From Broken Shoulders to Broken Records... Built to Impact with Todd Durkin

I mean, the minute you think you've already made it, you've arrived, you're in trouble. You got to keep that passion, be tenacious. To have the fervor, the energy, the spirit to play at a level where people want to be around you. Getting your mind right is something that every single day you got to have a discipline to be in a routine that sets you up for success with who you're working with, who you're training with, who you're coaching with.

Guys, remember, to be great at anything, it takes a certain amount of obsession. This is the energetic leader led by a team of three who have influenced people at the highest level of corporate, athletic, entrepreneur and the business world. We teach through science and data driven methods to help you lead through energy and influence. We don't just use our stories, but the stories of those who have walked the walk, been in your shoes and ultimately excelled. Whether it's leading a team of 10 or 10,000, building a business of 1 million or 100 million, winning one championship or 10, they all have one thing in common, energetic leadership. So with that, step inside and let's help transform you into that energetic leader. Welcome back to another week of the coaches council. And today I'm telling you what, guys, we are going to bring the energy. If you are driving, I suggest you pull over. If you're working out, I suggest you turn the tune up because it is going to get you going, it's going to amp you up, it's going to pump you up, it is going to have you ready to perform no matter what you're doing today. And so, guys, I am going to take no short time just to introduce our guest today because I'll tell you what, I want to maximize our time with him. He's not only been two time trainer of the year and I'm sure you've followed him. If you haven't yet, you have to go to follow Todd Durkin because this guy brings it every single morning. Whether it's with his dog jersey, whether it's with his family out at the football field. This guy just overall does everything with intensity and leads with impact. So, Todd Durkin, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us and I could not be more honored that you chose to spend 35, 40 minutes with us to share some mind bombs with our audience.

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Justin. Great to be here and I want

to dive right in because it's brand new news. It's no secret that you've worked with a multitude of NFL MVPs, Super bowl champions, and now hall of Famers. But your longtime client, Drew Brees called it a career the other day. What was some of the biggest lessons that you've learned from that guy along the way? And what does it feel like to have been alongside him for his entire ride?

Yeah, I'll tell you, my emotions are still swirling. I've been with Drew for 18 years training him from when he was a second round pick, the first pick in the second draft, 2001, Ladanian Tomlinson was the first round pick who was my first athlete ever trained. LT. He brought in Drew to my gym Fitness Quest 10. And last 18 years training Drew, there's been a lot of highs, there's been even some lows. I mean, 2005, Drew had a shoulder ripped out of his socket. And I've been with him every step of the way from Super bowl victories, MVPs, broken records to broken shoulders, literally, and everything in between. And, I mean, there's a lot of lessons, a lot of lessons that I'd say, but a few of them, number one is when you see Drew Brees, what you see is who he is. What you see is who he is. He is a man of high integrity and character. He's a gym rat. Drew Brees is an absolute gym rat. And as a coach and a trainer last 25 years, I often talk about once in a lifetime athletes. I hope that Drew is not a once in a lifetime athlete because having the opportunity to train him in the last 18 years, I hope there's some young boy or girl listening today that is not big enough, not strong enough, not fast enough, but has a burning passion and desire to be the best, to ever play a game, I don't care what game it is, because Drew, that's what he is. He has worked his tail off. He's overcome a lot of adversity in his life. People tend to forget that he only had two scholarship offers. He, you know, he. He wasn't big, he wasn't strong. He wasn't supposed to make it in the NFL, let alone have the shoulder ripped out of his socket and have Dr. Andrews tell him he'd probably never play again. Many people forget that before his Super bowl victory, 2009, that season, before his mother committed suicide. And you talk about getting your mind right. Drew had to get his mind right real quick trying to play football, let alone at a high level, when obviously his mom took her own life. There's a lot of things that people tend to forget when you're at the top about the mountain you have to climb. And. And Drew epitomizes a mind, right? Maniac. He epitomizes a man who has worked his tail off for everything he's got.

And it's no surprise to me that you attract those types of people because I've met you a handful of times I've been around you, you've been a role model in my life just simply through the social media aspect and the few times that we've had interactions together, being in the same space, the same industry. And that's how you lead in all aspects. And it's the biggest thing that I get from you is the way that you've been able to balance not only your amazing work ethic and what you've created at FQ10 and the community in which you lead from executive CEOs, professional athletes, but also the way in which you lead your family, the way in which you lead yourself, the way you're a man of faith, the way that you do things and you go about your business on a day to day basis. So it does not surprise me that that's the description that you apply to Drew.

Well, it's for anyone I work with, including myself. Right. I always say either raise up your expectations or sink down your level of training. And when you set high standards for yourself and you work your tail off, good things happen. Now I got to make sure that everyone understands this is people like you always have your mind right? Is it? You know, no. Guys like getting your mind right is something that every single day you got to have a discipline to be in a routine that sets you up for success with who you're working with, who you're training with, who you're coaching with, your environment in which you train in a business, regardless of the business, have you set up a winning environment? What's the culture like that you have created or that you are part of that you are creating? Because regardless of your title or your role within an organization, you contribute to the success or failure of the culture of that business. And to me, I'm committed to be in a culture that is one of a championship culture, as we like to say. So guys like Drew have been with me for a long time because the expectation that I set for myself and for my business are congruent with the way Drew wants to live his life. So I always say create what you want and then go out and manifest it. Attract who you want to work with. And you know, in the athlete world, in the executive world, in the Leadership world, it tends to be very much word of mouth and who you're working with and how you're doing business. And that's the way it's been for me, at least in the athlete world, because, you know, when someone's happy with the way they're doing something and they get certain level of success, people see that and they want to be part of that. So that's how it's worked with working with Drew. And the one thing I always say, and you know this great yourself, Justin, is when you're a trainer, you're a coach, you got to tell your athletes, your clients, I don't care what level they're at, how they got to get better, what do you got to do to get better? So a guy like Drew, who's had great success, there hasn't been one off season where I haven't picked them apart and shared with, hey, this is what you need to do to get better. Here's how you improve your game. Because it doesn't matter who you are, there's always room for improvement. Man, I got so many ways that I got to improve. And you know, you brought up my family like, man, it's that constant battle of how do I be a better father, better husband? Because my mind constantly is going to how can I be a more successful entrepreneur? What can I do to create more impact in the world? And I'm like, okay, I got to spend time with my 13 year old daughter the same way I spend time with my 18 and 15 year old sons as well as, you know, my clients and my employees and everything else. So it's that constant struggle for balance in all aspects of being Todd.

What do you see? Because a lot of the, and I forget, yeah, I forget this because I watch athletes on TV and they look superhuman. What are these individuals dealing with as a, what is their biggest personal challenge? If you could pick one out, what would be their biggest personal challenge that they have to overcome to be at that level?

Great question, Pradeep. I would say this, that everyone's got their own Devils, right? I always say this. New levels, New Devils. New levels, New Devils is the higher you go. A lot of times your Devils come out. And that Devils could be anything, especially when you start getting money in your pocket. It could be anything from habits like food or drinking or partying or gambling. It could be any of that. If you got pockets and you got money in those pockets, all of a sudden you, you can develop some bad habits real quick. And that's why I'm always on these guys and athletes I work with is like, and you're as strong as your weakest link and you cannot have a chain of armor become weak. And the other thing I'd say is this, and this would be the part that's most dangerous is the mindset. You either get lazy, you get fat and lazy. When I say fat and lazy, I'm just talking like you get lethargic. You don't have that burning passion, desire to, to keep getting better. Because if you think you've already made it, you're in trouble. I mean the minute you think you've already made it, you've arrived, you're in trouble. You got to keep that passion. Well, how do you do that when you just sign a big deal? Had a guy today sign a pretty big deal worth millions of dollars. I'm like, now you got to go earn it, you got to go earn that money now. Now if you think you deserve that money, you're going to get a little complacent. You got to go earn that money. And it's that. And the other thing I would say is, believe it or not is confidence. A lot of people see athletes and they think, oh, they must be so confident. There's a lot of people, a lot of athletes who are scared, scared of either losing it all, scared of success and if they have that success that they think they want, how do I handle all that success between now with social media and media and, and the demands that are so public, you know, am I going to be an imposter? Am I truly worth that? Because as men and women we all have our faults and things like that. So I'd say that's why I'm always like in the mindset of it's like here's how we're going to get better in the mindset, here's how we're going to live with more confidence, higher self esteem, humility, yet keep that hunger as well. It's one of my favorite saying is be humble, stay hungry. Is you got to keep your humility and you got to keep your hunger as well.

I got another question for you because that was awesome. Do you ever find that athletes who deserve it, they work their butts off, come to that point? You talked about confidence where they say maybe I don't deserve this 100%.

Matter of fact, that's probably the norm because you don't hear about those athletes because they haven't made it. Many of them, they're still trying to scratch and claw to do it. And you start thinking, maybe I'm not cut out to do this, maybe I'm not fast enough. That's the doubt that starts to creep into any entrepreneur's head, any leader's head. It's called doubt and doubt, man. It starts getting in your head. Next thing you know, you start having that negative self talk and you start getting things that you know in your own habitual routine that will prevent you from doing that. There's no doubt that when I, when I have real discussions with my athletes and I'll share, what's your biggest demon going on in your head right now? And they're like, man, I don't know. I don't know if I could play at that level. You know, now they might be saying they can, but deep down maybe they think they can. Maybe they just had a bad performance and they threw three interceptions or they're not competing at the level they know they're capable of. And doubt starts to creep in. I often say you got to smack fear straight in the face. What I would say is you better train the way that you want to play at. And when I say train, I'm talking physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. You, you got to be armored up to be at your best at all times if you can trust your training level. The guy got a young pitcher right now who I just finished up with a little while ago. He's still trying to crack into the major league lineup and make it. And I doubt like you got it if you trust your preparation. But what I need you to do is to relax and not force the issue so much that you're not throwing well because you're putting so much pressure on yourself that you can't make it. That's when you start to win the ball game between the ears.

I was kind of giggling, as you said, hungry and humble because you're going to have to wait until how we close every episode. But going back to that story that you just talked about, what does that balance look like in terms of somebody who's striving for something, somebody who can still be pushing that. It's so purposeful and a fire that's burning inside of them, but yet balancing it with patience, knowing that, hey, it's not coming overnight, it's not going to just be there because you've been consistent for a year, consistent for two years. But hey, you know what? At that two and a half year mark, that might be it, or maybe it's the four or five or ten year mark that you're going to get that break. But what is it about creating that balance structure, and I hate the word balance, but rhythmic structure through. Through stress and through intervals of rest and work that can truly allow us to not be in it for the short term, but sustainably be there for the long term.

Yeah, I'm glad you clarified on the balancing versus rhythm thing because, man, listen, the last 25 years, I've worked with some of the world's best athletes and entrepreneurs. And one thing I say about greatness is you get obsessed with it. You get obsessed with greatness and it's dangerous. It's dangerous because you get obsessed with it and you want something so bad. And when I say want something so bad, it could be writing a book, it could be. It could be opening a business or selling a business. It could be growing a bit. Whatever it is, you get obsessed with that. That's why I say you got to set up your routines and set up your lifestyle in one in which you can sprint and then rest and then sprint and then rest. Because when you get obsessed with something, I don't care if it's as an artist, a musician, an actor, actress, an athlete, an entrepreneur, there's a certain level of obsession that has to take place if you truly want to be great, if you want to be the best. And that takes a hunger once again, that unsatiable appetite to succeed at what you want to create or manifest. That's a rare breed. Now, where does the balance come in? You all know I live by something called mellow yellow time. Mellow yellow time is the ability to turn it off. And the other thing I've seen, and you mentioned Drew Brees earlier, before Drew, one of the best attributes he has is he has the uncanny ability to compartmentalize life. And when I say compartmentalize, to truly set up life where. When he's training and when he's watching his film work and preparing, he is doing everything he can to be the best at what he can be. But when he's going to turn it off, he's going to turn it off. And that's a system that I've always shared with him and all my clients is you got to have mellow yellow as part of your time as well.

You know, a lot of athletes come in younger, they're rookies, they're, I'm going to say, immature to a certain degree. Do you see a point or what is that point where they go from having that immaturity to going to being a mature athlete? Whether that's. I want to Say more emotionally then cognitively. Is there a certain point that you see that transition typically happen, whether that's a specific season, whether they win something, whether it's a certain moment in their life? What is that point for most people?

Well, it depends on the age. Because you say, what's that point? I've seen some pretty mature high school kids that have a level head on their shoulders, that have their priorities in line. And I've seen. I've seen pro athletes who are five years deep in the Major League Baseball, the NBA or the NFL who are still searching for that point where they hit their stride, so to speak. So I don't know if there's any, quote, age per se, but what I'm always asking my athletes is, what are your goals, what are your dreams, what are your desires? And how do you measure your work ethic, your discipline to your desires? Because let me tell you what, I've sat in my office quite a bit and I've had people who are trying to make in the league that say, hey, I want to be an all Star or I want to be. I want to make it to an all pro level. But then they're not showing up to practice, they're not showing up for their training, or they're eating or partying on weekends. Like, wait a second, it's not matching up what you're telling me you want and what you're actually doing isn't going to get you there. So I've seen at all levels, I've seen some tremendously talented young men and women who've never made it because of their habits. And when I say that, I always say this is, you know, hard work beats talent when talent don't work. Hard work beats talent when talent don't work. And that's the truth. Now, if you can match hard work with talent, I don't care what you do for a living. If you're talented and you got a good head on your shoulders and you work your tail off, now that's a lethal combination.

It's a recipe for success, and it ultimately leads to greatness. And I'm so curious about your journey. I'm curious about where Todd Durkin came from as to ultimately, what has created Todd Durkin today.

Hmm. Well, I think, like anyone, I believe that we all have a story. And that story is really special. And that story typically can be traced back to your growing up, your younger years, good or bad, whether you came from a great stock or not so great a stock. Guys, I was the youngest of eight Kids. I am the youngest of eight kids, and my mom and dad got divorced when I was just five years old. We had very little money. I grew up in New Jersey, and I realized at a young age that sports was going to be my vehicle for success and hopefully ultimately a college education. And I was very, very fortunate to grow up in a town in Brick, New Jersey, where football was a powerhouse. And I played for an iconic football coach named Warren Wolf. And he was a father like figure to me who I dreamt from the time I was literally knee high because my brothers played for him. Like, I wanted to play for this coach so bad. And ultimately, when I got to high school, I was able to start as a true freshman. I got a college scholarship to go to William Mary in Virginia. And when I look back honestly to this day, what's ingrained in me is the work ethic. As a young man, seeing my mom work multiple jobs, raising eight kids as a. As a mom, the most loving mom. And when you're young, you don't know if you're poor, you got money. You just know that's what the environment. Looking back now, I was that lunch ticket kid. I was the kid. We had welfare checks and those orange lunch tickets, and I was embarrassed in the lunchroom in elementary and middle and even high school that I had to give that lunch ticket to the lunch lady so I could eat. And. And to this day, after the success I've had in my own career, I'll never get away from that work ethic that it takes to continue to put food on the table. My wife jokes around now. She's like, man, as long as you have food on the table and the bed to sleep in, you're happy. I'm like, you're absolutely right. I am. I don't need anything fancy. I don't even necessarily want anything fancy. I just, when I say I like to create impact, that's what drives me, is not fancy stuff. It's like, man, I got to keep that hunger and desire to reach some young kid, some entrepreneur who's going through a tough time. Like, for me, my love language is words of affirmation. When I get an email or a DM or Justin, you know, you hit me up like, hey, your words made a difference. That video I watched or that podcast I listened to made a difference. That's what makes me most fulfilled. And it all gets traced back to your roots. And for me, my roots are Brick, New Jersey. Growing up as that young kid of divorced parents, five sisters, two brothers being A scrappy little kid growing up playing football, basketball, baseball, soccer. As long as sports was on, I was playing it. So that's what makes me who I am today.

I love it because it's often seen that we see the end product, we see the end result. We see the. The person who is ultimately now impacting others at a great level, but we never know what drove that person to get there. We never know the struggle that it took to overcome. We never knew the lessons that were learned along the way that ultimately formulated your own conceptualization of the philosophies, the systems, the protocols, the impact that you lead with. And so I. I love that story because it goes to build that. Hey, it all comes down to how you work. It all comes down to how you show up day in and day out and are able to ultimately get it done at the end of the day.

Well, Justin and Pradeep, I don't know if you can hear, but right now, literally outside my office, there's like, jackhammers and saws and things going on because my office is under construction. Our building is under construction. And as I. As I near 50 years of age, we're always under construction. Like, our lives are always under construction. I laugh, but I'm like, I hear this song going on right now. I'm like, you know what? It's apropos for life. It doesn't matter if you're 10 years old or you're 25 or you're 50 or you're 75. We're always under construction. And I like it when I die. I've often joked that I do my best work when things are. Can you hear it right now? Like, you know, you hear it going off, but, like, when things aren't going well or when there's. When there's things that are in disarray, I feel like I'm doing my most meaningful work when people are down, when people need hope or motivation or inspiration, when things are going too well, it's uncomfortable. I don't know if you can relate to that. But, like, it's like, man, like, I need a deeper purpose. And that's why even here, you know, I say, my office under construction. We're creating a media room, my new office for podcasting, and everything else is literally being built as we speak right now. And I partly laugh, but I partly like, man, I can't hear everything because of the amount of construction. But, man, isn't that life? Like, we all strive. We want it to be prettier. We want it to Be better. And that's what keeps us going. But many times when it's not pretty, that keeps the grit ingrained in our bodies, minds and souls.

So, Todd, what's next for you? What's next on your list?

Getting my office done. Oh, man. Well, listen, you know, when you say what's next? It's a common question of what's next. One thing I'm having a great time at right now is coaching my two boys in high school football. I have realized the relevance of time and I love like this afternoon, when I am done with this, I am going to go coach my boys up in football. My oldest son is a senior and he is going to play college football down in North Carolina. I just realized and I learned this lesson from my father, the value of time. And my dad left this earth too young when he was just 58 years young and I was a 20 year old kid. And as a father now bringing up to, you know, Justin, the time I spend is I'm trying to stay in the now. Although I have a vision of what I'm creating and how, you know, I'm speaking more and I'm coaching more and I'm doing the podcasting thing and all that. I'm really trying to enjoy now, like right now. And if anything, this last year has taught us is how can we stay in the now but have a vision for the future? What that looks like, like, I got to be, right? I say, you got to be where your feet are at. You got to be where your feet are at. So here's where my feet are at right now. I'm tuned into you guys and the podcast. But I also know that in six months and 12 months, when I'm spitting out even more content with my podcast and the videos and courses and coaching of, my mastermind that I'm doing is that ultimately it's all about changing lives. And my mission and vision in life is to change 10 million lives. That's what gets me up in the morning when I get fired up. It's like someone. I don't know who it is, but someone's life's changing today. I don't know what story they're gonna see on Instagram. I don't know what post you're gonna see on Instagram or what podcast episode they're gonna listen to. Hopefully, if you listen to this right now, it changes your life. But you gotta stay hungry. You gotta find what it's gonna take to do that. And for me, that 10 million, it's like I Don't know who it is, where it is, what part of the world you're in. But I'm gonna change someone's life today.

I love that it's so impactful knowing that we don't know what we're going to put out there into the world that's going to resonate with somebody. We don't know when we're going to pat somebody on the shoulder. I mean, with COVID don't pat them on the shoulder, maybe give them an elbow or something like that. But you're going to say something to somebody or you're going to spread a message, you're going to post something that's going to have an impact on somebody, that's going to change their life for the better. Because we don't know the stories of everybody else's lives. We don't understand what people are under, the pressures they're under, the difficulties they're going through. And if we can lead with empathy, we can lead with kindness, we can lead with a focus and an intention to have impact on a day to day basis. It's truly empowering as to who is going to take that message on any given day. Now, everything you see from you, it's impact. And I know it's an acronym. So kind of get into it for everybody as to what, what IMPACT truly means.

Yeah, well, it's evolved over the last decade or so because in 2010 I wrote a book. It was called the Impact Body Plan. I always wanted to write a book. And Drew won the Super Bowl 2010, February 2010, 2009 season. And it was six months later that I was offered my first book deal. And it was called the Impact bike plans, a 10 week transformation program. But I didn't have an acronym then. I, I just knew it was about impact and legacy and creating a great life. And over the last 10 years, this acronym has evolved into a mantra of how I live my life. The I in Impact stands for live inspired. You got to be inspired. Inspired means to be in spirit. When you're full of the spirit, then you can have the energy and the positivity and the optimism to continue living your dream, whatever that be. So let's live inspired. M is master your craft. Master your craft. And when I mentioned some of the athletes I've worked with, it's that continual honing in on your craft. So whatever your craft is, whether it be training, coaching as an entrepreneur in the business world, with marketing, branding, online marketing, whatever it is, you're continually working on your craft, the P is play at world class. The P when you talk about playing at world class is a mindset. Get your mind right, get your mind right. It's what I say to myself every day. It's my self talk. GD get your mind right, get your mind right, get your mind right is the positive talk about what you can do to play it world class of. Listen, it's not easy to play it world class on an everyday basis. They talk about, you know, there's no traffic jams on the extra mile. Well, when you think about getting your mind right, when you think about 80,000 thoughts a day, 60% of those thoughts plus 60% of those are often negative thoughts. You've got to get your mind right every single day on that. The A in impact is action. Take action for what you want in your life. So you set big dreams and big visions great. Everyone does. Last I checked, everyone wants to be a millionaire. Everyone wants to get great accolades and success. But are you willing to take the risk to take the action that's necessary? Are you willing to fail? Are you willing to fail to get to where you want to go? C is condition for greatness which comes into play for everything. Condition your body, your mind and your soul to be the best that it can possibly be. Not in comparison to anyone else but your own. Self conditioning yourself to where you're at today to get up, to get vertical, to make better choices nutritionally, physically, mentally and again spiritually. To do the things necessary because that leads to the T and the T is tenacity. Be tenacious to have the fervor, the energy, the spirit. To play at a level where people want to be around you. You know, to be that person. When your phone rings, you pick up that person. You pick up the phone for that person. You want to be the person they pick up the phone for. That's the energy, the spirit again, the fervor to be that man or that woman. That is a game changer. You're either positive or you're negative. Last I checked, no one wants to be around negative people. I don't want to be around negative people. I want to be around other fire breathing dragons that are going to breathe life into me. You know, I want to be that iron who's going to sharpen other people's iron. That's what it's all about to me, impacts a way of living. It's my mantra. It's what gets me up, it's what keeps me going. It's if you were to look at who I'M spending time with. The majority of the time, it's the people that are going to lift me up and help me be a better version of myself as well.

It's so impactful. It's just even hearing the explanation of everything because you start to realize that it is who is around you. And it was my next question. Perfect lead in is who is around you? Who is your mentor? Who do you have around you that inspires you daily right now?

Well, there's several people and there's different types of leaders and mentors in one's life, right? So one of them is my wife. My wife is my sidekick, man. I love spending time with my wife on a personal level and a relational level, obviously. But she also challenged me the way I think. My wife Melanie challenges the way I think. And she actually, she encouraged me to go deeper in my purpose and in my faith. So she is one my coaching staff here at the local high school. I am around those guys four or five hours a day right now. And like anything, you have got to be careful who you're, who you're around because you know how they speak, what you speak. All of these things matter. But I'm also very blessed. I've got some people in my life that I've chosen to spend more time with. Pastor David Jeremiah is a guy who's been preaching the word for she's 50 years, I think, and he's a guy I talk to. He's Normally a client three times a week at Fitness Quest 10 with COVID He hasn't been here, but we talk on the phone on a regular basis. I have a Bible study with Pastor Myles McPherson. And in that Bible study, I've got guys like Andre Reed, the former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Tyrell Williams, who's now with the Detroit Lions. We've got other people in that Bible study that on Tuesday nights, I know that that's my iron man. That's my fire on that. And then right here at Fitness Quest 10, my own team, guys like Jeff Bristol, who's my partner in crime, changing hundreds of lives every darn week right now as we get up and going again here at FQ10. So these are some of the people that I'm around on a regular basis that that helped me think bigger and better. And putting yourself in an environment like today, as we record this on a Monday, you know, showing up on a Monday morning, you walk in, the energy is blaring like, dang, let's go. Let's rock and roll. And that's an environment that's a culture and we create that culture so that we can be the best versions of ourselves.

Again, every time that we speak, I mean, I get fired up, I learn something. And I think that goes to the whole thing that you're talking about of who do you have around you, who are you putting yourself in, in the environment of, and are you leveling up or are you sinking down to what you spoke about before? And to everybody listening, I encourage you to go follow Todd. Be involved in things he has going on, get curious, ask questions, dive in deeper. And so in order for people to do that, Todd, where can people find you? Where can people engage in more of your content and what you have going on?

I think a couple things. Number one, Instagram is my name, Odd Durkin. I've got a podcast as well called the Todd Durkin Impact Show. Listen on to that as well. And I have my website, toddurkin.com, todurkin.com and Justin, I do want to say something to that because I think people, sometimes they hear about iron sharpens iron and who you hang out with is who you are and the five foot steel. But let me ask you this. There are probably people in your life who are energy vampires, who do suck the living energy out of you or they're more negative than you want, or they're gossipers, right? So the question I always get is, well, what if they are in your life or what if they're in your family? Because again, I've got a big family. Well, here's the thing that I think is important to recognize. Number one is you've got to pick and choose when you spend time with people who may not elevate your consciousness of thinking, right? So if you have put a lot of time, energy and investment into your own mindset, well, then you're not always going to be around people that have the same mindset as you. And by the way, you don't need to be. My pastor always says this. You got to go out into the streets and do your discipling as well. So you're going to be around people who aren't always like that. But you've got to protect your energy when you're around people who may be negative or, or pessimistic or gossiping. You got to make sure you don't just reciprocate that exact same energy. And if it's someone in your family that you find is constantly gossiping to you, then you've got to make sure that you're picking and choosing when you're talking about certain topics with them, whether it be on the phone or live, like listen. You can't always be on listening to things that you shouldn't be listening to. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't ever listen to them as well, because that's just real life. You're going to be in situations sometimes where people are saying things that you may not necessarily agree with. I learned in Massage Therapy School, 1995, Atlanta, Georgia. You've got to envision yourself that you've got a white bubble around you. It's three feet wide, it's all around you. And you can't let anyone's negative energy ever penetrate your white bubble. That white bubble is purity. That white bubble is positivity. It's optimism. So you've got to keep that bubble strong. And if you don't constantly fill that white bubble up with good thinking, you're going to soon be overtaken with darkness and toxic thought and toxicity in your life. And just as a reminder for anyone listening in that is daily, that's something that we've got to continually create habits for ourselves. Regardless of if you're journaling or what you're listening to, if you're reading good inspirational material or spiritual material that's going to lift you up, fill you up, whatever it is, whatever your habits are that you do, you've got to make sure that you dial that in. Because all the highest performers in the world that I've worked with, I am on them with their routines and their habits and constantly cleaning things up. Because it is an everyday thing. Not five days a week or four days a week or six. It's an everyday thing that we've got to continually work on, feeding and nourishing our bodies, minds and souls.

It's all about capacity building, capacity to handle what you're in front of every single day. And so I absolutely love that. I also know that the apples don't fall far from the tree. And your kids during quarantine wrote an Amazon bestseller. So tell everyone a little bit about that, man.

I'll tell you, I think they were so bored, they're like, dad, it's interesting, I don't know about you, but like two weeks into the quarantine, not even two weeks, like two days in a quarantine, I'm like, man, what can I do to make a difference? And the first thing we did was we created this program called Get Yoked and I included the kids. And it was a 30 day program, all body weight that parents could get their kids using their own bodies to have these great workouts. But what I did in there, I had these get yout Mind Write motivational messages that they could listen to on their phones as well. So that was the first project we did in April, May of last year, the Get Yoked program. And that was a lot of fun. But then my son Brady, my middle son, he's now just turned 16. Turning 16 here. No, shoot. He'd be turning 17 in a couple weeks, man. Crazy. It's crazy how quickly these guys are getting old. But Brady wrote a book called Quarantine T E E N Quarantine. And the whole book was about lessons learned during the quarantine from a kid. And it was a book with other teenagers as well. And yeah, became an Amazon best seller. And I'm so happy and proud of Brady because Brady's a creative. Brady is a right brain thinker. Unlike me, I'm very left brain, very logical. Brady's got a very creative side to him and he loves to write. Like me, I love to write as well. And just the lessons he learned during the quarantine, he put into book format. And quarantine has done really, really well. And all of that money that's raised for quarantine is going back to charity as well, which is kind of cool. So these young boys and girls are learning to give back and, you know, not just to make money, but to give back and make a difference in society. So one of the things I'm most proud of during the quarantine was having my son Brady be part of a book project that was designed to ultimately be philanthropic as well.

Absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. And we have such a action oriented audience. We always ask this at the end, but what can our audience do for you,

man? Take action on what it is that you want. Like, I hope that my words speak some life into you. And if you need that, I guess what you can do, subscribe to my podcast. Like, hopefully you're subscribed to this podcast. Don't just listen to this one episode, subscribe to this podcast right here you're listening to and make sure that again, you just constantly indulging in great input. If you want a great output, you got to be careful what your input is. So podcasting is one way to do that. So again, I'd encourage you. My podcast is called the Todd Durkin Impact Show. If there's one action step you could do is continue listening to this podcast, go to my podcast, subscribe to that, listen to that share these podcast episodes because there's probably people like yourself, maybe you're not struggling, but maybe someone is that needs some life support spoken into them today. But the one thing I've learned now in my life is this is you got to stay what I call juiced up. You got to have the juice. The juice is the mojo, it's the energy and you've got to find that and it's gsd God sized dreams. What's your God sized dream? What is it that you want? So if there's something that you can take action on today is to go deep on your own self and think about man, I don't care how old you are, how young you are, how pretty you are, how ugly you are, how much you've been through, how much adversity you've had, how many failures you've had, how many successes you've had, ultimately you're as good as your next step, your next move, your next move. So what is your gsd, your God sized dream? That GSD should propel you into taking the action necessary that you need to take. Not want to take, need to take to ultimately live a life worth telling a story about. Live a life where telling a story about. What's your story? To me, that's what keeps it real and keeps the juice flowing.

Todd, again, thank you so much for the time thank you so much for again blessing everybody with these words and the inspiration and motivation to go and actually take action to figure out what that GSD is, figure out what that God sized dream is so you can ultimately tell live a life that's worth telling a story about. And guys, remember to be great at anything, it takes a certain amount of obsession. There needs that rhythm between sprint and rest, sprint and rest so that at the end of the day you can have impact. You can bless somebody else with having impact. You can bless your family yourself with impact. Because at the end of the day that's all we have and the story that we choose to tell. So stay hungry, stay humble and we'll see you next week.