Unleashing The Power Of Consistency, Persistence, & Patience w/ Andy Neary | Ep. 212

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Gentlemen, welcome back. This week today we have another amazing, very exciting conversation with on the Show. Guys. Joining me here today is none other than Andy Nery. Andy is a former professional baseball player, a two time Iron man finisher, business coach and founder of Complete Game Consulting. Combining the skills and talents he used to compete in professional baseball. In Iron Man, Andy has been on a mission to help businesses and insurance professionals succeed in their careers and in life. He helps insurance professionals target the right audiences and at the right time. His programs help people cultivate the off the field habits, mindset and rituals that will lead to their all star performances. Guys, you know they've always said that a mother is a young boy's first love and I believe that to be foundationally true. Many of you may know this about me, but for me, baseball became a number two love in my life very early on. So that's why when I got connected with Andy, I was so thrilled and excited to be able to bring him on the show. Guys, so we're going to talk a little bit about his upbringing, what led him into professional baseball and some of the key takeaways that he got from athletics sports that has helped him catapult his success in business, podcasting and coaching. Guys, a couple key points that we're going to dive into here today is going to be the significance of consistency in all aspects of your life, how persistence shapes your mindset and drives results in the importance of patience in the journey of entrepreneurship. Guys, we're going to talk about overcoming childhood challenges and fears to achieve greatness and how you can turn setbacks into opportunities for massive growth in your business, in your life, in your career, in your relationships. Wherever you guys are looking at leveling up here today. Guys, before we get into today's conversation, remind you to take a moment after today's conversation, head over to Spotify, head over to Apple, wherever you are consuming these podcasts and take a moment and give back to the platform here. Guys, over the last couple of months we have seen some tremendous growth and it's all because of you guys out there supporting the show. So I want to make sure you are notified the next time an episode is released. Guys, so if you're not yet make sure to subscribe. Share the show, please. Without further ado, guys, let's get into today's conversation with Andy Neary, unleashing the power of consistency, persistence, and patience. We love you guys, and we'll see.

You on the other side. Welcome to the Superhuman Life. I'm your host, Frank Rich, and this is the only podcast in the world that is dedicated to helping men level up in the five key areas of life. Each week we bring you real and raw conversations with the world's leading experts in faith, fitness, finance, family, and freedom to provide you with real, actionable tools to break limiting beliefs, take action, and shatter the glass ceiling on your life's potential. So jump on board and join me on this journey as we dive into today's conversation and unlock the keys to becoming the man you were born to be in creating your own superhuman life.

And I want you to take me back to your time with the Brewers. I know you had a small stint in professional baseball. What's one of the biggest things that the common, or the common person, the average person, doesn't know about playing baseball at the highest level? Wide open question there.

I think you may see it at the major league level. I did not make the major leagues, but it's a business once you get into pro baseball. And so I signed as a free agent. I wasn't a high draft pick. And when you get to that level, what you realize is the odds of a free agent making it all the way up is. Is very, very small because it's something that really impacted my career because I was a free agent. I knew I would only get one shot to the first round, picked nine. And that fear, Frank, of every time I took the mound, I felt I had to be perfect because it could be your last day.

That great lead impacted my career. I'd say on a negative standpoint, probably others have used it more positively to help overcome it. It really, that fear of perfection is something that definitely took over in, in when I got the professional baseball because again, it is a business. When you get there, man, the first round pick guy, the first round guy can screw up. He's going back out on the field. Free agent Andy Ne screws up, he may not be going back on the field.

Yeah. Now when you say free agent, I know a lot of people will understand that free agent, like once they're already on the team, right. The contract is up and you become kind of now you begin to shop other teams. You always see, you know when once, two times a year, there's Cole was the big, you know, big signing deal, I think Aaron Rodgers in the NFL just, you know, recently, transition team. So free agents, when you're, when you're already playing makes a whole lot of sense, I guess, when you're, when you're pursuing playing, like, what does this mean? Like, you weren't drafted, so you took the offense and you started reaching out and kind of, you know, try and.

You just stabbed me in the heart, man, because I'm a Packer fan. So, yeah, losing Rogers to the Jets, a free agent in, in baseball at the minor league level, it looks like this. So back when I was playing, there were actually 50 rounds in the draft. There's only 20 today. They've greatly narrowed it. So what would happen is if you're drafting 50 rounds, every guy, probably after round 15, maybe round 20.

Probably isn't going to sign if they're in the high school, if they're high school. So teams used to, what they. The teams used to do what they call draft and follow. So Frank Rich, great ball player in high school, we're going to draft him in the 28th round. 28th round. We probably know he's not going to sign. He's going to go play college ball, but we're drafting him, we're going to follow him in college, and we'll probably redraft him again in a couple of years. Well, what happens is when all these guys sign and go play college ball instead of going into the pros, the minor league teams are left without players. Right? They don't have enough players for the roster. So after the draft, a lot of guys in my position, college guys that didn't get drafted, get calls to sign as free agents. And so I didn't get drafted. So three days of drafts go by. My senior year, my name's not called. I was a little disappointed because I thought I had a chance. A week later, I get a call from my pitching coach. Funny, quick, funny story. I had started an internship. I thought, my baseball career is over. I started an internship that summer at a financial institution in downtown Milwaukee doing data entry. Dude, it sucked. I last. I was there one day, come home the first day, and I'm like, there is no way I can do this all summer. That night I get a message on my phone from my pitching coach at UW Milwaukee, said, you got to give me a call right away. So I called him and he said, hey, the brewers want to sign you as a free agent. Give the scout, Harvey Keene Jr. A call. And yeah, I called him they signed me 500 bucks, Frank. 500 bucks. That's what I signed for. And by Friday I was out in Helena, Montana in the bullpen.

Wow. Wow. Now every young boy growing up playing baseball, right, has that dream. You know, it was me probably up until, you know, maybe. Interesting, man. I don't want to get too caught up in my story, but you know, every young boy playing baseball, right, like the dream is to play and then oftentimes you, you begin to get around some high level talent. You're like, hey, maybe that's not cut out for me. I need to start maybe focusing on some academics or whatever for you. I know you weren't drafted in and, but I guess when did the, the dream become like, real? Like I got a shot at doing this.

It became real. It's first started my senior year at UW Milwaukee, so. So I was fortunate. Our pitching coach, Todd fr, he's unfortunately no longer with us. He spent several years pitching in the major leagues. So we got to learn from somebody who had been at the highest peak. And in fact, I think he was still one of the first guys to sign a million dollar deal as a relief pitcher.

And so to learn from him was so, so important. And I remember he and I having a conversation midway through my senior year because I was having a good start to the year. And he made a comment like, you keep this up, there's a good chance you get drafted. And that was that first, like, huh, okay. And then I didn't get drafted, sign as a free agent. In my other first. Aha. I can remember showing up in Helena, Montana, not a big town by the way. I go the first night I'm there, I actually go in the locker room. I didn't get there till late. So I go in the locker room after that game's over to meet everybody. And as I'm going around and introducing myself, I realize, you know, I'm shaking hands with this guy who played at Ole Miss. I'm shaking hands with this guy, played at lsu, Texas, I mean, all these major schools that I had no shot to play at coming out of high school. And that's when it really hit me like, wow, I'm now at the same level as these guys. These guys are no different than me, even though in college they were playing on a completely different level than I was.

Wow, that's incredible. I know a big thing you talk about in the, in the work, we're really going to kind of get to, you know, more of your story here, but I think the Mind mindset, right? You know, obviously you've, you, you've taken this professional mindset and I'm sure that's a big part of what you did with, with the Ironman in professional baseball. I think it's, I think it's unique, right, because you don't have these genetic outliers that are walking around a baseball field. There's a handful of them, right? But you go to an NBA court, every single guy walk, you know, maybe there's one that's not a genetic outlier, but NBA full of them, NFL full of them. Baseball, hey, you know, where are they? So I guess is, is baseball. What percentage of it is mental versus the physical component? Is it 60 physical, 40 mental? Is it 60 mental? 40 physical. Like, how would you kind of see that ratio? All right, guys, we'll get back to the episode real quickly, but I wanted to remind you of today's sponsor. Today's episode is brought to you by Legendary Men's Care. Is your toothpaste attacking your manhood?

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I'd say it's, I don't know the exact number, but it's definitely more mental. I mean, there were a couple guys you walked on the field with and you could hear the sound of the ball off their bat. You're like, that's special. Like that doesn't come around all the time. You see, you see guys run, you're like, can't teach that. And, but then, but for the majority of the guys are somewhere in the middle, right? And I think it's that mental ability to get to that level. Number one, believe in yourself that you belong there. And then it's to me, it's about doing the things off the field when no one is watching. Because I'll tell you, man, I had a two year career in the minors for one reason, I didn't believe in myself. You know, I did all the right things in college to get the chance to play pro baseball, but when I got to pro baseball, I lived with the fear of comparison, judgment and failure. Because in pro ball you are constantly compared. And what makes you talk about what makes pro baseball unique? One thing people don't understand, you're competing with your own teammates because everybody's trying to get promoted. The coaches are trying to get promoted, the umpires are trying to get promoted. So everybody on the field is, is performing. And the judgment scouts are judging you every day, literally by stats. And when you're a free agent, that fear of failure any day could be your last day. And so I spent the majority of those two years living with that fear. And I got away with, got away from what made me good, which was all the stuff off the field. Frank. And I tell people, people today will still say it must have been so cool to play pro baseball. And especially they see me, I'm 5 foot 9, I weighed about 170 pounds at the time, so I wasn't an intimidating, overpowering pitcher. But what they don't know is in my head I said, no, it actually was a failure because I know I could have been so much better.

Yeah, we're definitely going to circle back to all that, man. Because I'm assuming that's been a massive part of the success that you have today is overcoming some of these limiting beliefs about yourself. Last question on baseball, maybe. Talk about the grind, man. Because I think that's another thing that makes it really, really unique. Right. You know, I think at the, at the highest level, I think they're playing 162 games in like 180 days. Like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's no time off, man.

It's, it's bananas. I mean, people, there's an argument to be made. 162 games is way too much for a season. But you know what's so interesting about that? The major league level, Frank, you can argue that's it's a, it's a, it's a, it's too long of a season. But for those teams that come down to late September and they're trying to make the playoffs, that one loss, that one loss in April was the law. That's the game that killed them. One game is the, you know what I mean? And so for US it was 76 games and we had four days off. And what people don't understand about minor league, I should say what people minor league baseball is, is a full time job. So my typical day looked like this. I lived at the host family and you'd get up and especially if you were at home, you would go work out at about 8, 9 o' clock in the morning. So we had a membership, they gave us a membership to the local gym. We typically worked out as a team. So you go work out, then you go right back to the clubhouse at the field and have breakfast and then you practice from about 11 till 2 or 3, come back in and eat a snack, go back out and take batting practice. The away team shows up. While they're taking batting practice, you're in, in the locker room, eating dinner, whatever, come out, play the game and you're home at 10, 11 o' clock at night, rinse and repeat. So you're at the field doing baseball stuff for 11, 12 hours a day and you only had four days off the whole summer. And so yeah, it is. I mean that's where I think a lot of, that's what separates the men from the boys is I know guys that I played with that halfway through that first year, couldn't hack that grind and they voluntarily retired.

Wow.

Because they just, they didn't want to go through it.

You know what's amazing, man, is I've talked about baseball my entire life. I mean, you know, the audience doesn't probably know how big of a baseball fan like I really was.

I mean, who's your team, by the way? Who's your team?

The Rays. I mean, I'm from Tampa, right? So Tampa Bay Rays. Growing up, we didn't have the team, so I was, you know, I was, I was a 90s Atlanta Braves kid, right? We didn't have a local team that was a team that we had access to via TBS. 705. I can remember it was always a weird start times, always on, oh, five. Never started at the top of the hour. But the Maddox. I've heard you talk a lot about Maddox and I think he kind of modeled, you know, you modeled him with short stature, not over dominating stuff, but those guys ripped, man. You know, the precision location of a placing of a, of a fastball glavin. And then the power guys like, you know, your, your Fred McGriff's, your David justice, like. Yeah, so those are, those are my guys. But I've, I've always talked about the grind, right? And, and I've never been able to, to think about it through this lens as we're having this conversation. I'm like minor league baseball, man. It's like what a model of success in life, right? Because you know this as a coach and I'm sure you've seen this in your business and your marketing. Your success is pre. It's, it's, it's a byproduct of what you do daily, the small daily habits, what you do on a daily basis, consistently over time is what's going to produce the results of your life. As you're talking about this baseball, it's getting up, it's having the routine, it's sticking to it. It's, it's being a part of the team. It going to the workout, it's having the practice in the middle of the day. It's making sure that every day is stacked consistently over time. What a great model for success in anything, right?

Oh, it's, it's. I tell people it's the work you put in when no one is watching. And when I look at why I was even able to play pro ball my final two years at uwm, when I committed to that work, hitting the weight room when my buddies were out drinking, stuff like that. Like, that's why I am where I am. I was in baseball. And it's what we do today in business, it's the work when no one is watching. Everybody wants to be Tom Brady. Everybody wants to be LeBron James hitting the shot. Nobody wants to go through the grind they go through every day to Be able to do that.

Exactly. Exactly.

Now, I want to share this. I got it. Since we're having a baseball conversation, two things I want to share about Greg Maddox. So I heard an interview with John Smoltz the other day. I want. Check this out. So he was getting interviewed and they're talking about Tony Gwynn. He asked the interviewer the question, how many times do you think Tony Gwen struck out against me, John Smoltz, Greg Maddox, Tom Glavin, and Pedro Martinez? How many times did Tony Gwen strike out against those four guys in his career? By the way, these four guys had more than 12,000 strikeouts combined.

I mean, it had to have been less than 10 because I think Tony only had like 300 strikeouts in.

Struck out three times and he had over 400 at bats against them. That's bananas. But so quick, Greg, I gotta share this Greg Maddock story. So Amy and I are in Hawaii a couple years ago, and we're at this resort. And this, for whatever reason, this whole trip, I'm thinking I'm seeing all these famous people, and they're not. So she's sick of me telling this. Now we're in the pool, literally, like laying up against the side of the pool, you know, just like leaning, and I'm staring at this family and I'm like, holy crap, it's Craig Maddox. She. She could care less. And I'm freaking out. Like, this guy gave me the belief I could do it because I didn't throw hard, I wasn't big. And I walk up to him, mind you, he's wearing Batman swim shorts in a Superman T shirt. And I said, greg Maddox? He said, yeah. And I thanked him for giving guys like me the belief we could play pro baseball. But it was one of. It was so cool to actually meet him poolside while he was wearing Batman swim shorts.

Yeah. That's amazing, man. Maddox is one of those guys, though. Like, he could probably hang out at probably almost any resort in the world you wouldn't know recognized. Exactly. And that's kind of what I was saying. Man is like LeBron James. I mean, obviously everybody's going to go, LeBron James, but an NBA player, six, seven or taller? Like, yeah, you may not know who he is, but, like, that's a pro ball player, man. It's like, I used to be.

I'm.

I'm about 250 still, but when I was in my competing years, like, I used to get a lot of people be like, frank, are you a pro wrestler? Wrestling's really big in The Tampa Bay area. Frank, are you a linebacker for the Bucks? Every once in a while I'd have somebody ask me if I was a ball player and I'm like, do you know how little most baseball players are? They're not 6 3, 260 pounds like jacked traps and all this stuff. They're, they're your everyday, everyday guy.

Yeah, I remember a good, good point in that is Deion Sanders.

Yeah.

He looked big in a baseball uniform, like built. And then you put him in on a Falcons uniform and he was tiny.

The smallest guy in the field. Exactly, exactly. Getting to this belief man you talked about that was probably what, you know, what held you from really excelling in, in pro baseball. Later on though, physically you go on to complete two Ironmans. You don't even attempt to race an Ironman without belief. So I'd love to maybe talk a little bit about how you were able to change your self limiting beliefs.

Yeah, I don't even know if it was as much about changing because for, for a while Frank, I struggled with the, the thought of why can't I take what I've done in sports and apply it to business? Really? Yes. Because I've been in the insurance industry for 21 years and at first 10 I sucked and I always struggled with how can I go? Because take take away pro baseball for a second, how can I get on the mound? Like I used to have this belief in high school, how can I get on the mound and already know I'm going to win the game? Because back in high school, depending on who we were playing, I would go into the game and go, I already know I'm going to win this. Now it's a matter of am I going to get a shutout. And that's not to be cocky, but that was my belief. Like I know I'm already going to win this game but my goal is to shut this team out. How can I, why can't I apply that to business?

And with Ironman I think what it was is Iron man is your ability. Here's what it is. If I were better mentally, I think I would have performed even better in it. But to me, with Iron man, anything like that, you can also get away without working the problem. Meaning.

How the heck am I going to swim 2.4 miles?

Just don't stop. Like just keep swimming. Right. Like as weird as that sounds, I think that was the mentality I brought to that sport of. And, and here's the other thing I tell people about Iron man in that time of my life, Frank, since we're talking, we had a lot of men listening in. I was struggling in a lot of other areas in my life. I hated business. I didn't have any relationship with a girl at the time. My personal life wasn't that good. I was making bad choices, to be honest with you. So I was able to lean into Iron man and say, well, at least I'm good at one thing.

Were you using it actually, it actually.

Created my self worth.

Got it at first. Was there an element of you were using it as, as an escape And I don't want to, I don't want to label you as a, as a masochist, but we're using it almost as a way to not punish yourself but seek pain.

It wasn't punishment. That's a good question. It wasn't punishment. It was, I knew I was talented at it. So if business isn't going well, my personal life isn't all that great. At least I can train and have and be good at this. At least I'm good at something. And I think, why Ironman? I mean I started off like most people do with triathlons. I did a sprint and I did an Olympic and then I did a half ironman. I think I was just like, you know what? Full Iron man seems like a cool challenge. I'm pretty good at all the other lengths. The, the distances. Let's go for it.

Is there anything wrong with that though? Is there anything wrong with, hey, I'm trying to get this missile off the ground. Things aren't going really well. I'm, you know, I'm not, I'm not really doing great in my relationships. I am good over here. Let me go do some stuff. Like I don't really see that as a negative.

No, I agree. I think, I think people, anybody who says you have to be, try to be great at every bucket in your life, pardon my language, is full of shit. Well, you can't be, you can't. It's, it's, it's, it's impossible. You can strive to be, but it's really hard right now. I, I, I don't have children. So for me my day to day is focused on running my business, being good, a good boyfriend for Amy, taking care of myself as, as fitness goes and, and diet. But are you going to be hitting on all cylinders with all of those all the time? No. There's no such thing as true balance.

Yeah, I don't, yeah. And, and if you are excelling in everything you're probably not taking new risk. If you're good at everything you're doing, you're not trying new new things. And I think what I'm, what I'm really, what I'm trying to pull out of this is like because you said that the iron man then carried you into like it built your self belief and confidence and then that then began to show up in your business. So maybe I'm trying to extract like a, like a takeaway here for the audience, right guys, if, if life isn't going well in a lot of areas right now, relationships aren't really thriving work. It's kind of like ah, you know, maybe the business hasn't taken off or you're not ready to take the leap and go jump out and venture into entrepreneurship. Find something though that you are good at. And I think that's the key takeaway here, right? Because you can be able to confidence.

Yeah, right, Frank. I think a great way to think about, about that is like maybe somebody's struggling in business, right? And they're not, maybe they're in sales and they're not doing as well as they should. And, and then they get, here's what happens. But they really love working out. They really love taking care of themselves. But, but because they're not doing a business, what do they do? They start to sabotage the, the, the exercising because they're like why I should be exercising. I need to be trying to sell something. And, and all of a sudden they, the one thing that does make them feel good, good they're starting to get rid of because they think they've got to focus on this. Instead of saying no, celebrate the fact you enjoy this and it's making you feel good. But now try to determine how do you take that feeling and apply it to the rest.

Yes, Yes. I always, the audience will, will know this. I always have this analogy. It's funny, I'm drinking out of the can today, but sometimes I have a cup here and I always talk about this like when we step into all the areas of life that we're called top rate in, you know, we wear these different hats. You know, we're businessman, we're, we're dad, we're, you know, we're maybe uncle or you know, we're may like all these areas of life, we put these different hats on. We have to show up and we start to pour from our cup, right? Like I got to pour into another family, got to pour into my, my clients. I got to pour into today's podcast. If I Didn't take the proper time at the beginning of the day, Andy to fill my cup up. What's going to happen is throughout the day I'm pouring, I'm pouring, I'm pouring and pouring. Eventually by the end of the day, I'm going to A.I.

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It'S going to be pouring from an empty cup. And pouring from an empty cup to men begins to feel like stress, irritability, anxiety.

Maybe lack of worthiness. Right. Because I don't have anything to get. So now we start to internalize these thoughts and feelings. But if we could take the time of we're good at something, go do that because it makes us feel good. Now we're full and we can go begin to show up better and serve everybody and love from a more complete and whole place. God, I'm glad we were able to connect all that together.

One of my epiphanies was I've had relationships in the past. I've always been into exercise, but I think it's at a level I've never been at now. Like, I'm more in shape at 45 than I was in at 25 and 30.

But back in the day, I had relationships who would probably make me. They would make me feel guilty about the fact I wanted to go exercise.

And I had my epiphany and I can't tell you when it was, but when I realized that, no, I don't do this to be selfish. I do it because if I can go exercise, I'm going to show up better for you. You want the best version of me, go let me do this. And I think that that's when everything changed for me as far as the fitness size go side goes of how to run a business fitness relationship is when I realized to me, going and working out, for example, taking an hour and and maybe an hour away from time with others is not selfish. It's I'm putting myself in the best position to be my best which is only going to help everybody else.

Yeah. In order to be selfless, you have to be somewhat selfish first. That scenario right there, you know, there may be somebody that actually resonates with, like, God, I'm actually in that relationship right now. Like, she. She's holding me back from doing these things. How would you. I know this isn't the type of coaching that you do, but what does that look like? You know, how do we. If we're in that relationship right now? I know for you it's a new relationship that now supports it, but if you had to go have that conversation with your, you know, with your partner, with your spouse, with your girlfriend, hey, I'm doing these things for me. It's not taking away. Or does that conversation look like for somebody?

I. I'm definitely not a relationship coach, but my advice would be communicate early and often. So Amy and I have a very good relation standing relationship as far as that goes. Frank, there's some days I work out twice in one day. I'll go lift in the morning, and then I'll go for a run when the, when the work. When the day is over. And for me, I. I told her, I said, amy, I do that because I need a break between work and home. I need a way to be able to take my work founder cap off and put my boyfriend cap on. And I need a way to do that to distress myself as well, to de stress. So I. There's a lot of afternoons I go for a run, even though I worked out in the morning. And she gets it now. She's like, I got it. I think communicating with your loved one, your. Your loved one, your wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever that is, on why you're doing this. If they can't understand that it might be time to have a different conversation. But at least communicating as to why you. You. You need to do that is very important versus trying to sneak away and do it. Yeah.

How is your relationship different with training today versus, you know, when you were playing ball training? Very intentionally. Right. I'm sure there were specific regimens. Obviously, training for Ironman looks completely different than, I'm sure what you're doing today. How's that relationship grown over time? And where is it at today, the fact that you're 45? You said, I'm in my best shape ever.

I love it. I think, honestly, Frank, because I'm not training for a specific event. I love it. There's no pressure. So a big event in my life that changed for me was I. I had a bad leg infection a couple years ago. Actually, two years ago this month. Two. Yeah, two years ago this month. Hospitalized for six days. Heavy antibiotics. Like it was. It was bad I, I, I think had I waited any longer to get to the hospital, I could have lost my leg. And while I was in the hospital, I started watching YouTube videos and I came upon this guy, Nick Bear. I don't know if you're familiar, he's got Bear performance, nutrition, and here he is the CEO of a 30, 40 million dollar company. And he also trains very heavily. So I started watching his videos about how to be a hybrid athlete, as he calls it. You know, the guy that hits the weights, he goes out for runs, he runs a business. I'm like, okay, this is resonating. And I just started that moment I left the hospital. I just started applying this concept to working out that like, no, this is just what I do. And I started following his workouts. He's got workouts on the Playbook app. I go out and run and for me now, I think because I'm not training for anything, Frank, I love it. It's just check it off on the, I check it off on the, on the box and it might be a bad way to think about it, but if I have a five mile run here, at the end of the day, I don't think I just go do it because I got to check it off. I did 5 mile run. Same thing with cycling. I still do a lot of road cycling, you know, because I love to do it. But the, the beauty of going out and doing it now versus saying, oh, I've got to be in zone two and then zone three for my iron man. No, it's just enjoyable. I'm going out for 20 miles.

Yeah, you kind of look like you could be Nick's maybe, maybe long lost cousin or something like that. You got a little bit of a similar kind of, kind of facial structure. No, he's incredibly inspired, man. He's actually, Nick was one of the people I think that really began to make me challenge myself. So we talked a little bit about, you know, I was a bodybuilder on your show, you know, had roughly 10 years, you know, not at a pro level, you know, had had some success on, on an amateur level. You know, never knew that was going to be, I always knew it was never going to be a career for me. It was something I really, really enjoyed. But I think for me these last kind of four or five years, building the podcast, building, rebuild, recovery, I was always saying I can't, I can't be as committed to training because I'm over here on the business side of things. Like I literally coach people on all these Things. I had these conversations here on the podcast, yet I still fall into some of these traps myself. But I see guys like Nick out there crushing it, building, you know, his supplement company and doing the marathons, ultra endurance and competing. I'm like, these guys are doing it. I need to do it as well. So this may be the first time the audience is hearing it. Like, I've decided to jump back into the competitive arena, and I'll be doing a show about a year from now. Like, I have a journey I got to go on, you know, to put some size back on. But I'm super stoked, man, because looking back in my career, actually, the businesses that I've ran, I've always actually been most financially successful during competition. Like, it's this weird thing. Like, the more I do, the more I'm locked in, the better I succeed.

And that is. You just nailed it on the head. Now, I'm gonna preface what I'm about to say with I don't have kids. So there's the. The guys listening in that have the extra obligation, taking care of children. I empathize. Like, I get it. I don't have that. But I will tell you, I am working out more than I ever have right now, and my business is still growing just fine. I have, you know, I. I'm a work in progress sometimes with the relationship with Amy, but we're good and. And you don't have to sacrifice one for the other.

Exactly.

And I. I totally agree with you. I am so locked in with fitness, but it's caused me to be locked in with business.

You have, you have. You have to be how you do.

One thing is how you do everything. You may. You may resonate with this too, because we talked a lot about mindset here at the beginning. I. I always thought. And I was physically strong. I was a damn animal, bro. Like, I, like, I love.

I can tell. I wouldn't want to mess with you, man.

I've been very flexible. Fortunate also to have some incredible training partners in. In my life. Like, we're talking elite level trainers. But what I didn't understand, because I, you know, my story. Porn addiction up until 2019, blase, blah. The rest is history, kind of. Right? But whatever. Like, so the entire time I was competing, like, I was mentally weak. I see a guy struggling with porn addiction.

Not all.

It's not all about mental weakness, but there's elements of mental toughness that I've had to develop over these last four years. Same with you. I'm sure you're probably way more mentally tough today than through business consulting, podcasting, and just your own personal growth than you were probably back then. So for me it's like, damn, I may have left something back there. That's why I'm excited, because bodybuilding isn't something like you peak in your 20s, like you can continue to get better as you age. Progression, muscle maturity, thickness, graininess, all that stuff. So I'm really excited because I think I'm going to be able to challenge myself through the preparation, the mental side of it that back then I was too weak to really endure. So I'm super excited.

Just, well. And you said something I don't want to go overlooked. You realize you left something back there. One of the reasons we're on a mission at Complete Game consulting, to help 25,000 insurance professionals reach their full potential. I know I didn't reach mine in pro baseball.

I left something back there.

And unlike bodybuilding, I can return to the stage at 40, compete against the old guys.

I can't go back and try to make it. No, but you also said something too, because this is a big, big thing that comes up in our world. When I realized like I'm. When I realized I hit a stage, I'm dialed in. And I think you might have experienced this too. It's when I stopped negotiating with my calendar. So if I put my workouts on the calendar today, I don't have to wake up and talk myself into going into the gym? No, it's on my schedule for 5:30 in the morning. I just go and do it. That's when you know you're dialed in more. Too many guys that negotiate with their calendar.

Yes. What's that process like though? I mean, for you, is it, has it been a flip of a switch where you can go from negotiating to I'm no longer negotiating or what's. What's what. What did that development process look like for you?

It took time. I think even if I look back two, three years ago, there were moments I'm sure at the end of the day I had a workout and I'm like, and you just. Or you, or you may be doing you half ass it, right? I think for me it was, honestly, mine was probably the wake up call of that leg infection because that is a form of ill health, right? It was my leg. I probably caused it some way shape or form. And I re. It was a wake up call that like, dude, you've got to become a student of the game of health. You got to know what's going in your body, why you've got to know what you're, how you're exercising and why you're doing. I used to be the guy. Like I, I did a lot of road cycling, but I couldn't tell you the components on my bike. Like study, be a student of what you're doing. And that's been one of my big things for the last two years, man, is become a student of life.

And I think that's when everything started changing, was I was on that. I've been on this pursuit of like constant evolution and growth and becoming better. But it requires, it goes back all the small things off the field when no one's watching. Right. But become a student of that game of what is it going to take? Like my routine. One of the things I love in the morning, Frank, is when I get up first thing, grab a cup of coffee, I go to YouTube and I watch. I'll find content, video content, somebody talking about maybe protein, somebody talking about how to get better sleep. How do you. What is it? What? You know, cold, cold immersion. Good or bad? How should I want to study that stuff? Because that's what I want to start applying to my life.

Yeah, guys. I mean, we're talking to former pro ball player, 20 plus years at the highest level, competing ironman, running businesses, still learning. You know what I mean? And that's what. And that's, and that's, and that's what I love right there.

Well, here's the thing. If I could share this, Frank. I just had a, I had an insurance producer on my podcast not that long ago, and he said something that really opened my eyes because he's somebody I admire, he's got a massive book of business. And he said, andy, you know what drives me today is I've been in this business 19 years and I still don't feel like I've arrived. And how many people we know get to a point, I got it made. I know everything I need to know. That constant drive to become better, to feel like you have yet to arrive, even when you've been doing something for 20 years. That's what separates the best from the rest.

So what are the, what are the, the prerequisites, I guess then for, for that to constantly be in that state where we're always growing, always evolving, always learning. Like what, how, how do you set up your life? Or how do you set up your days, weeks, so forth and so forth to make sure you're constantly growing and learning.

You know, this is going to Sound funny, man. I hope, first of all, I hope this is bringing value.

I use this planner right here called Clever Fox. I'm a big planner and I started using this, I think it was two years ago. And what it forces you to do is every month you have to review the month and it asks you to rate the following areas of your life. Business, money, friendships and family relationships. So your loved one, your significant other, happiness, recreation, spirituality and personal development. 8. And when I started doing that and it very quickly became apparent, like, wow, yeah, that was a shitty month. And I looked at how I rated stuff and there were stuff that was a 3 out of 10 or a 4 out of 10. And I realized it became a game. I'm a, I'm an athlete. I love gamification of everything. I'm like, I'm going to make this a game to try to become to get nines on everything. I don't believe you could ever be a 10 out of 10. I want to get nines. And that having this planner, man, has been like this constant game of can I get nines in all eight areas of my life in one month? And I'll tell you in 24 months, I have yet to do it.

I love that though, man. And I mean, no. Tremendous value, you know, and it's, it's interesting. These conversations always happen, man. And right at the, right at the ideal time. The weekly email we sent out to our group and it's got eight questions. And two weeks ago I literally called the entire group out. I said, you guys read these, you guys get this email every single week. It's one of the, it's broken into sections. It's like six or different sections that I kind of touch on. The questions are right at the top because I actually believe that it's the most important part of the email is how are you assessing your week to week progress? And I called the guys out and I said, most of you reading this read the same questions every single week. And I know 90% of you never actually ask yourselves these questions. So I've been driving home the importance of daily, weekly, monthly reviews of our own personal growth. I believe, Andy, the universe, the principles for success, like, are truly universal for the most part, right? The things that make you success in building a business will help you be successful in building your body, will help you be successful in building relationships, will help you be successful in building your life, Whatever that looks like, whatever area of your life. So if we know the most successful businesses have daily KPIs, things that the business does every single day. Things that every single person within the business does every single day. And they have weekly and sometimes daily reviews of all those things. We should look at that, right? Same thing in fitness, right? Daily trackers. People track their steps, they track their sleep, they track their calories, they track everything about their fitness. Why don't we track these things about our happiness or our habits or our recovery or the other areas of our life? So I love this man because it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just bringing more expertise, you know, more proof to the things that I've been trying to talk to our community about for these last couple weeks.

So I appreciate that if you're watching the video, you might not be able to see all three signs behind me. But they say consistent, persistent and patient. And if I were to say what has allowed us to have success with complete game consulting, it's those three things they're consistent is consistency isn't sexy. It's waking up and doing the same thing every day, same monotonous stuff every day. Persistent is the ability to keep doing it when everybody else has quit. And the patience is to understand there's no finish line. And you've got to be able to wake up loving what you're doing every day and, and going at it as if there is no finish line. Here's a great example. I can't tell you how many people, friends, peers I know that have done 75 hard and they, I see them 75 days in a row publicly telling the world they've done it, you know, what they look like a month later after it's done. They're bigger than they were when they started the 75 heart. They can't be consistent. That's why I laugh. I, I love the 75 hards and the challenges like that. But talk to me when it be, when you get to 365 day hard.

I mean that, that's, that's the consistency is waking up and just I tell people, like with people say, how do you wake up and work out every day? My answer's so bad, I don't know, I just do it. It's got to become a non negotiable. And I think that's where men, I'll say this and I hope I'm not too harsh. Frank. We live in a world today where we men have been taught to take the back burner, right? That's where kind of where we're at right now. You gotta, you gotta become more Accountable to yourself. You know, you have to toughen up a little bit. And we live in a very touchy feely society today, and men are being taught to share their emotions more, which I love. That's great. But you also have to be, you gotta hold your ass accountable to step up. And I think that's what we're lacking right now is this. Too many people are letting themselves off the hook and you have gotta challenge yourself to show up every day.

Well, because it's easy, right? You can, you can be a victim to your past. Right. You know, I'm here today because this happened to me in the past. So this trauma is always gonna hold me back, so I can't make any growth. But then I can go talk about it and people will pat me on the back and say it's going to be okay or for whatever reason. Like, yeah, I mean, we've, like, we literally. Social media has created a culture and environment where lack of responsibility is actually what's rewarded and accepted. So. No, I agree. I agree 100%.

It's just like my baseball career, man, when I gave up a 400 foot home run and it did happen. I had an X batter in the box a minute later. I had to forget that moment that just happened 30 seconds ago. If I would go at my next at bat, the next at bat with, yeah, I'm a guy who gives up 400 foot home runs. I'm never getting another person out. But if I hadn't said, you know what it happened, it's done, it's over, I got to show up here. That's what we have to do in life. If yesterday sucked, who cares?

Show up today with this consistent, persistent and patience. Where do you struggle the most? Like, which one is most difficult for you?

We're going through a nice growth phase in the business right now and making some big investments. And I'm struggling going, Andy, it's not going to create a result tomorrow. I'm investing a lot of money. It's not creating a result tomorrow. But you got to be patient. Patience is my biggest struggle.

Yeah, yeah. Let's talk about your business, man. I'd love to, I'd love to hear, you know, the kind of, you know, the genesis story behind it, how it all started. Because now you went insurance and now you're doing coaching consulting for insurance agents, Right? Specifically. So, yeah, talk to us about where you were in the career, what kind of, you know, triggered you to, to take this leap. And then, you know, talk to us about the evolution of The.

Well, if you got any insurance professionals who listen in, they're going to chuckle when they hear this. So I've been in the industry 20 years. Okay? I've been in the industry 21 years. My pivotal moment was Amy. And I moved from Wisconsin to Colorado in 2014. So here I am selling insurance in a market nobody knows me. And I was working for an agency that never really used me, marketing. So I'm like, great. No marketing, nobody knows me. What am I going to do? I could do what I've been taught. Pick up the phone, smile and dial, Go pound the pavement. Or I could try something different. And what I started to do, Frank, is I went to other industries and I started going, what do they do with marketing? Because by then other industries were using social media, marketing, things like that. And I took those principles and I brought them back to this, to the insurance industry, and they worked. And I grew a really nice book of business. And I realized, like, wow, in marketing, in this industry sucks. Like, it is so outdated. And so is sales training. And what I started doing is, as I grew my book and applied my process and my strategy and I perfected it over time, I had peers start to reach out, to be like, can you help me what you with what you did? And then I'm like, wait, maybe this is a business idea here. So this kind of turned into a side hustle in 2019. Come 2021, I said, I'm going to get rid of my book and I'm going all in on complete game consulting. So what we do today is we help insurance professionals book more appointments with the right prospects by creating an effective marketing process and sales process that works today, not 1995. What works today? That's what we do.

Amazing. Amazing. And I think for you, the transition probably. I don't want to say it was easy because I don't think taking a leap in entrepreneurship should ever be easy. But I'm assuming sales, having to kind of step into these territories, like, you know, build these businesses, you got to learn, like, what it takes to succeed in. In insurance is going to be a lot of the same skill sets needed to succeed in entrepreneurship.

100. So I will tell you, hands down, I was not the best insurance salesperson by far. I got peers who could sell me under the table. When I started this business, I hadn't realized it ain't growing unless I'm selling. And so I will tell you, I am probably five times the salesperson today than I was even five, seven years ago because of that and you learn very quickly, you sink or swim, right? No one's gonna do this for you. You have to do this. The other moment I had when I realized I could do this is I remember there was a specific day I got my ass kicked, man. Like, everything went wrong. Lost a couple big opportunities I thought we were gonna get, but I went to bed excited to do it all over again the next day. When that, when I had that feeling like, I can do this. If I could wake up the next day and say, man, but I still get to do this today, even though yesterday sucked and I have complete ownership of my wins and my losses, that's when I'm like, yep, I can do this. Now. It took me 41 years to become a so called entrepreneur, but I would never go back. And now that I'm here, I could never go back. And I think any advice for a man listening in, who's at that spot, it's when you realize that you're 100% responsible for your wins and your losses and there's no one else to blame. If you like that.

Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's a big portion of our, of our audience, you know, already kind of taking those leaps or figuring it out. We, you know, I think, I think we're all created, you know, called like, I think it's part of our wiring to be entrepreneurs. I think employment is really, I don't want to get into it, but yeah, it's like slavemanship, man. But.

What did you learn in baseball and in Ironman that has made you successful in business?

It goes back to what I said earlier. I think the student of the game. The only reason I got the chance to play pro baseball is because you would find me at the college gym on a Thursday night lifting and working on my craft. If you look, if you go watch what I. You had to do as far as like drills go to be a better pitcher, it is not fun, it's boring. But, but doing that every week, week after week after week, same thing in Iron man, right? It's, it looks Fun to complete 140 miles on one day. Like, to be able to say you did that is unbelievable. But how about that one practice or one exercise you had that Monday on a trainer indoors, where you're pedaling with one leg for a half hour to work on your strength and then you do the other leg for a half hour. Those little things like that, Frank, that's what success is about. So when I look at growing a business, little things we do every week. Like my Mondays 8 to 10 o' clock are content creation. You cannot get a hold of me on Monday mornings because that is my time to create the content that helps us grow.

I do that 52 times a year on every 52 weeks of the year. And so it's that consistency, man, that routine that let's helps people become successful in business. I talk to that people about that in our industry because they think it's knowledge and product and all these things. No, it's your ability to show up consistently every day and do those monotonous things. There's a book, one of my favorite books is the one thing there's a quote in there I love. The reason most people do not have success is they do not know how to enjoy the monotony of success.

Where did that come from for, for you? Was this something you saw your parents model growing up? Because it sounded like he had this work ethic very early in life, if that's what's, you know, made you baseball. So where, where did that come within?

I was a fat lazy kid as a child. Frank Rich I was a chunky kid. I was lazy. I still remember the moment and, and I thank her for it. Something happened in the house. I was about nine or 10 years, I think I left a freezer open and the food thawed out. My mom called me lazy and I was like, I just remember those moments. I think what made me distill to really build a work ethic was it started in high school when I realized I had a chance to play college baseball. But my dad was my coach and I think that was a blessing to have him, the coach, because he challenged me, said, hey, you want to go play up there? You got to step it up here. And I think that I. That that's where it started. And then my college career was the same thing. My first two years at UWM were not successful because I got away from the routine. I was a follower instead of a leader. We had some, quite frankly, we had some bad influencers on the team at that time. When I got to my junior and senior year where I was captain, I said I got to step it up, man. And if I want to chance even have a chance to play at the next level, I gotta, I gotta lock in this routine and get it back on track. And so I've had moments in my career where I've got up. I told you my first 10 years of my insurance career, I sucked. Got away from a routine that discipline routine and the consistency of operating that discipline routine. I wish I could take the discipline and routine I have Today, Frank, at 45 years old and go instill it in the 21 year old version of Andy Neary. And I'd be, I'd be curious what my pro baseball career would look like.

Dude, I wish I, I don't wish, but I've had thoughts like if I could go back to high school and, and have a conversation with young Frank because I, I probably.

I understand more now my genetic gifting at almost 40 than I think I've ever understood in, in my entire life. Like I really was gifted with some, some physical abilities. I got caught up in having fun and partying in high school. That kind of took me off of the, the field. But I truly, I think I probably could have given it a run, man. Like truthfully. But that's awesome, man. How did that childhood identity of being overweight and I think we even talked about both having to buy our jeans from Husky and the JC Penneys. How does that still drive you today?

It does. I still have those fears, truth be told, especially on the exercise side. I don't want to be the fat kid. Right. I think that is. Some people will tell you it's a bad way to think about things. I love how exercise makes me feel. But at the same time I'd say, you know, I have to admit there's some. I don't. I have that fear. If I don't do it, I'll become the fat kid again. It's probably why I'm very conscious of conscientious about what I eat. It. Is that, that fear that you know today in our business, Frank, we teach people how to get attention from their prospects. That's our job. I hated attention as a kid because.

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Negative. Right. Kids picked on you. Girls were definitely not attracted to me. If you'd see my glasses I wore as a kid, they could burn ants, they were so thick. Like, I hated attention back then. And I think for me, those thoughts of who I was as a kid drive. It's what's given me that drive to constantly seek better. And I don't think that's a negative thing at all.

No, I don't, I don't know. We, we had that conversation on, on your show and I, I, I, I, I, I think I would agree. 100. 100. It can be unhealthy, but I think it can definitely be really, really powerful. It's a driving force, man. You know, humans are driven by.

We need more men right now to seek better. We need more men right now to seek better.

No, absolutely. So any man, we've kind of went all over the place here today. This was, this was a whole lot of fun, man, really. But I think it's, I think it's, you know, core, core things here, man. Consistency, persistence and patience and taking a small daily action. So tell the guys where they can connect with you more if there's anybody on the insurance side where they can learn more about the coaching consulting plug, the podcast and where you're hanging out online, socially.

Yeah, man, definitely cook me up, hook up with me on LinkedIn. That's where I do most of my content. So go check me out on LinkedIn. Andy Neary, if you are an insurance professional, I do have. You can go to completegameplaybook.com We've got a really good coaching video there. If you want to check it out. CompleteGamePlayBook.com and then definitely go check out our podcast. It's Bullpen sessions. It comes out every Friday morning. So, Frank, this has been a honor to have you on. To have me on the show or you have allow you to have me on the show. I'm not saying that the right way, but really enjoy this conversation today.

Yeah, likewise, man. Yeah, guys, definitely check out the Bullpen sessions. We'll get all of Andy's links plugged down there in the show. Notes you guys watch on the video will be down there in the description box. So Andy would like to end every podcast here with the same question. Title of the show is obviously called the superhuman life. For me, when I talk about living superhuman life, it's, it's, it's a belief system that I try to live my life by every single day. And it's coming from the place that I do believe we're here for a purpose. There's a calling on every single one of our lives. Yours is obviously working in the coaching consulting business, helping people get more attention on their businesses, at least for now. That's a part of your calling. I believe that. But I think knowing we have a calling is not enough. We must be very intentional about our growth, about our development, about showing up and bringing that purpose to the world for the good of others. So that's me, my definition. But as we end today's conversation, Mr. Andy Neri, how would you define living a superhuman life?

Impact over income.

I'll share if I could share this real quick. When I started building what I built in this business, it required me to put myself out there a lot, right? With content, things like that. And I didn't know if anybody was listening, anybody was watching. Some people told me it was egotistical. And I remember I had a call with a peer of mine in 2021 and he had told me that after a bad divorce, a bad bout with COVID my content kept, kept him alive because he thought about suicide. And he told me my content kept him going. And when I heard that man, I said, that's what this is all about. You almost have an obligation to build a business, to build a brand because you never know who you're going to Impact. Impact.

Amen to that, guys. God, that was powerful. Guys, impact over income every day. Focus on your consistency. Stay persistent over time. But most importantly, the key indicator of success is the ability to delay gratification. So we need patience in every endeavor in our life. Guys, make sure to connect with Andy. Check out his Bullpen Sessions episode with me becoming out. I'm not sure that the airing of this but you have here two of us. We're back and forth. So check out the podcast guys over there. But we love you guys. Make sure to share this with as many people as possible if you haven't done so yet, leave us a five star rating in review right there on Apple where you guys are listening today. But for Andy Neary, coach Frank, we love you guys. We'll see you next week.

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