What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
Embracing Vulnerability: Zach Babcock's Journey from Trauma to Transformation
What if the key to healing trauma lies in embracing vulnerability rather than suppressing it? In an eye-opening conversation with Zach Babcock, we explore his journey from a troubled past to becoming a thriving entrepreneur and devoted family man. Zach courageously shares his experiences of growing up in challenging environments, grappling with unresolved childhood trauma, and eventually transforming his life through the study of Jungian psychology, plant medicine, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He reveals how these tools have shaped his mission to help other men heal through his apparel company, Alpha Underdog.
Our discussion takes a deep dive into the complexities of generational trauma and the societal pressures on men to suppress their emotions. Zach speaks candidly about the struggle to break cycles of trauma, particularly in relation to difficult paternal relationships. He highlights the importance of forgiveness and emotional expression, challenging the notion that vulnerability is a weakness. Through his own experiences, Zach demonstrates the strength that comes from introspection, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, and the ongoing commitment to personal growth.
Wrapping up, Zach shares insights on building a resilient personal brand and aligning with one's true self. With over 400 podcast episodes and a successful podcast agency, he emphasizes transparency and accountability as the core of enduring success. His vision for Alpha Underdog goes beyond creating an apparel brand; it's about reducing recidivism rates and supporting men in overcoming trauma and becoming better leaders. This episode is a heartfelt reminder of the transformative power of authenticity and the impact of living a life aligned with purpose.
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I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up so I can shoot for the star, I hear a voice like who?
Speaker 2:do you all right. Everybody. Another day, another dollar, another one of my favorite episodes of my favorite podcast yes, I'm biased, it's my own podcast got with me. The man, the myth, the legend, one of my, I have to say. I social media stalk him, I follow him. He's an amazing guy, entertaining. He goes through stuff. He's real, zach Babcock.
Speaker 2:After growing up in juvenile rehab, psych wards, boys homes and so on, doing over five years in prison as a young man, zach completely transformed his life, becoming a man of God, devoted husband, father, friend and successful entrepreneur. Even after Zach got out of prison and built a 500K year podcast agency with margins north of 40% man, that's pretty good Zach still felt something was missing. Becoming more self-aware of his own shortcomings, zach still felt something was missing. Becoming more self-aware of his own shortcomings, zach began extensively studying the effects of unresolved trauma. Amen, man, we all have that. Jungian psychology, plant medicine, like what Peter Tosh would say legalize it. And training. Brazilian jiu-jitsu, an alpha underdog who has made his mission help 10,000 plus alpha men heal unresolved trauma and become better leaders through his apparel company, alphaunderdogcom Dude.
Speaker 2:Over 400 episodes. I love this. Two of my former mentors, one of my former bosses, guests like Patrick and Brett David he was my boss. I'll take the fifth one. On that one I'll plead the fifth. Andy Frisola, love Andy. Dan Fleischman met him at um Tai Lopez's. Grant Cardone, the real Bradley dropping bombs, sean Whalen and many, many more. What's up, brother? How's it going's?
Speaker 3:it going dude, omar man. Thanks for having me here.
Speaker 2:Man, I'm excited to be chopping up here with you on your podcast, bro dude, you got to take me because I mean a successful guy, but you had an unsuccessful upbringing, man. Talk about rock bottom. What got you into the pokey for five years, man?
Speaker 3:dude, it's so crazy because I I've been on like a lot of podcasts before I took a major break and I told a completely different story than what I'm telling now. Um and uh, it's crazy. You know, I'll give you the cliff notes version and if you want to dive in deeper, we can always do that but whatever, this is your, your platform, whatever you want to talk about man dude, I appreciate you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, uh, what got me to prison, man, uh, was a lot of unresolved trauma from. Uh, it stems all the way back to my childhood. A lot of it came from my mom, a lot of it came from my dad. Um, that's where most of that, where that unresolved trauma, came from. But also, just, you know, being in some really crazy ass fucking situations. You know, like to to rehabs and getting kicked out because my mom put me in them at nine years old and then getting put into a psych ward when they recommended that after there, and my mom put me in there before the court ever got their hands on me, made me feel like damn, my mom abandoned me. You know I'm left for the wolves type shit. You know what I'm saying? Uh, you know a lot of trauma, shit like that. You know what I'm saying? Feeling like I wasn't good enough to be my mom's son. I wasn't good enough to be anything in life because throughout school, I was always getting in trouble and told that I had ADD, abcd, efgh you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:All that shit, man, and uh um, that led you know I just was getting in and out of trouble and never having no uh external or no uh outlet is what I'm trying to say to get that shit out properly and process that shit properly. So, long story short, went to prison, did a bunch of time over five years, went back 20 days where my twin sons were born. Then I started moving in a completely different direction, had a lot of success career wise and was still like never feeling like it was enough, man, and that was when I really started going down the journey that I've been on now, man and man, I'm excited to dive in more, but that's a Cliff Notes version, bro.
Speaker 2:Dude, we're both dads. We're both fathers. Don't you think that's a little excessive extreme to put a child, a young child, especially their formative years, into psych wards? Rehabs, all that man. Congratulations on making that out alive man.
Speaker 3:Thank you, man, I appreciate it, brother. Yeah, it was. Uh, I was nine years old dude. I literally thought I was going to die, uh, every second in there and I was in there for five days Like dude.
Speaker 3:I seen like staff abusing kids physically, verbally, physically, mentally, um, I seen kids crazy ass kids fighting and like screaming and laughing and all that shit all at the same time and fucking. Uh, I was woken up at god knows what time in the middle of the night to get my blood drawn and then pump me with drugs that I don't even know what the fuck they're pumping me with. You know what I'm saying. I was fucking lethargic half the time, in and out of consciousness and shit in there. It's crazy, um, you know.
Speaker 3:And uh, what hurt the most, though, out of most of that, out of all, that was the fact that my mom allowed that. You know I'm saying I felt like she gave me away, like I wasn't good enough to be her, be her son or whatnot, and some real shit. You know, a lot of men don't talk about that, um, because it's looked down upon, but, man, it really takes me. That's not weak at all, man. It takes a lot of courage and strength to go, and you know, face shit like this, because this is shit that most men run away from their entire lives, bro oh man.
Speaker 2:So I've had a lifetime of self-destructive behavior just because I felt unworthy, a product of single parent, mom, dad divorce. Before I was even born, mom was in an abusive relationship with an alcoholic, always beat her ass, tried to beat my ass, but she'd get in the way. And then my, my mom, you know little kid, she's like well, you know, nobody wants to be with a ready-made family. And you know that was like you know you're dropping. You know blaming. Like a kid, you know that can't process, saying, hey, you know what, you know she, her words could be different, but you know, at the time and for years, it like shit, dad left, never met him again. And then you know mom's saying well, I can only be with this guy that beats my ass because because of you, because who wants to be with somebody that's got baggage, and it's like, wow, yeah dude, that fucks, dude, you know, and a kid can't process.
Speaker 3:So you internalize that shit is you're the problem, you're fucked up and you're wrong, you know, and it's like uh, yeah, that's, that's wild bro well, here's my, my million dollar question did did you ever forgive your mother and have a relationship after all this stuff, or?
Speaker 3:you know, what's crazy, man, is that I never had any resentments towards my mom until now in life. When I look back, once I started doing this work, and that's where the resentments come up, and I'm still working through some of those. You know, I have forgiven, forgiven, and I've done that with my dad too, and which is crazy Cause my dad I hated my entire life, like from. He died when I was seven, and I grew up just hating him. You know, I'm saying and not trying to be nothing like in my entire life, and it's crazy because I ended up just like him.
Speaker 3:You know a carbon copy pretty much you know what I'm saying, but, uh, in many ways, um, and there's a lot of good things, but I, uh, I also came to terms, you know, through a lot of and we can go deeper into it, but, long story short though, I came to terms that my dad was a very shitty example of what it meant to be a husband, and father set a really bad example right there.
Speaker 3:Yes, he really did truly care about me and and there was times in moments that I have, of those that that he showed me, that which I'm very grateful for, and um, you know, and he fucked up in a lot of ways. He he dropped the ball as as a dad in many ways, um, and it is what it is and you know there ain't nothing that was going to change about that. But I've forgiven him for that and letting my father back into my heart for that. He died when I was seven years ago and I'm a lot lighter now because of that and I feel like that was super awesome for me to be able to do that, because that's like breaking like generational shit that's been going on in my family for years.
Speaker 2:Well, that's been going on in my family for years. Well, you could have you kept, you could have brought that to your children. You could have brought that and, you know, never broken that cycle. Then they could have been, they could have had the same shit upbringing and just bleed. Because that's what it is it's you're emotionally bleeding on other people and they would emotionally bleed on their, their girlfriends, their wives, their kids and and that trauma man that's generation after generation. It's so much it's harder to break that chain because you know it's strong man, it's rooted in, you know, sometimes hundreds of years of you know just this fucking family tree.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, and you know it's always. You know, in personal development, whenever they say, oh, they did the best that they could with the tools that they had, yeah, that's a great saying, that's something you could put on a Hallmark card. But, dude, it's harder just to fucking move on and go. You know I had a shit upbringing, but hey, you know I had a shit upbringing, but hey, you know what? They did the best, really, with the tools that our parents and even before them, dude, nobody, everybody had the opportunity. Everybody had a choice.
Speaker 3:They just chose wrong yeah, some people choose to go and fucking do that that hard, painful work that's also very fruitful and bears the most fruit, and some people are cow. I don't know. There's a lot of different reasons why I believe. I don't know the answers, but I believe some people just don't have it in them and some people are just so fucked up where they're past the point of coming back, unfortunately, because I've met some people like that. And then there's just other people where it just hurts too much and they just run from it the point of coming back, unfortunately, because I've met some people like that, you know. And then there's just other people where it just hurts too much and they just run from it.
Speaker 3:I don't know, man, but uh, for me I can only speak on me and from my own personal experience, I've always been that person that wanted to do the hardest work possible and stay true. Just to be true, this is like I'm not perfect, man. Ain't nobody gonna fucking be perfect, bro, um, but I try and do the right thing. I always try and do the right thing and when I do the wrong thing, I make up for it by doing the right, the next right thing. You know what I'm saying I learned from that, you know? Yeah, I don't know, man.
Speaker 2:Fucking, I got like I don't want to go too too far off, you know. You know, if they just look, take a look a picture of you on social media or whatnot Definition of alpha male, and that's, that's what's crazy about it, that you're like, hey, man, real men need to heal. And you know, because we were all brought up, whether you're male and renaissance man, any type of guy, if you're a man, suck it up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're said and done right yeah, dude, it's like fuck, dude, we're taught as dudes, right. So I'm just speaking from a dude's perspective. As dudes, like we can't show any type of emotion except we're mad and angry, and we got to figure all that shit out by ourselves. And, um, you know, that's how we're conditioned. Like, if you do, if you show emotion or whatnot, then it makes you weak or whatnot. But it, man, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it it.
Speaker 3:Like I can't cry, or I don't want to say I can't, I still don't cry in front of other people. Um, I've done a lot more crying lately or whatnot, getting shit out, because that shit is good to get that shit out, um, but it takes more of a man to do that shit than to to stuff it and run away like I do. My ego was in control for years, bro, running the show, stuffing all that shit beneath the surface, hiding all those traumatic events. You know, beneath the surface, because, you know, trying to protect me, but not really when, and that's just bubbling beneath the surface and it comes out, knee-jerk reactions. Or you know when people like you get pissed off and you say something like oh, I didn't mean to say that. No, that's the true you coming out, it's your shadow expressing yourself, dude, and like we can go down some more, more of that shit too.
Speaker 2:Whatever you want to, go, go down man, because quite frankly there's nothing dude, even science says it. Women live like I think it's like seven years longer than we do, because you know we can't, you know we hide our emotions. It's even tough to even cry it out in the bathroom by yourself or taking a shower, because hey, what if there's a fucking camera or you know.
Speaker 3:I don't want to be. What if someone? What if someone hears me or something?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know what? What?
Speaker 2:what did the ghost you know listens and tells everybody that I'm, I'm, I'm fucking human after all, and it's like and it's like and it's crazy because dude, even happy emotions usually to tell another man that you love them, it's after, like you know, you're ripped. It's harder to say hey man, you mean a lot in my life, thank you for being there. Usually you have to fucking hit hit a bong, or you have to pop something or you have to drink something to use that as a crutch instead of being like hey, man, all those times that I've been down, you were always there for me and I really appreciate it. You are my brother, I love you damn man, dude, some real shit.
Speaker 3:Just show like all those emotions Like uh, we there's, so it's wild man. But like I, um, I didn't really have like feeling in my body Like it's hard to explain, but like I was so numb to like feeling because like I was so, um, you know, I had a lot of unresolved trauma, but also my ego running the show and that that uh, you'll, you'll men like tend to develop more of uh, their, uh, their thinking you know what I'm saying and and their career development at the expense of their feelings. So the more you come, become more specialized in like a certain skill or whatnot, and educated or whatnot you know you're super sophisticated in that on this level, but your feeling, your intuitive, all that stuff is so underdeveloped, almost at an animalistic level. It's wild man. I've been, uh, you know, doing, uh, studying a lot of like books on like young and psychology and stuff like that and uh, it's been helping me, uh, help me, a lot with this. But like, uh, like a natural progression, right, you know, when we hit like around 10 years old, about to hit puberty or whatnot, it's a rite of passage. Our ego goes from you know, we start off as the ego to parent perspective and it goes from an ego parent perspective to an ego world perspective for our first adulthood all the way up to midlife. And then at midlife you know it's supposed to go from an ego world perspective to ego self and you're.
Speaker 3:And at that time that's why they say a lot of people have those midlife crisis where their whole world gets shaken upside down.
Speaker 3:All these long-held beliefs that you had your whole entire life come crumbling and shit a lot of these beliefs and it like fucks people up. You know, I'm saying it shakes them up and and they go through this depression and and a lot of these people at this point continue to try and and they go through suppression because what had gotten them successful and gotten them to that point in their life no longer works for them and it will no longer get them to move forward. And this is where a lot of people fucking have these midlife breakdowns and fucking heart attack and all this shit suicide and men and stuff, because they don't go and do that fucking work. Because they don't go and do that fucking work. And this is the part where you got to go inward and you got to integrate that shadow with your ego and a whole bunch of a lot of work, man, but it's wild man, but I've been doing a lot of that, focused on a lot of that type of work, and it's been very fruitful.
Speaker 2:Well, what I love about the simple fact is you want to share your experience. You want to help thousands of men be better. Because, man, what's the point if we all have to wear a mask? You know, because, dude. That's why instagram is so popular, that's why social media is so popular, because you can hide behind whatever dude, you could, you, you and I could fucking rent a Lambo, drive around and go hashtag winning.
Speaker 2:And people, oh man, they own a new Lambo Because it's never all what, they might have leased it for a few days. Or, oh my God, look at that photo shoot in the mansion. Dude, you could go to fucking Airbnb. It's all fake, man. And then people feel like shit because they're looking at someone else's mask, thinking, oh man, they've got a perfect wife, a perfect chick, a perfect life, and it's all bullshit, man. And that's why you know enough. And when you say you know, you get to a point mid midlife, dude, I I hit that four or five, six years ago went through a divorce. The whole nine yards you.
Speaker 3:You wake up one day and you realize, man, it's you, this isn't who you really are yeah, you thought you knew who you were, but you realized you didn't know who the fuck you were. Isn't it crazy dude.
Speaker 2:And the best part was, you know, I was a seminar junkie going to these professional business personal development and it was just all dude, they're all just fucking characters. Man, everybody, all these people that they fucking love, that's not reality, that's not that person, that's just a comic book. That's a character, that's an actor. Once you hit record on your phone, once the stage lights go on, they play a part, but that's not. You know you love and you want to aspire and you want to be that person, but that's not. And you know you, you love and you want to aspire and you want to be that person, but that's not even that person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude yeah, it's, uh, it's wild man.
Speaker 3:It's crazy too.
Speaker 3:And the in the, in the, in the, a lot of times you know who, you know how you mentioned like we get to that point in midlife and we're like we're not even who we thought we were, what, whatnot. It's like a lot of times we're, we have become these projections, a lot of our parents projection that what our parents projected on us, we adopted their projections, their core values, all the experiences that we all had throughout our life in school, the teachers, all this shit plays a part in into molding, shaping that through, you know, throughout our upbringing, and then that's who you become is this false self, you know of who you thought, this mask, this persona that you created in order to fit in society, which you know, which is healthy, because your ego has to do that to fit in society and whatnot. But you realize in midlife it's like I'm not. I'm not even this shit that I project to be. You know what what I'm saying? You get the opportunity to go inward and really bring your real self through and create yourself really, which is cool.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of the shit I've been going through man, dude, what I have to ask you about this? Because most people, you know, want to have seminars, webinars on, hey, man, how to increase business, how to get downloads, superficial bullshit. But let's, let's state facts. That's not going to make you happy, that's not going to give you a content life. You went the opposite direction, you what? What made you go? Hey, because, dude, you were making, you were making a killing being a podcast agency and helping out people in that aspect. What made you go? Hey, you know what I want to help out men. Resolve that inner bitch voice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude. Great question, man. I'm glad you got into it. So it was always there.
Speaker 3:I said it on my podcast for years, man, that this podcast agency is just a stepping stone to get me to this thing that I'm doing now, and I didn't know what that thing was exactly at that time, but I knew that there was something bigger. I was like, guys, don't get me wrong, I love helping entrepreneurs out, figure out their message and blow up their personal brands and grow their business and make more impact with what they're doing. But that shit didn't fulfill me, man. That shit did not fulfill me at all. It was literally the engine to get me to the vehicle to get me to where I'm at now, or whatnot. My whole thing was I said on there, man, that I wanted to achieve a 9% recidivism rate nationwide in the US, and I said that for years as well on my podcast, and I just didn't know how I was going to do it. But I was like man, I know I can connect with other guys coming out of prison and you know, maybe I'm able to help share some of the steps I took to get there. Well, in 2021, I had gotten to a point where you know, like I mentioned, we did over 500,000 with 40% margins.
Speaker 3:Like, from the outside world, looking in, it looks like I'm just kicking ass. This dude was in prison a few years ago. Now he's just like killing it professionally and got a big brain and whatnot, but, dude, I was fucking miserable on the inside, dude, like literally miserable. None of it never felt like it was enough, because I never felt like I was good enough. And, and this is, uh, june or january of 2021, we're out in pennsylvania, florida. I got 10 entrepreneurs that we brought out there through my mastermind at this, uh, this big mansion beach house in pensacola, nice, shit right. And I'm just like straight, miserable inside. And I'm leaving here this, after this mastermind is over. I'm leaving there to go meet with Sean Whalen at his spot lines not sheep to go do a podcast interview on my show. Uh, you know, it's not like I was crushing it, dude, but I was straight, miserable dude. And so that's when I was like, dude, something's wrong, something ain't right. Man Like you ain't never going to be happy, like it's never going to be enough for you, man.
Speaker 3:And so I I began, you know, doing a lot of studying into trauma, unresolved trauma. Plant medicine. Uh, man, I even had a doctor on that that conducts it. Uh, dr Dan Engel Engelman. You wrote a book, a dose of hope or whatnot. Had him on my podcast and learn about, uh, mdma assisted psychotherapy. I started doing that, shit, man.
Speaker 3:Long story short, the greatest thing I ever did, one of the greatest things I ever did in my life. First time I ever got any type of release any type of man as well. But, uh, yeah, man, uh, what, what? After having that experience and getting that release, like because I spent my whole life like living on edge, doing drugs, going to prison, all this shit, uh, women, whatever you name it and then I got out.
Speaker 3:Uh, after I, after I went back, for my twin sons were born and changed my life around and was having all this career success, living on edge, kicking ass, but it still wasn't enough and I never had that release until I started doing this type of work and it finally was like holy shit, man, and I knew this is how I'm going to help achieve that 9% recidivism rate, if I can reach guys coming out of prison that are seriously trying to change their life around, but they just don't know how or what the fuck to do.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm saying I can help those guys and stuff, and so that's what got me excited about this and that's what came about. Alpha underdog, which is our apparel company, that was literally. We're literally just it's on ground zero right now. You know, I'm saying, which is so cool, we're building from ground up, but uh, we, we help. We help alpha men, first responders, veterans and ex-convicts get year-long treatments with our program and heal their unresolved trauma and become better leaders. So yeah, I get fired up about it. I'm glad you asked that question, man. Sorry for the limited answer too.
Speaker 2:No man you can answer away. Alphaunderdogcom apparel $1 of every product purchased goes to help alpha underdogs heal unresolved trauma. And dude, you have a coupon right off the bat. You click on, you put in your information, your birthday and whatnot 10% off. Love the apparel, men and women. You even have little kids. I, I loved. I, I love the designs. You need to have a hoodie man because I'm fucking addicted to hoodies and you're wearing a hoodie man.
Speaker 3:you need to throw that shit on here, man yes, sir, yes sir, oh, I'm good, I got you. It was uh what you call it. So it's literally, literally, grounds. And uh me, this cool thing about this suit man I'm glad you mentioned that too, man Cool thing about this man is like, uh I, if you try and go, this is for the, for the, you know, the business owners and shit, right, uh, you hear that quote. What's that quote, omar? It's like if you try and go go alone, you go fast.
Speaker 2:If you go, together, you go far, or whatnot. It's so true, man.
Speaker 3:Turbo dude, if it's a pack of people. Yeah, yeah, exactly man. And like I knew this going in, man, like I was, like man, I'm getting into the e-com space. I never done anything in the e-comm space before. I had a podcast agency and did coaching. You know what I'm saying. So I did that space, did well in there, but this is brand new to me and I don't know, I know nothing, I'm a complete rookie, a complete noob, nada. So I was like, all right, cool, I know I can go in there and figure it out. I did that before, you know, but we can create a bigger pie together. And it's exactly what I did.
Speaker 3:I went and found a guy um, I do Cody, near, he's my partner, dude. Dude is a beast. He built the flywheel app, uh car, uh app in uh uh target and ran their paid advertising for six years and then built multiple multimillion dollar outdoor apparel brands. So he's been there, done that. You know what I'm saying. And he's our strategic advisor. I got Mike, our integrator, the dude that does all the behind the scenes shit, the shit that I should not be doing at all, that he just loves geeking out on and doing it. And he's in place and straight solid rock dude, rock solid dude. And uh, I got a team together, man and and, and that's what it's supposed to do. Quit trying to do everything yourself. I. I made that mistake a lot in. Uh, in my first business, my first go-round well, because we're entrepreneurs, man.
Speaker 2:We think we we have all the answers. If you want to know how to, friggin, go fast. Scale. Outsource your weakness, man. Outsource the bullshit that you're not good at and double down on this stuff that you know that you're great at or that you're not good at, and double down on this stuff that you know that you're great at or that you're passionate about. Man, dude, I love the shirt. This shirt should be on everybody's frigging mantra. Everybody should be wearing it. Do what the fuck you say you're going to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:Especially. You know everybody, I'm going, I'm going. They should just have a shirt that says I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this. I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to monetize, I'm going to write this book, I'm going to start my side hustle. You ain't going to do shit, man. You just keep on talking, quit talking and start doing.
Speaker 3:Quit talking and start doing. Do it, man, do it, bro. Dude, I love that. I love that. You like that too, man. So I try to make what we do is we got our core beliefs. Everybody has their core beliefs, so our company core beliefs are truth, order, excellence, alignment and freedom, and what we try to do is, well, not what we try to do. What I'm doing is that shirt that you just mentioned, the do what the fuck you say you're going to do. That's basically off of the truth, our core value. Truth, you know. Do the right thing. Do what the fuck you say you're going to do. You know why that's really important to me. Man, like uh, man, I'll drop this. It is cool. This is kind of a. It's like maybe like one or two minutes, but I feel like it's a good point for anybody building a personal brand. Uh, is that? Do you think that align with your audience as well?
Speaker 2:dude who? Who doesn't need brand building? Everybody has a brand, dude, even people that say they're not in sales.
Speaker 3:We're all in fucking sales yeah, dude, like you, I I built a personal brand, helped over 300 people launch their brands with podcasts and stuff, and it got really deep into this world. Right and man, you can get all these tactics and hacks and shit and that shit's cool and a lot of that stuff works, you know, and a lot of stuff also works based on what time you're and you know what. What's working with algorithms up it. The most important thing in my, my personal belief, the most important thing the shit that's going to stand test the time, no matter what fucking algorithm you're working with, is literally being real, doing what the fuck you say you're gonna do. I built my entire brand that way.
Speaker 3:Like, dude, every time I do something wrong, guys, like that's an opportunity for you to quickly own your shit, learn from it and put yourself out there and show your audience that, hey, you take accountability for your shit and you own it and you go out and you make it right, and that's literally like I've been able to make a lot of mistakes along the way, but every time I make mistakes, so I do that shit and I own it.
Speaker 3:I can give countless examples of when I did it, where I put myself out on Front Street and I get an overwhelming amount of DMs, people saying, like dude, that's some real shit. I appreciate you being, you know being a breath of fresh air or whatnot, dude. So all I'm trying to say is like dude, you're going to make fucking mistakes. Don't try and put your brain out there. We were just talking about this earlier, omar. Like, don't try and put yourself out there. Like you're just a highlight reel. Highlight your mess along the way and and and the shit that happens, seeing how you overcome that man. That's a that's. That's where it's at for real.
Speaker 2:So it's almost 2025. Is there? Are you gonna have any retreats for alpha underdog and for men 2025?
Speaker 3:or no. I mean, maybe I haven't really even considered that, but that's not even in the, even in the, even in the plans of at all right now, like I did all the coaching and the masterminds, I did that for years with, with, with the brand building stuff and uh, and it was cool and you know I might get more into that. You know if, based on the stuff, that, with more of the stuff that we talked about, you know, with like the real shit, the inner work or whatnot, I might do some more stuff. It might get into something like that down the road, but as of right now, no, I'm just focusing solely on building, building alpha underdogs, so that we can reach that mission of helping 10 000 plus men with our mission of helping them heal and resolve trauma and become better leaders five years from now?
Speaker 2:what? Where do you see alpha underdog, the apparel, the movement, everything? What? Because, because I know you're a person that when you put a plan in place it happens. So you're midterm a couple years out, three years, four years, five years, where do you?
Speaker 3:see the Alpha Underdog. The main midterm goal, the absolute goal that we're pushing to right now, is to create Alpha Underdog to be a brand and a company that can stand on its own without needing my face for it. So I don't want to be building my personal brand like crazy before and in the limelight anymore, like I got kids and a family and shit. Now, like I'm cool with you know, just chilling out on that end, you know. But I know in the beginning it's going to need, you know, me to get out there to help get it off the ground, and so that's the main goal. The first two to five years is we're getting Alpha Underdog to where it doesn't need me at all. We want to create a culture where it lives on its own. It has a face of its own. The corporate brand is the main thing that drives that business. It doesn't even need Zach at all to live, so that's where it's going to be in five years.
Speaker 2:So do you see it like just straight up apparel or masterminds retreats?
Speaker 3:just coaching on both one-on-one and also group coaching with men. Yeah, yeah, probably not man. Uh, it's just going to be just apparel. And if I ever were to do something like that down the road, it would be years down, because I want to focus really just on building the, the alpha underdog, the company, the apparel brand. But, um, if I were do that, it would be something that I would do just with my own personal brand, based on the, the success that I had in all these other areas of life Right, but it wouldn't be like an alpha underdog mastermind. It would be something completely different. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Cause I mean you, you have a brand man, people, I, I, I know you're. You checked your ego, but people know who you are. So it's like you know, if you have something to say, a lot of men do want to hear. Cause you know, after all, dude, you think about it, you're like a peak and Valley. You found success, failure. Success because you know, like what we talked, we spoke earlier, dude, it's off camera, it's, it's. There's no rocket ship. Man, everybody wants, everybody believes that you know a company or companies or whatever, that you know you go from zero to hero, end a story, rockstar. If only it was that easy. People watch too many movies.
Speaker 3:Man, yeah, man dude you got and, at the end of the day, like all the you know a lot of these, I was that same dude in the beginning. Uh, all the entrepreneurs are looking for ways on how to make their businesses and that and like, they're going to these seminars and this stuff and all these businesses and man, it don't matter, man, you got to do the work on yourself and you go to work on yourself and your business is an extension of you. And so if you go to work on yourself and fix the bottlenecks that you got within yourself, and that's going to fix the bottlenecks that you have within your business as well, cause then you're going to be communicating with people better, you're going to be having better relationships, you're going to be attracting better right people are going to be thinking clear, you're going to be more mentally stable and yeah, anyways, all that shit.
Speaker 2:but, yeah, go to work on yourself, and that's the point, right there yeah, man, but you said something scary, that you have to do all the work.
Speaker 2:Oh man yeah the reason people, the reason why it's a booming industry. Everybody loves, everybody wants that magic, the magic bullet, the thing that you know. You can just become a success overnight and, yeah, instagram will say, hey, I used to mow lawns two months ago. Now I'm living in a mansion. It doesn't happen. Ago, now I'm living in a mansion, it doesn't happen. We all go.
Speaker 2:You know, people spend thousands of dollars on any personal development, business development and man, they're writing down, thinking that they're gonna find that the clue, the answer to cure cancer and, believe it or not, it's bullshit, dude. The thing is you have to, frigging, do the work on a consistent basis. You have to do the work when you feel like shit and then, over time not one day, not two day, not three days you're going to become a rock star. But everybody wants to. You know, oh well, if I buy this new book on how to become a millionaire, no man wants to. You know, oh well, if I buy this new book on how to become a millionaire, no man, you know, you could go to as many anthony robbins, grant cardone, all these people, all these seminars, man. But overall, god gave us all the answers. All the tools we ever need is within us.
Speaker 3:It's fucking common sense man work hard yes, sir, yeah, man, dude, one thousand percent man. And with that too, bro, like, uh, man, work hard. Yes, sir, yeah, man, dude, 1,000% man. With that too, bro, that work too. You're a dude man. My daughter's here joining us on the broadcast, what you call it. You're a dude, though, man.
Speaker 3:A lot of us dudes, entrepreneurs we set these goals and we smash to smash them. It's kind of almost like a linear process, but when you go to work on yourself, man, ain't nothing about that shit. Linear like you can make us take a step forward and then take two back and then be stuck there for a little bit and then take like five, four. It's wild, man, it's fucking wild, it's, but there's nothing linear, systematic about it. Um, and it takes time and it takes work and patience, and a lot, of, a lot of guys don't want to do that, you know, and I get it. I want to move fast and build shit quickly and dominate right out the gate too. Who doesn't, you know? But, uh, it's the shit that. It's the long game that wins. Man, every single time, played a long game, always try to play a long game well, yeah, dude, you want to see friggin alpha males wearing your brand.
Speaker 2:man, enough of wearing first form. We love andy, but you know you, you want to market that. Hey, there's the nike, yeah, but why not wear alpha underdog? Why not rep, rep? Why not say, hey, you know what? I can lift weights. I'm a bad motherfucker and I'm human too, man, I can show my emotions yes, sir, amen amen to that, bro well dude.
Speaker 2:And the the one thing too. We all have haters, man. I, I know you, you, you had that guy. Just because you know things happened at the jujitsu tournament and you know there there was a hater that looked like he knew as much about jiu-jitsu as I do about making souffles, taking shots, man, because it it the hater that usually takes a shot at a person is usually wearing underoos, living in the parents basement, not doing jack shit, man, except, you know, being a keyboard warrior yeah, bro, I used to, uh, they used to get me fired up a lot, you know, especially when I first was getting it, first was building my brand and shit and I, uh first was starting to have success.
Speaker 3:You know, you start having all the trolls and stuff and they see, I used to let that get to me but now, um, I don't, I, I really I understand that. Uh, number one, that guy, if anybody, if you're posting something, a success you have, and someone trolls you that you don't even know and it's just like trolling you and talking shit or whatever and and like that's because your success hurts them that much. They got something going on with them, something emotional baggage going on, and they're projecting that shit onto you whenever they see, because your success stings, it hurts, it hurts them because it reminds them that they're fucking up somewhere, they're not doing the work that they need to be doing somewhere. So, just knowing that alone, I don't let that shit get to me now. Now I look at him. Like you know, I pray for I literally pray for, for my haters and shit. Yeah, I do, I'll be praying for my enemies all the time.
Speaker 2:What's crazy, though, too, is a lot of times it's resentment, because it's people that we grow up with, too, and they didn't have the courage, or they they didn't have the belief, the faith in themselves to to take this first step, to become successful. So they're like, oh, what the fuck man? Fuck you zach, fuck you omar, what do you? You know who the fuck are you guys? Because because it's like yeah, how dare you had the curve, had the balls to create your own apparel line, how dare you go out there and do all these cool things? Well, well, you know, I decided to play it safe and do absolutely nothing.
Speaker 3:Yep not me. I'd rather go out and die trying making it happen versus just settling for shit that's going to make me miserable and never, never happy.
Speaker 2:Zach, what's an easy step or just an assignment for anyone to hit the unresolved trauma? What's the first step?
Speaker 3:Self-awareness, you start getting your own self-awareness. So I started paying attention to, you know, my near jerk reactions or shit that I would do. That I didn't feel good about afterwards when it would happen and it would come out nowhere and sometimes almost like or I didn't have control at first, and then it'd be like man or something you know. And a lot of times you know a lot of times that dude, I used to yell at my kids a lot like I still it still happens, it not nearly, like barely ever, but uh, that shit still happens and like that every time I feel like a fucking piece of shit. I feel like big enough to sit on a penny and swing my feet from it every single time. Um, and seeing that and then trying to trace it back to where it comes from. And for me personally, man, I had so. For me, if you got like a lot of baggage and unresolved trauma, you know like I grew up in juvenile psych wars, detention centers and all that shit you know. So I had a lot of shit going on, um, what you call it.
Speaker 3:Uh, for me personally, plant medicine was a game changer because my psyche, my ego was so it was like a super ego. It was in control of everything and I was unaware like, literally, my ego was running the show and there were so many, uh, unresolved trauma events in my life that I had forgotten all the way about because my ego was suppressing it. I forgot the shit even happened, you know, and um, by going to do and I did a lot of research on this and I'm not recommending anything or I'm not telling you to do anything you got to go talk to your own health professional and all that shit, because I'm throwing the disclaimer out right now me and Omar ain't those people. You need to go check with your people, right? But, um, I'm talking about my experience here.
Speaker 3:My, for me, I went and did a lot of research on it and talked with Dr Dan Engel, had him on my podcast and, um, the guy that administers the plant medicine that I did the MDMA system psychotherapy and when I did that, it was the only thing that was able to crack my psyche open and allow all those traumatic experiences to float up to the surface so that I could, my body could actually process them properly and get rid of, uh, that somatic release within my body and shit. It was amazing, it was crazy, but yeah, man, that was a game changer for me and that really opened up everything and gave me the awareness of where a lot of all this shit stems from and what I needed to go and do. The work I needed to go and do, which is still. I'm doing a lot of that still, like I said, it's not a linear process.
Speaker 2:It's not linear. Not linear, dude. That's a lot of baggage too. Man, think about it. We carry the baggage, it's not like you. You just drop it off and you know the unresolved trauma just disappears. You just have to slowly work at it and sometimes you know the baggage comes and you just have to be aware and go. Oh shit, yeah, I don't know why I'm having that knee-jerk reaction.
Speaker 3:Those knee-jerk reactions are the cues, though.
Speaker 2:What people don't understand is they can do as many fire walks. They can do as many, whatever they want personal development, business development. That little bitch voice is always going to be there. It's just what was created as a child. If it was that easy, we'd all be like Superman. There'd be no more need to go to these conferences because everybody would be like oh, everybody like oh, shit, yeah, hey, I'm cured yeah, yes, sir what is ultimate freedom from unresolved trauma to you, what would that look like?
Speaker 3:man where you, where your past isn't hunting you, where you don't like, have these fucking weird flashbacks and it brings you back to that state and you don't know why. Like, for example, I walk in the fucking gym and I get my anxiety starts shooting up there. You know what I'm saying. Or I I'm driving and driving in like a parking lot, with a lot of people crossing over, driving, walking by the car. I start freaking out. I keep on trying to trace back to where that fuck that comes from. Um, but I noticed that's what happens at that exact moment. Like shit, like that.
Speaker 3:When I'm, when I don't have nothing like that going on, uh, when I'm when I fully like I I've done so much work in this regard of in, uh, integrating my shadow with the rest of my ego. When I fully integrate my shadow all the way with my ego, I feel like that's, that's freedom. Um, because you know a lot of us. You know we're we're suppressing who we truly are, our shadow traits. You know the, the unwanted parts that society frowns upon, parts of ourselves. Everybody has that. Everybody has traits that is frowned upon on society.
Speaker 3:We're all capable of doing really evil shit if you think about it like heinous animalistic type. We're all capable of doing really evil shit If you think about it like heinous animalistic type shit, we're all have that capacity to do so. And when you're able to incorporate that into your personality, into your ego, you become more of the whole human. And obviously don't. You don't go around doing shit like that, but you have that under wraps. That's why I do jujitsu, cause I get to release that shit shadow on that fucking man and then I put them right back up where it belongs, you know, on that. So yeah, that's the. The freedom I'm talking about is when you have complete freedom from all those limiting beliefs and that and that bullshit. You know that, that trauma that keeps you literally locked in that state you know what I love about you man?
Speaker 2:you're, you're a realist.
Speaker 3:What's up, brother? You're honest.
Speaker 2:You've never once said hey, you know what All this unresolved trauma. It'll be gone within minutes, hours, days, weeks. No man, it's a lot.
Speaker 3:I stacked it up for over my whole entire life. That shit ain't going away in five minutes. Bro it up for over my whole entire life that shit ain't going away in five minutes, bro.
Speaker 2:But you know, if you wanted to rip people off, think about it. How many personal development shit you'll you two days you'll be like a million dollars, you know. You walk out like you know you're cured, until you get punched in the face and you realize no man, you're the same motherfucker, you were just thousands of dollars, you know poor lighter. Yeah, exactly man oh, that's funny.
Speaker 3:It's true, but it's funny okay.
Speaker 2:So, hey, christmas is coming, thanksgiving's coming, so be thankful, buy something from Alpha Underdog. Talk about great apparel. Like I said, $1 of it goes to help heal unresolved trauma with men, and let me tell you, there's plenty of it. It's unisex. You got men, men, you got women, you got stuff for kids, dude, and it's sharp. It's actually sharp because it's tough, dude, I'd I'll place an order because I get the 10 off and you'll get the 10 off just by clicking it. It's alpha underdogcom man so thank you, brother.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you bro for real.
Speaker 2:Thank you, man hey, man, great minds, you know it's all about. You know, to build a village, to build an empire, it takes, it takes the help of many. Nobody's self-made, not not even jesus christ. Jesus christ had to have his apostles, yep, to help spread the message. So if, if, he needed a team, we all need a team, man, amen, yes, sir, I love the fact you're a man of god, you're a man of principles. You You've overcome a lot. You have a strong relationship with yourself. You're becoming a better version of yourself, a better version of being a father, a dad to your children.
Speaker 2:So here's a question to you what would you tell to that guy? You know he looks fit, he can hit 225. He can bench press, he can frigging, deadlift, 400 pounds Definition of alpha male. But deep down inside he's got so much turmoil, inner turmoil, trauma, he's just killing himself on the inside. But he feels like that's the only way. I don't want to be a pussy, I don't want to show no emotion, seek and destroy. What do you have to tell to that guy?
Speaker 3:you know I love. You know, when I get asked questions, stuff like this, I'm just going to keep it 1000 real and how I believe in this situation. Um, you know, I know exactly what I would say and I'll tell you that just here in a minute. But it really wouldn't matter what I would say unless that person was ready to hear what I had to say.
Speaker 2:You know, and um, I think he would be. That's what I meant. That's what I. I didn't mean that you would just go and tell people, you know that's invasive Nobody needs to be saved. Nobody needs to be helped unless they want it.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, yes sir, yeah, amen to that too. Yeah, I would. I would. I would say, man, you are enough and you know, when you're ready to go and do that work, you'll find you know all that and more.
Speaker 3:I'd say something simple like that you know, suffer from that where they don't feel like they're good enough, they don't feel like they're they're good enough to be. You know. That's why they always need to have more like. You see that with, at least with entrepreneur ceo type, you know, men, like they're always, it's always the next like what's next, what's next, what's next? They, for me, every time I I had gotten and it'd be some big ass goals too, some Some cool ass goals, but huge milestones, and you know, I'd celebrate it for like 10, 20 seconds on top of the world, yeah, and then I'm like all right, what's next? Man, this ain't enough. We got to go to the next, we got to keep going. It's ain't enough. And that's always because it's always stemmed back towards me, not feeling like enough. So I tell them that whenever you're ready to do that work, cover all that more.
Speaker 2:Dude, I would always want more Cause. I felt like that would make me happy, and it never did.
Speaker 2:It is. It never did it. You know I would write down okay, one store, two stores, three. You know I would think God would shine a light from heaven. Back here you found happiness and it's like what you said it's it's. It stems from you not believing that you'll ever be enough, when you realize you are enough, that god created you for greatness, god created you for happiness, to be your own king. You know, happiness inside job, man, is to be happy. Be proud of yourself, be happy, be proud of yourself. I know you're proud of yourself because you've gone through a lot, man. You've gone through hell, you've gone through bad. You know what. What you see is what you get. And, like what the Beastie Boys would say, you haven't seen nothing yet, man. You're still growing.
Speaker 3:Bust out the Beastie Boys, let's go.
Speaker 2:You weren't expecting that man. Old school there, how, how do they find you? Yeah, and buy from you and, just you know, get to know you more, because that's what ultimately you want is to people to heal, man men to heal absolutely, man.
Speaker 3:Thank you for asking. I appreciate it, man. Uh, alpha underdogcom is where you get the apparel. Man, if you see some threads that you like man, go and snatch them up. Like, like you said, a dollar of every single product goes to helping alpha man heal and resolve trauma and become better leaders. So that's alphaunderdogcom. If you want to get to know more about me, uh, I got zachbabcockcom. Man, it's got my story. My social media is how to get connected with me. Everything's right there.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you for everything, man. Thank you for the hour, thank you for being real man. There was thanks for just being honest man. It's refreshing. That's what the world needs More of more honesty, more humans being humans and I can bleeding out and growing, man, you know enough of wearing a mask.
Speaker 3:Amen to that, man. Thank you for sharing this platform for me, man. I'm super grateful for it, bro.
Speaker 2:All righty brother, peace out. Love you man.
Speaker 1:Love you man, Took action and made it happen and started living inside of your purpose. What if it did work? Right now you can make a choice to never listen to that negative voice no more. The hardest prison to escape is our own mind. I was trapped inside that prison all for a long time. To make it happen, you gotta take action. Just imagine what if it did work.