A Slice of Humble Pie with P2
🥧 A podcast where we curiously explore nutrition, fitness, mindset, sports, wellness, & beyond. ☕️Host @parastoobadie
A Slice of Humble Pie with P2
Mental Performance Training
Embark on a transformative journey into the realm of mental resilience with Dylan Nadler, a taekwondo champion turned MindLock architect. In this candid conversation, Dylan shares insights that transcend the boundaries of sports, offering valuable lessons applicable to any arena of life.
Whether you're gearing up for a competition or facing challenges in your professional career, Dylan's experiences bridge the gap between physical strength and mental fortitude. Prepare to be empowered as he delves into the transformative power of adversity, showing how embracing failure can be the catalyst for unparalleled growth and success.
Dive into the world of competitive sports as we unravel the evolution from amateur enthusiast to elite contender. Through Dylan's journey and expertise, we uncover the indispensable role of mental training in achieving peak performance. Drawing from his work with athletes across diverse disciplines, including the UFC and the Olympics, Dylan illustrates that mastering the mind is just as vital as honing the body.
This episode serves as a playbook for anyone seeking practical strategies to elevate their mental game and unlock their full potential. From professional insights to actionable tools, Dylan's guidance offers a roadmap to sharpen your mental acuity and thrive in any endeavour.
Connect with Dylan through Mindlock or email at info@mindlock.ca
Website: https://parastoobadie.com/podcast/
Email: asliceofhumblepiewithp2@gmail.com
Instagram: @asliceofhumblepiewithp2
Welcome back to A Slice of Humble Pie. Our guest for today is Dylan Nadler. Dylan is a former taekwondo champion and captain for Team Canada who then moved on to study psychology and he became a mental performance coach and launched MindLock, a mental training platform for high performers. So Dylan and I connected as he was looking for coaches with a similar perspective that he could trust to integrate his passion project into their own practice and continue to give it the respect that it deserves. One big mission, as you'll hear throughout the episode, is Dylan wants to put you know mental training into the hands of everybody. Works with elite athletes, but it's really just if you're a human being, you can benefit from improving your mental performance. So I'm really, really pumped that we connected and I'm really really excited to have this chat that we can share with you. I've had the privilege of going through MindLock a couple times already and I know I'm going to keep going through it because I'll get something more out of it every time, and I'm currently figuring out how to integrate it into all of the stuff that I do. Which is something I'm super passionate about, you know, is that holistic approach where there's the mind and the body, and we're talking about nutrition and training and mindset. So more on that later.
Speaker 1:Let's learn a little bit more about Dylan. Honestly, you're going to see, you're going to be so pumped up as soon as you make it through this episode. He has this infectious excitement. It's fantastic. He's a determined go-getter, he's confident, but at the same time he's approachable and you just get a lot out of having a very simple discussion with him. And obviously he is a huge advocate for mental health. And Dylan has already accomplished so much. But we'll learn more about that. But beyond his accolades, his athleticism and his international adventures, at the root of it he's a determined and passionate man and he's on a mission to change the mental game. So I cannot wait to share with you. Let's get right into it. So I was stalking you on Facebook and I saw that your favorite quote is the depth of your struggle determines the height of your success. That's a really good quote. So what does this quote make you feel and how do you define struggle?
Speaker 2:How do you define success? Yeah, so I like that one a lot, I think. So it kind of traces back. There's a book that my coach wanted me to read back in the day and it's called the Prophet by Khalil Gibran, and basically it's. It's a short book comprised of different, like really small chapters, and each chapter is like a different poem on parts of life or whatever, and there's a part there that relates well to that quote and it basically talks about, like joy and sorrow, and like that's the chapter it's like on joy and sorrow and how they're not as opposite as we think, right, we tend to think that, like you know, our joy is on one end of the spectrum and you know our sorrows on the other, and they're so separate. But it makes you think about how the two are actually kind of interconnected, right, because when you think about it, the things that bring you the most joy are the things that you know kind of put you through the much pain, and vice versa, right, anything that brings you a lot of pain, it's probably because you get joy from it, right. So they're actually kind of needed. You know both of them are needed to experience the other.
Speaker 2:So there's a quote too within that and it says the deeper your glass, the more wine it can hold, right. So it's like the more you dig, the more you go through, the more you can fill that gap with something right. And I like it because it kind of reminds us not to live a life of just. It kind of reminds us not to live a life of just kind of average normalness, right. Like yeah, you could live a life that's very risk-free and you're never really, you know, giving yourself an opportunity to hurt or to feel trauma or to go through anything that's bad and to try to kind of bubble wrap yourself, but at the same time you'll never really experience the highest of highs because of that. So it's all contrast, right. Like the more that you suffer and the more that you do and the harder that you work, the more room that you have to kind of fill that capacity with excitement and joy. Because of that. And that's why I like it a lot too is just because it shows the dynamic between how we kind of need one for the other and we can't just only expect one of the other two. So I like that dynamic and then you know, instead, in terms of defining it like I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think struggle is anything that's extremely like this, any, any extreme discomfort in a way I would call like like a struggle, right, whether it's training, whether it's developing yourself in one way or another, anything that's kind of uncomfortable for a long period of time where you have the option to kind of quit, right. You know we, we tend to gravitate towards comfort, right. So anything, anytime something becomes too tough or too difficult or not, I don't know about this we kind of want to back away. So I think sticking to it is, you know, it's not comfortable and it's, it's obviously a struggle, but I think that's what kind of allows you to get to a place of paying off. And then you know what is success? I mean, it's a big question, but I think for me personally and there could be a bunch of different definitions For me I think success is just when you fulfill your potential, or at least like the strive for that, right, because it's not objective, right, like you being successful and me being successful and whoever's listening to this being successful.
Speaker 2:It could have completely different meanings, right. So we can't kind of objectively define like this is the criteria for success. I think it falls back on what are your expectations for yourself, what is the potential that you have inside you and how close can you get to that? Right, we're all different, right. We all have different kind of potentials and different avenues and different kind of domains, and I think if you get to a place where you kind of max out on that and you fulfill that potential, you get as close as you possibly can. I think that's what success is, because it keeps it subjective and it keeps it realistic. But it's still extremely challenging and one of the hardest things to do.
Speaker 1:You've only been talking for three minutes and that was already amazing. I'm like, oh my God, what a beautiful definition of the human experience. And I totally agree with you that the highs and the lows that go together. And if you're afraid of those lows, then you're kind of limiting yourself to experience those highs, so you can't really have success without failure. You can't or your words were. You know the struggle and success. So, oh yeah, I immediately visualized a whole bunch of personal experiences where I've struggled and I know we'll talk about it. But I want to learn about your biggest struggle, Um, and let's, let's put a little bit more of like, maybe a personal struggle that you could share with us, and how it was the lowest of your lows, and also in the athletic context, like part of your um in in sport and training or competition um in in sport and training or competition movement, yeah, athletically, like.
Speaker 2:So when I, when I started training, you know I I started taekwondo when I was five. You know my parents put me in, um in, like most taekwondo kind of clubs, it was very recreational. Right, it's not a, it's a competitive sport, it's an olympic sport, but 90% to 95% of the gyms out there are very recreational. They'll never compete and that's where I found myself for the first six-ish years of doing it and I really hated it because I love to spar and I love to compete and we never had an opportunity to do that. And by the time I transitioned into a like a high performance club okay, now I was surrounded by people that were my age. It was a team. You know they were. They've been competing for a long time, so it was a. It was a challenge transitioning from one to the other because I had a black belt. Like on paper I should have been a lot better than I was. Like I had a black belt at the time, I had been doing it for a while but realistically, like compared to everyone else, that were actually like competing and training to compete, I was like pretty much a white belt, right. Like I had the hunger, I had the passion, I kind of had like the internal stuff, but I had no technique, I had nothing like that. And it was tough, right, it was tough to be surrounded by a group of people that were doing so great and they were competing.
Speaker 2:Like my first week at this gym was the week where everyone was leaving to go to nationals and I was like whoa, it was in Winnipeg and I get there and I'm like you know, it's all these kids are like my age. There's like four or five of them and it just blew my mind. I was like, wait, you guys are like going on a plane together and, like you know, representing like Ontario, like they had these Ontario jackets. I was like that is just so sick, right. So then they come back and obviously they're at this high level. And then there's me who just can barely throw a proper kick because I just wasn't trained, like, for competition. It was really tough to catch up to them, right.
Speaker 2:Like I wanted the same goals that they did. Like I wanted the same goals that they did. Like I wanted to be a national champion. Like seeing them leave, I knew like I want that for me like next year when nationals comes around again, like I want to be there, I want to be on that plane, I want to represent this province and this team, and it just felt like there was just such big of a gap I had to close right, because not only did I have to be the best competitor in my division in the country, but I had to like get to a level where I was just like competent enough to even know what I was doing Right.
Speaker 2:So it was a. It was a tough challenge, especially at a young age, being like I don't know, 12, 13 years old, to kind of like pull that together and realize like if I want this as bad as I think that I do I have to work harder than I've ever worked, because not only do I have to catch up to everybody, but I have to catch up and then surpass if I want to be, you know, at the place that I want to be. So it was a kind of a long journey ahead, at least to kind of think about, kind of looking forward at it. But you know it was worth it because it forced me to hold myself accountable, do the right things and develop a work ethic that you know, I think to today that I still have.
Speaker 1:So one thing you just said, or two things really stood out and I just want to pull us back into it.
Speaker 1:You said you had a black belt technically, but you weren't competition trained. I think it's important to kind of talk about that for a second, because the next thing you said was something that you want, and to know what it takes right. So sometimes in athletics, or maybe for the majority of people that may be doing something recreational, I think it's important to talk about how doing something recreationally and competing are totally different things. So, whether it's taekwondo, muay Thai or any rec sport, it's the training for it Right. It's the training for it right. Like what, when you realize that that's the step you need to take to get to that competition level? Like, what part of it changed? Like in your training, what other tools did you have to go find? Or how did your coaching evolve, given you already had a black belt to becoming competition level black belt?
Speaker 2:it was a, a whole lifestyle change, honestly and and you know it sounds funny saying that, as you know, being a kid at the time, but it really was I mean even from a, from a basis of like how many days a week are you training, right, Like when you're going somewhere recreationally, you know you train maybe once twice a week and like okay, that's good, maybe three times if you're like serious about it, right. And I remember we were looking at the kind of class schedule and you know I was with my, my, my parents, and we were looking at the schedule and asking him that the master, like you know what are the good classes to go to? Right, and he's like all of them, like what do you mean? And we're like okay, but like which ones are like the important ones? He's like no, like okay. So like, at that point I had to pretty much quit everything. Like I was playing like house league soccer at the time in the summers and that would be on like some school teams and like elementary school. All of that I had to quit right away because I didn't have time. Like we were training. Still, like it. It ramped up a few years later in terms of like the intensity and the volume of the training. But even at that point it was still very consistent in like multiple times a week. So there was a lifestyle change of realizing like, okay, I can't do everything else anymore, like I have to pick this one thing and ride that out. And I was totally cool doing that because I knew what I wanted and it wasn't that hard to make those sacrifices. But, yeah, total lifestyle change in terms of going from kind of a recreational place into full time competition, because it's also combat right, it's combat sport.
Speaker 2:You want to feel as prepared as you can when you go out there, because you can still get hurt. I mean, you know, taekwondo might not be the most violent of martial arts, but it's full contact. You can get knocked out, you can, you know, break your bones and stuff like that. So you want to be prepared and you want to be as prepared. If you're not, you know, training to the level that you feel confident in, there's no chance that you're going to feel good when you walk into the ring. So it was easy enough from that standpoint to say, listen, whatever it takes, I'll do it. Lay out the path for me, I'll follow it. I just had no idea what that path looked like at the time. I was like give me the path, I'll commit myself to it and we'll take it from there no-transcript simultaneously.
Speaker 1:Right that, that quote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's that's really cool.
Speaker 1:Did you? You already mentioned that you had been doing a bunch of these other sports. But I'm just curious when that competitive hunger started? You spoke a little bit about how it evolved. But were you always like that, like, like, even as like a toddler, like where did the competition part come in? That you wanted to be at that level?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've always been like extremely competitive, especially with sports. Yeah, like I said, I think I was probably around the same age, like five or six. So my parents kind of put me in soccer and, like you know, same thing. I didn't really have like the technical abilities but I was like really fast and I tried really hard and like that got me along a long way. Um, gym class, like I always just wanted to win, Like I knew I was capable of it.
Speaker 2:Like any sport that I could try, like I would do it and I would do it at my best. Like I never did anything kind of like half-assed, you know what I mean. Like other stuff, like school, you know what I mean. Like there's other domains, I was kind of more relaxed with it, but like when it came to sport I was like, you know, I was like the most intense, like I would treat everything like it was like the biggest thing of all time, like even little local tournaments, I would think it was like the Olympics, like I was going hard just because I was. There was no other way for me.
Speaker 2:It was like, if I'm going to do it, I just knew kind of intuitively from my whole life, like if I'm going to do something like this, like and I know that I'm capable of it like I'm going to do my best, because I hated the feeling of losing, obviously. And then the only thing worse than losing is feeling like you could have done more. Right, when you lose, but you like left it all out there. It still sucks, but it doesn't sting as much as when you lose and you still feel like you had something left in the tank and you were kind of hesitant or nervous or you didn't really kind of like leave everything there, and that was always the worst feeling. So I'm like I don't want that, like I'm okay to lose, but I'm not okay with not giving my all, and I think that set the tone for kind of everything that I did.
Speaker 1:I love that and I really, really relate. I similar well, not similar story. You totally competed different calibers than I did, but in the sense that my personality was always I wanted to just try. I pushed myself to the best and I guess I mean, most of my athletic career was rugby and so I always had this perspective of, like you leave it out on the field, you know, until the last second, until the ref blows that last whistle, I want to walk away. I don't care if we won, I don't care if we got our ass handed to us like a hundred to zero. If I can fully, can fully say hey, I left it all out on the field. Then I just like had my health, health, I had my head held high. It's hard to say really fast, um, and it's like that trying and that definition of success where you were saying, hey, when you push yourself but you're at peace, can't ask more of yourself at that moment, you just strive to go further the next time. Um, that's awesome yeah, I just picture.
Speaker 1:I just picture a little dylan like running around as a five-year-old like yeah like I lost a lot.
Speaker 2:You know, like I I definitely well, like as as naturally athletically talented as you know, I'd like to say that I was like I still lost a lot, I mean, especially being in team sports. I mean there was a there was a season of house league soccer where we literally lost like every single game that we played and it was actually like it's a much longer story, but we ended up actually winning like the entire league somehow, because, like the first game that we won was like the playoff game and we just didn't lose after that, but like still, like we went the whole season without winning. And it's just like, I think, because I knew, okay, like there has to be more to this, like there has to be something. Like I know that I'm capable, I know that, like the people around me are capable like what's not working and instead of kind of facing those challenges and those obstacles and being like, okay, well, maybe this just isn't for me, it was like it.
Speaker 2:I just always believed that it was like everything is is like I can make it work. I just always believed that it was like everything is like I can make it work. I just have to like figure it out instead of. I just never thought like this isn't for me and anything that I did. I never thought like maybe this just isn't it. I was like how can I make it play out the way that I've always thought, that I could do it that way?
Speaker 1:That's really powerful and also not Well, it's not a normal thought process which explains your success and why we're here talking about what we're talking about, because you obviously had to have that tenacity and that drive to take you to another level and that's why you're coaching people around the world to do it. I have a question. The one thing that we both have really talked about about is that you know that duality, that you know failure and success they go hand in hand. And I don't know. I really get frustrated with that whole participation trophy conversation because you just said you failed a lot. I've failed a lot, like how are you going to actually learn to persevere and have success if you, like, don't know how to fail? So can you speak on that and like what your opinion is on the participation trophy dialogue? I guess that's yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't like it either. I mean it's a matter of why, right, like, why are you doing it? It's kind of like a short-term, you know, satisfaction, like to give, like don't worry about it, everyone's equal. Like not really. Like not in sport, you know what I mean. Like you're not awarding people based off of like personality or like their worth as a human right, like, okay, in that case, of course, you want everybody to feel equal. But it's sport, it's competitive, right, if you and that's kind of how life is later on right, in anything, whether it's relationships or business or school like you know you have to try hard and like you know you can be rewarded for a good effort. And you know, if you fall short, it's okay.
Speaker 2:And I think if we're hesitant to just let people lose, it's like, well, what's that going to set them up for later on? It's going to set them up for, like, a fear of losing. I think it makes people more scared, right, because if you've never had to deal with losing at a young age, you're going to lose a lot when you get older. Right, like you're going to take all these l's in everything that you do. And if you've never had to like face that head on.
Speaker 2:I just don't think, you know, we're being like equipped with like the right tools to manage those things. So, yeah, like I agree, I think the participation trophies, I just I think their heart's in a good place with what they're trying to accomplish, but I think it's actually counterproductive because you're inhibiting someone from developing the skillset to actually manage those emotions. Like you have to be sad sometimes, you have to feel disappointed in yourself, you have to, like you know, be angry and like that's how you get used to those emotions, get comfortable with those emotions and understand what it's like to overcome those things, right. But if you're given a trophy that makes you feel like, oh, we're all the same and no one's a winner, no one's a loser, it's uh, you know, it's a short-term fix and I don't think it's that helpful.
Speaker 1:When you kind of zoom out, it kind of falls into the same category as toxic positivity. It's like we're afraid of things that are negative. So it's like, oh, it's okay. It's like, well, yeah, there are contexts that absolutely it's okay not to be okay or something is okay. But if you're, like you said, the tools, like if you're just trying to keep everything mellow, it's more like it's like this people pleasing, being afraid of falling, being afraid of conflict, right, and then you don't know how to navigate it, because that's inevitable in life and that's beautiful.
Speaker 1:I wanted to touch on that because my perception of sport is that it really translates to everything else in life, right, like so we were talking about soccer or whatever. Sport. It's that universal language, hence things like the Olympics where, like, we all come together like internationally understanding sport. So it's like, if we can't articulate it, maybe in the same language, but we do understand, like tenacity and competition. And yeah, I wanted to know your opinion on that. I already knew where it was going. It was just like kind of like waiting for you to just validate that. That like no duh, like success and failure.
Speaker 2:I think there's this universal language of effort, too. Right, like we can acknowledge and respect someone for the effort that they put in, regardless of where they're from, who they are, even if we know fully what they do. Right, like if you, if you, you can recognize like someone putting a lot of effort and finding success in something and even if I'm not a specialist in, like, that domain, like I can appreciate it because there's this kind of mutual language of effort. Right, like we did a training camp where we were in Korea, you know 2013, or something like that, and there was a huge language barrier between the Canadian team, the Korean team, the coaches, the students, whatever. But there was this bond because everyone was just busting their ass, like you could hear them like yelling as they were hitting the pads and sparring and moving, and like we couldn't really communicate that well, but there was this vibe of just everybody pushing and like the respect was there.
Speaker 2:You didn't have to have a sit down one-on-one and like learn about this person in order to like respect them. Like it was just under this roof. We all trained hard. There was this understanding that we were all giving it everything that we got and, because of that, that effort. You know there was this understanding and this mutual respect, and I think too there's a language of sport, but even more broadly there's this language of effort and I think you know that's sometimes the best way to kind of communicate and, and you know, show off who you are right. Sometimes people struggle to like talk about themselves and explain like what they're good at. Just do your thing and do it well, and people will start to figure it out. You don't have to do as much of an explanation as you think Like, just stay the course, be great at whatever you do, and people will start to kind of notice and gravitate towards you because of that.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Thank you for adding that piece, piece, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It's like, um, that the action and the follow-through, and like lead leadership, that what you're saying is like leadership and the legacy you're leaving behind, but by actually living your values and putting in the effort, and I think that's where we also, um, as you were talking, the words like sportsmanship and camaraderie and community all came to mind. Um, that that's wonderful. You were part of a, you know, an international or like the taekwondo community in a different country, but you all came in from different backgrounds with respect for the sport and like, no matter what happens a win or lose, like you're, like bro, respect and that's the part that's really awesome and beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, you had a really wonderful, I guess, full circle moment, and you had shared with me before that you had started. So one of your first competition experiences was in 2012, when you got gold at your first national taekwondo championship in Vancouver, and just literally last week, I guess, you were also in Vancouver. It's 2022.
Speaker 1:A decade later, you had a full circle moment, but instead of being there as an athlete getting gold, you were now there in your professional coaching caliber, helping support an athlete reach their high peak potential. So was this like? Because we're going to get into the specifics of my luck a little bit more. Was this like experience, something you had envisioned, like as young Dylan Did you? Is this something that was like yo, these are the plans I have and you achieved it? Or like how did it come to be, how did this vision evolve and how did it feel to go full circle?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, it was it was really cool, like I. You know, kind of like, like you said, I mean, my first nationals was was in Vancouver, 2012. And then you know, 10 years later, you know, last week being back there Since then I don't think I've been back, you know, since I think we had a nationals in 2012 and 2013. And then you know, I hadn't been back since then. So it was cool to be back and you know, you kind of walk through the airport and you get those memories back and you kind of recognize certain things and, like you said, to be there in a different capacity but still like a very similar vibe, right, like it's sport, it's combat sport, it's teamwork, right. So it was, it was cool to have that experience and to be able to, you know, go as a coach instead of an athlete and to support, you know, the athletes that we had down there competing. And I, you know it brought back some of the emotions too. Like you know, my heart was beating as we kind of walked out to the, to the rain, because I got to corner him as well. So, you know, walk out there and to hear the crowd, and he was you from, from Ontario.
Speaker 2:We were out in BC, against the home crowd, guys, everyone's booing, and it was just like you know, to be in that moment was, uh, was really nice and it just kind of reminded me that, like, this is exactly like where I want to be right, this is the community I want to be involved in. You know, athletes, combat sport, athletes just you know the sports world in general, regardless of what the individual sport is, just in a, in a place where people are competing at a high level, laying it out on the line, like it. It was just a cool moment. That was familiar because I had been there myself, but in a new capacity this time, and it was just like a. It was a really, really good moment and you know, with being like the 10 year mark since I was there last, it just felt very full circle and then it was a nice kind of clean. I was there last, it just felt very full circle and then it was a nice kind of clean. It was a clean circle that brought it all together.
Speaker 1:I love that. I'm just like getting chills listening. It's just one of those like some of the things you've been sharing are like scripts for like Hollywood movies. I'm like I love it Like clapping in the background. So that was a 10 year experience. Do you have like a 10 year vision for the upcoming 10 years? Just out of curiosity?
Speaker 2:Not really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, expand on that.
Speaker 2:Not really, I mean, I think I think sometimes people get into the into the habit of trying to be too specific with like long term goals, and I think it can be inhibiting sometimes. Right, trying to be too specific with like long-term goals and I think it can be inhibiting sometimes, right, because it you put this marker and then you're, it gives you stress, right, like different idea. But there's people that are like, oh, I want to be a millionaire by 30, right, you hear that it's like okay, but what happens when they're 28? And like they're not there yet? Right, I mean, it's going to be stressful, it's going to be inhibiting, it's going to be kind of shameful, right, so it's like, but what if they could do it at 33 instead? Right, is that really? As? Is that a bad thing? Like no, it's still a huge accomplishment.
Speaker 2:So I think, when it comes to like long term goals, I think the specificity is maybe a little bit less important, because we also don't know Like things change all the time.
Speaker 2:Like everyone's 10 year plan went out the window as soon as COVID hit, right, so I try to kind of stay flexible with things and my goals kind of remain the same, which is to just do my best every day, you know, build this into you know one of the biggest things that's out there and continue to kind of change the narrative around.
Speaker 2:You know kind of what mental performance is and mental health and sport, and just kind of keep pushing that. And like we talked about at the beginning, when you know I my definition of success was just kind of fulfilling your potential and doing everything that you can to strive for that. That's where I see myself in 10 years and 20 years and 50 years of just continuing to do everything in my power to get as close as I can to kind of maximizing my potential and I think as long as I'm doing that, I'll be happy with it. You know what that looks like and what that brings who knows. But at the same time I'm confident it'll be something really cool, just based off of the trajectory that we've kind of already seen so far in such a short amount of time.
Speaker 1:That was awesome. I'm going to take a pause for a second and just absorb what you said, because what I want to shift to is talking about my lock and some of the structure in it and immediately, as you're talking, you were embodying what you, I guess, defined as attitude goals, like right. So one thing that I like with with my clients I always push them a little bit is like you know you'll make a goal, but then we'll be like well, for what? Like what was the purpose of this? You mentioned being a millionaire. I want to lose 10 pounds. I'm going to compete here.
Speaker 1:Well, what does that mean? And then it's like, if you haven't set up those steps, like you were talking about for your experience as a competitive athlete, it's to set up that structure, it's to build those habits, and the outcome is sort of irrelevant. It's like where the day-to-day takes you, and it may shift a little bit, but if you're showing up every day and putting that work in and that structure, you're going to get there in some capacity. So that's what I was hoping you would say, because you've already done that. And so like, let's back up and look at your professional career. So I think you started my lock 2019.
Speaker 2:It's only been three years, 2018, 2018.
Speaker 1:So in the middle, like right before the pandemic and it was also when you were finishing school right, you, just you were kind of navigating. And then within, in your young age, you're starting this and already, within three, four years, with a pandemic in the middle of it, you had made MindLock an authority mental training for athletes across the globe with over 60 cities and 10 countries. And what organization were you just with in Vancouver?
Speaker 2:BFL the Fight, yeah, Battlefield Fight League.
Speaker 1:Okay. So we have the BFL. You also have some athletes in UFC and Bellator, cfl, ncaa and the Olympics, and that's like that wasn't the plan. Like 2012, you right, you just kept showing up, having that tenacity, chasing what success means to you, and you just kind of look back and you're like Holy crap, it's only been like three, four years and I've already accomplished this. And that's amazing because you didn't put a limit on the ceiling, like maybe it's not a million dollars, maybe it's a billion, like how do you know? Like you're kind of keep striving for it, and that made me so excited. I was like I lost my own train of thought because I got like like caught up in the excitement. So I want you to tell our listeners cause I'm I'm aware of like what MindLock is right now. So what is MindLock, how does it different and what do you attribute the growth of it? To? The fact that it's kind of exploded in the past three or four years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so at MindLock we work with high performance athletes to develop the mental game right now. Now what's it mean and why does it even matter? You know, you ask someone, you know how much of sport is mental versus physical, right? You know people have different answers. Some people say 50, 50,. Some people go all the way up to like 90% mental right. Regardless of where you stand, that's the second part of the question, that is the most significant, which is what are we doing about that? Right? If you say it's 50, 50, which is pretty conservative, right, it's pretty kind of lower end of the spectrum. If you say, you know performance is 50% mental, what percentage of your training goes into developing those mental skills and strategies? Not 50%, probably, not even 10%, right?
Speaker 2:So you know, what I noticed through the course of you know, my competitive career as well is that there's a huge discrepancy between the impact that the mental game has on our performance compared to the emphasis that we put on developing those mental skills. Right, and the result of that discrepancy is, a lot of the time, a tendency to underperform. Right, so you know we under performance doesn't always even mean losing, it just means like what we talked about at the beginning, which is just feeling like you could have done more. It wasn't your best, right, and most of the time that you underperform, you can trace that back to something from that discrepancy, right? So that's really what we do, is we bridge the gap between the mental side and the physical side so that every time you go out there and compete in whatever sport that it is, you can be confident that you're consistently performing towards the best of your potential, because not only are you prepared physically, but mentally as well. Right, we go through different activities and assessments and exercises and worksheets, and it's very personalized in terms of how the structure is actually built out. You know, we run sessions online through video call, like Skype and FaceTime and stuff like that, and the whole goal is, you know, kind of like what I was saying before is how do we, you know, get you to a place where not only are you physically prepared and you know physically ready, but you know the mental skills and strategies are there as well.
Speaker 2:And it doesn't mean that, you know, people think mental training and people think, well, what if I'm already confident? What if I'm already focused? What if I don't struggle with a lot of things? That's also great too. I mean, listen, there's people that benefit from this type of training who have faced a lot of adversity. They have a lot of challenges, you know they they might feel a little bit lost and they can get a lot out of something like this. But also there's people that come in that are extremely confident, extremely motivated, no kind of you know what you would consider like issues per se.
Speaker 2:But it's even more of a reason to kind of do something like this because it's like, well, if you have this natural ability, what are you doing to maximize it? What are you doing to train it Right, like? One of my favorite analogies is, like you know, floyd Mayweather still as a boxing coach right, you don't look at something and go, I'm already naturally talented, I can just stop training it Right. So if you already have, like this, this kind of rich mental skill set and you feel confident and you feel tough, you have a great foundation, what are you doing to kind of build off of that foundation? So you know, no matter where you come into this, whether you struggle with a lot of things or nothing, there's so much to get out of this and kind of having someone in your corner to specifically kind of work on on those tools. So yeah, that's kind of a rundown on you know kind of what we do, how it works and why. And then you know your question too of why did it kind of pick up the way that it did?
Speaker 2:You know, I think, a couple of reasons. I think, like, the mission that I have is different, I think, than some other people like my. My mission is to popularize mental training. It's to make it cool, it's to make it something that we want to do and we want to show off and we want to post about, because I think it's a really cool thing. Obviously, I think it's something that separates the best from everybody else. I think it's something that showcases your discipline and your heart and your kind of commitment. I think it's something that is like a really and your heart and your kind of commitment. I think it's something that is like a really kind of interesting thing to do.
Speaker 2:And you know this is an industry that it's not the, it's not the oldest, but it's definitely not the newest that you know. It's been around for a long time but typically it's been kept in the shadows, right, like people that you know. Work with someone like this typically kind of keep it low, low key and they don't want to talk about it and there's all these rules and these barriers and it's so traditional, right. So you know, for me, my mission as kind of the next generation doing this to make it cool, to make it popular, I think that's impacted kind of the culture too, and making it more relaxed, making it less traditional, making it more modern, the way we do things online and in person, the way that people can, you know, communicate however they want, whether it's through email, even if it's just sending like updates through text or like a quick voice note, right, like you know, I'll have people send me a text at like midnight and say, hey, you know, training was, you know, not so good today. Here's what happened. Or, you know, training was awesome and I'll respond because I think it's important to have that communication, but these are things that people just don't do, right.
Speaker 2:So I think the mission of what I've been trying to do has kind of impacted like the culture of everything, and that's why there's been such a good relationship between me and all the athletes that I like one of them as opposed to some like guru telling people what to do, or some doctor like I. Just I just don't think that that's like the best dynamic out there. So I try to be like hey, you know, I'm just like one of you guys, let's work together you know just another coach in your corner and let's build out something special. And I think that's really impacted the way that people have responded to it, the reason why people stay so long. The results of people have gotten out of it. I think just the way that it was designed was designed for the modern day athlete instead of kind of traditional things and then secondary. I mean, you know, I think just the person that I am to kind of helped inform you know the pace of this as well.
Speaker 2:Like being a competitor, being a high performance athlete. I mean the skills of this as well. Like being a competitor, being a high performance athlete, I mean the skills that made me special as a competitor are the skills that make me special. I think you know, for everything else and I think that's also a lesson I try to, you know, remind people who are maybe transitioning out of sport, right, there's such a identity factor when it comes to being an athlete. It's like, oh man, people are so scared to quit.
Speaker 2:People are so scared to move on and this you know this isn't me saying quit when it gets tough, it's just, you know, at a certain point it's time to move on. But there's this hesitation of like and this fear like, who am I? If I'm not Dylan the athlete, who am I Right? So I think it's important to remind people. It's like you weren't, you're not special because of your success as an athlete. You were successful as an athlete because you were special first, and if you just take those building blocks and you take those foundations, you can put them into anything else. They're so transferable, right, whether it was time management, discipline, organization, confidence, the ability to kind of be a self-starter all of those tools you can transfer into whatever kind of domain that you want to.
Speaker 2:And I think that's what I did taking that out of, you know, kind of my fighting career, my athletic career, putting it into this, and I think just the type of person that I am and really leaning into my athletic background has helped push this forward with the pace and kind of the strength that it has, is because I'm using all those tools that made me successful right, like the perseverance and the discipline and just like the willingness to keep going even though it's uncomfortable at times, and you take those L's at times, like I'm the same me that I was when I was fighting. I'm just doing it in business and it's working just as well. And I think it's a good lesson for everybody else that, like you're not just the sport that you do or the job that you have, you know you're, you're a combination of all of these little things inside of you and you can, you know, rewire that whenever you want and just you know execute that in whatever else that you choose, moving forward, I just want to clap for everything you just said.
Speaker 1:That was amazing. That was really, really awesome. Yeah, I want to just commend you on that. The tenacity, the perseverance, the leadership, the characteristics that you have. Absolutely this wouldn't be what it is without you, like you drove it right. It's your passion project.
Speaker 1:And the one thing that I'm super excited about is we know that there's already, like, not the mental performance for a second backing up and looking at mental health as a large, still a lot of barriers, there's still a lot of stigma, and the one thing you've done is normalize it. You know you let's hey, cool, let's talk about the mind and then, yeah, you're focusing on the mental performance, but, like, you're still encouraging that self-awareness, that reflection, that normalizing conversation and making it, like you said, it's another avenue that one will train, like, if you're training your fitness, your um, your strength, your conditioning, you're talking about your nutrition, like why not? About your mental health and your mindset and, especially, since it is really the, the piece between competition at a higher level and everything else you're doing is translates, it's the mind, it's the one thing that's transferable and so, honestly, kudos, amazing that you've done that in the first place and you've normalized it, and the fact that now it's like, hey, the next, the next layer is mental performance. Yeah, that just makes me really happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like any other thing, like there's no need for it to be a stigma. Right, like we, we go to the gym to work out our body. You eat, right? So, like you know your organs are healthy. It's like, well, you know, you want to obviously do the same thing for your mind and it doesn't mean that you're like weak, like I think some.
Speaker 2:There's some people that think, well, you know, I'm not, you know only only people that are like mentally weak, like need to work on that stuff, like, why, like you still go to the gym you could be jacked? You go to the gym. You see people that are know kind of like push themselves further. Right, like we're always seeing how far can you go. So if we, if we just didn't engage in things because we were already good at it, we wouldn't really develop past those points, Right? So I think it's it's about changing the narrative from you know I'm bad and I want to be good to. You could be incredibly strong and, you know, naturally talented, especially on the mental side. What are you doing to further that development? What are you doing to stretch that out? There's no reason to look at something like this and say it's not for me. No matter where you're coming at it from, there's so much to gain and it's just one more tool to add to your arsenal that can make a huge impact in whatever it is that you do.
Speaker 1:Agreed. It's a skill, and so one thing that, like, we'll notice physically for example, during the pandemic, you know that strong person may have not had access to the same amount of weights, and so they got deconditioned, and so it doesn't mean that you suddenly became weak, you just had to be able to get access again to some weights, like start somewhere else, put in the time, and then you gain the strength back, if anything, and then more. So that's the same thing in this space. My, I guess, introduction to sports psych, or let's say, mental training, was I was, I think, first year, second year, no, first year university, and I was playing varsity rugby, and I learned of what sports psych was, and I remember having this conversation with the sports psych, because I had like performance anxiety, and I'm constantly underestimating myself and then it just makes me freeze, I like freak out. And then I remember having that conversation. I was very, very interested, and a lot of it, though, was still from that I'm not enough. So I think over the past 10 years, even though I'm like a professional coach and I've been exploring a lot of this, there was always, it's still, like it's oh my God. There's just so many more things to learn.
Speaker 1:And one thing I've appreciated about MindLock. I don't know if I communicated that properly, because what I wanted to say is that I really noticed that MindLock makes things very things that should be quote complicated or big, but they're just very tangible. And so it's like your videos are literally like two minutes. You're not taking four hours explaining a particular theme, but you immediately sort of tell you what it is and then you're going into the okay, so what are you doing about it?
Speaker 1:Which is the part that I really, really appreciate, because I've noticed, in coaching in general, we have so much time where we talk about theory and reasons behind things, but ultimately, like the action piece, it's like well, what are you doing, how are you implementing this, what are those habits? And so I really wanted to just highlight that portion, because I noticed that as I was going through it and like well done, because the application piece and it's also making me kind of think about how do I improve it, not just in sport, as for myself as an athlete, but hey, as a coach like am I complicating this when I'm explaining something when it could have just been said in like an elevator pitch that takes one minute? When you were making that? Did you do that intentionally, where you were trying to make it so that was short, or did you have a different version that was like kind of complicated and you evolved into this version of what it is?
Speaker 2:I think I think that's just my style. Honestly, I think you know things sometimes come across way more daunting than they should, right? Like, like you said, when you're talking about the theory and the examples, like you as the professional, you feel like okay, I'm giving this person all the reasons why they should understand, but it's like they probably intuitively understand a lot more. People value like the why, right. Like why am I doing this? It's like one of the oldest questions, like when you're a little kid and your parents say to do something. Like okay, but why? Right? Like I think when you get the why first, it makes people a lot more receptive to the how and the what and all the behind the scenes stuff. It just has to be digestible, right? Like you don't want something to take a long time for someone to understand, especially when it doesn't have to be over complicated, especially now, like in this day and age. Like people value speed, people value efficiency, right, and something like this. I designed it where you know, and you know we're talking about kind of online course that we have. It's designed where you can stretch it out or compress it to match what you needed at the time, right? So if you have a few hours, you know, at the end of your night, you can really stretch it out. You can go through the videos, you can do the activities, you can kind of review it. But if you only have you know, five minutes before you know, five minutes before you know you're in the car and you're about to go into the gym and you're feeling a little, you know, anxious or nervous or whatever, you can really compress that into like a quick five minute kind of activity or refresher and have a very similar impact. And that's the approach I try to take with. Everything is like how can you stretch and compress it to match the situation? Right? You can stretch it to be appropriate for like a long, extended period of time, or you can compress it so that it's bite-sized enough where it can still make the impact that you need right away, right?
Speaker 2:I think mental health stuff is typically more on the long-term side, right? People think, okay, if I'm going to get started with anything to do with mindset or mental health, like I'm investing in a six month or a one year process, like, yeah, like you can, and obviously, as you do it and you know time goes on, you'll get better and better, but there's no reason why you need to wait two, three, four months to feel something. Right. Like you know, for me I pride myself on kind of my ability to take these bigger, broader, larger concepts and rework them and reframe them into, you know, like actionable tools that are tangible and that you can use to make an impact right away. Right, so it's like within the first little bit you're getting something out of it, because that's how it's designed, right.
Speaker 2:Obviously, in the longterm, you know, those benefits will start to kind of multiply. But you know, we obviously want to see a response to what we're doing, we want to feel something from it, and I think delaying that kind of gratification for people is just not the right way to do it. And I guess, yeah, it could be a challenge to try to figure out how to do it that way and to incorporate all the right information. But people know more now, naturally, than they ever have just with access to you know, all of these resources. So I think if you give the why first and kind of make it more tangible, you kind of answer like that first question that people are looking for, then you can feed them the reasons behind and I think that's probably the better equation than trying to give them all the reasons why you know what you're doing and then you know save it for the end, like you're just kind of stretching it out for no reason, I think.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I agree with you, and that's why the program speaks for itself and that also speaks to the success of whether it's amateur athletes or, like you know, super high level at all of the various organizations. It's something that speaks to everybody because it meets them where they're at. And this also, like you know, humbling moment for me and I think most coaches listening is that sometimes, when you are navigating some of these things, you're trying to figure out how to articulate it, how to communicate it, how to package it in a way to help people, because that's why we're here in the first place. But it's like you get caught up in the okay, I have to show, like the why, I have to explain it, I need to make sure that I'm seen as an authority figure or blah, blah, blah. And so I mean the title of this podcast is Slice of Humble Pie, because that's where I was coming from.
Speaker 1:I was always like I'm scared of making things or putting stuff out there because I didn't feel that it could be perceived that way and I have to explain everything under the sun and the moon before I could, like, give the action piece. But that's where I really resonate with this as an athlete and as a coach, and I like how. It's a lot more tangible, it's very clear and it can be applicable immediately. And I think that's the big piece that no matter what we're talking about or who at what athletic level, it still comes down to those tiny little things that you repeat, that you apply over and over again. There isn't some magic formula that will make you a better competitor. There isn't some magic formula that makes you this elite athlete. It's that repetition of those little simple things over a long course of time, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that fair? To summarize, yeah for sure, it's just.
Speaker 2:I think, in short, it's being deliberate with everything that you do, Right? I mean, we have a tendency to just, whether you realize it or not, be on autopilot a lot of the time, whether it's working or it's training or it's just day-to-day life tasks. We go on autopilot, naturally, because it's just, you know, conservation of energy and we probably can get away with it, right? So I think, flipping the switch and reminding yourself to be intentional and to be deliberate and to ask yourself, like before I do this, like why am I doing it? Right? Like you know, let's say it's seven o'clock and that's when training starts, you know, are you just going because that's what you do and it's on your schedule? Are you going because you're trying to develop and you're trying to learn something from it? You're trying to leave the class better than you were when you started it, right? Or whether it's, you know, you're working on, you're working with clients, or it's business stuff, right?
Speaker 2:It's easy to get into that habit of just kind of clocking in and clocking out and being kind of on that autopilot mode. If you can get into a place of flipping that switch and being very deliberate, very intentional of what you do. I think it translates into the work that you get done because you're reminding yourself of your own why, Like, why am I actually doing this? Not just because I said I would not, just because it's on my calendar, Like, what am I looking to get out of it? And I think if you just ask yourself that simple question before you do a task, like you know, why am I actually doing this and what am I trying to get out of it, I think you know over time you'll find that the efficiency and the kind of effectiveness of it are just exponentially way bigger.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I love that. That's a really good advice. That's a really good advice. You've already talked about this, but I just want to kind of circle back. Circle back we talked about how my lock, or, you know, mental performance training isn't just for the highest caliber. Yes, you work with the lead athletes as a coach, but anybody you know right now that's listening to this like you can absolutely strengthen these skills. So if someone were to just maybe check out my lock online, maybe they're feeling intimidated.
Speaker 1:What I want to kind of where this, where this is going, the intention behind this little question is you had mentioned before in writing and also in this piece, that when I first started competing, I wasn't the strongest, fastest or most technically skilled competitor, but I relied on my mental skills and training to help take me to the top. While winning was always the goal, achieving my full potential was the most important marker of success. So my question is what advice do you have for athletes that may be listening right now, that are perhaps still relating to the I'm not good enough or who the fuck am I? Narrative and aren't like necessarily for lack of a better term sold on realizing that this is something for them, that this is something, whether or not they're an elite athlete that they could benefit from. What would you tell that athlete?
Speaker 2:I think that's a very common you know kind of place to be in of like not being good enough or you know that comparison right. You know there's always going to be someone you compare yourself to. I think what's important to remember is that you're always good enough to start right.
Speaker 2:You might not be where you want to be. You might have a lot of room to grow. You might feel very far from kind of those angles, but I think the best reminder is that you're always good enough to start Right, like use what you have, do what you can. You know one is better than nothing, right. You know one class is better than not doing one at all, one session is better than not. You know one minute of you know being mindful and you know kind of checking in with yourself is better than not, right.
Speaker 2:So like, you're always good enough to start and I think sometimes we need to kind of keep it really, really small when we have a tendency to think big. And it's not me saying don't think big. Of course you want to have your dreams and your goals and you need something to push for. But in the short term, I think it's like those shorter kind of specific goals that kind of help drive us day to day. Right, because there's going to be times where you wake up and, yeah, you feel on top of the moon, you feel amazing and you're like, yeah, it's those long term goals and you're thinking about that. But realistically, more times than not, you're going to wake up and you're going to be tired, or you know if you're an athlete you'll be sore, or you know you'll have these bumps and bruises, or maybe your motivation is low and those long-term goals just feel so far away. Like man, I don't know if I can do this Like you know what am I going to do and it's just like what can you do today? Right, you know what can I do today. That's going to make a 1% or 5% or 10% impact on where I want to go and just focus on that.
Speaker 2:Right, and you're always good enough to start, whether that's a short workout, whether that's, you know, doing a little bit of, you know, mindfulness work, whether it's reaching out to someone that you think can help, like there's something that you can do, and I think sometimes that helps, instead of thinking about comparing yourself to that end goal of where you want to be, you know, compare yourself to yesterday and say, as long as I can be better than that, like I'm trending in a good spot, and sometimes you won't. Like you always hear people say be better than you were yesterday. You can't always either, Like some days you're going to be way worse than you were yesterday. Like it's not. It's not a straight line. Like you know, the the path to success isn't just like that. It like goes up and down, but when you zoom out it trends up. It's like when you're trying to lose weight, like you don't just start at 200 pounds and go to 150 and just have a steady decline, like you'll go from 200 to 197. And then you might be at back up to like 198.2. And then you'll go back down, like it's not completely linear, kind of like to a perfect mark. But when you zoom out long enough it trends the way that you want it to, as long as you're doing enough, kind of every single day.
Speaker 2:And you know one of my other favorite quotes I know you kind of circled back to the beginning, but one of the other ones that I used a lot when I was competing was it's not the will to win that matters, because everybody has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters, right? Everybody has the same goals. I want to succeed, you want to succeed. If I'm in the ring with someone else, we both want to win. So what Right, at that point it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who wants it more. That's the big no-transcript you could have gotten away with not going right. It's the will to prepare. That's what gets you closer to where you want to be. So, instead of really kind of glamorizing like what the end goal is, try to appreciate the process, as cliche as that sounds, and by honoring that you'll get a lot closer to where you want to be without even having to stress about it.
Speaker 1:I'm just smiling. That was really strong and really powerful. And the word that popped into mind as you were describing that for me was that integrity and that follow through to yourself. I always tell my clients show up for yourself. It doesn't it doesn't even have to be glamorous, You're just showing up on repeat and then you'll get there eventually. And that integrity piece is like hey, I'm not, maybe coach isn't there all the time or someone isn't chasing you to make you like action, the things you're supposed to do or what you're supposed to eat or whatever. But I think that is a very beautiful full circle.
Speaker 1:Back to the very first thing you were talking about how, like failure and success and your definition of success, it's like my definition holds integrity. I can't if I have to compromise my integrity in a context that I have not achieved success in my eyes. So if it's like, you can look back and be like, hey, I did stuff without someone having to tell me what to do all the time, or look at me and I showed up for me, Cool. And then in that context, I think the line you said, you're good enough to start, you keep showing up and whether it's for mental performance training, maybe it's to just start with fitness. Wherever you're at, If you're an elite athlete, you're someone that's listening, that you're coming from an injury or whatever. You're good enough to start. Keep at it. Put in just as much work for your mind and your body, your physical and your mental performance and yeah, who knows what the future holds right.
Speaker 1:Because we're not planning all that specifically.
Speaker 2:Exactly future holds right, because we're not planning all that specifically Exactly, and you don't you don't need to be a, you know, an Olympian or a UFC fighter, an NBA player that took, you know, capitalize off of. You know, mental training like this. I mean we work with, yeah, professional athletes, amateurs, and we also even work with non-athletes too, sometimes, like we'll work with people that are just, you know, goal oriented or trying to achieve certain things even outside of sport, like non athletes entirely. And because it's so transferable, I mean, mental skills are mental skills right, like you know, you can deploy them in sport, you can deploy them in business or in life. So, you know, trying to understand that you can translate this to anything that you do.
Speaker 2:This isn't just for the elite of the elite, it's for, you know, everything in between and even non athletes as well. So there's there's so much to be able to kind of gain from something like this. There's a lot of insights that are that are, you know, there and available, and it's just a matter of kind of, you know, capitalizing on that while you can, and, you know, giving yourself the best opportunity to succeed, because, at the end of the day, as long as you're giving yourself the best chances to do something you know you'll be satisfied with, with how it plays amazing.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, dylan. And before we wrap up our call I mean this entire call has been full of excitement I was about to ask you what are you most excited about, like when you want to share with our listeners and also thank you for this like hour of just pure excitement, like I just there's more things that I just wanted to say, but I'm just listening to you talk, just like nodding ferociously for those of you listening and not seeing me on video. So what are you most excited about and what do you want to share with our listeners?
Speaker 2:I don't know, man, I feel like, um, it's uh, yeah, it's been, it's been exciting. I try to just kind of go with the flow a lot. Um, I'm excited. I've been excited about, you know that, that the launch of that you know online course as well. So, you know, for the people listening, obviously we do the one-on-one consulting, but we have an online course you can go and it's completely, you know, video lessons, activities, worksheets, case studies from pros, like it's all online, totally, you know, do it on your time.
Speaker 2:And it's been cool to see kind of the reach of that and to be able to get into places, countries like Australia and Thailand and Indonesia, right, like places where it would be difficult to kind of run kind of one-on-one sessions because of the time differences and stuff like that. I mean, I still do a lot of that, which is, you know, a challenge sometimes, but it's like a fun challenge. But at the same time, it's cool to expand into different places and to like scale something like this, right, like, I don't think there's anything like this of this scale or with this potential, so to be able to offer something like that to anyone that needs it, regardless of where they are, I think it's, you know, something that I would have loved to kind of jump on when I was an athlete, and if there was something like that for me, you know I would have done it ASAP, right? Because, like I said, there's just a lack of resources around this type of thing. I think that we're in a place now as a society or as a group, where we're starting to understand the benefits of something like this, but we just don't know where to start or where to get it Right.
Speaker 2:I think if this was like 10, 15 years ago, the obstacle is convincing people like what it is and why it's helpful. I think now we understand what it is and why it's helpful to more of an extent and the challenge becomes but what do I do about it? Where do I, you know? That's great and all, but you know who do? I find because people's coaches don't really know who to refer them to and it's just, it's another barrier to getting there, and that's why a lot of people resort to just watching videos on YouTube or listening to podcasts and stuff like that, which is great, but it's entry level right. So to be able to offer something like this at scale to anybody who wants it, athlete, non-athlete, amateur pro, every corner of the world. That's something that excites me, and being able to build that out over time and see how big it gets.
Speaker 1:Amazing and I'm also excited about it too, because one thing I mentioned in this introduction of this episode was that you had reached out to me.
Speaker 1:I didn't, I didn't know what my luck was, and I know that you were on the whole concept of making this accessible and scaling it is.
Speaker 1:I know that you were looking for, like some people that may be aligned with where you're at and that kind of have that perspective and to be like cool, here's a tool I'm like add it to your toolbox and that really speaks to like you know, your intention to this is that you want to make it accessible and it's like it doesn't have to be me necessarily.
Speaker 1:I built this wonderful platform and then like, let's take it and run with it and then, if you can work with whoever you're working with and to have more people have more mental work with whoever you're working with and to have more people have more mental focus, like that's amazing. And so, yeah, I guess what is your? Not the word vision, but like when you, what were you thinking when you were like reaching out with me, for example, and like, what are you hoping would happen now from like maybe our collaboration? Because I think that would be super cool because I have some ideas, but I just want to know, like, where you're thinking the licensing is going to. It's going to go as well besides you being able to coach everywhere on your own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean exactly what you were saying. I think it's just providing more people access to something like this who maybe wouldn't have heard about it or known about it otherwise. Right, I think you know there's demographics of ours that overlap, you know for sure, and there's definitely parts that don't, but I think there's a lot of people that are into fitness and personal development that could, you know, really enjoy and thrive off of something like this, and it's about just getting it into their hands and showing them that you know, if they want it, wanted it there, right, this isn't to shove it down people's throats and say this is the only way to do it, you know. You know this is like the only way that you're ever going to succeed. It's just like, hey, this is a resource that's there if you need it. You know it's been designed in a way that's, you know, meant to really kind of maximize both short term and long term benefits, regardless, regardless of who you are, and I think we're kind of, as a society now looking for more of those things.
Speaker 2:Like I said, it's we're understanding now the benefits of mental training and mental health and toughness and training and all those different types of things. The barrier now is what do I do about it? So, to be able to kind of collaborate with people like you who share similar audiences, and saying, hey, you know, if you wanted it here, take it and run with it, like for me, you know, that's. That's what I want to be doing is just, you know, sharing this to whoever needs it. And I don't want anybody to be in a position where they're looking for something and just can't find it and that's why they give up or that's why they fail to reach, you know, the goals that they've set for themselves, not because they weren't capable or not because they were not willing, but because they just didn't know, kind of where to look. And this is kind of the problem I'm trying to solve with this whole thing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and you really are. You really are, and I can speak from personal experience and just seeing it in clients, and I'm I'm very excited for what you're going to achieve. I know you're going to keep, uh, keep kicking ass and taking over the world that you already have been, and uh, yeah, you're taking everyone with you, me included, so we'll all have drinks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Thank you so much, dylan, and really, really appreciate your time and um we, you guys can definitely. I have all of the details on how to contact Dylan in the show notes and obviously, if you want to talk MindLock, you can reach out to me as well, and thank you again for your time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks, that was really fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm so glad, thank you.
