The Art & Science of Coaching: Mindset, Movement, and the "Next Mailbox" Mentality | Unspoken with Mike Thomson

Stop focusing on the finish line and start looking for the next mailbox. In this episode of Unspoken with Nick and Nick, veteran coach Mike Thomson reveals why the secret to elite fitness isn't just in the science—it’s in the soul.  

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Mike has transitioned from a high-level competitive athlete to a mentor who believes that true transformation happens when you "tug the heart strings" and understand a person's "intangibles." Whether you are a dedicated marathoner or a dad trying to lead a healthier life for your family, this conversation dives deep into the mental resilience required to "embrace the suck" and keep moving forward.  

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• The "Next Mailbox" Mentality: Learn how to scale small, visible goals to build momentum and avoid being overwhelmed by the end of the road.  

• The Art vs. Science of Coaching: Why an intensive 90-minute "first date" assessment is the key to long-term success over generic workout plans.  

• Peak Performance Secrets: Mike shares his "greasing the groove" technique for the final five days before a marathon to align the brain and body.  

• The "Healthy Dads" Initiative: How Mike is fostering community and leadership starting right in his own neighborhood.  

• The Mental Edge: Insights into the "Endure" philosophy—how your brain often holds your body back and how to break those physical limits.  

If you've ever asked, "I know what I need to do, but how in the heck do I do it?", this episode is your roadmap to bridging the gap between knowledge and action. Tune in for a vulnerable, high-energy discussion on fitness, fatherhood, and finding the drive to stay "L-I-V-I-N."  

You can find mike on instagram @fastandfitmike for more information. Go give him a follow for all your health and fitness tips! 

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of unspoken with Nick and Nick and today we have our first guest actually. Funny enough, which funny enough is your neighbor is my neighbor and a great guy. So I'm going to let you introduce him then. All right, man. Mike, how's it going this morning, dude? Awesome. Dude, I love this guy. Okay, I can't say enough about this guy. The one thing I've been going through making notes on what I could say to introduce this guy and seeing that we like to take things a little deeper and a little more vulnerable. What I appreciate most about this guy is drive, his work ethic, the way he is with his kids, the way he is with his wife, the neighbor kids. I mean, this guy, my kids will go over to his basement. He sent me videos. He's training them. That's right. He's sent me videos of them on the treadmill and he's having fun with them. That's right. He's trying to start this neighborhood initiative, right? Like, let's be healthy dads up here, up top in the brain and in the body. And if you're up here in the brain, first the body comes, right? I mean, I can't say enough about Mike, man. You're great, dude. Thanks, man. I love being neighbors. Just hear that. That gets me like actually a little bit emotionally. You're not going to be crying, dude. No, really, really, what did it in? I know. Right? 86. That's going to be hard to beat you. We're going to be a linker. But I do appreciate you, man, a lot. And we were neighbors over in our old neighborhood and then we moved here recently, like within the last year, year and a half. And he and I become a little bit closer through that bike ride. That's awesome. I've been on a bike ride with him. He tried to kill me. I'm not going to lie. I was hurt and man. Yeah, look at it. But you know, the one thing that I really appreciated that he did for not only me and that one ride, but what he's done for the kids, like we did it this neighborhood trifle on with the kids. That's awesome. I heard him repeatedly tell the kids like stop focusing on the end of the road. Look at the next bail mailbox. Yeah. So on a good point. Note, I'm the type of guy. I think really deeply. I can't help myself. It's my biggest downfall in the biggest blessing at the same time. But I try to surround myself with people like that. You know that they're like, don't focus on the end, man. Focus in love and dislike each step along the way. You appreciate that top more. And that little, that little gesture you did for the kids who are like next mailbox. Yeah. Next mailbox. You've done it for me too. Well, that's just thing. It's not, it's scaled to the appropriate person. Yeah. So in that situation, we're talking about things that they can see, but you and I have recently were just talking about your drones, right? Yeah. And what you should or should not do as an adult. Yeah. It's just scaled differently as kids, right? Yeah, exactly. You have to be able to have that superpower to be able to get into their shoes. Yeah. And to whoever you're talking about. So I think that's one of my superpowers. It is. Man your ability to do that. Yeah. It is very neat. And I appreciate it. Well, it's something I think we were saying in kind of off camera earlier. And I think you made a really good point. And I think it's a lot of people's lives is that, you know, it's kind of like the look around. And like in your world, you're like, it's like a little kids like you see him and him is like, nobody's going to know. Yeah. Like in your world in such a fitness-based world, right? Like, that could be anybody. You have to be able to get in their head when they're not in the room. Like, how is it that I can be a long-lasting, like remembered voice rather than just being like, very good point? Yeah, that's cool. There's a donut there. I have a couple of prime examples recently, you know, it's February. And actually in my industry, everybody thinks January 1 is like the big day. But a lot of times people get the ball rolling. They actually hire me. They seek me out. And so it might be January 15th or the end of January by the time we get the ball rolling. So recently, February, second week in February, I've had a big influx in business. And so I do an assessment with that first client. And I tell them, look, it is good to know what you're doing. How many days of week you're lifting? How many days of week you're running? What you're doing? Sure. But I also want to get to know you. Yeah. Because I want to know how to tug that heart string, you know, when I have to. Totally. Absolutely. So there's the art of coaching. Yeah. And then there's the science of coaching. Like, I've been in the game coaching now for 20 years. But like, I want to be able to look into your soul and be able to say something. So when you look at me, you're like, OK, Mike. Exactly. Yeah, boss puppy mentality. You're right. Yeah. You got me. You got me. I love that. Yeah. That's great. Well, that's awesome, too. I mean, I think it's important. And I think probably, you know, in the entrepreneurial world, I don't think enough people probably focus on it. Maybe they do. Maybe I just ignorant to it. But maybe they don't focus on like actually getting to know their client, being actually engaged with the person they're working with or business partner, whomever. But I mean, I can only do so much if I trust somebody and truthfully, like, that's hard to do sometimes, right? Like, you can't trust everybody. Right. But then at the same time, you're thinking about other things that are maybe intangibles, things that like you can't control as an athlete, right? Like, you're not, you're not able to really take someone and say, all right, here's how you look today. Here's how you want to look in, let's just say six weeks, right? And then you take that and just, it's just that, right? Like, it's never just that. It's never just, we're going to go get in the gym. We're going to make it happen. It's everything around that. Does this person have an addictive personality? It's really hard to get away from like sugar, sweets, coax, like things like that, right? Does this, yeah, it's really though. Yeah. Like, you wouldn't know that if you didn't ask the question, right? You know, like, if it's just solely about the one thing, that's not possible. So I love that approach because it's awesome. How do you do that and really make somebody a better person if you just focused on the one thing? Correct. Right. So, a long assessment. Yeah. So, I think that's the point of it. I think that's the point of it. And then we're going to have a lot of people, it's like the first date. It's my one opportunity. I don't get another first date with you. I don't get another opportunity to learn all these things because after this, we're getting to work. Yeah. So, I dig that approach, man. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, let's take a second here. Mike, tell us a little bit about you. Tell us, you know, who are you? What do you do? What types of things are you doing on a daily basis? Let's start there so we can get a better feel. Where do I start? Oh, 42 years old. I started with Nick, grew up in Michigan. That makes two of us. Right around the corner. Yeah. I played baseball, tell seventh grade, played very competitive baseball, quit baseball to continue playing soccer, played soccer, and basketball through high school. Eastlancing high school and then went on to play the division two school soccer, Saginaw Valley. Got a scholarship to go there. Once I figured out what I wanted to do for school, which was what I thought, become a physical therapist, I transferred back to Michigan State to go to the Kinesiology program. Also, then eventually go to get a doctorate of physical therapy. Well, I got all the way down to my internship and physical therapy was way too morbid and slow for me. And then I did another internship at the Michigan Athletic Club with the gentleman named Chris Johnson and he was doing auditorium seating lectures to people to get them through their nutrition. Sure. He was changing lives. People were coming up prior to and hugging them and crying and I was like, "I want that." He didn't mean that. Yeah, that's him. You know what I mean? And so, this was like in my last semester of school. I thought I was going to physical therapy and I'm like, "I'm going personal training." Yeah. That's the route I want to go. Once I transferred to Michigan State, I played soccer, club, four-year and then walked down to the VARSTee squad. Nice. And a cool little story for you guys. I didn't make the team right away. I practiced with them. They asked me to come and play indoors where the football team practices. So that's where we practiced inside. And I earned that spot. Yeah. It wasn't because of my skills, it was because I just kept showing up. Yeah, two spots, man. It was like, it was Rudy, Rudy, Christian. It was so cool. And so that's probably one of my people asked me. I've done a lot of athletic things, but that was probably the one that I'm most proud of. I was probably... I kept showing up, man. He just answered a question. I'd probably argue that it wasn't Rudy, Rudy, stuff because that story is bananas, the real story. Oh, Rudy? Yeah. Have you all heard that? No. Like an incessant try hard. They carried him off the field as a joke because they were tired of him. Like all this stuff. Like he got the movie made because he just wouldn't stop pitching it to people. Oh, no way. Like, this is... What? I'm taking this off of something that I've read. Okay, okay. But this is my movie background and stuff. I do a lot of research stuff. So that's where that comes from. But man, it was like, nobody liked him. You're better than Rudy. Apparently one of my friends, dad, knows the original Rudy. No kid. You have to ask him like Ben, not Ben, Indiana, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, no kid. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know all the details there. So I'm not going to pretend I do. But I would argue your story is even better. Yeah. No, I love it. And the moment I found out I made a team, we were camping at this Cadillac in Michigan. Just that like, just bald, bald, most problem moment. But day one, we did the two mile test. I won that as a walk on. That's another big flight. Yeah, yeah. 10, 52 mile and then coach said, I wish you guys were all as fit as Thompson. That was another like really big. Oh, right? It physically makes my stomach hurt. Do you know what I mean? I used to do it too. So what do you know me too? Played college soccer. After soccer, graduated, went to Chicago. Followed a girl there was Daytona Girl, high school sweetheart. She went on to go to Northwestern for DPT school. High followed her to Chicago. That's when I started my personal training career. Sure. So 2005, I started 2025. I've been in the game for 20 years. Started a big corporate gym and then nine months later started my own business with two other guys called Corpitness Enhancment. I left that business in 2010 to start what is now fast and fit coaching and built that business in Chicago. I had five coaches working for me. Angie quit. My wife quit her public accounting job to join my business and to help run that. She became a personal trainer as well. I don't know if you knew that. I didn't know Angie was a personal trainer too. Yeah, she was doing the nutrition side out of here, man. Coaching beside me. Yep. And then we decided living in Chicago. We had twin boys now that are nine. We bounced around the city. We moved out to the burbs and we're like, we gotta get closer to family. Sure. We moved to Kansas. So along the way, I've done everything from Iron Man triathlon and Cosimo Mexico to the 1050 from 2009 through about 2012. I tried to go pro in triathlon. And so this is when I was young and traveling around the country trying to get my pro card. And this was the Olympic distance triathlon. Okay. So it was a 1500 meter swim, so just short of a mile. 25 mile bike and then a 10k run. And that order, isn't it? Yes, swim bike run. Yep. And then my best was a 201 Olympic distance triathlon. And the swim, I don't know, I think it was like 135. So it was my pace per 100 hours. At hours? Two hours? No, it was 135 was the pace per 100. Oh, I see what you're saying. I was like, okay, I was like, you do this whole thing and I was going to cry. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did do all that in two hours. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you could even cry. Yeah, so I biked 24.1 miles an hour and then got off and ran at a sub six minute pace for the 10k immediately after that. Mike, can I say something real quick? That bike ride we went on, I think I hit 24 going down. I'm not even 100% sure that I would hit 24 going downhill and I way more than you. So gravity would even take me 24. Yeah. And the biggest flex, just a hybrid is a very like kind of word these days, 425. I could do all that and still dead the 400 pounds. And 150 pounds and 150 to that is a bananas. That's the OG hybrid. It's awesome, man. Hybrid AF. Yeah. Jeez, dude. That's just to flex some of like what I've done in the past and then 20 marathons, two boss to marathons. Who is Mike? I coach online. I do personal training at lifetime. I travel for a lifetime to these events that lifetime has created. Time has 30 gravel races, bike races around the country. And I wrote to Miami half marathon program, the Chicago half marathon program. So I just got back from Miami two weeks ago. Yeah. I will go to Chicago in about 12 weeks in May and I will kind of do some education at the Expo. I'll do a shakeout run. I'll educate people on how they should hydrate and fuel and what they should be thinking about and be realizing during the race. I tell people when I'm the day before the race, I'm like, the hay is in the barn, the work is done, but your brain can still be trained. Sure. The brain is to be in the right spot too. To execute this, you know, to get twisted, to go in this dark place in the very military. I take all of this in is that's my background. Yeah. That's very, I love it, man. I love that mentality. And can I flex for you? Yeah. Not me for you. This guy shows me a video. He's the leadville video. So he, how many miles was that again? Well, which, which I did, it was like a hundred all the mountain bike race. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So leadville, Colorado, some of you may or may not know is at 10,000 feet. Yeah. It's the highest city in the, highest city in the country. This guy has video evidence. He's singing as he's riding. That's so gross. That's awesome. I had to go pro, go pro 360 on my handlebars. It was incredible. He is talking to the guy next to him. Hey, beautiful day. He's just like out casually, you know, so cavalier with it. That's amazing. That's my Mike flex. We're going up this hill and I can't not be goofy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's flat coming out of leadville and you hit your first climb and everything kind of gets congested. Sure. Sure. So people are like, come on. You know, you know, when any of you, everybody's all fired up an hour into the race or there's a ton of energy. And so I'm singing. Yeah. Have a great time. Yeah. Like, no, all good. I'm happy over here. It might be mad if they want. We need to find a way to post that video, dude, because I'm telling you it is. If you'll let us heck, I'll just put it right here. That's right, man. That is great. That's awesome. That's my Mike flex, dude. It was awesome. I think it's one of those things like there's, okay, so I've got two points because the one point I want to ask a question, but like that makes me laugh because I think that's one of those things. Like that's so much embrace the suck scenario. Yes. Like you've already put in so much time and effort. It's like, well, you know, I did all that work. I did all that journey time to get to where I am today. Like why would I just hate my life today? Celebration. Yeah. This is the big party. Yeah, exactly. And like, I'm not an endurance athlete by any means. Like I'm not going to go run a marathon probably, right? That I can think of anytime soon. But maybe walk one. I could certainly walk one. It'll take several days. We're on to something here. Let's go. Let's go back to that. We're all start somewhere. Okay. All start somewhere. But what you said kind of sparked something in me because I took it from what you had to. So military version, athletics version, there's a point at what point is it that you can no longer get better physically? Like what is the threshold by your, let's just say you're going to go run a marathon, right? What is that last day where you're like, this is where significance is made. Otherwise everything else is maintenance from up to race day, right? Like you can't. You know, it's kind of like in bodybuilding competitions, right? Like in bodybuilding world, like, I'm in my last week. I'm not burning any more fat to make me look that much better. I may be dropping water, weighed and like things like that, but that's it. There's nothing left. So like some similar to that, what would that look like in your world? So in preparation for an event or for like peak marathon performance? Let's go with you are getting ready to just go run a marathon and you've been training for that marathon or you're training someone to do a marathon. What would be that last day that you tell them like, this is really the last day you have? Like here's your actual prep time in the rest is. Interest is workout? Yeah. Generally that's five days before the event because I do, if a race is sad or day or Sunday, usually I'm doing something they call it greasing the groove. So you do some efforts at race pace to get the legs opened up and to get the brain. Seeing things go by it, that's how powerful the brain is, but it would be like five times one K at marathon pace. Okay. Okay. Cool. Six to eight times eight hundred at marathon pace. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My dog came down. I ain't nobody's going to care if they do that. In the words of Ernie Harwell, when he would call baseball games, he would, if they had a little bit of a delay in a baseball game, he would joke around and say, there's a squirrel in center field. Yeah. Exactly. How about that weather? How about that weather? Sorry. No, that's awesome. No, that's what, like, exactly like we said, it's going to be chill. We don't care that dogs in here. We don't care that the kids are running. This is the real stuff, right? So, no, that's awesome. I've always been kind of curious about that because like not being an endurance athlete, like, I'm not going to become, like in my world of baseball, right? Like I was not going to become better. Yeah. I was significantly better hitter on game day than I was in all of our prep time leading up to it. So, that stuff happened in the years and the days and the months before, rather than just like, A day, it's just a flash in the pan, essentially, right? Like, I'm getting there and either I can do it or I can not do it. Yeah. And that happened well before this week in, you know, game days, five days from now, like you said. Yeah. I often, it's so individual. And in those four other days leading up to the race, I now have learned to use my intuition a lot more. Like, how do I feel? Do I feel like going off for a run two days before? No, I'm not going to. Yeah. I don't need to. But if I feel like it, let's scratch that itch and now go off for a three mile run, you know, generally the day before I'm getting out just to move the body and to keep the routine, routine is good for the brain. Yeah. Put the shoes on. Because if I don't get out and scratch that itch, like I get anxious, you know, some of that we learned during COVID, like if I don't get out and run, I am that anxious dog that will eat your couch cushions, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. That during COVID, you know, allowed me to make sure that anxiety and other things were managed. Yeah. That's good. I just take it, you know, like I said, from so much training in baseball world, like, it's just so impossible to like just go sit and be. It's very hard to just exist in space after all that training, right? Like, that's as much of a mental prep as it is like to actually do the event. Yeah. So, if it said, if you can't meditate for five minutes, you need to meditate for half an hour. Yeah, exactly. Do you remember that? Was it gone to you or something? I don't. I don't like that. I feel like if you can't do that, then it means you need to do that maybe even more. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It is. And then going back to the brain game, you know, you brought up the darkest point in the dark. In your darkest moment, maybe it was you, the darkest moment in that competition, maybe I love that your darkest moment was singing. No, no, no, no, definitely not. Well, your mind, your mind is sad. I can tell you some dark moments in that. I felt like crashed twice. And then at Leadville two years ago, there was a 30 degree swing. Oh. Going back into the mountains, it started to rain. Ouch. I didn't have the right gear. I didn't bring one of the tips when you do this is to be ready for any weather because you're in the mountains. Yeah. You ever in the mountains, you know, it can like switch in 20, 30 minutes. I saw a storm coming in and I should have had a range out. Oh, no. And so one of the darkest moments and most scary moments was actually when I was descending and I couldn't feel my hands. I could hardly squeeze my brakes. All right, man. So, yeah, I didn't have control of my hands going, you know, 20 miles an hour down, not a paved road down a dirt trail with rocks. Something so easy you can't do. Yeah. Or change that. I couldn't change my gears. Yeah. My left hand, I remember this and I have a video of me saying this on my GoPro. I had to reach over and switch my gears on the left side because my left hand wouldn't work. Wow. Yeah. Talk about anxiety. It's awesome. You have to do it. Yeah. It's fun. It's exciting to say that. Sign me up. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, go drive your bike in the mountains. They said it might be a haunted. No, it's awesome. And then this guy comes later down the road and sits there all the way through. It's like the scene from like dumb and dumb. It was a good one. So it gets away with the scarred fruit. What happened? No. Classic. Classic. Oh, man. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Do that's freaky. It is freaky. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. But with that being said, that was probably a mile 70 at mile 85. mile 70. Yeah. Just mile 75. I met up with a guy from Utah who was probably in the 70s and we're no, it was more like, sorry, it was more like 90, 95. He was 95. We were at the mile 95. He was 70. Wow. And I caught him the 70 year old man. Okay. And I ended up saying to him, and I do have this unfilm actually I started my GoPro. I said, how young are you? And he said 70. And he started telling me how awesome I am because I have a, I wrote a steel bike. I had a frame. Oh, this the one I wrote. Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't full suspension. It didn't have a hardtail. It didn't have a dropper seat. Okay. Or should me, it wasn't a hardtail. Anyway, he was like, wow, look at you and we were talking about where I came from and I came from Kansas City. He's like, wow, you're riding a steel frame bike and you're from Kansas City and no altitude. Good job. He was from Utah. I'm like, dude, you're 70 years old. You're a sheep. Good job. You're a sheep. Yeah. We got to get on it, dude. Well, I think that, yes. But I mean, truthfully, well, I'm 42. There's a lot of life left. Couldn't be. Yeah, man. Exactly. He's living. He's not just alive. Peter Atilla, doctor, talks about lifespan and health span. Homeboy is living in the 70s and that's what I aspire to do. 100%. I told my wife, so I built a garage gym back in 2020 during COVID, right? I started really building that out more, which kind of takes a toll. It tells more of a story than I think it probably seems like it does. I started building out that garage gym. I had nothing. I had a barbell in some ways. Very simple, basic. I must have spent 100 bucks on just some used crap, right? Not a big deal. I didn't have a rack or anything, nothing like that. Now I've got a nice face, but I started building that out more when my daughter was born. That was the big turn for me. I told my wife, I was like, you know, I've always worked out, but then this year came around and I was like, you know, now I have my son. I was like, I absolutely do not want to be that dad that gets up off the floor and is exactly like that part in a home alone too where he like gets up and he's like, crap. Wow. What a hole. Yeah. That's what I don't want to be like. I don't want to hurt. So I told him I was like, I have all this time left and I want to spend as much of that time with my family and my friends and like all the people I want to be with. So I completely agree with you. Like I want to spend time living, not just being like, I'm getting closer to death every day. And I also don't know when that is. Like I can't and I can't worry about that. I don't know what my life has in store for. L-A-V-I-N, man. Yeah, that's right. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly, man. And I think that's important. I think that's a great point. Yeah. Really, really good. It really is. Yeah. I, a guy like me, you know, the background I had physically, not just mentally, but that physical game that I was in for so long. I know what I need to do. It's just doing it. Yeah. You know, I'm that guy and I've told our listeners before, Nick knows this. I think you know a little bit about this, Mike. You know, I'm very alive in the AA community. I battled the mental demons. I've come through that over the past few years doing EMDR. Okay. I'm living life better now. Mentally so. I'm so clear. I'm recently dropped some weight. I recently dropped some weight. Yeah. I'm understanding what I need to do. It's just getting, I know how to do it. Yeah. It's not like I've never done it before, but I know we've got listeners who are going to say this exact same thing. Mike, I know what I need to do. Yeah. How in the heck do I do it? What can I just, I mean, can I interject? Please. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, like I often, when I go run long, I don't go up on myself and do that. Yeah. There's a rarer than I go about it. Boring, man. Hell yeah. I don't want to do that. So I have got my community of people. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Arnold didn't do legs with himself. No. He'll do a, right. His second session in the, the day by himself. Right. So he had his tribe of people. Yeah. Yeah. And so I like that. I like that. Whether it be a tribe or an accountability coach. Yeah. But, you know, that's what I was trying to do with the, the guys in the neighborhood. I really want to do that. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Whether it be a rock or a bike. And, you know, I know that some of the, the guys in the neighborhood don't have like the best knees and can't run. But that doesn't mean we can't go out and do a walk with a bike or a bike, right? Right. So let's find that thing that we can all do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I'm just like, one peels off and he just got a barbell on his back squatting in front of another guy's house. He's like, you know, that's a way to show your alphaness in the neighborhood. Yeah. And it's pouring rain. This is hot and I am bronze. Exactly. And exactly. But, no, that's true. That's true, man. It is, man. You know, often times you're not doing sports and singles. It's in teams, right? Yeah. There's a reason for that. I like that answer though. Community tribe. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. I like the things that you do with a lot of like the endurance based stuff that you're doing, like if you're doing the triathlon, like you talk about, you know, a lot of times it is really individualized, which is interesting because you can't feel comfortable. It's not that you can't. It's uncommon, I think, for most people to feel comfortable training solo all the time. And then the event is actually more of a solo thing. But like you have a lot of people that are you were probably doing it with during that that you know or have met along the way and then like you happen to meet at the day, like that stuff happens. Yeah. But at the same time, like the actual time is an individual time. And that's a little different. Whereas training, it's not necessarily that you're speaking directly to time. You're like, I'm going to do this for this amount of time because that's what I'm training to do. Not, I'm going to try and go beat that time. Maybe, you know, and I'm kind of just throwing that out there. I don't know for sure that that's the case, but I feel like it would be really hard to do individualized sports always solo. Like it'd be so hard. There, I mean, I've come to learn that there are many different types of personalities and there are some people to do that. Yeah. But I think the majority as human beings, I think we like tribes. I think we like to be around people. We need to try it. We're meant to be. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that there's a spectrum of individuals, right, that don't and would, you know, prefer to be by themselves. Sure. And then there's other people that like, if they're not around people for a couple of hours, there's not right, you know? Yeah. So there's, there's definitely. I know I'm one of those, especially with my job. Oh, yeah. If I'm not around people, I, I tense up. I kind of freak out. Yeah. If I need, I need people, but I don't need people so much that I'll surround myself with just people like, yeah, I got to have good people around me. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I'm very choosy and picky about who I have around me because I want like minded. I know we're all different, but I want that like minded, you know, we're different avenues career wise. I'll take career. Yeah. We all do different things, but we're all trying to better ourselves for us and our families. Yeah. That's what I want. Right. Right. Like, I didn't, I didn't have, choose to have kids with my wife for the title. Yeah. Right. Like, I want to raise kids to be chivalrous warriors. Yeah. That's what I want. I want them to open a door for a man or a woman. But if somebody knocks on their door, I want them to answer it. Yeah. I think that's what we all want. I think a lot of the listeners want that. One of the things I speak of like kids and want them to be, I, I wave to the neighbors in the neighborhood. I think you and I, did we talk about that? Yeah. We, and there are some people in the neighborhood who do not. Who do not? Yeah. Almost like that's a real thing. Yes. It's our neighborhood and you live here and I'm out on this. Yeah. Like, how do you not wave to somebody? Yeah. We know where you live. Yeah. I mean, like exactly. So on Wednesday, on Wednesday, I'm going to, I'm going to do two stories that are, that are both connected here. Speaking of our community and speaking of this guy and myself and, and a lot of the other guys here, I had to leave for work. I did work. You know, we got a whole three inches and people freaked out and canceled. Yeah. But I still worked. Um, and Katie knew I had to go and I felt horrible. She went out. She was shoveling the driveway. And I was like, shoot, I'm so, I got to go, just leave it. I'll get it when I get home. Now I'm going to go out and do it. So she goes out and do it to do it and she gets to the end of the driveway. This guy comes over. He helps her. Yeah. And Katie was so appreciative of that and she was like, we're getting that shovel. Yeah. Like he has a sweet shovel, dude. It's just no plow. Very sweet. It's so, but the actual wheels on it too. Oh, dude, that one's epic. That one's cool too. Probably like a hundred dollar shovel though. He wants that. He comes over and does that. And then Katie comes in and she tells me that that might come over and how about I do that so nice of him. I honestly figured you were going to. I just knew that about him. But then she goes, yeah, they peeled off and then they went and did like two other neighbors. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah. I love it. But he and I did that the last big storm. The boys were out digging and I'm like, dude, let's, I'm going to go over and help him. He goes, give me a sec. I'll change. We went over and helped. So, on this topic of waving, Mike was waving to me and it's like my brain didn't process it. But did you notice I stopped and waved out my back window back? Yeah, I made sure. Yeah. I'm like, I'm not going to let him wave without me waving. But we were the two of them and I think we've got enough. It's hilarious, dude. Yeah. I can't not wave it, people. And I stared at you as you were back and out. I don't want that. I know you did. I was like, I'm just waiting for you to look at me so I can wave. Yeah, exactly. And let me be a good person. Stop taking this from me. I legitimately stopped my car and looked back and waved. Yeah, I could see through your tinted windows too. There it is. There it is. That's so funny. That's so funny. It's true though, right? Like, you have to have it. You have to have it. You've got to have it, man. Yeah. But it's funny and I won't, I won't dim them out, but I know the two cars in particular that just don't wave when they come through. And I'm like, dude, this is your home. Yeah. And it's a bummer too. And I always have thought about things like that. And I probably take it a little too philosophical at a certain point because I'm like, you know, I want to get you to wave back me because I want to wonder, like I always wonder what's going wrong. Or like, are you, are you heartened? What else in life is going on? Yeah. Like, are you hardened in something happened to you where like you just can't trust people in that just, this is how it manifests or is it like you truly don't care? Yeah. Right. What is it? And I think that's a lot about what all of this is about. Like, how do we, how do we bring that up? How do we tap it? Yeah. And it's not, it's not to pry. It's not to be like up in people's business, but it's just like, hey, we're all people. We all got screwy things we've dealt with. Yeah. And that, some people much worse. Like, you've dealt with a lot of things that are so incredibly worse than anything I've ever dealt with. So I can't even be on the same level, right? Like truthfully, what we do process differently. Yeah. So you know, things like that. I have something I screenshot and it's everyday quotes, teach these 40 phrases to your sons and daughters so they can be more resilient, successful and confident in life. Yeah. Yeah. Holy. Yeah. Share that. Number one, where there's a will, there's a way. Number two, good manners don't cost anything. Yeah. Big old. Always ask. Can only say no. You're not married. You're not marrying one. You're marrying the whole family. And the good in everybody. Love it. Don't cry before you try. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. Pretty is as pretty does. Tree-dothers as you would like to be treated. You can't control what others do only your own reaction. Yes. That's kind of a man. Yeah. But like, I think there was something along the lines of, um, be the first a way, be the first a smile. Yeah. Yeah. I think about that when I'm going down the hallway at lifetime. Yeah. I'm just waiting for someone to look at me. Look at me. Look at me. There it is. Yeah. Exactly. That was my opportunity. I'm the same way at the shop, man. At the barbershop. I love it. I want to be the first one. See where it is. I'm like that annoying dude that like if I know somebody's not looking at me, like I'll just pull up like a huge emoji on my screen and like just walk by them with it as their hands down. All right. Just be like, I still smile that. Yes. I don't know. I've had, uh, so we've talked about this a little bit. I had a bit of a dark time with when I lost my buddy many years ago now, um, and that kind of shifted things for me where I was like, you know, I've had kind of that rigid art like thought, like that was kind of how I was a little bit more rigid when I was back in college. And, um, at a certain point, I was like, yeah, that doesn't work anymore. Yeah. You know, and once I once I was done playing ball like that doesn't work anymore for me. And it's not anybody else's problem and or fault, right? Like it's just like a thing that happened. And, um, once I realized that I definitely started thinking like, you know, I have no idea, like my best friend in the world had no idea what was going on in his head and I didn't know that. Um, and I think in a lot of ways I regret that, but in a lot of ways, I don't because I can't control anything he's doing. Um, but at the reality of that was like, I have to find a way to let people know that even if we may not be friends, we may not be buddies, we may not be somebody that we would hang out with ever like anything like that. Um, but like, you're still matter. And like somebody say, even if you feel like you don't, you're somebody, like, everything somebody really cares about you. Yeah. And like, you're somebody's son or daughter or whoever in those things are really a big deal. And I think a lot of that what you're saying is like, just if you just say hello to someone that could impact their entire day or week and they may just be walking around thinking like, nobody cares about me or nobody thinks about me. It's like, I just smile at you. How much did that affect me versus how much it potentially could affect you? Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I do too. Along those same lines, I have people that I work with, sat by side, um, every day. And if they after weeks and weeks and weeks, and weeks, smile, you know, they're, I know when something's not right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. When they don't give me that smile that's genuine. I'm the reader of people is like, oh, there's something going on. Yeah. And so it's not my job. That's not the right way to say it. But like, I'm like, oh, there's something going on. Yeah. I need to ask them not, not if they're okay. It's how you do it genuinely. Yeah. Yeah. Genuinely. Genuinely, right? Yeah. Right. So they can't say fine. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How we do? And I, I called my buddy out about that. He's like, you sort of a bitch. You hate it. I don't know. Yeah. You knew that I was not having a good day. Yeah. I got, it's a super power. But, um, yeah. I don't know. I think that's what makes good people too, you know, is like, not me like, well, he was an asshole to me. Fuck him. You know, I'm not going to say that. But it's like, let me check up on the dude. Yeah. It's important, right? Like, and it's not that everybody has that skill. I think that's an awesome skill to have. Um, and it's hard. I think the reality is, is that could be easily practiced, right? Oh, just no, just 100%. Knowing the people you're around is obviously a benefit. But then just being able to like pick up on random cues that we'll have out in the wild. Like, I remember, um, it's been some time, but like, just a waiter. It's like, they were, they was a table next to us or whatever. And they were like, you know, here's a couple extra things or whatever. And this person was like, but like, why? Yeah. And she just felt like you needed it. Yeah. Great. That's awesome. But like, you know, just kind of seeing that and passing them like, that's cool. Like, faith restored. Yeah. Yeah, man. Right. Yeah. Two things. One, I think everybody should be a waiter in their life. I'm going to encourage my boys to be a waiter. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Some kind of staff like that. Yeah. Taty, Taty, Taty was a waitress for a long time. I think everybody should do that to be able to learn that there is a spectrum of personalities and even people in the world. Yeah. Number two, I think, uh, what you talked about being able to facial recognition and understanding people, looking at them in the eyes and know what's going on. I've heard that screen time with kids is doing away with people's ability to be able to do that. That's 100%. And so, uh, we, me, as a parent, I need to get better at making sure that the boys have limited screen time. Yes. I'm right there. You know, see their friends' eyes. Yeah. And it's not here. Oh, no, I was playing with someone. So were you really? Yeah. Yeah. You were at his house and yeah, you were playing Minecraft and all that stuff. Right. Yeah. For real, for real, you know, yeah. I think about that a lot. No, sorry. No, no, dude, you're all good. Um, I will say that when they're here, they're playing. Yeah. They're wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. They were telling me yesterday they were riding your boys as rodeo. They were. I came home from work. I was sitting on the couch down here and, uh, I was looking down. Ben was on Hensley. Hensley was like this Bronco, right? And I hear Hensley, like, make a noise. I go, dude, you okay? I was like, yeah, dad, I'm just getting ready to go horses. Yeah. It was a little bit of a joke. You're getting ready to break out. It's time. They are always awesome. And if they're not, if they're not wrestling or playing rodeo or whatever, they're throwing a ball at each other. They're kicking a ball. They're, you know, and, and, yeah, I have dens in my wall. I don't care. Yeah. Like, that's so fixable. What's not fixable or what's harder to fix is like you said, rewinding and trying to teach your kid. Somebody in the eye, shake their hands, hold a door open. Yeah. The normal thing, so what I always, I have two things. And I think in a previous episode, I said this, what I say to my boys, every single morning, I have two things before I drop them off before they get out of the car. What are you going to be today? Confident. What are you not going to be an asshole? Yes. That's their answer back. Yeah. I'm not going to be an asshole. Perfect. That's all I care about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I found with him, he is still obviously developing that communication aspect of his life, right, where he gets out of the car. And it's usually one of the teachers is like, good morning, Madden, and he goes, good morning. And he's like, looking down and I tell him, you know, that teacher went out of their way to say, good morning to you. Yeah. Start looking them in the eye. Yeah. At least smile. If you don't want to say something, smile. Yeah. And that means you've acknowledged their time taken to say good morning and you've looked them in the eye and you've smiled. But that to go back to one of my previous points about waving to people in the neighborhood, I do that so my boys can see it. Be the example. Yeah. Absolutely. We are in the example. Yes. And you don't need to say, see that. That's how you do it. You know what I mean? No, you just do it. You just do it all the time. Yeah. And that becomes the norm. And then they ask you, why do you wave at everyone? I've been asked that. Yeah. And that becomes a do genuine, right? I think if you practice things long enough, it becomes really like it's just an out of mind thing. Like you're not thinking about it. It's very simple. Waving is one of those things, right? Like I wave at people as they come by. And less, they're flying down my street. It's less than a wave because my babies are outside with me most of the time. I'm like, he knows me. Yeah. But I agree with that. You know, like it's the action becomes second. I'm not saying joke laughs. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I'm using that. She and I, she and I are friends now. We're good. Good. Good. Hey, whose name shall not be mentioned on this podcast? We had a moment. We had a moment. Sometimes that's what it takes though, right? That's reality. But no, I love it. I love it. Oh, well, may we take a break? Yeah, let's take a break. Quick break. Okay, cool. We're back. Yay. Man, I'll tell you what. That commercial name is hungry for steak. Did it? Yeah, interesting. It was commercial about Winston. That's wild. Maybe it was those dog treats he's chewing on. Yeah. All of our executive sponsors out there, you know? All those in the world right now. No, that's awesome. So, Mike, we learned a lot about what you do in the first half. Maybe find some time now where we can learn a lot about you. Okay. The real you. So, as we talk about, people as people, not people as assets, super important does because all too often, it doesn't matter if you're at work, it doesn't matter if you're an athlete, which is your work at that point, or, you know, for you, same thing, like in the military, right? Like, you're oftentimes seen as an asset first. Right. It's a bummer. And I mean, I understand the business is business, but it's a bummer. But people are people first. Yeah. Like, everybody's a person. Yeah. We're not a product. We're a person. who they are. So the whole point is to figure out more about who you are. Okay. So I have a very easy, I call it easy, it's probably not that easy. I have an easy question that if it's coming from him it's not easy, dude. That's maybe so. Move it in my chair, like something funny in my seat right now. I think he's crying again, dang it. Yeah, dude, it'll happen. Ask the question. It'll happen. It's a real thing on my face. We can. Yeah. With a sniffle. I'm okay with that. Just see a little bit of a trip. Just coming out. I think I think it's easy theoretically. I think it's harder to answer. But if you were to say, let's say you walk up somebody's dream, you just introduce yourself and you were essentially identifying yourself as someone or something. What would that be? Because typically, like the interaction is like, hey, I'm Nick. I'm a project manager, right? Yeah. First thing that comes to mind is I'm a coach. Okay. Love it. Very cool. And I think in just from what we've learned about you from the first half of the show, I think your coach is actually who you are. Like that's a lot about who you are. Yeah. So I like that because that's not that's not something that you're saying because it's what you have to do or it's what your business says you should do. Correct. That's what you feel. Two I am. Yeah. Like what Nick was saying when the boys come over. I coach. Yeah. What I do. You know, I can't not try to more than the men to are the physical aspect with you, me knowing you. I know you. Sure. And trying to portray that to anybody listening. He's deeper than just the fit. He's not like your coach that's just going to kick your butt physically. It's mentally too. And I think that's so important to stay on that road to fitness is let's fix this first. Yeah. You know, like you were saying, I learn I'm a people reader. It's my superpower. I'm going to figure out how I can coach you first. And then let's do the physical stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Coach is also educator. Yes. Yeah. Love that. Yeah. So I am not somebody who is I can be a ra ra ra. I can get into you if you need it. Yeah. Yeah. But I get people going through education, which builds compliant athletes. So if I teach my athletes, for example, an example for with endurance athletes is the education around the benefits of zone two, which is an easy or an aerobic training session. And a lot of people who have ego go too hard because they can. But that doesn't mean that it's best for the situation or best for that training session. Yeah. So if I can educate that athlete in how long term it will be beneficial and how long term we're stacking these bricks, then they will be compliant and do what they're supposed to on the day that they're supposed to. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So coach educator, I can crack the whip. You know, you can wear many hats as a coach when you need to. And I think it's great coaches know when to put the different hats on. That's a special skill. It is just going to say that. I'm just thinking about like my time in coaching. You know, I coached baseball for a little bit. And I remember having, I'm going to call them conversations. They were more intense than they should have been. Not from me, but from the parents about, you know, like, well, it's your responsibility to make sure that my kid gets the next levels like that is couldn't be further from the truth. It is not my responsibility one bit at all. It is their responsibility. It's my responsibility to make them a good enough human to be able to do it on their own. Like I can, I can tell you everything I know about baseball. I can tell you all the things that work for me. I can tell you the world record I hold that nobody else has. Like I can tell you all those things. That doesn't make them better. Right. Like that's not, that's not helping them. Like all of that is cool. It's a really cool feat and feature about me, but other than that, being able to transition that knowledge and things for them is really important. I don't know that I was good at that. I'm not sure. I mean, I haven't seen that come to fruition because I coached a long enough time ago that those kids maybe you're in high school right now. Yeah. But the reality is, is like, to your point, being able to have segmented pieces of that is really important. Like that's super helpful. And I think a lot of ways, a lot of people need different things. So you have kind of that cognitive. Yeah, it's a special, especially a lot of my special catapult. Yeah. Yeah. Depending on the type of athlete. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that's hard too because I think very, very differently about the way different athletes train, right? Whether it be their personality and or their sport. Yeah. They're very different. Like what would you say is the hardest sport you train for? Because I'm sure you train multiple things, right? Like people who just come to you just for, you know, to train people with the hardest. Well, I'll tell you, maybe one of the easiest is people who've done swimming before. Oh, okay. They will go through a brick wall for you because there's no limit to what they it's very difficult for swimmers to get injured. Oh, interesting. And in many of their training sessions, almost on a daily basis, they will go hard. Wow. So they will, they will, when they take that same philosophy and apply it to running, they will get broken. Interesting. But that just tends to be how they're wired. And that is learned that as a adolescent and kid. And they take, but cross country kids are similar, but those are also really good employees because they will work their asses off for it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, because like I, I try and think of that and I try and think of the things that I learned as I was, you know, growing up. And it's, it's interesting because like ours was like pretty simple. Like I played third baseman whole life. So everybody was just like, I'm going to hit you as hard as I can with a ball. I tell you you're like, thank you. Like until it doesn't hurt anymore. So like I get where you're coming from is like, they're just out there to feel the pain, man. Like they're just out there to run it and make it happen. Dang. Well, I also think about like track and field and track and field have many different different track and field. Sure. There's different types of distances, right? So you have your sprinters all the way to your like more endurance athletes. I think the sprinters are attracted us one to different type of fiber type, right? The fast switch, fire type, but also different personality. Yeah. Sometimes it can be hard to get those individuals going. Yeah. Where the more endurance individuals tend to be the ones that are, it's more, not not go getters. That's not the right, you know, and it's not that the sprinters don't want to win or do well, but it might be just a little bit harder to get them moving. Yeah. I think about like different animals in like Africa. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's just different different personalities, you know, like so if you went out to a track and I don't know, it's like loony tunes or something like that. Maybe the buffaloes are the sprinters and I don't know the cheetahs or the endurance athletes and they look like kind of a different look. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's interesting too, because I, I, I never really thought about it before, but that's a good point. I mean, like in the world of sprinting, it's very short, very quick satisfaction, right? Like the end goal is right there versus like take cross country. Like you said, the end goal is, I can't see it. I don't know where it's at. They gave me a map and I just go. Well, if you want to like actually look at the physiology, they've done studies on doing a maximal effort, lift and or sprint and how it stimulates the frontal cortex of the brain, versus a longer sustained effort is more like universal, really, most of the brain, but a fast sprint or a heavy lift. So maybe those people have different endorphin needs. I mean, if you really want to get deep on, wow, that's, that's really interesting. That's a good point. Wow. Yeah. I'm mind blown right now. I mean, I'm just sitting here like a kid without his popcorn. And for our next sponsor, we're looking for exactly what the health popcorn brought to you. I man. The crickets or whatever. Yep. They were all about it. Yeah. Yeah. They just kept wanting to hit it over and over and over and over and over because we would talk about how we did the sponsors. And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I get some of that from there was a strength coach, Charles Polliquin, and he would often trade and people based off their neural transmitter dominance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Neural transmitter stem from your gut. Okay. And so you could do, um, it's called a braverment test to determine your neural transmitter dominance, but it's also the same thing when you do some sort of like Myers-Briggs test when you're, when you own a business and you're trying to figure out how people can be coached in a business. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just that similar concept. And if you can apply that to sports and understand how or love languages like sure. Do you, are you motivated by gifts by touch by time? I forget what the five love languages are, but you know, I think that's what, um, how you can coach people better is if you know what really back to one of the first things I said, what gets you going and that is found out in that 16 and 90 minute assessment that I do with people. Yeah. You know, I'm trying to peel those layers back. Super. And that's why long form podcasts or YouTube allow me to verbalize these things because maybe I didn't say and do it justice. Why an assessment is so powerful for me like that first date. That's a great, incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that's a great point. Yeah. And I think, I think a lot of your stuff, like I said, I've watched your content for a while and it was just happenstance that he's like, Oh, that's my neighbor. What the hell? How? And I, and I, because I mean, I, I'm pretty into fitness, but like I'm by no means like some fitness, majestic beast, like it's just not the case, but like I watch a lot of fitness channels and things. And I think a lot of times it's like what we talked about, like that first initial thing, like let's just take your story from yesterday. For example, you were lifting with, uh, I don't remember who it was, but you were lifting with somebody and I just had a laugh because the first thing you said was like something about like getting the wheels on and you, you went over and you're doing your front squat and you're like, I am going to destroy my microphone. Oh, yeah. And I just laughed out loud because I was like, that's like, that's just the real thing, right? Yeah. And that's, it was so funny because like, you could tell, like at that point, you were into, into your day long enough, like where you've already been fitness minded for the day. Like you're already off channel and you're like, well, it doesn't matter. I'm just going to blow up my mic and I'm going to do my lift. We're going to move on with our day. It just was like, this is great. Yeah. But if, if you were to take that and expand it out over, like you said, long format, let's just say we take that exact moment and spread it out over 20 minutes rather than whatever the 30 seconds that there was. Yes. That conversation probably gets a whole lot funnier in a whole lot more real, too, because you're like, shit, yeah. Like as you get off of that, hi, yeah, yeah, just had a good lift. You're like, I just blew up $400 worth of my. Yeah. You know, things like that. It's just in the moment stuff is very funny to me. So, but yeah, it's like all that because it could be like a behind the scenes thing for you or whatever it may look like, which is great. That's why I post that. You know what? So that on my Instagram yesterday, I had a meeting with my editor and we had a meeting about, I hired this guy a month ago and I want to see what I could do to help him do his job better. Yeah. Okay. And I wanted him to see some of the things that are working really well that we put together. Yeah. What things are getting good traction and what things we should do differently moving forward and that was possibly YouTube. Yeah. Going more long for him. Yeah. I actually thought thought about podcasts, but I do actually really well on my video. I'm sure all of my, so I think YouTube is going to be best for me. Yeah. So I was to ask him about different cameras, different, not drones, but anti moving, like gyro. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, do I need this? Do I need that? And then we got into the lift and yeah, it was just un-canned, one-cut, like I'd rarely do things, multiple cuts. I'm like, that's it. That's cool. We're going with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when I do a lot of those reels, it's shot once and that's what we're working with. I love that. Yeah. It's real though. Yeah. Yeah. Organt. That's that's what I'm looking for organic. Yeah. I like that. It's also this also very unusual, right? Like I think a lot of things in any influencer community, not just specifically in the fitness community, but I think we've seen it a lot more lately because of body positivity and things like that that have changed kind of the landscape of the fitness influence industry, where people are starting to think about what's being cut out. Yeah. What are the things that are not happening here that like, you know, you could say, I mean, obviously you can see it in their bodies. Like if somebody's like, well, you know, here's my macros for the day. And it's 270 grams of protein. It's like, are they eating other things too? Right. So people you can tell they're like, there's no way that person is eating that like that and looking the way they look. And there's other ways where you're like, wow, how is that person only eating that and looking the way they look? Right. Right. Like that those types of things are important too. So I think there's a lot of that coming out, which is really awesome to see because like the reality is it's not normal. It's not normal to just be real anymore. Yeah. It's right. It's a fabricated effort to put something out in front of you. You're taking an imperfect situation and making it perfect because it's unfiltered. I have a very good example. I love that. One was I was looking up cameras that I want to purchase. And Mr. Beast, YouTube V now actually doesn't get the best quality camera because he doesn't want it to be perfect. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. That's more real. Yeah. And the other thing while I was talking with my editor Drew, there are some influencers that tend to go into dark places and they don't tend to put things up very frequently, right? They might. Sure. They might work really hard for two months and then they you don't see them or they just aren't consistent. And I think that, I don't know if I told you this, I was the kid in high school back in, you know, 99, 2000, 2001, I was taking my camera before Facebook and Instagram. So this is just who I am. We've touched on that. Yeah. This is not anything new. Yeah. So for me to do this, like I don't, it's not much more work for me to get my camera out because the right, what I've already done is who I am. Yeah. And so I don't need to take breaks. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't need to necessarily get multiple cuts, you know? Right. So once I start being like, that's not perfect. Let's redo it. And that's when it gets boring. Yeah. You know what I mean? So you're, you're keeping it fun, not a job, right? You're keeping it a hobby. Yeah. And yeah, that's awesome. And I can vouch for that because well, you know, these neighborhood functions, you know, but the pool and who's got the camera? This guy. Yeah. I mean, it's awesome. I love it. And it's just candid shots and it's not everybody moving. No, man, he's walking around. He's taking pictures. And the next thing you know, you're looking at these pictures and everybody smile. And it's real. And I love that. I mean, it's just, it's just a thing, right? Yeah. It's a blip. It's a, it's a, like I said earlier, kind of a flash in the pan. You know, there's only so much that that moment's going to bring whether you take everything out of it that you can is up to you. So why not make it real? Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, sometimes like, it's great because you can document it and be part of it. And then sometimes people are, they take it too far, like what you said, where it's like they're trying to make this moment. Right. I think there's even a documentary just came out about this, but I always go back to, I always go back to the masters. And this is recent, but I think about it a lot of all of the phones watching Tiger hit on the tee box. And then the one guy standing there just, just watch, taking it all of it. And again, there's nothing wrong with like documenting that moment. Right. But if you were to try and adjust that to where it's now no longer just a document a moment, it's like this fabricated effort to be whatever it is you want, that sucks. Like that's unfun at that point, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's hard too. And I think to your point, it just takes away from it. Just do what you're doing. Yeah. Because you're only who cares what somebody thinks about you, right? Like, that's that's probably just it. I don't care. Yeah. Yeah. If there's flaw, like I don't care. And I think that that's a good skill to have is like whatever. Well, in your world, it's so important. You have to have flaw because otherwise, what's the point? Like coaching only works if there's something to coach, right? Like fitness only works if I can be fitter. And of course, everybody can always be fitter. But like these things only work if I can get better and everybody can get better every day. I think a good example right now yesterday was Valentine's Day, but like how many people out there do you think we're taking selfies with their wives? And they're smiling. And then 10 seconds later, they're like whatever. Yeah. I mean, they just go back to their phone. They go back to real life. And it's like, well, at least we got that selfie. Yeah. Yeah. So like on this point, I love that you brought this up. Katie and I, you'll if you looked at Facebook or Instagram or any social media outlet, but and looked at us from that. You think do they even love each other? Sure. Because we don't document. Oh, yeah. I put you say it about my wife and my family. I say it to her. Yeah. I don't need to put it up. Crazy, man. I don't know why I was. You can't tell the world. You're not shouting it from the root. Right. I like those are the ones you got to worry about. Actually, maybe she but to your point, yeah, well, oh, look how happy we are. Yeah. And 10 seconds later, they're arguing because somebody did something. Yeah, I'm with you. I've had some of those same conversations with my wife too. It's so funny because I've seen some people that we've known over the years that have posed big, long things. A whole whole time is a week. And I'm like, what I end up not I mean, I'm over analyzing of course, but like I don't know all the deal, but like do you feel like you really need to tell people about your significant other that much? Right. To where it's like, I'm just so thankful for them. But are you? Yeah. Like if I feel like I have the right face on Facebook. Like if I don't tag her, is something is she gonna now magically be like, you're a horrible husband? Yeah. I doubt it. Maybe I doubt it. Yeah, it's crazy. She knows I'm her biggest fan. She knows it. That's cool. And that's yeah, all the matters. Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a real thing. My wife knew that about me with that. So I get it. There's this thing. Hero at home. Hmm. What's that? I need to be hero on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Be a hero. Yes. With all the other public. Yeah. Yeah. To my kids. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Love that. To my wife. And if if when the doors are shut and she can genuinely say that you're both each other's heroes, that's what really matters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I try and I try and make impacts out in the world, but I try to really like develop inside my home. Right. Like I try to be impactful with people. I think that's important. I agree. But like, I totally agree with you. Like I need to be the person at home that my kids can be proud of and that my wife can be proud of. And that I can I can help her do whatever it is she needs to do. And yeah. It's not just like this facade. Like I'm not doing the dishes because of what I can get out of it. Like it's not what it's about at all. It's because my wife just spent her whole day at school. And it's now dealt with children all day. Yeah. So I can take the kids for a while when when I get home. Right. I can do like those types of things are just more real. I don't need anything out of it. In fact, it's actually probably more selfish on me because now I could spend the time with the kids while she's hanging out doing everything to do to decompress. You know, so it's like those types of things are are beneficial. But I like that the hero at home is really cool. That's really cool. And it's it's hard because I think that we could say it until we're blue in the face and like what people hear is going to be different every time. And I think that that's where it becomes an interesting concept because some people will take that as like, well, I need to go and do these things because it's what makes me look good to my kids. Whereas like some people are going to be like, well, it's not about looking good to your kids is about actually being good. Yeah. Being able to like actually have some kind of a day by day stuff, you know. Perfect. Okay. Cool. Man. No, yeah. We can wrap on everyone. No, no, no, no, we're all we're all good. I just want to make sure I know he's got some basketball games to get to. Yeah. All good. And seeing that we are also unscripted, you're finding us with time management issues. That's true. Always. Always. Yeah. He's basketball. Always true. Yeah. No, I'm really sorry. Dude, didn't know all good. No, you're not in a hurry. I do have a question though. We're fine. I really that I really that I want. Unaccepted. I know. No, we need to talk about my thing first. I know. I do have a question here. I have a document at here. All right. If everything collapsed tomorrow in in in your industry, social media, fitness, training, coaching, all of it, what would you do? Well, it's funny because almost a year ago, I had my Instagram hack installed. Yep. Somebody from Turkey was asking for money for ransom. And I did not pay them money. And I started back over. You didn't give in their gift cards? No. And it's almost comical like what they're asking for. But it wasn't that much. But I'm still all right. Yeah. And I rebuilt. And in a year, I, you know, back up to almost 10,000 followers, but it's less that it's more like genuine impact and influence, you know? And it's like, what am I doing with the circle of people that I have? So there was a little bit of a collapse a year ago on Instagram for me. But if fitness were to go away, in my previous life, I actually did long care. So I was that kid that would push the mower up the street with the gas can on the mower, going door to door. I think that my ability to have conversation with people was because I had to go be a big boy, and knock on the door, and ask, you, like a man, if you wanted your lawnmode, and then I had to tell you the price, which, you know, to us now, like isn't that big of deal, but like I had to use my business brain to be like, well, the front yard is this big, and the backyard is that big. They take me breathless this amount of time, but there's a bunch of crap in their yards. So I want to charge them probably a little bit more. Yeah. And it means like, my little kid brain was thinking, okay, 20 bucks. So I had to be able to have those conversations. So that probably shaped me to the man that I am now. And then I worked on golf courses on the grounds, four wins, golf boards. And then I ended up working on the grounds at forest acres, Michigan State, Michigan State's golf course. And so I just love cutting. I'm like, forest, gump, man, nothing. He just makes me happy. It works. Yeah. I would ride along. I would ride a mower or push a mower all day long if I could, and that would make me the happiest person ever. That's awesome. Another question off that can I join you? Depends what we call the name of the business. Okay. The the mitten crew. The mitten crew. I like that. Oh, yeah. That's awesome. But I could go both ways. But then we could go snowplow snowplow too. Oh, there you go. You doubled down. We got it. You guys add salt in or no? I mean, I just got to figure out where the actors are. Yeah. It's extra. Yeah. It's extra. Oh, man. It's a sure thing. Oh my gosh, man. That's awesome. I like that because it's a totally off kilter from your current career path, which I like. But also keeping the relationship there. So you're definitely a relationship-driven guy. Oh, yeah. And and I like that. I'm like that. I'm a very relationship-driven guy. I could do five haircuts in an hour, but I do too. Yeah. I get a half hour with everybody. Yeah. I don't want to push numbers. Yeah. I want to develop a relationship. I have had. I've had bombs dropped on me in that in that barber shop. And it just happened yesterday. I'm not going to say it on the air because this guy knows who he is. I know he's going to listen to this. Yeah. And I'm thinking about him. And that's the only reason I'm saying it. And and you don't get that if you don't have a relationship. And that's what I'm there for. I want to be your ears. I won't judge you. Yeah. I very little will make me blush because I guarantee you if you've done it, I've done it worse. Sure. And I like people knowing that about me. Sure. Which brings so much value to what you do. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I just cut hair. Yeah. I do not. You don't just cut hair. I do not. And that's that's fulfilling. It is. You know, like deep down in your heart. It's not just a paycheck. It's awesome. And it's I love that for you. And I know you are. I'm talking to him like I only know him. Oh, yeah. No. You and I same thing. You're the same way your relationship driven guy. I mean, otherwise this guy was sitting in my chair and still do. And he still does. And now here we are doing a podcast together. Yeah. That doesn't happen with a typical barber client relationship. Yeah. No. Right. So what I like to tell everybody that sits in my chair, I've known him for a long time. Yeah. I'm to that point in my career where I can be picky. I can say we're not going to jive because the people that sit in my chair today are the people that I would hang out with tomorrow. Yeah. That's how I choose or to sit at your dinner table. They will sit at my, I will invite you over for dinner. I will every every one of my clients, I kid you not has my personal phone number. And it's not not for like then do abuse it because nobody does. It's like call me if you need something. Yeah. You know, I will be that ear. Yeah. You can you can I will be your punching bag. Yeah. Let it fly. Yeah. And I love that. And we it sounds like the three of us get that. We get to do that when I came to Kansas, I had to say goodbye to seven clients that I coached for over 10 years. Oh wow. Yeah. Holy cow. That's rough. Man. I've been there. Yeah. So you started doing it online, huh? Well, no, like I was doing personal training with them in Chicago and I had to say goodbye to those individuals. That's crazy. That's hard. That's crazy. Yeah. That is wild. Hard. I think that that is tough. Those are the types of things that like a lot of people don't talk about. Yeah. That's more than more than me coaching people. That's like those people went to my wedding. Those people like, yeah, so much more. I can't explain it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, 10 years. Right. Like 10 years is a long time. Go holiday parties. Yeah. Like know who their kids were. All the things. Yeah. All the things that matter. Yeah. Absolutely. It's a huge thing. It is. Yeah. Do you mind? You got a couple of minutes here so I can ask you another question. Yeah. Okay. What is the hardest part about coaching people who may not have the same drive as you? And what could you do to combat that? I guess I could make that a two-parter if they don't have that same drive as you or you could take it the other way and even say maybe they have more drive. Well, I think I've done a pretty good job in my career to generally not attract that type of person. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Like what you've said, like when people come to me, they're coming to me to make a change and they've already mentally made the change because when they come to me, they know they will change. Yeah. So I've had some one gentleman somewhere in your situation where I'm not going to say who this guy is, but super, super duperly athlete in the past. And now he's not in great shape. And it's like you're ready to change your life, right? He's like, oh yeah. He's like nearly in tears. Yeah. They're like, you're going to be so awesome, dude. You know what I mean? Like in like four months, you're going to be a completely different dude and he's like, I'm ready. I'm like, I know you're ready because you're sitting in that gym. Yeah. Yeah. So like people to come to me aren't in that situation where I need to like, raw, raw them. Unfortunately, some of the other coaches like at lifetime who get people like, hey, I'm new to the gym. I'm new to the area. I'm looking for a personal trainer. You don't know what kind of people are going to like pop into the gym. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. So I've done like you've been in the game long enough to I generally don't get that person that needs to be prodded to move and motivated. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I I coach coaches. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I like that. You know, I coach people that know that they just need the road map and less, less prodding. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Beautiful. That's a, that's a big deal. I think knowing that you can trust what's going on behind the scenes because that person wants it. Yeah. Yeah. Now if I ever teach a group class, that's when it's difficult. And that's when you might find that. That damn it, Karen. Like, could you? We stop talking to the person next to you. Yeah. Please. Like try a try a little bit. Yeah. Oh, geez. Yeah. Get your hands out of your pocket. Yeah. That's hilarious. I can imagine too. I can imagine this being like one of those things. You're just like really? Yeah. Really? Do you have something to share with the rest of the class? It's hilarious, man. Well, Mike, I'm going to say before we before we sign off here in a few genuinely proud of you, man. Oh, thanks. Oh, cool. Nothing but the best. Thanks. And I'm proud to be neighbors with you and share this community with you. And I appreciate your time coming out of it. I know your time constraints. But I mean, I appreciate you, dude. It's been a great episode, man. Yeah. And is it okay if we have you back on it? Of course. I love you. Cool. Yeah. Okay. This is awesome. I love it, man. Yeah. I agree with Nick totally, totally agree. It's awesome to officially get to meet you and learn a lot about you and just kind of see who you are for really, you know? Yeah. I've bragged about you forever. This guy. I've told about all of the time. I've got a guy. Jeez. I have. It is 100 percent honest to God truth. I could let you read our text messages in your name as in there a few times. It's true. It's a true story. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Super happy you came on, man. I think this is going to be good for a lot of people to hear. Yeah. Just 100 percent. I'm big on mental. Yeah. So big on mental. It's been ingrained in me for years and years and years, mental, mental, mental, especially with what I did for a living for a long time. When we're in the suck, right? When we're in that combat zone, it's not, I know this is going to be okay. Yeah. It's up here. Totally. I got a good book for you. Actually, I two really good books. One is called Endure. Okay. And it's written by Alex Hutchinson. He's a New York Times writer. Yeah. And he talks about how the brain often holds us back from certain physical feats. Yeah. Yeah. Have you sinned this to me? I got you. And I think one of the famous hunters also has a book. That's why I say that the author of it is Alex Hutchinson. I think he's the bow hunter. It's the guy, other guy. Yeah. Okay. Super cool. That's not the one that wrote the book that I want you to grab. And then Endurance is a book about Shackleton and his boy is done. We talked about this. Yeah. And it's about keeping your people's head in the right spot. That's cool. Yeah. They had the Endurance was the boat and the ship got stuck in ice. Okay. And so they were going to travel across Antarctica. They were going to be the first people to travel across Antarctica. Anyway, I don't remember what the duration was, but he returned with 100% of those people. Oh wow. Everybody lived incredible story. That's impressive. Yeah. It's not like they're in North Face in Patagonia, home was written, leather boots and wool. And so what he did was at the end of every day, he made sure that everybody hung all their stuff up and dried it and they took care of their feet and they took care of their hands and they were using positive words. Yeah. Because once you start being eore and be like, we're not going to make it. Guess what? You're not going to make it. Yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah. So none of those words. Yeah. Keep positive talk. And they talk about that. They're like Auschwitz and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. People that had good minds, mindsets. So, you know, but the endure is a really good one. They actually talk about a woman who had part of her brain removed. And so her short term memory was gone. And she ended up finding running. She ended up becoming an alter runner. So she's running along and she doesn't realize how long she's been running. And so the brain can continue to put out a high level of force to the muscles. The muscles can continue to put out a high level of force. But if your brain knows, holy crap, I got, I still have 50 miles. The brain is going to be the governor to the muscle production. Yeah. Right. That's crazy to think about it. Yeah. So there's small things like that. There's another one I do this talk at all these half marathon races. And I talk about how there was two case studies. And these are rugby athletes and they get on a bike. And one group is flash to frown face for like a half a second. And the other group is flash to smiley face. And the group that gets flashed, the frown face has a higher perceived effort. So interesting. With this being said, people who smile and keep a positive mindset, they're perceived effort during that activity is lower. And so I tell my athletes to smile when you're doing these races because it actually cues the brain with a chemical messenger. How do you hear it's absolutely nuts. And actually there's different poses that you can do before interviews to create certain hormones. This is called the power pose. Okay. And actually booster endorphins and confidence. So by striking this pose and smiling, yeah, you will be more confident. Two Ted Lasso references in one point between the be a gold fish and have the shortest memory ever. And do your power pose, man. That's awesome. Yeah, blind individuals who have been who have never seen the power pose strike that power pose. It's just built in. That's interesting. That's an interesting thing. I was very cool. Yeah. So Mike, yeah, just to let the people know, do you want to give them your your IG handle? Make sure that we know the way where people can find yet. Yeah, fast. F-A-S-T and fit coaching. So that's A-N-D fit coaching fast. I'm sorry. Policow fast and fit Mike. Okay. Fast and fit Mike. Fast and fit. My IG is your Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. And then I'm assuming the other is your website. That's just that was my old that was my old Instagram. Oh, I see. I see. Okay. Cool. Very cool. So then that's actually your email. My get fast and fit coaching dot com. My get fast and fit coaching. Great. Great. Yeah. So definitely go check it out. If you have questions, definitely let me know. Mike, it's been awesome. Man, I do have one last thing for you that we do for everybody. It's really fast. Okay. So you're going to like it. And it's it's potentially the easiest thing we're going to do all day. Okay. Because it's it requires zero brain work. Okay. Requires zero brain work. It's it's going to force you to answer with the first thing that comes into your head. Okay. So this is just the lightning round. Oh, boy. Very simple. No think. Just go. No think. Just go. Oh, boy. All right. Kelly Clarkston. Oh, that's perfect question. I'm sorry. You look like a man. I'll lantern. I love lamp. Here we go. I love lamp. All right. You ready? They're going to come fast at you. If you were going to be in the Olympics, what would you compete in? 100 meter dash. Okay. First thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. If there was a movie written about your life, what would it be called? And who would be the actor to play you? Oh, man. What would it be called? Matthew McConaughey. Matthew McConaughey. Great. And what would it be called? Smooth operator. Oh, dude. I love it. Now I'm going to have to like make a concept of this particular movie poster. Yeah, you are. All right. Awesome. I love it. What would be your superhero name? Speedy. Speedy. That's so lame. That's so lame. I can't. I can't. I'm just thinking about fast. I love it. If you were to have a theme song that played every time you entered a room, what would it be? Bound chick. Bound. Bound. Bound. So many different points of reference there. I love it. That's a lot of walking slow motion. I love it. That is awesome. Yeah. Slow motion. So great, dude. If, see, I love it. I love it. If you could create a holiday, what would it be and how do you celebrate it? Probably be one with just your family. Okay. Great. Yeah. I don't know what it would be. It just exists. Probably Thanksgiving is just awesome. Yeah. Just giving thanks. I love that. Yeah. Perfect. I love that too. If aliens visited Earth and you were the first person they contacted, how would you explain our existence? I'm trying to cry. I can't. Sorry. We're just here, man. Good luck. L-I-V-I-N. We're going to attack cone heads. Nibs. Exactly. All right. The last three are pretty good. Two really easy, one less easy. Okay. What's your go to Dad joke? Okay. So there's a chicken in the egg laying in a bed and the chicken rolls over, smoking a cigarette, it says, I guess that answers that question. That's awesome. That is awesome. I never heard that. Yeah, absolutely. These two nuns are riding their bikes to church and they're going down this cobblestone road. And the one nun says, well, I've never come this way before. Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah. Classic dad jokes. Classic dad jokes. I love it. Oh, I got it. I can't. I can't. I can keep going. You go all day. Well, now I'm going to have to text you and figure that out. I'll tell you the next one after the pod. What's your best pickup line? Man, it depends on the situation. I'm a reader of people. Yeah. Fair point. Let's just throw you a scenario. You walk into a bar. Let's just say your wife's across the room, not your wife yet. Okay. You know, I'm a simple dude, man. I don't know if it's a line as much as like I'm a reader of people. So it's like depends on the situation, but it's probably just a high guy to start the conversation. Yeah, I'm good with that. I'm good with that. I like that. I'm not in the same way. I don't need to strike anything. Okay, you got the best ass in here. Yeah, I don't know. Like what you're drinking, can I buy you another one? Are you tired? You've been running around my mind all day. Yeah, exactly. The boys are like something about the internet because you know, dah dah dah, yeah. Can I get a pickup line real quick? Of course. You remind me of a Pokémon. I want a Pikachu. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I've used that. I've used that. That's very good. I'm getting you. Dad joke and pickup line all the way at the same time. Exactly. The last one, arguably the hardest question of all of the lightning round. What mythological creature would you be and what sound does it make? Mythological creature is a dragon? Sure. Sure. Yeah. What sound does a dragon make? First thing I think of what's the fox saying? Yeah, just a loud roar. Do I need to do that? I don't know how that sounds. What's that sound? We got to tell him what mine was. It's the same thing, man. Dragon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I have asked this question to somebody before and actually on one of my other podcasts and the answer was Teradakto. And that was a that's great. That was a wild screech screech. Yeah. Like everybody was caught off guard. We were all like, didn't expect that one. Yes. Exactly, man. So awesome. Awesome. Mike. Glad I didn't say like unicorn or something like that would have been awesome. That would have been awesome. Thank you. Exactly. Mike, thanks again for hanging out with us for a while. I'm glad we got to make it happen. We've been trying to for a couple weeks. So really, really glad we got to do this. Awesome. Super fun. Super great to get to know you better and honestly just hang out for a while. And this is going to be great. That's going to be great. Learn more about you and hopefully we can help a little bit and put this out there for your business and making sure that everybody knows you had everything too. So always, always awesome. Man, thanks for joining us. Anybody's on the Instagram? Don't hesitate to shoot me a message and DM me if you have any questions about fitness or whatever. Awesome. Yeah. Appreciate you. Fast and fit, Mike. So, boom. Make sure to check it out on the YouTube's as well. Hopefully coming soon. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Man. It goes live. You know, come back. That's right. We'll get your drones gone. We got it. I need some content. Look at us. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Well, thanks again, Mike. We definitely are psyched. We got to have you on and we're looking forward to everything that's going to be happened with you this year for the business and everything else fitness wise. So, um, and if you need anything from us, you know, we're defined as man. Yep. We got to. Man. Thanks so much. Yeah. Appreciate it. All right. Tell next time guys, we out. Have a good week.