Pushing4New: A Motivational Fitness Journey with Joao Alcolea

Sneaker Impact News: Joao Alcolea and the Inspiring Story Behind Pushing4New

In this episode of Sneaker Impact News, we welcome Joao Alcolea, founder of Pushing4New, a community-driven fitness initiative focused on motivating people to live healthier lifestyles. Joao shares his inspiring journey from being self-conscious in high school due to gynecomastia to becoming a dedicated fitness enthusiast and community organizer. He discusses how his upbringing, particularly the influence of his generous and optimistic mother, shaped his desire to help others.

Joao reveals the story behind Pushing4New, including how his first event attracted over 100 participants and the importance of providing a supportive environment for people of all fitness levels. He emphasizes the value of giving back to the community, working with underserved populations, and promoting sustainability through partnerships like the one with Sneaker Impact.

This episode is filled with personal anecdotes, motivational advice, and insights into the evolving fitness scene in Miami. Joao's dedication to making fitness accessible and enjoyable for everyone is truly inspiring. Don't miss out on his upcoming event on June 14th at Veterans Park in Miami Lakes, where you can join the Pushing4New Run Club for a summer kickoff filled with activities and community engagement.

Stay Connected & Learn More

https://www.instagram.com/pushing4new/

https://pushing4new.company.site

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Special Guest Joao Alcolea
• 0:40 Joao's Background and Sneaker Impact Tour
• 1:12 The Importance of Giving Back
• 3:30 Joao's Fitness Journey and Pushing4New
• 7:34 Starting Pushing4New and First Event Success
• 9:42 Joao's Work with Children and Personal Background
• 23:46 Partnerships and Community Engagement
• 31:23 Addressing Common Fears in Running
• 31:56 The Monthly Run Club Experience
• 32:26 Challenges of Organizing Weekly Events
• 33:04 First Run Club Event and Location Selection
• 34:23 Collaborations and Community Impact
• 37:03 Expanding the Run Club and Personal Growth
• 38:14 Balancing Fitness and Personal Life
• 41:02 The Hero's Journey and Overcoming Challenges
• 42:49 The Importance of Community and Mentorship
• 44:00 Future Events and Collaborations
• 59:00 Reflecting on Early Social Media Days
• 59:30 Joining Facebook for Run Club
• 1:00:01 Navigating Social Media Platforms
• 1:00:22 Editing Challenges on TikTok
• 1:01:05 Podcast Tools and Transcription
• 1:02:02 Celebrating Podcast Milestones
• 1:02:12 The Power of Podcasts and Learning
• 1:04:17 Running and Personal Growth
• 1:05:28 Acts of Kindness and Community
• 1:07:36 The Importance of Networking
• 1:09:49 Quickfire Questions and Personal Insights
• 1:16:45 The Future of Pushing4New
• 1:20:35 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Transcript

Bryan the Botanist: 0:03

welcome back to Sneaker Impact News. I got a special guest in the house, Joao Alcolea Joao. What's up buddy? How you doing? Everything good? Yeah, man.

Joao Alcolea: 0:10

Excited to have you here. Um, how you feeling today? Super excited. First time being on a podcast and you know, I've talked to myself in the shower enough times, relaying the questions out here on podcast, so I'm excited to, you know, be able to share my story and everything we got going on at Pushing4New.

Bryan the Botanist: 0:24

Yeah, man. Well, you came recommended by my colleague, happy Runner Jaz, who said that you're someone I should definitely talk to that's doing great things in the community that is, um, inspiring people to live a healthier life. And, um, today we're gonna talk all about your journey and, uh. You know, um, welcome to Sneaker Impact. I heard you got a tour from our founder. Yeah. How did that go?

Joao Alcolea: 0:45

Super impressive what you guys are doing here. Like, I was mind blown by the technology and the amount of things that you guys are making, and it's amazing to see that like, you know, you guys are also very focused on the underserved communities, which is super important. You know, we have a big market here, so why, why focus only here, you know, we have

Bryan the Botanist: 1:02

other countries we can help. Exactly. And none of the shoes are sold online in the us. They all leave the country to serve a second life for those, you know, 25% of children in the world don't have proper footwear. And 75% of the world depends on the secondhand market. And I know your parents are Cuban and Brazilian, right? Yeah. And in Cuba, I know especially they have a big need for support. Yeah.

Joao Alcolea: 1:22

I literally have cousins that are to this day wearing my clothes from when I was two, three, maybe 10. Like wow. My whole life, my parents always told me, we're not throwing anything away. Everything that you do not fit in anymore or you don't see yourself wearing. We're sending it to Brazil. We're sending it to Cuba. And just this week I literally had my mom tell me how one of her friends had four kids, and the fourth one right now is still currently wearing my clothes. Wow. And wearing some of my shoes.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:45

So amazing. Yeah. That's amazing, man. So it really humbles me to hear that, you know, I grew up where, in Wisconsin where, you know, every Christmas we had presents under the tree. And you know, I didn't come from a rich family, but me and my brother shared a car, the same car, but we had a car.

Joao Alcolea: 2:01

Mm-hmm.

Bryan the Botanist: 2:02

You know, and we had a home and we had hot water and we had electricity. And I've even heard of stories of people in the US that have had to choose between hot water or electricity or paying their water bill versus, you know, and not, and, and even in me as an adult, I've struggled at times financially. So I, I can, I really appreciate that you're the type of person in Miami that. Understands that, you know, we need to give back and we need to also, um, not waste anything. Right. That's a big thing. That's what we're all about here with the shoes, is not throwing'em in the trash. Even if they're end of life, we can create new products out of'em. Yeah. Which I think you saw the sandals. Right.

Joao Alcolea: 2:35

Keep it going. Just making the most out of everything that we have. Yep. And because at the end of the day, there's always somebody that doesn't, that has less. Mm-hmm. And to us, we might not value something as much anymore, but to somebody else that's like a brand new pair of shoes. You're right.

Bryan the Botanist: 2:47

Yeah. And there's a lot of waste unfortunately, in this country. So we're trying to, that's the big problem we're trying to solve. Right. Um, so I brought you a mango today for my mango tree.

Joao Alcolea: 2:55

Perfect. For mango season.

Bryan the Botanist: 2:57

Yep. Um, like this is actually my favorite fruit. Yeah. This is actually my favorite fruit. Okay. I got about 30 of'em in the, in the office and I brought'em in for everyone. But I'm gonna send you home with more than one, but that's my, my token mango for you off of my personal mango tree in my backyard. So I appreciate it. I appreciate it. They're raining right now, man. They're coming down about 30 a day, so

Joao Alcolea: 3:13

makes me miss my mango tree. I, I had at home.

Bryan the Botanist: 3:15

Yeah. What part of Miami did you grow up here?

Joao Alcolea: 3:18

Yeah, so I grew up for up to 10 years old. I always lived in Miami Gardens and then from then to now I've been living in Miami Lakes. Awesome. Okay. So you were

Bryan the Botanist: 3:26

born and raised in Miami.

Joao Alcolea: 3:28

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 3:28

So I want to hear about your Miami youth in a little bit, but first lemme give you an introduction. So guys, Joao Alcolea is the founder of Pushing4New at pushing number 4 New N-E-W. He's a community organizer, fitness motivator, and founder. Of an amazing fitness club. He's Brazilian Cuban, and he has an amazing story about how his fitness club has really evolved in his own fitness journey. So today we're gonna talk about all that and more. We're gonna talk about how he's collaborating with Sneaker Impact. We're gonna talk about the challenges he's overcome and what his future holds and what his inspirational thoughts are on. Life in Miami and just helping people, which is what it sounds like you're all about. So, Joao, um, why did you start Pushing4New and how did it get started?

Joao Alcolea: 4:17

Oof. So it's a long story. Has many phases, and I, I would say the main thing that started was me getting into the gym I, around, like my junior year of high school. I was like, okay, like I, so I have gynecomastia, right? I don't, I don't know if you know that. No. Tell us what that is. So gynecomastia is like a gland under in your chest, and it makes it look like, you know, you have a little bit like boobs and it has like, it makes a puffiness. And like, I, I had that and I was like, okay. Like I would hate wearing tank tops or anything tight. Mm-hmm. So it would show, and then I was like, okay. And then I had a little bit of a belly, but had skinny arms, skinny legs, and I was like, okay, the only way I can get out, like, you know, out of this is going to the gym. So I started going with my best friends to the gym, and I actually got addicted quick. I, I was like, okay, this is where I want to be every day after school. I was there every day and I became that guy that was always on Snapchat or Instagram. Posting every day, at least one part of my exercise. Wow. So like I became quickly that, that guy that lives in the gym and, you know, fast forward to 2021, I moved away to, to UCF. I went to in Orlando and I got there in August and I would say September or October I came back down to visit my cousin'cause he had a, an event going on. Mm-hmm. And during that time, like during that weekend that I was here, I ended up breaking my hand and I had to get surgery on my hand. So I was like, there's no point in me going back to Orlando. Like most of my classes were online, I could figure it out. So I just stayed out at my mom's house for the meantime while I recovered. And, you know, I had less expenses here than I were to if I would go back to Orlando. So then I, so I stayed here for like, I think it was till like January, December, but I had two friends, well three friends that were very big into power lifting at that time. So they were like, oh, let's go work out since you really can't do anything with your hand. Let's go hit legs. Okay, cool. And we start hitting legs and I see these guys are putting up numbers, like they're moving weight. And I was like, damn, like I never tried this for myself or like, you know, let, why not? And I had so much fun. And they also had Instagram's, aside from their personal Instagram, they had a Instagram page for their fitness journey, like to log their power lifting and all that. So that stayed in the back of my mind. I got back to Orlando and I was like, why not? Like I'm about to, I'm basically hit a reset. I've been outta the gym for four months. There's a reset, lemme start posting. And like, I keep track of my numbers there. And I was just posting, like, I'll put my phone on the corner of the floor, just prop it up, record and, you know, nothing crazy, no edits, no nothing. Just straight raw footage. And slowly I started getting followers. People started like telling me, Hey, like I wanna start working out. Can you get me a program? Uh, like, can you gimme advice? Do you have any tips that I can get? And that was like the biggest thing. Like I, I was excited. I would write people paragraphs, telling'em everything I know everything they should do. I would send them videos. Like I was like, I went above and beyond and little by little I started like getting recognition for it. And people started asking me like, oh, are you selling them? And I was like, you know, I'm in college. I'm a little broke. Like, why not? So I started, I started selling eight, 12 and 16 week programs. And my programs weren't like, oh, to make you a bodybuilder, a power lifter, none of that. Most of the people were just the average Joe that wanted to work out get fit. So they wanted a simple program. And I knew how to make it fun, simple and effective, where you weren't getting burnt out, you weren't getting tired, you know, you were still enjoying it. And fast forward to the biggest part of Pushing4New now is last year before international running day. Like that week before.'cause I know South Beach Run Club is on Thursdays. Yes. My friend goes to South Beach Run Club. He posts the Instagram. I was like. Damn, that looks fun. Like that looks super cool. And I was like, oh, let me know. When's the next one? He tells me, next Wednesday's international running day, let's go. And that was his first time going to a run thing too. So it was like, we're like, okay, let's go do this together. Yeah, I went out there, man, like the whole atmosphere of like, first of all, giving away stuff, the energy of everybody supporting each other, the views and Brickell. Like literally every excuse.'cause I hated running. I truly hated running. I was like, why? Like I'd rather just go lift some weights. And I started run. I went to that, like that run. And I loved it. And then literally after I stayed, I went out with one of the Pacers and my friend, he knew some people that were there. I went out with one of the Pacers to go eat at Rice and she started telling me her story of how she became a runner, how she got involved as a pacer, shout out to Ashley. And like, I got so motivated, she was like, why not? Like, you know, like try it out. And literally from then on last I was like, this is what I gotta do. And I was like, it's free. You could do it anywhere and you could do it at any time. Because when with weightlifting, I had to convince people to get a gym membership. I'm in Orlando, so if I'm doing online programs, I can't correct your form. I can't motivate you. Be like, oh, let's go to the gym today. Let's go train. Like there's only so much I could do. And with running it was like. Running is super simple. Like you literally just have to put miles on your feet and you'll learn. Sure. And then you get advice. You go to coaches if you wanna get to another level. Yeah. You

Bryan the Botanist: 9:13

go levels deeper, it gets more complex. You know? Exactly. Like if, but there are some runners who take it so serious, they have everything broken down by the hour of the day in terms of nutrition and recovery and workouts. But that's true. I mean, just getting started, it's all about just having fun and socializing and

Joao Alcolea: 9:29

Right. And especially if you're, if your goal is not to be a marathoner, you just wanna get active. Yeah. Running, you could do simple. Yep. And so I, I was like, okay. I, I started going and then, so at that, so fast backtrack a little bit, like three months before I went to that event, I started working as a behavior therapist with children that have autism. Oh wow. And then I was like, okay, I start, and then, so then fast forward now to, to like back to the three months. So I went to the International Run Day. I enjoyed it. Like, I think that same week I was like. I would love to replicate this. Like same route, Brickell views everything. I was like, you know what, let's go let, let's replicate this. And I was like, okay, what I'm gonna do is like Joe Robinson with, there's four pillars I want to get back to a charity. I was like, okay. The same charity that gave me a 40 hour course for free to become a behavior therapist, I wanna give back to them. So I had one of my friends design a shirt. I was like, I want you to make P four N Pushing4New make a puzzle piece and we're gonna sell these tank tops. We're gonna make all the money that comes with it. We're gonna donate to Autism Partnership Foundation. And I was mind blown by how many people showed up. Wow. From Miami Lakes, which is my main area to get people to go to Brick on a Saturday afternoon where I know there's plenty of things they could be doing in Miami. Sure. To have like around a hundred and something people come up to my first event. Whoa.

Bryan the Botanist: 10:42

Your first event. First event. That's incredible. I mean, I've had my own run clubs. I've never gotten a hundred people and that's what I'm saying. I was when I hundred people. Yeah. I was like

Joao Alcolea: 10:50

a hundred people from my first semester. Wow. Like mind blowing. I'm on a

Bryan the Botanist: 10:53

Saturday. That's impressive too, because. Probably Saturday morning, right? No,

Joao Alcolea: 10:56

Saturday

Bryan the Botanist: 10:57

like sunset.

Joao Alcolea: 10:58

Oh, wow. Because I wanted that sunset view. That how I harder, that's how I experienced it.

Bryan the Botanist: 11:01

Because you usually think of Saturday morning for fitness. Right? Right. But in terms of with Miami, we either have to run in the morning or in the late afternoon evening.'cause of the heat. Yeah, literally. Um, so what does

Joao Alcolea: 11:12

Pushing4New mean to you? So those same friends that had that Instagram, they had like, one of'em, his name was just lift the weight. So like I was trying to like get in that spectrum of like, how do I involve like, like with fitness and you know, when you, when you work out, it's either push pull or legs, right? Mm-hmm. And then obviously his was lift. So then I was like, push pull. And then I was like, push. And then I was like, push, when you push, you go forward. My goal is always to encourage people to go forward. Mm-hmm. So then I was like, okay, pushing. And then I was like Pushing4New and like Pushing4New just came out naturally. And I was like, I like that. Like it flows off the tongue. Yeah. It is. Like, you know, and it was, I felt like it's cool new.

Bryan the Botanist: 11:48

New life, new energy, new health. Exactly. You're not pushing to the old, to the past. You're pushing to the new Exactly. To the new you.

Joao Alcolea: 11:55

Exactly. And every day is something new. Yep. Whether it's a new idea, new ambition, new goal. Mm-hmm. New lifestyle, whatever it is. Like,'cause I don't tie myself only to fitness. Yes. Fitness is a big part of me, but like, I, a lot of my conversations don't always involve fitness. Like, I'm encouraging people to start this project, start this idea, because we, a lot of people get psyched out with, you know, the negativity that's in the world. They're like, they see these big projects and they're like, oh, I don't know. I don't know how to do this. Or, you know, people are scared to take the next leap. Mm-hmm. So I always just try to encourage people because I, I'm blessed with the ability to like, have conversations with people and just change their complete mindset into the positive manner like. I'm a glass half full kind of person. Yeah. I can tell. You're very optimistic. Thank you. Have you always

Bryan the Botanist: 12:32

been this way? Have you, from your youth when you were a kid, no. Brothers and sisters or your family life? I mean, how did this all start? Where did you get this, that mindset? I know you said you were a little self-conscious in high school. Yeah. But where did this mindset come from?

Joao Alcolea: 12:45

My mom really? My mom. Yeah. Tell us a

Bryan the Botanist: 12:48

little more.

Joao Alcolea: 12:48

So,

Bryan the Botanist: 12:50

yeah,

Joao Alcolea: 12:55

I was talking, got me dry sounds. Yeah. Yeah. So my mom literally has like, well, I would say my mom, literally, my whole life has been like my number one friend, number one cheerleader. Like anything I think about she's there.

Bryan the Botanist: 13:06

Nice.

Joao Alcolea: 13:07

And she's always been like optimistic on anything I wanted to do. So, and then like any idea, like back in middle school, high school, if I could, like, I was big into shoes. I was like a sneakerhead. Mm-hmm. If I could sell shoes, if I can sell anything, because like. My parents weren't blessed enough. Like after, like I became like, you know, in my teenage like 13, 12, around there, my parents had enough money to put a roof over our head and give us food. Give me food, right? And you know, the house is good, everything is good. But I wanted shoes. I wanted the clothes, I wanted the street wear, all of that. So my mom always told me, she's like, my mom always showed me an example. She's like, if you want something, go get it. So guess what? I started, I'll buy one pair of shoes, I'll flip it for maybe another 20,$30 a profit, or I'll sell chips, I'll sell chocolate. Like anything I can make money off of. I was doing it like So you're, you were an entrepreneur at a young age? Yeah. Like anything.

Bryan the Botanist: 13:55

And my parents was taught me that earlier. They're like, you understood the economy of of of, of consuming. Yeah. Or consumerism, which is that some people just want things easy, convenience-wise, and you can help them with that. Yeah. But you also probably had some integrity with it, I'm sure. Like you weren't just gonna do things in the wrong way. You were

Joao Alcolea: 14:15

No. Yeah, like I, like I, I was raised in a household that we're very, like, we have a lot of integrity where like there's no cutting corners, there's no like scamming people. There's like none of that. Like, you know, we're gonna do things the right way. And if it doesn't, if you, if you want more out of life, you gotta work for it. Work for it. Yep. And that's, it's not thing in

Bryan the Botanist: 14:31

fitness, I mean, you're not, you can try to cut corners with, I'm sure as you've seen in the fitness industry, some people probably take synthetic or well forget about synthetic, but maybe things that aren't good for their body or maybe. You know, there's really no way to cheat to get healthy, I don't think

Joao Alcolea: 14:45

at all. And a lot of people want to cheat. You can try to look super jacked. Yeah. But you might not be healthy. Exactly. And at the end of the day, it's like, yeah, you just jumped from here to here. But I think the best part of all of like the whole finish journey is the journey. Mm-hmm. The little things that you learn about yourself, the little things that, that you discover along the way. Like I truly think that's why we all like value all of this more. Mm-hmm. I'm pretty sure with all the marathons that you run, every time you run, you learn something new about yourself. Yeah. You learn something new about the course. Like those are the fun things that you learn every time and you get to apply or help somebody else learn something, you know?

Bryan the Botanist: 15:20

Yeah. And you just continue living healthy, you know, like, I don't wanna stop running or being healthy. Which involves good sleep, which involves good nutrition. You know, I rarely even have one beer anymore, but when I was younger, I used to have a fair amount of alcohol and I used to sometimes go the wrong way, a little bit down a path that I shouldn't have gone. But I realized that that's not good for you. And, um, running is good for you. Lifting weights is good for you. Yoga, all these things, Pilates, biking, swimming. I do a lot of different things besides run, but ultimately, you know, as I'm approaching 50 in a couple years, I still feel like I'm 20 or 30 years old and I wanna keep that feeling right. And that's what running a marathon or training or going to your, your, your group will help give you that energy versus, you know, going to the clubs and being destructive, you know, with your body and your soul. Um, and you literally lose a whole weekend. And then you also start to just not be motivated anymore. And you can lose the motivation really quick. Yeah. And some people work out for a short period of their life, you know?

Joao Alcolea: 16:15

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 16:16

But I think the goal would be to, I know for me, I don't wanna stop. Running because if you stop, like there's a saying and I don't a hundred percent subscribe to it, but if you slow down, you're going down.

Joao Alcolea: 16:27

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 16:28

So why slow down in the terms of that just means don't slow down in being healthy, you know? It doesn't mean like you can't pause and meditate on things and reflect, and you should have recovery days. But you know, if you stop running for a whole year, it's really hard to get back into running. If you stop lifting weights for a year or even six months. I'm sure if you stop, if you, if all of a sudden your life were to change because you would get caught up in the wrong thing, you would be struggle and you'd be like, it's a reflection point. And that's what happened to me. Yeah. Do I want to go down this path like I was a DJ and I still am, and do I want to hang out with all these people late at night or do I wanna wake up early in the morning and train hard and be the best runner I can be and also help others as a coach.

Joao Alcolea: 17:08

Mm-hmm. How

Bryan the Botanist: 17:09

about you like. Have you always wanted to help others?'cause as a coach with your Pushing4New group, you're helping a lot of people. Have you always

Joao Alcolea: 17:16

been this type of giver? Yeah. My mom, my mom always like, obviously I was way too young like to remember these stories, but my mom like always tells me these stories. She's like, I would be two, three years old and we would drive by like, you know, maybe there's a homeless person or something like that. And I would beg my mom to stop. Mm-hmm. Just to give this guy the rest of my McDonald's or something. Like, wow. It was like, tho I, I, I even get like shocked that those stories, I'm like a 3-year-old, like yeah. You know, like naturally that's very rare wanting to do those things. And I, maybe it comes because of the examples of my parents. My, my dad would literally leave his jobs like,'cause my dad was construction. He would leave his jobs if it meant to like, you know, go help his friend real quick. Build something in his BA bathroom or a plumbing busted or you know, something like that. Very generous, very giving

Bryan the Botanist: 17:57

to his friends and family. Yeah. Those who need

Joao Alcolea: 17:59

help. Exactly. And my parents have always led me by example with that. So I, I feel like in just naturally I've always wanted to help people and that's how I kind of like. I've always made my, I always wanted to be a doctor. Mm-hmm. Because I was like, I wanna help people. And I always wanted to be a pediatrician because I wanted to help children.'cause I, I guess I was a child, so I was like, I wanna help people just like me. Yeah. So that was how I started getting into health field. And my goal is really always just to help people. And if I have the knowledge, like I, like if I have the knowledge, I have the experience, I have the words, why not? You know? Absolutely.

Bryan the Botanist: 18:30

Yeah. Uh, we were talking the other day on the last podcast about how a coach is someone who really encourages people. Yeah. I think that word encourage is really important. Like, I'm a high school coach and last night we had our sports banquet, um, and I've been doing it for 15 years and I really reflect upon, you know, I'm not doing it for the money. It's really not much money. Yeah. It's not much money at all. Um, I'm making hundreds of trips to the high school, you know, and it's a long drive and I am spending a lot of time with these kids who end up going to college and sometimes we lose track of each other, but ultimately I'm having a big impact in their life. And which humbles me because I'm. Kind of like a third parent to them, you know what I mean?

Joao Alcolea: 19:07

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 19:07

And um, they are, my kids and I, you give a lot and it's not about the money you're getting paid or about the fame, um, because yeah, 15 years. Oh wow, that's so cool. But no, it's like even the first year felt so special helping these kids from fifth graders to seniors for the cross country team and the track team. And I coached soccer a little bit too, but it just was such a rewarding, you feel so good and you really can see as they develop, just you feel good about seeing them grow and turn into leaders. And I'm sure people not only are getting stronger in your club, but they're also probably becoming more self-confident, more disciplined, more focused, more patient, more, you know, finding their why in life, you know? Yeah. A thousand percent. We talked about your why and, you know, tell us a little bit more about your work as a, as a, with, with children. Is that with autism? Is that, is that your full-time job? Right now? Yes. Okay. So

Joao Alcolea: 20:06

what, what does that entail you work with children with? With autism? Yeah. With traditional, well any behavior disorder, but right now I'm currently working with autistic children. Okay. But, um, like in a

Bryan the Botanist: 20:15

sec, like in a school pro, like a alternative school or, so

Joao Alcolea: 20:18

the, I, right now I only work with one client because, you know, as like is a specific amount of hours you have to work with him. Mm-hmm. And I work with him like in a facility where, you know, I'll spend most of the day with him, you know, and we'll work on things like that need to be targeted. Yeah. But that idea, well, back to like how I, like the whole idea of me walking into end, ending up in this field. Yeah. So in high school, well my idea was always to be, since middle school it was to be in physical therapy. And so I was like, okay, I love physical therapy. This is where I wanna be. Like, it's the sports side and I also get to help others and. Towards, you know, high, high school. The, I went to a, a technical college. Mm-hmm. Technical high school and the physical therapy program shut off in like my sophomore year. So they threw us in, threw us into nursing. And so I was able to get my CNA, I did some cl like I was able to stay the whole year for LPN. Okay. But to get the LPN license, I had to go to post-secondary and I knew I didn't want to do that. So I was like, you know, it was LPN'cause

Bryan the Botanist: 21:15

I know a certified nursing associate. Right. Uh, assistant Assistant. Okay. What's an l pn? LPN

Joao Alcolea: 21:20

is licensed Practic Practical Nurse. If I'm not mistaken. I honestly, I don't remember too much of those things, but, so you started down the nursing path? Yeah. Well the thing is, I only went to that pro, that program because I was like, this is generalized information. Mm-hmm. And I was like, why not? Like, you know, get as much information and experience. Sure. And then I, but I wasn't gonna stay this in college. No, this is high school. But my high school, instead of having sports, I didn't, I didn't have sports. So towards the last two, uh, as the last two classes, the last period of the day, you would go into your, your. Academy. So like a vocational, like Yeah. It was a vocational high school. Prepare you for Yeah, exactly. Employment or for work. For working,

Bryan the Botanist: 21:58

yeah. For working. That. Cool. If you wanna continue that path, that's cool. But you missed out on sports. Do you ever feel you wish you would've had a sports program?

Joao Alcolea: 22:03

I always wished I was in sports and I guess that's why I'm so big into fitness now. Yeah.'cause I've, I missed out on the camaraderie. Sure. That like, you know, that, that environment. And what sports do

Bryan the Botanist: 22:11

you think you would've played?

Joao Alcolea: 22:13

I always liked basketball. Yeah. Basketball and football. I don't like watching football as much, but I like playing football. Okay. But I don't know, I never, so American football with the throne. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm a disappointing Brazilian. I was never, I turned on soccer Yeah. For the World Cup. And that's about it. Like, it never Did you like, you like watching it though? Yeah, I like watching the, like the World Cup, like the least. Sure.'cause for 90 minutes, like sometimes like it's a long game. Yeah. Yeah. It's a long game. I

Bryan the Botanist: 22:36

grew

Joao Alcolea: 22:36

up playing

Bryan the Botanist: 22:37

soccer. Oh, so you I played till I was 28. Oh, nice. And then I became a marathon runner, but I didn't run in high school, but I played soccer in high school and tennis. Nice. But yeah, I wasn't tall enough to probably play basketball or I mean you could, you just have to be exceptionally talented. Yeah. And my height, I'm surprised

Joao Alcolea: 22:51

I made it to my height. Yeah. Because both of my parents are five two. Wow. Yeah, I know. I I thought I was stuck you five 10 or so.

Bryan the Botanist: 22:57

cause you're a couple inches,

Joao Alcolea: 22:57

inches high. I wish I'm like, my license says five nine, but Okay. I don't think that's accurate. Mine just five nine too. I think

Bryan the Botanist: 23:02

you got inch on me, so, but I don't know. You can,

Joao Alcolea: 23:05

you can say five 10 if you want. I, I think when I tell people I'm five nine, they're like,

Bryan the Botanist: 23:09

I got measured at my, it's funny'cause me and my ex-girlfriend have this conversation. We're best friends and like, she's like, you're not five nine.'cause she's like an inch or two smaller than me and she thinks she's like five five. And I'm like, I went to my physical a year or two ago, they measured me and they said five nine and, and, and I sent her the photo and I had, I was like, the nurse just told me I'm five nine without my shoes on. So I'm five nine because that's how my drives. So, and I, and I think, I mean we, we could do a cute little, uh, thing at the stand up side, but we don't have the cameras set up right. We're telling you we're gonna get a third camera in here soon, but man, we're gonna have you back the next episode. We'll do the height comparison. Yeah, we'll do the height comparison. We'll get jazz in here and We'll, because I think you got me by half an inch or so.

Joao Alcolea: 23:45

Yeah. I don't know. I got these res Ooh. Yeah. Nice. So they do have gimme a little boost. Nice. So how do you feel about on You like them? I have a long story. No, don't have a long story with on, but like, I, I, I think since January, yeah, since February. Like I started like, you know, partnering up with the on here in Design District. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We know that store

Bryan the Botanist: 24:03

Well. I know people who work there.

Joao Alcolea: 24:05

Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm really close with most, most of the people that work there. Yeah. My friend Carlos. I

Bryan the Botanist: 24:09

think Alex is who we know. Yeah. My boss, Alex Mon knows Alex. Alex, yeah. Alex. They brought us a bunch of shoes, by the way, singles. Oh yeah. Nice. That they didn't need anymore singles, you know, just one shoe. Yeah. They brought us like a hundred of'em. Wow. And we're, we're, we're finding'em a new home. That amazing. We're trying to pair'em up with a second shoe, but sorry to interrupt you. No, that's said you got some friends there. Yeah. Yeah. So,

Joao Alcolea: 24:25

Alex, Jason Meow, like, um. Yeah, I know that I'm missing one. Right. How did you

Bryan the Botanist: 24:30

make friends at the on design district? So you live in Miami Lakes, right? Yeah. That's like super far away.

Joao Alcolea: 24:34

So my friend Melo, he started work like I've known me. Melo or Melo? Melo. Melo, yeah. Melo. MELO. Like chill? Yeah. Like Melo. Okay. I, he started, he started working there towards the end of last year. Mm-hmm. And I've known him since I was in high school and like Wow. We're, we're really close. So random. He started working there and then, you know, like I, I started like showing up to the run club. I started, they had me. Yeah. They have a run club pacing for their Miami marathon shakeout run. Whoa. Yeah. So that, that was a huge position that, you know, I thank them for putting me in. Yeah. And you know, I've, I've like been, I've supported them. I love, like I truly love this is not a sponsor. No. None of this. I truly love that environment that they have in that store. Mm-hmm. Amongst the team and also the brand. Like, I really like the, the focus that they have like. You know, encouraging people, especially like their last campaign called Soft Wind. Okay, tell me about that. Like there's, it is a soft wind, so it's for the cloud surfer too. Mm. So the soft, soft wind was like basically soft wind, soft winds. Like wind. Like wind, yeah. Oh, okay. Because you know how like for example, like Nike's doing this campaign or like, you know, like, like hard Yeah. Go hard. Yeah. They want the opposite end soft wins, soft wind. Especially how their shoes are super soft.

Bryan the Botanist: 25:37

That's, that's low key. Like really cool. Yeah. So I was like, kids say low key nowadays. Yeah, yeah. Low key. Low key.

Joao Alcolea: 25:44

But they, that campaign, like I truly loved it because that's kind of resembles what Pushing4News is about, Pushing4News is about like, I'm not really trying to make people marathoners, elite power lifters. Like I'm just trying to get you to enjoy the, like, the aspect of moving your body and you know, maybe you just, maybe before you only do half a mile without stopping. Now you can do a mile. Like those are soft wins and if you can

Bryan the Botanist: 26:06

do 10, that's incredible, but you're not making people feel bad or it's not about making'em feel bad. But I feel like a lot of run clubs and mine especially. I'm, I used to have two or three run clubs in Miami Beach back in the day, starting in 2010, all the way to 2022. COVID. Kind of put a little damper on it all, but, um, I, mine was focused, I mean, we had a Sunday morning run club where we would do long runs. Everyone would do like six miles at least, but some people were doing like 20 from South Point Park and we'd started Sunrise have we had food afterwards? It was called Form First Run Club, and then I had one at Flamingo Park in Miami Beach, Flamingo Track called Project 3 0 5. And that was for very serious runners. Mm-hmm. We, we did allow all levels, but it was a very, very serious group of people. Right. Like we were all very fast in general, and people who came were doing monster workouts, like 20 to 30 reps of these track intervals. Sometimes we'd do 10 miles on the track and we'd be there till they, they close the place down. So like people started to, my reputation was, you know, that I'm pushing people to be their best. Nice. And yours, is that your, I like yours is very similar to Joe's in the sense, you know, Joe Robinson. Mm-hmm. You guys. Are getting a huge community involved and you're reaching out to everyone. Yeah. And that way you're not making anyone feel intimidated. And I didn't want people to feel intimidated by me, but my personality is very intense. And I'm also very serious. You know, I've, I've run in 51 marathons. I've won several of them. 51. Yeah. I've, I've won four of'em. I've run 2 31 in my forties, you know. Wow. Congrats. That's a five 40. That's super impressive. Yeah. I never broke two 30, but you know, I'm a very serious marathon runner. I've won, I've won a lot of money. Not a lot, but you know, I've won like five to$10,000 in my life running. Congrats. Like whenever you run, win any money, you're considered a professional. No. A thousand. You know, I had a shoe contract, wasn't paid, I just got free shoes from a company in Sweden that was, you know, I represented for three or four years. But that was a big deal. I was the only person in Miami with a shoe contract that I knew, you know, and it was an opportunity through a running store, but like, these things didn't pay the bills.

Joao Alcolea: 27:59

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 27:59

I still had to have a full-time job. And still I was not, I was a small fish in a big pond. Mm-hmm. Once I left Miami, sure. I won a lot of races here. I won a lot of half marathons in five Ks. I won the tropical 5K three years in a row. Wow. Man. In the fifteens, you know? And, um, that's hard to win a race three years in a row. Yeah. I won the Halloween half marathon, nine times in Miami Beach. Geez. Yeah. And, and I got second place last year at 46 years old. Are you kidding me? Even after Achilles surgery, so, um, which I had two of them in the last year, so that humbled me. But even so when I, Joel, when I would travel to Boston, Berlin, Chicago, New York, LA London, I've competed all over the world. I would get 200th place. You know, and I never made the Olympic trials or Olympics. There's, you know, there I was never in the top 100 in the US for the marathon.

Joao Alcolea: 28:48

Mm-hmm.

Bryan the Botanist: 28:49

So there's always someone that's faster than you. Yeah. Even in Miami, there are some incredibly talented runners now, and I'm kind of more now a masters runner. That means you're over 40. But I'm just saying that it really gives you perspective that when you're younger, I think you wanna be the best you can be always. And you really have this dream. Like, I wanted to make the Olympic trials and I was close. There's nothing wrong with having that mentality though. Yeah. I was fairly close. There's nothing wrong with having the mentality. Yeah. I just didn't quite get there. But I was so fierce that I didn't go to birthday parties. I didn't go to anything. I didn't go out dancing for years in my thirties. I didn't start dancing in Miami till my forties. Yeah. I, I started going like club space when I was like 39 years old. I, and I moved here when I was there. It's never too late though. No, it's never too late. No. You know, I just, and then I realized that's too much on dancing, you know, but it's fun to go out and experience other parts of life. And I think what you're doing with Pushing4New is, is really inspiring because. To get a hundred people at your first run is incredible, bro. Like I would get like a dozen people and feel happy.

Joao Alcolea: 29:46

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 29:47

With a dozen people come up. We got 30 to 40 once in a while, but I mean, Joe is getting thousands that we run 3 1 3 in Detroit. Yeah. Super impressive.'cause he's reaching out to the community. Yeah. And they're doing two mile Tuesdays and they're supporting everyone and he really has a way of connecting and detaching his personal story.'cause Joe's a good runner. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure you're a really good athlete too, but you're, it is not about your story runner. And that's why Pushing4New

Joao Alcolea: 30:11

represents like, that's why I feel like a lot of people under, like, I can connect so well because I'm not, like, my brand isn't about being like the big, the fastest, none of that. Like, I also like to go out, I like to have time, a good time with my friends. Like, I like to like, I like to live a balanced life. Okay. And that's where my brand is really focusing on. Because it's, a lot of people get confused with the black or white people think it's either you're all in with learning an active lifestyle or you're not doing anything. Mm. I'm trying to focus on that gray skill. Yeah. I was all in. Yeah,

Bryan the Botanist: 30:40

exactly. My coach told me, you can either have fun or you can be the best you can be. Yeah. He's like, you can either do all these races you wanted. He didn't even by having fun, go out and dance. Yeah. Yeah. He meant I was doing too many local races. He wanted me to focus on just the Olympic trials and on one or two races a year and not do all these other races that I was winning and getting a lot of public acclaim and local fame. But, um, that's a different perspective though, because

Joao Alcolea: 31:00

that's in terms of like, how bad do you want to be? I want you wanted me, I wanted be a professional. Exactly. You wanted to be a professional. But I'm talking about like people that, for example, like let's say this lady Nancy, she wants to get active, but she's intimidated by the fact that like. It's either black, she has the mentality of black or white. She's like, she has to be running five Ks at this time, or she just shouldn't move at all. And I'm trying to get people to at least just move or she's worried what people might think if she comes out, what she's gonna look

Bryan the Botanist: 31:26

like.

Joao Alcolea: 31:26

Like Exactly. Look like a lot of people feel like, or her time or what group she's gonna raise, she's as slow. Am I gonna be the

Bryan the Botanist: 31:31

slowest person there? Am I gonna be in the back

Joao Alcolea: 31:32

Exactly. And by myself. Yeah. And that's where my, like that's where my focus is on. I fo try to focus on people that are like, are intimidate. So I, I've had all this, I know all the excuses in the book and I've gone, I lived it myself. Like I hate, I didn't start running till last year. I'm not the fastest, I'm not the most athletic. I don't, might not have the best form, but like I'm just going out there and moving my body. And I always tell people, go running five times and you're gonna see how you enjoy it after. And that's why. And you gonna regret it and you're not gonna regret it. And that's why my run club is monthly. Because monthly, yeah, do it monthly. I do it monthly. I do it monthly because honestly, with weekly, I, I, I feel like it's a lot of effort and I have a lot going on my, and I have a lot on my plate. And so I try to focus on that monthly group being like very an experience. I wanna give people an experience because the same way I started running because of that great experience at Nike, I wanna make people have an experience. You're investing a lot of time and energy into one great event a

Bryan the Botanist: 32:27

month versus trying to do every, all the little details. I was doing it every week and I got burned out Jo. Yeah. After 10 years of doing it, like I never missed a Wednesday. Every single Wednesday I was at Flamingo Track and every single Sunday I was at South Point Park and I got burned out. You know? You do. And I wasn't charging any money. I was doing it all for free and you have to have a business side. But I want to, before we get into the business side,'cause I wanna know if, if that's a goal of yours, walk us through what, uh, what a monthly meeting of, of Pushing4New looks like. Like what, when you show up and like what time of day, where it is. And what do you do there? What, who, what type of, do you have vendors present? Like show, paint us a picture of what the whole, you know, for someone who's never been in, I'm gonna come to one.

Joao Alcolea: 33:07

So my, well, I'm doing the one with Sneaker Impact. Next month is a perfect time to be together. Yeah. But, um, like, so I, I have a list, right? I've made a list of all the vendors that I like, enjoy what they offer. Mm-hmm. I like their brand model, like I personally know them. Mm-hmm. And what they're, what, what, what, how, what their goal is. Right. In the, in the health and wellness community. Yeah. And then I pick locations based on how easy it is for somebody to run that area and not have to worry about cars. Or, you know, anything getting in the way. Like I try to make it as hazard free as possible. So you rotate

Bryan the Botanist: 33:42

locations or you have multiple Yeah,

Joao Alcolea: 33:44

I've only had one run club. Like Okay. This past, well, three weeks ago was my first run club. It's just that, actually I just noticed that. I, like, we, I never finished the story. That's okay. Well, um, keep finishing it then. Yeah, I'll finish it at then. But I've only done my one run club and it was this month and it was, and at the yards in Alah, it was like a pickleball place. Okay. And we ran into Amelia Earhart Park and then we Oh, I love Amelia Earhart. It's a great park.

Bryan the Botanist: 34:04

Yeah. I've been there numerous times. I love it there. Yeah. It's a great park and most people don't know about it. It's kind of hidden. Yeah.

Joao Alcolea: 34:09

Literally.

Bryan the Botanist: 34:10

Literally. It's, it's off the ground. The heart of Hialeah. Yeah. But it's got so much open space. Yeah. It's got the little, um, the the mountain bike area. Yeah. With all the little humps trails. They have everything. They have everything. So that was your first run club, but was Pushing4New

Joao Alcolea: 34:22

before that? Was that more It was just events, fitness, no, pushing. So when I did the autism event, right. Yeah. I did that event and then I. That same event is when I, when I was promoting that event, Connie from Miami Lakes Run Club was the first run club owner that like, like even made herself known. Like she reposted my flyer and I was like, there's a run club in Miami Lakes where I'm from. And I was like, and the, I didn't even know run clubs existed. Yeah. Like, I had no idea. And I went to her run club and literally like, we connected like that, like instantly. Like it, it is a relationship we have now. It's like she's my big sister, I'm my little brother. Wow. And it's like that, like, she's taught me a lot when it comes to all of this. And you know, we've worked toge and then we worked together for three events after we did a Turkey trot, which raised over 500 pounds of food. Whoa. And it was insane. Like 150 people came out to that one. Wow. And that was my second event then. No way. You're a natural bro. Thank you. But I, then I did and then we did a New Year's one. I, I honestly, I don't remember the numbers on that one, Uhhuh, but we did a New Year's one.'cause you know, everybody New Year, they New Year knew me. Where did you do the New Year's? We did it, uh, in Miami Lakes. Uh, this restaurant called La RIA. Okay. It was like a taco place. And it was a perfect route. We, like, we had did it for the Thanksgiving one too, in the same location. So we did that for New Year's and then since we both, she also worked in the behavior side. She was, uh, an analyst for, uh, autistic children. Okay. We're like, let's do an autism run together for April. And we did it at Veterans Park in Miami Lakes. Amazing turnout again. And, you know, every, every time we work together it's like literally like we bring in that whole area because she's the only one really doing it on that side of Miami. Like Miami Lakes and area. Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 35:53

Where's Miami

Joao Alcolea: 35:54

Lakes? Tell

Bryan the Botanist: 35:54

people who,'cause some people are joining us from different parts of the country and Miami's a big city. Yeah. So like, people think of South Beach in Brickell and Wynwood,

Joao Alcolea: 36:01

that's Miami. But like, we're on the suburbs of Miami. Like we're literally on the most outer northwest Edge. Northwest, yeah. Right. Yeah. It's on the northwest edge west of

Bryan the Botanist: 36:09

95. Yeah. On the northwest edge. So south of Broward County. Yeah. Literally like. Literally, Broward is right here. And Miami Lakes is like right here. Probably close to Miramar. Yeah. South of Miramar. South of Miramar. Yeah. Over by Durrell, little north of Durrel. So it is in between, is in between Doral? Yeah. I mean

Joao Alcolea: 36:24

in between Doral and between all like Miramar, pembro Pines. I've done a lot high deals. Like right there.

Bryan the Botanist: 36:29

I drive all over and then I put on five Ks on the weekends. I, um, produce'em for a company. Oh, nice. Really? Uh, split second timing. So we produce'em all over South Florida. Oh, nice. We've bunch. Well, I think that was

Joao Alcolea: 36:39

one of the companies, because for the April event we wanted to do an official 5K. Yeah. And we wanted to do bibs and all of that. Timing. Timing, all of that. But we didn't have too much time. And then when we started diving into it, like it's a lot of work. It's expensive. It's expensive and it's a lot of work. Yeah. So we're like, okay, this isn't the right time. So we just did a local, we rented out pavilion at Veterans Park. Yeah. And we put that together and then that was like, just did it on your own, right? Yeah. Now I'm doing, now I, and then the following month is like, okay, now it's Pushing4New run club where I'm gonna be doing this monthly because Nice. So a big part of Pushing4News, like I. I don't meet that many athletic people or people that are even active in, in their life. Mm-hmm. I meet a lot of 30 year olds. 50 year olds. 20 year olds. Like a lot of people that don't involve fitness at all. Where do you meet

Bryan the Botanist: 37:18

these

Joao Alcolea: 37:19

people? Like let's say at Sedano's or something like Okay. Or Walmart. Like, like random, random conversations. Anybody I encounter. Wow. And a lot of people bring me those stories. You're recruiting people

Bryan the Botanist: 37:27

at Walmart?

Joao Alcolea: 37:28

Yeah. Anybody who I can have the chance. I'm not guy at the gym, but also

Bryan the Botanist: 37:31

Instagram, I'm sure too. Yeah.

Joao Alcolea: 37:32

And anybody have an opportunity to, like I bring it up though. I'm like, Hey, do you run? And I'll just start that conversation. I'll ask them why, what's stopping them? And then my problem was my events were all spaced out three months apart. So I'll tell people, be like, oh, you should come out to my event. Oh, when's your event? Like two months from now? I was like, okay, they're gonna forget about it. Exactly. Or their, their motivation just went away. Yeah. So that's why I was like, okay, I'm gonna do a fourth event, the autism one with Connie from Miami Lakes, and now I've learned a little bit about running. I feel comfortable, I'm confident in what I can do. Mm-hmm. Let's, let's make this a monthly thing. And now I, whoever I encountered, Hey look, in two weeks I have an event. And like that boom. Yeah. You should always have something on the

Bryan the Botanist: 38:09

calendar. Exactly.

Joao Alcolea: 38:11

And that's my goal. Even if it's once

Bryan the Botanist: 38:11

a month, have it on the calendar. Yeah. And even every two weeks, because you're doing kind of different stuff. A little bit. Like you're doing some fundraisers, you're doing the run club, you're doing some, you're also really, are you still into the lifting scene? Are you still into I work out every day. If I miss a gym

Joao Alcolea: 38:25

session. It's crazy to me. Like it hurts me. Yeah. But

Bryan the Botanist: 38:27

it's balancing

Joao Alcolea: 38:28

the gym and running, so maybe you can do stuff

Bryan the Botanist: 38:30

with that industry

Joao Alcolea: 38:31

too, you know? And Yeah. Getting people, like more like bootcamp stuff. That's, that's the thing. I never wanna tie myself down to one thing. Yeah. Because like, if I can help somebody and motivate'em through one aspect, like I could care less about numbers. Like Yeah. Like as long as I'm impacting a few people, maybe one, I'm happy. Wow. Like, my goal is just to like, so if 10

Bryan the Botanist: 38:48

people show up, you're not gonna be disappointed.

Joao Alcolea: 38:49

No. Like my run club, uh, coincidentally it was that FF one weekend. It was pouring that weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember. And I, I'm not gonna lie, I caught myself like I was like. Hey, I'm on a high right now. Like I've had a hundred plus people show up to all of my four events before. Yeah. When I saw 20 people show up. Part of me at the beginning, I was like, a little worried. I was like, I was like, damn, what? Like, you know, like I got caught up so much in that high of like having a lot of people. Mm. But then early success. Yeah. So then I was like, no, that's, and then I literally caught myself in that moment. That's a

Bryan the Botanist: 39:18

very mature thing to do. Thank you. To not get, uh. Not turn into an ego. Yeah. Like maniac, like I caught, caught myself.'cause also when it rains, people don't come out as much at all for anything at all. I mean, I'm a DJ and you know, also a coach, but when I put on events as a dj, if it starts raining, that's indoors. People still don't want to come out to things when it's raining. They just wanna hunker down. Yeah. And I didn't know that it was gonna rain that weekend. Oh. And it rained the whole weekend. It rain. I was in, I was in Atlanta for a conference, but we were watching the F1. Yeah. At my cousin's

Joao Alcolea: 39:44

house. It was

Bryan the Botanist: 39:44

pouring. It was pouring, yeah.

Joao Alcolea: 39:45

Pouring like crazy. And I didn't know that I was in rain. Like I did not check the weather. And literally like, I would go, like as people were getting here. Yeah. I would like, I caught myself going twice outside to the parking and I was like, is it just the people are waiting outside? Like mm-hmm. Whereas everyone at, but then like literally I called myself, I was like. No, I remembered why I started this. My goal was like, I honestly, Pushing4New was really created on me, motivating my friends. And if I got my five friends talking about lifting, and that was a point of conversation every time or running like, I'm happy your circle, I, your circle is,

Bryan the Botanist: 40:16

is Gucci.

Joao Alcolea: 40:18

I'm all good. I'm all good. But so then I remembered that I was like, no, 20 people showed up. 20 people showed up in the rain. And people are encouraged to run. And people came out to support what I'm building here and people are gonna have fun. And that's, uh, I was like, okay, I caught myself. Now we're gonna make this, uh, we're gonna throw away that thought. Yeah. And hopefully never let that happen again. But also

Bryan the Botanist: 40:36

when, you know, when you have, um, when you take on a big mission like this to be a community organizer and a founder of a fitness club, um, you're gonna have highs and lows. Yeah. Like my dad always says, you know, when you fall in love, you sign up for the highs and the lows. Yeah. And everything in life, you sign up for the, you don't sign up for life and just get the highs Right. There's gonna be, and that's not even a low, it's just that. You got some big highs by getting over a hundred people at your first run club. Kinda like a rollercoaster uhhuh. It was like big rain event. Yeah. 20 people. You're like questioning yourself. It's also called the Hero's Journey. You're on the hero's journey. Do you know about that? No, I don't. So hero's journey means the universe is testing you to see if what you really want in life, if you really want it bad enough. So it's gonna give you challenges. Because if everything was really easy in life, and this is a book, and it was taught to me by one of my mentors, the hero's journey, which means if everyone in life just got to where they wanted to be, like say I wanted, you know, my goal was to make the Olympics just do a couple of runs. I'm in the Olympics. Yeah, no, if everyone could just be a millionaire, be the fastest person in the world, be the most best looking, have the whatever they want. The fa biggest, the nicest car, the biggest boat, whatever their dreams are. The hottest girlfriend. You know, I'm just being cheesy. Yeah. Obviously you want the sweetest girlfriend. Yeah. Yeah. And the most loving. Um, but uh, you know, if it was just easy in life. It's, it wouldn't be something that would be something worth, like, it's really, I'm having trouble. There's no value. There's no value. There's no value when it's not something that takes a lot of work. Yeah. And challenges. And the universe is so, the hero's journey, the universe is gonna give you challenges. It's almost like it's serving you like, you know, I'm gonna serve Joao. This challenge of, of, um, a hurricane came through in this event. Mm-hmm. Or you know what I mean? Like, or something like, um, he's gonna get a flat tire on the way there. Yeah. And he's not gonna be able to make it to his own event. And then what's gonna happen, someone else is gonna have to be in charge of it for that day, or he is gonna have to send a message to them. Right. Or for me, COVID hit my run club in the sense that it fell apart during COVID because we had a whole year and a half off and everyone went their separate ways. And then that was a big. Uh, hero's journey for me is, what do I do now? Like mm-hmm. I could have kept going with it, but I decided to just kind of focus on my personal life.'cause I hadn't been focusing on my personal life. I've been focusing on, you know, doing all these events. I was a big events. I've been an events director for several companies, uh, including Sneaker Impact. I'm an events director for, I, we do a lot of, uh, national events. We go to a Los Angeles marathon. We've partnered with Miami, with many marathons around the country, and also conferences. And then we put on events, fun runs. I tried to do a little river cleanup where we clean up the river nearby with, um, where the manatees are and paddleboards. I couldn't get more than one or two people to come Jo out. Wow. I, I sent out event or, um, it's called, uh, party. Party full. I dunno if you've heard of it. It's a, I haven't, it's like Eventbrite, but it's called Party Full. Mm-hmm. But it's like a way of organizing events. I sent out a bunch of invitations. I posted it on my Instagram. I would show up on a Saturday morning for my paddleboard. No one came.

Joao Alcolea: 43:31

Wow.

Bryan the Botanist: 43:31

Just my ex-girlfriend came one time and like, and then another time on Earth Day, I organized another cleanup of Little River. No one came'cause it was raining and I advertised it for weeks. No one came because it was a Tuesday at five 30. And you know, everyone's just trying to get home from work and Yeah. But Earth Day was on a Tuesday, but I cleaned up Little River that day by myself. And that's all that matters.

Joao Alcolea: 43:50

You're, you're still putting that effort regardless. And that, and I still wanna organize

Bryan the Botanist: 43:53

the events. I still want, I love to do cleanups. Well, the next one

Joao Alcolea: 43:56

I'm there.

Bryan the Botanist: 43:56

Okay. Alright, next one. You can count on me whatever

Joao Alcolea: 43:58

day of the week there.

Bryan the Botanist: 43:58

Amazing man. Well you're now on my friends' list. I know. I'm following your, your, your account Pushing4New Yeah. I'm coming to your, so tell us, uh, when your next event is and it's a Sneaker Impact and tell us the location.

Joao Alcolea: 44:09

So my next event is gonna be June 14th is gonna be in Miami Lakes and Veterans Park. Uh, it is gonna be with Health Depot Veteran, uh, health Depot Sneaker Impact we're gonna have out there collecting shoes. I'm working with Sweat four 40 as well. Oh, we love Sweat four 40. Yeah. Amazing team. I know one of the

Bryan the Botanist: 44:24

founders. Matt Miller.

Joao Alcolea: 44:25

Oh yeah. Nice. Work with, I work with the Miami Lace one. Oh, cool. Cool. Yeah. Okay. And then we're gonna have velo laser out there because they're gonna be offering laser, laser hair removal. Okay. Because I, I know, I know runners, they like to shave their legs so they can, you know, breeze through. Are they gonna actually do

Bryan the Botanist: 44:38

that on site? No, they're gonna

Joao Alcolea: 44:40

be offering a free laser hair session though. Oh, wow. Like they should be offering the deals

Bryan the Botanist: 44:43

out there. Oh, now you have to go to their clinic to get it done. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure the girls like that for the bikini. You

Joao Alcolea: 44:48

know, mine guys do. If it, if that laser hair removal session makes you go outside. And it makes you want to go run because

Bryan the Botanist: 44:54

your, your

Joao Alcolea: 44:54

skin is clean by all means. I

Bryan the Botanist: 44:56

mean, in Miami everyone wants to look good because we're the city that lives in our swimsuits. Yeah, you in our sandals and our swimsuits, but, and our little short shorts when we go run. Yeah. Well, Sneaker Impact's gonna promote it like crazy. You got Happy Jazz on your side and she and me and we um, love to create graphics and promote it. So let's do, um, let's make a clip for sure. Talking about that event on June 14th. So what day of the week is that?

Joao Alcolea: 45:18

That's a

Bryan the Botanist: 45:18

Saturday. My events are always the first or second Saturday of the month. So Saturday, June 14th Pushing4New is gonna be at Remind Veterans Park Veterans Park in Miami. Miami Lakes. Yeah. And that's gonna be at what time of day? 9:00 AM 9:00 AM 9:00 AM You can bring your shoes to recycle them. Your in the second life.

Joao Alcolea: 45:33

Your shoes we're uh, we're gonna be having B12 shots by Health Depot. Nice. And is gonna be offering the free session and sweat four 40. I'm not sure exactly what's going, what we're doing, but we got something nice going on for you guys. And I hope to see as many people come out. Like, I would like my goal, like you guys have heard the story. My goal is just to get people active. I, I'm the type of person, like I have my friends pacing for the fast people, and I'm staying all the way in the back because those are the people I care about. Like, I'm trying to get everybody to feel encouraged, feel motivated, and you know, just, just love that. Keep pushing them.

Bryan the Botanist: 46:03

I love that. Yeah. You're like very supportive. Someone. Yeah. I, I once saw on a port of be a, on a poster, on an inspiration poster, said, be a supportive someone. Like you're a supportive someone.

Joao Alcolea: 46:13

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 46:14

And that's my goal. Like someone whatever I can

Joao Alcolea: 46:16

support you in.

Bryan the Botanist: 46:17

Yeah. Like, you don't care about getting the best workout and you care about motivating others and being in the back. Yeah. That's really, really cool man. And you wanna come help me clean up Litter River, which I need the help, man. Yeah, I got you. You wouldn't believe how much Styrofoams in there, man, when it rains, all the junko in there and the manatees and all the fish and all the birds and there's crocodiles in there. Yeah. And sharks. They're all just. It's just like cigarette packages, alcohol. I mean, bro, it's so sad. I've seen it. Styrofoam cartons, you know, Miami has a trash problem

Joao Alcolea: 46:44

and literally I went one time we went to um, ADA River State Park. Yeah. Ole, we were kayaking and we, like, one of my friends dropped her phone and that's a state park. Yeah. My friend dropped her phone in, uh, in the water and we're going through like a, a canal and we all got out of our kayaks to dig in the, the, it was a lot of mushy stuff like down there. And we pulled out sunglasses, uh, cigarette packs. So much trash outta the, that wasn't even floating on the top. No, because we were mainly getting is floating

Bryan the Botanist: 47:11

on the top. You know, we're getting styrofoam lunches that people just throw on the side of the road and stuff. And also a lot of Publix bags and a lot of alcohol bottles. Yeah, a lot of alcohol and beer bottles and cigarette stuff. Just like, to be honest, it's, you know, always junk food stuff like the Doritos bags and it's never something from like Whole Foods or nothing. Not to say the Whole Foods perfect. I'm just saying like. It's the junk food, it's the alcohol, it's the, you know, um, styrofoam stuff that we don't want in the city, you know, anymore. Yeah. Literally.

Joao Alcolea: 47:40

Or we don't wanna make the efforts to, you know, watch the

Bryan the Botanist: 47:43

nearest trash. Yeah. Get it into the trash bin. At least if you're gonna, you know, I, I don't, I, I will not get styrofoam anymore if there, I, I just ask Please, please. You know, like, don't use styro. If it's in styrofoam, I'm just gonna eat it there like I do. If it's gonna be takeout, I can't use styrofoam.'cause styrofoam never breaks down.

Joao Alcolea: 47:56

So if it, what, what, what? They don't like what do they just eat it there. Oh, so you just eat it? I always

Bryan the Botanist: 48:00

ask them, are you gonna put it in the styrofoam? If it's to go, I try not to get to go because they always put it in a bag and a Togo container. Mm-hmm. Like I have, um, Tupperware containers that are glass that I actually bring sometimes. Like yesterday we had a sports banquet that was dessert based and on my run I was thinking I need to bring my glass Tupperware'cause I wanna bring a piece of this cheesecake home.'cause I will not buy cheesecake or cookies in the store or ice cream. I haven't bought ice cream in years. You gotta get the temptations, bro. Me and my friends talk about this. I don't keep any sweetss at home. The only thing I have that is considered sweet is once in a while, dark chocolate bar, Greek yogurt. And chocolate almond milk. Not now, you know a little bit about my life. Yeah. I like the chocolate almond milk. I added it to my coffee in the mornings. I get a, i, I go shopping at Aldi's. I'm gonna be super transparent. I'm an Aldi's guy. Hey,

Joao Alcolea: 48:42

wherever you get in your groceries, it doesn't matter. Publix expensive. I

Bryan the Botanist: 48:45

go to Publix once in a while for the BOGOs, but man, I'm a single guy raising two cats as a single dad, you know, and I, I got, I buy my cats' really high quality, grain-free food, but I shop at Aldi's because I'm saving up to buy a house. Nice. And I'm, I've got myself completely outta debt, paid off all my student loans. I have zero debt to my name. Congrats. Yeah. That was a big deal because the Miami

Joao Alcolea: 49:04

economy.

Bryan the Botanist: 49:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, thank God. I mean, I was, there was time, two or three years ago, I lost my job of 10 years. The corporation went under, they, they let go of all their employees. It was no fault of my own. I was with them for 10 years as an amazing company, and I lost everything au and I literally had no income. Wow. Lost all my income and, uh, I didn't have much savings and so I had to just hustle and work like five jobs. And that's what I did for a couple years was work like five jobs. And now I work like three or four. So I'm still, you know, Sneaker impact's my main job, but I work two or three jobs on the side. I'm a brand ambassador for several companies. I'm a high school coach, I'm a dj. I time events on the weekend for split second timing. And just, I, I'm on a gig economy, Jack of all trades, just anytime they need me. Numerous bosses I have, they call me, Brian, we need you for this event. I'm there you. So I'm just, and

Joao Alcolea: 49:50

those are things that teach you a lot of working those events. And then eventually when you get what you want, like when you buy your house Yeah. You're gonna be like, that was working. Exactly.

Bryan the Botanist: 49:56

And someday when I have kids, I'll settle down a little bit, but right now I don't have, I mean, my only kids are the ones I coach.

Joao Alcolea: 50:01

Mm-hmm. But I

Bryan the Botanist: 50:01

don't have any kids yet and I don't have a wife, so I can just do work five jobs Yeah. And hustle. You know, that's, that's right. Now what I'm, I'm on literally

Joao Alcolea: 50:10

since, literally since I think it was January, February, yeah. My, my best friend and my photographer and videographer. And I literally told him, because he, that's always been his passion since we were like in, since middle school, since I, I met him in middle school. Yeah. We would take pictures of our shoes, like, we'll, we'll go by the puddle and like get the reflection of the puddle take of shoes. So I knew that was always his thing and I, this year I was like, you know, I really want to take serious this content because that's the way I'm gonna get my message out there. That's what's gonna be reminding people like, yeah, that running is an option that you can go out there to these health and wellness events. And then, so I was like, you know what? And since then we've been on this long streak. Of posting three to four videos a week and Nice. Like, it's literally every day content. Like we're together. It's like we both get outta work at four and we're going to these, to the gym, and then we'll sit in the gym, like we'll go to the gym and literally from eight to like 10 or 11, we'll sit in that parking lot of the gym. Editing videos, editing pictures, like wow. Reaching out to places. Like we're literally on this mode right now of just hustling and taking advantage of like we're living with our parents. We're like, yeah, we have the opportunity. So it's like save money. If we have to drive and we have goals,

Bryan the Botanist: 51:14

yeah, we gotta go out there and get'em. And that's amazing.'cause some people are trying to live this lifestyle that they can't afford in Miami. Yeah, you see it a lot. A lot.

Joao Alcolea: 51:20

You see it a lot. And to just running up credit

Bryan the Botanist: 51:23

card debt, you know, just to live in some fancy apartment or to have a fancy car. Yeah. And nobody wants to work hard, go out and party. Nobody

Joao Alcolea: 51:29

wants to work hard. Like these past like three months, like I have barely seen my friends on weekends. Like I'll try to make the time every once in a while, but like right now I'm in that motor. I'm like. I'm waking up at six in the morning and if I gotta come back at seven o'clock at night from shooting content all day, yeah, we're gonna make this happen because like, nobody, like the only one that could save me and make my dreams happen is me. So if that, if I That's true, that means, means I gotta, one's gonna save you.

Bryan the Botanist: 51:49

I always say that to my closest friends. No one's come to save you. You gotta save yourself. Exactly. And this isn't an orphanage in this world, you know? And this shirt actually says that. I don't, well, I don't know. They can. No, no. Look at the

Joao Alcolea: 51:59

back. That shirt, I don't think shirt. No, you can push yourself because no one else will

Bryan the Botanist: 52:03

push yourself because no one else will. I love that. Wow. And you know, that's, that's, I just noticed you're wearing a Pushing4New shirt. Yeah,

Joao Alcolea: 52:10

that's one of the first shirts that I dropped. And

Bryan the Botanist: 52:12

still to this day, my favorite. So can people get a shirt at your run club? Do they support by, do, do you sell'em? Or how does that work?

Joao Alcolea: 52:17

No, I just, I, when I, when I decide to make the design, when I have a design done, my friend Chris, he designs all my shirts and everything and you know, when I, when I decide to drop them, I just drop them. Like this Friday, I'm actually dropping tank tops that he designed and that whatever. I love all the money that I get from those. Like, it all goes back into everything that I'm spending. Like whether it's paying my video, my friend, as a videographer. I pay him because, you know, like he, you a videographer at every run club. Yeah. So my friend, the one I was telling you, he does a content with me, Jacob. Yeah. Jacob literally goes with me to every event goes and every events. Yeah. My events, any events we're gonna shoot for, like, anything we can do, like mm-hmm. We're, we're out there and, you know, I, he has to make money too, so I'll pay him, I'll get him equipment and whatever I can, all the money that I get from my job, I just dump it right back into everything I can. Investing You're

Bryan the Botanist: 53:03

investing it back into your, into your gr into your organization. Exactly. Have you created a business structure for it yet? Is that a goal of yours?

Joao Alcolea: 53:10

Honestly, I'm like, so I, I have this very like, strong like foundation of mentally, of like, I don't, I don't create specific goals and I know, yes, a lot of people say make specific goals in life so then you can like chase them and attain them. But my main goal is literally just help people live a happy lifestyle and, you know, just get people active. Those three things. Yeah. And that has allowed me to like be open to anything that comes my way, like. If I weren't living with that mentality, I would've never been open to like, lemme go try running. Yeah. And look what running has, like, I'm literally on a podcast. It's something I've always wanted to be on. Yeah. And to share my stories, I was like, you know, that's why I've, I firmly believe is like, you create an idea of what you wanna do. Mm-hmm. That's like a big picture. And just, just go with it and just, you know, every day I wake up with, I literally every night go to sleep. I pray, I say, God just blessed me with the opportunity to motivate people, to encourage them, and to bring love and share love, and that's, that's all I can. Wow. That's how

Bryan the Botanist: 54:06

you get paid is through love. Yeah. And just having people abundance is gonna come naturally through that action too. You're gonna be, you're attracting abundance by. You know, being a good person.

Joao Alcolea: 54:15

Yeah. And, and honestly like the, the best part about it's, I don't even care about abundance. Like yes, having a luxury lifestyle, having this, having this house, it comes, it would all be great. It would be great. That's not what I'm

Bryan the Botanist: 54:26

seeking. Consistency. It will come with consistency. Yeah.

Joao Alcolea: 54:28

But like I said, like that's not what I'm seeking. Like I would love it. I'm just saying who wouldn't wanna suffice the house at the rate you're

Bryan the Botanist: 54:32

growing? I mean, if you, so my just small advice would be to create an LLC if you haven't already. Oh yeah. Do I, do I have, I sunbiz I have all the business side, like LC, all that. Yeah. I have two LLCs in, in my, in my life. But one currently, and I had one before when I worked in Wisconsin. But basically LLCs, the first step create a business bank account so you can keep. Your business finance is separate than your person. Of course, of course. That's just the two quick advices I have. Mm-hmm. And then maybe have a budget. No. Yeah. I have all, and at least have a good accountant.'cause you have to do your yearly reports. Yeah, of course. Like the annual LLC renewal report and um, whatever the filing that you have to do for if you made money or lost money. Yeah, yeah. Of course. You can write

Joao Alcolea: 55:08

off a lot of things too when you tell me about it. Right. Car, anything I can, I am going computer, like all these, like all these events. Any clothes. Yeah. Everything that I, I all the food. You gotta buy everything,

Bryan the Botanist: 55:16

everything, videographer. That all is a write off to be honest. All, all the, and it's because you're, that's a business expense of the expenses. Yeah. Yeah. And you're a young company. Yeah. I mean, right now, but in, in a couple of years, you could be. Just like Brickell Run Club. You know, they're, they're, they have a big business structure. South Beach Run Club. That's, that's my goal, honestly. Like, yeah. Frankie, it's funny enough, Frankie. Frankie, he's my dear friend, you know, I've known him for 15 years. Oh yeah. I had to watched the, the podcast with him a couple months ago. He's my mentor here. He's the one who got me my job here. Oh really? I've known him since 2008. Wow. That's super cool. I went to the first Brickell Run Club ever. First ever. Brickell Run Club. Yes. 2013. I was at the first one. I was at one of his first South Beach run clubs. I went to like the first, when the first five to 10, because I worked at Mr. Rs, which was a running store in Miami Beach that was more of a fashion shoe store. It was on Lincoln and Washington. You know, old school Miami Heads. Miami Beach heads will know Mr. Rs because he opened in 1974. The store used to be called like 19 something, 74, 72. But basically Joe, his name is Joe, I forget his last name. R. Um, and the store was called Mr. Rss on the corner of Washington and Lincoln. Like that's an iconic corner. Like right now, Zara is there. Mm-hmm. You know, and McDonald's. Yeah. But it used to be Mr. Rs. I was an employee there when I first moved to Miami Beach. In 2008 and I restarted my life moving here from Wisconsin and as an employee there, it was a Nike store. They had the Nike Run Club, but it had just started that year with Frankie Ruiz. Wow. And he had founded the Miami Marathon in 2002. I'm sure he is gonna listen to this podcast. He, we talk every single week, so that'll be cool. He, he definitely, he watches his name gets shouted out a lot. Yeah. Because a lot of my guests know him, but, um, basically he's been a big time and, you know, we're the exact same age, but he's like a big time mentor to me, like an older brother in the sense that like, he's helped me so much over these, I've won some of his races where he's been biking next to me in the race. Mm-hmm. And now Turkey trot, I won multiple times over at uh, uh, tropical Park. Nice. 10 k and um, other race of his tropical 5K. And he's always had my back. I've known him for so long. He's a man of integrity. He also cares so much about the community. He's the city's chief wellness officer and what he's created with First South Beach started at Mr. Rs, then they moved to the Lincoln or the Nike store. Uh, but it's evolved a lot. And then he started, he got this suggestion from someone at the run club to start one in Brickell. My friend Luisi was one of the people shout out to Luisi. Um, she's a Brazilian woman. Oh, nice. Louis Roka. And, uh, she's, she's gonna be back this weekend, but she's been with the run club scene forever down here. And she's not even a traditional runner. She was the one in the very far back. She, they call her a GoPro girl'cause she holds up a GoPro. That's her Instagram is GoPro girl.

Joao Alcolea: 57:41

Oh,

Bryan the Botanist: 57:41

nice. Yeah, so she's super outgoing and she wasn't the fast runner at all. She was the one that would just walk most of the run. But she came to every run club and so at Run Club in South Beach in 2008, I didn't know anyone in Miami. I just knew my ex-girlfriend, who is a different ex-girlfriend. But I met a girl in Wisconsin who was from Miami and we moved down here together. Beca stayed friends but didn't stay in the relationship and stayed best friends. And then I only had one friend down near her, my friend Fabiola, this was 2007. I went to Brick or Salary South Beach Run Club. I met a hundred people within the first week or two. Oh, it was in its first year, but within the first couple weeks it grew to a hundred people. And it was just a really tight group. We would always go out afterwards as a group to have food and drinks, uh, on Lincoln Road.

Joao Alcolea: 58:26

Nice.

Bryan the Botanist: 58:26

And we would also celebrate birthdays together. So very similar to what's going on now.'cause like this was like a different generation.

Joao Alcolea: 58:33

Mm-hmm.

Bryan the Botanist: 58:33

Like now a lot of these people are married and have kids and like live either in different parts of the country or in Broward. They have a house in Westin and they, they're raised in three or four kids and they're not going to run club anymore necessarily.

Joao Alcolea: 58:42

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 58:43

I don't go to run club as much anymore now because I am focusing on my health a little bit.'cause I had two Achilles surgeries. But I'm just saying I see a lot of similarities between today's run club scene and what it was in the past. The big difference now is social media.

Joao Alcolea: 58:57

Yeah,

Bryan the Botanist: 58:58

we didn't have social media in 2007. It was all word of mouth. It was all word of mouth flyers. They did have Facebook. It was the early days of Facebook, but we didn't have Instagram. We didn't have TikTok. I don't use TikTok. We didn't have TikTok, snap, snap. We didn't have any of these things, bro. Nothing. It was just like a tiny bit of Facebook and mainly like, what do you call meetup.com and like the early days of the internet. But we still organized and gathered and it was the same energy of, oh my God, I'm meeting a dozen people a night, two dozen, three dozen, five dozen people. And these are all new friends and everyone wants to be your friend. And I, I had to actually, I joined Facebook because of Run Club. I wasn't on it because I was one of those people that didn't wanna be on it at first.'cause I was like, I don't want to be on Facebook. I don't want, I was like, why? I was, I was a holdout. Mm-hmm. I actually was proud that I wasn't on Facebook years. I was like, me TikTok back then. I was like, I don't want to be on Facebook. And then I came to Miami and I made so many friends. I'm like, I'm never gonna be able to remember all their names. If I don't see them on Facebook and see their faces. So that was the only reason I joined. That's an insight into my life, is I joined social. I didn't want to be on social media. But now with Sneaker Impact, we're all over social media. You gotta be on social media, because I mean, this podcast too, I mean, it's meant for social media, YouTube, how about you? Do you have a YouTube channel? Do you do TikTok? Do you do anything else? Just

Joao Alcolea: 1:00:13

straight up Instagram. And that's about it right now. So all your

Bryan the Botanist: 1:00:15

content's going onto to Instagram? Yeah. Okay.

Joao Alcolea: 1:00:17

That's I, I've posted on TikTok before. And you have a website too, right? And I have a website that I like, which you're gonna put into the description. Gives a little bit more about me. Yeah. The brand and some of the events that we've done. Yeah. But in terms of TikTok, like I've, I've tried posting on TikTok a couple times, but the way I edit videos, like I'll use songs and then when I go to Post'em on TikTok. Gets muted. Really? So I was like, you know what? Yeah. So you

Bryan the Botanist: 1:00:35

can't use music on TikTok. You can't.

Joao Alcolea: 1:00:37

Or you have to use it,

Bryan the Botanist: 1:00:38

like license you to use it directly

Joao Alcolea: 1:00:39

from the app. But the way like I would edit, like I would have a different way of formatting. Yeah. Or like song selection and all that. And TikTok wouldn't have the song. What do you use

Bryan the Botanist: 1:00:46

for your editing? I'm curious. Cap Cut. I use

Joao Alcolea: 1:00:48

Cap Cut. And then what was the other app? It was, it's called VN or something like that. Okay. Because that's the only way I can export sometimes from my iPhone. I've never

Bryan the Botanist: 1:00:55

used Cap Cut, but so many people use it. It's this easiest app that is, I should get it. Yeah. And there's

Joao Alcolea: 1:00:59

tutorials and like you can look up on TikTok. Do you have the free

Bryan the Botanist: 1:01:01

version or do you pay for

Joao Alcolea: 1:01:02

one? No, I pay for it. That'd probably get a lot more power out of it. Oh yeah. You have to like, it gets to a point where like if you want to get to another level, you have to Oh, sure. Well, with this

Bryan the Botanist: 1:01:08

podcast, you know, we use a program called D Script. That's another little insight. You know, I've never mentioned this before. Mm-hmm. We use D Script, you know, Riverside is the big one, but we use D Script, which is another big one. And you know, there's a pro package. So you know, in order to get it transcriptions done, like it'll take all of our words and. Um, put it into a transcription into mm-hmm. You know, so you can see it. And it's good for Spotify and it's good for YouTube. Um, it creates the chapters, but there's no limits to like how long we can go. Right now we're at an hour and one minute.

Joao Alcolea: 1:01:39

Oh wow. You know,

Bryan the Botanist: 1:01:39

so, um, I didn't even notice. If you don't pay for the main, the big one, if you just do like the simple$10 a month, you can only transcribe like 10 hours a month or five hours a month, and it won't publish a video longer than an hour. You have to manually export it and then upload it yourself. Just a lot easier. All the pro features I'm not gonna sell. It's worth the paperwork. It's worth it. It's like, it's something like$40 a month if you pay for the whole year all at once. Like, if you just pay for it month by month, it's 60 a month. So, but you know, we're, we're, we've done, you're our 41st episode. I'm really proud of that. Soon we're gonna be at 50. We hit 40. Over the weekend and then you're 41.

Joao Alcolea: 1:02:13

Yeah. I'm honored to be honest. Yeah, bro. It's a blessing. I've literally, like I told you earlier, yeah, I've always, like, I've watched so many podcasts in my life and that honestly, I think that's another reason why I'm Pushing4New, got motivated because when I had that broken hand time, yeah. I was working remote, so I was literally in my room all day. So if I'm on my computer, like I'll just throw on a podcast in the background. You

Bryan the Botanist: 1:02:34

lived on YouTube and Spotify? Yeah. Yeah. I

Joao Alcolea: 1:02:35

would just literally put on a YouTube podcast and I would like just pick up on a lot of knowledge and a lot of things like Me too. I love you YouTube. That's why I learned how to do the marketing side of my brand. I've learned the business side, like I've learned, like everything that goes on in pushing for investing, a lot of directing, video, producing, everything that's on that page. Sure. You can see that like it's all been done by me. By me. Yeah. Because I've been trying to learn, I wanna be a, like I wanna learn how to do everything, how to do it for myself and what's my style before I start outsourcing to somebody else. Because if I outsource to somebody else, yeah. I can't explain to them what I want. I can't explain to'em in my mindset. Yeah. I tried

Bryan the Botanist: 1:03:06

having someone help me with editing. He's a good editor, but it's just better. I learned it all myself now. Yeah. I just do everything on my own

Joao Alcolea: 1:03:12

and you know what you want, you know how you

Bryan the Botanist: 1:03:13

want it to come across and I, I want to get it done as quick as possible. Yeah. That's sometimes, and, and you have to pay for speed. Yeah. Literal, but two of my favorite sayings, success favors speed and success leaves clues. Yeah. And those aren't my sayings. I learned them in a previous life, but success leaves clues, you know, like if you want to be the best quarterback, you look at what Tom Brady did, you know? Mm-hmm. And there's other great quarterbacks, Aaron Rogers. I'm a Packers guy, so I used to be my favorite player when I used to play, uh, Madden. Yeah. I used to love playing with the,

Joao Alcolea: 1:03:40

the

Bryan the Botanist: 1:03:40

Packers. Yeah. But, uh, success favors speed. You're, um, not just the fastest person, but you are not taking breaks. You know, you're, you have momentum and you're going with that momentum. Yeah. And also like strike while the iron's hot. Like the iron's hot in you right now. Yeah. So instead of you trying to work in a bank and all these jobs, you just make a ton of money. You're focusing on what your true life's mission is, which is to help people. Yeah. And just taking advantage that mode. Just trying to make as much money as you can in the world and Yeah. And be some big shot, you know? Um, look at me with my fancy blazer on Big Shot. Look at my watch. No, it's a Garmin.

Joao Alcolea: 1:04:20

Yeah. I'm actually gonna order a, a Garmin today. Garin are the best, bro. I'm honestly like, yeah. So these past couple months I've been like more focused on just like, so I did the Miami half Marathon. Yeah. And I did that and I was like, I went into the mindset. I wasn't chasing time. Yeah. That was my first time doing a big race like that. So I was like, you know what, I'm gonna just do this. Mm-hmm. Just so I can complete it. So I honestly, I ran, yeah. For 10 miles without stopping. And my goal was to get as much done. And then at 10 miles, I literally. Stopped for maybe five seconds. And then this guy that had the same jersey from my church literally ran by me. He tapped me. He's like, let's go. Whoa. And from then on I couldn't even walk anymore. So I was pretty close to my

Bryan the Botanist: 1:04:57

goal of not stopping the whole thing. Wow, that's amazing. That within five seconds,'cause you, you will see that like, I ran Boston last month and my 10th Boston, but like I was tempted to stop. I didn't stop. I've had to stop in other marathons, whether it's to go to the bathroom or because I didn't feel good. Um, but if you do see someone stop, there's always someone encouraging them right away. And you see that even in the biggest races in the world, even in the Olympics, you see it. Yeah. That's a universal sign of good sportsmanship. Yeah.'cause why not? Let's go. They sometimes do. That's all they need. Or if someone collapses on the ground, they're almost to the finish line. You see it in many races where the person helps pick'em up and drag'em across. Finish line. I saw, I saw a couple

Joao Alcolea: 1:05:31

videos of Boston of that happening and man, God bless those people that do that because it's at the Miami Marathon when I finished. Yeah. And we got our medals and we came across. Literally, there's a guy having a seizure right in front of me. Oh my God. And like there was a lady trying to help him, but like at first I was like, kind of like trying to, I was like, my glasses were kind of blocking the view and I was trying to see what was going on. And literally like, men are walking by just like not even helping. And I just see this lady trying to help him. I was like, bro, like, and then I was like, all right, lemme help her. So I tried helping the guy, we were trying to get him like to get, I don't know, I couldn't tell if he was having a seizure or if he was just like having a compulsion. Like he was like, you know, legs, assaults. Yeah. I don't know. And the first I, I'm new to this world, so I was like, I don't know what he might be going through. And I was like, you know, lemme try to help them. And then like, I'm asking, I'm asking guys that are walking by, like, I'm like, yo, can you help us? We're trying to pick him up to get'em in a wheelchair. Can you all call somebody? People are just flying by. People are just walking by. And I was like, bro, people are so selfish. Like, you see it in bigger

Bryan the Botanist: 1:06:24

cities, there's a study of psychology where like, um, when your community is smaller. And people know each other. They help each other more than when, like in New York City, sometimes I don't wanna pick on New York City. It can happen in Miami a lot too. It is like, you know, someone unfortunately could be getting like even stabbed on the subway and like no one's helping'em. They're recording it.

Joao Alcolea: 1:06:43

Yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:06:44

It's really sad dude. And like it challenges us all to, like, if I was driving down 95 and someone got in a car accident in front of me and I can stop, I will stop.

Joao Alcolea: 1:06:54

Right? If I

Bryan the Botanist: 1:06:54

can't stop,'cause it's gonna, I'm already flying by, I'm gonna call 9 1 1. Yeah. Like there was a car accident right behind me.

Joao Alcolea: 1:06:59

But people always think, oh,

Bryan the Botanist: 1:07:00

somebody else will help. People are just blowing by. It's always that mentality's like, oh, somebody will stop, but then the Samaritan stops, you know, and helps them and they could save someone's life. And then that can change your life too. Yeah. Because you could just keep going. It's the same thing with anything in life. It's the same thing with you being a coach. You don't have to stop and help all these people. You could just be, have an assistance, help them, and you could be in charge of. Just being the guy shaking all the hands and making the deals. Mm-hmm. But you wanna be helping every single, you wanna connect with every person. So that's the same thing as helping someone who collapses, is you're helping them to feel good about coming to their club because it's really about feeling good, man. Yeah. It's about fitness. Makes you feel good. The high.

Joao Alcolea: 1:07:37

And now that you say that, shaking the hands. Yeah. Frankie Ruiz, literally, I, I think it was like a couple months back, I went to break a run club. Yeah. And I know it was during that time when he had his broke, he had broken his foot. Wow. On the bike. The bike or something like that. Yeah. And then he, like, I know he was talking to a lot of people and I was, I was literally just on standby waiting to talk to him.'cause I wanted to meet him and I wanted to ask him for advice. Like, because I was like, I want to, like, there's nobody else I would want to ask advice to than the guy who's the face of all of this in Miami. So I see him and I, I like, I was waiting for him, but like he was so caught up with talking, the Run club takes off and I'm just waiting there. I was like, damn. Like, I don't know, like how much longer I should wait. And then I was like, you know what? Forget this. And I just left and I went into a run. And then. When I got home, I think it was like the next day, I was like, damn, you know what? Like I'm not gonna just blow this, I'm gonna just text him. And I just texted him. I was like, Hey, like I wanna know if I could talk to you. Like I wanted to ask you for advice. He gave me his number and he is like, oh, just call me. Whoa. And I literally, the moment I got outta the gym, I called him, I asked him for advice and his, the first thing that he told me that still sticks with me today and I feel like it's helped me a lot, was he said, just go out there and shake hands. Go out there and meet as many people as possible. Introduce yourself. Get to get to know people. Get people to know you and what your goal is. And I feel like to this day, that is the number one thing. Like,'cause at first I was a little like intimidated with like starting conversation.'cause in my, the Miami culture here is don't talk to me like I like Yeah. Who are, you don't like, I'm not gonna start the conversation first. Yeah. And I unfortunately was stuck with that. And then like that, that conversation made me be like, no, now I need to be the one starting the conversation. I need to stop, like put my ego, put my, the shyness, all of that away. I gotta go out there and shake those hands. And to this day now, every opportunity I'm like, Hey, how are you? Like, oh, I'm Joel. Like, oh, night. Like, congrats, like whatever it is. Like I'm going out there to meet people. And I feel like that's been the biggest impact in what I've been doing. That's

Bryan the Botanist: 1:09:23

a really powerful story. Yeah. Thank you. And a lot of settings I've gone into in the last couple of years. I've challenged myself to go up to people and just introduce myself. Um, when I'm at, you know, places for conferences and stuff, I go to a lot of work conferences now. But like, if people are just, I'm just always trying to meet people nowadays to just get to know everyone. And this could be the someone who's just like. No one's talking to, you know, that's the person who actually I wanna talk to. That's the person that, but I've, my next question, we're, we're getting low on time here. Maybe five or 10 more minutes. Cool. Cool. We're going up to that time limit of, you know, towards the end. And what, what's the question I should be asking you that I haven't asked you?

Joao Alcolea: 1:09:57

That's a tough one. I feel like we've, we've covered a lot. Well, family. You have any brothers and sisters? I do have a brother and sister. They live in Brazil. Okay. They're much older, like in their early thirties. So you're the youngest? Yeah, I am the youngest.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:10:09

What else do you like to do besides working out? You said video games. Is there anything else you like to do that spices up your life?

Joao Alcolea: 1:10:14

Honestly, my whole life literally consists of working, working out. Yeah. Now running and just hanging out with my friends, going out like. I've never been much of a, like a video game person. Like I'll play video games like for example, like GTA six, when that game comes out. Like, I'm on there, bro. Everyone's waiting for that one. I've never played,

Bryan the Botanist: 1:10:30

I see it in the comment sections all the time. What's taken so long on that? Yeah. But like they're saying the zombies are gonna come first. What's taken so long is it just, I think

Joao Alcolea: 1:10:38

just it's a big game. Like it's a big game. They're going into super details. Like you could see Brickell, like you could see the signs, like everything. Is it place in Miami? Yeah, it takes place in Miami. Wow. So they're going very detailed oriented. So yeah, it's, I am pretty sure they're, with how much detail they're going into. It takes time. What's your favorite place to eat in Miami?

Bryan the Botanist: 1:10:56

This is a quick question section. Talking tacos.

Joao Alcolea: 1:10:59

Talking tacos? Yeah. Literally like if there's one place, like I don't, like, I'm, I'm, doesn't have to be a fancy place if it's not even, it's not a fancy place. It is. It's just literally like my favorite taco place just because they have this Mediterranean, I think no Caribbean taco. That's plantains and I love plantains. Where is it

Bryan the Botanist: 1:11:15

located? I've never heard of

Joao Alcolea: 1:11:16

that. They have Brickell. They have Miramar.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:11:17

Okay.

Joao Alcolea: 1:11:17

Literally right next to Brickell city center, there's a, a

Bryan the Botanist: 1:11:19

talk in tacos. Right There. Been a minute since I've been down there. I once went to Tology and I was traumatized by the price point. Yeah, it's like 30 or$40, bro.

Joao Alcolea: 1:11:27

And the little taco. Yeah. And the little taco. It's all about the

Bryan the Botanist: 1:11:29

presentation, about the, the venue. It's super gorgeous. See about

Joao Alcolea: 1:11:32

talking tacos, you get three tacos for$20.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:11:34

Yeah, that's, and it's super good. I I, I grew up in Miami, going to Lime, so, you know. Oh yeah. I actually never been to Lime. Never been to Lime. Oh my God. I've been to Lime thousands of times. South Beach. I've always been more like eating at home Beach. My mom has always cooked all my meals. What's your favorite homemade meal? What's your mom's favorite cooking?

Joao Alcolea: 1:11:50

My mom makes like this type of like, um, like, it's like a. I don't even know how to say what it's, it is like, it's like diced up cubes of steak with, with potatoes. Mm-hmm. And like a bunch of like, you know, vegetables, stuff like that. Mm-hmm. And of course, every day I eat rice, like we eat rice with everything. So it's that rice and beans or plantains or, you know, any little thing like that. Do you have a favorite motivational phrase in life? Or a hero? Keep pushing. Keep pushing.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:12:15

Who's your hero?

Joao Alcolea: 1:12:16

I don't have any. Okay. I like, I've, I don't know. I've never unf like, I've never had quotes or phrases that I kind of like, I hold onto or I stick to, like mm-hmm. Or person, like, I don't know. I've never, that's okay. Like, I've never forced, not that I've forced myself to like, not idolize anybody or anything, but like, I think I just take characteristics or like maybe a personality trait or like a form of handling things and I just like, kind of absorb it. But like, I don't really register it as like, oh, this person taught me this or like that. But, you know, I, one thing I definitely live by is literally just keep your life with an open mind. Literally just chase, chase anything you want to do, like. There's a, we wake up by ourselves, we go to sleep by ourselves. You wake up by you. You, you're born by yourself. You die by yourself unless you're twins. But, but it was like, why please anybody else but yourself. If there's a dream that you want to do, if there's a goal, if there's anything you wanna do, why not? And that's literally my biggest question. And I literally just posted a story about it on Monday. Why not? Why not? Is literally the question that has helped me do anything. What do you have to lose? Why not? Right? Yeah. It's

Bryan the Botanist: 1:13:17

like why not? Yeah. Like it's almost like going up and introducing yourself to someone like Yeah. Or if you think you're gonna make a fool of yourself, like, or doing standup comedy, which is a dream of mine someday. Like you might never see that person ever again at all. And people think that, yeah. Literally don't remember the guy that himself down the street. Like,

Joao Alcolea: 1:13:33

I don't remember him. I don't remember his face. Yeah. And like, you know, it's like people get scared of those little moments or'cause of social media. Yeah. And that's ruined a lot of people like mentality of doing things and because we, I don't think we were meant to consume so much. Thoughts of other people? Times have changed a lot. Yeah. I

Bryan the Botanist: 1:13:48

grew up in the nineties and eighties and it was totally different. I grew up, before we had cell phones and does as long as you, my youth, I only have like photos and like a photo album from when I was under 18 that are just like printed. Like I don't have, I mean, I could scan'em and put'em in my iCloud, but I didn't even have a MacBook till like, you know, 2010. I mean, I had my first cell phone when I was, I guess 20. So it was just like, nowadays kids have a cell phone at five years old. Yeah. I hate to see it. Yeah. I hate to see it. Um, cause

Joao Alcolea: 1:14:12

kids are like, literally nobody knows how to communicate. Nobody knows how to like, socialize. Like kids are shy of like Right. Interacting. It's like we're losing our ways of humans. We're mental. They're babysit by

Bryan the Botanist: 1:14:22

the iPad. The iPad, we're meant to move. They're best friends. We're

Joao Alcolea: 1:14:25

meant to communicate, we're meant to be in community. Yep. We're, there's a lot of things we're losing. You're right. And that's why I'm out here trying to at least push the mo the moving side. Mm-hmm. A lot of people are getting too sedentary in life and right now I'm trying to focus on, you know, pushing that movement side. We're trying to be moving and in community. I love it. And if I can encourage and if that's the direction I'm trying to go with the run club. And my goal isn't to make runners. My goal is just to get people moving, get'em active. And if you enjoy running and you start liking running after you attended my event, I'm happy. And And you made some friends, you're happy to. Yeah, literally. And my goal, like literally this is my, and showing up as success, right? Yeah. Showing up a success. You woke up, you got up to the run club, you didn't get to run three miles, maybe you only ran a mile and you walked the rest. Cool. You did more than what you would've done if you stayed home. And I always tell people, I'm like, my event might be monthly. And I know some people are like, oh, like I wanna keep running, go to Miami Lakes, run Club every Wednesday. And that's So you're promoting your friends. I always, always, like if she had a program, I, I've never

Bryan the Botanist: 1:15:22

heard of that one.'cause there's so many run clubs in, there's so many run clubs everywhere. It's like gotta be 50 plus run clubs in the city. Easy, easy. I made her you up around 2021. Yeah. Right after COVID. Yeah. It blew up. I, because before pre COVID there was year, like year was a big thing. 10 20. Now there's gotta be over even a hundred run clubs in my, I'm not even kidding. Yeah. Literally

Joao Alcolea: 1:15:37

on my Instagram, if you go to the highlights. I made like Laura from, you know, Laura from Brickell Run Club, probably the Nike Run club.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:15:45

Uh, yeah. I don't know her personally, but maybe,

Joao Alcolea: 1:15:46

but yeah, she had told me one day she was like, like she has a list, but like it's all the way at the bottom of her page of all the run clubs with like their days and all that. And then she told me that, she's like, why don't Jamaica? And literally the next day I got home and I made a highlight on my page where people can go and they can see, Monday there's this run club list. Tuesday there's this run club list and like that people can like, you feel like gonna run and it's Tuesday, but you don't wanna run by yourself. You wanna go to a run club, boom, here's a list. Go follow. Like go follow wherever you wanna go. Yeah. Run

Bryan the Botanist: 1:16:13

Addict does something like that, I think. Yeah. Run Addict does that too. My friend

Joao Alcolea: 1:16:16

Elliot's a founder run addict and I've run, yeah, he's a great person. I've met him before at the, he's been on the podcast?

Bryan the Botanist: 1:16:20

Yeah, he's, he's one of, I've known him since 2008. Wow. He's one of my OGs.

Joao Alcolea: 1:16:25

Well, you guys are the, the OGs in this world we're,

Bryan the Botanist: 1:16:27

well, we we're the exact same age, and like, we're all in our, like, mid to late forties and like, Elliot and I are three months apart, so we race against each other all the time. And we're always locked in the same age group, always. It's always Elliot and I top masters. So Elliot's like, we're, we're, we're connected at the hip. His wife and I always joke about it because when we're 90, we're gonna still be racing each other. That's, that's, that's cool though. Where do you see Pushing4New in the next, uh, five years? Where do you see it five years from now? What do you, what do you think it's gonna look like? What do you think your life's gonna look like in five years? How old are you right now?

Joao Alcolea: 1:16:56

I'm 24. Okay. Yeah. I'm still, you're a pup still pretty, fairly, fairly young. Honestly, that's a tough question because I, like I said earlier, where do you want it to be in five years? Where I would want it to be, I, if I have the, if I have the privilege to focus on it full time and make it weekly, maybe it's a, maybe give a lot of free resources out there. Mm-hmm. And like, you know, whatever. Honestly, anywhere. Anywhere I can help, anywhere I could fill a gap in. By all means I'm, time will be your full-time too. If it could be my full-time thing, like where, you know, I can solely focus on this, focus on every interaction and give guidance, bring out resources, bring out like people, coaches to teach people like if they want to become better. Mm-hmm. By all means, like I have no specific goal that I want to be like, as long as I stick to my main foundation, the, the pillars of what I want to do, I'm open to it. Because in a year your life can change literally LA Exactly. A year ago, if you would've asked me, I would've been running. I would've laughed in your face because I, like you lived in the gym. I didn't start running until June.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:17:50

Yeah. And you just had to experience it kinda like a guy like me needs to experience going in the gym and working out with a couple guys. I used to do that back in the day. Or maybe I need to experience going to a CrossFit gym or I need to go to experience going to. Something that's totally outside, outside of my world. Yeah. Because we all live in bubbles. Literally. I think we live in bubbles, simulations. And once you try something new, you're gonna,

Joao Alcolea: 1:18:10

you're gonna be like, you, you might trigger an idea or like a feeling that you never experienced before. Oh yeah. And that's why I'm open to all, like when I sent, I got sponsored for the half marathon in Miami. Yeah. And literally I was telling myself, I was like, yeah. Right. I would never, like, I'm gonna keep doing half marathons'cause it's doable. But to do a 26 mile run, like, I don't think I'll see myself doing it for at least three or four years. You're so still so young. Yeah. I, no. Oh, did you do the fall? No, no, no. But I finished the half marathon and within the next day. I'm doing the half, I'm, I'm doing the full, like, I'm literally, I'm gonna start training. You're signed up for the Miami Marathon? Not yet, but I'm gonna sign up for sure. Like, yeah,

Bryan the Botanist: 1:18:45

it sells out

Joao Alcolea: 1:18:45

in like August or September. Yeah. I'm gonna sign up for sure. And I'm gonna get up training before it sells

Bryan the Botanist: 1:18:49

out.'cause we don't wanna have to ask Frankie for a favor. I've had to ask him for enough favors. No, I mean, because he gets a lot, I mean, he gets favors when he's in the grocery store and he gets favors at 10:00 PM on a Sunday night asked, because everyone wants to be in the marathon, but it sells out very fast. It sold out and like literally, that's why I didn't get in. He's, he's the founder. So you, he can, I didn't get in. He can't make exceptions. I don't even ask him for an exception. No, I bet I used to get free entries because I would win the 5K and then they get me in the half the next day.

Joao Alcolea: 1:19:14

Mm-hmm.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:19:15

Like, oh yeah, I'd love to get half the next day. And he'd be like, yeah, we'll get you in and get one more entry for you. But like I stopped doing that because I realized that Frankie knows like thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people in Miami and they're all asking him for help once in a while. And it's gotta be a high pressure. I mean, I'm sure he is probably gonna hear this episode and like he. His wife, I'm sure knows how much his phone is blowing up for sure. With people asking for. But that's amazing that he responded to you right away and gave you the time. Yeah, I, I was like shocked. They gave

Joao Alcolea: 1:19:43

me his phone number and told me to call him. I was like, yeah.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:19:45

I was like, okay.

Joao Alcolea: 1:19:46

Like

Bryan the Botanist: 1:19:46

this is like, this is a great example. That's where you are. Now I'm talking to someone who knows him really well and that just speaks volumes of who he is.'cause that's exactly who he is. He's a very good, he gives a

Joao Alcolea: 1:19:53

lot to Sneaker Impact. I don't even think he knows. Like, I, I think he spoke to me on the phone, like I told, like, I think he doesn't, I don't, I would say, I don't even think he knows, like the face to the voice. Mm. Or he probably, like, I know he talks to a lot of people, like, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even remember that conversation. Sure. But like, that's a true SI like a, um, a display of leadership and wanting to help the community even if you know the person. Yeah. He's

Bryan the Botanist: 1:20:13

got kids, he's got two kids at home that are young, that are like under five years old. So I mean, he, he could have been like, oh, I'm busy right now. Literally like, let's set up a time to talk later. He

Joao Alcolea: 1:20:20

literally told me, call me whenever. Wow. He said, call me whenever. Yeah. And I did not wait a second. I was like, okay, lemme get outta the gym.'cause I know it's a lot of noise. That's

Bryan the Botanist: 1:20:27

smart of you though, because that advice is so good to shake hands and meet as many people as you can.'cause it's not shaking hands like you're running for president. It's shaking hands in that being authentic, getting to know people. Yeah. Literally. So that's incredible advice. Um, alright, we're gonna wrap it up now, Joel, but, um, incredible to have you on today. What last inspiring words would you like to leave our Sneaker Impact studio with?

Joao Alcolea: 1:20:46

If there's one thing I'd always stand by is if there's something you want to do, go after. If there's a feeling, if there's an idea, there's a business, whatever it is, you wanna go for a run, just do it. Stop waiting for people to do it. Stop, stop waiting for anybody or support you. Just go out there and do it by yourself. At the end of the day, you only got yourself so

Bryan the Botanist: 1:21:02

awesome. And you got AU to help you too.'cause he's gonna be in Yeah, he's gonna be in the back. He's gonna be picking you up if you ever need it. Or he's just gonna be Yeah, I'm that guy in the back

Joao Alcolea: 1:21:09

of the run club. I'm gonna help you and I'm gonna help you finish it. If I gotta walk it with you, I'm walking with you. That's

Bryan the Botanist: 1:21:13

awesome, man. I love your attitude. I love your energy, Jo. Pushing4New June 14th,

Joao Alcolea: 1:21:18

June 14th.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:21:19

I hope to see you guys out there. We're gonna

Joao Alcolea: 1:21:20

be Veterans Park, Miami Lakes. Miami is there for

Bryan the Botanist: 1:21:22

the event or is it Pushing4News? Just Pushing4New Run Club. Run Club is gonna just be my run club event. Oh. Actually it's gonna be summer kickoff. Summer kickoff of the pushing, Pushing4New run club Summer kickoff. Awesome. So Sneaker Impact, ISS gonna be there. I'll be there. Happy runner. Jazz will be there. We're gonna promote it. Um, check out his Instagram at pushing the number four new.

Joao Alcolea: 1:21:39

That's right. And if you guys wanna run a five minute 5K Brian will be liberty. He'll be, that would be a world record.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:21:46

I love it. When I saw someone on Garmin the other day, they had a five minute, 5K on their results. And it's obviously not real. That that's, no, that would've been a mistake. They would've been in a car. And the car was, you can only drive a 5K. And so the world, just to let you know the world. Well, you

Joao Alcolea: 1:22:00

can't be, you can't run a 5K with five. Oh they a 5K. I think a 5K is 3.1 miles. Yeah. Five. Oh, you meant five minute pace. I thought you meant five minutes. No, no, no. The world record is,

Bryan the Botanist: 1:22:09

um, 12 minutes and 30 seconds. That's insane. About, and it's set by like Olympians that have like. All the contracts in the world with like, you know, all the watch companies and all the, uh, shoe companies. But basically it was just funny that you said that because I'm a Garmin the other day, you know, on Garmin and Strava, sometimes people will have their personal records. Yeah. And like no one in the world has ever run even under. 12 minutes for a 5K. Yeah. And this person had five minutes for the 5K, so they just didn't go in and fix it. But I knew what it was. You can't even bike a 5K in five minutes. No, that's insane. That's in a car or an airplane or a boat. Those are the longest strides ever. I mean, and you have the watch going in the run feature and you were in a car, which might've been an accident. They might've forgot to turn it off. Yeah. Which is what happens. People forget to turn off their watches when they're done. They're running and they drive home. And then the watch will capture a 5K segment and then it'll put it on there. So that's just a funny last little story in that. No, but you know what? They probably weren't trying to fake it, but it's just like, you know, the fastest mile in the world is like 3 45 or something.

Joao Alcolea: 1:23:10

I just got my first fastest smile and I hit 6 53. That was a Nike event. That's awesome. And that took everything outta, you're just gonna

Bryan the Botanist: 1:23:16

keep improving, man. I really, well, that's it. Go. I did a marathon when I was 20, and then my second marathon was at 28. And between them, I didn't do any racing. And my first one was four 16. Did one eight years later at 28, and then from the age of 28 onwards to 46. Now I've done nothing but marathon every year, and I've improved two and a half hours or two hours from four 16 to two 30. One doesn't. But like that, the four 16 was a 10 minute per mile pace, and the 2 31 is a five 40 pace. So that's, that's a drop of six minutes per mile, over 26 miles. Plus, what I've seen as a coach and as a runner is that you start at a certain place and after like three or four years, you are way beyond where you were in the beginning. It's like you need almost like a college, it's like your college, like you need three or four years to like mm-hmm. Kind of get your feet under you because what happens is your body changes and it adapts and you become more of a runner because everyone can run, and some people are naturally incredibly talented, and then some people are more just like. Normal, average runners. Yeah. Which is great. But then if you really want to be a great runner, you can slowly progress to that. But it takes 10 thou, you know, the 10,000 hour rule. Mm-hmm. Anything in life that you wanna master takes 10,000 hours or more. So just like to be good in, you know, the strength training you're doing, you probably were okay the first year. Yeah. But then, uh, year two, three and four, you probably took off. Yeah. And you're just gonna keep taking off because you know, for me, and since I got a lot better in my thirties, like you're still in your, so 25, early to mid twenties. Yeah. So you have, as cardiovascular athletes, we tend to. Um, have our peaks in our late thirties. I had my peak in my early forties, so, you know, but I started training later in life. I didn't run in high school. But basically what I'm telling you is I, again, I hated on the podcast when I talk more than the guest. No. Hey, you,

Joao Alcolea: 1:24:58

we gotta hear your story too. I'm, I'm motivated now'cause

Bryan the Botanist: 1:24:59

I'm gonna start training for

Joao Alcolea: 1:25:00

my full marathon now. I

Bryan the Botanist: 1:25:01

I, I I'm almost old enough to be your dad, I guess. I mean, 22 years old, I would've had you'cause I'm 22 years older than you. Yeah. So I got, I'm not your dad, but I'm old enough to be like older than your brother. I could be like an uncle. Yeah. And so, like my Uncle Lee advice, is that a word? My Uncle Lee advice is to keep working hard because you're gonna keep improving every single year. As long as you don't get injured. Just don't get injured as best as you can. You know when you broke your hand? Yeah. Frankie broke his foot. I had to get Achilles things happen, but you know, if you can prevent injuries, you will keep. Progressing, evolving and growing as a human and as an athlete. It's not just as an athlete, but athletes continue to grow, grow. Mm-hmm. As they get into their thirties, there's always something. The best Ironmans are in their, like late thirties. They're not 24. Yeah. Necessarily, because you, you keep developing your engine and your engine is still. Getting developed. Yeah, we're

Joao Alcolea: 1:25:51

still putting oil in the engine right now. It's getting developed.

Bryan the Botanist: 1:25:53

But your, your mentality is so strong that it's stronger than a lot of people that I've talked to in my life because you are so young, but you have so much to give and you have so much wisdom at your age already that I just see great things in your future. So it's been an honor to have you on today, Joao. Thank you for taking the time. We're pushing an hour and a half, but it's been a great conversation. So guys, thank you for joining us. We'll have Joao back in the future. Catch up with him. Come out on June 14th with Sneaker Impact to the summer kickoff of the Pushing4New Run Club Miami. I

Joao Alcolea: 1:26:24

hope. See you guys there and it was a pleasure being on your podcast. Awesome, Joao. I thank you so much. Let's go get some mangoes and have some Oh, for sure. Kick it with the crew. Alright guys, we get to enjoy this now. See you