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Lifestyle Strength
We discuss ideas, principles, and tactics that help people improve their position in life. With a background in fitness, Lucas strives to empower others by sharing amazing stories of challenge, transformation, and growth.
Lifestyle Strength
Strength Beyond Muscles with Chris Chandler part 1
What happens when a successful CEO faces a physical and mental plateau? Chris Chandler, who runs multiple businesses including Backwoods Adventure Mods, found himself at this crossroads despite 17 years of entrepreneurial achievement. After tearing his meniscus coaching basketball and feeling pushed by his wife to take better care of himself, Chris embarked on a fitness journey that would transform far more than his physique.
The most surprising revelation from Chris's six-month transformation wasn't his improved appearance—though he acknowledges being in better shape now than during his athletic high school years. Instead, it was the profound mental clarity and emotional resilience he developed through consistent training. "Training has really changed my mental clarity," Chris explains. "It's gotten me to a spot where I'm a lot more confident in myself and what I'm trying to accomplish is really clear." This newfound mental strength allowed him to approach business challenges with fresh perspective, turning seemingly insurmountable problems into manageable obstacles.
Chris candidly shares that the first six weeks felt like pure work with little visible return—much like the early stages of building a business. The breakthrough came around the two-month mark when he began noticing not just physical changes but significant improvements in his thought processes. Perhaps most valuable was his transition from external motivation (pleasing his family) to internal drive, discovering that "doing it for me is why I'm doing it" ultimately made him "the best version for everybody else." This powerful shift from seeking validation to internal motivation offers a valuable lesson for anyone seeking lasting transformation in fitness, business, or life.
Ready to discover how physical training might transform your mental game? Listen now to hear Chris's full journey and learn why consistency ultimately matters more than motivation when creating lasting change in any area of life.
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Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to mastering health and well-being in the real world.
Speaker 2:I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of experience in holistic health, and I'm here with Lucas, a seasoned fitness coach, who's transformed the lives of hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1:We're here to share real stories and expert insights about embracing a healthy lifestyle while balancing the everyday hustle.
Speaker 2:Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve wellness and thrive amidst life's challenges.
Speaker 1:Let's dive in. Today, I'm joined with Chris Chandler. Chris is the CEO of Backdoor Backwoods Adventure Mods. Backwoods Adventure Mods Chandler Truck Accessories and Roam Built Right Among other companies and other investments.
Speaker 1:Yes, thanks for coming on the podcast, chris. Sure, glad to be here. So you obviously have been a high performer for some time in your business. Yes, but Chris has been working with me for about the last six months in the gym training and it's had a pretty awesome transformation, both physically, absolutely between getting leaner, putting on muscle, but I think mentally overall in life you could probably speak better than I can.
Speaker 1:Sure, your transformation has been a little bit deeper than that, sure, sure, yeah, well, initially, going back to, we own multiple businesses. It's my wife and I, morgan. It's been a family business for 47 years, so I'm the third generation owner from our family in it and I started that 17 years ago, really grew up in that company. So business-wise it's been great. I've learned so many cool things and got to experience so many just cool, entertaining, scary fun, exhilarating all at the same time, which we talk about that a lot. I know that when we're working out. But, um, and then you know, success changes over time, things, life changes over time and our business models change over time too, which causes all these other mentally anguishing things to happen. And um, um, I've really found the last six months that training has really changed my mental clarity. It's really gotten me to a spot where I'm a lot more confident in myself and, um, what I'm trying to accomplish is really clear and, um, you know why I'm doing it. So it's really changed. I mean, my family likes that I look better, but I would say, for me, I feel better. I feel better all the way through. Yeah, so do you think so? So, backing up six months ago, before you started, what were we at then? Like, what was making you, you know, outside of? Like I know morgan was pushing you, yeah, quite a bit to like go take, you know, better care of yourself physically, right, but for you, what was it like? What was the thing that? Like, okay, maybe I didn't get this a shot, maybe I didn't make a change, yeah, um, I think really like plateauing at work, oh, and just letting, letting problems. I always I like to deal with problems internally a lot and so not having an outlet to go help solve those problems, which lifting, has become a huge outlet for me. I really can channel anger and frustration, but I also become a lot more clear-headed when I do it.
Speaker 1:I would say I grew up as an athlete, so I've always been able to play sports and was good at about everything Not great, but played travel and was on good teams, great experience and then got into college and just kind of really quit. Everything. Started having a desk job. When I graduated I went to work for a company and really just kind of didn't take care of myself as much Not that I wasn't active, I think it was more my diet and what I was consuming and not really understanding it.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, moving, moving towards where I am now, it's it was like I kind of stayed that lifestyle for 20 years, yeah. And then this last year, morgan's, like you know, hey, you got to get it together, buddy. This time I had a. I had torn my Meniscus coaching basketball and that was like a real kind of heartbreaker for me. It was like it's the realization of, hey, you're getting older, it's, you know your body's going to start doing things and you don't take care of it. Not playing basketball, not playing Coach, coaching basketball, and I wasn't even running up and down.
Speaker 1:I wasn't even doing.
Speaker 2:I was squatting down in a timeout and talking to the team and it was like something dumb, yeah, just silly, but that kind of kicked it off.
Speaker 1:And then just her, really, you know, pushing me to be better, being the best version of myself, and she just turned 40. So that was also a catalyst. She was like, hey, we're going to get in shape, it's time, you know it's time to do this and I mean, I would say today I'm in the best shape I've ever been in my life, even throughout high school high school I was an athlete. I'm now I feel like I'm just so much in better shape all the way through. Well, you've definitely been working hard, been working both of you together, been working hard and doing it together has pushed you both right to um, to to hold yourself to the standard that you know you want to hold yourself and to push each other.
Speaker 1:I think that's something that a lot of couples can't do. It's really difficult to do because that's there's a level of vulnerability when training. You know, oftentimes, vulnerability when training. You know oftentimes coaching both men and women. You know how you coach one person. It's not necessarily how you coach another person, Right? And so y'all being able to, to sync up in that way, I think that's pretty unique, right. It's a good dynamic. I think yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean obviously it's why y'all?
Speaker 1:suck all your adventures, um. So tell me then, as you progress through this, um, what's been the thing that, like, has been the most impactful, like why you were at it, not necessarily now, but like when you realized like, okay, this is working, like this is I'm starting to feel different. Yeah, is working like this is I'm starting to feel different? Yeah, um, I would say like I think that the first six weeks were really hard as far as like you go in and you expect change to happen immediately and then I don't, it does it. It's just it like progresses on you and um, and really like understanding the mental side with it, the diet, the everything. It's like it really started to turn, maybe a couple months in for me, where it was like, hey, this is working. I started losing weight, which was great, but I think also started to see like I'm getting stronger, but also like I'm thinking clearer and I'm able to handle my problems differently. It's not as hard as I've, you know, made it feel. Yeah, and that's when it really started to shift. I was like gosh, this is actually so beneficial to like thought process Right, really just, and then like my kids going, dad, looking good, like you know. So it gets to that verbal, like positive reinforcement, yeah, and it helps you realize it. But like, the first six weeks was kind of just felt like work, just work, Just work, yeah. So almost like you just having to set aside any expectation for your Right, for your winning Right. So was that post six weeks when you realized things were starting to work? Was there anything specific to what we did? I know there was a lot in there, but like there's anything that stands out in your mind as to you know, you felt like that really really helped you, like that specific thing, I think.
Speaker 1:I think, like the lifting side, like we're doing hard stuff, you make us do really hard stuff and like and I I tell other people, I'm like we don't just go to the gym, it's like we're going to move some weight, like that's what we do and it's you've made us do really hard things that I would and I keep telling Morgan this now it's like I would never go do that on my own, like I would. Just I would never pick that exercise, like really, what we did yesterday, I would never go pick that. It was a tough one, was a tough one. Yeah, as a warrior I was like gosh, that was rough, but it was like just that.
Speaker 1:And then also like a more self-understanding of that I can become better over time and you know, and it's you have to work at it. So, like it's like you know, it's like you start to see a little bit of progress and you have to keep kind of, you know, doubling down on it and it gets more and more and more where where the hard stuff becomes easy later, but then at the in the moment, you're like gosh, this is a prof, like why am I doing this right? And then now it's like I want to do that, I want to do it every day. I think that's, you know, I we were talking about this yesterday with you know, in regards to other things that we do in life, like you know, there's plenty of times in business that you question like why, why am I doing this? You know, yeah, uh, because you don't see the, the fruit, you don't see the payoff, you don't see the. You know, and the whole reason you start, um, you might have other, you know, values, things that you care about, but the whole reason you start in business is so that you can, you know, do something, make an impact and provide for your family and have that freedom, right? Um, but when you find that, like you, the thing that you're doing is not hitting every single one of those, it feels like you're missing something.
Speaker 1:Sure, and I think fitness is a perfect analogy, because you can feel like you're doing something, you can feel your muscles working, you can feel your heart beating, yeah, and then you get a step on the scale. It's like nothing changed that day. Or you look in the mirror and you're like I look the same, right, and you're expecting, you know the a full-blown transformation just in that single day or that single workout. Right, it just doesn't happen that way, and that's. I think it's a really hard thing for most of us to wrap our head around. Right, it's like the we talked about this consistency like you have to continue to show up. It's not overnight. Business is definitely not that way.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's taken us 17 years to get to where we are now, where I finally feel like, wow, we're doing stuff. Yeah, even though we've we've, it looks like we've been doing stuff for a long time to other people, but, like, for us, it's like it's a continual work in progress and I feel like that's what my life's been in the last six months. It's like I'm progressing into this. You know what I'm really proud of now? And it came from a lot of things I wasn't proud of or I mean, it looked, looked like I was gosh, I had it all figured out. Or, you know, business is rocking, personal life's rocking, all that stuff, and inside I'm I'm in turmoil all the time with just little things and it's just simple things. It's not like, but you don't, I don't, you don't see that.
Speaker 1:And I think, like you know, the consistency of hey, keep showing up, keep doing it, and it's really I started. You know, figuring out doing it for me is why I'm doing it, not doing it to make Morgan happy, my kids happy, proud of me, it's I wouldn't be proud of myself doing it, and then that's the best I can be and then I'm the best version for everybody else. I think that's the epitome of being internally motivated that you've obviously come to realize if, even if you didn't have at the beginning, you have it now. Yeah, and that's something that you know, no one can ever take away from me. You'll always own that because it's, it's within you. Yeah, versus, like you know, if it's a partner. You know, know you could lose a partner right, you could.
Speaker 1:If it's um, you know, an event like the event can come and then be gone, and then you're always having to reset. You're always going to find that external motivator. A lot of people come to me and they say, well, I just need the motivation to do it. What you want. Yeah, I might be motivating today, might be that for the next like two weeks, but eventually you're not going to like me. I'm going to make you do really hard things. So it's not going to be necessarily motivating to you, it's just going to still be waking up and finding a reason to come in and do it. And if you have to find that reason every morning, it's less likely that you're going to come in and do it Right. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We want to invite you back next week as we continue the conversation and be sure to follow us on social media to get all of our content and clips and anything you might've missed. Again, thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.
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