#390 Michael Smoak (@HigherUpWellness): Health Is Simpler Than You Think

Michael_2025-03-13
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[00:00:00] Michael, welcome to the podcast, bro. Thanks for having me, dude. This is cool. I'm glad we were able to work it out. I was floored and pleasantly surprised when I think Chad DM'd me on the account and said, you want to come on? I went, hell yeah. Well, it was cool hearing that you followed the show or at least the Instagram account for a little while.

Yeah. Like probably close to a year. I love, this is like the, the beauty of social media. I feel like we talked about this a little bit on the show with people that we have shared admiration for, or it's like you just would not. Come into contact with these people who you have so much in common with if it wasn't for socials, dude It's social media gets pegged a lot as being poisonous or cancerous or addictive and it can be all of those things It is a tool and you can abuse that tool But to say it has changed my life is a complete understatement both from my literal career and what it's enabled me to do impact wise and living wise but also the people that's put me in rooms with guys like you people that I've watched or looked up to that I now consider a peer, like it's, it's a surreal experience and it is a superpower if you can use it [00:01:00] correctly.

Absolutely. And then you get to pair it with like actually meeting people that you meet on the internet in person. Yeah. What, what brings you to Austin? Was it just kind of wanting to check out the city or? Well, it was a series of happy accidents, I guess. Um, long story short, I posted a comment on a podcast called Travis Makes Friends.

Shout out Travis. Great show. He interviews a wide array of guests. From all walks of life. He's just a very curious guy and he interviewed a doctor who had some pretty hot takes about calorie intake and protein and I just commented, someone tagged me, is this true? And I just said, no, I didn't, I didn't add any context.

I just said, no, not expecting anything of it. And the host, Travis said, we'd love to have you on. And I went, you know what? Sure. Nice. And so he DM me, I responded and we went back and forth a little bit. He bounces around the country and he said, Hey, I'll be in Austin March 10th. Any chance you're there or willing to go there, and I've wanted to visit Austin for years just because I'd heard about the health and fitness scene.

I've been a fan of the endurance and fitness space and [00:02:00] Nick Bear, for example, BPN being HQ'd here, and I've always been sort of drawn to Austin, and I thought, why not make it a trip? I've got friends out here now, other content creators I can collaborate with, so I went out, got here Monday. Came out, was on the show with him.

Uh, and the guest after me was Tim Kennedy, which I said, what am I doing on the show? If you're interviewing Tim Kennedy, so I got to meet him. That was a surreal and mildly frightening experience, but in a good way. And it's just been an incredible trip since then, just hanging out with like minded people, going to run clubs, sprint clubs, that my friend Crew Mahoney hosts.

Oh, that's cool. And meeting guys like you. I mean, it's been, it's been an incredible experience. So it's a work trip melded into a little bit of a vacation and exploration opportunity. That's sweet. So what's, uh, what's been the first impression of Austin so far? S tier. I mean, it's truly immaculate. The only thing that might deter me is the weather.

Uh, Atlanta summers are hot, but the fact that it's already touching almost 90 in March is a little wild. Yeah, it's, it's cool, man. It's, it's similar to Atlanta in the way that you've got the [00:03:00] downtown metropolis and then these little neighborhoods just outside the city that are really peaceful. Like East Austin is very eclectic and cool and quiet and the people are kind.

You were talking about before the show There's so many transplants. So many people from a similar walkup I just wanted to go somewhere else and try something else. And so no one's been closed off, strangers on the street People that have recognized me, they've been incredible conversations Overall, it's been probably the most positive experience I've ever had in another city.

That's unreal. Yeah. Austin, I moved down here three years ago, and Brett and I actually moved down here at the same time to run Ironman Waco. So we were living together for a month, and I had basically packed up all my stuff. I was moving down from Boston, car was full of stuff, moving to this Airbnb for a month leading up to the Ironman.

I was like, seems like a cool spot, have never been here before, let me check it out. And like the weeks leading up to the Ironman, within two weeks, I was like, this is the spot. I'm never leaving. Yeah, if we want to be doing this stuff in the health and wellness [00:04:00] space and podcasting, like The podcast wasn't on the map yet, but it just had so much creative energy in the city and the health and wellness scene was huge.

Like just run clubs, it was still kind of like pre run club. I feel like it's run clubs have gotten so popular, but like you could just tell that Austin was about to explode. And so many people that we admired, you mentioned like Tim Kennedy, like all these people are converging on this one city. Like it feels like if there's anything happening in the U S that's.

Big and transformative. It's going to happen here. So Brett and I love talking about kind of like what's happening in Austin. Cause it seems like it'll be a city to be studied in a few decades, just cause it's so interesting how many people are coming to this random city in the middle of nowhere, Texas.

Yeah. Why here? Why not Tampa? Why not San Diego? Everyone seems to be congregating in this one place. And it really is like, you can almost feel the buzz and the energy of there's such a power and we're such tribal creatures by nature. It feels like you get supercharged when you're around people that are into [00:05:00] what we're into because arguably you could say that what we're into is niche.

Yeah. And even a little bit extreme and people still, people where I live or just people I know think I'm insane for taking an ice bath. Mm hmm. And my Airbnb has a sauna and cold plunge in it. Yeah. So you're not gonna find that in Atlanta, you're not gonna find that anywhere. Yeah. And so it makes, it brings a sense of normalcy, encouragement, accountability, community that I think is really rare and it seems to only be getting better.

Yeah. I think being Austin's thing is, you know, keep Austin weird or whatever, and the people I think really take to that, which I think is a good thing. Yeah. You know, in, in a era where authenticity is pretty rare. Okay. Uh, it's, it's awesome that Austin just kind of owns that. Yeah. Um, you're talking about.

Um, your social media, just being able to connect to people. And you've had such an interesting run on socials. I feel like I saw your stuff really not all that long ago, like a few months ago. I'm like, this guy's crushing it. Like the advice that you're giving, incredibly practical. You're simplifying all these myths that are just, I think more [00:06:00] so diet culture or fitness culture.

You know, pumping stuff out there to make things more complicated. And you just have this incredible way of distilling stuff down to make it very practical, practical. And I think you do it in a way that's inspiring to make people actually want to go and take action. So I would love to just like dissect what the last few months have been like for you, just like on this arc.

Cause I really do feel like I probably came across your stuff like three or four months ago. And I feel like you might've only been at. I don't know, like using follower, follower count as a proxy, like, you know, a fraction of what you're at now and you've just blown up. So I'm curious to get like, just from your perspective, like what's that been like?

Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm truly grateful and humbled every day. The first thing I do is I wake up and I thank God that it happens and that it is what I get to do. I do not have to do this. I get to do this. This is truly an opportunity. And I'm overwhelmed with gratitude every single day by it. And the Instagram has, has definitely launched in the last few months.

Uh, I [00:07:00] started social media March of 2023. I posted my first ever video on TikTok. And that was my primary platform. I started the Instagram a few months later. And the TikTok, I was very fortunate. It started to grow quickly early. I think my third or fourth video ever hit over a million views. And that got me the first chunk of followers.

And within, I think within one, one year and two months, I think we, I had a million followers on that platform. And so the TikTok has grown to a million for the Instagram went from like, I think 100, 000 in December, uh, to almost 500 now. And I don't think it's about me. I don't have some sort of grand plan or strategy.

I think it's a mix of a lot of things. It's been surreal. I never two years ago, I was working a corporate job just in cyber security sales and consulting and living my life. And then in July of 23, I quit that job three months after I started to talk with no plan, no rhyme or reason, not knowing my ass from my elbow and social media [00:08:00] and have been able to sort of just fumble my way and trial and error my way into a career with a coaching business.

But ultimately, I think it's a mix of yeah. I think to a degree I'm following God's will for my life. I think I'm supposed to be doing this. I don't know if it's about fitness, about health. But a friend of mine, a former coach, Gabriel Pinto, asked me, What degree of this do you think is Your skills, your communication, or God's grace is just because the trajectory doesn't really make sense.

And at the time I didn't really have a good answer, but I think it's all God's grace. I mean, that's just that's where I sit with it. I can't measure it or quantify it and I'll look at a video like why is that? Getting, I reviewed a Coke Zero that came out and it got 10 million views. It's like of all things.

It's absurd. Mm hmm, and it's been an incredible experience, but I think it is that mixed with I think there's a real yearning to And hunger in the fitness space specifically for dress down, if you will, content, the talking head style. This is me. [00:09:00] This is who I am. If you meet me in person, this is what you're going to get.

I think a lot of that has been shrouded by the loud in your face influencer archetype that pulls away from authenticity. You alluded to authenticity earlier. I think it's a superpower and everybody has the ability to wield that superpower. But there is a fear to putting yourself on a camera, raw and exposed, with no editing, no lights, no nothing, just you and your spoken word.

And your quality of your content is not in the lighting, it's not in the camera, it's in your delivery of what you have to provide. And everybody has that ability, and they can hone it and train it through their communication skills and how they interact with a camera or with people, but it's vulnerable.

And I've come to see a direct correlation with The more willing I am to be uncomfortably authentic and vulnerable about my story, my life, my hardships, the better my content seems to do because people see someone like Sam Sulek, right, who has exploded in the space and all he does is just record himself living his life.

Right. He's not doing [00:10:00] anything crazy. Yeah. But he's a real guy, he's relatable, and I would imagine if you were to meet him in person, he's not going to be that different from his videos. Yeah. And I think a lot of people in our space specifically, epitomize that phrase, never meet your heroes. You meet him and you're like, oh shit.

You're like, that was not what I was expecting. That was not what I was expecting or hoping. And so, my only goal is that I don't want to put on a facade. I don't want someone to feel like, walking away from an interaction, like, oh wow, he's actually kind of a dick. Or, wow, he's way different than what he says.

I just, I'm being myself. And I, I think that your authenticity is your superpower. I truly feel that way. And the more people that start to grasp that, The more people can maybe change their life, their career trajectories, and similar other things if they just wield the power of being themselves. It's such an amazing point.

I was literally talking to Brett about this in our garage, Brett and I live together and I feel like we have so many unspoken stories that we haven't told, um, in a short form capacity. I feel like he and I have actually, it's funny when you start building, [00:11:00] you, you develop blind spots that you're not necessarily.

of, and I think for us, we got super focused on the podcast, getting amazing guests and getting really comfortable within that avenue. So our, like, What, what was our groove became our rut or a little bit of a rut where it was like, we're so comfortable doing this. We've developed the skillset, but we're not doing some stuff that is actually more uncomfortable just being authentic and short form, um, and putting stuff out there in a way to attract people to the podcast because basically the only way people were hearing about the podcast was through X, um, or like, you know, Instagram clips, but, um, I don't think, you know, When we're looking at our Instagram, it's like, we're just, you know, throwing up the best of clips and not necessarily trying to, you know, get viral clips.

Um, so it's interesting that you say that because I feel like our form podcasting, super authentic way of, of putting yourself out there, but it's also, you [00:12:00] know, it's not Instagram, which I think is, it's pretty incredible when I see stuff. That you're putting out there. I'm like, this guy is literally exactly the same as he portrays himself on social media, which I, I think is totally true.

And there's only a handful of people who I think are really doing that. Yeah. If there's, but if there's one message I would want to spread as it, as it pertains to content, there's a lot of messages I think are important to share, but everybody has that capability. Everybody can get out of their own way.

Anyone that. I've had a lot of questions from people about how do I get started? That's the secret. You just start. You put aside this fear of failure, this fear of judgment, this fear of being cast out. That's a very primal fear in the human brain, is like the fear of being rejected by the tribe. And in modern society, we live in a very safe world now, that primal fear of being cast out is now being judged by your friends, or being made fun of online.

And yeah, that's the price you pay for putting yourself out there, but The ROI on that is much greater in my opinion than the cost of getting a hate comment or a friend making a [00:13:00] snide remark and I heard someone say in a video that I, I did steal, I wish I could credit them, but they said, you're cringe until it works.

Yeah. And then nobody can tell you anything. Yeah. Um, you mentioned God and, and, uh, I wasn't sure if we were going to get here or at what point cause I saw We're here. I love it. Dude. Cause Brett and I have been pretty open about talking about our faith on the show too. Um, and I'm curious, like, you know, have you always been a believer?

I saw that you had, uh, Philip Anthony Mitchell, that's, it's Philip Anthony Mitchell on, uh, Maybe a picture on your. Yeah, feed. Yeah. And I've loved consuming his content. So I'm just, I'm curious to just learn a bit more about about your faith background. Yeah, yeah. I was fortunate enough to be in the room to witness him being interviewed by my former coach and friend.

Now, Gabriel, who I mentioned earlier, you were there for that. I got to sit in just me, him, uh, Philip and a videographer and a mutual friend of theirs. How was that? You know, the way we described it after the fact was, you know, when you're around a freak athlete and they're in the room with you and you're like, you're different from me [00:14:00] or like, I imagine like if I was in the room with LeBron or somebody, I'd be like, I can feel you're different.

He has that sort of spiritual aura when he walks into a room and he commands a room. Well, but he's also kind and genuine and he looks you in the eyes when you talk to him and he cares about what you're saying. And I got to after the fact, if you watch that podcast that Gabriel did, he went from. 100 subscribers on YouTube to 10, 000.

His podcast with Phillip Mitchell got, I think it's over 400, 000 views in a month. Which for a YouTube video is unbelievable. I mean that was a, that was an anointed podcast for sure. And I was fortunate enough after the fact. He puts Philip on the spot and says, I want you to baptize me now. And we go back to Gabriel's house and he baptized and I was there for that.

Wow. And that was surreal. So as far as my faith background goes, I've always believed in God. Not in a necessarily a Christian evangelical sense, but I always looked around and thought, this isn't an accident. You can't really convince me of that. I'm not that arrogant to believe this is all happenstance or chance.[00:15:00]

And over the last year of my life has unequivocally been I don't want to say the worst, but the hardest, the most challenging and eye opening year of my life. Uh, walking out of a long term relationship into moving back home and figuring out what was next to find out my father was sick. Uh, never got to a diagnosis to him six months later this past January passing away.

Sorry to hear that. Uh, thank you. Uh, but basically, you know, it did take me feeling like I was hitting a rock bottom to submit. To a higher power and say like I get it. This isn't this isn't me. This isn't my plan. This is your will and Through that I found so much. I guess what you would call supernatural peace and learning and Was able to take the experience of my father who was my best friend like we had an incredibly special relationship It was something I don't take for granted and I know not a lot of men have the privilege to have but he was my biggest supporter He only wanted me to do better than he did, and I think that's all you could ever ask for from a parent is that they set you up for that [00:16:00] environment, and I learned true humility, true Christ like love through becoming his caretaker as he became, you know, incapacitated and bedridden, and it taught me so much about myself and what I'm capable of, and it gave me so much conviction To further the narrative and the story that I push now, which is that everybody has a laundry list of problems until they have a health problem.

And then there's one problem, and I knew that, and I believed it, and I walked it, and then I got to see what it looks like when someone who was my hero, but never really prioritized health in the slightest, got that health problem, and then everything fell away. Every sense of autonomy he had as a traveler, a golfer, a salesman, this guy that everybody knew was on top of the world, larger than life.

to being housebound and then bedbound and ultimately passing away. Like, you'll, you'll never be able to take away the devotion I have when I, I guess, preach that message that this body that we're in, it's a vessel, it's [00:17:00] temporary, but if the wheels start to fall off, no other problem in your life matters.

Relationship issues, monetary issues, when you're sick, you want one thing, and it's to be well. And that's, that's the message I try to get across to people, and God has allowed me to walk in the fire of that trial and tribulation and it's one of my, my favorite verse, James, uh, chapter one, verse two through four, consider it pure joy when you face trials of any kind, um, so that, you know, something to the effect of when you walk through that trial, you may be complete and lacking nothing, you know, that, that experience with my dad, losing him was hard, but it gave me so much conviction and motivation and fire to really, Set people on fire themselves for their health and it, it allowed me to take an experience that could have made me bitter and angry and ask why God and turn it into something to take my pain and turn it into my purpose.

And it's, it's been eyeopening and it's been a [00:18:00] revelation of, of, in a sense, and it has been the backbone for me for probably the last eight months of my life now. I don't know where I would be if I hadn't hit that point in my car. Where I was like, I'm, I'm in. I give up. I'm done trying to control this.

Whatever you have for me in this situation with him, my dad, it's your will and I'll make the most of it. And since then, I've been able to walk through that with a lot more grace and it has nothing to do with me. Wow. Dude, that is so powerful. Um, thank you for sharing that. No problem. Um, I, I feel like, I'm curious.

Were you surprised by what Rock Bottom felt like with the peace of God? Like there's a verse It talks about the peace of God transcending all understanding and I feel like you don't Understand that and until you felt that feeling of being in a bad spot Spiritually and actually feeling the peace of God enter your life and being like, this is probably as bad as it could get potentially, [00:19:00] hopefully, um, but I, I feel some level of peace.

Yeah. Yeah. Supernatural peace. I think I used that term earlier and I didn't know what it was until Gabriel brought it up and it's, it's indescribable in a moment when I should feel. So much pain and despair and I did feel those moments before I fully gave my life to Christ. I, I knew, I knew what it felt like to be on the other end of that spectrum and now I know what it feels like to be at one end and it's not, it's not to say, you know, some people believe like, oh, well, if God is a means for peace, for people to minimize their suffering, like what, how does that make sense?

Well, Jesus said pick up your cross and follow me. Implying you're gonna have to carry something heavy. So it's not to say that I don't miss my dad every day. Like I wish I could pick him, pick up the phone and call him and tell him what I'm doing here. He'd be so stoked. Mm. He'd be so proud of me. And he was the guy I shared those things with.

And so like that pain is very real and it's still there right now in my chest when I think about the fact that I can't mm-hmm . But to follow Jesus, to follow God, to believe in God. [00:20:00] To be a Christian, you will bear a cross, and to a degree I think that my cross to bear is taking this pain that I've experienced.

Losing a parent is something everybody's going to go through, but to be so close with him and to have his story aligned so closely to the narrative I'd already presented in my content about how much health matters, it made it so much more real for me. And, um, Pastor Giglio out of Passion, Passion Church in Alpharetta, Big Church, or Buckhead rather, in Atlanta, talks, has a great sermon about all things for the glory of God, glorification of God, and I'm trying to use my hardship and my challenges to glorify God through getting people to prioritize the vessel.

There's scripture about prioritizing your body and your health. And yeah, to sum that up, I feel a supernatural peace when I also feel the pain of losing my dad because it's a weird time in my life. I'm not a kid. But I'm not quite an adult. I want him to be there on wedding day. I want him to see his grandson or granddaughter be born.

[00:21:00] And these are all things that hurt a ton, but there is that anchor and that supernatural peace at That's the root of it all that allows me to just continue to walk through it. Hmm. Were you exposed to Christianity as a kid and was there ever kind of, when you look back, were you like, Oh, like I kind of had moments where, you know, God or a concept of God was important in my childhood or my upbringing, but I just kind of like, you know, shoot it under the rug.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I grew up with. Um, grandparents who when I would go visit them frequently, they didn't live far away. We'd go to church every Sunday and did a good bit of that with my parents. Uh, my mom, when my dad got sick, never misses a virtual service. We just couldn't leave the house because we were taking care of him.

She hasn't missed a virtual service for her church in five years now. Wow. So faith was always there, and my dad always had this deep, profound belief in God that he always said he would never try to push on me. He always wanted me to make decisions for myself. And so when I [00:22:00] was a kid, I was exposed to it, which I'm thankful for.

I think that they say, plant the seed, let God change the heart. It was never forced on me, it was never pushed on me. I just never really understood it. And frankly, I didn't. I hadn't been through anything in my life where I felt like I really needed it. And sometimes I think. We need to be brought to an extreme challenge to realize we cannot do this alone.

Like, how dare I think I could have handled that situation alone. Yeah, right. And it, it did take being pushed to an extreme of, like, being brought to tears about, like, why is this happening? Why is it just one bad thing after the other right now in my life to get to that point with God and the Lord and, and to view it very differently?

So I went from lukewarm, if that, as a believer in God and kind of a Christian to Yeah, this is this is why I'm here is for a purpose much bigger than myself. Yeah, you talked about carrying your cross and I think Yeah, there's something to be said about like ruthlessly pursuing the Lord Like I think there's a response that like the Lord shows himself to us reveals himself to [00:23:00] us but then it's on us to actually respond and I think A lot of people, I don't want to make generalizations or cast negativity, but I think once you turn that corner of developing a relationship and start to ruthlessly, ruthlessly pursue what God wants in your life and developing a relationship with him, understanding his characteristics.

There is just like, I can't imagine what that's done for you personally and your business pursuits, your relationships. Like I've felt it, but like just how that, how God's grace comes into every area of your life, money. relationships, um, you know, your business, everything like there's, there's things that he's trying to reveal to you at all times.

Um, and it's really a beautiful walk being able to go into entrepreneurship and carry the grace of God with you everywhere you go. Yeah. It's, you know, it's so funny. You bring that up, man. I look back on it probably a year and a half ago, maybe a little bit more than that. [00:24:00] And I started noticing, I was like, why are all these people just falling into my life?

Guys I met through the internet, podcasts I was on early on in my career. Out of nowhere, I started just exclusively meeting people that would be like, Oh, do you have a relationship with God? No one's ever asked me that before, and it was like one guy after the other. Okay, come to church with me, come to Bible study with me.

I met like five or six guys in a row. And looking back on it, I think God was like, You're gonna need me for what's coming. You're about to go through some, some shit. Pardon my French. And you cannot do it alone. And up to this point in my life, I kind of thought I was doing everything alone. Like, stuff just kind of kept falling in my favor.

I was hitting my stride with different things. And I thought it was just me. I had an ego. And I think he was strategically placing all these incredible people in my life. These men and women that I now call close friends, best friends, that Were anchors to me in these incredibly hard times in these incredibly dark days.

I'd I did things for a parent I hope no kid ever has to do for a parent and It changed me [00:25:00] to my core in a lot of ways in terms of true humility and patience and love and I really couldn't have done it without the grace of God without a relationship with him and Without those people that he planted in my life and he started doing that well before it happened and then I remember being so confused like why are all these I remember thinking, like, why are all these Bible thumpers coming in tomorrow?

What is this about? I don't, I don't understand. And now I'm like, you idiot. This is all by design. You're so arrogant. And, uh, so yeah, it's been, I'm just blessed. I'm so blessed, man. Yeah, so I, um, I got baptized two years ago now. Um, and I feel like having a good perspective as an adult, having, you know, Having a, like a point of demarcation where like you lived your life without Jesus and then the, you know, transformation and being a new creation, um, it really gives me like a heart for people that aren't following the Lord and trying to be gentle [00:26:00] and also like pursuing people in a genuine and authentic way that doesn't give people this, um, you know, perspective on like what it is.

You know, just like repelling people from the walk. You know what I mean? I know exactly what you're saying. Because I just know how that landed with me. Um, and not that, I don't know, I just, I went to a, I went to college up in the northeast. It just really wasn't, and I think when you're young you just feel like all of your, Problems can be handled by yourself.

You can fix them all. And so, you do need to be tested. And you do need to have that life experience in order to realize that there's something, something missing. Um, you know, I think there's like the ancient, the philosophical quote, like everyone's walking around with a God sized hole in their heart. I think that's real.

But once you kind of make that shift, I think like I've realized that guys who I know, there's just a lot of people who are pursuing, seeking, looking for guidance, looking for the [00:27:00] answers. In all the wrong places. In all the wrong places. Yeah. They're making a god of something else. Yeah. It's, yeah, it's idolatry.

They're looking for idols and something else. And it's, I think it's important. It seems to be a, it's like there's a movement happening, man, a regression to the mean, if you will, of back to conservative roots and not necessarily politically conservative, just. Yeah. Yeah. Being God fearing people, living life a certain way, uh, rebuking certain parts of modern culture.

Like, there's a lot more people doing that, and I think it's powerful when someone who lived a life a certain way, finding idols in drugs, alcohol, hookup culture, whatever someone our age might do, or five years our junior. and then they switch and it makes them way more relatable to people who aren't in that yet.

Because definitely it's like you see the world with a pair of x-ray glasses a little bit, and it's like, I know what you're missing and I know what you're looking for, but I can't make you see it. Yeah. It's just, I'm gonna continue to love you, love on you, and walk my walk and hope that, you know, I, I can't, I can't lead the horse to water, but I cannot make it drink [00:28:00] unless you give it enough salt.

And sometimes enough salt is a challenge, a test that drives you to that point. Sometimes it's a person. It's different for everybody, but there is a wave of, of believers and Christians that really put people off from the idea of a relationship with God or even religion in general. And I hate to hear that and I hate to see that, but someone like you who maybe lived life a different way or someone like me who definitely lived life a different way prior.

Yeah. I think it gives people more of a curiosity than a detest for it, if you will. Well, dude, it encourages me so much to hear you talk about your faith and the role that it's played the last eight months in your story. It's inspiring. Keep doing it. Thank you. You can definitely argue. In the influencer space that it could be considered taboo, which I think is crazy.

Yeah. I think a belief in God should be the least taboo thing I talk about. Yeah. As I talk about some, some stuff that makes people angry. Yeah. , . Um, in that, in, in that note. Yeah. I, I really appreciate you saying that. It means a lot. Yeah. So what's, uh, talk about some of those [00:29:00] things that you say that make people angry.

Let's do it. Let's do it. What, um, what are some of the health things that you've stuck to that have had the most fruit for you? 'cause. Like I was saying earlier. I think the short form content you put out there, it just is kind of, it's kind of like the John Wooden approach, like my favorite basketball coach.

He's just like, tie your shoes the right way, learn how to pass the basketball, learn how to shoot free throws, like just the basics. I think you also touch on a lot of other things as well, but I love how you harp on the basics. Um, can you just kind of like walk me through your philosophy on general health?

Yeah, yeah. My dad used to say sports are a great microcosm for life. I think that's why sports are so important. The best teams, the best coaches of the best teams always say we mastered the fundamentals, blocking and tackling. And it's the same thing for health and fitness. Dr. Lane Norton, who's been an authority in the fitness space for a decade or more now, and a hero of mine, I look up to him big time.

He has this analogy where he talks about the big rocks and the small rocks of health and fitness. [00:30:00] And if you master the big rocks, the little rocks are really consequential, inconsequential. But too many people are focused on the small rocks and even the pebbles beneath the small rocks that just don't matter.

Someone who's a hundred pounds overweight does not need to worry about what supplements they're taking or when their post workout protein is coming in. No, no, no, no, no. You have not mastered blocking and tackling and you're trying to learn NFL playbooks. You're not there yet. So the things that have bared the most fruit for me are the things that you can't really sell or monetize on the internet and it's why they get muted.

They get muted behind or under Sexy diets and crazy approaches to cardio and you can only have this and you have to never touch this if you want to look like me, and that's just not true. That wave of creators rises to the forefront because their content gets so much engagement. Now, if you look at the comments, a lot of it's negative engagement, but the the tangibles of the four to five key choices I say every day, every person is away from every day from feeling and looking totally different are some form of daily movement.

So for [00:31:00] me, like, I talk about floors in fitness, everybody has these ceilings. When New Year's comes around, I have these goals. I'm gonna do 75 hard, no cheat meals, 8 hours of sleep, only water. I'm gonna read a book a month. And then they get a weekend and they're overwhelmed. Because they tried to sprint when they were crawling.

And so for me, instead of a ceiling, go to the floor. What are the bare minimums that you know, no matter what life throws at you, you can uphold and maintain. And for me, what built my physique and my compliance, Is three focus full body lifts a week, about an hour a piece and around higher intensity, lower volume training because that's very time efficient.

I don't like to live in the gym. I really don't. The byproduct of fitness is great. Looking good is cool, but I'm in it for health and longevity. And so I tell people chase health, aesthetics will follow. So for me, three lifts a week, that's three hours a week of commitment in the gym. Anybody can do that.

You're not too busy. 10, 000 steps a day minimum. hitting my protein goal, which for me is [00:32:00] about 190 grams, about my body weight and protein every day, and 80 percent of my diet coming from whole natural foods. And that rule is very simple. If it grew in the ground, it grew on a tree, or it had a mom and dad, focus on those foods.

If you do those things every single day, you walk for an hour, you're in the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, you hit your protein goal, you're mindful of your caloric intake, because that's what dictates how much you weigh, And you are eating 80 to 90 percent whole natural foods, and you want to fill the rest in with a cocktail and a cheeseburger with friends.

If you just rinse and repeated that process for six months, you would be unrecognizable, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually to anyone around you, including yourself. But, there's two problems with that. Number one, I think, this is my theory, the two problems with that is that you can't really sell that.

You can't really monetize walking, sunlight. And three workouts a week, like you can monetize by my carnivore diet cookbook and my 75 hard template. And number two, I think it exposes the excuses that [00:33:00] people put in front of them that keep them from being in their best shape. Cause some people, if they accepted and embraced how simple it was, not easy, but simple.

The principles are simple to understand, they're not always easy to stick to. If you can get to the root of, wow, it really is just walking, protein, whole foods, and lifting a few times a week. Then you would strip away every excuse and you have no choice, but to hold yourself accountable. And when you get to that truth and you take ownership, then you can make a change.

But people go to these extremes instead of the basics because they're looking for that explosive change. But then you realize I can't maintain a sprint for 25 years. Yeah. How am I gonna do this forever? Right. So that's, that's what I preach. Find your floors. It's different for everybody. And if you can find your floors and fitness and stick to those, like they are for me, they are for many other people, three lifts, walking and protein and whole foods, if you can make those four choices every day.

You will be a totally different person. I love, love the concept of raising the floor. Because, as you make [00:34:00] progress, you're always going to be fighting an upper and lower bound of, of who you are, where you are. And, you know, there's going to be hard days where maybe you, you know, aren't able to put every single ounce of effort into your physical fitness, but you've built up such a Uh, proof of work over a long enough period of time where your floor is, you know, 95 percentile 99 percentile, because you've just gotten those reps in exactly.

Um, and then, yeah, it's, it's almost, it feels almost cliche. It is cliche to say, like, the basics are where it's at. But, um, at the end of the day, like, if you can be consistent, if you can follow a simple plan, you know, that pattern, like, you know, that it is a habit, like this, this formula of. Um, being healthy, it's just a pattern in your life and you just have to think of it that way.

You know, you. I know a lot of people, I know a lot of guys my age, you know, I'm 31, I know a lot of guys who from high school to college started to see their health decline and then from college to working world [00:35:00] have seen it decline even more precipitously and it's truly just the patterns that they're in and I think once you acknowledge that it's just rerouting those patterns and doing it on a consistent basis.

That's going to get you there. It's no magic formula other than, you know, getting the patterns right. And then adding to those things as you've kind of like level up almost like video game style. Yeah. It's focusing on those big rocks I mentioned earlier. And James clear has a great quote in his book. I reference all the time.

We do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems. And I don't believe most people have a discipline issue. I think everybody can be disciplined. I think most people have a systems issue. You just haven't found the systems that work for you. You know, for, for Joe Schmo, it might be six days a week in the gym and an hour of cardio because he loves that.

And for me, it's not that. And there, there is a degree of ownership and self starterism that we need to take to find what system works for us. And it's important to also meet yourself where you're at. Like you said, if you're in the 95th percentile of [00:36:00] fitness or you've been sticking to fitness for Six years, your floor is going to be different than someone who's 150 pounds overweight and is going to the gym for the first time tomorrow.

They need to find their floor and then they can slowly raise it from there. They will find the system that works for them. It might be carnivore for somebody. It probably isn't for most. For most people, we all fall somewhere in the middle of that bell curve of habits and systems. But the hard part and The unsexy part is owning the fact that it just takes a little bit of work.

Anything worth doing is a little bit difficult for a little while, and then once you climb the learning curve of fitness, I think fitness is like a J shaped curve. You start here and then the climb feels super steep, learning about calories and protein and training and progressive overload. How do I get stronger?

What is a workout program? And then you figure all that out in about 90 days and it just flattens out. And you can almost exist. In the state of what they call unconscious competence, which is where the pros are the pros in any sport or [00:37:00] discipline. They do Unconsciously what the learner or beginner is doing consciously And if you can just stick with something for four to six months and put hours into it You can rise to that level of unconscious competence and be in almost a flow state with your fitness.

Yeah, and that's That's the thing. I feel like once you've break broken through that that barrier and lifted that veil, you know Breaking through and being consistent enough and proving to yourself that you can get to that point once you have that knowledge for yourself It's not going anywhere. Yeah, like I remember I think training for baseball was the biggest blessing in my life for a lot of reasons.

It taught me how to be consistent, stick to a program, I had accountability and coaches, but I was in this gym, this environment where these guys were teaching me how to, they were teaching me how to deadlift. They were teaching me how to squat, but what they were really teaching me was how to commit to a program for months at a time.

And I think about that because I truly saw myself get a lot stronger as a 15, 16 year old kid and it [00:38:00] taught me a lot about growth in general. You know, just You have to allow yourself to ride that, you talked about the J curve, like ride the curve up where it feels incredibly monotonous, where it feels like, all right, like I don't naturally get this.

And then you get to the point where you're showing up to the gym. You don't have to look at the sheet anymore because you know the warmup. You don't have to think about, you know, all the different technical aspects of the lift because you've done it a million times and you're actually just operating in such a smoother state.

And that's when you start to tap into, you know, it might feel like a small degree. Improvement but like those X that pursuit of excellence starts to get so much more granular. Yeah Yeah, and fitness fitness is a skill. Yeah, it's it's not a hobby. It's not even a habit Dare I say I think it's a I think it's a baseline form of hygiene for people I think a perspective shift needs to happen in that realm of This is just like brushing your teeth or showering.

Fitness is not something that you pick up as a hobby like coin collecting. Fitness is a baseline unit of hygiene for keeping a [00:39:00] clean and orderly body, just like you keep a clean and orderly house. It is part of your hygiene routine, but it is a skill. You know, when you were Learning baseball as a kid, or I was learning baseball as a kid, you learn about the mechanics of a swing, but when you're at the plate and a 91 mile an hour fastball is coming at you, you don't think about it, you just swing.

And that's because you practiced for years and years, and you put thousands of repetitions in. Fitness is no different, and if people can start to view it as a skill that I can learn like anything else, and a part of my hygiene, they can embrace That reality. It really is. I think, in my opinion, one of my favorite quotes ever is when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at start to change.

And if you can make those two key switches, you can then start to embody the superpower of fitness. You just mentioned the coaches put you on a program and it wasn't necessarily about the fact that you were getting stronger. Sure, that was a cool side effect. But it was about the principle of learning to stick to something long term.

Fitness is a great microcosm for building confidence. I have a client in my coaching community who Started this to [00:40:00] get in shape and has now lost 40 pounds and said he got the confidence to get up and give a speech in front of hundreds of people. And that's incredible. Shout out Jared. You're the man.

And he said that all started because I built some proof and some evidence that I could stick to this thing. And also I was more comfortable in my own skin. And once you build this confidence in this little facet of your life of fitness of like, wow, I can change the way I look. I have autonomy and power over my body.

Something that most people think they're just victim to. Right. They think I just look the way I look because that's my genetics or I'm just big boned or whatever bullshit excuse they throw out there. Respectfully. Um, once you get that power and that confidence that starts to organically just bleed.

Into other facets of your life. At least that's that's been mine and many others experience. Yeah, totally So where you sit right now, you're coaching clients, you're helping people get healthier or Moving into this time period in the u. s. Where there's this generational movement of people getting healthier Yeah, give me kind of your vantage point like Um, how, how [00:41:00] are you viewing this time period?

And it seems like you're really stepping into your calling with this coaching stuff and being able to actually communicate your message, um, to people through social media, I think is incredibly powerful, but actually being able to like work with people one on one, like that's tangible, it's real, you're changing people's lives in a way where like you're, you're seeing that happen.

So yeah, I would love to just get kind of your sentiment on like the Maha, like this whole tide that's happening right now. Yeah, I talked about this a little bit on, um, on the show I was on earlier this week. I think more people are realizing, you know, it used to be a conspiracy theory or a tinfoil hat theory that a big pharma was out to get you, and maybe they're not out to get you, but they're certainly not here to help you.

Yeah. And a healthy person is not a paying customer. That's just a fact. I mean, if you wanna take all emotion out of the argument, all identity pol, you wanna make health political, which is weird in general. If you just follow the money, these are for profit companies and I [00:42:00] am not profitable. Like, they're not going to get a customer out of me unless I break my leg or need a surgery, God forbid.

Yeah. Uh, and then they're going to get a paying customer, but there is this movement it feels in this age of information we're in where we have access to all of this data to be able to make our own informed decisions where people are realizing nobody's coming to save me. Mm. And my health is my responsibility.

And I also, another, thing I learned through that experience with my dad is how broken the health care system really is. Though we have the most progressive country in the world in terms of health care advancements and modern medicine is incredible. I don't want to make any short or short statements or minimizations of that.

Antibiotics, acute repair, these things are life, literal lifesavers. There was a time where if you got a deep cut in your leg, you could die. Or you got the flu, you could die. And so it's life changing from that perspective, but These chronic illnesses that we're seeing arise in people now earlier than ever are the result of a death by a thousand paper cuts.

They're those four or five key [00:43:00] decisions every day that they weren't making in their twenties, thirties, and forties that rear their ugly head in their fifties. And more people are waking up to that, and it's beautiful. I mean, in my parents generation, Health, exercise, diet, that, that as an organized concept really didn't even exist.

Yeah. So we've made massive strides in a short time and I think it's beautiful. Yeah. And I think we will have a healthier society and we see it exist in places like this in Austin, in a really big and powerful way. And I'm just, I'm just truly stoked to see more people taking extreme ownership of their lives, of their health, and realizing that vitality, confidence, energy, It is theirs for the taking, they just have to take ownership and put in a little bit of hard work and then it becomes easy.

Yeah, I think about, you're making me think about just all the untapped potential that's out there, that exists within the human spirit, that's standing on the other side of the jail cell that is having poor health. Mm hmm. The amount of people who aren't starting the business because they don't have energy, or [00:44:00] the amount of people who, aren't showing up for their family because they don't have the energy or they're, you know, in and out of the hospital because they're sick.

It's, it's that, it's those things that make me excited about what's happening. I'm like, I just know what can happen on the other side of you getting yourself healthy. And I believe that every person has that ability, that God given ability to make the change and then step into a higher calling for yourself.

Yes, dude. That's See, this is where I say, like, how much time do we have, because this is something that really fires me up, and I'm so Let's run the clock back. It's not 547. It's 507. Let's go. Um, it's something I'm so stoked about, because I do think it's important to be comfortable in the skin you're in.

I lived my entire adult life not wanting to be the kid that took his shirt off at the pool. My entire adolescent life, like, I've been self conscious about my body from as early on as I can remember. I was bullied for being the fat kid. Like, those little things that happen to you as a young man or a boy that really do have an impact and shape you.

And there is a ton of power to taking off your shirt and being proud of the skin you're in. [00:45:00] But the legitimate, undeniable, physiological effects that come from eating a certain way, sleeping enough, hydrating properly, moving your body and getting blood flow throughout the day, that was something I noticed once it was no longer about vanity and aesthetics and wanted to look a certain way for me.

I started to notice, oh, when I get up in the morning, I get my morning sun, I walk. I take a cold shower. I seem to be thinking more clearly. When I'm eating better, I have even energy throughout the day. I'm not dipping hard at 2. 30 and wanting to take a nap. Uh, when I get up and walk, like I'm, got my blood flowing, I've got higher energy through, at the time, sales calls.

You know, when I had to think on my feet in front of a client or a CEO, I realized I had better executive function. I was just more on the ball. Oh, and then I have all this confidence in myself when I step into a room that allows me to make certain decisions, take certain risks and opportunities, that I wouldn't have If I didn't have that belief in myself, that energy and that vigor you're talking about, maybe the guy who's a dad and works a 9 5 and wants to start a side hustle but he's just so burnt out, but he's [00:46:00] also sleeping 5 hours a night, he's eating 80 percent processed foods, and he's not drinking enough water throughout the day, of course he feels like hell.

Why wouldn't he? Right. And yeah man, once you step into what it feels like to Eat the right foods, move your body, sleep enough, hydrate, certain supplements even. Once you know what that feels like, you really don't want to go back because it's like you exist. In 4k definition when you were seeing in 720p totally yeah, the air is a little bit lighter.

Yeah Colors are a little bit brighter. Yeah, but I think to you just you're genuinely more optimistic Yeah, I think optimism is contagious like the ability to encourage yourself, but also Expand that into other people like That's, that's like almost, it's almost like the nutrients of the soul, like it's the things that we need that don't go through our mouth, but like go through our ears, like being able to actually like be around someone, feel their positive energy, feel the way that they're living their life and be like, [00:47:00] I kind of want to just grab onto that cause they've got something.

Um, and I don't think not to say like, you can't do that if you're not healthy, but I just, I, I don't know. I just know from my own experience, that's, that's like the, yeah. Where I was working in a corporate job and deprioritizing my health because I was sitting and working versus starting to prioritize my health and unlocking a whole different side of myself.

Like that to me is like such a stark difference and I hope that people can all like look at that and tap into that because there's so much, um, so much potential within everyone just stepping into that. Yeah, would you say that? It's a fair statement to assume that you show up differently in the world when you take care of yourself?

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, it equips you to take care of other people. Yeah. You know? Yeah, it's, it's so, it's so much deeper than abs and biceps. Yeah. And I don't, I don't think a lot of people realize that. I think having children means you need to live for them. You need to live a certain way for them. You, your kids are not the reason you can't get in shape.

They're the reason you [00:48:00] should. Yeah. And so that you can be here for a long time so that You know, I have dads that reach out to me and they're like, I couldn't run with my kid through the yard and now I can. Like, that's, that's what it's about. It's about being that magnetic personality. And ultimately, you're right.

People that really take care of themselves have this magnetic energy about them. And it's because they feel good. When you feel good and look good, you play good, you exist well, and you just, I love the way you put it, untapped potential. There is a version of us that exists on the other side of health and vitality that so many people Don't see and may never get to see it's like that great stoic quote It's a shame for a man to get to the end of his life without seeing the beauties of which his body is capable I mean, not only will you be a different parent a different partner a different businessman a woman a different human being You can do incredible things.

If you told me five years ago that I could run 31 miles without stopping, I would have been like, maybe if somebody's chasing me with a gun. But even then, that's a stretch. If it's life or death, I might be able to do it. Maybe. But [00:49:00] like, I don't know, give me three miles first. Yeah. And so yeah, there's this whole other version of you on the other side of hard physical effort and doing the obvious things for an extraordinary period of time that you will be amazed of, or amazed by.

That, you know, one of the revelations I had recently was Be someone that 12 year old you would be proud of. That 12 year old you would look at you and think, That person's a superhero. And I had that revelation recently and I thought, That's really cool. Cause that, that insecure kid who didn't know what he was gonna do, Didn't have it all figured out, Who didn't like the way he looked or felt, Or the way other people treated him, like, That person would be proud of me.

And I think that a lot of people are looking for that feeling for So maybe their inner child, that's a deeper conversation, but. If you can be someone that past you would be proud of, I think there's a ton of power in that. Yeah, I got asked that question on a podcast and my answer was, it was like, um, I think it might have been, how do you define success?

And I said, if 12 year old me or 10 year old me looked at my [00:50:00] life the same way, with the same level of excitement and pride that my 80 year old self do. So both having kind of this reverence for like your attacking life. You're enjoying it. You're bringing other people along for the ride. If both those versions of myself are looking at me in this moment saying, man, you're doing it like you're doing it well.

Yeah. Like that would be a great, that's a great sentiment. I feel like that's kind of the sign that like you're on the right path. Perfectly put. Yeah. Perfectly put. Um I wanted to ask you, I lost my train of thought there for a sec. Oh, we're going all different kinds of things right now. I apologize. No, dude.

You're fired up about this stuff. Um, well, it's just exciting. It's, it's exciting just knowing that we have this ability to give each other sparks of momentum. Like, I'm sure you feel that in your coaching business, just being able to speak life into somebody's life. Yeah. Like. Like, hey, you've got this. I'm going to help simplify this for you.

Like, just kind of deconstructing some of the things that maybe they can't see. Yeah. And just giving them [00:51:00] life. Yeah, I mean it's It's, it's around fitness, it's around health. I talk a lot about communication skills and public speaking because that's The number two fear behind death in a survey was public speaking.

Or no, actually it might have been number one ahead of death. Either way, it was an alarming figure. I can't remember the exact statistic, but people are terrified at the concept or idea of getting up in front of a crowd or getting in front of a camera and talking. And it's something I love to do, but it was something I was conditioned and coached to do through my, my college major was professional sales, which is unusual.

There's only about 30 schools in the country that do it, but. They taught us how to get up in front of a room and have executive presence and speak limit filler words and just like fitness communication is a thing that people think is static. Oh, I stutter or I use like an um too much. I'm just not a good speaker.

No, no, no. It's a muscle and you can train it. And that has been something that movement that's been had. [00:52:00] There's been something happening on tick tock last few weeks that It made me emotional, truly, and I take no credit for it because people are getting in front of the camera and doing it. I re uploaded an old video talking about how communication is a skill and a muscle you can train and that one of the things you can do to improve it, to improve it, is every day, just get in front of the camera and speak for 60 seconds unbroken about something you like or enjoy.

And all of a sudden I started waking up to hundreds of people creating accounts and just doing it. And it was so cool for me and so powerful because my dad was proud of what was happening on social media and was blown away by it. But I just remember thinking in that moment like, man, if, if he could see this, he would be blown away.

And there's this one kid, Brandon, who made his, he was kind of the catalyst after my video. He made one video saying, I'm Brandon. And then Higher Bonus inspired me to make an account. And practice my public speaking in that video ended up getting a million and a half views in like five days blew up on tick tock.

He's got 20, 000 followers and [00:53:00] now he's like, Oh, I just thought this was going to be a burner account and it's inspired probably at this point. Over 2, 000 people have created accounts to just practice their communication skills and they have realized like this is also mine for the taking. And so I'm really, I think if I boil it down, I'm just trying to get people to understand that there are so many things in your life that you don't have to just be a victim to.

You can truly have an impact and an influence on them. You may not be able to completely alter them. But you can improve upon them. You can move from your baseline to something better in a skill set in so many ways. What has that taught you? Just that the virality of the 60 second challenge, because were you even intending for that to be a challenge?

No, I didn't say anything about that. I just made it like, all right, do this and tag me. No. And that's why, like, I truly, again, God's grace allowed that to happen. I take no credit for it at all. I didn't even allude to it. People just took the ball and ran with it. And it's been so incredible to [00:54:00] see this massive undertaking of people taking ownership of something, man.

It's so powerful, and social media can change so many people's lives. I mean, this kid Brandon has Instagram, the account, Instagram commenting on his videos saying, Keep going Brandon, Gymshark comments. And it's just, it's a perfect example of another creator whose name escapes me. who did the same thing.

He's in the challenge. His video went viral. It's got a million views. And it was like his fifth post. But he said, you're one conversation away from your entire life changing. And that conversation might be the one you have with yourself in front of an iPhone. That you post, you go to bed, and you wake up and it's got 100, 000 views.

And I know that's true because that's what happened to me. I woke up and I thought, what is happening? And I just kept hitting refresh. And the page kept growing. And now I'm here in this room with you. And if I didn't get out of my own way, If I didn't stop worrying so damn much about what people were going to think, what my friends were going to say, and people did think and say things behind my back that later came to fruition.

People [00:55:00] do hate. They still hate. If I let those things limit me, I would not be here in this room. I would not have the job that I have. I would not be living in what, for all intents and purposes, is a dream. And it's, it's all because I just got out of my own way, and everybody has that power, and I just want to make more people see that.

I love seeing I feel like Everyone who's done it has that moment where they've turned the corner and they've just put down the fear of judgment from other people. They've put down the insecurities around being vulnerable and they just said, I'm doing it. I'm doing this for myself, for my, for my future self, my past self, and I'm just going to try something new.

And, um, I, I think there's so much power in sharing that stuff. Um, I also just. I just love the idea of conquering fears. Yeah. Um, cause I know what it feels like to be on the other side of the fence and it sounds like you do too. Where you're just, you're a little bit more caged, you know, and I think it's part of growing, it's part of the process, which I think is [00:56:00] exciting for people to hear, like, everyone's facing those things.

Um, but I love, like, I feel like, How you feel after have you felt after tapping into this challenge and seeing people like gravitate to it and overcome those fears like you've probably unknowingly changed like hundreds of thousands of people's lives. Even if it's just someone realizing that they're on the other side of fear, they're living on the wrong side of fear.

Yeah. Yeah. I think you have to miss out on opportunities to realize you're missing out on opportunities. I, I missed out on so many things, people, places, events in my life because of my fear of being judged, of being a failure, of missing, of having a mistake. And you have to exist, like you said, on that side of the fence to know.

You can climb the fence and then you see life looking back like, Oh my God, I want to tell everybody about this. This is possible. And you're right, it is part of the growth experience. You gotta be the insecure person that's worried what everybody thinks so you can get to that point of liberation where you truly don't care.[00:57:00]

And the, the paradox in it is, you realize the less you care about what people think and the more you are willing to step into the true, authentic expression of yourself. The better your life gets. People think, oh, if I'm myself, my life's gonna somehow get worse. Which sounds crazy, out loud. Yeah. All I was doing was I was terrified to be myself.

I lived so many years as a watered down version of myself. Not talking about the things that lit me up. Which is part of why I started the page. I realized no one in my life cared about this stuff the way that I cared about it. And so I thought this is just gonna be like a cathartic release for me. It's like a video diary.

I'm just gonna share my experience. I'm gonna share my story and my opinions. And all the thoughts I have churning around in my head all day, instead of keeping them in my head, I'm just going to put them in a video. And that's where the ideas for my content come from. And, you're right, you really do have to exist on the other realm, the other realm or the other end of the spectrum, to realize you can get out of it.

Dude. Perfectly said. I feel like we could talk for hours. We might need to run this back at some point. Oh yeah, we have [00:58:00] to do a Rogan style three hour show. We should definitely, once Brett comes back, we'll do a long, longer form conversation. I'd love to. That's a three hour combo. I'd love to. But dude, it's been so inspiring and um, I just, I love the content that you put out there.

Your mission, it's very um, authentic and genuine and I feel like that's, Very, like, uh, evident in the way that you put, you know, content out there and I love the fact that, you know, you're out here talking about health, faith, mindset, and really just bringing that to the forefront. Um, so many people are gonna benefit from it and change from it.

So I just appreciate You know, you, the effort that you've put in over the last year, I know it's been a tough, uh, there's been challenges, but I just want to encourage you to keep going, dude, because you are definitely walking, um, walking in the path that it seems like your destiny walking in. So thank you, man.

I just want to encourage you on that. That means the world. Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate you for taking the time to even have me on the show. It means a lot to me. Uh, I'm, I'm blessed and honored to be here and I can't wait to run it back with you again. Let's [00:59:00] do it. All right. Um, where can people find you?

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, platform username on all platforms is just higher up wellness on Tik as well. I have a podcast called the higher up podcast that's available on Spotify, YouTube and Apple. And I think that's covered all the bases. Those are my main, my main platforms. I love it. I meant to ask you higher up.

Uh, yeah, you know, it was a name and it was birthed in college from marrying my love for health with business. Originally, I launched a business plan through a branding class in college of working with health executives. It was a semester long project, bring back a dying brand or create your own. And the idea of, Oh, I love health and fitness, but I also love business.

I was in business school at the time. I want to work with. Executive health and executives in businesses to show them how mastering their physical health can allow them to move higher up in a company. Hmm. And so that's where the name higher up wellness was born was way back in college. Wow. And just went with the username.

Here we are. I love it. I [01:00:00] love it, man. Well, Michael, I appreciate it and we'll run this back for sure. Absolutely, man. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure. Sweet, dude. Heck yeah. That was awesome.