014: How to Prepare for Marine Officer Candidate School with Brook McCluskey, Champion Powerlifter and Owner of Built Training Systems

Marine Officer, Champion Powerlifter and Owner of Built By Brook, Brook shares her story.

Built Training Systems: https://builttrainingsystems.com/

Brook’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/builtbybrook/

Fit To Lead: https://www.instagram.com/fittolead.inc/

Bare Performance Nutrition: https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/

Brook 0:00
Every day you're building everyday you're you're working to try to like build yourself and build your life. And whether you're building a framework of your body, like you know, you're building your body into what you want it to look like, or you're building muscle or you know what you're building your career, whatever it is wake up every single day and build that, like dedicate time to it and just keep building yourself. And

Unknown Speaker 0:21
Hi, guys,

Natalie Hayes 0:21
welcome back to the fatale Podcast, where we talk about all things fitness leadership and how to leave a legacy worth remembering. I'm Natalie Hayes, and I'm so excited that you guys are back with us for another week. Another awesome interview lined up for you guys, my teammate, my sister in arms. bpn Ambassador Brooke Mikulski, she's a power lifter, she's a personal trainer. She's a new marine officer, and we're so excited to hear all about her journey through powerlifting through marine OCS through being a personal trainer, and owning a business through it all. She has just graduated from Marine OCS. And we could not be prouder. So for those of you who may not know, that means she's officially a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. And so without further ado, let's give it up for my sister, my teammate, Brooke, super excited to be here. So yeah, do you want to tell us a little bit about you introduce yourself and maybe talk about like what initially led you to be interested in the Marine Corps at

Unknown Speaker 1:24
all? Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 1:25
I guess I kind of just start a little bit with my history I grew up in a really small town just kind of a place where it's like, you either stay there for the rest of your life or you really just get out and do something and I just from young age, I was like I want to get out of here and I want to go build like this big white for myself. You know at 17 I had no idea what that meant. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't know what I was interested in. I got a scholarship to university Nebraska and say All right, we're just we're just going to go and I'm going to take the scholarship and see what happens. I was undeclared I didn't even know what I wanted to study at the time. So I went to you know, started school and just kind of really fell into like exercise I had always been like a force word athlete in high school and I loved it so I got really involved in like exercise so I declared like two majors in two minors and like Exercise Science and psychology and health and business and all that stuff and all the things I was super gung ho on like Okay, you know what if I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do it right you know, I want to I want a business minor so I can you know, open my own business someday and I want to Cody minor, so I can help people with their mental health and I want you know, health and nutrition and exercise so I can be like the best coach ever. And that kind of was a gradual process. Obviously, sometime my sophomore year, in 2016. I found powerlifting, which was just like I grabbed a hold of it. And just like friggin took off blog that competed nationally, three or four times competed at the Arnold this last year. And then when I graduated in 2019, last year, basically around August 2019, I was still competing, still kind of doing things as a traditional coach, you know, you don't make a lot of money. So it's kind of like you find a path where you can make money so you're not living paycheck to paycheck. So my like, next most obvious thing was PT school. I applied to PT school, I had my shadow hours, I had done a lot of work for it. And I applied to the Army Navy Baylor program in hopes to get into the military and work as a physical therapist with military and then I didn't get in it was like, oh, man, like, I'm not even mad. I didn't get into PT school. I'm not I didn't get into the military, like. So. It's just kind of like I found the Marine Corps last November, I walked into recruiters office, and I was like, you know, what, if I start paperwork, and it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. And it was like the smoothest process ever. All of a sudden, it was like, I was like doing my oath of office commissioning. And I was like, Alright, we're doing this. So that's kind of long story short, but that's kind of how I am where I am today. Wow, that's

Natalie Hayes 3:43
amazing. Let's go back to when you were growing up, you said you grew up in a really small town. And it was either get out or stay there forever. So what do you think made you decide to take your path to go to college? What was kind of the situation?

Unknown Speaker 4:00
Yeah, small town in like, in high school, I had like five people in my high school class, like it was so small, you could stand on Main Street and see like all four ends of town, just a super small town when I was 14, my parents divorced had a lot of family stress going on a lot of issues going on with kind of my dad and my mom at the time and, you know, their interactions with myself and my little brother and I just I really didn't like where I was at and I had kind of adopted some unhealthy patterns from my parents, you know, drinking, you know, going out on the weekends and everything. On paper, I looked like this perfect student because I was getting a 4.0 I was really involved and I was doing for like sport for sport athlete and like, all these things, but then every single weekend in order to like handle the stress of my family and support everything, I was obviously partaking in negative behaviors. So getting myself in a lot of trouble and I just kind of realized at the time, I can stay here and continue to feel this way for most of my life. I feel like I could have done more. I feel like I'm just trapped in this small town and you know, I have to accept, you know, my circumstances or I can go out change it and it was just like this. No, I'm 17 I On this opportunity to have a full ride at a big 10 University and you know, push myself and I just took it, I didn't know what I was doing. And I'm not gonna lie It was like probably one of the hardest decisions and things I've ever done just like leaving home at 17 and company that I had never been to a big city like I was from a small town, I'd never been to a big city and so Wow. so overwhelming, but it's so worth it. It was just had to had to kind of get out. It was like, Alright, we gotta go, we got to see it, see what we do so

Natalie Hayes 5:24
so then you started college. And that is what introduced you really to powerlifting. That's where you got into powerlifting. Right, which is like your true passion and fitness. I know. So let's talk a little bit about that. How did you get into powerlifting? And what is it about it that

Unknown Speaker 5:40
you love,

Unknown Speaker 5:41
it's actually a really fun story. I was lifting at the rec because obviously with college, you're always stressed out. And for me it was with college, I didn't have the financial support or like the support from my family. They just didn't weren't able to provide it. And that's where they were at. But I had to figure out a way to like live, you know, I was on scholarship, you have all these other things you have to pay for your car and your rent and just everything. So at the time, I was probably working three or four jobs really like I was probably working like a 40 to 60 hour week going to school full time and I was just I was so stressed all the time. And as you know, like what makes me feel better. Okay, lifting in other time, it's like okay, lifting or partying because, you know, some of my bad tendencies from high school has, like continued on and I was getting in a lot of trouble with that. So it's like, Alright, now we got we got to start lifting, like go to the gym like you love that you love exercise and had kind of watched that like competitive drive. You have any like high school sports, you know? So I was like, living in the gym one day, and this guy walked up to me, and he's one of my good friends now. And he goes, Hey, like, you're kind of strong. Have you ever thought about competing? And I was like, No, like, that's really weird. Yeah, I was like getting on a stage in a singlet and like lifting heavy crap in front of people. This doesn't really sound like what I feel like doing. No, thank you. Yeah, I know. We're weird, you know?

Unknown Speaker 6:58
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 6:58
Why would I do that? Like, it's like, I'm from a small town. Like, why would I do that? And I got to thinking about it more and more and more. It scared me it was something that I was like, wow, this is really intimidating. Like, I'm afraid of it. So I'm, of course, I'm gonna do it like, no doubt, like, let's go do it.

Natalie Hayes 7:13
Like Holly, what attracted you to it a little bit.

Unknown Speaker 7:15
I tend to chase those things. I'm like, wow, that scares me. Let's Let's go try it. And so literally, like three weeks before the meet or something

Unknown Speaker 7:23
I remember just

Unknown Speaker 7:24
like signing up and walking in and like I had no gear, I borrowed a singlet. I have a video of it. I'm in like white Nike running shoes while I'm lifting. Like, massive red belt. And I like stick out like a sore thumb. I look like I do not belong. It was crazy. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I ended up competing for the first time in 2016. And I took like three state records on my first meet and was just like, I look so dumb right now. But this is kind of cool. And from there is literally just like all day, I've competed like 14 or 15 times.

Natalie Hayes 7:56
So obviously, you were hooked, right? You kept going forward? What is it about powerlifting that you've loved or that that it's stuck? You know,

Unknown Speaker 8:03
I would say it was two things. The number one thing is like powerlifting is a family like you walk into a meet and you can be competing with the person standing next to you, and you're still gonna help them load weight, like you're still going to help them you know, put on their nice waves, you're gonna you're gonna cheer them on and like maybe they go out and lift more than you but like after that you high five them and be like, Yo, I got you next time, like nice job today, you killed it. It's a big family and you support each other and me coming from somewhere where I didn't feel like I had that family support that was massive. For me. I was like, wow, like, this is an individual sport when you show up for me and everybody's helping everybody no matter what,

Unknown Speaker 8:33
it's so cool.

Unknown Speaker 8:34
And then the second thing was like I'm just a really competitive and achievement driven person. So I would like go in and like I'd be them like macho person in the background with like, my over the ear Beats headphones, and like forgetting getting the hype and just like getting ready to lift heavy stuff. And like I love it because I'm in power in powerlifting in powerlifting world, like some power lifters have one big strength and like minus deadlift and so like I might be behind the whole meat and then come in and just like kill them left and come out of nowhere. And it's like my favorite thing because I'm like, yeah, hey, I'm still here and like, I'm gonna win or something like that.

Unknown Speaker 9:08
Yeah, hell yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:09
it satisfies like all of my competitive drives in like, obviously pushing yourself to do something that you never thought your body could do like at 158 pounds. I was deadlifting like 450 last year and it's like I never thought that was going to be a thing and so just like being able to push yourself to a woman that you never thought you'd pass or be able to do is just insane to me like I never thought I never thought I would compete at the Arnold like three years ago I went to the arm Oh, yeah. I remember walking through and I like I was just a spectator and I remember walking through and I was like, man, like it would be so cool like to compete in the pro American Sunday but like I had a friend of me I was like, but that's literally never gonna be me and I'm totally okay with that. Like, I'm never gonna make it to that stage. And then literally earlier this year, I was on like, Yeah, I was crazy. I was on the stage and went straight from that chokes. Yes, it was hard.

Natalie Hayes 9:54
It is so badass. Tell us about the road to the Arnold. Like how did you get there? Well, tell us about that whole process.

Unknown Speaker 10:00
It was crazy. So it actually started at raw nationals in 2019 I graduated college and I literally just I was working and I wasn't like seeking a bigger job yet like I was still just kind of coaching and you know, doing stuff after I graduated. And I was literally training like three hours a day, five days a week like pushing pushing pushing for foreign nationals, and I was in October and so I have never been that detail oriented or like push that hard for a prep I every single day was like down to like the half a percentage weight change per day, like making sure my weight was on track to be ready for my weight class making sure you know I was lifting exactly what I needed to down to like the half pound you know, on squats or whatever it was and I was pushing so hard and working so hard. And I came I became very like laser focused and went into raw nationals. And I that morning I told my coach I was like this has been something that I've been hoping for for redemption since I came here in 2017. And place I think it was like seventh or eighth and I was like at the time like I was new like I had only been a party for a year and I had no idea what I was doing and I was coaching myself and I like killed myself and I was like I swear like today is my redemption like I will place top three and he looks at me and he just kind of shakes his head and I love him so much like he's my family but he just kind of shakes his head and I was like No, I will please top three like I don't care what it takes like if you have to carry me out of here and I ended up placing third and juniors in the 72 kilo class the two girls that beat me are both World Champions so I was 100% okay with that I was like you guys are like the best of the best and I'm staying with you so I did it like I had my redemption and it was kind of like my last go around in the juniors class before I turned 24 and placed 11th and open which I do plan on making better in the future once I'm not 100% Marine Corps with my neck schools and stuff but yeah, so that placing actually qualified me for the pro American at the Arnold and I believe the registration for the pro American closed in like it was like 17 seconds or something like it was so fast Wow. I was literally sitting on my computer like I got this I got this I got this and I got the confirmation back in a call I was just like you got it we got it like we're going to the Arnold and then I was like wait, I'm going to the Arnold Oh my god. Oh my gosh, that's so amazing. I'm just like sitting in my one bedroom apartment at like this deadline like oh my god, I'm going to the Arnold like this isn't actually real. And then again did another prep I did a prep that was a lot healthier than the one I did. I got really sick after row nationals like really, really sick. We went out for like dinner afterwards and I got sick at dinner. And then I was sick for like three days after that, like my body just did not handle

Unknown Speaker 12:27
what I put it through.

Natalie Hayes 12:29
So what was your prep like for that meat? Can you describe Arnold, I have no idea what a powerlifting prep entails really,

Unknown Speaker 12:34
to be honest, it depends on if you have to do like a car or not. So my body typically stays around 165 to 170. And I was at the time I was competing in 72 kilos, which has changed, but it was 158. So I would end up cutting anywhere, usually around 10 to 12 pounds in about 12 weeks. And my body doesn't like that, like my body doesn't lose weight very well, because I'm only at any given time I'm only about 17% body fat. And as a female, you know, that's pretty low. Yeah, basically, I was losing about a percent a week or trying to lose about a pound a week really just trying to like get down to somewhere around 160 because then you can kind of cut water out like that last day and lose enough water to get out your weight and going into raw nationals. I was probably around 161 61 the night before I stopped water it didn't have dinner cuz you weigh in in the morning. And like you have to you can't have that food that food in your stomach. Just wait you don't need right so I think we weighed in around I want to say like 11am we lifted around one and I had not eaten for probably like I don't even know like 18 to 20 hours and then you're going into like the heaviest thing you're ever going to lift in your life. And so no carbs like nothing in me. And then I ate like Oreos and Nutella and like all this stuff afterwards just to try to get like calories in and obviously tastes good. And I haven't had this in four weeks and ate like Sour Patch Kids and pimento sandwich like everything I could get my calories in watts went really well like squats flew and then Benjamin well, but since I'm a deadlift, what I consider a deadlift specialist on squats and bench I tend to fatigue my back. And then I go into deadlifts and my back gets really fatigued. And that day I had to for I think 450 or 440 in order to secure that third play spot. And from standing there, we're getting ready for the third attempt. And my coach is like, hey, like we could load like 427 or something like that. And you would still get third but I know you wanted like 440 What do you want? And I was like, I was I was just like so in the zone and I was like Well, what do you think they can do? Like I'm just like yelling I'm like, Yeah, like I'm like, I don't know, I'm so stressed and just like trying to figure it out and like my body's freaking out. I'm like shaking because my blood sugar's all over the place. Yeah, my body's just like what is going on? And I was like, well just freakin load for 40 like I got it just wouldn't leave me alone. My best friend at the time was there too. And she was supporting me and I was just like, just stand here. I just need you to just stand there like and I go out and I literally pick it up if you watch the video, it looks like my soul just like exits my body. Walked it out sorted me I'd like took a knee immediately like ball so it came up smoothly. It was smooth. Yeah, it was good. It was a great lift like the last 12 weeks it was like wake up super early and then as soon as you're up to like the time you're going to bed it's like well what am I doing to like support the meat that's in 12 weeks so it's like being eight servings of vegetables today we're eating 20 ounces of meat today we're having four protein shakes we're doing this this and this and like making sure my nose and my micros are like to a tee perfect and then making sure my water is good and I was also working and like trying to grow my business and like doing all stuff so like that daily stress cumulating I'm like one day lived on the platform and I just like I took a knee and got it

Natalie Hayes 15:35
That's amazing. I'm so happy for you and so happy you had that moment and it was all worth it like all that stress. So how did that meet compared to the Arnold sense the props were so different it was more intense for me after that I

Unknown Speaker 15:46
kind of realized that like I kind of so some athletes in powerlifting and other even Olympic athletes kind of I have what we call the post meet low you know you do this like massive event and it's just like so good and you've achieved it and you've been working on it for so long and then after the meet you just like you're like well it's it's like what what do I do now and so I got like a really big post below like after nationals It was like a month before I literally could even feel somewhat normal and like going to the gym didn't even feel as good as I felt like I didn't have a purpose like the Arnold was still far enough out yet that I hadn't started work on it yet. But I was like still trying to adapt and still honestly trying to get my body back to like some homeostasis after the national so it's just kind of like I was in this weird place of like, my mental was not quite right. You know, my emotional was definitely not right. I was coaching I had just not gotten into PT school. Like it was just so much and I just hit this six super life. Well back last November. It was hard. Like I went out and saw my mom for a week. And I was just like normal. Like, what do I do? I don't know what to do next. I know the Arnold's coming and that's great. But like Arnold isn't my life, you know, it's like, that's not what like cool I don't want to just go into the Arnold and have another like, post meet Whoa, where I just feel like I don't have a purpose. And so I really just kind of like sunk into my values and was like, Okay, you know what, we're gonna start prep for the old you know, we start that soon we start getting ready for that. But I need to find like more focus. And that's kind of where the Marine Corps stuff came in as well. But it was just like a really massive evaluation of life. And then I would say the prep for the Arnold was a lot more calm my preference raw nationals, like I said, it was it was day in day out 100% everything. Like I didn't even take time to think about what I was doing afterwards. Versus with the Arnold that was like, Okay, I'm still going to give my powerlifting my 100%. But like, there are other parts of my life that need me and need my attention. So I'm also going to give them their 100% versus before it was like No, my powerlifting gets all of me nothing else. Nothing else matters. It did. But you know what I mean? It was much more cold on the prep was a lot calmer. The meat was a lot calmer. I remember just like getting down and being like, cool. We just did that. And it was like the art is the art. Oh, that. That's so crazy.

Unknown Speaker 17:51
And I'm balling on the platform.

Unknown Speaker 17:52
You know, the Arnold gets over and I'm like, Wow, that's pretty neat.

Natalie Hayes 17:56
And you paired more at the Arnold. Right? Yeah. That's so crazy.

Unknown Speaker 18:00
I ended up squatting like 363 benching, like 215, my dad, this is the same, just because my body actually does more when I weigh less than when I weigh more. I don't know, I don't understand anything. But I'm like, Okay, cool. Like, that was my first 1000 total as well. So like when you add the three together, like that was the first time I had totaled over 1000. And so that was also like so many big deals, so many prs. And I'm just sitting there like, that was neat. Like,

Natalie Hayes 18:25
because you had a new goal on the horizon. You aren't you knew about marine OCS at this point, right?

Unknown Speaker 18:29
Yeah, so it was kind of like I have more purpose to life than just this me I was much more like mentally and emotionally that open, not settled, but like secure and who I was and what I wanted that of just like placing all of my value in a meet or if you know, for nationals, or whatever it was, like I knew that I had more value with powerlifting and outside of powerlifting than just competing and so it was just kind of like this is a part of my life. It is not everything, right? It's really freakin cool. And I'm here and I'm doing this I'm crushing it but like, I have to keep in mind that like I have bigger purposes than just like competing and winning. So a big realization I had,

Natalie Hayes 19:05
um, yeah, it sounds like it sounds like you really had this like calm that came over you You know, it wasn't even like so overwhelming to you anymore. And you were able to hear more I think that really speaks for itself that focus and like calm mind is so powerful.

Unknown Speaker 19:19
Yeah, I remember walking into my coach after like hitting a massive squat er, and like the video makes it look super easy. Like I've had more in the tank. So it's like I could have squatted like three more than 375 which for me that was like massive that's a lot of weight for me. And I just like I turned around I was just like Alright, let's let's get ready for bed and my coaches just like I love that product. They're like who are you? Where did this like crazy girl go? It was cool. I liked it. I wish that I would have been able to like get more excited about it. But I had to keep myself calm in order to like perform and to like, feel good after me. You know?

Natalie Hayes 19:55
So you mentioned your business briefly said while you're prepping. You're trying to run your business and Everything. So I'd love to kind of go back to that. First of all, you did so many things while you were in college. I don't understand any of this. Well, I was in

Unknown Speaker 20:08
college, I was doing two things,

Natalie Hayes 20:10
school and partying. No, just kidding. But you started your business while you're in college, which also has to do with your love of powerlifting. So I'd love for you to tell us about that and kind of circle back to how that

Unknown Speaker 20:23
all got started.

Unknown Speaker 20:24
Yeah, of course, I loved. Like I said, my family wasn't able to, like really support me. So I think at one point, it was like my junior year, I was working as a rehab technician to try to apply to PT school. I was a facility manager at the Rec Center. I was a learning community mentor, I was running gold trading systems and competing nationally, and was like a full time student with like, 16 or 18 credit hours. And I just like,

Unknown Speaker 20:47
I was like, Oh, I

Unknown Speaker 20:48
did all that. Nope, was working something like 4050 hours a week in like, going to school full time, competing at like a really high level. And like still fine. Right? So in 2017, I actually like I met one of my favorite and now he's like my family clients and like literally a bank drive thru. And he was like, Oh, you're a coach. Like I had a shirt on. He's like, oh, you're a coach. Like I just lost like, hundreds of pounds. Like I need a coach. But like, I don't want somebody like they're with me like I need somebody to just send me what to do. And like, I got talking and I was like, Okay,

Natalie Hayes 21:28
well like I have a bank drive thru this happened. Please explain the story. That's literally

Unknown Speaker 21:34
it. Yeah, like literally main tractor. His name's Adrian. He's literally my family now like, day oh my goodness, because I lost like 100 some pounds and like I need somebody to get me to like the next level and like I this literally like this coach shirt on the day before I had just got in like personal trainer, like business cards. I thought I was the shit. I was like, Oh my god, this is so cool. I don't even coaching for like a year and a half. I like literally just gotten my personal trainer. Like I was like, Oh, yeah, like, I can totally think of something that like I had no experience online. I was like, No, I totally put something together for you. Like, let's work together. Like that's how I got his email. I was like, okay, you know, my gym that I had been working on at the time created this hashtag but why broke and they did it to actually support me at Nationals. They did a fundraiser every time. So yeah, every time somebody used that hashtag, they donated 20 cents to help me pay for nationals. Because every time you go for go to Nationals it costs every time it costs me more than like 15 $100 it's super expensive, just between like meat fees and travel and hotels and everything. Like it's just it's expensive. They had created this hashtag go by Brooke to like, every time somebody uses this hashtag this month, we'll donate 20 cents. And like this was like right after nationals. And I was like, well, like what if I just called like this online coaching thing that I don't even know what it is like the vibe broke. Like that's, that's super catchy. Like, that's cool. And so I was like, hey, like, started like some online program on like a Google Sheets with him and like, send it to him. I was like, let me know what you think of this. And like, we had success, like right off the bat. He was like, holy cow, like I had lost all that weight on myself. But like, I couldn't get past this plateau. And like, immediately, we were seeing results and stuff. And then I had like a couple more. I never advertised, I had a couple more people like, Hey, you know, my schedule is too busy for a trainer. But I need somebody to just tell me what to do and send it to me. And so all sudden, it was like I had four or five people like doing this online stuff with me. And every every, probably like three months, I was updating what my sheets look like, like, at different efforts. They were just atrocious. It was like a list of exercises, go do this. And then it was like I started using formulas. And I started making actual like what I call programs now like you get a whole sheet in a program and it's all yours and you make it yours. And awesome. That was like evolving, and things were looking cooler. And I was in Spain for like three or four months. And it was probably like, I think 2018 it was Yeah, like 2018 or something like that. And in Spain, I kind of got this, I don't really care what other people think of me, like I'm literally in a different country. Like why not launch a website? Like, you know, because I was like, What are people gonna think they're gonna think I'm so inexperienced, and like I have no basis or groundwork to like launch this website. But in Spain, I was like, I don't care like I'm in a different country like they wanted. So while I was there, I like like a website for built by brick and all this stuff. And I was just like, Whatever happens happens. And, you know, my clients just kept growing. And I never advertised within having a website, it was like, eight and then 10 also, and I had to cap it because I was still working all those jobs. And I was still working on campus and still a student and competing and I was like, can't take on more. And so early last year, I actually re coined it to build Training Systems because to me, built by broke always felt a little bit selfish, like I'm doing all the work and I'm not but I still love that obviously that's my Instagram. And so yeah, that's how it started is built training systems on the concept behind it is that like every day you have a choice that you can wake up and you can continue to build the life that you want or like you can just kind of like take a backseat and like let your life control you. So like everyday you're building everyday you're you're working to try to like build yourself and build your life and whether you're building a framework of your body do you like you know you're building your body and do what you want it to look like or you're building muscle or you know what you're building your career whatever it is wake up every single day and build that like dedicate time to it and just keep building yourself and all of a sudden things like escalated and i had like an apparel line and i have like bracelets and like all this like stickers and all this cool like mirch and like all sudden i was just like i looked back and i was like holy cow like this literally started in a bank drive thru like all of a sudden i'm here with like a full blown business still have clients i'm still running it even though i'm in i'm in the marine corps now and like it's still super successful and like i don't even know i can't i couldn't have asked for it to be better and learned a lot of lessons along the way

Natalie Hayes 25:42
obviously so wow oh my goodness that sounds like a quite the journey so like you said what are some lessons that you've learned along the way or if you could do it all over again if or if someone was just wanting to start an online training business what are some things what are some words of wisdom from bro man it know when you're wrong like take ownership for it even if it's not your fault like even if a client like messes something up like hey that's on me like i'm your coach i

Unknown Speaker 26:09
should have caught this don't worry about it like don't want to stress you out i got this like we're gonna we're gonna work together moving forward or you mess something up like if if you tell your clients you're not gonna you're gonna update something and then like you don't forget about it like own it like 100% ownership of everything because at the end of the day that's gonna get you the most respect and like you probably know this is a it's a military thing to like you just you own everything even if it's your fault like if you're in charge of a platoon and something happens like you expect yourself like you you own that you figure out how to fix it and like same thing with coaching and running your business like you don't have an ego like get rid of your ego stuff quickly because if you're owning your business and trying to coach to satisfy your ego and feel good about yourself like it's not about you so

Unknown Speaker 26:53
i love that yeah

Natalie Hayes 26:54
extreme ownership jacko has that's the name of jocko his book now are you i love it that's a great a great point i think for business and like you said all pursuits of leadership i couldn't agree more so yeah what does your business look like today now but i know you've been gone and you're transitioning into military lifestyle so how are you handling that good

Unknown Speaker 27:15
transition out of ocs was tough like going from such a controlled environment to like the chaos of civilian world was it took me like three or four days to just be like holy cow like this is chaotic obviously like i don't see as you're training to be like a friggin robot and you like it's task accomplishment and you're only sleeping like three or four hours at night so it's like your brain just goes into this really weird robotic place of just like complete things and do them correctly and then like get it done and get your three hours of sleep and do that on repeat for like nine weeks so my prediction from like that to where i'm at today with like civilian life and literally we're like not even like two weeks out three weeks out yeah not weeks removed is has been interesting but while i was gone i was yes obviously i was gone for 11 weeks i couldn't coach i took my number of clients down to what i called my dream team i was at like 14 or 15 i cut it down to five six and those six i knew that i had coached and taught enough to that if i gave them a program for them for the 12 weeks i was gone i knew that they could run it and i knew they would kill it obviously that's putting a lot of faith in a client but i made them all their own specialized like continuing the plan and the goals that we had i made them all their own things like 14 week programs my had them run them i them program themselves everything was done for them they just had to fill in their rps and wait in like kind of progress themselves but i had taught them how to do all that and i was nervous but i like i knew that the six people i picked would crush it on there all my athletes they're my they're my family honestly and i checked back in with them last saturday and they all just murdered it they all got better they all like took the program for what it was and they made the they made the program better which like all of them were like you were like dying at ocs so the least we could do was go work out in the gym we're going to gym and like make you proud when you got out and i was like yeah that makes sense like i appreciate that and so i've since then i've brought them all back online my process as a coach kind of looks like checking in during the week they check in with me they fill out kind of like an evaluation form every friday at the end of the week and then on sundays i check in with them again and update their next week of training so they get a weekly update from me that couldn't happen that was yes but it's happening again now so everybody's back online i've taken on another clients now i've seven might take on a couple more here my schedule is allowing for that right now so

Unknown Speaker 29:37
yeah

Natalie Hayes 29:38
sir kind of just gauging how much you can take based on your ability the biggest

Unknown Speaker 29:41
thing with coaching is setting boundaries but not setting boundaries that make your clients feel like you're not available so like to me my boundary is my number of clients i have like right now working so much in the marine corps is like my primary focus obviously but right now i'm kind of working just admin until my next school so my i put my number at 10 like i'm at seven Clients are numbers that 10 I won't go more than 10. And for some coaches, like, that's not a lot like some coaches have 30 4050 pleaser clients. But for me, it's like, no, my quality will diminish after this number and I refuse to give that so 10 and then I go to MLS school, or when I go to TBS and MLS school next year, we'll see how those 10 are doing if I need to do another cut,

Unknown Speaker 30:20
yeah. Yeah. So

Natalie Hayes 30:21
how do you determine like, when you're at your limit based on just yourself, yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 30:25
just kind of know, if I feel like I'm not keeping good tabs on a client, I know that I'm at a limit, I shouldn't know how their days are going, you know, if one of them texts me about like a program variable, I shouldn't know exactly what they're talking about. If I don't, and I have to go, like look it up. That means that like my locus, and like, my focus on what they're doing is too spread out. Like I'm focusing on too many people. And I've always kind of had that, you know, with, again, with some coaches that do this full time, they can handle 40 clients or whatever. And they can do that well. And like, yeah, it's, you're gonna have to go look up some of those things sometimes. But like, for me, right now, coaching is my secondary, but I need them to know that like they are, they're important and like, they need to feel like they're my primary. So you know, what if it gets down to this chance, where like, I get texts from clients, and I'm not able to answer their questions based on their programming, or what I've done for them, or I've missing things that I'm too spread out. And I need to I need to stop and kind of reevaluate where I'm at. So just making sure that like, it's high quality, no matter what, like my clients need to know that their family and their number one, and if that means me limiting my income, which like that income is low anyways, I don't charge a lot because I love coaching and coaching is kind of like my baby right now. While the record is my obviously my focus.

Natalie Hayes 31:35
Sure, sure. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So what type of coaching do you do? Is it just for powerlifting? Or is it all types of I don't do

Unknown Speaker 31:43
bodybuilding preps, I could not. I could do bodybuilding style workouts, but I won't do obviously a prop. I don't know enough about that world. And I know that's a deficiency. But powerlifting, for sure, I take on like Gen pop clients, because I worked as a coach in Gen pop for four or five years, five years, I think. So I work as an instructor, a boot camp instructor and a personal trainer for Gen pop for a little over four years. So I take on Gen pop. But the issue is like not the issue. But what I do is I do an initial interview when somebody submits a coaching application. And if I don't think that they have the experience, or the motivation or like the drive to keep up with my programming and to understand what's going on, I don't take them on as a client, and I will refer them to a coach I know can work with them better. So even if I'm like hurting for clients, if I don't think you can handle the the level of programming I'm doing and the online aspect, I will refer you to a coach that can do better than me in person. Yeah, for what you need. Like, yeah, I'm aware that like, I can't serve everybody. So like, if something comes up, and I'm like, hey, my friend who's also a coach can do way better for you than I can. I'll send him over there like immediately. So just got to be aware of all that. I love

Natalie Hayes 32:56
it, though. It sounds like you're really self aware in your and also just meaning like having the maturity to send clients like to reduce your list of clients and to have that cap. To me, that sounds like a really great coach. But I'd love to know what you think like, what do you think makes a great coach, I'm sure that you've worked with a lot of them as peers, and I know that you've had coaches yourselves. So yeah, in your experience, what makes a great coach,

Unknown Speaker 33:17
I think it's a couple things. First of all, I think every coach should have a coach like I have a coach because I don't I don't self regulate my workouts Well, in being in the Marine Corps, your your definition of pain is just a little bit different. So I tend to overtrain so I hire my own coach. But I think like what makes a good coach good is you know, attention to detail attention to what your client needs, and not just handing out like a standard program like hey, go try this. I'm being lazy, like laziness is my biggest pet peeve with coaching. Like if you're giving five clients all the same programming, just expecting them to all have good results, like no pay attention to their needs, you know, this one might be a mom, you know, she might only have 45 minutes into the gym, how do you make those 45 minutes on the hardest, best 45 minute workout that you've ever made? Or you might have like, you know, a new power lifter who like can't get their bar path down? Like are you paying attention to that? Are you watching their videos and you know, I my biggest pet peeve in coaching is when somebody is lazy, and they don't pay attention, or they just try to like make money. Because like, you probably know this really well the fitness industry, there are a lot of people in this business that just are here to make money. Because they think it's easy, you know, they can just sell a quick fix. And like there are no quick fixes and fitness like they're just there. There are no quick fixes, and there's nothing that's going to be easy about it. But you're the kind of person that's willing to take that on and make yourself better than like you're gonna succeed. So being a coach, it's aware of that, and just not being lazy and paying attention to your clients. What do they need? It's their birthday, wish them Happy birthday, like Do you even know that? So pay attention to that stuff. That's that's my biggest thing with coaching. If you pay attention and apply your experience Well, you're going to see success in your clients and they're going to respect you and they're going to be your family. So

Natalie Hayes 34:56
yeah, exactly. There are no quick fixes and fitness or Life.

Unknown Speaker 35:02
No, I love it.

Natalie Hayes 35:02
I love that you put your passion into a business and seems to be going really well. And you've grown and shrunk as necessary in accordance to your life. So it's really cool to have something that can grow with

Unknown Speaker 35:13
you, you know? Yeah, yes. A flexible. Yeah. Don't ever feel like one. Avoid comfort at all costs for small and then second, like don't ever, like just because you're doing one thing doesn't mean you can't change into another. That's again, that's the take your ego out of this, like, take your ego out of your life equation and see and see what happens.

Natalie Hayes 35:29
Yes. Oh, that's so good. Avoid comfort at all cost. That's such a good reminder. If you're comfortable. Yeah, you're getting complacent and

Unknown Speaker 35:34
you're not growing. Yep.

Natalie Hayes 35:36
So with that, yeah. Let's talk about your decision to join the military.

Unknown Speaker 35:41
So you said it was right after Arnold's that to frame right raw nationals in 2019. And not getting I think PT school was my easy like, it was like this would be it's not like PT school is not easy. But it's like the easy route for me. And this is the most predictable route for me like this is what I should and what the safest Yeah, exactly. Like, this is my safe route. It's hard, obviously freakin PT school, but like, this is going to be my safe route. And I firmly am so happy and I believe that I was not meant to get in like, I'm so me too. I believe that for you. I'm so glad. And um, you know, I really had to reevaluate things. I had looked into the Marine Corps in 2015. My family was just kind of like, why would you do that, like, give a full ride, just go finish college. My family also didn't understand a lot like my for a while my dad didn't understand why I was even going to college. Like, yeah, it was like, go work, like, go make money. And I was like, Well, I have a full ride. So like, why not go to college? You know, it's just like, I didn't have that support from home. But it was like, when I had initially thought about this, they were like, no, why would you do that? And so it was just kind of like something that always stuck with me. I was like, Man, you know, like, this is something I still want. And remember in like, November of last year, one of my friends who had gone to college with was a Marine, and I had a conversation with him. And he's like, just come into the office, like I'm talking to us. And I was like, I was super interested. And I talked to my best friend at the time. And she's like, I honestly couldn't see you doing anything else. She's like, this is perfect for you. Like, why aren't you already doing this? And so I started paperwork. And my whole thing was like, worst case scenario, I started paperwork, and I just pulled the paperwork out for you didn't know how long their work process went. So like, you have all people know that like government in the paperwork, just it doesn't work. It's never smooth. With so perfectly and smoothly, like literally. I was started in November, when I was already doing my oath and commission by like, February like it's crazy. Yeah. I didn't tell anybody in my life about my best friend knew. And my mom knew three days before I was supposed to do my oath and my commission, I went home and I was like, I saw my family down. I was like, listen on Monday, like, it's Saturday, I'm gonna commission and join the Marine Corps. And they were like,

Unknown Speaker 37:52
what, like,

Unknown Speaker 37:54
you didn't even you didn't give us a chance to like, put our input in on this. And I was like, Yeah, like, this is just what I'm gonna do. And I was terrified, like, I thought that they were going to be like, no way. Like, why would you do that? And the first thing my grandma goes is, are you gonna be active duty? And I was like, Yeah, and I just kind of like calmed her down about that. My grandpa was a Vietnam vet. She knows what that means. And so we had conversation about it, and they seemed pretty supportive. And then, literally, a couple months later, they were like gung ho, like, Oh, my gosh, like our granddaughter and our daughters. And you read this is so cool. I was originally slated to go to OCS, beginning of May COVID. Change that we got delayed, which was a blessing because I had just competed in the Arnold in March. And you've all people know that being in peak powerlifting shape, in peak military shape art complete,

Unknown Speaker 38:40
not the same.

Unknown Speaker 38:43
Like the Marine Corps or freakin run club, like, one of our PFC stands, or standard is a three mile and I was only passing that for OCS by like, 40 seconds. Like, that's not that's not something that was like comfortable for me. I was like, Oh my god, like, I'm literally only passing this by 40 seconds. Like, what if something happens and so I got delayed, ended up leaving September 1, which was way better because I spent the whole summer kind of like getting a better run shape on those CrossFit workouts. It was like depressing cuz I wasn't powerlifting at all. And I was like, so sad. I was like, this is like, not what I want. Yeah, I knew the bigger goal. And so went to OCS September 1 reported in my like, induction Pft was like 2606 and then my initial Pft so my three mile time, my initial Pft I OCS was like 24 or something are 23 it's like 2350 Okay, what is going on? This is good. I like the story. Well, Amy there To me, it's like one the Marine Corps the best like they do it the best, their uniforms are the best they have the highest physical standards. And like I just had never seen a marina like didn't have their shit together like all the time and I was like, I have a lot of discipline from powerlifting like, I want more like I want. I want all the discipline like I want to I want to be put together I want to like live a life not necessary. then i'm like serving others but i'm literally serving others and like i'm living out like the highest amount of purpose that i can and so between build training systems and being a marine i feel like i'm doing more of that so you are

Natalie Hayes 40:10
no i can see that consistent theme like throughout all your choices in life is that you know you went from working for jobs in college and building a business to training so hard you know for your raw nationals prep and then just choosing to career of service further in the military it's really remarkable and i think it's so great so congratulations and so pumped for you but i i'd love for you to just take us through like maybe for someone who might be considering marine ocs especially now with COVID like i'd love for you to talk about how COVID affected it because no one else really knows you know what i mean so if you could just take us through like when you first got there what it was like how you navigated it i'd love to hear like

Unknown Speaker 40:50
start with like it was worth it and at this point in time like having graduated like i would do it again because what i'm about to say is like a little bit intimidating but like just know that like if you're thinking about it like go just go do it like do not like go do it whether it's army navy marine corps whatever like go do it like if you're thinking it's so worth it and it's gonna be so hard and you're gonna have days where you literally snap into reality and you're like what how am i doing

Natalie Hayes 41:20
like to have the i know those moments where you just what am i doing here what is my life

Unknown Speaker 41:27
stories where things happen and you're just like is this my reality but my preference like it's so worth it it was tough man like i went from like being lazy not lazy say like a thicker powerlifter who like more than three reps is cardio like sleeping nine to 10 hours a night my body just needed that would correlate and prep to like maybe getting two hours a night like sometimes it was hard like the first four weeks you wake up every morning and like your deficiencies are just like staring you in the face because your sergeant instructors are screaming at you you know you've just had to like get up like an hour before lights came on to like get yourself ready for the day you know you probably went to bed super late and you probably worked firewatch in the middle of the night like which is for civilians it's like a security shift where you just walk around and watch people sleep like it's just like you know you're here in the most amount of stress you could ever be and that's the purpose i get the purpose is to put you in the most amount of stress you could ever be in to see how you handle it and to see how you can come out as a leader and the cool thing about it is like you either like learn a lot like you you kind of break and then you like learn about what you're like deficient in and like what you're not good at as a leader and then by the end of it like you make like the decision to like make those things better and then you graduate you're like oh my god like i'm i'm a i'm a leader of marines first yeah and i'm just like i'm such a better person i'm more confident like i my insecurities are like so low and like i just i just did that so there will be nights were like we'd go we'd go to the field and you know we'd go to bed late it would be raining it would be cold like we'd be on the field and then you'd like get like three or four hours of sleep if you were lucky hopefully you didn't have a firewall shift out in the field and you wake up and you do like a really hard hike with all your gear so the intention was like okay we don't really let them sleep a lot and then we put them through like a rigorous you know six mile hike at four in the morning with 80 pounds on their back or i think our max was like 60 or 70 pounds i was yes and like okay you're doing this hike you're really tired we're gonna physically fatigue you which makes your mental and emotional kind of cognitions a little bit off and then we're gonna put you into a really intense leadership event and by the way your peers are also part of your grade so how they act under your leadership as part of your grade those are my favorite events like i'm like man i'm so tired my foot is bleeding i have sores on my back from my pack and like i get to lead these people through like this like you know squad patrol or whatever through the woods and mike we're gonna take enemy contact and figure out like an impossible problem like this is so cool and then like i don't know i love that stuff like i thought it was like the coolest thing is like how stress like can you make me and then like let's see how i respond because like i'm always evaluating myself and i responded well i did well my leadership grade was high and that was like what the leadership grade was but the hard part was like okay now i have to do it 12 more times as a follower and it was like i have to get all these other people they're good grades too because they just performed for me so it'd be super taxing like our last leadership event we ended up covering like 1520 miles in the frickin woods and with our daypacks and our rifles and your lbv and all your gear and you know you're just doing it for a grade and you're just like wow like this is this is really what i'm just doing today i'm walking through the woods in quantico and cool this is awesome like there's a snake in that tree

Unknown Speaker 44:45
this is cool like

Unknown Speaker 44:47
but honestly ocs was everything i could have asked for the most challenging thing i've ever done yeah the stress they put you under its control but it's a lot and for some people it was too much to handle it some people weren't home but at the end of the day like the person And you become and like you develop into a literal leader of Marines. And it's just like, it's an honor. And it's, it's amazing. I could not ask for more in 11 weeks ago, I didn't know I would be this person. But like 11 weeks ago, I was somebody who was fairly confident with life like, was doing well with what they were doing, the person I am today, very rarely insecure, like, always feel very confident. My ego is not involved in my decisions, I'm able to look at like something hard in my life, take the emotion out of it, and like try to make a logical and productive decision rather than like, that's what they teach you at OCS, you know, if you're in, you're in combat, you can't, you can't solve a problem with emotion. I don't know. I don't know if that even answers your question. No, it absolutely does.

Natalie Hayes 45:38
And I think you you said perfectly the most important things that you took out of it and some amazing memories that you have, and it's so awesome to hear about. So it was 11 weeks long, right? Were there different phases of it? What were the different phases of COVID it

Unknown Speaker 45:53
was 11 weeks, two weeks, we're quarantine. Those two weeks, I honestly spent studying because I OCS, you have six exams, and you're so you're doing like exams at like 6am. And you have to like, make sure you're studying because every time you really get to study for those initial exams, it's like after they shut lights off at night, which is why you don't want to sleep because you have to study and pass your exams and stuff like and get your uniforms ready and stuff. But yeah, so it's phases. The first phase is like everyone's called, but it was like all yelling, and like, so stressful, like 5am when the surge instructors came in the room to literally 9pm on the server for for walkthrough, it was just like constant yelling. Um, OCS is a little bit different than bootcamp the punishment for like messing up or being online is essays to read a lot of essays. And you're gonna write an essay, like I wrote 14, I got the most out of the whole platoon.

Unknown Speaker 46:43
What was it that you messed

Unknown Speaker 46:44
up on the most, I was always trying to like cheer people on and like, I'm a coach. So I like somebody be struggling. And I would be like, no, like, come on, we got this or like, you know, your mood is just always bad, because you're always so tired. And so like, I would see somebody like come in the room. And like, you could just see it on their face, like the fatigue and like they're just not in a good mood. And they're not coughing every now and so I'd like hype them up. But I would like make them laugh. And then I would get an essay for like discipline. Or just like a military bearing. Hearing was like a big one when I wrote on all the time. And so like literally seven of the nine weeks, I was at my essay capacity. Like you can only write two weeks and I wrote two weeks or seven weeks. It's amazing. That makes me proud. I love it. It's fine. I've accepted it. Yeah, like the first four weeks is like that just screaming the most amount of stress you can be under you know it's there's always yelling and you're What are they

Natalie Hayes 47:36
have you doing during the day,

Unknown Speaker 47:38
like between the yelling? We have obviously three meals a day we do some drill stuff the first couple of weeks we didn't do any drill because we were just trying to get ready for other thing i don't know other things like we would wake up you would do like get back and get like put your uniform on take your uniform off for like an hour like, you know, because they're just screaming at you and you don't want to put like people wouldn't believe this. This is like what it's really

Unknown Speaker 48:00
put your uniform take it up

Unknown Speaker 48:03
on take them off for an hour and I hated it because like they're on just leave them on. Like Put your boots on, take your boots off for like an hour. Like it's just, oh God. It's so taxing. And then you're like, you'll be on the parade deck. And you'll be like running back and forth like basically doing suicides with all your gear because you weren't standing in like the exact half of an inch position that you needed to be like, Yes, great stuff. I think during the first like three or four weeks, we were covering like 60 or so miles a week between like runs and drill and PT events and admin moves and all that stuff. So

Natalie Hayes 48:36
you could have your phone for any of that right only during quarantine. You could have your phone.

Unknown Speaker 48:40
Yeah, you had your phone on quarantine. And then after the fourth week you had your phone for like four or five hours on Sundays. But it was never enough. And like honestly, you would call home on Sunday. And then you would like have to go turn your phone back in and it was harder to turn your phone back in. Yeah. Then it was like even get it like it was just like holy cow like I just got this glimpse of like what's going on in the outside world and like

Natalie Hayes 49:02
you're like I don't even want to know like I just want to be here or be

Unknown Speaker 49:05
there. I get that. You can have it this is stressful to me, right? Like the first four weeks were just a lot of givebacks. A lot of screaming we did classes a lot of physical training events. We do like fart licks and runs around the base you know for like for like you'd run 800 meters or whatever and do like some random push ups or exercises and the fartleks are all in the woods so you're all running on gravel roads and stuff and just like in the mud and in the rain didn't matter. Like it didn't matter if it was raining like you're still out there running like during our nine mile hike I ended up it is pouring rain like to the point where you couldn't see like five people in front of you. We had our marks on it was like with the rain water in there was like 80 pounds and like my foot was bleeding because like I had a massive blister and it's like, I remember like looking around and just like I was literally walking in like smiling. I was like this is the coolest crap ever. Like I'm like my foots bleeding and it's raining and we have like four miles left but like I'm having fun. So yeah.

Natalie Hayes 49:58
Oh my gosh. That's great. You're made for this, then.

Unknown Speaker 50:02
I didn't want it at that point. At that point. It was like, This is easier than some of the stuff we've already done. Yeah, going into the fifth through the seventh weeks. Yeah. So like one, two weeks one through four, we're kind of like that. I can't remember what the phase was called. Then we moved into like decision making phase where like, you have like your platoon sergeant, like you're in charge of the platoon as a candidate. And like you have to make decisions. But a lot of people like wouldn't make decisions without asking the surgeon instructors and then they just get yelled at more and then yeah, and stuff like that. And then from decision making phase, you kind of move into like leadership and mentorship for first Platoon, which was all females, it was like only the last few days. Because like, like the females are just characters pushed us a little bit harder than the males like they were like, you know what, like your females and we are going to expect more from you because obviously female females and female officers in the Marine Corps, like are really low, don't make up like a high percentage at all, like the human body. And so they were like, you know, what, if we're gonna, if you're gonna graduate as a female marine officer, like, we're gonna make sure you're one of the best and so they pushed us literally until like two days before graduation, whereas like the male platoons kind of got to slack off, not slack off, but have a little bit more freedom in their decisions. Like around week six, seven female team was like, still pushed into like, two days before graduation. So interesting. So all the females were in one platoon and you all train together. So all your like patrols and everything. Were all female. Yep. So there were seven platoons two companies, alpha, alpha one, so alpha company first platoon was female, we did all of our like leadership events and everything. That was because of COVID. Normally in the past, they would intermix platoons and have like billets where you would work with the males and like intermix, but because they kept the platoon separate. And they also that we also like, still wore masks everywhere, except for the field because COVID doesn't exist in the field.

Natalie Hayes 51:50
Oh, I know all the special rules about

Unknown Speaker 51:51
COVID.

Unknown Speaker 51:54
Can't find you apparently. That like that was kind of hard because like we literally didn't get to know anybody in the other facilities until like the last week, we were doing more graduation stuff. Interesting. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, the classes were hard because like, they'd feed you. And then they would put you in the classroom for like, a class on like combat tactics or something. And you had maybe like, just slept like two hours that night. And so you had to stay awake. Yeah, like, it was like the hardest thing and you're comfy. It's warm. You just ate you're like, I want to sleep so bad. Yeah. Yeah.

Natalie Hayes 52:27
I totally understand. Remember a

Unknown Speaker 52:29
lot of the details because I was so tired. Like, I felt like I slept walk through the first like eight weeks. There was one point during our six mile hike that I actually fell asleep walking, I was so tired. And my body just kept walking. And I was asleep. And I like snapped out of it, like 10 minutes later, and somehow I was still just information like walking. Or what was that? Like? Like, how

Natalie Hayes 52:49
did someone like tap you? Or are you just like, came to,

Unknown Speaker 52:53
I think I'd like tripped a little bit over a rock. And like caught myself and like came to and like realized that I had like literally been asleep just like walking information. Or during drill like we'd be holding our rifles and like practicing for drill. And like you would go you would do it like in spots, like spot one would go to three, and then you would do it as a whole platoon. And like I was in squad one. So like we'd go through the movement. And we'd be sitting there for like five minutes while the other squads did it. And I would literally just fall asleep like holding my rifle, like standing up in drill, like candies and boots and like standing there with my rifle falling asleep. And then like, they'd be like, the platoon would go and I would somehow just like wake up and go through platoon movement again. And like, I don't know, like, I got so good at like two minute naps, like yeah, we'd be out in the woods like and I'd be laying in front holding my rifle waiting for like to start a security controller just to go through the woods or something and do like a leadership event. Or be laying prone with my rifle and I would put my chin on the buttstock of my rifle and take a two minute nap and like somehow wake up early when I needed to. Yeah, it's

Natalie Hayes 53:51
amazing. Like all your senses, like heighten

Unknown Speaker 53:53
I get it totally. I'm still only sleeping like five hours a night like I still have not gotten back to normal. So Wow. That's interesting. So

Natalie Hayes 54:02
what would you say you learn the most about yourself going through OCS this 11 week transformation?

Unknown Speaker 54:08
Yeah, I would say leadership wise, I really learned like for my patients is when I'm tired. When you're like leading the platoon, like as platoon sergeant or something, and your peers, like aren't listening to you because you know, they want to do their own thing. Right? platoons doing like, it would be fine. Like I would be able to communicate well, but like after, like the third or fourth time like communicating something I knew I was getting frustrated. And I knew that was showing. So like I knew that was something that I wanted to work on. But I think the biggest thing I learned was just like how to take criticism and how to take obviously your ego out of something. And then also understand you're never going to be perfect with your leadership. You're never going to have the 100% perfect answer. The biggest thing is just to like own that and be willing to listen to like the feedback of others and willing to like, you know, work as a team and push yourself as a team and just like, be a leader be a leader in a team. It's hard because I told my mentor this I was like most days You wake up and your deficiencies are just right there staring you in the face like you, you cannot you can't avoid them OCS like, go knows Yes, your deficiencies, like they're gonna show through, and it's up to you to work. So I knew my deficiencies right off the bat, I knew what I had to work on. I was just one of those candidates that chose to like work on work on them. So I knew that I came out of OCS better. I can't, because I didn't obviously got dropped like us at home on, you know, academics or, you know, they feel something or they just didn't want to be there. Yeah, we ended up our platoon started at 76. And we only graduated 47. So Wow, that's significant. I was just reading for 11 weeks.

Natalie Hayes 55:39
Oh, a lot of people got physically hurt. Now, there were a lot

Unknown Speaker 55:41
of stress fractures.

Natalie Hayes 55:43
Well, that really shows like your perseverance and endurance for seeing seeing it to the end, one of your deficiencies that you work on was your ability to take criticism, right? Yeah. How did you do that? Or like, how did you work on that throughout the process?

Unknown Speaker 55:55
It's hard. Because I'm not somebody that I'm like, on my own business owner, I like to be in charge of myself. And like I want it was like getting over the fact that like, I was wrong about something is like holy cow, like jack not perfect, like these people recognize, like, cuz your peers are correcting you. And so it's like, initially,

Natalie Hayes 56:12
that's a hard one. Hmm, like,

Unknown Speaker 56:15
the sergeant instructors are correcting you. But over time, it develops like your peers are the ones correcting you. And it's hard to like admit to your peers that you were wrong about something, even if it was like a uniform item. And so it was hard for me because a lot of the time it felt like I was being micromanaged, just like always micromanage. Like, I just, I can't stand it. And so at some point I had, I had learned to just like one of my peers corrected me to just literally shut my mouth, like nod my head, walk away, fix it. Am I just accept that I was wrong? Because like, I visually corrected me I would like be like, really? Like, you can't just let me be wrong about one thing. Like, yeah, you have to be perfect, literally down to like literally a thread on your T shirt, like, your kidneys or whatever it shows like, somebody would give me a little piece of like, Hey, you need to fix this. And I would just like shut my ob fix it. Say thank you. And that's humility, right? Like, that's just Yeah, no,

Natalie Hayes 57:11
that's that's huge growth.

Unknown Speaker 57:14
That was a big thing. Because like, at first, I would literally get angry, like, obviously didn't show that I was mad. Um, but I was just like, man, like, I can't do anything, right. Like, I feel like I can't do anything, right. Because every day the surgeon truckers are like, you know, you're the scum of the earth, you're never gonna be an officer, you suck. And then like, I came into graduation, and like, I graduated above standards on everything. And I was like, That's not right, because I'm the scum of the earth. Like, you know what, he's a big one. That's,

Natalie Hayes 57:42
that's a huge, totally know, that feeling of when your peers correct you. And

Unknown Speaker 57:45
you're just like,

Natalie Hayes 57:47
you have to say that, but really, they're looking out for you. Like, it's really it's a positive thing, you know, but it can be a hit to the ego. And I totally understand that. You just got to lower it sometimes.

Unknown Speaker 57:57
Oh, yeah. And I had come into this with the build training system, like motto is literally work hard, be humble, don't quit. And like, I was like, I'm the epitome of that. And then I graduated OCS. And I was like, I was humble before, but holy cow, like the humility that I have now.

Natalie Hayes 58:12
Yeah. And it's just like, right in your face. Like what you said is a perfect description, like your deficiencies like you'll see them. So that's a great description. Were there any leaders that you had in OCS that were exceptionally like good or a bad influence on you? And can you describe them either side of the coin, I'd be interested to hear like what your thoughts were,

Unknown Speaker 58:32
we had an enlisted girl in our platoon, so you can move from enlisted to officer if you get your degree and you go through OCS. And we have grown our platoon who was just like the epitome of like, stoic, makes good decisions, like has your stuff together and like leads Marines. And like, I couldn't have gotten a better candidate to be there from the enlisted side, or literally from like, civilization side. Anyways, she honestly was somebody I really looked up to towards the end there, she could tell when I was like Platoon, Sergeant rideability she could tell when I would, like start to get frustrated. And she would just kind of like give me a look and like, give me a little bit of like a piece of advice. And she's, like, I really looked up to her and I respect her a lot. So that was somebody that like, I want to have her like level of stoicism and calmness when like shit hits the fan, because like she would just kind of sit there and like make good decision and like, move on with it and like as a Marine, that's what you need to do when when something happens in combat or something bad happens like you can't have all these reactions that you just have to you just have to make a decision and you know, decide act communicate, figure it out. So pure Tony I really looked up to um, obviously appear she was another candidate, but she was enlisted so she had been prior and

Natalie Hayes 59:37
no, that's a great answer. Being able to stay calm is a superpower. I definitely think so. Especially in the military because things are always going to be stressful. Like even if

Unknown Speaker 59:47
they don't have to be like they'll make it stressful.

Unknown Speaker 59:51
As an officer even now, like you can't show like if something bad happens and you're an officer and it shows on your face that like you're worried or you don't know how to handle it like Anybody who's following you is going to now feel insecure with one your decision, you're gonna feel insecure with your decision and they're also going to not feel competent in like handling the situation. So like, you have to handle that way better than then you even expect like, go full stoic and just figure it out because people are relying on you.

Natalie Hayes 1:00:17
What do you think the key is to being a good follower, like you said, you had, like, way more iterations as a follower than as a leader? And how does that play a part in like what you learned?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:28
I would say just like, shut up and listen. Like being being followers way more about like, shutting your mouth. Listen to what like the person leading you has to say, and like, help them like be be a follower. Don't try to like change their plan, or because you think something's better. Like let them figure that out. Like they're leading. Why don't we just church mouth and listen, because like, I had a problem with that at first. Like, I always wanted to contribute, like, I wanted to help. I wanted to feel like I was doing something. So I didn't feel like I was doing something. I didn't feel like I had purpose in something. And so I was like, No, I do have purpose. Like, my purpose is to carry out the mission that this person is trying to execute. And like, be part of the squad that's doing that. So find your purpose within being a follower. You know, give your what I've always I've always had, like, whatever you're doing, do it to the best your ability. Like if you're cleaning toilets, clean that toilet better than you've ever clean any other toilet and you're gonna clean toilets. Yes, like you are, you're gonna get, you're gonna get down on the floor, you're gonna have a scrub brush, that's like four inches long. You're gonna scrub the floor, like four times a day, cuz, you know, that's just what you do. I was Yeah. Yeah. Cuz like doing that, like, do it. Well, same thing following like your following follow well find your purpose in it like and understand that, like, what you're doing has meaning because when you don't feel like you have meaning that's when you try to control or change the situation.

Natalie Hayes 1:01:40
Yeah, that's so good. So good. Following Well, is it just leadership in a different way, in my opinion, and it definitely has meaning and purpose. So

Unknown Speaker 1:01:48
if you're, if you're like a natural leader, even if you're a follower, your peers will start to look at you and kind of model what you're doing, even if you're equals to them. So like, if I have a squad leader, and I'm just like a member of the squad, the other members of the squad, if you're an alpha leader will will emulate what you're doing. Okay, so if you're doing it, well, they're gonna do it well, too. And then your squad leader is going to appreciate it because everybody's doing well. And like, you're going to have success as a squatter unit, whatever you're trying to get done. Yeah,

Natalie Hayes 1:02:16
yeah, absolutely. Success is dependent on on the little things just as much as the big things and just being an example is so powerful, just you don't even have to preach or do anything, just like do what you're told to do and do it well. And people will look to you as an example. Awesome. So what is next for you? What branch are we going into? what's the what's on the horizon?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:35
The question or the year is what MLS Are you going to chase? So, in may actually, end of April, I will report back to Quantico for TBS, so OCS is like, Can you do this? And then TBS is like alright, you've proven that you can do this we're going to teach you how to be like the best soldier Marine, whatever, you know, can't go into like way more depth with combat tactics and things like that. So TBS is six months, that starts may 3. So I will be I'll be moving back to Quantico. And then after that will be MLS school. MLS is your job specialty title for those that don't know what that is, um, I have really big aspirations. I don't know if they're gonna they're gonna come to fruition but I do want to be one of the few and rare females that are in a combat MLS. I'm my captain's gonna love this that I'm going to say this. But I'm going to try for IOC which is infantry officer school, or the infantry officer course. I love it. I think only three or four females have ever graduated from that. But to me, it's like, it doesn't matter if you're male or female, like you're a marine. And like, you just you're a marine. So you just do what you do. And I'm going to try for free. We'll see. Yeah, it's hard, like you're in the field, literally, almost for four months straight, like doing all that stuff. But um, we'll see what happens. We'll see how TBS goes as well, you know, TBS might change my mind and my find purpose and something else. I'm a big fan of, you know, where do I think I can serve the best? And where do I think I can be the best leader? And if I see something else that's like, no, I could be a better leader there. Or, you know, if my path that like, the big man upstairs has destined for me to do something else, then I'm going to do that. But for right now, I'm heavily considering IOC or artillery as a possible backup, but there's a lot of math on artillery.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:20
Oh, I love that. I

Natalie Hayes 1:04:21
know. I think that you'd make a great infantry officer Brooke, and I wish for the best and and I know that you'll do great in whatever branch that you go into. But I could definitely see you doing that.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:30
I know, the big like, it's big for me to even.

Natalie Hayes 1:04:36
We can do it. You can do it. You definitely can do it. Alright, well, where can people find you if they're interested in built training systems or just following your Marine Corps journey?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:47
Yeah, so the best place you can find me is Instagram. My personal page, which I like use the most is built by Brooke. That's my biggest kind of area where I share things all things VPN, build Training Systems, Marine Corps. powerlifting. It's all on there you can also find my gold trading systems page algo trading systems on instagram it's linked under the philbrook page so if you follow me i will try to follow back so just let me know if you do follow me those are the big two that i use i use facebook but that's more for like personal family stuff i don't i'm not a huge fan of facebook so yeah yeah go by brooke

Natalie Hayes 1:05:17
all right app built by brook go follow her guys and thanks for coming on brooke thanks guys make sure you go follow her instagram and everywhere where to find her we'll be linked in the show notes make sure if you enjoyed this to subscribe to the podcast leave us a rating and review it means the world or even just dm me your feedback i'd love to hear from you guys i'd love to hear what you think of the podcast what you liked what you didn't like and so on so you guys know where to find me if it to lead dot inc on instagram and shop vpn get your reds and greens and have a good week guys we'll see you next time

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Fit To Lead

014: How to Prepare for Marine Officer Candidate School with Brook McCluskey, Champion Powerlifter and Owner of Built Training Systems

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