You Will Never Outperform Your Purpose- Tim Cortazzo

Tim Cortazzo and I pull back the curtain on how supplements are made, why labels can be misleading, and what it takes to build a product we would confidently give to our own families. We also zoom out into the bigger theme of decision-making, where chasing “optimal” can quietly steal joy from training, parenting, and real life. 

• supplement brands sharing manufacturers and why that changes trust 
• proprietary flavor houses and why “natural flavors” stay vague 
• third-party testing as a practical standard for transparency 
• choosing evidence-based ingredients like creatine over hype 
• using blood tests to guide dosing and track real change 
• supplements as gap-fillers rather than replacements for whole foods 
• why optimization culture can backfire and create anxiety 
• purpose and tradeoffs in work, family, and training 
• parenting mistakes, repair, and giving yourself grace 
• how kids copy actions more than advice 
• social media followers as a false signal of authority 
• youth sports development, practice reps, and parent pressure 
• protecting kids from identity traps tied to sports or looks 

Check us out, athleticfortitude.com. Download the pod, subscribe to our YouTube channel, get the lemma nutrition. Five stars only, baby. 

Transcript

Supplement Industry Trust Gaps

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The biggest dilemma in the supplement industry is everyone is just number one, they're just trusting that this company has everyone's best interest. You don't really know where your supplements are coming from.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

So when I went on the deep dive to like figure out how to do it, yeah, how to create a supplement, I realized that like there's really not that many manufacturers in the country. So all these different supplement companies, a lot of them are just using similar manufacturers. So I'm like, man, that's crazy to see. And I was like, if if an influencer or whoever can start their own supplement company, like I bet I can too. So again, I just went down this deep dive and we realized that we could do it. But the dilemma for us came from all these people just spew out like different big words, like Ashwagon. And if Ashwagonda is supposed to solve everything, right? And we were like, well, there's another dilemma there. Like people don't know what to take, people don't know how much to take. And really the only way you know if you're deficient in something is through a blood test. Yeah. So like if I'm vitamin D deficient or magnesium deficient, which the majority of the population is, like, I don't know how much to take unless I get a blood test, re-blood, like take a blood test again to see if whatever I took brought my levels up. So people are like being crushed with all this information that they don't know what to take, like in the supplement world. So what happens is in dilemma at heart, the definition of dilemma is uh a decision between two undesirable options. So do you take this or that? Well, for every choice that you make, there's a desirable and an undesirable thing. So we start thinking like, okay, do I go to the gym or do I watch Netflix? Well, the desirable thing is you get in shape if you go to the gym. And the desirable thing is you enjoy watching your show. Yeah. But the undesirable thing from choosing one or the other, like if I choose Netflix, well, undesirable, I'm gonna feel like a piece of shit. Yeah. Or I'm gonna get out of shape. And the undesirable thing from going to the gym is like, well, I didn't get to enjoy my show. So every single choice has desirable, undesirable.

unknown 2:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So everything's a dilemma. Every single choice is a dilemma.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Like the paradox of choice, too many choices just makes it gives you anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, exactly. So yeah, we we just ran with all these, like, how do you tell a story around different names? And that's why I said we love moose so much because it it just like meant something. Yeah. But in the long run, it's like dilemma just gave us so many different options for storytelling and owning your decisions and different things like that. So I think I think we made the right choice at the end of the day. And it's memorable.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Yeah. Can I have that part of the podcast or no? Can I? Yeah, you can have that podcast. I was gonna say that's a great story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

You can use all that. Yeah, it was fantastic. Yeah. Um there was uh what did you say that I wanted to ask a question on? Uh we don't have we don't have to talk nutrition the entire time.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

No, that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Oh, well, I was gonna ask you a question. What was it? And then I asked the stupid question saying, Can I keep that as part of the pod? Um it was about general around like nutrition and like the making, I think, of the like the actual supplement itself.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

And I can't remember what the heck the question was. Like, how do you get it made? Like, what's the process? Yeah, we'll go there. There's the question will come back to me at some point.

How Supplements Are Manufactured

SPEAKER_01 3:13

So the pro the process is crazy. First of all, I I've interviewed, I interviewed like a hundred manufacturers. No, like every person I could come in contact with. I don't even know. Like, there was some that I was probably doubling up on that I had I had no idea if I talked to them or not. I'm just in like work mode, just like go, go, go. I made a spreadsheet. We put all these these things down. And then like people are selling you the dream. Every single person, every single manufacturer is like, oh yeah, we'll make the best tasting thing you've ever had. Oh yeah, we have the best products you could ever imagine. And then you start looking at feedback and talking to other people, like in the industry. Cause I have some some friends who are involved in some things, and they're like, dude, like if you start hearing like these buzzwords, like get out, just run. So we found a manufacturer that we finally just decided, like, okay, we probably trust them the most. Like, let's, you know, get into a relationship with them and see where it goes. And from there, like I said, like you don't, you don't know across the country, you have no clue what supplement brands are putting into their stuff. And the flavors that you get, so like artificial flavors, natural flavors, like you don't really know what's artificial or what's natural about those things because the people who make those flavors, the flavor houses they're called, the flavor houses, all of their information is proprietary information. So they don't have to disclose what's in their formula to get the flavor. And the reason is because that would open them up to other flavor houses stealing their stuff. So, like Coca-Cola, for example, like they have their own flavor to Coca-Cola and it's protected. It's intellectual property. And no one can recreate that because they don't have to disclose exactly how they get that formula. And it's like that for everything. It's it's insane.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

So, like, how do you know like what like Coca-Cola, for example? Like, do you does anyone know like what's actually in Coca-Cola other than Coca-Cola?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

So you can get tests done. So you could get third-party testing from an outside source who has zero, you know, conflict of interest in this. And you could probably break it down. But the exact amount, like if if they add 0.001 of something more, then it could change the taste completely. Again, they have it down, Coca-Cola has it down to a science. They don't have to disclose that.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

But other testing agencies or people who are trying to re recreate that, again, like you're never going to get it exactly perfect. And even if you did, they're there's things protected. It's intellectual property that you couldn't. Did you know any of this before you started this? I knew I had like an idea about some of it, but some of the deep dives you went on, like creatine, for example. I wanted creatine in our supplement. It's my favorite supplement to take. And it's it's my favorite because it's the most studied. Like I just love things that are very well studied and there's a ton of evidence behind it. Like how we talked about like Ashwagonda. There's not a ton of supporting evidence with Ashwagon. So even with the positives, like, do we know negatives yet? Like there's things coming out now that it can desensitize you to certain things. And so things like that. I'm like, all right, well, if something's not super studied, why should I put that in our customers' hands? Or yeah, why should I take it personally? But even worse, like I think of everything as like I'm I would love to create a better world for my kids. Yeah. And I I'm not gonna be able to create in this entire like better world. Like there's still gonna be bad actors out there that, you know, are money hungry, power hungry, whatever that is. But if I could take just my sliver and make like training better, like that's my idea with coaching. I want to make training better so I can give my kids the best opportunity athletically and health-wise. Well, the supplement and food is another thing that I was passionate about. It's like, how can I make something better with them in mind? Like, would I give this to my kids? And if the answer is no, it's like, then why would I give that to any of my other customers? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 7:08

So essentially acting in like a fiduciary capacity in the health world.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Yeah. And and if I know, and I think what got me into it was we were we're selling other people's supplements. We were selling another company's supplements. And again, we're pushing these things to other people at our gym, and we're just trusting that that company has everyone's best interest. Well, they got bought out by private equity, and I started to realize that some of the things started to change. Some of the uh the formulas started to change. They're using different quality of products, the price was going up, and we're buying the products off of them and then selling them for retail. And we would make the the difference between that. So I started thinking, I'm like, why am I selling someone else's stuff? How do I know that I'm getting the best quality for my people? So it's like, all right, well, let's look into this. And one conversation led to another, and now I have a full-blown supplement

Evidence-Based Ingredients And Testing

SPEAKER_01 8:02

company.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

I remembered my question, by the way. It wasn't even a question, it was more of a statement. And because you talked about blood tests. Well, one have you ever done a blood test? I have, yeah. Now I was talking to one of my buddies who, one of my buddies who's like a diet nutrition guy, and he was saying the problem with like blood tests, you not the problem with blood tests, but you have to be cautious with who's reading them. Because if you look at like a regular doctor who's comparing them to like a regular person, it may not be what is correct for you. And that most people actually need even like more vitamin D or these other different, you know, supplements that than like your standard person.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:39

Um, and so like that's like even more so in the argument for like why supplements are important and increasing them and making sure that you have the right quality because everybody's a little bit different. And in particular, if you're someone who's healthier, more active, you probably need a little bit more, is basically the premise of what I took from that conversation.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, body weight matters. Like if you're 6'4, 230, your intake is probably gonna be more than, you know, 5'8, 150. You know what I'm saying? Like there's there should be differences there. So everyone, again, and it's impossible to really like personalize everything. Yeah. Because now, and again, we're at this, we're at this stage where everyone is just busy. Everyone just goes, goes, goes. So rather than relying on food, which how it should be, like you need to nail your diet before like even getting into supplements. Cause to me, it's like supplements aren't a replacement for the whole foods that you need to be getting. A supplement is literally in the name. You're it's called a supplement because it's to supplement and try to fill in the gaps that you're not getting. So like vitamin D is really tough to get from food. Like you would you would have to eat a significant amount, but sunlight is a perfect way to get it. Well, in Pittsburgh, like it's raining right now. Like, how do I get vitamin D today and there's absolutely no sun outside? Or if I'm sitting at a desk all day, how am I getting that? Okay, well, if I'm deficient there and I can't get it outside because I'm working or because the snow or the rain or whatever, well, that's where supplementation is really important because it can fill that gap. And same thing with creatine. Like, if I want to get five grams of creatine, I have to eat like two and a half, three pounds of meat to get it. Well, I don't have time to do that. Like, who's prepping all that stuff? So here's one scoop of creatine that can help you get to that point. And again, supplements aren't going to be for everybody. There's every supplement that's out there isn't a one size fits all. And that's that's the challenge of people trying to do it. But people will take, like, people are taking like 18, 20 different things. Like some of these like optimizers that I've that I listen to on podcasts, like they're taking 18 supplements. It's like, should it be like that? Like, that's crazy. Like, eat better, work out, move, quit trying to optimize everything. Cause like real life's not optimal. Like if you wake up tired and we both have kids, like you just said, your kids have have ear infections, triple ear infection in your house. How are you supposed to sleep? So you're trying to optimize with all these different things. Well, in your head now, you're desensitizing yourself to what real life should feel like. And you think that I don't feel as good today. I'm not optimal. Well, what's that? Like, you're not gonna train today? Are you not gonna podcast today? Are you not gonna market your business today because you don't because you feel slightly off? Like, that's stupid to me. Everything shouldn't be optimal, right? It's like, let's just feel better. Let's take control of our fitness and our health, eat better, move, take a supplement that tastes really good and you enjoy it. If it becomes like a trigger or a reward for you, I love triggers and rewards. We could talk about that. But if it's a trigger or reward to eat better or go move and do a fitness class because you can't wait to drink your supplement after, well, then I think it did its job there. And it's filling some nutrition, nutrition gaps that uh that you can't get or you're not getting from your current diet.

Bloodwork, Dosing, And Food First

SPEAKER_03 12:02

The optimal thing, I've seen like a lot of guys, so like you know, Tim Ferriss talked about like self-help in this capacity. And then you see guys, I don't know, do you watch Modern Wism at all with Chris Williamson? I've seen a little, yeah. So here's one of my favorite podcasters. He just had like a, he has like a new studio and they did like a big round table discussion. There were four different guys. Sean Perry was one of the guys on there. Yeah. And he was talking, or they had a group discussion of like optimal and how that has completely distracted from it was supposed to be a good thing. And essentially what it became is it took people out of like actually just like living life. Yeah. And they used, I think his name's Brian Johnson, the guy who's like trying to like train for longevity. And they're like, people like him are great because they test all these different things and we get the downstream science from it. Like, but the problem is like at some point are you actually like living life? Yeah. Like are you actually like going out and like enjoying life? Or are you creating this facade of like what a perfect life should look like, even though no perfect life exists? And sometimes when you focus too much on engineering a life or trying to be a specific thing, that you forget to actually take a step back and just like actually be present and realize that the flood of emotions that or the flood of experiences that you could have as a person is actually what makes being human a thing. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

And that's that's the the battle that I think people fight is like, okay, we're trying to optimize our life, we're trying to feel better, we're trying to, you know, improve longevity, live longer, you know, whatever that looks like. But I like using food and alcohol as this uh as like a bridge to understand this. And the idea is if I like there's evidence coming out, and everyone should know this, but alcohol is not good for you. Right? Have a drink, it can take X amount of time away from your life, or you know, whatever that looks like. However, March Madness, if I want to go with my friends to the bar and we have a beer together and watch a basketball game, like what does that do to me mentally? Yeah. You know, okay, is that is a beer good for my body? No. But was that escape in my time with my friends watching a basketball game, having a beer that I enjoy? Like, what did that do to actually help me in the long run? So I think when there's things that you enjoy, like I love pizza. I absolutely love pizza. And if someone came out and was like, hey, pizza is gonna take five years off your life, like in my mind, like, no, it's not, number one. If it did, I don't care. I'm still eating pizza and I'll just five years younger. What that does for me mentally, it's like it's a mental reset. I work so hard all week to eat well, eat good breakfast, lunch, dinner all week. Like, if I can't have a pizza on Saturday to reset and refocus for getting into Sunday or Monday again, like to me, it's stupid. Like, eat the pizza because it's gonna keep me on track. Again, trigger reward. Pizza might be my reward for having a great week. And it's uh I think it's okay within reason. If I eat a large pizza by myself, like that's all right. It's locked back in.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

Uh, I think about everyone has to do like what makes sense for them too. Like, if you want to live that optimal life, like go for it. Like, I think of like Novak Djokovic. He comes up a lot in these conversations because he talked about, I forget what major it was that he won, but after that major, he wins and he said all he wanted was a piece of chocolate. So what he did was place just a piece of chocolate on his tongue and let it melt. And then right back, he was next to training for the next major. But then you look at Roger Federer, who was Mr. Enjoy, like, not that he didn't work incredibly hard, but like he had ice cream, like he wasn't super strict in all the time. Yeah. And you have to like match a personality like with what makes sense. And there's too much to me, and I think of like the like so Alex Armose. Yeah, okay, he speaks to a certain demographic. And the problem is like the way he speaks, people think that he is just giving advice, broad advice to everybody. Yeah. And when you listen to some of these people, you have to listen and understand the audience that they're speaking to. And he is like super high volume, intense, worked. Part of that is because he just like enjoys that. Like that's like what makes him happy. If that's not what makes you happy, don't do that. Don't listen to his advice. Yeah. You know, and understanding like the or having that self-awareness piece, like, what do I need and when to just like enjoy life and chase something and pursue something greater? It's different for everybody. And I think that's the hard part of the conversation is because there is so much information out there. Do I eat pizza? Do I not eat pizza? Do I have alcohol? Do I not have alcohol? And the point that you made that is 100% spot on is sometimes going and having a drink with your friends is literally the healthiest thing you can do, regardless of what you eat and what you drink. And it's not now doing that every single day. That's a different tremendous. But like being able to go and do those things if and when you need them, that is to me, the health benefits, the ability to kick back, relax, remove that tension, anxiety, and stress will outweigh the negative benefits of alcohol or pizza or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree

The Problem With Optimization Culture

SPEAKER_01 17:06

with that. And again, it's like you said, Alex is speaking to a certain demographic. And I always look at it from like a parenting perspective. Like whenever I became a dad, you always hear stories from prior dads or current dads that, you know, if you're not a dad yet and you're taking advice from somebody else, and you hear things like, oh, you better travel now because once the kids come around, you're not going to travel. Or, you know, you better get all your work in now, make as much money as you can because you're going to. So you can, it comes back to those choices, right? Like I can choose to work as much as I want. And I could put a bigger burden on my wife or my parents that are babysitting the kids, and I just work and work and work and work. I could do that and I could make as much money for my family as possible. But what is like, what am I sacrificing at the expense of my kids and my wife and my parents who are babysitting, you know? So, and and we're very fortunate to have people that can help. Like we're still able to work. My parents are retired, my wife's parents are retired. Like, we we have great people in our lives that can help. And they take a tremendous responsibility in helping us raise these kids. And I think that's really, really important for not just my kids, but it helps us too. Because any parent would know out there, like it's it's really, really challenging to be the only person that's just watching your kids all day because they're absolutely insane, like just complete maniacs. But I could choose to work my entire life and work away all these years, and yeah, like let's get super rich and do all this stuff. But now my kids are 16, 17, 18 years old, and finally we have money to go on these trips and do stuff. But I missed an entire, you know, decade of being able to raise them and help them and just be in their lives. So I think, like, what is what are you doing? Because you can't work life balance to me is like this massive myth. Like, there's no such thing as like a proper work life balance. Something is gonna be sacrificed along the way. So if I want to be a dad, if I want to coach little league, I want to be a great husband, if I want to do all those things, well, my work is going to take a hit. Like I'm not gonna be able to train as many people. I'm not gonna be able to respond to everyone's emails. I'm not, I'm not gonna be perfect at work. I'm not gonna be as efficient as I would like to be. And that can often cause anxiety. Like that's that's it's hard for me, like being, I want to be a high performer. So it's hard for me to not meet the mark that I want to meet in anything that I do. But I would rather miss the mark a little bit in my career and my work than miss the mark being a dad or being a husband. So I think, again, it's what are you willing to sacrifice? What are you willing, the time, how much time are you willing to put into a certain venture or whatever you're trying to do? What is the, what is the purpose and meaning of your life? And to me, once I became a dad, like yeah, I started a supplement business. I I have a gym, I have all these different things. I'm coaching. I don't care about those things nearly as much as I care about my kids and my family. So if I'm sacrificing something with the supplement company or sacrificing something with the gym where I'm not meeting those, the expectations that I really want to meet, well, that's okay because my main purpose and my main meaning comes from being a dad and being a husband.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

And that's the thing is understanding what's the cost of entry. Anytime you pick up a new endeavor, anytime you pursue something different or wanting to do more or less of something, it's like, what are costs and trade-offs? Now getting into that mindset of every decision you make, looking at cost trade-off can again build anxiety, but just understanding big picture-wise, if I choose to do this, what am I giving up on the back end?

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Right. What in order to acquire this, you know, what is that price? And I think about that a lot, you know, being a young father as well, and someone who who's ambitious. And have you ever did you read uh the five types of wealth? I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

That's a good one. I think it's in my, it's in my Goodreads app. It's in my two rebook. That's Sahil, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Yeah, Sahel. So really good book. And uh basically, I mean, to summarize it super high level. So just like talking about the different like wealth scores that you have in different domains of life. And for me, like I simplify really even like further. And it's like I think about okay, do what are my you know, mental, emotional, and like physical challenges? And sometimes, you know, the the emotional is always my family, right? Like they are like, and not necessarily a challenge, but like they're what fills that cup for me in terms of I'm putting my energy emotionally into my family. Nobody else really gets that type of emotion for me where I deeply resonate and care. Yes, I have friends and colleagues and acquaintances, but like in terms of like what really fills my emotional cup, it's at least right now, it's my kids and my wife. And so I have to be able to, over a period of time, it doesn't have to be every single Because there's times where I don't see my kids, and there's times where I see my wife when we wake up and then when we go to bed and that's it. But over, you know, weeks, months at a time to make sure that's filled. And I think mentally, how am I mentally stimulating myself? You know, and I think of that more of like a professional pursuit. Like, how am I putting my time and energy mentally and maximizing my capacity and capability there through some type of work that's meaningful and that I care about? And then lastly, physically, and this for me actually has been the one that has been the hardest to find. Obviously, I trained to like stay healthy and fit, which is really important, but lacking that specific thing to train for. And I've been constantly seeking like some type of challenge. So challenging, yeah. And that's why, you know, obviously I texted you about the track and field event. Yeah. Since I decided I was going to like do that and have that purpose in training, like I felt my energy, despite lack of sleep, probably haven't been eating as healthy either. Three sick kids, three ear infections over the last two weeks. Need some supplements. Uh haven't been able to grocery shops because like if I leave the kids, they're screaming, don't want to leave my wife just alone with them. Um, so haven't been able to like do the healthy grocery shopping thing. So I've been depleted in uh diet, nutrition, and sleep. Arguably the two most important things are just like feeling better. And yet just having something to train for is like just like giving me like an extra boost. And so like I think of like it's pretty simple, and we make it complex as humans, like in order to like live fulfilled wise, is just find different challenges in however domain that you want to break them up, find things that make you happy, find things that you enjoy doing, and just spend your time doing those. The part that I think gets lost sometimes is serving something greater than yourself to me is always the highest fulfilling thing. So, regardless of anything, like taking care of my family, spending time being with my family and kids, like at least for me, right? For someone else, something else may fill their cup more. Like for me, like that purpose of like serving my family and like our faith is like by far and away the best thing like in my life.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah. So purpose and meaning is everything. Like I think that's the number one thing. If you have a purpose for training, for parenting, for whatever those, whatever task you're trying to accomplish, if you have a meaning behind it or a purpose for it, I think that is what keeps you disciplined and motivated, you know, throughout the time of doing it. And you're still gonna have lapses. Like there's still gonna be times that you wanna like revert back. Like big penguin game was on last night, but it's bath time, right? What's what's important in this thing? Like what's important? Is it watching the penguin game or is it getting your kids in the bath? So in my mind, it's like, how do I do both? Like, so I got the TV on, I wash like, okay, get the hair done, let's go back and watch the penguin game, let them play in the bath. All right, let's go wash their bodies. All right, let them play for a little, I'll watch more of the penguin game. And my wife doesn't understand that. Like she's she's just like, you're an idiot. But in my mind, I want to watch that penguin game. It's like I'm trying to fulfill this entertainment portion of my life. But at the same time, I have to be a dad and get my kids washed and keep them in line. Well, we have a projector in the room. We bought a projector for outside, but we use it inside just on our wall as a we didn't want a TV in our bedroom just so we could get a little bit better sleep. So of course we put up the projector and we'll have like a family movie night in our bed wherever the kids are just in bed with us. But anyways, Marciano gets out of the bath and just takes off and runs right through the projector. And now, like the penguin game shut off. He bent the charger and I I'm pissed. I get mad and I yell and I raise my voice. And I'm like, like for what? Because of I've because he messed up my penguin game? Like, there's a lapse in my purpose. There's a lapse in my meaning right there. That like, dude, I felt like such a jerk. I felt like such a bad dad in that situation. I'm apologi I go into their room and he doesn't want to lay with me to go to bed anymore. Yeah, I want to lay with mom. You were mean. I'm like, shit. Like that, I didn't want this night to go that way. All I wanted to do was watch a penguin game and spend time with my kids. And again, work life balance doesn't work like that. And uh so yeah, I'm and I'm apologizing. Like, hey, I didn't mean to yell at you, buddy. Like that, I shouldn't do that. But again, as a dad, and I've been doing it for six years now, so I have more experience. I think you never know how you're gonna react to something because you haven't been exposed to something yet. So, like when Marciano runs through the projector, like I've I was never exposed to that as a dad. So my first instinct was get pissed off, yell, raise my voice. So now, next time he runs through a projector, I hope that I handle it better.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Right. So I learned and I'm thinking back. It's like watching film for football. Like you watch the film, you go out, play the game, watch the film, this is what I'm gonna do better next time. It's just like that with parenting. It's the exact same thing. And uh, but yeah, the purpose and the meaning behind what you're doing has to drive everything. And if you have those lapses, you're gonna make mistakes. Like that's you're just a human. Every single person's gonna do that. You can't let it manifest into going down that path. Let's just get back on track. It's just like that for fitness, it's like that for eating better. Like, if just because I miss a workout, like, oh, I'm just gonna skip the whole week. Like, no, that's dumb. Get back on track tomorrow and and make it work. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

To expect anything like in any domain to be perfect is one insanity and it's just setting you up for failure.

Parenting Purpose And Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_03 27:27

And speaking of kids, we've talked a couple of times now about my kids, all three of my kids having ear infections. Well, so all three of my kids were like really sick. We didn't know that they had ear infections at the time. And they had coughs, other sicknesses probably to go along with the ear infection. And so the new or six-month-old, is that considered toddler?

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Toddler? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

I go, I don't do months. I just say one. Eleven months. Yeah, just one. He's forcing my half one one.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

My half one-year-old, my two-year-old, and my four-year-old Mariana were like all really sick. And so the young ones like would obviously keep crying, and because they're younger, they they cry, you give them their attention more. And so then I noticed Mari, my four-year-old, started crying more. And I was hard on it. I was like, just because they're crying does not mean you cry and get more attention. It doesn't work that way, Mariana. And like for a couple of days, I was like hard on her about it. I'm like, stop crying, like you're okay, stop crying. And so finally, Micah, my half, half one-year-old, we got him checked and he had an ear infection. And so Marissa was like, okay, well, let's just take the other two, get them checked. Charlie, Charlotte was crying that her ear hurt. Maybe it's something they somehow just all got ear infections. And so we take them. And they actually had finally started acting better this day. So I'm thinking, I'm okay, like, these people are gonna think I'm an idiot, bringing my kids in here. There's nothing wrong. And so they set them on the table and they check Mari first. And the doctor like looks, she goes, Oh, that ear's bad. I'm like, oh no. And then she looks at the other ear and she goes, Oh, that ear is really bad. So she's a double ear infection. And then she listens to like her breathing and she goes, Oh, you're wheezing really bad. And I'm like, Oh my goodness. You're just yelling at yourself. And I'm yelling at the child. I was the hardest on the child who was the most sick. Oh, and I was like, and I immediately, I was like, I'm such a bad dad. And I said in front of the doctor, I was like, she's like, no, you're not. She's like, they come in, like, and they'll be screaming and crying, there'll be nothing. They'll come back in three days later, and they have like an ear infection. You just don't know. I'm like, well no. I'm like, I was so hard on her because she's the oldest. And uh I was like, I'm just like, I was just like, I'm so like sorry, Mariana. And I apologize to her a hundred times. And she's like, Daddy, why are you saying sorry? Yeah. And I was like, I was hard on you and I shouldn't have been. It's like for me, like what I did, I took off like the rest of the day, like cleared my schedule, picked her up from preschool or took her to preschool, picked her up, and I took her to get ice cream. And so, like, you know, it's just understanding, like to give yourself like some grace. And like, obviously, I'm hard on myself as a parent. Like, I definitely won't do that again. Yeah. But but like it is like, hey, we do make mistakes. We're doing our best. The purpose of meaning, like trying to instill like good behavior in my kids, like understanding like crying doesn't immediately get you the things that you want, and you know, you take it a step too far, you know, realize your kid was actually sick and needed some help. And so, like, the point being like, give yourself some grace when you make a mistake, correct it, move on, and be better moving forward. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Giving yourself grace, I think, is such an important topic. It's like that in everything fitness, wealth, health, just literally everything in your life. Because so many people, and again, it goes back to high achievers and optimizers. Like if you're trying to optimize everything and you're a super high achiever, well, your expectations are so high. And there are times where you don't give yourself the grace of, you know, the mistakes that you made. But mistakes are the most important thing in learning. Like if I did everything in my life and everything was perfect, I'm not really learning anything about what I'm doing. When you make a mistake, that's an actual teaching point. Even if you lose that moment or lose that instance, you can still learn something from that. So you can better yourself moving forward. But that's where, again, don't let things manifest and get worse. So one little mistake, I think oftentimes people are so hard on themselves that it cascades into a whole other series of mistakes. And now it's like, I'm just awful. I'm an awful person, right? But you're not. You're human, you're normal, and you can't let that one little thing cascade into this big series of events. You just learn from that one mistake and okay, let's correct it moving forward. So when Marciano breaks another lamp or, you know, destroys another projector, I'm already, I've been in that situation before. So now I understand, okay, here's how I'll handle it better. Like here's here's what we'll do next time. And and I learned from that mistake.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

The more conversations I have and the more time I spend on like high performance, it actually can make it harder to like have these conversations sometimes because you want to add so many different like caveats and like asterisks, like this point is to this demographic, this point is to this demographic. Because when you have these conversations, anyone can take like a 30-second snippet or a minute snippet and dissect it and break it off and argue it to a deep degree of you know, people need to stop giving themselves as much grace. Yeah, sure. There is a demographic that probably needs to be a little harder on themselves. Oh, for sure. And then there's a demographic that certainly needs to give themselves a lot more grace. And so, like when these conversations happen, and like if I were to put like a precursor to every conversation I have, like certain conversations being had are to a specific demographic of people who need it at that point in time. Yeah. Because in performance in life, there are so many different dichotomies. It is not black and white. We are complex humans. We are not just simple machines. Yeah. And so there are so many different levers and so many different components that are pulling at you in many different ways. And there will be parts of life where a certain mindset or a certain process will serve you, and there will be other points in life where they do not, and they are not beneficial to you. And understanding, and you know, that's why I always go back to like self-awareness, knowing kind of what you need and when you need it is really important because a lot of these conversations are for a specific, you know, portion of society to broaden it, and then other parts of the conversation are for the other side. And you have to know when you need to put your foot on the gas pedal, when you need to, you know, put your foot on the brake pedal, and when you need to go in between. Because, like I said, there's gonna be different, there's gonna be different things pulling you at different points in time. There's gonna be times where I need to be harder on my kids, and there's gonna be times when I need to be significantly less hard. There's gonna be times where I need to train harder, there's gonna be times where I need to rest harder. And knowing what you need when you need it, and having the right people, right, you know, processes in place to help you build that awareness is a whole different component that I do think is applicable to everybody. It's just some people care more than others. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

It's really tough, you know, the push and pull part

Ear Infection Wake-Up Call

SPEAKER_01 34:09

of that. I think, and again, it comes with aging and wisdom and learning from experiences. Cause like I think I look back to like whenever I was playing college football, for example, I didn't take care of my body the best. I didn't eat great, drank, go to the bar with friends, you know, sound like I was a normal college kid, but playing a very high performance sport, you know, and and I'd watch today's games, you know, college team that's favored by 20 points, and all of a sudden they lose that game. And I think back, I'm like, well, like we had kids at the bar on a Thursday night before a Saturday game and played like complete shit on Saturday. And they're college kids, like they're gonna make those mistakes. And it's such a high pressure situation for them that they're not gonna be perfect. They're not eating the best foods in the world, they're not working out as hard as you'd think they are. They're naturally gifted, number one. And number two, they they're still kids. You have 18, 19, 20-year-olds still making kid decisions. So when they go to the bar and, you know, drink and drive or make a destructive decision, like you still have to understand like some of these kids think they are completely invincible, but they're still kids. And what I know now at 37 years old is completely different from what I knew at 21 years old, right? And the magnitude of my decisions now are significantly bigger. You know, I have if I went out and drank and drove now, got a DUI, that affects everybody. That affects my kids, that affects my wife, that affects my businesses. I'm in the newspaper now doing all these things. And back then, you don't really think about that stuff as a 21-year-old or 20-year-old. You're you're just, you know, it's you're selfish. You're selfish at that point, where all you're thinking about is I'm on a football scholarship, I'm gonna hang out with my friends, I'm gonna go talk to this girl, you know, across the bar. And, you know, it still comes back with giving yourself some grace. Like you're gonna make mistakes, but you learn from those things. And you look, when you look back, you're like, man, that was stupid. But it gave me wisdom moving forward to trying to live your life better than you did in the past. You know, so I I think, again, it goes back to giving yourself grace, learning from your mistakes, understanding how you can change those things moving forward, try to be a better person than you were, you know, in the past, make better decisions than you did in the past. And I think as long as you do those things, you're moving the needle forward in in your own life and you're showing your kids too, like your kids are gonna make mistakes. I can't go back, I can't I can't go to Giancarlo Marciano and be like, hey, you're gonna play college football when you get older. Here's what dad did that was destructive that, you know, didn't wasn't the best decisions for his his football career at that time or academics or or whatever they get into. But they are still gonna have to make mistakes to be able to understand. Like, sure, I can tell them, hey, don't do this, do this. Doesn't mean they're gonna necessarily listen to everything that I'm saying. They're still gonna make their mistakes. And again, I I think it's important that you let them, I think it's important that you let them make the mistakes so they can learn, just how we did. But at the same time, it's hard to watch back from afar as a parent because you want to control as much as you can to make sure, like you said, you're guiding them and turning them into better humans. Um, but what you know now at 37 years old and have all those life experiences versus what, you know, doing college, completely different perspective.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

I try and take the approach. I have no idea if it's right. Like literally, no idea if it's right. Even at young ages. One, I think we talked a little bit about this last time too, but I talk to them like they're a much more mature age than what they are. Yeah. And knowing that they don't understand fully what I'm saying, but I will say, hey, this is what daddy learned from experiencing this emotion or in this situation when you're nervous, or whatever the scenario is, this is what I learned from it. And this is what you know you can do like better, basically, even now, knowing that they're not taking any of it in. But just that constant of, hey, was in a similar position, handled it this way. This is how I would do it differently. This can serve you better for reasons X, Y, or Z. And understanding that they are going to make their own decisions. They may hear or they may not, but to at least give them the knowledge to know that, hey, there are other things out there, even at young ages, right? And trying to build that robustness in them from a young age and help that compound over time. With I I talk about my girls because they're they're very different. Obviously, my six-month-old, you know, he's six months old. So he doesn't have too much of a half yeah, he doesn't have too much of a personality yet, although he's developing one. They are completely different. And I think about the parents who try and like force their kids to like do things and like try and make them like professional athletes. Caught some shade on my YouTube channel because I talked about this on another podcast saying like parents are delusional about their kids. Like the prodigies or the people that become professional athletes or division one college athletes, very few had to be forced. Yeah. Like already, like Mariana has a very natural tendency. And I have no idea what level she's gonna play at. I want to preface that. But like she loves sports. I do not have to make her do anything. Yeah, does not love sports as much. She'll go, she'll be like, Oh, I want to go downstairs and hit the golf ball. Great. She hits one, okay, I'm done. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, she'll want to kick a ball. She'll kick it once, okay, I'm done. And then she's like, I want to go color or daddy hold me. Where Mariana, even from two years old, was like, we'll swing the club a hundred times in a row, like just interested. Yeah. And like the job as the parent, right, is to guide their interests and skill sets where they lie. Like if Charlotte ends up loving chess, great. Let's go be the best chess players we can be. If they love playing instruments, great. Let's go do that at the most level, at the best level that you can, right? And not that you have to be a professional, but just work on being whatever your interests are, exhaust them. Yeah. Exhaust them because you'll get the most joy and fulfillment the more you dive into your interests, your curiosities, the more energy you put into them. And that's like where I try to apply like a lot of the experiences I've had where I look over my career, and anyone who says that they don't have regrets, I think it's a lie. Yeah. Because the whole point of like, like you said, gaining wisdom is to understand, hey, like I would do this differently. Not that I would change my life today. Yeah. Because all those things served a purpose. But of course I would do things differently if you put me in that position today as an athlete, as a whatever business person, whatever it is. Of course, there's things you do differently. Yeah. And so to take those lessons and try and package them on the side, this is here if you need it. This is what I learned. This is what you could help you. If not, we'll find a new way. Again, don't, I literally have no idea if that's right. That's my own logic of the things that I've learned. Okay, hey, how can I help position my kids to avoid some of the landmine mistakes that I made and just let them make other mistakes on their own that they will also learn

Self-Awareness And Learning From Mistakes

SPEAKER_03 41:06

from? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

So I think thoughts and theories are completely different than actions. So if I have a thought of how I parent, in my mind, I want to be stern, I want to be fair, I don't want to raise my voice, I don't want to do all those things, right? And in my mind, that's my thought. That's my theory. That's what's going to make me a good dad. But then I blow up last night because Marciaga knocked the penguin game off. That's the action is completely different than my thought and theory. And I just I actually did a Monday morning coffee talk about this. I love doing the Monday morning coffee talks. I feel stupid making them, but I enjoy them. And uh but I talked about that is taking action. Your kids will do what they see. So if they look up to you, which they do, they want to do what dad does and they want to have the same actions that dad does. So for me, when Giancarlo or Marciona strike out and they slam their bats and they're frustrated, well, I can't say, hey, we don't do that because I just raised my voice when they broke the lamp or knocked over the projector, right? So again, the thought and theory is completely different than my action in that case. However, with that said, I would like to think that my actions far outweigh that negative reaction that I had the other night.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

I think about that all the time because like I always say, I don't want to like out Marissa and I was talking, we don't want to scream all the time, we don't want to yell all the time. But then it's like our kids are about to like go put their hand on the stove and it's like, yeah, don't do that. Get off the railing on the deck. It's like, no, you can't go hang on the banister and try and climb over it and fall to your death. Like, you know, and and kids love to test their limits, especially with like our family genetics. Genetics play like a large role in a lot of this. But like knowing our family genetics too, how my kids are, they will go as far as they can until I raise my voice. And Charlie's probably worse than Mari. Just like the ultimate will give you this look like, I know I'm not supposed to be doing this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Like feeding Micah last night, she is trying to give him rice. We're like, he can't have rice. And she goes, please. Like, no, she's not on this one. Charlotte, no more. Okay, that's what kids will do. Yeah, no matter how like patient, I try and be like, no, no matter how many times you ask, like you cannot give your little brother rice, he'll choke. And they just don't listen and they keep going, keep going until they know the point where it will boil over and they're like, okay, no, I won't do it. Yeah, and then they scream and cry.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

Kids, kids are real life sociopaths. Like kids are kids are unbelievable. My kids negotiate stuff with me all the time. I'm like, dude, this isn't a negotiation. Like, you're six, I'm the dad. This is my house. Yeah. Like, you will do whatever I'm telling you. But they still like, nah, hey, we're gonna eat dinner before we go outside. Nah, I'm just gonna go outside. Like, what do you mean you're just gonna go outside? Outside. No, that's not how this works. But it's yeah, the kids bring out the best in you and can oftentimes bring out the worst in you too. Because you get so frustrated. Yes. Because again, at your age, I don't like sometimes how my kids play with their toys. They get their monster trucks, launch them 30 feet in the air, and they break.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

And then they look at me like, hey, my monster truck broke that you just spent $25 on earlier today at Target. And it's like, yeah, because you're doing that. You're throwing it. You should just drive it. Just drive it and go over like a little jump. But in my mind, I spent the money on that monster truck. This is how I would play with the monster truck. That's not how they play. They see the monster jam doing the flips and all this stuff and going high whenever you take them like to Heinzfield or whatever to see the Monster Jam show. And they want to do that. So now you have a broken monster truck and you get pissed. It just like you, because you can't understand why. Yeah. Like you can't understand why they did that. And that just that can oftentimes bring out the yelling, frustration, the slamming things, whatever, whatever you revert to at that point. And I love all the people, like there's so many Instagram people. My wife will tag me and stuff and it'll be like, you need to, you know, this is how you parent type talks. And it's like calmly tell them to set the knife down.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Like, no, that's not how I do it. Yeah. It's like, no, you set that knife down right now. Screaming at you.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

Yeah, I'm going to beat you. Like I'm going to smack you. Yeah. And it's, yeah, it's not ideal. It's not how I want to parent. I don't want to inflict beatings on my kids, but like, put the freaking knife down, please. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

I I was at church and Charlotte was so bad this day, dude. I have so I've so many bad kids stories where I've brought out the worst to me as a parent. It's so funny, too. Like it's so hard to not look back and laugh, or even laugh in the moment. Like. But and I was so this time I actually like I I thought I had handled it well. Apparently I didn't. And this really nice, like older lady at church, you know, church finishes, it was awful the whole time. We walk out and we're in the back, like, just grab like a plate of of food to eat. And she goes, you know, Colin. She goes, We had three in my family. We had two girls, one boy, just like you. And the boy was the youngest, same situation. And she was like, My dad would just smack us on the butt one time, and we knew. And she was like, My brother was so proud that he never, it was, he was like 13, and he was talking to somebody about how he had never got smacked on the butt because he just had to watch my dad do it to us. And I was like, You don't think I smacked my kids in? So you don't think I try that? I was like, You don't think I raise my voices at my kids? I'm just trying not to cause a scene at church.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

I'm like, I don't think so, everyone else, how I raise my voice.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

I need to be in private when I I was like, You don't think I've tried everything in the book? My kids just don't let's they have a mind of their own. I was like, I've tried reasoning, I've tried being patient, I've tried being calm, I've tried smacking their butts, I've tried everything. I just don't want everybody in the congregation to judge me right now. I was like, I don't need this, the whole place, the scene of me smacking, screaming at my kid during the sermon. So, but like in like it was like good hearted, it was lighthearted, like it wasn't anything negative about it. But I was like, you know, I think about like you said, all these like videos. I'm like, I've tried like consistently just about everything. And like at the end of the day, like the younger the kid, the more I say a lot of that stuff is like nonsense. Yeah. Like you want to teach them certain fundamental things, which I think we do, right? Or at least to the best of our abilities, but there is no singular right way to like raise your kids. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Yeah, there's really not. Any of the advice, any of the advice that I've gotten over the years, like there, of course, there's things that work. Yeah. There's plenty of things that don't do. Like, hey, I do this with my kids, you should try it with yours. And you try it and shit hits the hand. It's like, it's like, yeah, we're probably not going to use that advice. But that's it's like that in in everything. Like I could say, like, hey, do this with your diet, and it doesn't work for you. Yes. Well, okay, well, something that worked for me, why should I expect it to work with other people? And the hardest thing is people push those beliefs off to everybody. Yes. It's like, I should probably chill out with some of that. Like, if someone needs help in that situation, maybe I can intervene and you know, or if they ask for my advice, then of course, like, hey, this is this is how I would do it. But the unsolicited, like, push your agenda on everybody, like it's not gonna, it's not gonna work with everyone.

SPEAKER_03 48:35

Yeah, no, it's it's uh it is super just like fascinating though.

Parenting Theory Versus Real Actions

SPEAKER_03 48:40

It's funny how it spreads into different domains, though, because like you just said in diet, nutrition, whatever it is, when people are constantly like pushing like their agenda, and I sometimes do this too, but like recognizing that not everything is universal and for everybody. Yeah. And I think like marketing and things of that nature attribute to this as well. But like you really, when people are speaking, I think like you have to have in mind an idea of the demographic of people that you're actively speaking to and speak to them.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

Right. And then being able to like without judgment or without you know, overly critical, like if somebody comes at you, just understand like that's not the demographic and being able to have like civil conversations there. Yeah. Like I didn't think about like that awesome video you posted about like uh speed and conditioning, which was very rational. You prefaced it up front and like, hey, this is theories, this isn't exactly how it works in real life, but this is like why speed and conditioning training is applicable or applicable for the athlete and betters them than just doing one or the other. And you still had goofs arguing in the comments. Yeah. And like I just think about like you can be the most nuanced, sane, take person in the world, and somebody's still gonna be upset with you.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

Social media is crazy. It is. Social media is very tough. And one of the hardest things with social media is we judge authority based on how many followers that person has. That's that's a killer for any field. Yeah. Like, so I'm in the strength and conditioning world, and I've worked with thousands of athletes in my life, been coaching 15 something years, played at a high level, coached at a high level, division two, small division one, big division one at Ohio State. Like I've seen a ton of stuff. I will never claim to know everything. Like I never want to be an expert. I never want to be a guru. I am always learning and developing and evolving. And I do that not just so I could be a better coach, but it's so I can make my athletes better.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

I look back when I first started coaching and I look at some of those programs and they look terrible. But my athletes bought into those back then and they had success. Well, my programming and understanding of strength and conditioning has completely evolved over 15 years of real life experience. But what's happening now is you could go on Chat GPT and be like, hey, teach me how to squat. Okay, put it into an Instagram reel for me. Give me a script. And I could be jacked because I am genetically gifted, take care of my body, take illegal substance for it.

SPEAKER_03 51:15

I was gonna say, I was waiting for when that one was coming.

SPEAKER_01 51:18

I can explain a squat. And even if it's not how you should explain it, even if I know I'm watching this video of this guy with a hundred thousand followers and his shirt off, and he's trying to teach how to squat, and then I'm mad because I know that guy has never coached a soul, but he's making a ton of money and he's viewed as an authority figure over me, who has a couple thousand followers and has been doing it for 15 years. But social media has created this false sense of the authority figures have a ton of followers. And you could buy followers now too. Yes. So I could go on and I told my partner this in the supplement thing. Like, we're not buying followers just because it makes us look bigger than we are. I'm not doing that. Because I, my main point and everything I do in my life, I just want real, I want fair, I want honest, I want transparent. Like this is exactly what's in our supplements, this is exactly how I coach. And I'm posting those things because I I want athletes and people to genuinely learn, like, okay, here's a here's a fair take on speed and conditioning, right? Here's a fair take on how to do a squat properly. And if someone, and it's hard to do in a 60-second reel, like to teach a squat might take me five minutes to teach it better. Like, okay, if the kid does this, then you have to coach it this way. If the kid sits down and he has really long femurs, well, the long femur people will look different than proportional femur people and getting into strength and conditioning talk. But but again, for me, I've learned that over all of these years versus someone, like I said, who could buy followers and break down a squat in 60 seconds and it doesn't really provide value. But people think that that that person is a better coach than me simply because they they have all those followers.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

Yeah, social media drives me nuts. It's great and it's it's it's it's it's both.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

If you know where to look, it could be very beneficial. If you know the right people to follow, it could be very beneficial.

SPEAKER_03 53:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

But you can't just look at something and just believe, oh, that guy has a lot of followers. Must be true.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

That's like because like there's an abundance of knowledge, but yet we've I don't know if this is completely accurate or not. But you look, I'll pick on the sports industry specifically or the health industry specifically. It's we have all this access to like different information and different authority figures, like you said, who have either bot followers or have accumulated followers just off of physique look. Vanity is kind of what I call it, the vanity side of social media. And yet we have not really progressed in that aspect. And I've one thing I will say that I've noticed is like loyalty of followers is a good indication too if someone is good at what they do. Yeah. And I think about that in terms of how do you measure that if you're so like for me from like a podcasting lens, I'm able to quickly see how loyal like followers are by certain engagement metrics that I have, but also like follow-ups. Yeah. And so, like, if you don't have like a way to like track that, I'd be curious to see if there is if someone has a way to do that. But like there's some people with like a lot of followers, but there's a lot of turnover. Yeah, they're acquiring new and they're losing some. Right. Whereas certain people like you, you have a very loyal audience. Like you post things and like people engage, people are like in like like household names, not just like someone from across the country, but like people who are local, like people that we know.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:36

And people are engaging with those and like this is great. In the strength and conditioning community, you look at anytime that you post something, there's a number of different people that have that are high in the space as well, that are like, yes, like this is perfect. This makes sense. Yeah. And like it's not just influencers supporting influencers, it's actually people with like robust knowledge in the space that are confirming or engaging, hey, that's right, but hey, maybe there's this too, this component as well. Like, where it's not just like arguing for the sake of arguing, but adding and building up on the conversation. Right. And it's so hard, like in the space too. Cause like you said, like, if you have a minute, like, or you have one caption or one twitter, like Twitter thread, it's really hard to encompass everything that goes into that conversation. Yeah. And like, you know, like I laugh because like on my YouTube channel, I posted it yesterday of like, hey, parents like delusional. I said there's 3,000 billionaires and there's less than a thousand Mobile players. And I said, you know, you're more likely to be a billionaire than an MOB player. And like four different comments in like a minute, less than a minute clip are saying, like, oh, of course they're gonna not accept this because you don't understand probability and statistics. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

People did that on my conditioning thing too. Like, well, the math doesn't work out. Like I told you, it's not the point of the math. Yes, it's not the point. It's the concept, it's a theory. Yes, it's not it's not proven.

SPEAKER_03 55:57

Yes. I was like, the concept is yes, okay, maybe you're right from a statistical standpoint. Over the course of a hundred years, yes, there's been more MLB players than billionaires. Yeah. But the point being is current standing as of today, professional people who are rostered in the MLB versus billionaires. There's more billionaires than MLB players. So we need to quit acting. Like every single kid is gonna be a professional baseball player. Not every kid needs to have that pressure and anxiety from their parent who's supposed to be doing their best to relieve that pressure and anxiety. Instead, they're the ones creating it and orchestrating it. And so that was the point of it, not just the numbers themselves. Yeah. But like people just get so sidetracked about things that are irrelevant or not important and miss like the ethos of conversations

Social Media Authority And Followers

SPEAKER_03 56:40

and the benefits. I'm not even saying I'm an authority figure in the space, but someone who has young kids, who's lived and played at a high level, who talks with a lot of high-level personnel and athletes, understanding all the different components that go into rising levels and getting better. Like the younger you are, you said this last time on the podcast. It should just be more about let's have fun and let's get them back next year.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

Because you just don't know how some kids are going to develop. Now your kids are going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

Which by the way, I will point this out. I said last podcast, my goal was for everybody to sign up next year. I'm 100%. Every single kid on my team from last fall is signed up for spring baseball right now. Heck yeah. And again, that's the one metric that I cared about. And I had parents coming up to me, like, hey, can you draft my kid again? Yeah, we had so much fun with you. My kid wants to play baseball again. That means way more to me than like I don't I don't even know how many games we've won or lost. Like, I I'm not sure. But like spring ball right now, like we're we have 14 games scheduled. And which I think's a lot. Like this is eight you in-house baseball. Like that'd be fun, though. Yeah, it's 14 games, it's fun. Yeah. But I'd be cool 10 games and four more practices, develop more and uh playoffs. So I'll go back to that point about practices and games here in a moment, but continue. But there's playoffs now. So like stakes are higher essentially in people's minds because there's playoffs. So I fight with the battle. I mean, some kids on my team are going to be higher level. They will be. They're just they're very it's like they got a head start genetically. And there's gonna be other kids who they might not play baseball past 12 years old. They might, like you said, your daughters have different interests, they might not continue to play. It might not be because they didn't have fun, it might be because, you know, there's just kids that they see that are better than them and they can't get to that point. It's like a frustration thing. Yeah. Like I'm not good enough to to continue. And that's I hate that. That's so sad to me. Yes. Um, for a kid to not feel included because he's not up to par. Yeah. But that's life. I mean, that's that's just part of it. That's how it is. And as they get older, they separate more. Yep. But with the playoffs, that's my style as a coach. I want kids to get development from all over the field. So I want if a kid played first base the first two innings, well, the next two innings, let's put him in the outfield. And the next two innings, let's put him at third base. So we switch kids all around because now they're getting different movements. O'Neill Cruz is a perfect one. We'll talk about this. O'Neill Cruz was a shortstop his entire life. And you would think that O'Neill Cruz is this freak athlete. He's tall, he's fast, he crushes the ball, he moves well. Like, dude is an alien, right? He cannot play center field. He can't track a baseball. Well, guess what? Tracking a baseball is specific. If I track a baseball at shortstop, my depth perception from where the ball was hit, where the batter hit the baseball to shortstop is a completely different perception from center field. And I don't care how many years that it takes to keep O'Neal Cruz in center field, he it's not going to get better.

SPEAKER_03 59:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:53

He's not going to get better at it because now his patterns. So at a young age, kids are very plastic. You can manipulate neuroplasticity, it's a very powerful thing. You can manipulate uh basically you can make kids better by just exposing them to certain things. And the more they're exposed to something, the more they will get that skill. So if I put a kid in center field now and we play half the year in center field and half the year at shortstop, well, they're gonna acquire perceptions at both of those positions, and they're gonna acquire skills at both of those positions, which will help them in the long run. That might be playing wide receiver and football. They're gonna track a ball from a farther distance from a quarterback. Well, that's where playing center field or playing outfield can help them with football, and vice

Youth Sports Pressure From Parents

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

versa, which would be completely different than a shortstop, where you're gonna get a lot more line drives, ground balls, and things of that nature. So I love my coaching style is to just expose kids to different positions. And it doesn't matter right now. I don't, like I said, I don't care if we lose every single game, but higher level kids, they're competitive. They don't want to lose, they want to win. So where's the fine line between like, okay, I don't want the high-level kids mad and miserable because coach Tim is just about having fun. But at the same time, I want to expose these kids to as many different movement patterns and biomechanical patterns that I can. So as they get older, they're just a more robust and more developed athlete. O'Neill Cruz is a crazy experiment. And again, it's you can say your experience as a kid, you we could probably put you anywhere in the field to play a baseball game. You would probably be fine with that. Same with football. You can play receiver, you could play in the slot, you could play safety corner, but you have been exposed to those things all these years. And my thoughts are I'd I would love to see how O'Neill Cruz grew up. Was he a shortstop? Because he was the best athlete. Was he a shortstop from the beginning? And they never moved him. He only played shortstop. And whenever he did, you know, pickup, where it was it just all grounders and lying drives, or is he tracking the ball from farther distances? Like that would be a really interesting thing to see. Because there's a reason why he could be one of the best in the world at shortstop, but he cannot play center field.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:08

Yeah. That would uh honestly, that's a really good comparison. I actually never thought of it that way. In terms of relative experience, you bring in a really good point about neuroplasticity, particularly from like younger ages, development-wise. And also one thing that I give like my stepdad really good credit for, because he coached all my in-house baseball teams, is like how you said you had a hundred percent return rate. So they had like in-house, I don't know if they still do it or if they do it in PT, but we had like drafts and like we just had a draft a couple weeks ago, yeah. Yeah. And so we always we had the same thing. Like all the parents, all the kids always wanted to come back and play with Dan because he did a really good job of like rotating and like coaching and developing and like just made it like a really fun environment. Obviously, it was a little bit different, a little bit more competitive at home, right? Which I appreciated because I was that way. For sure. But like he did a really good job of even making less competitive kids competitive. Right. And want to play more and want to keep coming back and want to be a part of the team. And the part that you're talking about, that fine line is how do you keep competitive kids involved and want that thing, but how do you also keep the other kids and like expose them to pressure situations, expose them to different positions out on the field and learning to develop that? It's really hard. Yeah. And I I like in I go back, we've talked about this again last time. I've talked about this a lot. I go back and forth on whether or not I like want to coach my kids things because I do feel have a better grip on that than other parents in general. But like, how do you find that line? Like, what do you have like an actual process or is it like go with the flow at this age?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

I'm learning. Like I've I've been coaching a very long time, but again, it's not specific. I've been coaching strength and speed, and I've worked with wide receivers, like coach football. So I understand like the general concept of it, of what of how I want to coach at any age. Like I feel like there are principles that I would use with a professional athlete where I would use similar principles with a young kid, but the young kid principles, I would use those with the professional athlete as well. Like there's you can learn plenty from keeping it more simplistic, getting better at the basics. The older, more developed kids, well, you can expose them to a little bit more complexity as opposed to someone young. So I think like with the competitiveness and certain things, handling pressure situations. My biggest concern is I know how I would handle them as a coach, right? So it's bottom of the ninth inning and we're in the playoffs and we're down a run, guy on third base, and one of the kids on my team strikes out, right? I'm making up a scenario. Strikes out, we lose the game. I know how I would handle that situation as a coach. I would go and talk to the kid. Hey, buddy, we're gonna get another shot at some point. You're gonna experience this again. Next time you'll be ready for it. You know, we should have scored more runs earlier in the game. So you're not in this situation. When we leave the dugout, and if I help that kid feel better, when the kid gets in the car with their mom or dad, what's the kid hearing in there? Is the dad blaming the kid for losing the game? Is the dad gonna be harder on the kid? Like that's stuff that's completely outside of my control. So however I handle it as a coach, I feel confident in my ability. And that's why I volunteer to do it. Because I want to be able to have that impact on every single athlete that I work with. But when they get in the car, is the dad and mom taking the kid to get ice cream and they're gonna celebrate a great season, or is the dad just gonna hammer this kid about striking out and you lost the game and you know, no more video games. We're going to the batting cages so that doesn't happen again. You know what I'm saying? So I can't get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:42

That is like a reality. It's a real freaking thing. Like that is like super real that people act like that at incredibly young ages.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

Kids are the best. Kids are incredible. My job is incredible because I love the kids. The kids are just they're so much fun to work with. The parents ruin you sports. Parents ruin you sports. Because all the kid, all the kid wants to do is have fun, learn the game, win some games, have some success, but you don't know the agenda of the parent. Like you don't know what they're trying to push. And and you'll have some kids, like higher level kids that want to just play baseball. That's all they want to do. And the parent will get them on three different teams, right? Well, there's certain kids that can handle that throughout the course of their career. If they truly love baseball, then they could probably handle three teams. But then there's the kid down the street who isn't as interested.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:30

But their mom and dad got to keep up with the neighbors, keep up with the Joneses. And now that kid's on three teams.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:37

That kid has a far different experience than the other kid. And that's that's youth sports in a nutshell right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:44

Yeah. I uh I love like the youth sports discussion because like I said, you have people who just like take it to ninth grade, like, oh, my kid's gonna be the best, or you guys aren't hard on your kids. That's the problem with society. It's like there's a dr there's a drastic difference between enacting discipline and like just like being hard for the sake of being hard. Like, of course, like discipline matters and encouraging work ethic and trying hard and doing your best and like doing the work that's required and like explaining those things, but like the younger they are, the less like hard you need to be. Yeah. And the more like encouraging you need to be. Yeah. And making things fun and making it interesting and building a reward system and not just simply making it hard work, hard work, hard work. I don't know what that age range is. Probably like post-puberty is when you can start talking more about hard work and like discipline and doing things when they're not fun. But like for the most part, like up until high school at minimum, it should be like, hey, just like we're doing this because it's fun. You've showed me you're interested. You want to get better. Okay, well, let's go have fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:56

Let's go do these things that are fun to do. It doesn't have to be rigor and training and mental toughness. And like that's where like I see like the big discrepancies and like what like developing like resiliency actually is. Yeah. A lot of it is through like actual enjoyment and loving the things that you do. And you're able to build a natural tendency to like resilience. Because if you love something and you have a setback, you're still more willing to go do it anyway because you love the thing that you're doing and you just want to do it regardless of kind of what the outcome is. Yeah, certain, obviously, certain things. Being process-oriented. Yeah. And like certainly outcomes are going to impact certain things. They're going to make you sad in the moment, the more you care. But like the more you care, the more willing you are to get back and do it again, even after the failure. And so, like, the more you can invigorate the love side as opposed to the stick side, right? It's there's components of both. The stick side comes later in life. Yeah. The carrot side is much more early in life, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

Yeah. That's a tough one. I think um, going back to like rewards,

Practice Matters More Than Tournaments

SPEAKER_01 1:09:00

and this is another issue with youth sports, in my opinion. When you get on like a travel baseball team and you play in like 15 tournaments throughout the year, at the end of each tournament, you're rewarded with like a medal or trophy, or people are doing rings now or whatever. I don't know where kids are wearing these rings, but we're desensitizing them to winning and losing at that point. Yeah. If you win 10 championships in a year, it's not a big deal in the world. It's not a big deal, yeah. So the problem is the process now changes because the enjoyment of a process is being in it. Yes. Loving what you're doing in that moment. And when you get the reward at the end of it, the pro the process, anything worth doing is gonna be tough. Challenging, yeah. It's gonna be challenging, but along that process, it has to be fun as well because that's what is gonna keep you in it. Like you have to enjoy, like you said, you have to enjoy that process and enjoy what you're doing. And it's not so much about the reward at the end, but once you get that reward, it's like, man, I worked really hard to get to this point. And you feel really accomplished and great about what you're doing, and that pushes you back into the process again, to where you, okay, I want to do more of this. And it wasn't so much because of the that reward that I got, but it was because of I saw how hard I worked to get to this point. The problem when you hand out trophies every single weekend, the process is so short in that time frame that now you're desensitizing the kids to, oh, I get a reward for every single thing that I do. Like, great, you won a four-team tournament this weekend. Here's your big ass trophy.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:38

That brings me back to the point I wanted to talk about with the another problem where I saw this conversation. I tend to agree this way, and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. Is it used to be when we were playing practice, practice, practice, practice, few games. Yes. Now it's game, game, game, no practice. Yeah. And I think that one accelerates what you're talking about. And two, it restricts development. Yeah. Because practice is your space to freely try new things and develop new skills where it is much less pressure situation, much less on you than in-game situation. You have less freedom to try things because you don't want to make an error, you don't want to screw the team, whatever scenario. Yeah. And I'd be curious to kind of hear your take on because I'm very much of the side, I miss the days where it was practice, practice, practice, as opposed to game, game, game, game, little practice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

That's again, though, when parents sign up with their kids nowadays, they want to, they want to get them on the best team. I think that's the motivation behind it. Like if you think your kids really good, okay, how do I get them with the best competition? How do we get on the best teams? Well, how do you, how does the best team prove that they're the best team? It's by winning a bunch of tournaments, right? So the organization that's collecting your money is they're playing all these tournaments so they can show everybody how much they win. Problem with that, like you said, you're missing out on all the the development that can happen with practice. So if I have one practice a week and I play six games on the weekend and I do the same thing the next week, you're not getting the development you think that you're getting. Right. And I I actually talked to a few of my pro guys about this. We have a pro guy that in the Astros organization, and he's a shortstop. And I asked him, How many, how many balls do you get hit to like in a game situation? And he estimated maybe six to eight in a game. In practice, I could get hundreds. Hundreds, right? So where are you being exposed to the right things in the game? Somewhat, yes. Like you need exposure to game situations because again, the stakes are higher, it's higher pressure situations. And the only way you can get the confidence is to perform in those environments. Is to perform in those environments, right? But in practice, I can at least get close to that. I can simulate okay, a hundred different ground balls hit to me, some to the left, some to the right. I can try different things. I could try to dive and get up and throw from my knee, which I might not be exposed to that in a game. So the development comes from practicing. Yes. And the more emphasis we put on practice, the more emphasis we're putting on the process. And the more emphasis that we put on the process, kids will enjoy that more, right? The athlete should enjoy, like, okay, this is how it is. I need to practice a bunch just so I can finally get that one moment that I can go win a big championship that matters a little bit more than all the 14 other tournaments that I played in throughout this year. And it's like that in pro sports. There's one championship at the end of the year, and only one group of guys gets to experience that. And part of the process going on to the next year, man, I really want to feel that way. So let's do it again. Like I want to train my body again. I want to come back better, bigger, faster, stronger. So I can help my team feel that way the following year. But again, when you do it every single weekend, it's significantly less about the process and more just about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:58

And I think about it as well, like talking about like the practice. Like what practice also does is it actually enables you to build more evidence. Yeah. Right. Because you can practice so many different scenarios. You can be really just put yourself in every possible scenario that you could ever find yourself in a game. But if you're only playing games and you have such minimal restriction, now when you find yourself in a new situation, you feel a lot of overwhelmed because you've never experienced it before. Yeah. Whereas if you practice, like you said, I could hit you a hundred different balls in a hundred different ways and make you react a hundred individual ways to different scenarios. So whereas when you get in a game, you've seen it before. You can talk to yourself before a pressure moment. I've seen this, I've done this, I've done it thousands of times. Whereas if at a game, you might be only, you might only be able to say, This is my first time ever rehearsing a scenario where it was bottom of the youth sports, bottom of the seventh or higher levels, bottom of the ninth, two outs, now I have to get this guy home. I've never done this before. Right. Or at least in practice, it's not the exact same scenario, but you can simulate it over and over. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:57

And your ability to come through.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:59

You build a conviction, the skill set to be able to do it, and you can reflect on that. Without that practice, with all the training in its just game situations, you have so much less evidence at your disposal, so many less levers to pull to show proof of concept that you can handle the moment. Right. And that's like the part that's frustrating for my end is like like kids in general and athletes, even in college, like they don't have the inventory at their disposal to say, I am capable, I can do this because of X, Y, and Z. If they've been thrown to the fire of this rat race that it has become, and it's, you know, it's it is it's frustrating and disheartening. But I think on the flip side, what it shows is there's so many different ways to come in and improve it. It's just how do we change the system or how do we impact the athlete at the greatest level?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:51

Yeah. It's it's just so hard. Youth sports is so far gone down this path where it has turned into, you know, everything. You have to win everything. Everyone has to be the best. Everyone has to play professional baseball. And you're you're missing out on the lessons that you learn along the way that's far more important than anything else. And I've been very fortunate. I I've been fortunate that I can make a life with sports, which is crazy to me that I grew up with the dream of playing a professional sport. Get to a certain high level, don't get to the pros. But now I've worked with plenty of pros. It's a different dream. You know, my dream was to play at the highest level, but somehow I am still able to make enough money to support my family that I can still do the things I love and still be involved in sports, which for a lot of people, that's that's not a possibility. But everything I learned along the way, I think helped mold this, right? It helped mold how I think. It helped mold my opinions about like this is what athletes should experience. But the problem is, it's like I said, it's gone so far this one way that now it's, you know, AAU is significantly different than it was whenever I was growing up. AAU was for the best of the best kids who were basically hand-picked, and there was one or two teams in the entire like city, and you would play other really good teams. Well, now there's these big organizations that make their name off of their top team, but now they have like a B team and a C team and a D team, and it's pay-for-play. Anybody can play for them. And they're, you know, developing their organization, filling their pockets with selling kids' dreams and parents' dreams that we're gonna help get your kid to the next level. That's again, it's not, it's not realistic. And and the problem is that I this is a quick story, but I watched a real life, and I've I've I know that this has happened so many times. I've I've caught big passes in football games before. And I think of myself whenever I was younger, throwing myself the ball in the backyard, like fourth down and 10, and I'm making up scenarios and I catch the winning touchdown. Well, that was evidence, like you said, of part of the process where I wasn't even like formally practicing. I was just putting myself in a high pressure situation that when, you know, I get into the game, I've I've recreated that in real life. But my neighbor, high-level basketball player, he's a good bit younger than me. I used to watch him play basketball every single day in his driveway and he would play by himself all the time. And I always remember him, like I'd hear him counting down, like three, and every kid does it. Three, two, and they hit the buzzer beater. And if they miss it, they start the count over. Right. And if they don't want to go inside for dinner, they start the counter. Just one more maha. But I watched this kid in real life do this his whole childhood. He gets in the conference championship game to go to the NCAA tournament, kid hits a buzzer beater to send his team to the NCAA tournament. And I'm like, I watched that kid thousands of times recreate that scenario over and over and over again. Now, did he miss other buzzer beaters along the way in his career? Of course he did. But he was manifesting and picturing himself in that situation from such a young age that he had the confidence to take that shot on the highest level possible. But that's just, again, that's proof that the process is just so important. And exposing kids to those situations is so important for just development down the line.

Kids Dreams, Identity, And Legacy

SPEAKER_03 1:19:17

And the point I want to make to bring this home is when I say like kids are delusional or parents are delusional about their kids and wanting their kids to play division one or be in the MLB or in the NFL, is I'm not here to tell you your kid's not athletic or they can't do it or they can't achieve things. Everybody should have a dream and set out and their actions should meet that level of dream, but it has to be guided and directed from the kid. Right. And the kid has to love it. And your job as the parent is to guide them into, you know, increased challenge along the way and, you know, help them throughout the process and not make it solely about being the division one athlete or the professional athlete, but about becoming a certain level of person. Right. Right. And all the things that come along with it. And then the professional athlete, the division one is a byproduct of a combination of genetics, desire, and your willingness as a young athlete to do those things. And some luck. And some luck. Yeah. Yes. And I just think that the conversation has become too much of the optimization that we talked about earlier, and not enough about just the development of young men and women and helping them become better people.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:24

Um we're building the hard thing is you don't want to build the kids' identity all around one specific thing. Right. One of the hardest things for me when I finished playing college football, all the conversations I would have with people outsiders, it was like, hey, how's football? Yeah. Yes. Well, when football's over, it was really challenging. Because I like, I don't really have much to talk about anymore. Nothing to talk about. Nothing to talk about. Yes. Like we can't be friends anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:53

But that's hard. It's it's very challenging. And I know what I experienced moving on from sports. Like I said, I'm lucky now. I'm fortunate to have built a career in sports still. But it's it's very hard to move along from something that was your identity for such a long period of time. And I'm I try to be aware of that with my kids. My kids are naturally just drawn to sports. Also very athletic. They're they are athletic. They're genetically gifted because my wife is just a phenomenal athletic.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

It has nothing to do with you.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:22

It has nothing to do with me.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:24

But yeah, it's uh that's a tough one. It's hard to I want my kids to just be good people. I want them to provide, you know, benefits for the world. I want them to be an asset to this world. And I want them to develop into good dads and good husbands. And, you know, whatever they want to do, I want them to be good at. But I don't want to build their identity just around one thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:48

I fall into this with with my kids too, is pe and people will be really like nice about it. It's kind hearted, they mean well. They'd be like, oh, like you're you should be so proud. Like your kids are so athletic and develop at like such a young age, and they're so good looking. And it's like, those are wonderful things. Yeah, it's great hearing that stuff. And it's and like I take it, it's very, I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm like, my response is always, I just want them to be good kids. Yeah. Because like I think about, you know, me, I'll use me as the perfect example here in this is like being a really good athlete, playing division one, being considered good looking by people. Who says that? Yeah, I don't like my wife used to, but but so like for me, the two examples like career ended, also like losing hair, really hard for me. Your identity. Yeah. Because like I was like, oh, you know, girls thought I was good looking, you know, and you know, I was really athletic, and then it's like boom, all those things are gone. I was like, well, shit. It's like what am I doing? It's like what is my use? But like, so like in a facetious way, I'm like, hey, I don't want my my girls and my son getting wrapped up in just being athletic or being cute or good looking or whatever it is. Like, let's like, I just want my kids to be really good, like behave well, do good in society. That's what I want for my kids. And obviously, nobody's walking around thinking like that, but like that is what I want with my kids. Like, above all else, I don't care. Obviously, I want them to pursue their dreams, be successful, but like be good, kind-hearted people that do well for others.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:20

Yeah. Why not going back to the social media thing? One of the toughest things for me, when I post things, I think a lot about like what I'm saying. And I'll do multiple takes just to make sure I say the right thing. Correctly. Yes. Who am I trying to impress? Like, do I want other coaches who are good coaches to follow me and like my post and comment on it? Like, am I getting self-gratification from that? Again, what am I? Am I doing this to be liked by my peers? Like, what's the point of that? For what? Like, they don't affect how much money I'm making. They're not affecting how good of a dad I am or how good of a coach I am. It's just like I'm providing evidence to myself that I know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Because people of authority who I like and who I envy are responding to me and being like, You're great, Tim. That's an incredible thought. But then when you think about it, it's like, that's a stupid way to live your life.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:15

Right. Like I want to post things and there, there are, I'm guilty of this. I want, I sometimes when I post things, I want other coaches to see that. And I get gratification from them being like, yeah, Tim, that you're spot on. Guys who I, who I think are are very good. That's cool to be in that circle with some of those people, but it doesn't matter to my life. Right. So I like with the social media stuff and really with anything, I want to provide for other athletes. Number one. When I'm posting things, I try to stay with the focus of this is going to help a kid out there who I don't have access to, or maybe can't afford to come in and train, or maybe they don't live in the area. So that I that's why I like. I like to help coaches who are maybe new, maybe don't understand something, coaches who I don't even know. They could be coaching middle school soccer and they implement one of my drills. Like, I think that's awesome. That's incredible. But I also want my kids, I want to give it's almost my way of giving them some evidence that when they get older, they can look back and like listen to the podcast, this, listen to this podcast and be like, this is how dad thought at that time. And I think that's really cool and powerful about the digital world nowadays, that you can click something and listen to something and be inspired by something. So for me, I always, again, there's there's always these underlying things. Like I want to market my business, right? I want to get the gym out there, I want to get my supplement out there. I want the gratification of other people liking me. I try to suppress those feelings. And again, it's the purpose and the mission of I'm doing this because I want to leave my kids something. I think it's like an aging, like midlife crisis thing where, like, all right, Tim, you're getting older. Getting older, like, what if you die tomorrow? Like, did you do enough? Like, do your kids have enough resources from you as a dad? Yeah. And I'm hoping that's not the case, right? I hope I live as long as I possibly can and grow up and be a grandfather and stuff. But um, I want my kids to see like this is what my dad was like.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:11

Because it's, you know, back then for me, all for to see my dad and my grandfather, my grandfather had Alzheimer's. So for me, it was very challenging because every time I think of my grandfather, I think of when he was losing it, right? And I would have loved to have videos documentation where I could be like, man, this is what he was like. You know, this was this was we called him Pep App Shorty. This was Pep App Shorty on a podcast. It's funny to think, but man, I would I would have loved to hear him talk. And I would have loved to hear his thoughts on performance or being a dad. I think that's that's the very valuable part of the digital world we're in.

Dilemma Nutrition Launch And Closing CTAs

SPEAKER_03 1:26:49

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming on again, man. Dilemma Nutrition, when's it coming out? When can you pre-order? Give me the details or give the guys the guys and girls details on.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:57

May or June. We uh I don't want to make it sound like it was super easy to create this supplement brand because this this has been well over a year. It's delicious, by the way. I've been sipping on it this morning. In the Christmas cup there. This is uh cucumber lemon is cucumber lemon just different. I think it's the best. It's so good. It's incredible. It's they're the best tasting supplements I've ever had. Like I can't, I I hate selling this, but I'm gonna I'm gonna sell it. But it is unbelievable. It's it just tastes so good. Yes. And I know exactly where it's coming from. Yes. I know how it's made, I know exactly what's in it, which I love. But yeah, Dilemma Nutrition, it's coming out um May or June. We drop our first supplement. Um we're not the website's not live yet, but if you went to dilemma nutrition.com or our Instagram, it's just at Dilemma Nutrition. You could sign up uh your email, and we have a cool offer for the first adopters of this, which I think is really cool. And yeah, you could uh sign up your email, get more information. We'll be sending out alerts, different things of this is gonna drop. Here and we explain the supplement better and we uh we explain what we're trying to do with this thing and some pretty cool storytelling involved that, you know, I think people would enjoy. So yeah, we'll get get there when we get there. But it's been been a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of resources. But yeah, it's it's crazy that that we're here. May or June.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:19

Heck yeah. Can't wait to get that out to everybody. Yeah, it's delicious. I'm not even lying. I just had a whole cup of it. I had like six cups before we started today. It's amazing. Actually, I have to pee really bad, but it was uh tasty, awesome. But uh this is always fun, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:34

I appreciate you. It's a great time coming back on and just chopping it up for a bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:38

Heck yeah. Listeners, thank you for tuning in. Tune in next week. Check us out, athletic42.com. Download the pod, subscribe to our YouTube channel, get the lemma nutrition. Five stars only, baby. Appreciate you, Tim. You're the man.