Conquering Addiction and Mastering Communication with Chad Smith

Has addiction ever cast a shadow over your life? Chad Smith, Battle Warrior Brands owner, shares his inspiring journey of triumph over addiction. Growing up in an environment where alcohol was prevalent, Chad transformed his struggle into empowerment, creating a brand that inspires others. Join us to hear his story of resilience, the power of presence, and cultivating a healthier mindset.

Discover valuable insights on navigating life's challenges, setting goals, and maintaining a positive outlook. Chad also shares lessons from sales, highlighting the silver lining in adversity and his plans for spreading positivity during the holidays. Join us for a transformative episode on overcoming adversity and mastering effective communication.

NOTABLE QUOTES
"You roll that same drive [of your addiction] into stuff that helps people." – Chad
"Keeping myself active and busy helped me from thinking about trying to find something to occupy my time, to make me feel a little bit better instead of feeling lonely. I was trying to escape that loneliness, to escape stillness, and so we use something, or any other kind of addiction, to help us escape from that." – Philip
"You don't care about what obstacles are, you just bulldoze through it just to get to the goal." – Chad
"You have to see your bad side, where you have to balance it to go forward. " – Chad
"What you focus on, what you think about, is what comes out." – Philip
“Go out there. Go fail in a good way. Just go make a mess and figure out how to unclean yourself up." – Chad
"If you can't communicate a message to one person, you're definitely not going to do it to a thousand people." – Philip
“You shouldn't be ultra planned out but when you're so planned out and so precise, I find that it becomes disingenuous.” – Philip
“You add that ad-lib in the speech and that's what helps you connect more with that audience. It'll be beneficial for you to add that little extra in there to be able to connect with that audience more.” – Philip
“Let's just get across the finish line. You can always tweak [it] after you're done. Just finish, and then look at what we need to get better at.” – Chad
“Always do something big every year.” – Chad
“There's always a lesson. Get through it [and] let's figure out what the lesson is.” – Chad
“Stop saying that negative thing and start saying a more positive thing.” – Philip
“God closed that door for a reason. Just focus on what opportunities are now open for you.” – Philip
“Keep overcoming. You might hit a roadblock, you may get off the road, you may have an accident, you may have to get a new truck, but still keep going forward.” – Chad

RESOURCES
Chad
Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/battlewarriorbrands 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/battlewarriorbrands 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/battlewarriorbrands/ 
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@battlewarriorpodcast

Philip
Digital Course: https://www.speakingsessions.com/digital-course Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Philip Sessions: 0:15

What's up, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Speaking Sessions podcast. I'm here with Chad Smith, the owner of Battle Warrior Brands. He's the host of the Battle Warrior podcast, and Battle Warrior Brands is based off the mindset of a warrior that went through and overcame the battle. It's about taking control and striving for a better life through a winner's mindset, and today we're going to dive into the stories you tell yourself and how to flip the script and tell yourself a better story so you can overcome the things in your life that are holding you back. But, chad, before we get into this, tell us a little bit more about yourself on a personal level.

Chad Smith: 0:58

Oh okay, hey guys. Hey, it's Chad here with Battle Warrior podcast. Obviously, we're kind of switching roles here. Usually we're used to being the host and all that stuff here. But personally here, guys, I am 37 years old. We're going to add a few more stats on here because we ended up accomplishing some more things this last year. So ultra runner right, just finished an ultra marathon a couple of months or two ago. Just more runner in general. So what it?

Chad Smith: 1:20

The ideal, key thing of me growing up here was some of you guys I don't know where you're from, but a lot of us are in the Midwest here. So we grew up around like the environment's a typical, you know, like the Miller light sessions or like the burger games or all this information age where they just dump on the alcohol and the drinking and stuff here. So growing up in the environment blue collar environment you know both parents were manufacturing and just kind of went with the normal routine thing. So like they would go out to the Friday night fish. Obviously here in the Midwest it's at a bar and you're eating at situations. So with that many different influences, stuff, I ended up starting to drink normally at age 13. Typically in the United States is 21,. But to us up here is a normal thing, right? So you go up to the campgrounds, you have it with your parents, you go out to eat if the, if certain bars would serve you underneath a certain age, just because your parents are there. It was just a normal pattern growing up here.

Chad Smith: 2:14

So with that, I ended up becoming an alcoholic at a very young age. I didn't really know that, because in this environment you're more set up to be, you're just so used to it, right? So, like people that grew up in a chaos family, you're used to being in the chaos and you don't know what to do without the chaos, right? So to me, growing up in the environment of addiction, going to like a babysitter that had a pill addiction I never really understood what it was until I hit rock bottom and I started backtracking and say, okay, hey, I was around this my whole life, right? And to me, funny thing, yesterday I was serving at my church but I actually found my original you know Facebook to this memory thing. It was my original sober date and I'm like I thought I lost that because I know after that I relapsed twice. So, like it was my original date and I'm like I didn't know the exact date of it and then I relapsed twice during deer hunting session and then I picked back up again near that Thanksgiving that year and then I rolled through now to where we're going to be pushing four years actually in a week or two.

Chad Smith: 3:12

So to me, I'm looking at it and I'm like this was kind of exciting because it saw the pattern of a person that tried to clean and, like many, relapsed and then cleaned up for good and kind of kept going here. So, yeah, no, we were digging through my, my childhood and stuff I was attacking. You know why this, why this, why this, and it up being is just it's. You grew up in this environment and in a very hyperactive person that needs to be very focused, and I'm going to say I'm very driven, like, I'm extremely driven. But what happens in this environment? So, like, just like a lot of people we know, when you're very, extremely driven, there's always a void that's missing, right? So, like, you're always chasing, you're not accepting today, you're not accepting tomorrow. You're like, hey, I can be better, I can be better, I just don't learn to be present, which I struggle with still daily.

Chad Smith: 4:01

And going through addiction is like, okay, you give up alcohol, so now you build a and I'm a. It's going to be weird how I say it this way, but, like you, you take that same focus and you build a podcast, you build a brand. So, like, instead of flipping it bad, you flip it good and you roll that same drive into stuff that helps people, and to me it was always a lot. So, like I, it sounds weird to say it this way, but like I always like have a multiple projects going cause it keeps me stimulated. So, as a former addict, right, you need something in your head. So, like me, sitting on a couch, stillness which is a very healthy thing for many people drives me insane, because the stillness of it, my brain starts just going completely insane and going, okay, what's going on now? Where's it going, what's happening? And then you start thinking in your deep thoughts and stuff and ends up being I would always get in trouble when I was still because I had nothing in my hands.

Philip Sessions: 4:54

I never went through addictions or anything, or at least not drug addictions. I'm sure there's some kind of addiction that that I certainly have out there that I haven't necessarily identified with yet. But I noticed for myself too, if I sat still, that I would tend to go towards certain things, especially whenever I was single, and it tended to be like trying to find a girl, trying to go out on date, whatever do do some things that maybe I shouldn't have done because I didn't really know the girl well and and nothing like terrible, but just wasn't the good Christian that I was trying to be there in those situations. So keeping myself active and busy as well helped me from thinking about oh, let me go try and find something to occupy my time, to make me feel a little bit better instead of feeling lonely. And by the end of my singleness I think I finally realized that's what it really was.

Philip Sessions: 5:47

I was trying to escape that loneliness and, like you said, a lot of us are trying to escape stillness, we're trying to escape something, and so we use something, such as drugs or any other kind of addiction, to help us escape from that. And I like how you mentioned, like how you flip that script was you decided to get rid of the drugs and of course, this wasn't like just all, like boom, it happened. One day you're like I'm done with drugs and I'm going to go and do a podcast and do this and do that, but you did replace it with something. And I've noticed that with smokers and people that have addictions, that they tend to just try and cut the addiction off and they try not to replace it and they end up falling back into that addiction. And is that what you found and how you help other people as well, kind of fight through those addictions?

Chad Smith: 6:35

Yeah, if you got to think of it this way and someone explained it to me a long time ago I don't know if it was at my local church or was that somewhere in like a men's group or whatever it was but like, you have this huge box right. You have this huge box of an addiction. You rip that away. You have this huge missing box, right. You have this huge empty box or you have this empty void. No matter what you're going to be chasing, whatever it is, to fill that box. So like, if you're doing podcasting, if you're doing, you know, co-authoring a book, doing a brand, going out, meeting people, whatever it is, there's still going to be a space that's going to be empty, right. And a lot of people don't forget their faith, right, I'm very Christian man. I fight a lot of it. That's just naturally who I am, and not fight a lot the religion. I don't fight that. It just I don't. When you're in a recovering addict from like, like for me was alcohol but you want it, you do that drug because you want control over certain things, right. So, like, I fight over control my mind. So when it comes to like, gripping stuff or taking stuff out of that box. It's to you, that's your little world that you control, right? So when you start taking stuff out, or you take a huge box out now you start putting these little tiny boxes, what's gonna happen is so like for me. I stopped drinking, I started working out, I do, you know, I run marathons, ultramarathons, whatever it is. On top of that, I used to like cigars. I do like them occasionally, but not as much as I like them in the past. So now, if you think about that, that's another addiction, right. And then there's some other things we're gonna leave off this podcast that we're kind of. We were chate, like at the time I was single but like chasing right, and all of a sudden you have to go through these spurts because you know your body was literally saying, hey, I want this, I go get. You know I'm going to get it, which is a great thing. But in business, that's a really good thing Because it's called the zone area, right. So, like when you're in the sports, you're in the zone, you're gonna get that touchdown. It's that same focus you have, but it's it's in the addiction world, right. So don't matter what you're gonna do, you're in the zone, you're gonna go get that you know for me bottle of vodka, whatever it was, and you're gonna do it. So you bust your tail all the way through the day until 3, 30, 4, 35, whatever it was at the time, you had that bottle of vodka there. So, no matter what your body is like, hey, I'm to the end zone. Let's relax and let's, let's get it. So it's.

Chad Smith: 8:48

I still fight in my mind a lot with it. Obviously, we're both very you know my mind's complex into complex. Obviously, you know we're all human. We all have this huge master chip in our mind. To me I had not said you know I'll be open and say I do struggle on certain things, right, not struggle on the addiction side of it, but I didn't struggle of not the show to what a coat is, but like the zone, right. So you're so used to being going out taking this goal, you don't care about what's obstacles are, you just bulldoze through it just to get to the goal. And and to me that's the addicting mindset of my mind where it's like I don't care who I'm gonna hurt Until you know. So I I fight with that person a lot.

Chad Smith: 9:27

Now I'm learning, you know, through love and all that stuff, that you can flip that, switch on and off, and it's, it's the book and I'm my pro sar colleague, mike that said, or whatever, but it's like you have to Learn your shadow right. So, like you have everyone's got a shadow, you have to have conversation, that shadow, but also that shadow, or chasing that, like Robin Hood or all that stuff that that shadow actually will help you. Like you just got to flip back and forth. I think it's JP to our Jordan Peterson was that you have to like see your bad side where you have to like balance it to go forward here. So to me it's just matter of balancing.

Chad Smith: 10:00

So, like I refocus, built the brand, wrote my own book, which I'm gonna be starting a new one here, probably this next spring, and then on top that you know, materials that was placed in a couple Different Amazon best-hulls or whatever it is. So it's been a cool journey, a lot of re-in venting. So you know and I'm gonna use this, for example so, like, on the brand side of it, we went to the local farmers market. So I switched a lot of stuff to handmade personally, you know, bringing in the old, the traditional way of doing a pair All right, not the drop ship stuff. So, like you have the logo on your hand, you put on a blank, you shipped out the door. Just the old school way of doing it to me going to Shift in national, to the local right. So, like a lot of businesses, people are like hey, focus on local, go national, I did it, whatever it is.

Chad Smith: 10:45

My lifestyle has always been the opposite way. So, like you know, it's like hey, I've done this national brand, why is it not going? Well, you forget the local part, right? So I, you know, especially with the adjusting interest rates, and like a lot of people, you had to refocus on the economy and for me it's I can control the local stuff, I can do it here. Yeah, there's a fee to get into local markets, but with that you build a brand locally and you get the impressions you get, you get your face out, and that's kind of the same shift that we're doing this year with a lot of things. So, like I did join Toastmasters last year, obviously this year my priority is a little bit different with, like, running clubs and stuff, but the big focus is trying to get into communities.

Chad Smith: 11:21

People again, right, we're national based communities, right, just kind of reshift in to where, say, okay, hey, we have this opportunity national. But now let's say, okay, hey, guys, locally, there's these groups nationally. So, like you're, you're like an in-between person or like you can kind of direct people to. You know some of the bigger ones out there and you and me both know the names and they both start with a, but like stuff like that that you can kind of redirect people and say, hey, there's a different lifestyle out there, there's different knowledge, different education.

Chad Smith: 11:53

I don't think you ever not say us, but like, going to a local person, be like I don't think this never came to you, or like this was never presented to you as an opportunity, or in general, like this knowledge I don't think was never presented to you.

Chad Smith: 12:07

To be like, okay, hey, if you have questions, you know I would check this person a out, right, just because they're doing great things, they're good family men, whatever it is. And I want you to say, okay, hey, they helped me out, let's see if I can help you out with that person. So for me it's a little the spotlight's still there. It's not as big and fast as it was during COVID, right, so it's going back to more old school level of you know how can we help this out here? How can we help the communities here? Big thing obviously men need men. You know community is a huge thing and kind of just refocusing on exactly you know what men are in my life, where we're going and just kind of going there. So it's a lot of not say rebranding, but it's also just a it's rebuilding that community again.

Philip Sessions: 12:53

Yeah, that's. Yeah. Building an online community definitely was easier during COVID, a little bit more difficult, but yeah, like you said, that's what I like to do is really go local, because too many people think, oh, I can just go online, it's easy, I'm there, I don't have to worry about going out. Well, yeah, you and millions of other people are doing the exact same thing. So change it up. We're humans, we want that human contact. So definitely go there local.

Philip Sessions: 13:20

But I want us to really dive into the stories that we tell ourselves and we don't have to stay on the addiction side of things. But, as we're trying to develop ourselves into something better, what are some of the stories that maybe you've told yourself or people that you've worked with that they're kind of telling themselves? And how have you helped them overcome that? To tell themselves a different story, a more positive story, is definitely what's going on in our mind is what we are struggling with, and at the moment I'm actually reading a lot of books on mindset thinking grow rich. I'm actually rereading that one and that's a lot of what they talk about and it's not as the book says. You know, oh, just think about it and also you're going to be rich.

Philip Sessions: 14:01

No, it's about having that positive mindset and focusing in on that and through your subconscious, then the things will happen. Of course, you're doing work still, but things will come together and fall into place as need be and it'll seem like oh wow, that's a coincidence, oh wow, that just came out of nowhere. No, it's because you've been focused on that, similar to focusing on a blue car Also, and you see blue cars everywhere, where before you're focused on red and you didn't see any blue. So what you focus on, what you think about, is what actually comes out. So how are you helping people with that?

Chad Smith: 14:35

The big thing is trying to first focus on me, and I'm not going to say selfishly that way. I have huge conversations in my head that I wish the public would hear. Right, yeah, I would have zero friends. That's just like how I talk to myself is something I really, really need to work on, because to me it always seems like I'm not good enough for anyone. So it's the imposter syndrome, right? So, like, we have these opportunities, like, well, I shouldn't be this person on this, I shouldn't be that, I shouldn't be this, or I'm not sufficient enough or I'm not worthy enough, whatever it is To me that comes from. Okay, those are layers that I need to address, which I'm actually addressing now, going forward here again.

Chad Smith: 15:13

But you just get in such a rut and you get in like in the wrong community, whatever it is. Like your brain, just you don't notice, but it's a long term eat, right. So, like, the further you're escaping out of it, you're not noticing, but the patterns start coming back and going here. So, yeah, you definitely need to be around a community of people. Like that, how I'm turned around helping people. To me it's more of a one-on-one stuff. I am in Incorporate America, just like a lot of people nowadays. But to me it's just it's. You see it in people before you see it in yourselves and in more of like okay, what's happening? Why are you in your head? How do we unravel that? You know what pain so technically pain caused that. You know what pain caused that to cause that little breakdown is what we call it. But, like, you know what, what happened with the meltdown or what happened. So it's more just unraveling people into more layers, just because I think a lot of people are afraid and it's the thing I noticed especially this last summer people that go through trauma kind of are real quiet about it and they don't really get open about it. So when they come to you be like, okay, hey, I was a former addict or hey, I had abusive relationship or whatever it is, they see it in you that you want to do something. They'll walk up and be like, okay, man, I know you want to do something, just because how you're presenting yourself and to me, like publicly people, it's almost like you're giving people permission to say, okay, hey, it's okay, that's just a fear thing. Now let's overcome it and go forward here.

Chad Smith: 16:35

So to me it's I'm, I'm trying to love myself. First I'm gonna say, try, I'm the hardest critic on myself. So like I'm that old school tough love. Like dude, dust yourself up, you can get better, and yada, yada, yada and keep going forward.

Chad Smith: 16:47

But to me, like going into someone would be like hey, I'm proud of you, or hey, you know I loved it, or just it's a simple things for me, right, it's not a big explanation, it's the hey, you know, I loved what you did Not say let's work on this. But like, just breathe, go out there, you know, go fail in a good way, right, just just go make a mess and figure out how to unclean yourself up. So to me, I'm almost doing like a sideline coach. So like I'm more like that coach where it's like you're watching your players going out, do it versus, you know, physically hand in hand.

Chad Smith: 17:17

But yeah, no, I want to. I want to get back into the local more upfront on stages. A lot of that industry is real unknown up here, and I'm gonna say up here I'm North of Milwaukee about hour, so like stages are a lot more quieter versus like the, like the, the green bays and in the Milwaukee's and stuff. So I'm learning the old school way of building it more one-on-one than it is in front of like a large group?

Philip Sessions: 17:39

Yeah Well hey, there's the place for all of that and kind of what we talked about a little bit offline. That communication, public speaking, all that is so important and it's not just about being on this big stage or being in front of thousands of people. If you can't communicate a message to one person, you're definitely not going to do it to a thousand people. And so, learning those skills with that one person while it may not be the stage skills where, hey, walk around on stage, don't just stand in one place, don't be behind the podium, things like that You're still learning that communication piece, which is way more important than all of those things of oh, are you using your hands properly, are you looking at people making eye contact? Like, I mean, that's going to come with the one-on-one as well. But just because you don't really necessarily know how to walk across a stage or around a stage to keep people active that way, even if you did know that and you didn't know how to communicate your message, it won't matter. So that's that's really beneficial, that you're doing it one-on-one, and I think too many people also, and you're kind of putting yourself in this mindset as well that, hey, it's really not that great, it's not that great. Look, if you're doing a video on social media, if you're doing a podcast like this, you are getting better at speaking. You don't have to go be on that stage in front of a thousand people to get better.

Philip Sessions: 19:02

And the unfortunate thing is, if you had that opportunity and it was your very first opportunity most likely you would fail and then it'll take forever for you to get your reputation back to where people will invite you on that stage. So be thankful you're at where you're at, man Like and I say this to everybody too, not just to you but be thankful that you aren't in front of the masses, if you will, because you can fail now and it's in front of one person and that person most likely will get it and you probably already connected with them enough that, even if you're saying all these, say all these ums and aas and everything and messing up, or you don't say something quite right or you're not very eloquent in the way you say it, they're going to understand you still and they're going to give you that leniency and forgiveness that you didn't say everything right because you're just in a conversation versus being on that stage. So don't discount that. You're at where you're at right now.

Philip Sessions: 20:00

I truly believe that God has us where we need to be for a reason. And so you're kind of going back and you've been through this rebranding, rebuilding and everything, and so, yeah, you are here at those local events, you're doing that one-on-one stuff and it's just going to come with time. So don't give up there and just know that it's going to get better and you're going to get in front of more and more people as you keep doing it. Just be consistent.

Chad Smith: 20:25

Well, and there's a couple things and you're going to use the consistent thing so that I went through the event this last spring. It was a great American someone it was actually the second year that came on which is an event for a lot of veteran focus, just because in my family we have six or seven sorry, six veterans, you know, past or non-serving, whatever it is active serving. But the cool thing about is there was a speaker there and I don't know if you've seen her or not, but it was Marie Cosgrove and she's such a sweetheart in general, like a real tiny, petite lady just, but she's so forceful and so punch, you know, just comes with a punch just because of her story and just the powerful Like just don't make size matter, man, she's a huge, powerful lady and changing lives around the country here. The cool thing is what she said.

Chad Smith: 21:08

She's like I got met her by Les Brown and she's like less brown came out and said straight out before you get that one paid speaking gig, you're going to have to put all these free speaking gigs in, right, you got to get the reps and you got to get the layout and you got to do this. And she said straight out. She's like before I got my own speaking gig, I did hundreds and hundreds of free gigs just to get the reps in and get situated here. So it's like the same thing with podcasting, right? You know, even though we're doing a podcast episode, it still wraps.

Chad Smith: 22:26

You know, there's days that were great, there's days that were terrible, there's days that you thought you had a terrible episode and people would be like, hey, man, that was awesome. You like what? What are you doing? Right, like we're still used to being in the moment versus the value that it's actually presenting. And that goes to like the in general branding or whatever it is.

Chad Smith: 22:43

LTipike the oops are the ones that people grab, and to me, no matter if it was episode one or episode you know, 126 this week or whatever it is, I wanted to have some sort of the art of the improv in there, because to me, growing up with 1970s, snl, 1980 SNL, a lot of like that Eddie Murphy stuff, whatever it is what happens, a lot of that stuff was improbbed and that's where the beauty of that whole message came from, right, so, like you could script it all you want, but then also, on top of that, you got to add your little twist in, to like add that motion in or add your touch in and kind of go from there. So, even though, like, there's moments that we beat ourselves up, like we're talking about, we no matter what want to make sure that we have some sort of that touch, emotion and prop, whatever it is. Just add a little bit more love and caring into that conversation.

Philip Sessions: 23:30

Yeah, you're exactly right, and I found that the most polished speakers really in it being not the best they're. They're probably, I would say, in the mid. They're definitely not terrible because they are great speakers and they can keep your attention and they do all the things right, but they're not the best because they don't actually break out of that script, if you will. They don't break out of their speech that they have prepared and actually speak from the heart. It's all super planned out and and I know this sounds bad coming from a speaking coach that you shouldn't be ultra planned out but when you're so planned out and so precise, I find that it becomes disingenuous. Like you were saying with SNL, like there's still some funny skits with SNL. I mean, I've been watching a while but everybody seems like it and clearly it's still going. So it must be a likable show. But back in the day it was a lot funnier because while I did have a script, they still went off that script a little bit, like you said. And that's where it comes in.

Philip Sessions: 24:28

And when I do my coaching I talk about that like hey, we're going to have our structure, but the day of the event you may actually see that you've talked with somebody about this, or a speaker mentioned something about this and it seemed like a really big hit and you want to bring that up, or a current event happen, and so you bring that within your speech.

Philip Sessions: 24:46

Now it doesn't, you don't change the whole speech because then it's not going to go well, but you add that in the speech where you can, that ad lib and everything, and that's what helps you connect more with that audience. And too often and I get from a nerves perspective you don't want to do it. I'm not saying it's a bad thing if you don't, but it'll be beneficial for you to add that little extra in there to be able to connect with that audience more for sure. So let's let's take it back a little bit to like how how can we overcome the stories that we tell each other? Because I know I've told my story and my myself stories a lot of time and it's taken me a lot longer to go through something than when I just told myself a different story, a more positive story, a more inspirational story. So what are some tips that you can give us to help us tell a better story to ourselves, to actually go take action on our goals?

Chad Smith: 25:43

Well, a couple of different answers and there's one key one that actually first form promotes Dress just do it right. Just and it's not like the Nike thing like literally do something hard every day or every year, just to kind of challenge yourself and push yourself. That's number one, right. So kind of look at it as, okay, you know I'm not good enough, but also, hey, let's tackle, you know, for certain people, turkey Trot or half marathon, whatever it is, and be like, okay, hey, this is something new, something big you're doing. Let's just get across the finish line. You can always tweak after you're done. Right, just finish, just say you finish and then okay, hey, let's look at what we need to get better at. Right, that's, that's kind of the route I'm doing To me.

Chad Smith: 26:23

I'm, I'm always doing something big every year. I whether next year it's going to be a 50 or a hundred, whatever, whatever it is something big event that comes not saying natural to me, but like there's a challenge involved with that, with something I love to do, like I do love to run. I'm not a marathon built runner, I'm, I'm an in between, I'm a tweener is what I call it but like to me, like running is such a great natural thing I can do with what I'm doing right now. That that's where I'm going to do a lot of the challenges. Secondly, I look at it as, even though I, I and I'll be completely honest, right, when you get a lot of pressure and all that stuff, I, I can get in my head and and become like a nine year old and I'll be, you know, completely honest with that.

Chad Smith: 27:00

But to me it's like there's always a lesson involved with it to where I could step back and be like you know, typically, when I'm not in that minds in my mind trying to beat myself up, typically it's okay, hey, I have to there's a lesson with this thing that we're going through. Let's figure out what the lesson is., right, whether it's fine, you know renegotiating financial stuff, or you know speaking for corporate level stuff, whatever it is, it's, it's, there's a lesson behind this that we can learn as a skill, or we can learn as there's a good or bad. You know, there's always a lesson behind that. So you have to just get through it and then that's the road I'm looking at is and obviously, yes, with my faith, but, like to me, it's like God's always teaching you something. It just matter if you're listening or not right.

Philip Sessions: 27:42

Yeah, I completely agree, and I know some of the stories that I've told myself as well was just going from and just really tell myself to like stop saying that negative thing and start saying a more positive thing, like how can I look at this in a positive manner rather than if something bad happened to me? Oh man, this stinks, like life is just terrible. Why did this happen to me? You know like why? Why did this happen for me, as Edmai Lett talks a lot about, rather than it being something that happened to you, it happened for you, and really trying to empower myself with that. And then, as positive things happen to like, ok, let's keep going, let's use this momentum. Sometimes it's easy for us to look at the negative and try to flip that to a positive, but then we're on the up and up. That's like, oh man, this is good, this is good, and we try and just coast, and you can't really coast on the way up and then even on the way down, if you coast, eventually you're going to bottom out at some point. So just keep going, keep using that momentum to help you, you know, catapult you up to the next hill and get you halfway up instead of maybe 10 feet up or a quarter of the way up or something like that, and so really just staying positive and OK, what's something else that I can help keep fueling this fire and everything. So those that's how I kind of frame stories for myself personally to keep me going, and then, of course, going through those negative times to try to flip it to OK, what is this doing for me?

Philip Sessions: 29:06

And something else that people say a lot of times is that God closed that door for a reason, which I think is another positive way is that you know, think about it in that manner. God didn't want you to have that for some reason. For whatever reason, whether it be, you aren't ready for it, or if you got that, that's something bad would happen down the road, but there's a reason why that door was closed. And rather than focusing on man that door was closed, that opportunity isn't going to happen for me anymore Just focus on what opportunities are now open for you.

Philip Sessions: 29:33

And I know for me with cells as well, it hurt sometimes when you think he got somebody that they want to work with you and you're excited to work with them, and then all of a sudden they're like you know whatever reason, and then they just don't want to do it or they can't for now, and it does stink, but it opens you up to somebody else that could be even a better fit for you. Maybe you'll even make some more money and stuff off of that, but you'll be able to help them and they'll create a better impact as well. So you never know why that door was closed. Rather than focusing on the closed door, focus on finding that next open door for your opportunity. That's a lot of stories that I like to share for myself.

Chad Smith: 30:10

Yeah, and to me, when it comes to sales sites I'm back in sales again, but, like, to me, it was always the ones that were unpredictable and it's going to sound really weird to say it this way but, like the ones that were always your clients were like the unpredictable ones that were like, where did this come from, right, yeah? Versus the ones that you do so much service for, you're like, hey, this is my key client. And then at the end you're like, wait a minute, this in the long run it's like this person's not my customer, right, yeah. So it's really weird what you plan is versus what actually happens is actually completely opposite.

Philip Sessions: 30:39

Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, chad, this has been a great conversation. I've liked talking about you know, your journey, what you got going on with your business and, of course, talking about our stories and how we kind of flip that script a little bit. But I want us to get to the last question I always like to ask, and that is if you could only share one message for the rest of your life, what would that message be?

Chad Smith: 31:01

Keep overcoming. You know, keep, it's just keep moving, man, like I don't want to use the term because I'm a little blue collar kid, but we have a saying, especially in the trucking community. It's like, dude, just keep trucking right, get that engine moving, keep that truck moving. So to me, I'm going to look at it that way it's like, no matter what, just yourself up, keep on trucking right, just keep pushing forward and go from there. So, yeah, yeah, you might hit a roadblock, you may get off the road, you may have an accident, you may have to get a new truck, whatever it is, but still keep going forward.

Philip Sessions: 31:30

Yeah, one step at a time. I like it. Oh, chad, if people want to get to know you more, they want to follow your journey, as you're doing these crazy ultra marathons, as you're helping people overcome addictions and be more right. That's the slogan I forget. Be made of more, something like that. Which one is it?

Chad Smith: 31:47

You are more. It's the one we have. We have a couple of different ones, but fear the Warriors, the one we're highlighting, okay.

Philip Sessions: 31:52

Fear the Warrior. Okay, if they want to follow that brand and that slogan and they believe in that slogan, where can they go Follow that?

Chad Smith: 32:00

All right. So anything related with Battle Warrior Brands is just battle-warrior-brandscom. That's where the clothing stores and all that stuff. There's actually a blog there. That's going to be happening. Looking at Battle Warrior Podcast, man, that's on all major platforms, right? So you go to Spotify, type in Battle Warrior Podcasts and you're going to get it real quick, especially on Apple platforms. So YouTube channel we are at Battle Warrior Brands on YouTube channel. Same thing with TikTok, all that stuff. Here's so many platforms, man, you guys can get.

Chad Smith: 32:27

You almost need someone full time to really touch everything, but when we're looking at this stuff here, so by the time this episode comes out here, we're going to actually have a 12-day unwrappled warrior. Just a little wisdom that we're going to kind of give out here for free. So just stay tuned to that. Throw your email on there. You're going to get videos between myself and my favorite partner, kk, and we're going to be coming at you for both female and male perspectives of how to just relax during holidays. Right, it's just, it's a free. You know, one minute video each day for 12 days straight and you're going to get something about like hey, just be joyful today, right? Just simple minded stuff to kind of get you guys through the holidays especially.

Chad Smith: 33:05

It's going to be a complex, real stressful season for a lot of people. We just want to make it joyful and fun and kind of give that spirit back to what it should be during the holiday. So it's going to strip everything down, keep it simple, keep it short and sweet and then allow you guys to do that. So I'll definitely keep them updated on the information on that one. But yeah, so starting December I think December 1st, if we're looking at this, or December 12th, whatever it is we're going to do that 12 day session. Every day you're going to get an email coming to you with that daily lesson. So it's going to be a fun thing. A nice learning environment. Obviously, courses and stuff, our new stuff in the industry. So, but yeah, it's definitely go stop at BattleWareBrandscom and we definitely keep you posted on all the fun stuff that's coming down the pipeline.

Philip Sessions: 33:46

Awesome. Well, everybody, make sure that you go follow Chad and battle warrior brands Chad. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Please go, make sure that you go out there and share your message, because your message matters.