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Be A Fit Dad For Your Kids with Drew Camp - E22
37 Plays10 months ago
Fatherhood isn’t just about providing for your family or being present – it’s about being a role model that inspires and empowers your children. Fathers can model critical life skills like goal-setting, persistence, and the ability to overcome challenges—lessons that will serve their children long after they've grown up. In this episode we delve into how fathers who prioritize their fitness do more than simply improve their own health: they create a living blueprint for their kids to observe and internalize.
Drew Camp is the founder of The Epic Dad Company, a fitness and supplement brand dedicated to empowering fathers to lead healthier, more intentional lives. Inspired by his own fatherhood journey, Drew has created programs that emphasize personal development, fitness, and nutritional health. His latest initiatives include the "Epic Dad Fit" 90-day program and the innovative "Paleo Post" supplement. Drew's commitment to redefining fatherhood has garnered attention from family-focused communities and fitness enthusiasts alike, making him a well-known figure in the realm of holistic wellness and purposeful parenting.
“It's really designed to take that dad that is not living intentionally and wants to make a change, and walk them through a very structured process.” - Drew Camp
In this episode you will learn:
- The distinction between traditional education and universally important skills such as mood and stress management, which often aren't taught in school.
- Drew's personal development journey influenced by fatherhood, including his framework for manhood inspired by the book "Raising a Modern Day Knight."
- The benefits of integrating breathwork into daily routines for mental state improvement and identity reinforcement.
- The significance of community support and the cultural shift from tribal group support to individualistic behaviors, particularly among men.
- The foundational principles of the Epic Dad Fit program, including mindset, relationships, and lifestyle changes designed for fathers.
- Effective strategies for optimizing sleep, handling daily challenges without giving in to the snooze button, and building environments that support desired habits and behaviors.
Resources
- Connect with Drew on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicdadfit/
- Learn more about The Epic Dad Co’s programs and supplements: https://www.theepicdad.com/
- Listen to Drew’s podcast, “Epic Dad Legacy Podcast”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epic-dad-legacy/id1597097259
- Shop all the products Drew mentions in the episode: https://alively.com/products/drew-camp-epic-dad
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Inspiration from Fatherhood
00:00:00
Speaker
When I found out I was having our son, it was like a shot at the chest of like, damn dude. And I, living as the example that I wanted to become. And that really kind of catapults this whole personal journey of like, and I need to make sure that I have, I have discipline, I have the right habits, the right routines. I'm leading my family the way that I want him to to view growing up.
00:00:25
Speaker
This is the Home of Health Spam Podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:38
Speaker
Andrew, Andrew here. Yeah, Andrew Camp, Andrew McConnell. Great to be here, Epic Dad Fit.
Defining Identity as Fathers and Leaders
00:00:45
Speaker
Very excited to to jump into that and hear his story. Before we jump into that, we'd love to hear how you define yourself.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah, so I'll say that's a really good question. And I've got a much longer answer, I think, when we get further in the discussion. um But yeah, for me, I'm a husband, I'm a dad of three, and try to be a really good dad and leader, man. So I'm on tour. What about
From Competitive Swimming to Triathlons
00:01:11
Speaker
you? Yeah, I mean, dad, I think leading with dad as well, it was one of those things growing up, I'm a lively dad, entrepreneur, author,
00:01:21
Speaker
kind of athlete, but more just like a into fitness than athlete, right? It's one of those things being a dad. I feel like I've lived my life is that part and I don't want to get in the way of my daughter living hers. And so we we can jump into it, but like I threw away all my medals, everything like that. I just didn't want a legacy over her.
00:01:43
Speaker
to shape what she wants and let her shape it. I know a little bit about that, but we purposely didn't talk about all of this. I mean i like and was a D1 All-American. I was a U.S. national team. I was bronze medalist internationally um for the U.S. team. so that There were like some good ones. but For what? For open water swimming.
00:02:07
Speaker
Open
Bermuda Move and Family Swimming Background
00:02:08
Speaker
water swimming, man. Dude, I of the army. I was like, I do need the next challenge or whatever. And I trained for it, and it was just a sprint. That's the only triathlon I've ever done. I did one sprint one. Yeah. But I trained swimming just in the pool, like in the fitness or whatever. yeah And then I get out for the actual triathlon, and it is way different open water.
00:02:31
Speaker
I thought it was going to die. It was like California and Georgia. I don't know how far it is for a bunch of friends. I mean it's not that far, but you can't Push your feet out of the water. Much different out of the water. It was interesting because we moved to Bermuda when my daughter was four. And my ex-wife, her just mom, was on the British national team for open water swimming. She swam relays across the channel and stuff like she was into it.
00:03:04
Speaker
And so my daughter could swim across a 25 meter pool at two. But pool swimming is so
Open Water Swimming and Entrepreneurship
00:03:10
Speaker
different than open water. yeah And so I wrote a lot about the learning in the open ocean and the difference and and kind of entrepreneurship versus corporate as the analogy. on that analogy yeah yeah And it's it's just being comfortable with getting hit in the face with water and losing your breath for a second and realizing at any point I can just turn over on my back.
00:03:32
Speaker
and it's saltwater and like I can be buoyant, I can chill for a second time. It's only when you panic that things start to be a problem. That's a really good analogy about corporate and and entrepreneurship, like the pool and the pool water.
Entrepreneurship to Epic Dad Company
00:03:44
Speaker
You can fail in corporate for sure.
00:03:47
Speaker
you have so much support, you know, yeah, you put your feet on the ground, climb out, climb out on the side. and Yeah. entrepreneur are up and Yeah. Yeah. You say it is a cigarette, right? you're at You're at the bottom. Yeah. So I do want to talk if you're okay with it, like Epic dad fence. So you started dad, husband, uh, obviously very athletic yourself.
00:04:11
Speaker
what What got you in into what you're doing today? Long story, I'll keep it somewhat condensed. I'm a girl dad. I've got two girls, eight and six, and I've got son this too and i a I've always been very entrepreneurial. I had a company before I started this one that was really... I didn't know who the advance was. It was just like finding a market opportunity, like it'll make some money.
00:04:37
Speaker
And then we had some disruptions through COVID, supply chain and stuff. And it was a hard lesson to learn, but it was a good lesson of like. If you're in business, you need to know who who's your customer and like what are their problems. I didn't have that before. and So I knew having that business, I wanted to do something to have a clear audience and a clear problem to help on. And I just thought for about a year strategically, is like what what's the most name invite important thing to me? And like what do I enjoy talking about and being around? and Two things came to mind. It was being a father and fitness. yeah And so that kind of spurred the concept of the Epic Dad Company
00:05:14
Speaker
And then, so I launched it in 2021. And, you know, we, the Evadat Fizz has grown pretty, pretty fast. But we've had the Evadat company for about three years.
Fatherhood's Influence on Lifestyle Changes
00:05:24
Speaker
And so I launched the company and what we do, our kind of main channel on vehicle is supplements.
00:05:31
Speaker
So, we want to help the ads get back to the gym, get in shape, get fit, but also do it like healthy and naturally.
00:05:46
Speaker
When I found out I was having our son, it was just, it was like a shot of the chest of like, damn dude, am I living as the example that I wanted to become? okay And that that really kind of catapults it, this whole personal journey of like,
00:06:02
Speaker
and I need to make sure that I have discipline, I have the right habits, and the right routines, I'm leading my family the way that I want him to to view growing up. you know So yeah so can you what was the before and after picture there? like what was it You said it was kind of a shot to the chest. what What was going on before that you looked at and said, hey, this isn't necessarily the model that I would want him coming in the world seeing? Yeah, for sure.
00:06:29
Speaker
So i mean a number of things right so i mean i was i've always been in okay shape i wouldn't say i've ever been like severely out of shape right but there are periods of time that my discipline my drive has been down um and so that was a big a big thing for me was hey i was hitting the snooze button you know a time I wasn't an alcoholic, but I had vices around drinking, had vices around porn, had vices around all types of things that I don't want my son to look up to me as his dad doing. That's the model. Yeah. And so what really shifted for me was using fitness as the tool to be more disciplined, to have the right habits, to have the right routines. And then really what that does is that fuels you with more energy to go show up to me.
00:07:16
Speaker
And so it kind of starts, at least for me and the guys in our communities, it starts in a gym. yeah And we learn kind of through that process, like we learn that, hey, if I'm more disciplined and going to the gym and getting my habits in, the more disciplined I am with putting away at my phone at dinner when I'm just sitting out with my family. So it it absolutely translates from the gym to being a leader, a husband or father.
Fitness and Community Impact
00:07:37
Speaker
That cascading and compounding really resonates. I have a friend, Alan Young, who's a former Army guy as well. and It was similar. He'd have a few drinks each night with dinner. and he said His son now is in his 20s in the Army himself. he said At a certain age, you know when youre the kids are younger, they look up to you and they want to be wherever dad is. They're going to do whatever dad does. At a certain age, if you want to spend time with your kids, you learn to make their hobbies, is your hobbies. They don't follow you, you follow them. And so his son got really into the modern pentathlon. And so they would have these morning swim practices. yeah And so he'd go with them and he'd just found, man, I feel like crap if I'm drinking. So it was, again, it was the fitness that got him to give up the other things. And and really it had this cascading, compounding, positive virtuous cycle in his life.
00:08:23
Speaker
yeah So it's really cool that that's you're seeing that at a community level.
Healthy Choices for Longevity
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And you know when you think about it, at its core, right we all want to be around for our kids as long as we can. right But if we if we have those vices if we're drinking every night, if we're not taking care of our bodies and and nutrition and health, like we're cutting off years of our lives on the back end. And plus, what examples are we setting for our kids? and yeah too you know And on the fitness side, I mean, now what does that look like week to week
Varied Fitness Routines
00:08:50
Speaker
for you? What what are you doing? So I like to change it up quite a bit. So we've got a number of plans that we put guys onto. But for me, it's a mixture of doing strength, hypertrophy training, probably three or four this week. And then I'll make sense of a longer distance to cardio than we are now. on
00:09:15
Speaker
It's not like ah a race type thing. I'm just setting the goal for fun in December, I'll run a half. And so my training cycle definitely wanes based off like what goal I'm going after. But say the the base is always give me strength training.
00:09:30
Speaker
i argued so And do you have stuff at home to do that? Do you have some equipment?
Adapting Fitness Goals
00:09:35
Speaker
I do, yes. I've got a garage gym with like just a certain company.
00:09:49
Speaker
bench, adjustable dumbbells, like you kind of do a bunch with that. Yeah. So I work at a gym location too. Um, so in the morning or two in the Air Force bases, I'm still in the military. They've got a fantastic gym there. So I take advantage of those resources. But yeah, I mean, like I said, it's just based off kind of what goal I'm going after. And so I don't know what, you know, the first quarter of the next year is going to look like, but I'm sure my training cycle will shift to support where it
Home Gym Setup Tips
00:10:16
Speaker
is.
00:10:16
Speaker
And that go-to garage gym, what are the pieces? You say, OK, so we have dumbbells. what What else are you popping in there? Man, I'd say a good base. like You want to have a good garage gym that you're not going to spend like a fortune on. Have some type of rack where you get a barbell. Right.
00:10:33
Speaker
that there's no better exercise than like barbell backs a lot, right? So. Deadlifts. Yeah, doing that. Do a deadlift, do a dance show. You gotta have a barbell if you really want to get after it. yeah I'd say probably have a pull-up lower as well, if that's the goal I've got. And then probably a box, like a jump watch or something. yeah You really don't need that much. like And you get good rack with the pull-up on it, right? You can get those all on one. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, mine's not that fancy, you know? Like, literally people see it on social media, but that's it.
00:11:01
Speaker
Like I literally just have some worst all mats. I've got a pull-up bar and I've got a rack. That's it. No. I mean, it's, you're just moving heavy objects, right? Like I'm trying to do it. Get some heavy objects. I
Fitness Practices in Bermuda
00:11:11
Speaker
can move around. Yeah. What about you? Are you swimming still? like Yeah. Yeah. So ah especially when I'm in Bermuda.
00:11:17
Speaker
I mean, for my first three years there, it was on principle, I was in the ocean every single day, every single day, yeah hurricane or not, no matter what the temperature was, I was in every single day and I would come out sometimes I'm bleeding everywhere because I would get a little dicey sometimes. So after three years, I said, you know, it doesn't need to be every day, right? Like I should be enjoying this. Cause when we first went, I didn't know if I was going to be there for a month or three months. It was like, I don't want to take this for granted. I really want to make sure I'm making the most of it. So I do strength training four days a week. I work with a personal trainer mostly for have some shoulder issues, mostly like some soft tissue work, smaller muscle stuff, not like I don't need somebody else to push me. I know what failure feels like and how to push that. So my strength training is kind of my own, the the personal trainers for that. And then I do ah typically with some friends, swimming,
00:12:07
Speaker
One day, it'll be the 5x4 instead of the 4x4, the Norwegian kind of ah hit thing for VO2 max. so It's four minutes all out. and You can do it on a row or on a bike when I'm running and swimming, and then four minutes rest.
Overcoming Fitness Challenges
00:12:22
Speaker
so You want equivalent rest and swimming. and The first time I did that, I was shot the rest of the day. like it was My body was not used to that. because What they found is hits are super impactful, but most people do either way, not nearly enough intensity for the short period they do, or they're not doing it long enough. To really push VO2 max, you want to be in that three to five minute range. you do it r or take your break do it r take a break keep go up or yeah i mean If you're doing super, super hard, it may be like 30 seconds on in a five minute break. yeah yeah like You want full, full recovery and then all in immediately.
00:12:57
Speaker
to go to it. So I do that one day a week and then try to do a longer zone too. Or if I'm with my friends, more sprint work stuff, because it's, this is one of those stats that I don't think anybody has ever proven or disproven. But it's like 97% of people never sprint again after the age of 30. And I'm like, I don't know how you came up with this stat. Everybody gets sighted everywhere. And it seems realistic. Yeah, it does. Long jogs or whatever. Yeah. So we have this thing.
Epic Dad Fit Community Growth
00:13:26
Speaker
Again, the Epidat fit thing is new to someone new for us. We've been running it for about four or five months now. It's just kind of exploded, which is really cool to see, you know, kind of product market fit. This is really rough. Yeah, but it's part of the Epidat company. One of our flagship things that we set up was called having that seven-day challenge. And one of those days is is after that, it's a sprint. yeah And, you know, I put legal disclaimer on there, like, hey, don't sue me. You should be stressed before. But that's exactly right, though. And and the the concept is like, hey, to get where you want to go, and there should be peers in your life who you have to go on and on.
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah, right. And so like that's what we're trying to equate it to. But yeah, the S&H challenge is awesome. Yeah, we're really big on kind of daily habits inside of inside of our community. But then also, we've got to push ourselves to that exertion point. and yeah We get so comfortable now. you know um In ta our mid to older stages of life, and like nobody ever pushes themselves. And part of this, I think, came from the 80s and 90s was just not knowing as much as we knew about fitness too. of like Oh, you need to go for a 60-minute jog or and and not realizing
00:14:38
Speaker
Most fitness that people do is trash fitness. it's not It's too high for zone two, so you're not building your zone two base, but it's not nearly high enough for zone four, zone five. yeah and You're not doing strength training. and You're just kind of at this garbage heart rate that's wearing you down, lowering your testosterone, but isn't giving you physiological benefits.
00:14:58
Speaker
Just push it one way or the other. Yeah, it's zone two and it's studied the worst thing And then once onces I got off i the duty, I was like, all
Setting and Achieving Fitness Goals
00:15:13
Speaker
right, I'll never run again. I was like, we're all over that. But yeah I'm really big on goal setting. I was like, run a marathon. That's just a box. I want to check. And so I got on a ah really condensed plan. It was a heat week plan to go run a marathon. I was like, all right, let's do it. But that was my first experience and stuff, too. Because again, I wasn't really a big like running guy. right
00:15:33
Speaker
And I was like, is it brutal? I would much rather no sprint. Because it's way slower than you think to keep your heart rate there. When I first started, I was like, yeah, just check my heart rate. I was like, God bless me. I'm going to be running at 11, 30, 12 in a page right now. And having to be there to keep my heart rate down.
00:15:52
Speaker
Well, I mean, that's good discipline to do it because so many people yeah just, oh, no, no. Like, I'll i'll be better if I'm at 140, 150. No, you're not. like yeah yeah So it's it's interesting because you talked about as a dad and getting into the fitness and it's fitness, fitness, fitness, the gym, but the, you started with supplements side. So what, what were those core supplements? Like, Hey, this is really what's kind of missing. Yeah. So, um, I was always a very big supplement user, but didn't know much about them. And, uh, so it started this, this business, you know, a real core kind of core thing with me was like, Hey, I'm a dad now I'm DB healthy. And I actually start taking care of myself.
00:16:31
Speaker
And that's when I started doing research into what all is in supplements. yeah I just blew my mind. Because you don't know. No, you don't know. And so like, you know, I was used to going into Walmart and picking up like the $15 great workout or something. I was like, Oh my God, this is like
00:16:53
Speaker
So it's all natural ingredients and we've got five grams of creatine in there,
Developing Supplements for Dads
00:16:58
Speaker
which is a little bit different than kind of your mainstream pre-workout. And now that was fun if you guys go on to the Epidemic Company this Instagram page and just kind of like watch the story. And it was literally me just like a chemist in my kitchen, like mixing stuff and just like learning about all these different mixtures and formulations. And it honestly took me probably Six months or so, I'm just gonna take it around and like buying every pre-workout in the market and like what do I like when I'm like surveying our potential customers? And then we felt like we got to a pretty good formulation with the effect of it, but the taste was horrendous. Like no I don't have any kitty, I don't want my flavored house in my kitchen. So I was just like, oh, you know, just explain it down and be like, alright, how does this feel? So we, you know, we got a good feel for
00:17:46
Speaker
And then, yeah, we had to start working with some really, really quality manufacturers. And thankfully, Atlanta is a really good base for manufacturers. So we've gone through a couple of really good partners to dial in that product. And so that's our flagship. And then folks started asking us, hey, when are you going to have a protein? We got a pre-workout. I had an approach workout. So we launched that about a year ago now. And we call it PaleoPost.
00:18:13
Speaker
And it's a little bit of an alternative to your traditional whey of protein. So ours is a beef isolate protein. And there's a few reasons behind that. and And really the big one is the addition collagen.
00:18:25
Speaker
And so, you know, what we've done with some of our supplements is really try to, like, reduce the amount of supplements you're having to buy and kind of combine them, right? So with our pre-workout, we've got five grams of creatine that's already in there. You should be getting 10 a day. So, like, there's your, there's your five. And then additionally, guys take collagen as well. We kind of rolled that in, you know, with beef isolate. 100% natural. It's, it's flavored with stevia and cocoa powder, and it's tremendous.
00:18:52
Speaker
trylist yeah What's great is there's zero lactose as well, and so a lot of folks have some bad stomach responses. Zero ways, right? Zero ways. Yeah, because I have friends allergic to is tremendous. And then we launched our our first multivitamin about four months ago.
00:19:20
Speaker
um So it's an adapted to where we don't get a lot of the nutrients that we're used to. And so we've got a great multivitamin out now as well.
00:19:42
Speaker
and what I mean, what gaps is that one feeling? Like magnesium? Yeah, so I'll actually write a bottle and I'll read out the label for you. But yes, we've got 32 vitamins and minerals in there, so we app will be stacked yeah just from a compound perspective. But yeah, you might think about vitamin D, you might think about magnesium, think about zinc.
00:20:02
Speaker
I just made sure that we're clinically dosed, you know, for everyone. Yeah. And then what about your whole foods around that, right? So that's supplemental. But it was, it's funny because you hear all these different stories of dads putting on weight once they have kids and like in the tips different people get. And so like my roommate from college is like, Oh, my doctor said, like the number one thing you can do is don't clean your kids' plates.
00:20:25
Speaker
It's like, that alone is responsible for X percent of the dad we gain, and there's all the dad tax, all the things that you add in. What is your nutrition outside of the supplemental world? I was having a conversation with Buddy at breakfast. is there's like two types of people, I think, that we could ultimately go after. And one is like the dad that is just, you know, I eat McDonald's every day, and like, I just have zero awareness around, like, what are you putting in my body?
00:20:56
Speaker
And then there's this whole other part of the spectrum. It's like, I'm the dad that has a six hour morning routine, you
Simple Dietary Guidelines for Dads
00:21:03
Speaker
know? And like, I do the 20 minute cold bath, the 20 minute sauna, and just like, to the extreme. And I'm like, well, we want to be in the middle, right? Because it's very difficult to take that dad and see McDonald's every day and be like, no, man, you need to totally shift things up and like, go to the extreme. So we like to be very simple with our guys inside the NetFit program.
00:21:24
Speaker
We just go to the difference, right? nope So that's it. Say, hey, if it is a whole food, good, right? Like try from Try to stay away from, you know, artificial. And then we just set an average for guys. okay So there's a lot more you can do than that, but what we've found is by keeping it very simple.
00:21:44
Speaker
Do you start at protein as a base and then build the fat and the carb. So what is your, is it dependent, is it your lean mass, your target lean mass? Yeah, so it's going to be dependent on the goal, right? So if you guys, you know, like 300 pounds, I'm not really cool. You're 300, you know, protein.
00:22:00
Speaker
What we do is we say, hey, where's your IT? Where would you be at? I'd say have at 200 pounds. so okay What we're going to do is we're going to set you at 80% at 200 because 20% body fat right is kind of our our target. If we get below that, that's great. so We set the baseline for 0.8% of your ideal bypass.
00:22:29
Speaker
on the carb side with that um with healthy carbs. And then on the protein is it gram per pound per pound of the way ideal lean mass. Yeah. So we would go 0.8.
00:22:40
Speaker
Oh, okay, that's 2.8 grams to total weight, which is... Because that'll get us to healthy, right? Like, that'll get us to 20% or less of body fat. And, you know, if you want to go beyond that, right, and think about, like, I'm going to go step on stage, like, there's a a lot of things we can tweak in there. yeah But again, like... Very few people are scientists. Yeah, exactly. I just want to live it. Exactly. Yeah. um And so, you know, we just try to shift the mindset into, hey, we're actually going to trap what we eat, and that's a huge aisle of perfect for people.
00:23:07
Speaker
And the tracking, are you big on scales? Like, we're... So, you get simplicity. Okay. Yeah. So, to get the best results, absolutely. Like, you had my scale. Right. But, you know, if I'm going to have a thing of yogurt, I can kind of highball it. You know, the cool hat, you know, one cup of...
00:23:22
Speaker
The scale, I find, is a little bit, at least for me, the continuous glucose
Diet and Morning Routines
00:23:28
Speaker
monitor. After a month or two, then I'm way better at eyeing. I just have no idea. Just 200 grams of plants. I have no idea how much eggplant or zucchini that is until I do it a few times. OK, now I can eye it, because I don't get a sense with that. Yeah. I mean, it's tough for guys that have never done it before, because they literally have no clue. I mean, it's really the eye that turns. I thought I was eating healthy. I'm eating a Subway sandwich, isn't that healthy? No, I didn't have a row.
00:23:52
Speaker
ah but I mean, that was neat. I had an entire summer I lived on subway every single day, right? And because it was whole week, right? Yeah well we did Yeah, so eye over for them And then, you know, it can be a little bit painful for the first two or three weeks to kind of like start to track things but then yeah, before free know it, you're like, alright, cool. I kind of know that's an ounce of chicken. That's you know, about 40 years protein. Yeah, and then I mean, do you find But for me, I find you end up feeling so much better versus so much worse. like When you slip off it, man, this isn't worth it. I just feel so much worse. You don't know it when you're living it all the time. yeah And ah people are like, oh, man, you're you're like such a princess. And you can't eat this, that, and the other. I'm like, look, you can put whatever you want in your Toyota Corolla. But like if I'm going to go work on a Formula 1 car, I'm going to be thinking about the fuel I'm putting into that. yeah And it's different. Yeah, for sure. that There's two things that make me feel like
00:24:49
Speaker
a million times better. I noticed a very noticeable impact. And one is diet. And I'm not perfect. I fall off the lag sometimes too. Like everybody, I have a weakness for freaking gas station. Like a little apple pie thing. Oh, those fried pies? Yeah. No, not the fried ones. I'll shoot you a picture after this. But that is my temptation. I have to go ahead. No, no, no. But every now and then, I will have one. And then I just go, crap. So that's one is diet, and then two would be some type of morning routine. Just in how it sets the tone for the day? Absolutely. Yeah. So we're really big on morning routines. Again, it doesn't need to be the extreme of you spent three hours doing it. Because all the guys we talked to are busy dads. We don't have the time. But at least to have something that's ritualistic in the morning. And the way that we approach morning routines is twofold. So one is you have your agenda. So if you have the perfect morning,
00:25:45
Speaker
what would your morning routine look like, right? And like, hey, it may be, I do get a cold bath, it may be, I do meditation, I do breath work, I do prayer, you know, I get a workout and whatever, like that's your agenda. But on the other side of that is, what is your intention? Like, what do you actually want to get out of the morning routine?
00:26:00
Speaker
And what we found is you can have the perfect agenda, but that's not always going to be the day, right? Like you may have a kid that's screaming through throughout the night or you know just whatever happens, you don't have that full agenda. But if you could still meet your intention of the morning routine, like that's a
00:26:25
Speaker
And so my agenda shifts based off of what life looks like. But I still have the intention of the warrior team. And that intention, that's great. Because it's when you think about stress management, you think about mindset, you get back to the same words, whether it's meditation, like meditation with an intention. What is your intention? When you go to yoga, you're like, OK, send an intention for the day. Same if you sit down for prayer. Like, what is this conversation I'm having with God?
00:26:51
Speaker
And so in that, what does that spectrum look like of, Hey, when I have my perfect routine, it's this, or, Ooh, everything I can press them off. Here's my five minutes. yeah What I can get in there. Yeah. I mean, perfect. Yeah. It's, it's, I'm going to be able to move in the morning. slag i think about work out of the money Okay.
00:27:10
Speaker
I think a lot of guys would probably echo that with kids too. It's like, if you don't get into warning, man, like your days yeah the day's gone, you know, you may tell yourself you're going to do it, but like your body might not get around to it. Yeah. Typically it is, you know, wake up and then we have something that's really core to our community called your identity statement. Okay. And so we advise the guys and we hold people accountable to connect with their identity statement.
00:27:34
Speaker
So when you wake up and then when this is what you ask like who who are you? There's a much longer discussion. This is something that guys create within like the first couple of weeks of working with us. It ultimately is like, loud into existence every single morning.
Crafting Identity Statements
00:27:55
Speaker
Okay. So in front of a mirror, you just say it out loud. I like how that, how do you? Yeah. I mean, for me, it's not in front of a mirror and it could be right. But it's literally, you know, there's a very powerful thing that happens when you're not just writing it down, but like you're speaking it to existence. Yeah. So for me, yeah, that's typically in the car. Um, obviously, you know, I just got to sit back and just say, I didn't say that. And so, I mean, mine, I've been saying it for years now. Um, but yeah, it's extremely powerful.
00:28:21
Speaker
Just to connect with that identity for the first time. How long did it take you to cultivate that? Like create it, craft it, and say, yeah, this guy, this captures me. Yeah, a pretty good while. I mean, we asked the guys to do it in the first two weeks. But they can change, right? They can shift and change a little bit. We want to add some to it. Every now and then, I'll kind of hear a nugget or a piece of wisdom and be like, wow, we'll resonate with that. I'm adding it in my identity. Yeah.
00:28:46
Speaker
ah Yeah, I've seen it done. I'd love to check this one out because it's like Peter Diamandis with the moonshot thing. He has maybe like a five-day or one-week kind of process where you can go through it to get that. And then I don't know if you know Jim Lohr. He was a big coach of Olympians and tennis grades. But he has this personal credo journal. And it's this companion box, like one book about it, but then this separate journal that's 90 days, I don't know, 180 days of crafting. yeah And then how how are you going to track it? How do you measure it? Really working through that process. But it's it's funny to me, especially in a world where
00:29:25
Speaker
We know so little about what is required to be successful in the future because of how fast AI is moving. like How important is it to know that in 1588, the Spanish Armada tried to invade England? like Is that going to help you in some part of the world? We're still teaching a lot of school that way versus understanding mood management and noticing your mood and mental states and stress management and your personal credo and all that. Like that's something that's universal that will always be true. I would imagine at a human level. And yet there's no education. We have to go in our thirties, our forties to figure this stuff out because no one ever taught us this stuff. Yeah. Well, I mean, it really started for me, like this journey started when I started the company, right? And he was like, okay, well, I'm going to be this guy. Let's talk about that stuff. You know, like
00:30:25
Speaker
was something. And it was really just like, okay, cool. I need to be the man, the example of him to follow. I was What is a man? yeah my god What is that? What do they do? And
Journaling and Self-Reflection
00:30:47
Speaker
It is called Raising a Modern Day Night. I probably butchered the opportunity. I think it's Robert Jordan. but we maybe we can look it up. passivity, he leads courageously, and he expects a higher reward, which is life after death.
00:31:10
Speaker
And so I was just like, wow, that is so powerful. Like when you really think of thing about it, it's like, that's what a man does. And that's how people live my life. And like, that's the example of the stuff of my son. So I've taken that and crafted it into my identity. So now I know every day when I wake up, I speak that out loud and it's like, this is who I am. This is how I show up.
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah. Is journaling something you still do? I'm terrible at journaling. Okay. Yeah.
00:31:41
Speaker
but I just have a correct balance. Yeah. I'm curious on how important it is to do it. Cause it, this is back to you'll say, Oh, I hate exercising cause I don't like running. Okay. No, you don't like running. They're infinite. You might like strength training. You might like yoga. You might like swimming, right? They're all these flavors. And so I think it gets back to for me intention, right? You're talking about what are you trying to get out, out of the journaling in the first place. And if that's not,
00:32:09
Speaker
working for you to get that? like Where else can you get
Breathwork for Stress Management
00:32:12
Speaker
that? yeah you know A friend of mine, Adam Grant, talks about like he's just not into meditation. He finds other things that he does meditative. and But the idea of just sitting there and doing it and saying, okay, then what is the purpose of me sitting there? Is it to calm my mind? Is it to focus? Is it to learn how to better notice my own intentions, my own breath to come into my body? Oh, here's how I'm I'm better able to do it because I shy away from there being objective truths on our health a lot of times. It's subjective truths because the only effective thing is what you're actually going to do and stick with. so Journaling is worthless if you're not going to stick with it. right like No, it's not it was great for those people. It's not great for you. so you know I find journaling helpful, but I will say
00:32:57
Speaker
yeah back to the morning routine is very similar. you know I have my ideal state and then it's kind of an order of prioritization of what comes off first, what comes off second as as you get compressed and journaling a lot of times is the one. yeah goes first it's It's one of the first and then like, okay, well meditation goes from 20 minutes to 10 minutes to five minutes compressed down and then it's the movements last to go. yeah like that's the yeah That's the one that I try to build around. Yeah, for sure.
00:33:32
Speaker
few months is breath work. yeah um And it was something that I tried before. And again, like is it is it right for you? Is it not? And it just wasn't right for me, but at least because I didn't have the right format, like the right paired with yeah me speaking my identity in existence, it's like, dude, I show up like a friggin' animal yeah And that breathwork, what does that look like for you? Because there's so many different things. I've tried to do it on my own before. I think that's what I struggled with, because I've never been diagnosed, but I have high ADHD. So i it's like a ping pong game going on in my head. While I'm sitting there trying to like just breathe and focus on breathing.
00:34:17
Speaker
There's this cat on YouTube. It's called Breathe with Sandy. I don't know if you've heard of him before. He's a really popular one. He wears shirtless. He's got ponytail and white yoga pants all the time. And I was like, this is my guy. But he does it. That's not a different method. I mean, he does all these crazy names that I probably couldn't even pronounce. But I mean, super, super helpful. Nice. And it's a one a day thing for you or how? Yeah. So I'll do it in the morning. And then I try to, like when I'm getting stressed out the day, if I'm conscious enough, unintentional enough, I'll take a step back and be like, okay, cool. Let me maybe take two minutes just to kind of have a mental reset. You know, the breath works a good way to do that. Yeah. For me on the breath work front, so it's, I have a morning five minute, just the physiological side of the
00:35:05
Speaker
Five minutes of that ah kind of ideal state. And then I have calendar reminders and send me an email twice a day, kind of like 10 45. And then what ends up being right before I get my daughter from the nanny, like after school at the end of the day to try to do this transition from work yeah to dad, or I stopped and I do some 478 breathing to just come back in my body and like have that mental shift. yeah So one kind of middle of the day for me, I guess right before lunch, like breaking the day and and being conscious. And then at bed, and this has been a game changer for me. So I did a so a program with, back in 2019, it was like 20 of us, but it was with Andrew Huberman, yeah and the guy who created the mind gem for the seals, who ran one of the elite teams there, and all these people, and they created this program to train executives, like they would train athletes and stuff.
00:35:59
Speaker
And so they taught us some different breath patterns. And it was, you breathe in a set count, you hold it for 4X, whatever that breathe in is, and then you breathe it out for two. So I breathe in for seven, hold for 28, and breathe out for 14. I do four of those breaths. And people, if I'm sharing a hotel room or anything, they're like, I've never seen someone fall asleep as quick as you.
Importance of Sleep
00:36:20
Speaker
really do that and just kind try And so whether it's seven, 28, 14, or it's six, 24, 12, like whatever it is, but it's that ratio, four or five of those breasts. yeah I'm like, I need to do that because that's what I'm like, would just to be a holistic way of health, my sleep is my worst. Okay. So yeah, what, I mean, what is your sleep routine? what yeah Like I said, you know, we work with guys and like, let's get them off McDonald's, you know? so um
00:36:46
Speaker
Try to do a simple, like, I'm not the best one to talk to about this, but, you know, I try to do a little bit of reflection, a little bit of breath work, you know, before I'm off on a bed. But yeah, I just feel really blessed with this family. I can't fall asleep, you know? And then I definitely don't sleep with enough to, like, I'm usually in bed, I take 30-11 up at 4.30, you know? that's surprising that Which is not enough.
00:37:10
Speaker
But you know like part of that, too, is like I've kind of just conditioned myself over time being in the military like to to operate off less. like I can still function and get a lot of stuff done. I'd be very high-functioning with it. But understand this is the ideal.
00:37:25
Speaker
you know my My parents were both physicians. I was born when they were in med school, and they told me growing up, like you know you can train your body not to sleep because in residency you go yeah and you perform. And here's this physician who wrote all these books because he'd wake up at this time and he got just many more days in his life because he was awake those times.
00:37:44
Speaker
And then then you go actually look at the science, right? Like people tell themselves and as productive, yeah like the number of mistakes after the next number of hours awake. And I'm like, no, people are dying because of this process. Like it is a measured difference. And then on IQ levels on early onset dementia, all of this, like it, if you need to wake up on that, I would highly suggest why we sleep by Matthew Walker, if you haven't read it, because it, it gets into all the science and it's,
00:38:11
Speaker
We can train ourselves to get by, but you can't override the biological need.
Optimizing Sleep Quality
00:38:17
Speaker
So the brain builds toxins all day. Like there's toxins coming into our body. It is deep in room sleep. That's flushing all that out. Yeah. need to be knowledge And that's what we're cutting. Sure. Yeah.
00:38:30
Speaker
And so you're you're not flushing. And like you think about Reagan and Thatcher and all these people that were notorious for being able to get by with no sleep. And they all got dementia. yeah like it We pay the price at some point. I think it was a team made, and probably many others, the really good point of like, there is nothing riskier for an animal, a being, than sleep. but You're not out hunting and getting resources. You're totally vulnerable to being killed.
00:39:00
Speaker
And yet, in every single species, it's still there. This isn't a thing that we can hack around do millions of years of evolution. This is a thing that we absolutely need. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm curious about that, too, because I want to say there's a balance, and everything needs to be balanced, right? And so like with where I'm at in my stage in life, you know it's like, hey, ah I need to get things done. and so like There needs to be a short-term sacrifice on on sleep to be productive. Knowing that, even if I you know if i if i extended that sleep a little bit, I'd probably be more productive, but like I need that time. yeah you know so yeah and that's That's where I shy away from the word balance in the first place. like I think of ah it's a dynamic equilibrium. and so Depending on the season of life, season of year, like what's going on, you say, I'm going to give up some to have more here. yeah so
00:39:51
Speaker
Like, work-life balance. Like, well, is it a balance? Is it 50-50? No. Like, when when you have a newborn, it may be 80 or 99-1, right? Like, it may be all on that child versus work. And then if you're launching a big project and you have coverage on the kid, you're like, actually, it's 90-10 the other way. And so it moves. And as long as at least for me, it's a conscious decision and made mindfully versus just defaulting. And I recognize I am choosing it, not that it's being imposed on me, which is always true. You say, well, no, I have to do this because of X. You don't have to do it. You're saying I prioritize X more than this other thing. it It is a choice you're making, and you need to get into that story. Because if you start going through this, victim this life is happening to me, like it that's a downward spot. I'll absolutely say like the lack of sleep is a choice. You did. You're like, look, where I am in this season of life, I'm choosing to do this. It's just based off calendars, it's based off kids, it's based off of getting the whole firm.
00:40:53
Speaker
From basketball practice at 9 p.m., I didn't want to have a little bit of time with my wife. So it absolutely is a choice. I think later on down the line or when life circumstances are different, life circumstances can be a different choice. Are there any things around sleep knowing it's a limited window that you do to try to optimize what you're getting in that window?
00:41:15
Speaker
Oh, I see your plugs cool. Yeah, no not really let' be honest with you. like is leslie Just one that I'm like, I need to do a lot more research on and figure out the best, you know, the best tricks and hacks for it. But usually I'm pretty dog tired by the time night time runs around and probably a little bit of everything and then just I mean, that that might be a ah good next product launch is yeah the Sleep Stack.
Community and Personal Development
00:41:39
Speaker
well that's it So, yeah we won't like you know spoil all the surprises, but you guys should probably guess. like like Everything that we go after is a problem that ends up, right? And so, that's one. It's like, hey, your dad, you're very busy. You might only be getting six hours, but let's make sure they're effective for six hours.
00:41:56
Speaker
yeah Fantastic. Part of the whole Epic Dead company, it seems like it's very community driven. It's a whole idea of, you're not in this alone. We're going through this together. How do we support each other? Can you talk a little bit about why that approach and and the importance of social connection yeah in your life? Yeah. yeah If you look just at outcome of our our history up until now,
00:42:20
Speaker
150 years ago or so. I mean, men operated in tribes, right? we We operated in groups and cohorts. And somewhere along the line, that shifted to where we're we're all running around, trying to be little wolves right now. And that honestly doesn't work. but I think we've been conditioned to believe that it works. We've been conditioned to believe that we're men, we should raise our hands and ask for help, when ultimately familiar the community is what's going to drive success because it's going to set the higher standard for you to live up to.
00:42:47
Speaker
But then it also gives you that connection piece to where if you are having a hard time and having trouble, you got somebody you can reach out to instead of just bearing it down inside of yourself. So yeah, we're huge on community. like We started as a software brand, but our mission is very big. So our mission is to change the culture by creating better
00:43:18
Speaker
And hey, you need a gathering place for for all of this. And that's that's what kind of prompted it. And is there an in-person component to it? like how Explain. and Yeah. So it's all online right now. So our flagship program is just called the Epidepfit. It's an idea program.
00:43:36
Speaker
We've got a lot of things to coach 90 days that the guys fall into, but like we really focus on the first 90 days. So what that looks like is is we have three pillars. And so we coach guys on on each of these pillars. And in the first one's of mindset.
00:43:56
Speaker
And it's really designed to take that data that's like, that is a McDonald's or is not living intentionally and wants to make a change. And walk them through a very structured process. It's six pillars of of the framework. And so that's mindset. then Those pillars are identity and values is number one. So we kind of already talked about the entity, right? And then we help craft personal values and also family values. Because it's created personal values, but also you lead your home. Like, yep, you need to be setting those family values.
00:44:25
Speaker
And then the third pillar is vision. So once we basically once we know who we are, what's identity, and then we know what's important to us, values, then we need to know where we're going.
Vision, Mission, and Goal Setting
00:44:36
Speaker
And so a lot of guys we talk to you like that, that's the biggest missing compet component is those three three. And like that's when we feel yeah like we're stagnant, we're not making progress, we feel depressed, because like one, you don't know who you are, you know it's important, you don't know where you're going. Right? So it's unlikely you're going to get there. Exactly. So that's step three's vision. Step four is mission, which is how do we take that high in the sky vision and really make that tactical?
00:45:01
Speaker
And so for us, that looks like we take that vision and we break it down into your body, your relationships, your mind, and your finances. Can I encourage this podcast? Be real, motherfucker. That's an acronym. But we say, hey, that kind of encompasses all of your vision. Where do you want to be in your body? Two, three years from now, where do you want to be in your relationships? With your kids, with God, with your wife, where do you want your mind to be? How do you want to be feeling?
00:45:31
Speaker
You want to be showing up and then finances obviously that's you know, hey, where do you going be? You know from a career business perspective? So that's what we asked. I just get crystal clear on that about two three years in the future Which is great right where we want to go, but then now how do we get there and I love that timeline too because in just coaching people and like, well, I just, I don't know if this is my forever job. This is my forever. That bar is too high, yeah right? We live way too long for that to be the bar right now. Look at the two to three year cycle. And if it's going in the right direction, then you're yeah as long as you keep going up to the right towards your connection. You need to be iterative, right? Because things are going to change, yeah you know, within that two to three year cycle, like maybe I have another kid, maybe I lose my job, maybe, you know, like, like happens. And so we got to adjust course. yeah
00:46:14
Speaker
But we need to have a course. Yeah, like you have a North Star that's like directional, but the the two to three, the mission part of it, the implementation of what's the right trajectory to get there. I like that two to three here, Cadence. Yeah. And so what we do is we take that vision, we set four categories, and then we set a mission, which is just quarterly goals. And so we say, at this quarter, what goals you can have in those four categories that gets you closer to your vision?
00:46:38
Speaker
So that's a mission and then we go down into what we call wins because it's nice to have a goal, right? But we really need to focus on like the process, implementation steps that are going to give us that goal. So really focusing not necessarily on like the KPI. So like, let's say,
00:46:54
Speaker
You know, the best example, these examples are always not the weight loss. And so say, hey, I want to lose 20 pounds in the next 90 days. Like, cool, that's really cool. Like, how are we going to get there? Yeah, and so exactly that's what wins are. yeah So wins is just like, what are the daily habits that that we need to implement there to get you to success? yeah So for our program, we we give out those habits and then you can always add to, but you can't take away. And so our habits, very, very simple. You never ever hit the stage button, ever.
00:47:22
Speaker
Number one. Number two is we're going to hydrate in the morning, right? So we drink 24 ounces of water right when we wake up. Number three is we're going to connect with our identity statement. So once that's crafted, we can do that every day. Four is, we're gonna get 10,000 steps in every day. We're gonna move our bodies. We're gonna also, if you have a workout, late on or not, like you're gonna get moving in. Number five is personal development at work. So even if that's just like five minutes of reading or something that like you're putting into your mind that's gonna positively benefit you in the future. And then last is tracking your macros. It's all around nutrition. And so it's it's super simple and it's not the rule only. Because when you when you write that vision,
00:48:01
Speaker
And it's supposed to be a big vision. And you think about that all the time, so that can be overwhelming, like, how do I get there? And so might we just implement the mission quarterly and then implement those daily habits. I mean, as a former swimmer, we'd have to be in the pool at 5 in the morning. And so the idea, if you had to set your alarm early enough to hit snooze, I mean, 10 minutes less sleep. like I would get up at 4.52. It was dialed in so much because this is how I would get to the pool.
Maintaining Personal Integrity
00:48:30
Speaker
yeah And so if you hit snooze, then it'd have to be, the alarms at 4.42, I got 10 minutes. so
00:48:35
Speaker
Snooze was just never a thing for me. yeah To make sure it was never a thing, the alarm for me was always the other side of the room. There was no way to hit Snooze unless I got out of bed yeah and and dealt with it all. At that point, you're up. so I'll say this. When you're an athlete and you have some place to be,
00:48:53
Speaker
you're tying yourself to something bigger than yourself. right And so you're much less likely to ah to make that decision to hit the stage button. Now what happens with dads, even if they're like former athletes, they get out and they're living just for themselves. And so if all I'm doing is trying to do something for myself,
00:49:10
Speaker
Who's going to care about his snooze? It's just me, right? And so that's why we do so much work in front end of crafting that identity. I'm like, why are you freaking doing this? You have to look outside yourself. Yeah, so like you have to tie the simple act of not hitting the snooze button to something much, much greater. And so like the way we do that is, is one, you're making a promise to yourself the night before. But I'm going to get up, let's say five I have, for example. yeah I'm going to get up to five. like I just made that promise to myself. And if it hits five and I hit the snooze button,
00:49:39
Speaker
I just broke the promise of myself first thing in the morning, and then even if that only happens occasionally, it's like what unconscious signal are you sending to your mind? right that like You're not the person that can follow through with what you're saying. It's a tough thing for me, even with speed limits. right Somebody had this line, it's not a law unless it's physics. great because that's like gravity Things are going to fall at this rate on this planet, whereas we have these laws. These are laws.
00:50:09
Speaker
but there's variable enforcement and how strictly they're enforcing. And like, well, if we don't care about speed limits, how important is this other one? And it's the same kind of thing of, if you start building patterns of, I tell myself I'm going to do X and then I don't do it, yeah who am I? And if I can't trust myself, why would, how could I expect anyone else to be like that? Exactly. The biggest thing with that, right? It's like, but let's say you know you're married, you got your wife right next to you, right? And you tell her how to get up and five, go to the gym and you sleep in like,
00:50:38
Speaker
how she can trust you to leave the family, but you can't even meet yourself to get out of bed and go to the gym. I will say this on snooze though, and I've always struggled with it like for whatever, maybe it's because I don't get enough sleep. It's probably the root cause. Not so much anymore, but I used to travel a lot.
00:50:55
Speaker
even when I was like, man, what am I doing? I don't want to do this. And so, yeah, a
Creating Supportive Environments
00:51:00
Speaker
couple things to help there. One is obviously putting the phone, you know, way across the room, which I did for years. It drove my wife freaking crazy. Because it would wake up. Yeah, it would take 10 seconds to get over there, turn off, you know, and now she's up.
00:51:13
Speaker
One thing that's been a game changer is I have this little watch. I'll give shots padlock pv l k actually like actually sell it for them or something. I'm um'm so big fan of it. It's this little watch and you charge it the night before. You put it on, you set your alarm and it vibrates. One, but then there's a lot of settings on there and one is an electric shock.
00:51:36
Speaker
okay which is crazy. And I mean, there's different settings you can do. It was like really big or not a lot, but it's just kind of like a little electric fence touch. yeah And that's been a game changer for our marriage because I'm an early riser and she is not. yeah And so now I wake up silently and like, yeah, I haven't seen it in how long. you know so Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, it's it so gets back to Odysseus tying his hands to the mast, right? Like what are the things I put in to force me to be my better self, even when I don't want to be. So it's not a decision. So it's like for me on fitness and like going to the gym.
00:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure there are days I don't want to do it, but it's just not a question.
Defining Health and Vitality
00:52:17
Speaker
yeah Or it's like, oh, on dessert. Well, no, I just don't order dessert. Like, of course I want to order the chocolate cake and not like whatever, but I don't do it. Right. So it's not a decision I have to to deal with and same kind of thing of like, okay, if it takes electric shock or it takes, and it up to like just set the parameters to create an environment that makes you be the person you want to be. And over time you are that person. Exactly. Yeah.
00:52:39
Speaker
So, well tell me about it lively. I want to know one more i know a little bit about your your story kind of the company, but um yeah, we we love that you're kind of the genesis behind it where you guys are going. Yeah, I mean, so the the idea is just like you were built building on these pillars for epic dads, to be an epic dad and lead this. We looked at what is health and not health is historically defined as absence of disease. Like, oh, you don't have cancer, you're healthy. You don't have diabetes, you're healthy. No, like to be healthy is to live with vitality, to have this vibrant life. And to do that, it's not just going to the gym and being
00:53:14
Speaker
have physical fitness. you You need to fuel your body with the right stuff. You have to rest and recover your body so that you can show up each day to do that. You need your mindset in the right place. And 100% what we were just talking about, you need to live for something bigger than yourself, outside yourself. Otherwise, it is a soulless, purposeless existence. right that You need all these pillars. And it's not just an opinion thing. I mean, there's hard data on if you're socially isolated, you have a 50% higher risk of developing early onset dementia.
00:53:41
Speaker
Like it is as important as the nutrition, as the sleep, everything else in terms of taking care of your health. And so my co-founder and I, Lou, we looked at the space and I had built a marketplace business. He had scaled booking dot.com to what it is. And we said, wait.
00:53:58
Speaker
There's not a place in the world that brings all this under one roof to help you understand that, navigate, discover the right products, and and step through, and then much less track, be able, with all the data, your Garmin, or your WOOP, or your or a you're capturing all this data. But what are you doing with it? How is it actually helping you?
00:54:17
Speaker
And to be able, in a marketplace, say, oh man, I see over the last 45 days, your sleep's really deteriorated. We see people who buy this brand of magnesium 3 and 8 within 20 days, see an extra 18 minutes of deep sleep at night. Would you like to add this to your cart? And be able to come to you with way better insights then.
00:54:37
Speaker
Oh, people who looked at this also looked at this like, yeah, I don't care what they look at. I care about here's a problem. Like you talked about what are real problems people are dealing with and what do we see helps other people like you solve that problem. And so that's that's the mission behind a lively is to help anyone live healthy or longer. And when you broke into those three categories, I mean, it's exactly those three categories we talked about are like the one and you have the the Brian Johnson's of the world like we're not unlocking new stuff for them.
00:55:05
Speaker
yeah At the other end, you have the guys I sat next to when I was going down to Florida last time. It was like, oh yeah, no. I was going to a wellness conference. Like, no, no. I'd smoke and I'd sit on the couch. I'm like, I'm not your target. I'm like, you're exactly right. You're not. yeah But there's a huge middle, especially with GLP ones.
00:55:20
Speaker
where people are saying, you know I'm actually starting to feel better. like I feel more confident. I could go to the gym now. I want i want to start living this life. like I do feel better. And that's a huge middle of just not knowing where to start and then where to go after they start and how to stick with it
Reaching Different Audiences
00:55:34
Speaker
and move on. And that's where we want to step in and help. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's a hugely important mission. Because like each other, there's a two-spectrum and like yeah maybe we can't help the guy that has 15 wearables and is is like fully fully dialed in and stuff. yeah they yeah But then, yeah to to that guy that's like, no, man, I'm smoking in the dirt or eating fast food all the time. What what is your thought there? How do we cash for those guys too and make them
00:55:59
Speaker
problem aware, you know, yeah that that want to seek a solution. It's, it's meeting an aha moment. So the funny thing is I give that example of that guy and then he said, well, but next year yeah I told myself I'm 49 when I'm 50, I'm going to quit smoking. I'm going to start exercise. And so I said, fantastic. You know, that the easiest way you're going to do that is not to just quit smoking, but to stack the two. So every time you want a cigarette, just get up and go for a walk, just replace one with the other. And he's like, that's, really good right Like, there's a spark right by my work. And he's like, you know, I can even step into it. Like, what I'll do instead of smoking two cigarettes, I'll just start with, I'll do one. That may be a good way to do it. Like, I have no idea how to quit smoking. But like, that may be great because at least start shooting. If all you did was cut that, the number of cigarettes you smoked in half, like.
00:56:44
Speaker
Man, I just helped that guy's life. That would be amazing. And then if that was a step to go all the way down to, I stopped smoking. I went from 4,000 steps a day to 14,000. Can you imagine the and the the compounding interest on his health? If at 50, he's able to do that and go forward. But it each person needs that that trigger. And for him, it sounds like, hopefully, it's his 50th birthday. But other people, it's whatever their aha is like, yeah hey, I have this trigger. So I'm going to say, I have a kid.
00:57:11
Speaker
yeah Like, ooh, now I'm living for something outside myself. Before, whether it's I got out of college, I left my sports team, I got out of college, I got all the armed services, I was part of this bigger thing, and now I'm not in kind of rudderless. All of a sudden, you have a family. Oh, no, I'm not rudderless anymore. i I need to be here for this long term, and that's my aha moment.
Community-Driven Cultural Change
00:57:31
Speaker
But they they need some kind of trigger, and then it's, and this is where I think a lively is really trying to step in differently of,
00:57:38
Speaker
It's not just that aha moment, but what is that right step for you? Because it's not an objective right step. It's a subjective and timely right step for you. Yeah. I think that's why we've been fairly successful. And like it's it's early on with yeah that fit, but like we're not going from i'm on the couch to like, you know, running a triathlon, right? It's like, like our program, this is a our program our first 90 days, it's all body weighting. That's it.
00:58:08
Speaker
And like we have guys that are happy with the program that ask, like I'm ready to go on a train program. We're like, no.
00:58:20
Speaker
you get injured at day 50 and then you don't do anything for a hundred, yeah like you're worse off, yeah so like, no, let's, let's do it. And then too, like we haven't proven to ourselves that we have a disability consistency and have a routine to to do that. later and then like,
00:58:41
Speaker
what happened. We go through ah yeah three months later and I'm like, not on our track. and so That's been a big mindset shift. is like We don't need to take you from like where you're at now to like an Olympic athlete. like We just need to get you step. I know and there's a lot we can do to pass that, but we got to build the foundation first. I think that's where the purpose and the vision is really important.
00:59:00
Speaker
because there's There's one approach for a business that's very much, I want to show before and after photos, 45 days in, 50 days in, right? To get people in. Whereas this very community driven of, this isn't about selling a quick program, it's about we're changing culture. And that is an infinite game, right? And and it's just a totally different approach that you can and should take. and that Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been, it's been so cool, man, to see some of the yeah the transformations we've had. the along the way. Even before we started the program, these guys had to be in our community and see the mindset shift. They go through our seven-day challenge, and then now they've been part of our community for two, three years, and literally just transported lives. They have their show up at their workplace, for their kids, for their family. It's tremendous, man. So it's been a lot of fun. We're early on in the journey, but just seeing that shift has been awesome.
00:59:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to imagine something more gratifying than that cascading impact in people's lives. I hope at some point you do an in-person. Yeah, that's on the roadmap for sure. There's a lot on the roadmap.
Balancing Business Focus
01:00:06
Speaker
We'll get there to all of them just in a good time, a good priority you know of operations, but yeah, in-person for sure.
01:00:14
Speaker
Yeah. that's a I talk to Lou about this all the time. There are infinite things we can do, but what do we need to do right now? yeah So we have the above the line and below the line. like Hey, there are all these things. These are great ideas, and we will do them at some point because yeah life is long. But what we're doing today, it's this. yeah This is what we're doing today. Yeah. um That's been a hard skill to develop.
01:00:35
Speaker
ah yeah file can have shiny object syndrome sometimes you know and i'm like no we got something thiss let's do this let's launch a podcast let's focus on what we need to focus on now yeah and with us it's really the thing and like but That's where all my focus and resources we are right now to to make sure that's executed at the level that I want it to, that we've got the team, the resources in place to really drive impact. And then we've got a lot of plans for the supplement side of the business yeah in the near future, but I'm not going to launch the next supplement in Toby.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, we figured this piece out. It makes a lot of sense. it's My last company is I would go around this idea of the one metric that matters and say, hey, if in the next month, court whatever it is, there was only one thing that moved that we all need to align on, that the business would be better. If that was the thing to move, what is? it and then communicating that every single week in the teammates. This is one thing, like how are you working to move this thing? And so then when I would come back to him like, oh my God, I have this great idea. And they'd say, that's a really good idea. yeah you how How does it move that metric? That's a really good point, right? Like it was back to tying my hands in the mask. Like I needed the the
01:01:53
Speaker
enforcement mechanism from externally because I shiny object like as a founder of company You're always gonna be excited like here's what we could do. It's like we totally could do that Should we do that? later it Yeah, yeah, a great point Yeah, no, I myself doing that a lot of having kind of rain myself back in you know focus on like what what is important right now versus what What do I want to do right now? you know Nice.
Starting Personal Improvement
01:02:18
Speaker
Well, before we sign off, is there anything else you want to share? Oh, man. No. I guess the the one thing I would ask, and maybe it comes from your program because you have a sequential step process. but
01:02:35
Speaker
we We work through a lot of things like the fitness side, the mindset side, the stress management side. If someone was just getting started, where would you start them and and why? Yeah, so I would probably say I would start them on what would be our seven day challenge, which is to kind of kickstart me in the right direction as a dad. And it's going to fall into a lot of those daily habits that we talked about.
01:02:59
Speaker
Yeah, so is it a were going to set our alarm and we're actually gonna get up like step one complete, you know, and then just looking at it from kind of breaking out of different categories would say hey,
01:03:10
Speaker
Let's start the path towards a healthier diet. Maybe it's not, you know you're you're going 100% all the way, but like let's make a healthier choice here and like try to focus on just whole foods. Whole foods, and then I would say start understanding what macular nutrients are, because for me, at least that's the easiest way to make sure that you're trapped in nutrition. And then on the fitness side, I would say just movement, man.
01:03:36
Speaker
Yeah, just move your body. It doesn't matter if you're on a crazy awesome fitness program over or an early day. Just get out and move your body. Try to get 10,000 steps a day. You can stack a lot on top of that, make sure you're putting good food in your body. Make sure you're moving your body. Make sure you're holding yourself accountable to the person who's there you are.
01:03:53
Speaker
I think that's a a missed point for a lot of people because you think about nutrition and they start thinking all the things they can't do or have to strip out. and There's a separate mindset of abundance there saying, no, let's crowd in this amount of protein and this amount of whole plants.
01:04:09
Speaker
And if we do that, it's definitely going to crowd out the other crap, because you're just not going to be as hungry. And so you may still fit in some other things. Like, let's not worry about restriction. Let's start with, what are we putting in there? And then by definition, it's going to restrict other stuff. You're just not going to eat as much.
01:04:26
Speaker
yeah So I'd say, yeah, it would be, hey, as soon as you remove your body, as soon as you're putting good stuff into your body, make sure to hold yourself accountable to what you want to be. And the last piece, which I'm still working on, obviously, in this conversation, is make sure you get some sleep.
Foundations for Personal Growth
01:04:38
Speaker
Some sleep, yeah.
01:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, sleep sleep is the, I think for most people in this day and age, the easiest or at least the first to get sacrificed. Because there's still only 24 hours in the day. Everybody has, Bezos, Musk, like everybody gets the same 24 hours. And so if you feel there's certain things you need to get done,
01:04:59
Speaker
it's it's always going to come out. I do find a lot of times you go back to the one metric that matters. right like You could fill up your day with 40 hours if you were trying to chase all those things, but you're saying, hey, no, it's all Epic.Fit. This is a thing. Oh, and I got rid of this stuff that was eaten in my life that was not adding to it. And then you can get more done. But there's still some of those days and seasons of life that, nope, I still need 18 hours to get yeah all this stuff done. Yeah. And, you know, I wanted to just get a skill set, I think. Right. So I listened to podcasts from Dan Martel the other day.
01:05:44
Speaker
really looking forward to reading and implementing. But he had this point of like you know the business I'm trying to create, the life I'm trying to create, like is it is it possible? And he's like, well, can I think of one person that's doing this?
01:05:57
Speaker
And it's like, well, yeah, I could be one person. It's like, okay, so it is possible. It's like, you just aren't good enough yet, right? And you don't have the skill set yet. So even though I say, cool, I got to get all this crap done and to sacrifice sleep, like, there's probably, i'm I'm positive there's somebody that's running a billion dollar business right now that gets hit out of sleep every night, right? So there's a skill set, a skill set gap that I have yeah that I need to build on, you know?
01:06:19
Speaker
Mean it's a funny thing both being in kind of the podcasting world because I'm used to Most areas of work that I do whether it's in writing or coaching people are building things Getting more efficient, right? So you can just compress the time needed to accomplish But if you're recording a six-minute podcast, you got six minutes, like I can't get more efficient on that, right? So it's that's the one thing I'm gonna have to figure out longer term because it's everything else I do. Okay, great. I need more done because I'm being more
01:06:49
Speaker
It's like one area of my mind that I can just sit down and have a full conversation. Expansive. That's a great reframing. That's good. Okay. That's the new story I'm going to tell.
Resources and Closing Remarks
01:07:01
Speaker
So we'll, where where can go folks go find more about you and more about Lively? Yeah, I mean, certainly a lively dot.com is going to be the best on Instagram. It's a lively underscore official. I'm in Andrew McConnell on Instagram and then active on LinkedIn yeahcha and you? is the best two places to define me and reach out and try to answer all the messages we get, you know.
01:07:31
Speaker
And yeah, learn more about our company, our mission, our brand, you know, our our fitness program. We've got all this stuff there and we're just working again. Yeah. Fantastic. And thank you for the work you do because it, when it's successful, it really does change the culture. It changes society all for the better. So it couldn't be a more important mission. Absolutely. Appreciate it. All right. All right. Cool.
01:07:54
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Health Span podcast. And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on the lively dot.com. Enjoy a lively day.