, but how is that going to eat into what you have to give the next day? So I even with like my own business, my own work, I think about that with writing. Sometimes when I'm in a good groove and I want to keep going, I'm like, I'm hot, I want to keep typing. If I'm at my laptop just punching those keys for, you know, seven, eight hours uninterrupted, maybe that's a good day, but the spillover effect into the next day where I feel a little bit more fried. So I'm much better off leaving a little something in the tank, not using tomorrow's energy in advance. That way I'm able to sustain it and see that compound effect that we're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

And you know, I'll never forget when you told me you do that. And I was like, yo, that is so smart because it is real. Like if you overdo one day, that's the next day, you're gonna actually take and pull from that energy. And when you told me you did that with business, I was I was fascinated. I was like, wow, that's a really good thing. And I've actually started doing that myself, where instead of um, and this is directly because of you, so thank you, where I will not like it might be nine o'clock, and you know, I know that I could do some other things that will help me to, you know, have a faster day for tomorrow, but like, yo, I don't need to do that. I'd rather rest right now, get my recovery, wake up tomorrow early, get after it, and I'll come at the day with 110% versus or 100% as opposed to you know with 80. So I was you know, I when you told me that, I was like, yeah, that's that's dope. I love that. And I've been using it. So again, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Oh, that's great, dude. Of course. Yeah, I mean and I need the reminder myself at times, again, especially when you aren't a good groove or you have some lofty goals. And of course, there are times that you do need do need to overextend yourself a bit, like, all right, it takes what it takes, let me get the job done. But I think as a whole, as an ongoing approach, I would rather see somebody in business with basketball, nutrition, lifting. I'd rather see somebody operate with a little bit of restraint. That way, again, they're actually able to sustain things. Um, it's like um uh I'm I'm paraphrasing or I'm gonna slightly butcher this another quote, but it's the oh, the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And again, it's the same idea where it's like, again, you can come out of the gate hot with any of these things, but then Candle's gone, you know, you burn out. You quite literally burn out, and then you might have to start from scratch compared to like a slower burn, you stick with it and you realize that compound effect.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Right. Yeah. What you just said makes me think of like when if somebody was to break this down, it's almost like if you have something that's time sensitive and it needs to get done, sure, tap into those reserves, get after it. But if it's something that's like a day-to-day thing, cut it. Like when you're at the end of that day, you don't need to tap into tomorrow's reserves. So I love that. I think that's a good way to look at it. That's how I'll probably approach it going forward. Great.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Love that. Yeah. Okay. So speaking of giving your best every day, I want to make sure that I don't accidentally pull us past your other venture, which is better every day, the brand, the movement. So, and then to be honest, I want to backtrack. I have some other questions about each of these things that I want to ask you, but just so we don't accidentally move past this, tell us a bit more about what you're doing with Better Every Day.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Yeah, so I created Better Every Day because I was really big on every single day, like listening to YouTube videos of, you know, entrepreneurs, athletes, coaches, just successful people talking about what it is that helps them operate at a high performance. So like that to me is my jam. I love that. I want to learn about it every day, and it's what I do. So I would listen to this content and see this content, and I was like, this is great, but how can I make this content more applicable to the people that are in front of me every single day so that they can have these same messages, but like it's like as if it's speaking directly to them because it'll help resonate more. So I said, okay, it can't be that hard to do this. So I just started to create content and just literally observing what I see in the gym, um, what I see when I go to games, and just what I hear from athletes and and coaches and all that. And what are messages that would help athletes to to have a growth mindset, to think better, to to think more highly of themselves and overcoming objections and all these things that all athletes go through. And and I say athletes, but obviously the message for better every day resonates with everybody. So that's what I wanted to put together was this this media platform, which is basically just you know, social media page called Better Every Day for People. And then once once we created this this page and you know, people started to love the messages that were coming out, we were like, okay, well, how do we how do we push this message at a you know at an even bigger scope? And so we started creating apparel and backpacks. And so, um, and it's not like it needs to be flashy, it's literally just better every day. And that's and that's what it is. That's and you know, the message stands for itself. I can't tell you the amount of times I've walked uh in in places, whether it's the airport or just literally in my town, whatever it is, and people say, Oh, I love your shirt. Like, cool, yeah, you can get one to shopbettereveryday.com. But that's awesome that people are seeing the the shirt and they're saying, Well, like I I love that. And like have you know, it's you might see something where you see somebody doing something, you're like, I like that, but you don't have you know, the you just don't go out of your way to say something to them. But like the fact that people are doing that is is awesome and it just shows the power of the message. So yeah, better every day, that's the movement, and and I just er and everything that I do, I live by it. So um I love to see when my my athletes and my family and my friends are are living up and are are living up to the message and and living it out in their lives. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Actually, know what's something I stole from you that I'd kind of put under this um better everyday umbrella. And honest to God, I think of you, I would say at least once or twice a week when I'm doing cardio specifically, and you'll understand why in a moment. Okay. We had a conversation a while back where you said, in line with this message of, okay, how can I get better every day? You told me that whether it's, you know, uh say a conditioning drill during a basketball workout, whether it is uh a set in the gym, you know, whatever, whatever the thing is that you're working on, you always do one additional rep or one more minute or whatever you're supposed to stop. Not only do you not cut it short there, you're like, let me let me eke out one more. Of course, some physical upside to whatever it is, but I would also say mentally, just knowing you're not somebody who does the bare minimum. It could be, I'm gonna read 10 pages a night. No, let me let me get 11. I think from a again, a mental perspective, the way that changes the way you see yourself of like, I'm the kind of person who does this, the way it improves your confidence. And the reason I bring up cardio is it is tempting for me as somebody who does not enjoy doing cardio in the gym but needs to do it sometimes. If I commit to say 15 minutes, it is tempting for me to count toward those 15 minutes the initial ramp up period when the treadmill is just turning on and I'm not actually at the full speed I'm supposed to be at yet. It is also tempting when I see the clock at 1440, 1450, whatever it is, to kind of stay close enough. But I I legit still think of uh okay, Rocky wouldn't stop here. I'm like, let me not only get to 15 minutes, but if I'm if I'm not settling and I want to sharpen my mindset, my mentality around this stuff, not only am I not gonna stop at 15 minutes, I'm gonna be honest with myself and say, all right, this seems so minor, but the treadmill did take 15 seconds to get to where I needed it to be for my cardio. So I'm actually I'm gonna go to 15, 15. And again, it seems it's ultimately a 30-second difference. But then when I walk out of the gym, I like I'm in a groove. I feel better about myself from just that additional 30 seconds of not settling. And then that spills over to everything else that I do. I'm not gonna negotiate the second running block that I had the rest of the day, whether it's you know, tracking my food precisely, it's a big thing I talk to my clients about, is not settling for close enough. We're supposed to be at 1500 calories. No, 1600 isn't the end of the world. But if you make a habit of close enough, I almost got there, I think it does eat into your confidence and it does hinder your results. So again, in line with the better everyday message, that specific strategy that you told me about, I had that top of mind often and it's been enormously beneficial.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

That's awesome to hear. And that the idea of one more and doing a little bit more, uh it's it's so great because then it's it becomes something of who you are, right? You're always somebody who's gonna do a little bit more, and and that becomes standard. So now it's you know, in everything you do, like you just said, like that's exactly what I would hope for anyone who does that, that's the effect that they get, is that like when they do anything and they have the opportunity to see that, okay, I can do a little bit more, let me do it. Well, if you do a little bit more on one day, yeah, it might not seem like a lot, but if you do a little bit more every time that you're doing something, well, over time, uh that that little bit of work is gonna compound. And it adds up to, you know, to a big difference in results. But then again, just for your your own identity, the impact it has on who you believe you are, and knowing that you're always somebody who doesn't just finish the job but goes a little bit further, I mean, that's everything.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

That's what it is. It's just about the standard. To your point, I this might sound dramatic to some, but I think it'll resonate with others. When I do call it quits, and I have, of course, sporadically at 1455, and I walk out of the gym knowing, like I didn't quite honor the commitment that I had to myself. Sure, it's minor in isolation, but does that now spill over into all right, I'll just start fresh tomorrow with these other habits, these other commitments. I got close enough. Does that spill over? And then it does affect your mental state. So you, of course, you can use it to your advantage, it can work against you. But I think the really cool part about this just life, whether we want to call it, I don't know, mantra strategy is that it we're talking literally 10 more seconds on a treadmill, one additional rep, maybe one more conditioning drill at the end of practice. So you don't actually, from an execution standpoint, have to do dramatically more to get a lot of the benefits that we're talking about, whether it is physical, the compound effect of putting in a little bit more work each day and whatever you're working on, or just the confidence building mentality side of things. I mean, the difference of 22 extra seconds on the treadmill, and that changes how I feel about myself walking out of the gym. So it's not that much more, as simple and straightforward as that'll sound, but I think the benefits are disproportional in the best possible way.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Small changes, big results. It it's everything. And um with the the idea of better every day, I I I think people sometimes, and I know I've um I've you know been a victim of this, but we don't or we put limits on what we think we're capable of, and then everything else just kind of falls in line with that. And and and what I'll use an example of like if I think that I can only do you know 50 push-ups in one set, well then I'm only gonna do 50 push-ups in one set, and I won't get anything more over it. But if I'm doing if I say I'm gonna do 50, and then while I'm in the 50, I say I can do 55, I promise you I'll get 55. Because it's just what you flip in your mind in terms of what you believe is the the limit is actually gonna open up the doors for you to be able to do that. And physically too, when you're in the when you're in the weight room or whether you're on a you know uh a basketball court, whatever it is, when you're doing something, and I I urge everybody who's listening to this to try this, where let's say you're you're doing a set of 10, 10 reps. When you get close to 10, say I'm gonna do 11, and watch how your body taps in and allows you to do 11. And it's it's unbelievable. I've I've literally just trained my mind and body to do this every with everything that I do physically. And as a result, it's actually helped to just develop a stronger mind uh and the ability to push through when you feel like ah man, like I should stop now. But we have more than we think we can do. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Couldn't agree more. Honestly, I think of so many examples of this. Um, certainly in the weight room, you know, my time training people in person where, you know, I don't tell them the weight I'm handing them. I'm just like, just grab this. I assure you you can do it. And then after the fact, it's like, holy shit, if they knew in advance what I was about to ask them to do, maybe they would have questioned whether or not they could have even done it, you know, pretending to lose count. Oh, you're you're at seven when they're really at nine because they don't think they could possibly do more than 10. Um so that comes to mind. And actually, old school example that reinforces your point. Are you familiar with uh Roger Bannisser by any chance? Yes, I am. Yeah, so you know the story, I'll keep it short and sweet. The first gentleman to break uh four minutes on the mile, and prior to that point, nobody thought it was possible. He smashes it, and then I'm gonna get the stat wrong. Maybe it's 20-something or 30-something people who did it over the next 12 months. Does that sound right? It sounds right, yep. Yeah, somewhere around there. So yeah, actually, and to go back to the work example and kind of what we're capable of on a daily basis, and especially um, I'm so interested in writing and the way that um like different writers go about their, you know, their daily habits and their processes. And you'll often see things like, oh, you can't possibly write, say more than, I don't know, 500 words and more than two hours a day. And then it's tough not to get that in your head. You might be crushing it. You feel great at the two-hour mark, and then you go, oh, this is when I'm supposed to like be tapped out when you might be capable of more. So again, to reinforce and reinforce your point, I think the limits you set on yourself that you don't challenge, that you take at face value can just, yeah, it limits you so much compared to identifying when you do have some sort of um limiting belief or perception of what you should be capable of. I'm gonna identify that point. I'm gonna push even slightly past it. And then holy shit, does that open up a lot of doors in terms of, yeah, just what you're capable of and the way you feel about yourself?

SPEAKER_03 34:09

Right. And so much of what we think is habitual on a day-to-day basis. So for us, those limiting beliefs could be something that happens every time we're in the gym or wherever we're at. And so one of the most powerful things you can do is is to be aware of, take a day, to be aware of that that voice and and really break down like, is this really really my limit? Like, is this the most that I can actually do right now? And what you'll realize is that it's not, and that you've been listening to a limit that's been lying to you, or a voice in your head that's been lying to you this entire time. So it's it's really a powerful exercise to just one day be aware of that voice. What is it telling you that you can't do or that you have in the past not been able to do? And really challenging. And and you'll you'll be surprised by how many times you you can actually go past that limit. Um, it's a powerful exercise.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Now, is this something you have always been in the habit of doing since you were young, say with your basketball career, you're just kind of wired like this? Is this something that you had to develop a bit more over time?

SPEAKER_03 35:14

I think I've always been wired to work hard. Um, I I was known as like that was kind of what people knew me as when I was in high school and college. Like that when that dude works ridiculously hard. How he the you know, the mental things that I've learned in terms of like, you know, the idea of like doing something, you know, one more time. Uh that's probably something I've learned in just my self-development journey along the way, like listening to those entrepreneurs and those athletes. Um I think that's something that there's a lot of mindset stuff that I've just taken from listening to other people and then applying it to my life. And then when you do something for yourself, you almost own it now. And so um that's kind of where I've I've gotten a lot of those things. But yeah, I've always, you know, worked hard, but as far as the mental side, it's you know, it's an ongoing evolution of just learning and applying, learning and applying.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Oh no, it makes sense. And yes, that is of course how I've always thought of you as well. And again, I know I I touched upon it briefly at the beginning of the episode, but for anybody lifting, or excuse me, lifting, it's in my head now. Anyone listening, our introduction to each other would have been when I was in eighth grade and you were in seventh grade, I believe, playing up for AAU with Kevin Connor and um don't tell me who's the shooter, Mike Hirschman. Yes, yes, the shooter. Um that was uh that was our introduction to each other. Uh, but I mean, I guess at the I I often like thinking about things in terms of deposits and withdrawals. So say it comes to identity and confidence building. If we just think about how many damn deposits that you've made with the daily actions that you've taken, the way that you've approached a lot of things in your life, you just at this point, because you've made so many deposits in that, you know, uh, you know, work ethic, I'm making a commitment and I'm sticking to it. At this point, it's like you have so much to work with from a mentality standpoint, from a confidence standpoint, compared to when people are in the habit of, you know, sporadically keeping their promises, make a few deposits, and then every day you do settle for close enough and not what you actually committed to, that's almost a withdrawal in a way. Um, and I actually I like that analogy as well for not getting stuck in an all or nothing cycle. Like, okay, today I I made a withdrawal when I probably shouldn't have, but I can rack or I can I can uh make some deposits the rest of this week to kind of keep building that bank of mentality and confidence that I have to work with.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Yeah, and I one one thing you just said I want to touch on, because I heard this once in one of the videos that I listened to. I thought it was really interesting. Whereas if um you know you had if somebody told you or you told somebody that you were gonna do something uh actually let me let me rephrase it back. If if if somebody trusted you to do something and you said you were gonna do it, right, like you would you would more likely be more likely to do it because somebody's relying on you. Whereas if you were to tell that same person that that person was you and you told this to yourself, hey, I'm gonna do something, well, why don't you keep the same energy with I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do because of that person for yourself? And I was like, yo, that's so true. There's a lot of things that we say we're gonna do that we don't do, but then if we tell somebody else we're gonna do or somebody wants us to do something, we'll do it because it's for them. It's like, well, why don't you have that same energy for yourself? But I thought that when I heard that, I was like, and obviously that's a terrible paraphrase. But the idea is there.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

But um that is, I thought, you know, it was a it was a very powerful way to look at you know, keeping the promises you make to yourself.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Definitely. And even just the way we think about confidence. So for example, if I asked you for a favor and you did not come through, now I have a little less faith in you, I have a little less confidence. And then obviously, if that continue, I can't well, ideally I wouldn't just continue asking you for shit, but hypothetically, if I did ask for the occasional favor and even something as simple as, hey, lead, let's meet at this time and you're always late, every little broken promise affects, say, my confidence in you as a friend. But this this to me, we can actually use to our advantage when you think about confidence building with ourselves. And I know we keep saying it, but I think it's worth reinforcing that every time you do honor a commitment to yourself, just like if you, my friend, were every time I asked you for help with something, you came through. I have more and more confidence in you. And so again, we can leverage that to our advantage when it comes to instilling confidence in ourselves. And I also want to add prior to reaching specific outcomes. So let's say somebody does want to make the varsity team next year, maybe they want to get a scholarship, maybe one of my clients wants to lose 50 pounds. You don't have to wait until you reach those outcomes to become more confident and reap the benefits of the things that you're doing. Each time you keep a promise to yourself along the way, you're gonna uh enjoy and experience a lot of things that you might understandably feel like, well, those things are waiting for me on the other side of the varsity call-up, the division one scholarship, the the um weight on the scale. It's the arrival fallacy, right? The idea that like I'll be confident when. It's like, no, confidence is available to you prior to you. I mean, outcome-based goals are great. They're very satisfying, of course, but confidence is available to you prior to that point.

SPEAKER_03 40:41

Uh, that is so good. And I I I'm a big believer that you you need to become the person. I I hear this all the time in all the videos I listen to, and I've just been studying this so much, but that you need to become the person that you're trying to be before you are then. And I think that goes right back to your example of like, look, if I want to be a varsity player, I can't wait until you know trials to start acting like a varsity player. No, it's it's it's June now or July now. I need to make sure that I'm doing what a varsity level player is gonna do in November, doing now. And I need to make sure that I am and becoming that person every single day that by the time November rolls around, okay, well, now it's not something that I need to go get. It's just it's who I am now. And I think that is that is so important for people to to really understand. And and I see it all the time in basketball, kids that want to become better shooters. Well, what do great shooters do? And are you doing that? And then it's very easy to know, okay, I'm on the right path.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Oh, I love that. Identifying the the habits, the systems, the the strategies of the person you're trying to become, doing your best to execute those prior to you seeing yourself as that person. And then of course it becomes second nature. And um, to continue with another health and fitness analogy, I'll see this with say somebody's working on um, say getting more steps in on a daily basis. And that requires them to occasionally peel off from say the group that they're with, and let me just take a quick lap around the park, rack up 500 steps right here. Well, everyone's just kind of chilling on their phones. At first, that might feel weird. Like, I'm not the kind of person who just does a lap just just because I need to hit a step goal. But eventually it's each time you do it, you are reinforcing. No, I'm the kind of person who does X, Y, and Z. So maybe it feels a little foreign at first, but obviously with reps, all the like again. I asked you, like, hey, have you always had this mentality? You couldn't even think of a time that you haven't. Because the amount of deposits that you've made, the amount of reps that you put at this point, it's it's just no, this is just who I am at this point. But I can't stress enough. That's available to all of us, you know, probably much sooner than we think. Absolutely. Spot on, Sam. Appreciate that, brother. Let's see, I have a few other questions for you today, and then we'll jump into the uh questions that we got on Instagram, a few from Michael, and those will be very clear which ones are which. Um, one thing I wanted to ask you about with your own health and fitness is uh as we've established, you have a lot going on. I know you were often bouncing around to different facilities. You are you know supporting your athletes, you're training people in different places, and you're obviously also somebody who cares a lot about your own health and fitness, feeling sharp, being on top of things. Do you have any general tips or strategies for somebody who also has a lot on their plate and they don't want to let their own health and fitness slip? Because I I know your calendar, generally speaking, it would be very easy for you to say get a bunch of fast food on the go, negotiate your workouts all together. So, how do you manage the amount of things that you have on your plate, but also being somebody who does care about their health and fitness?

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Yeah, I think just how you like being Intentional with how you structure your day. I'm very intentional with that. So first thing that I do before anything is I pour into myself. So that could be a 10 to 15 minute meditation where it's just me giving myself the time of day that without doing anything with the outside world, like that's time for me. That is really important and it sets the tone for the rest of the day. So that's how I start. And then, you know, obviously throughout the day, I'm organized in terms of okay, at these, you know, at these times, I want to make sure I get, you know, these things done. And then, you know, I'm always on the go because of just, you know, the traveling and all that to go see clients and all. But um, you know, if if I if I was to have wait, waited until the day of to say, okay, well, what am I gonna eat? Well then I would probably struggle with my choices in terms of eating healthy food. But because I meal prep, um, and even if I don't meal prep, but if if I necessarily I I know exactly, like, okay, well, I'm gonna eat, you know, these type of meals. So I have those things in the fridge ready to go. And um, I don't really have to think like, oh, you know, what what do I need to to eat right now? Because it's already there for me. Like I don't buy things that I know I'm not gonna want to eat um or that aren't gonna serve me well with the schedule that I have. So also is like knowing what not to do or what not to buy for food. Um, and then you know, throughout the course of it, the course of the day, I'm doing what I gotta do. But then at the night, you know, when nighttime rolls around, like making sure that I prioritize time to rest. Right. And this, you know, there's times where things are time sensitive, they gotta get done. And again, like we talked about, you, you know, you gotta you gotta bite the bullet, but you know, for the most part, just trying to spend some time at the end of the night, like where I can just, you know, relax, um, spend time with my girlfriend and just like, you know, chill versus, you know, always on go, go, go. Um, so so yeah, I would say just being intentional with how you structure your day is is critical. And then also just making sure that you you are organized in terms of, okay, well, these are the things that I'm not gonna do, and then these are the things that I that I know that if I do will serve you well.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

I think those are are great strategies. So to recap, we're looking at actually leaving a little time for you to kick off the day. As we know, it is so common for people with a lot on their plate to not even, and I like how you said even 10, 15 minutes of you time prior to something else. It doesn't have to be this crazy four-hour morning routine that we see some influencer who has complete control over their schedule do, like 10, 15 minutes, I think just to get you into a better state, reflecting how you want the day to go throughout the day, making sure you are thinking ahead to potential challenges, what you have going on. And this is where I want to add one last thing. I do think for the most part, the calendar challenges that people have, we tend to know about most of them in advance. So, yes, your calendar's packed, but for the most part, you're not waking up thinking you have a smooth day and then oops, I have seven different things in the calendar. You know those things in advance. So if you do what you suggested, identify those potential challenges in advance and kind of work backwards of okay, I generally know what it's gonna take for me to put together a strong day. I think that's great. So that for number two, and then the last thing, auditing your direct food environment to make it as frictionless as possible to stay consistent. Um, I think, I mean, coaches and trainers talk about that. So, but I still think it's it's very underrated. Just obviously, we can't always have a complete monopoly on what's in the house if we live with other people, like, hey, we're only gonna have rice cakes and grasswood bison in here. You know, we it's not gonna be this utopia. But there's probably at least something that we can do to make it lower friction. If it's not reducing the less nutrient-intense stuff, I think what you had mentioned in terms of getting ahead of can I can I get anything healthy more readily available? So you started the day with some intention, pour into you first, think about how you want the day to go, potential challenges, and then once you identify those, all right, what can I do to make it a little bit easier in the moment? I think those are super practical strategies.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

Yeah. And I think for the long-term game, like that's that's just it's just an easier way to go about um getting things done the way that you know you need them to get done versus uh, you know, kind of living reactively. So I'm really big on being proactive. If you, you know, are just thinking ahead and getting things done and preparing, then you know, when when things come up, you're ready for them. And even if you're not, you'll adapt and you'll figure it out. But if everything is still reactive, reactive, reacting, well, it's that's hard, right? Like you're just you're gonna you're gonna struggle to to do the things you know you need to do because everything is taking precedence or precedent over what you know are your actual priorities.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Great advice, man. Okay, before I let you get out of here today, do you have a uh few questions that we got on Instagram? Prior to I'll start with the real one and then we'll go to the silly ones. Somebody had asked just for general tips on maintaining athleticism as you age. And as we know, and actually uh Michael and I talked about this when he came on the podcast. You know, I'm 31. Are you 30 or do I have that right? 30. 30, okay. 30 and 31. I mean, we see our peers think that their best days are just behind them. Never mind when we talk to people in their 40s, 50s, etc. So, what advice would you have for people who want to maintain their athleticism as they get older and still see themselves as somebody who's capable and mobile and fit?

SPEAKER_03 49:33

I guess I can just talk from my experience, and and that would just be, well, like when you are doing uh when you want to keep your athleticism, do things that you love doing. Because then it's gonna be really easy to get started and doing those things. Like if if running miles is not something you love to do, then maybe that's not gonna be the best way for you to be athletic or to maintain your athleticism. But if you love volleyball and you know there's a volleyball league that you can go join, that's you know, there's plenty of leagues for every sport for you know for you know different sectors of the population. These are people that are, you know, college athletes, pro athletes, people that are, you know, 35 plus, whatever it is, like there's probably a league for you. And so if that's gonna be a fun way for you to stay active, then you know, find those those things that you can do there. Um and even if that just means, you know, going to uh you know a tennis court with a friend or you know, going to play, go shoot some hoops like you know after your lift, like like that's that's gonna be a good way to maintain your athleticism because it's doing something that you genuinely enjoy doing, as opposed to things that you feel are like a burden.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

I think that's great advice. Yeah, identifying a way where it can almost be uh built into your day. I mean, it's like the classic, I don't love cardio, but I don't mind you know getting a pickup run-in and get some cardio in that way. So um, yeah, where the the athleticism maintenance can almost be, I don't want to say an afterthought, but built in. So obviously right now, um uh pickleball is enormously popular. And like I think for the most part, when people are playing pickleball, they're thinking about I'm just playing pickleball with friends, not necessarily thinking about like reactivity and lateral movement and balance and core strength and a lot of the other things that they're also getting with it. And like you said, it helps them maintain athleticism. So no, I think that's super good. Um okay, a few silly questions. Uh who is the better hooper in eighth grade? Between who? Between us.

SPEAKER_03 51:36

These are all between us. Oh man. Who is the better hooper in eighth grade? Well, you gotta say yourself. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go with me. I'm gonna be biased. Yeah, but I'm gonna put the question back to you. What are you gonna say?

SPEAKER_00 51:48

I'm gonna, of course, I think any uh confident basketball player, even a washed up one like myself, you're gonna be partial and say me. Although I'll openly admit if that were the case, not for long, because your career obviously extended far beyond mine.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

Um yeah, at that age, at that age, I honestly wasn't even that good in eighth grade. Um, and I was small. Um, so yeah, no, you I remember you were always like like a big guard. So when we were playing up, I was like, damn, like we gotta go against Sam and all these guys. Like, yeah, that was that was always a challenge, but that was fun, man. That was fun.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

Super fun. Well, what was less fun is when we would scrimmage you in high school and you guys would kick the shit out of us. Um I remember yeah, I remember guarding Flip for the first time, and I'm like, this isn't fair. I I can't do anything with this. He's three feet above the rim. What am I supposed to do?

SPEAKER_03 52:40

Be fair, it's not it's not fair when many people guard in. So all right.

SPEAKER_00 52:44

Yeah, yeah. Um, I mean, this one's pretty straightforward. Who has the better jump shot? I can't even pretend that. Maybe if you get me into like a very specific position, if you get me onto the block with a little turnaround jumper, maybe there's like one or two spots on the floor, I can still uh hit it at a good clip, but as a whole, I don't even think this is a conversation.

SPEAKER_03 53:06

Are these questions from uh Michael Sores?

SPEAKER_00 53:09

Yes, of course they are. Yeah, of course they are.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

Of course they are. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

Let me actually, in case he listens to this, let me flip it. Who has the better shot? You or Michael?

SPEAKER_03 53:21

We'll let Michael answer that one.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

No comment. Okay, fair enough. Uh last one. Between the two of us, who is more likely to survive on a desert island? This is also a Michael question. That is hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 53:37

I'm gonna go with you. I think you'd be more likely to survive on a desert island.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

I gotta be on it. I have no idea. Of course, I think male ego, we all like to think we could figure it out, but I'm not sure of my actual survival skills. Um, it'd be fun to throw Michael in this too and see what he thinks. I'm sure he'd pick him.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

Yeah. Um back to the shooting question. Mike would probably answer that he's uh he would say who has the highest percentage three point in college, and I I'm pretty sure his percentage is a hundred, so he probably was two for two, right? He might have been two for two, but hey, man, still shot a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 54:16

So yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Okay, so Rocky, typically the way I know I just asked you a few random questions, but typically the way I wrap up the podcast is with something I call the fast four. So in your case, four questions that have nothing to do with, you know, basketball player development, just whatever the first thing to come to mind is. Wait, let's go. All right, first one. What would you be doing if you were not in the basketball, or I'm gonna say coaching space as well? No basketball, nothing to do with coaching and mentorship. What else would you do?

SPEAKER_03 54:47

Um I would do I would do something in business for sure. What I would be doing in business, I'm not exactly sure, but something with with business. I've always I've always loved it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:07

You can tell that you're meant to do what you're doing, the fact that you couldn't think like a lot of people have one or two other ideas. You're like, couldn't tell you. Like this is what I do. If you could only have one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? One meal. One meal.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

I would go with rice, stamina, asparagus, and potatoes.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Would that be the case? I always I always add, you could pick pizza and let's assume your nutritional boxes are checked. It doesn't have to be healthy, just pure enjoyment.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

No, I genuinely like I genuinely love that that meal for me is like, oh yeah. Um yeah, no, that would be it. I like that. That's that's what's that's a fantastic it just has to be made right, right? If you have like a dry standard, that's not that clearly that's not the answer. But you know, if you if you make it right, you make it with some love. Yeah, that's that's the meal. That's it for me.

SPEAKER_00 56:04

Um I'm craving salmon so much. So seafood is not really a thing in Buenos Aires, despite it being right on the water. It's just it's not a popular cuisine. But in the south, like if you go down to Patagonia, it's more of a thing. So I went down a few months ago and I was all excited that great, I'm gonna get some seafood. Obviously, growing up in New England, that's what I'm used to, and I was really looking forward to it. I ordered salmon. First bite was horrible because I didn't know that down here they serve it with like the bone, the spine is still in, and you literally have to pick it out with every single bite, which is obviously drastically different than what we're used to.

SPEAKER_03 56:42

Yeah. Well, I'm I know I'll caveartien. So when we when we go to the cookouts, I you know, a lot of the a lot of the fish was bone in. So, you know, he my and even when my mom was cooking fish growing up, a lot of the times it was bone in. So yeah, it's just yeah, but you know, it it is what it is. You just you gotta it's practice. Yeah, used to it.

SPEAKER_00 57:05

But um yeah, I didn't have that same uh prior experience with it. So I'm like, what the hell is this? It's just a plate full of bones, and um in any case. Third question for you if you could teleport anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?

SPEAKER_03 57:22

Teleport anywhere in the world right now. I'd I'd probably go to Cappa Beer. That would be a good be a good time. I always love going there. Um it's just it's it's nice. It's like home away from home. Being able to go there and spend time with my parents, like that would be that would be cool. Because I could go and I could come back and do my training at three o'clock. Have a good time. Go have some lunch, go have some lunch with them, come back.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

Dude, it was so funny. And again, we were talking about this before we hit record, watching the again, as they would say here at Cabo Verde Day game and uh Argentina the other day, and telling people like, oh, I actually have a friend whose family's from there, and they're like, how it's obviously it's it's a country that not a lot of people know about or know somebody from. They're like, what are the chances that this random American in a room full of Argentinians actually knows somebody who's from there? And as I told you via text during the game, was secretly rooting for you guys to do well. It just had to be a secret so I wouldn't get beat up during the game, but it was uh it was quite fun.

SPEAKER_03 58:27

Yeah, if you told them you're from New England, then I think that would uh and if they knew about the amount of Cabirdians in New England, I think that would change their perspective because it's like it's honestly there's there, I think there's more C-Burdians in New England. If if not New England, I know it's the whole outside of the actual country, but there are a ridiculous amount of C-Burdians in New England, so it's it wouldn't be that far fetched to say, oh yeah, I know a K-Birdian if you're from out here, you know.

SPEAKER_00 58:55

For them it's yeah, yeah, like they're double checking where the country is, never mind actually knowing that you're from there, you know. Yeah, our Argentina is just so isolated. But last question, and I'll let you out of here. What's something small that always improves your mood? A really good coffee.

SPEAKER_03 59:15

Like I love coffee. For me, I love coffee, and that well-made one is so that's my answer for that one coffee. What's your go-to order? I like lattes. I like uh like you can't go wrong with like a vanilla latte. I typically drink uh you typically drink a hot coffee throughout the year, but in like the summer months when it's like you know 90 degrees, I'll I'll I'll do nice.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

Yeah, I love flat.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

What's yours?

SPEAKER_00 59:44

I've been getting a lot of flat whites. I don't know why. Uh I I cannot I can't pretend for a second that I'm well versed in coffee. If you if you gave me a blind taste test, I would fail miserably, but for whatever reason I've been in the habit of ordering a flat white. I think because sometimes I'll see on the menu that it's a little uh stronger. So I'm like, all right, if I'm gonna have coffee for a little boost. Um and now I've just become the like a lot of the cafes that I frequent around here, they'll say like the usual, and they're getting me a flat white. I'm like, when did I become this guy? I don't even know what I'm doing. I don't, I don't flat whites. You could hand me back a latte and I probably wouldn't notice. Um, but that's only if I'm out at a cafe when I'm home, I'll just have just a plain black coffee or maybe make it iced or something. But when I'm out at a cafe, for some reason in my head, I'm like, all right, now's the time to order something a little bit different.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:33

Yeah, because I remember you used to get black coffees. I was like, when you said flat white, I was like, oh wow, okay. The man's coming up in this world going with the progression. Yeah, all right. But that's cool. Black white, not the trial. I don't know if I've ever had one.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:47

Really? Okay. I mean, they're super good. Again, I'm not pretending to be an expert. To my understanding, it's just the ratio changes a little bit where it's mostly coffee, which is just small and um often a double, and then it's a I say often, maybe always again. I'm not claiming I know what I'm talking about here, with just a little bit of milk. So it is on the stronger side.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:06

I think I would I would like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:08

So I'll have to try it. Yeah, yeah, it's good, man. Okay, um, where are we sending people if they want to learn more about you? Uh again, all of your many ventures. What's the best place to send them?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

Yeah, yeah, uh, definitely Instagram. Um, if if there's you know one place to go, go to Better Everyday U. So literally the letter U. Uh that's the social media page for Better Everyday. We post daily mindset tips every day for you to become you know mentally stronger and just have better perspectives and and just you know tap into the community. So that's better every day. And then for me personally, I do a lot of my uh training content and self-development stuff through Rocksteady RD3 on Instagram. Uh and I'm also on YouTube and TikTok. So yeah, you can find me there.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

All right. I will include the links to all of those in the show notes. And Rocky, this is super fun, man. I appreciate you coming on. Sam, this was awesome, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:03

Appreciate you having me and look forward to seeing you when you're back. Of course, man. We'll talk soon.