Top Performance Hacks To Lose Weight, BUILD MUSCLE & Crush Your Fitness Goals EP 1387

People appreciate vulnerability. And for the longest time, I didn't share the story of my eating disorder when I was younger because I was embarrassed. Of course. I was embarrassed. I was afraid. I was... How would people view me having this, what I viewed as a weakness?

Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. This podcast is sponsored by Northwestern Mutual. Everyone wants to feel good about their finances, right? Well, that's why I've had life insurance with Northwestern Mutual for years. Their financial professionals ask the right questions, truly listen, and help uncover opportunities most people miss. I've seen it firsthand. Northwestern Mutual has been a part of my journey from the very beginning, providing the security and peace of mind I need as a human and an entrepreneur. Find a better way to money@nm.com the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, paid testimonial by a Northwestern Mutual policy owner.

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And I want to ask you about everything you've learned from morning routines from being in the army to now being a civilian now and not being in the army anymore but running a successful thriving business. So is there anything that you learned from the army that you still apply today that has allowed you to separate yourself emotionally, physically, mentally from others and also that's giving you tools to thrive in your business and life.

So there's three things I talk about that are non-negotiables for my morning. One, it's wake up early. Two, it is move your body and sweat. And three, it's search for solitude. So when I was in the military, you don't have an option to press snooze or sleep in.

You gotta wake up early.

Right.

And they don't let you just kind.

Of relax in the mornings and just do what you want?

Unfortunately not. When I got to Fort Hood in 2014, I was an infantry platoon leader and I lived about 30 minutes away from Fort Hood. So I had to be at work by 6:00 a.m. So I'm waking up About 4:30 a.m. every morning and I'm getting to work at six for a quick meeting. And then by 6:30 we're stretching out for morning PT and we do that for an hour and that'd be from 6:30 to 7:30 or 6:30 to 8:00. And then I would eat my breakfast in my truck, shower, change, be in the office by nine.

Wow.

That was my morning routine and I lived that for four years. When I transitioned out of the Army.

So that was ROTC, is that what that is?

That was actual active duty military.

Okay, but it was in the US or in South Korea?

That was in the US.

In the US, got it.

Yeah, it was my station at Fort Hood. I was in South Korea for a nine month rotation in 2016. Got it. Morning routine was very similar. When I transitioned out of the Army, there was never really the thought of, well, let's change this morning routine up, 'cause it worked. For me, it was proven successful that it allowed me to achieve a lot of the things that I wanted to do throughout the day through backwards planning, backwards planning and forward thinking. Now my morning routine, I still wake up early, move my body in sweat, and search for solitude. Solitude for me, it is a form of meditation, and that's running. So I'll wake up every morning, 5:00 AM, and people ask the question all the time, like, well, if I'm not a morning person, how do I wake up at 5:00 AM? Sometimes you have to train the body.

You gotta become a morning person.

Right, you wake up at 5 a.m. for 30, 60, 90 days. That just becomes routine, that becomes habit.

Well, also if you're gonna wake up at 5 a.m. you have to start sleeping earlier. So you are awake as opposed to exhausted at 5 a.m. so you probably.

Don'T go to bed at 2 a.m.

Right.

No, I'm trying to get at least.

Seven hours of sleep.

Yeah, exactly. So I wake up at 5 a.m. And first thing I do is I go out in the kitchen, I make my coffee, and I'll check my emails, I'll go through kind of things I have to do to prepare for business that day. I check my schedule, and as soon as I'm done drinking my coffee, I lace up my shoes, throw on my shorts, throw on my hat, go out for my morning run. Right now it's anywhere from five to seven miles. And for me, that morning, five to seven miles, at a aerobic pace, you know, it's below my max aerobic heart rate. I can really sink in and what happens during those five to seven miles is absolutely transformational. Where if there's problems in my life, they will find me during that run. I will navigate issues that I'm experiencing. I will solve problems I'm experiencing. I'll get emotional during these five to seven miles. there's this dopamine dump and rush that I experience unlike anything else in my life. And then when I get back from that run, it's eat breakfast, shower, get into the office. But I've already started my day with a win. I've accomplished those three things of waking up early, move my body in sweat, and then solitude.

Yeah, it's beautiful, man. What happens when you don't follow that morning routine? Can you still have a great day or do you feel like you're, not as successful.

It's off. I feel like I'm behind, really. Yeah, I mean, even days that I might wake up early and not run if it's not a run day, but regardless, I'm waking up at 5:00 a.m., I'm moving my body in some capacity. I just feel better when I move. And I'm searching for solitude, whether it's sitting on the couch drinking my coffee or giving our baby girl a bottle to put her back to sleep. But if I don't achieve those things, the day's off, or I feel like I'm behind and I'm playing catch up, or I need that 5 a.m. wake-up call to set the day up for a big win.

Now, you know, obviously you were trained in the Army to prepare for the worst-case scenarios, right? To prepare for what could go wrong and when this happens, because it will go wrong at certain times, how to react and respond from a place of focus and clarity and calm, essentially under stress. So let's say someone isn't able to get their morning routine in or they weren't able to wake up early for whatever reason, life happens. They plan for perfection, but life happens once in a while. How can they mentally stay in.

A.

Focused present mindset and not feel behind even when they miss their morning routine.

I think you have to detach yourself from the issue you're experiencing. Go big picture. So to kind of paint a picture of a story that kind of wraps that all up, I remember I was in Fort Benning, Georgia for training. This was 2000 and 14, probably. It was before I got to my unit in Fort Hood. I was a brand new second lieutenant, and we were being mentored by the 75th Ranger Regiment for a few days in training. And these were all captains in the Captain's career course. And I was talking to this one officer, and I said, you know, sir, when I get to my unit, What's gonna set me up for success? How do I become the best officer possible? And he pointed across the room to this other officer. He said, you, see that guy over there? When shit hits the fan, when chaos strikes, that guy is as cool as the other side of the pillow.

Really?

Because he detaches himself. He's not reactive. He is proactive. He has a plan, but he pulls back from 10,000 feet in the air, looks at all the moving pieces, and then makes a plan. So I think what happens with a lot of people, and myself included, it used to happen a lot, is something goes wrong, your plan isn't working. Well, now you're in fight or flight. You're reactive. You're trying to just put things back in place. It's often better to just take a step back, take a deep breath, look at what's going on, and how do I deliberately make a plan to adjust and execute.

How does someone train to do that? Like what, you know, when you've never done that before and you need to be in control and life feels out of control for these moments, how do you train and prepare to be that cool and calm, like that officer was?

I think it's awareness and then repetition.

So.

Was it things you guys did in Army to train for that?

I think it was just through like mentorship. You know, like you always throughout training have a non-commissioned officer who has years of experience or an officer who has years of experience. But when I got to my platoon in 2014 in Texas, I was an infantry platoon leader. I was the platoon leader of these 40 soldiers and non-commissioned officers. I had the least amount of experience out of all of them.

You were the leader.

Exactly. New officer. My platoon sergeant had 18 years of experience in the Army with multiple combat deployments.

He was reporting to you.

Technically.

Wow.

My squad leaders, my team leaders, they had multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. A lot of experience. And then I had junior enlisted soldiers in the platoon. For me, I was being mentored by my platoon sergeant, my squad leaders, my team leaders. So the biggest piece of advice I got when I first arrived at platoon was don't make any changes. This is not your platoon. Yeah, allow them to let you in. Just come in, observe. And when they start asking for some advice in your opinion, that's them letting you in. and I learned so much through and from these non-commissioned officers and soldiers during my four years. A lot of it was just having awareness, reading the room, like, do these people trust me? Do they want me to lead them? Will they work alongside of me? Having that awareness and then repetition, consistent repetition will help you get better.

Now, how long you've been married?

A little over two years now.

Two years. Does your wife have a morning routine and was it different before you guys had your child or after?

My wife has a morning routine. It was definitely different.

It wasn't 5 a.m. Wake up.

It was never 5 a.m. Wake up, but for her it was always, we are routine people. It was wake up, she would go through her green supplement and then water and then coffee and then go work out and train. and both of us, we need to move our bodies to be sane. Having the baby has changed life pretty significantly, but we've found ways to still implement our plan to achieve our routine throughout the day, where we both have to adapt and make some changes, but it's difficult, it's challenging, but it's doable. Yeah.

Why do you think morning routines are creating your own routine that works for you? is a common trait of successful people in general versus those that don't have a morning routine.

It goes back to, I'm a huge fan of what the military taught me about setting your, not day, but a mission, a week, a year, five years up for success, it's backwards planning. So it's okay, in this amount of time, for me to get from point A to point B, I now need to go backwards. What do I need to do at this time away and this time away? How do I set myself up for success to get from point A to point B? So it's backwards planning while you're forward thinking. And anyone who has some sort of routine allows you to execute and complete your non-negotiables while still achieving your day your week, your month, your year plan. And for me, that's why I believe it's so important for myself, but a lot of other successful people, it's because if you don't have a routine, especially a morning routine, you're playing catch up. And especially if you have a lot of responsibilities and obligations. Because for me, as soon as the day starts in the office at 8:00 a.m., I don't know what fire I'm fighting. But if I didn't do my three things early on, I don't know when I'm getting to it, especially now having a child.

You just don't feel as prepared probably, right? If you're not waking up early, if you're not moving your body and sweating in some way, and if you're not searching for solitude, which could be running or processing problems or finding solutions in your mind, essentially, then you're getting to the office and you're not feeling ready for the day, is what I'm hearing you say. Correct.

Yeah.

And you just could be more on edge or triggered or reactive, right? Yeah. I've heard a lot of people saying kind of being like the anti morning routine talk online lately where people are like, the morning routines are, you know, you don't need them. Just wake up and start working. What's your thoughts on that? If you're for the opinion of people that's just saying, why waste an hour of your day in the morning when you can wake up, start getting to work and start making progress?

I mean, if it works for you.

Yeah.

If it's not broke, don't fix it.

Yeah.

I've never been the type of person that says like, you need to, you have to, you should. A lot of the content that I put online is this is what works for me and it might work for you. But I can tell you right now if I didn't have a morning routine.

You'D be a mess.

I'd be a mess. Like my day would be chaotic, I would be behind, I'd be, I hate being in a reactive space and state. I'm a very proactive, deliberate, strategic, intentional person. One of my favorite things that I've ever heard, it was from Jordan, my media director. I walked in his office one day and it was his note on his computer and it said, Lack of intentionality leads to a repetition of what is easiest. For me, I want to be intentional with everything I do. And if I'm not being intentional with a routine or my day or the things that I say and do, I'm falling into a rhythm and routine of easy. And I don't want easy. I want challenging. I want hard. I want deliberate, intentional, strategic.

Why do you want challenging and hard versus easy and comfortable?

Because I've grown in every aspect of challenging and hard. I can't tell you one moment in my life where I've grown in easy and it drives my wife insane. She's like, take a break quite often. But I know that when the pressure is there and it's challenging and it hurts and it brings stress and discomfort, I know it's on the other side of that. And the only reason I know it's on the other side of that is because I've gone through it so many times. You know, bootstrapping a business is tough. I've gone through a decade of of hurt and struggle and pain, but to see where it's put me, there's no way I'd be there now if it was easy and comfortable. And regardless, I want to work for what I achieve. It's often choosing the hard right over the easy wrong. And wherever I get to, when I die one day, I want to know I've worked for this. I've earned this.

I'm curious, what was the hardest obstacle you had to overcome growing up?

So I had an eating disorder when I was younger. I was 13, 14 years old. To this day, I can't tell you what caused or created it.

Really?

I just remember I slowly wanted to restrict more food. I wanted to be able to feel more bones over my skin. I wanted to be lighter. I wanted to see the scale decreasing. I wanted to be hungry. I wanted to be frail. I don't know why to this day.

You wanted to be weak.

I wanted to be weak.

How old were you?

13, 14 years old. I mean, it started getting pretty severe to the point where my parents were taking me to the hospital on a regular basis and they were running tests. I was in and out of the hospital. They diagnosed me with all these different things multiple times. I internally knew I was starving myself.

So what did they diagnose you as and what were you telling people?

At one point they thought I had a, parasite and a worm from Mexico, from a vacation. They thought I had celiac disease, so they had me, you know, eat no gluten for a period of time. And one of the last tests they did on my body was they put me under and they put a tube down my throat to look into my stomach. And what they realized was the food from the day before was still sitting in my stomach. So my organs weren't working and they weren't digesting this food. And I was essentially killing myself through this process. And I remember one day, my mom would take me out of school and she'd take me to the doctor's appointment at the Hershey Medical Center, what it felt like on a weekly basis at this point. And we would drive into the medical center and we'd turn towards the clinics and the emergency room section. But this last trip we ever took, we pulled into the Hershey Medical Center. Instead of turning left, we turned right on this one day, and it was the outpatient clinic. And we pulled into this building, and on the building it read Eating Disorder Clinic. And at that moment I knew, I was like, I'm caught.

Ooh, they know. Because they did everything else, and they're like, oh, he doesn't have this stuff. He's doing it himself. How long did that take? A year, six months?

It's probably a year.

Really?

It was a year.

So you were essentially lying. You knew the whole time, but you were doing all these tests, but you just didn't want to say, I'm doing this intentionally.

Right.

Wow.

So I remember that day where we walk up, I mean, I can picture it like it was yesterday. We walk up these set of stairs into this outpatient clinic. and I sit down with this doctor and he literally just confronts me right away, We know what you've been doing. We know you've been starving yourself.

Wow.

And I broke down just crying. And I turned to my mom, said, I'm done. I'll fix it right now. I was that embarrassed that I didn't wanna be in that room. I didn't wanna come back to this place. I'll make a conscious effort to get better. We wrapped up this session and we went home and I remember opening up the pantry thinking I need to start eating again. And I grabbed this box of Pop-Tarts and I pull out a package and there's two Pop-Tarts per package and I turn it around and it says 400 calories in two Pop-Tarts. And I'm thinking this is probably more than I've been consuming on a day. Wow. For most days. and I ate these two Pop-Tarts, which was at the time relatively one of the most challenging things I've ever done. And I had a very, you know, I started eating and putting weight on after that moment. To say it was like a switch flipped, it wasn't that by any means. For years I had unhealthy relationships with food that slowly got better. that's what made me want to study nutrition in college. I wanted to learn more. I wanted to know more. But that for me was, it was a pivotal point in my life. It was very long ago, but I still can remember a lot of those moments like they were yesterday. But it was, I think, fundamental and a foundation for who I am today and what I'm interested in, what I'm passionate about, possibly a reason I want to and enjoy helping others, especially in health, fitness, nutrition. But that was challenging for me when I was younger. Wow. For years.

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Was there something that you, I mean, I'm sure you've been able to assess this now, but was there a disconnect you had to reality or a disconnect from your parents or did you not feel seen or accepted for who you were? Was there something going on where you felt picked on by kids?

No, I mean the only thing that I can really pinpoint to is, and this might have correlated and transformed who I am today, is I enjoyed having control. I enjoyed having control of what I was able to put in my body and how much I would work out, how much I would sweat to lose weight. And I loved having that control, this obsessive controlled mindset and motivation. I do think I have funneled that level of obsessive control into building a business. into chasing and working towards success. I think I still have that in me, but I've just funneled it into something else.

Into a healthier version of yourself. I mean, did you feel close to your parents or did you have like disruption in the family dynamics or? No, I mean, your parents were there, they were great, they were happy, they were loving.

Family was great. Extended family was great. There was no issues. But for some reason, I just wanted to control a part of my life that I haven't, you know, and I've never reached out or used therapy to discover maybe why.

Interesting.

Which I could possibly do and should do in the future, maybe to-- that'd be powerful, yeah. To discover. Why?

'Cause I wonder if you felt out of control somewhere. you know, in life, or you didn't feel like you had control of certain things, and that was the way to gain control.

Right.

And I'm sure there's something there.

Yeah.

And at some point in my life, I would love to uncover it.

How old are you now?

32.

Yeah. When I was, when I hit about 30, that's when I started to, like, ask myself all the things that I went through, why I went through them, and how to, like, start healing those things. It was extremely powerful. and I'm still on the journey. It's not like it's, you've always arrived or something, but I think it'd be really inspiring for you to try that and explore it and just revisit and start mending that kind of relationship you had with your younger self.

Right.

And maybe you've already, you know, healed that relationship from your 13 year old self, from what you did to your body. But I'm curious how much more peace, how much more abundance. how much more love you would experience and feel and create in the world, and how much more you'd be able to serve from a place of healing. Not saying that you're not healed, but from a place of awareness and understanding and compassion for your 13 year old self.

So I think something I've learned as I've gotten older, especially since having a kid, is throughout life you go through these possibly traumatic experiences. And you think once they are over, they are just swept under the rug and gone. But you do see them resurface at other parts of your life in possibly different forms. And it makes you want to go back and let's fix some of these previous issues to set us up for success in the future.

Man, I feel like it's going to make you an incredible father when you start that journey for yourself. And I'm not saying you need to do it right now and do it on your own time, but. when you start that journey, it's going to make you an incredible father, husband, even more so than you are already, because I know you're already great at those things. It's going to give you a level of focus and energy that you probably never felt you had. I know you have a lot of it, but it's going to give you, like, this even more renewable energy and peace. So I highly. Maybe this is the year for you to do it, you know, possibly. Maybe it is. I'm gonna follow up with you on this, see how your doing with it.

So what I have found in, you know, this is mainly through social media and building a community, but I will apply this to building my family as well as people appreciate vulnerability. And for the longest time, I didn't share the story of my eating disorder when I was younger because I was embarrassed. Of course. I was embarrassed. I was afraid. I was how people view me having this, what I viewed as a weakness early on. But from the moment I shared it years ago, the outreach initially was immense. Many people, men and women, going through an unhealthy relationship with food or an eating disorder and just knowing that they are not going through this alone was absolutely powerful. And I think more people go through it than we realize, probably even people that are closer, very close to us. are going through something similar. But I've learned through this journey over the last decade of my life that sharing vulnerabilities connects you with people that you might not have previously.

Yeah. What was the greatest lesson both your parents taught you growing up?

Hard work. My dad's side of the family, they were dairy farmers, Central Pennsylvania. Talk about hard working people. I mean, you're waking up at 4 or 5 a.m. to milk the cows every day, and then before you go to sleep every night, you're milking the cows again. There's no days off. Your life depends on the crop and the animals. I learned a lot through my grandparents. My mom's side of the family were mainly military. My grandfather, my uncles, my cousins served in the army. Air Force. So having, I think that was a very interesting dynamic growing up of having, you know, two different families where hard work was the foundation, honest hard work and serving in two different capacities. I learned a lot from watching them. And they never had to tell me, Nick, you need to work hard to achieve X, Y, and Z. I just observed. They watched.

They modeled it for you.

Right.

And for me, that was extremely powerful. I learned that from my dad. My mom was in the school system. She supervised and taught special education. She was involved with Special Olympics, very involved in our community, helping less fortunate families. She was extremely involved. I learned so much from my mom.

I asked this question to a lot of people. I don't know why, when I started asking this, it's probably the last couple of years, but imagine a scale of self-love and inner peace. 10 being you have full acceptance and love for yourself and all the parts of your past and present. and you're at complete inner peace, 10. One being miserable, hate yourself, no peace ever. Where would you be on that scale right now?

Maybe a six. Five or six?

Five or six.

Yeah.

Why do you think you're at a F on a scale of one to 10 in inner peace and self-love?

I think a lot of it.

You.

Know, and it's interesting building something great over a decade has been so rewarding. I've gotten so much from it. But as an entrepreneur, I think what I'm still trying to navigate and figure out is, you know, what is fulfillment? What is enough? What is being satisfied and being present? Something I'm actively trying to navigate and work on is, as someone who I would categorize myself as a high achiever, I always view projects, campaigns, objectives as not what I've done, but how could I have done better? Why, you know, we're here, why aren't we there yet?

And.

I would argue that a lot of entrepreneurs experience that, that struggle, that internal struggle, and for the longest time, for me that was fine, that was normal. I was okay with that. It actually all changed when my daughter was born. Where, it's like, you know, work, work, work was priority for the longest period of time. Now I have this family, this family I need to take care of, this family that I want to be present for, this family that, you know, I want my daughter to love me and want me in her life by her choice, not by force. Force. So it's really made me think of how do I become more present? How do I become truly happy with where I am now and what I have accomplished, not what I've yet to do. And that's something I'm currently trying to navigate. I think part of it is having the awareness of, I know it's an issue, but what will bring me true pure happiness?

What is that?

It's my family. It's being content with what we've built and with what team and where we're at now and the plan that we have in place to get us to the future of where we want to be. I'm a person that's always thinking 10 steps ahead. And with that, I sometimes struggle to live in the present. Embrace the present, appreciate the present. Yeah. That's something I'm trying to work towards.

What do you think it would take from you in order to create, you know, seven, eight or nine or 10 one day of that feeling internally? What would need to shift? What would you need to let go of? What would you need to step into?

This is something I'm actively doing in the business right now. You know, I stepped down from the CEO role. about a month ago, put a very talented operator, Cat Thomas, in as CEO of BPN. That was the first step for me in getting me as Nick Bahr in a place that's a 7, 8, 9. It's delegating and elevating. I'm naturally a doer. If things aren't getting done, I'm going to do them myself. I'm going to dive in because I know I can and I know I will. Part of that is when you're the owner of something.

You're responsible.

You're responsible and you care so much and it's your baby and you spent 10 years leading up to this point getting it here. I think a lot of that is delegating, putting the right people in the right place in my life to help me facilitate the life that I want to live with my family. Stepping down from the CEO role was part of that. That was step one. Now it's continuing to build out my team so that I can step away. Every entrepreneur deals with this. Giving up your Legos, giving up responsibilities that you love doing, even if your time is Better spent elsewhere, delegating and elevating others to operate in those roles and letting go a little bit, having a pulse but letting go will get me to a 7, 8, 9.

It's good awareness.

It's tough.

And you're starting that process.

We started that process and it feels really good.

That's good.

It feels really, really good.

You already feel like you have more peace.

Yeah, absolutely. this is the power of having people in your life that you can trust. You know, I now have people in my life, I have for a long time, but there's different parts of your life that require different people, business, faith, family. When you start allowing people in to help you, who have been wanting to help you for the longest time, but you finally allow them to help you, It feels really good.

Yeah, that's great man.

There's a lot of resistance.

I don't know man. Especially someone like you who wants control.

Yeah.

Or who grew up needing control over certain things. And it's hard to unwind that sometimes of that kind of personality type. And it's also what helped you get to where you are.

Right.

But what gets us where we are won't always get us where we want to be.

I believe in that. Wholeheartedly.

What are some non-negotiables for you every day besides the morning routine process for you? Is there non-negotiables in the way you think and the words you use, how you connect with your wife or your kid or your team, the way you sleep, what other non-negotiables?

I gotta train every day. I gotta be in my body. This morning we knocked out a six mile run before recording this. Gotta move my body, gotta spend quality time with my family, my wife, my daughter. You know, for me, diet and training, if I take care of the food that I put in my body and the way that I move my body, I'm setting myself up for a good day the rest of the day. But it's also having a plan. Non-negotiable for me is having a plan for that day.

Do you ever not have a plan?

No. I mean, even if it's a weekend.

Even if you just do nothing and chill, that's the plan.

Even if it's a weekend and it's just hanging out, there's still things throughout the day where, you know, I'm gonna prep these foods. I'm gonna do this workout. I'm going to read this book. I did an interview with Chad Wright a few months ago, prior Navy SEAL.

Great guy.

Great guy. And one thing he said in our interview that resonated not just with myself, but my team was that your tongue is your rudder. The things that you say about yourself, about other people, about the day, the weather, what you have to do, what you don't have to do, what comes out of your mouth That is what steers your ship. That is what steers your day. So I choose to surround myself with optimistic, positive people who control their rudder and steer their ship. That for me is a non-negotiable. Yeah.

What's the biggest insecurity you have today? Maybe that people know about or no one knows about, but you know.

I think it's honestly being at a five or six on that scale. You know, an insecurity would be, I know I can be more present. I know I can be a better father, a better husband, a better business owner. But I think that the biggest insecurity is not being at inner peace for what I've done for myself in this past decade or other people.

Yeah.

And getting to this point, I think a lot of other people would, would look at it and say, you should be chilling right now. You should be coasting. But for me, it's, we're just scratching the surface. I'm just getting started. Like, where am I going to be in 10, 20, 30 years from now? It's what I haven't done yet that. is unsettling for me.

Yeah. Do you think there's a way you can be driven and hungry, but also be at an 8-9-10, internally with peace?

I think you can. I'm not there yet, but I'm sure there's people there. I mean, where would you say you're at on that scale?

I just said this yesterday. I'm around an 8.5 consistently. It could be an 8.2, 8.7 some days, but most days, I'm in that range. And I think it's, you know, I follow routines and practices that keep me there. And if I didn't follow them, then I could drop down to a seven or a six or five some days. And I've been three, four, five, you know, in my 20s, off and on at different days because I didn't have the tools emotionally to navigate my emotions. I think a lot of it has been really investing in support emotionally, mentally, through different workshops, through therapy, through coaching, to guide me and give me feedback, to give me exercises to practice things, to reflect on things and create peace from things in my past that kept me feeling stressed today, that I was even unaware of. and that's why I was saying this could be a great journey for you to start reflecting on some of that when you're ready, because it brings me to a place of compassion for myself, of acceptance of the different stages of my life that I maybe was beating myself up for, for things I did or didn't do. And when I have that total acceptance and compassion for all the stages of my life, up until now, then I'm not in beat up mode. I'm not in criticism mode. I'm in, I coach myself in a better way internally. You know, if the words you speak are your rudder, like Chad says, I think the words you internalize are also going to direct the, the navigation inside of your body. It's going to determine how you feel internally based on your thoughts. And so it's really having a different level of thinking. a different quality of thinking about self, self-identity and that includes from my first memory of life up until now. And re, it's kind of like telling a story, retelling the story of the these different stages of life and finding a meaning of where I was at those stages so that I have peace now. And again, it's that consistency. It doesn't mean like I woke up a little, you know, I didn't get my workout in today because something happened last minute and I had another meeting this morning that was not planned. And so I was already off talking to my girlfriend. I was like, I feel like I'm behind, like you said. I feel like I'm a little off because I was supposed to go work out first thing. And then she's like, well, we can just do it later in the day. I'm like, yes, we can, but I know I'm not going to have the best energy and I just, I like to have that morning workout to kind just like you. And within like two minutes of this, I had to catch myself because I was just kind of complaining, not in a horrible way, but I was like just speaking nonchalantly. I'm kind of a little frustrated about this. I wish I did this now or I feel behind. Just saying those things put me in a state that I caught myself. I shifted. I got super calm and present and I just started focusing on what I was grateful for and what I'm going to create today. and that I'm going to get my workout in later today, I'm going to make it happen. And so I just had to shift that internally and externally with my words. But it's been the accountability over the last few years that's really helped me in investing in coaches to support that emotional growth. So that's what supports me.

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Code LEWIS@liquidiv.com We launched this brand campaign this past January. 12 days ago. And it's called prove yourself right. And the whole concept behind it was, I've met so many people who are trying to prove others wrong. You know, they have a chip on their shoulder. People have asked me for years, do you work so hard to. To prove others wrong because you have a chip on your shoulder because people didn't believe you? early on. And the answer is always, no, that's.

That's.

That's never the case. That's why I don't do any of my work. It's to prove myself right, because I know what I can accomplish. I believe in myself. So we launched this brand campaign January 1st, and the call to action, the activation was, we want people to choose something physically hard to do in 2023. hard is relative. It could be your first 5K, it could be your first 100 mile Ultra. Choose something physically hard to do in 2023. Commit to it, write it down, tell your friends, tell your family, post it on social media to hold you accountable. And don't do it to try to prove others wrong, but prove yourself right, because you can do it. Sometimes it's just flipping that script and that narrative. To put the accountability on yourself because you can believe in yourself.

Yeah.

If you believe in what you can accomplish, that's much more powerful than trying to put it on an external force and do it for someone who could care less about you. Yeah.

And also, it's exhausting energy when you prove people wrong. I did it for many years of my life. I always was accomplishing and achieving to prove others wrong. and then I felt empty and I felt exhausted and drained. And I actually felt really angry after I accomplished these things because I realized.

Man, I'm doing this for all the wrong reasons.

You know, sure, I'm growing and I'm learning, I'm developing, but the intention behind it was the people that picked on me, the people made fun of me, the people that, you know, picked me last, all these different things, I'm gonna prove them wrong about me. And that fuel and energy based on anger drove me to be consistent and committed and work hard on long hours, but it left me feeling like a 2, 3, and 4 at the end of the day internally. And I started to shift that around 30 as well of like, how can I do this to prove myself right and lift others up in the process? And it sounds like you're doing that. You're lifting your community up by proving yourself right. And you can get so much more done when we think in terms of, you know, collaboration over competition.

Right.

And where everyone wins around you. So I think it's a cool mindset you have on proving people right.

Well, it builds confidence.

Exactly.

What I love about Tim Grover's book, Winning, and I've told this story many times before, but I love the concept of, to get your first win in life, there's a level of sacrifice. And it's challenging, it's hard, but it builds confidence after that first win. And in order to achieve that second third, fourth, so on and so forth win, there is more sacrifice required, but it builds more confidence. You start stacking these wins where there's failure and there's loss along the way, but you stack wins for 5, 10, 15, 20 years. You didn't just build a resume, but you built your confidence, self-confidence, and that's equally as powerful.

100%. For people that have struggled proving themselves right around nutrition and their workouts being consistent, of just moving their body in consistent ways and eating in healthy ways consistently. And they've never been able to be consistent. What do you think is the thing that would actually allow people to transition once and for all of being consistent? You've been extreme on both ends of essentially counting how little calories you could eat for a year and obsessing over that to probably obsessing over every calorie you've put in on a healthier way. you've kind of been both sides, but you were consistent either way. How do people get to consistency where they're not in blame mode, they're not in beat up mode when they fall off track, when they miss a workout or a meal that they know is healthy for them, and how can they actually make it their identity and a lifestyle as opposed to something they do once in a while?

My running coach, his name is Jeff Cunningham, he's based out of Austin and he has this thing that he says and it's better to be consistently good than occasionally great. And you can apply that to fitness, to your goals, to your diet. Where you see a lot of people fail is they go 180. They decide today's day I'm cutting everything out. I'm going they attach to it. They attach to a. A training style or. Or a diet. Today I'm going all keto.

Yeah.

Today I'm going all carnivore. Today I'm going vegan. Today I'm just doing CrossFit. Today I'm just training for a marathon. They eliminate everything else they were doing that was possibly working for them because they flip it 180, they go all in on something, and then they realize it's not sustainable, they burn out. they don't enjoy it, there's no passion, there's no fun. So how do you become consistently good rather than occasionally great? Maybe I flipped 180, I started a new training program and a new diet and I lasted for five days. Those were a great five days. But then for the next 360, nothing. So how do you become consistently good? It's this small implementation of changes that compound over time. And what happens with consistency is it compounds to become greater and greater and larger and larger and larger greatness. So maybe next week I'm gonna add one extra run into my week. Let's see how that feels. Maybe next week I'm gonna eliminate soda or processed foods. Just see how that feels. I'm going to change my breakfast. I'm going to change what time I go to sleep. You slowly start incorporating adding these positive benefits into your life and they become part of your routine over maybe 3, 6, 9, 12 months, but not overnight. I think it's where a lot of people miss.

When people struggle with just being consistent on those things, even if they add a small thing, or eliminating one small thing. Why is it so hard for people to be consistent with one thing, let alone, you know, everything? And how can people learn how to be more consistent? I feel like that's a skill in itself. Just doing something every week for a year is a skill.

I think part of it is, what are you choosing to be consistent with? You actually care about what you're doing. You know, we just, entered a new year and a lot of people will set New Year's resolutions. And I bet you most people that set these resolutions are choosing things that they don't actually want to do or care about. One of the best ways to be consistent is choosing things to be consistent with and about that you can stick to that you want to. Don't choose running if you hate running. Maybe you like hiking. Maybe you like walking. maybe going to the gym, choosing things that you, you want to be consistent with is the first step, I believe. And then why? Are you doing it to prove others wrong? Are you doing it to be healthy? Are you doing it for your family? Do you, you know, is your baby due in a month and you want to be a better parent for them? Is that the reason why? I think those are the first steps. Yeah. Are we doing things to spin our wheels? Are we doing things? to be intentional because lack of intentionality leads to a repetition of what is easiest and it's easy to be inconsistent.

It's very easy to be inconsistent. What are three skills you wish you would have learned before entering the Army?

The power of true delegation and elevation. You know, being a doer, wanting to lean in and work on things that you can do because you believe in yourself. It's great for the short term, but it's unsustainable. I've had to learn that in business over a long period of time. There is so much power in delegation and empowerment. When you empower people to do a job, give them more responsibility, more accountability, people thrive. they thrive in empowerment. That is part of building an amazing team, culture, and brand. Delegation elevation is number one. I'd say the second skill is patience.

How much patience do you have?

How much patience and how do you handle that in front of yourself and in front of others?

Do you have a lot of patience?

I do now.

You didn't then?

In certain things I do now. Building a business has taught me a lot about patience. Running marathons has taught me a lot about patience.

You're not gonna get there fast. You gotta take it easy, slow and steady.

You know what's funny is when I first started running marathons, if I had a seven mile easy run for that day, I'd go run that seven miles as hard as possible. Running marathons, you can apply to a lot of parts of life.

And.

My triathlon coach, her name was Natasha, based out of Austin, she would respond to my stories before I started working with her. And she would say, you,'re running too fast. You're running too hard. You're not going to get faster.

Interesting.

So I decided to work with her. I was like, well, help me get to where I want to be.

So she's telling you, you need to run slower in order to be faster.

Right.

So we sat down and we talked. She said, I understand what you're trying to do. You know, you want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. And you would think that running those seven mile training runs as fast as possible will correlate to running a really fast marathon, but it doesn't. What you need to do is you need to run below your max aerobic heart rate. you need to run truly easy. You need to be in an aerobic state. You need to run slower to get faster.

Why?

Because you're building this foundation. You're building a strong foundation that you can build a house upon. If you lay no foundation, no aerobic foundation, you can't get faster. All these track workouts and these speed workouts and these tempo workouts, they mean nothing.

In a marathon.

In a marathon. Because you're not building it on top of this foundation. 26.2 miles is a long time to hold a certain heart rate and a certain pace. So to run slower, you lay this foundation, you lay this base, and it's strong, it's bulletproof. Then you build upon it. That is patience. That is having the patience to run slower. in order to get faster. You're taking a step back to get two steps forward. You apply that to everything. Your life, everything. Now having a kid and being married and leading a team, without patience, you're struggling.

Yeah, I like that. Okay, so patience and a third skill?

The third skill, It is similar to the two, and it is that you can go really fast alone, but you can go so much further together. I learned this by leading a platoon. I learned this in Ranger School. You learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about other people. You know, a few years ago, I did the Leadville 100. Ultra marathon in the Rocky Mountains of Leadville, Colorado. It starts above 10,000 feet of elevation and it's a brutal course. And that's one of those races that certain people can do by themselves. But me, I needed support. I had a crew that would go from checkpoint to checkpoint and they would tape up my ankles. They would feed me. they'd fill my water. And we titled that documentary, More Than the Miles. You know, those 100 miles in an ultra, yes, it's going from point A to point B. But what you don't see is what gets you there. It's the support, it's the people, it's the distance that everyone else achieves and goes through. that was a pivotal point in my life to realize. And I think a lot of people realize at some point in their life that you can go really fast by yourself. And early on in building my business, I had to. I had no choice or option by yourself as fast as possible gets you to a certain point. But for longevity, for endurance, for durability, a group of people will go so much further. Yeah. If, you know, I apply that now to building my family and building my business and team, and it pays off because there's no way I could get my business now. The point it is by myself. Yeah, I got it off the ground. I got it to a certain point, but it's here now because of the people involved.

Absolutely. So you said it was more than the miles, is that what you said?

It's a documentary that we released about...

More than the miles, yeah.

It's our team going to Leadville, Colorado. It was a great experience.

That's cool, man. So when did this mantra of Go One More come about?

It's 2018. And at the time, my wife and I lived downtown Austin, and I was on a training run for a marathon. And that day I had to do 18 miles. this was early on marathons. This was not like me, current day endurance conditioning. So 18 miles for me, sitting at 230 pounds, a lot being this bodybuilder. It was a struggle fest. It was a pain cave.

Clydesdale's open here, you know?

Yeah.

And there was this one day that I was running down by Lady Bird Lake in Austin. Beautiful course. 18 miles on the schedule and I got to mile 10 and I was like, today's not the day. I'm calling it quits. So I started walking back to our house.

Today's not the day to do 18.

Right. Stop feeling it. Started walking back to the house and I'm in my head thinking, if I quit on this training run, what else would I quit on in life? The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So I went back on the course. I finished the run for the day. I went one extra mile. I went 19 that day.

Wow.

And I came back to my house, took my hat off because I always wear a hat, and I wrote one more under the bill. Took a picture of it, posted on social media, and it went nuts. People were taking their hat. They were writing one more on the bill. They were taking photos. They were posting so in my head, I was thinking, well, this struck a chord with a lot of people. There's something here that is pushing people beyond what they believe they can achieve and do. That turned into go one more. I got a tattooed on my arm.

Let me see.

Yeah.

And then now there's hundreds, if not thousands of other people who have go one more tattooed on their body.

Wow.

Because of the message that it creates. And it's not just one more mile on a training run. It's not one more rep in the gym. That doesn't do the, doesn't do it justice. Doesn't describe how powerful it is. But when things get tough and challenging, you hit obstacles and resistance as you will throughout life. It's pushing past that obstacle. It's pushing through that resistance to get to the other side. and realizing how much confidence that brings, how powerful it is. You do that over weeks, months, years. The power and that consistency of going one more, it compounds and puts you well beyond where you ever thought you could be.

Yeah, I just think one of the greatest things that any human can do for themselves is give themselves more belief in themselves. And the way you build more belief is by doing the challenging things and overcoming obstacles. and following your mantra of going one more consistently. And when you do that, you feel bulletproof, like you said. You feel unstoppable. Even when there's pain and chaos, you feel like I can handle this, because I've always done one more. So, I love that mantra, man.

Well, the reason I put it on my arm here is, it was before going into a big endurance training blocks. Ironman's and marathons.

You gotta look at your watch, you gotta look at it every moment.

Ultras, yeah. So, I knew, you know, this is the ultimate, for me, ultimate placement of accountability.

Just running in them. Oh, there it is. There it is.

When things get hard, like, you know, you have no other choice than to push through. Wow.

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Who are the two or three most inspiring people in the, you know, mental toughness, physical fitness world right now in your mind that you're inspired by or you respect or you feel like they're living a, you know, a lifestyle that you really can watch and be like, that's inspiring. It pushes me to do one more.

To be honest, it's. It's my team at VPN. You know, what's so powerful about the culture that we've created there is, you know, we're a health and performance supplement company, but everyone's living and breathing the lifestyle and the motto. You know, we went out last weekend, we supported Jordan, my media director's wife, at a ultra marathon in Bandera, Texas. We have another one of our employees, Austin, is doing a 100-mile race in Huntsville, Texas. in two weeks. Someone's always training for half marathon, marathon, ultra, someone on our team's training for an Ironman right now. Being surrounded by that team of people who are constantly pushing in their professional and personal life motivates me. My mom, like I said, was a huge foundation in my life. And I mean, she applied going more to every part of her life. My mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, stage four ovarian cancer. And it was one of those things that I thought, oh, my mom's gonna get chemo and she's gonna get through it, and she'll be living down here in Texas in six months. That was the plan. That was the year she was going to retire. moved to Texas and lived the rest of her life with her boys. And she got cancer, she got diagnosed. It was extremely aggressive. She passed away six months later, but she never gave up fighting. Even when she was in the hospital, even when she was in hospice, it was looking up and saying, what can I get you boys?

Right.

Like, Mom, you're good. Just chill out for a second. She applied that to her work with special education, coaching Special Olympics, helping the community. If there's one person I respect in this world, it's my mom.

100%. That's beautiful, man. Why do you care so much about your business and what you guys are creating?

It's more than a supplement company. I've poured my heart and soul into this business for the last decade of my life. I mean, everything. I think any entrepreneur can relate that when you start something you're so passionate.

About.

You become what it is. You don't know who you are without it to a certain point. and we do a lot of in-person events. We do pop-ups, we host athletic clubs in Austin for our community. We celebrated 10 years in business this past August. We had a big event in the city. And it's when we get to meet the people. You know, like I said, it's more than being a supplement company. We're mission driven, we're community driven. and you meet these people who, by watching the content, by attaching to the brand, by going more tattooing their body, they've lost 100, 200 pounds. They become a better father, they become a better husband. It's hearing those stories in person. There was a story that I heard when we were celebrating our 10 years in business that forever changed my life. It was a single mother. She's probably my age and she had a daughter with her who was probably seven or eight years old. And they pulled me aside because they wanted to talk for a second. And the mother said, you know, my daughter doesn't have a father figure in her life. I'm a single mom raising my daughter. And because she doesn't have a father figure in her life, I show her the content that your team produces. the videos and the podcast, the interviews. She uses that content as a mentor and a father figure for her younger daughter. That for me, that was heavy. Or this is the responsibility that we have. These are the lives that we have the ability to change. This is who's listening to this content. We have to be a role model in a space that is notorious for not being role model worthy.

Yeah.

That'S my guiding principle now.

That's cool, man. Inspiring. People can learn more about it at bareperformancenutrition.com, right?

That's correct.

You also got great content on your social media and your show as well that people can check out. It's all linked up with the website, right?

It is, yeah.

Before I ask a couple final questions, I gotta acknowledge you, Nick, for your commitment and consistency over the last decade for your service, not only with the military, but also your service to helping people transform their lives. I think that's one of the greatest services that people can have when they're in service to helping people impact, grow, overcome, and become healthier. That's the highest currency is our health. So I acknowledge you for how you've used your, some of your biggest obstacles to be an opportunity to serve, and how you've used, you know, the lessons you've learned from your parents, and unfortunately, your mom passing and using that finding meaning to serve other people and be open-hearted and generous and giving. It's really inspiring to see your journey from, you know, the first time I saw you reached out to me to where you were then making, you know, a couple thousand a month and now being a massive business in your business. So I acknowledge you for the consistency for showing up and for the journey you're on, man. It's really inspiring.

Thank you.

I appreciate that. Of course, man. This is a question I ask people at the end called the Three Truths. So imagine it's your last day on earth, many years away. You accomplish everything you want to accomplish in life, but you eventually got to turn the lights off. But you get to live as long as you want. For whatever reason, in this hypothetical scenario, you've got to take all of your content and message with you. So anything you've ever shared in the world, content, books, audio, video, it's gone. go somewhere else. But you get to leave behind three lessons to the world, three things you know to be true, and this is all we would have to remember you by. What would it be those three truths for you?

The first one, and the most powerful is go one more. Applying the go one more mindset, mission, mentality to your life to support your personal goals. your professional goals, your family, your friends. There was so much power in those three words that if I want someone to remember one thing, it's those three words. And I would hope it means so much to them that they get it tattooed on their body. The second, and I'm gonna steal this from Donald Miller, one of my favorite authors.

It's great.

It is to always position yourself as the guide and not the hero. I think this is very applicable to content creators, to business owners, or even people who prioritize their family. It's that as soon as you realize that there's more power in presenting yourself and positioning yourself as a guide rather than a hero, you're not only going to help many, many others, but you're gonna help yourself tremendously. You know, we use the word intentional a lot in our business and my family, people in my life. And I would lean back on the saying lack of intentionality leads to a repetition of what is easiest. if you apply intentionality to everything you do in life, the decisions you make, the processes you create, the life that you ultimately end up with, being intentional with those decisions will get you somewhere that you are ultimately proud of.

It's a good truce, man. I love all those. Thank you. And I'm a big fan of Donna Miller and the the process of understanding where are you, are you a victim, are you a villain, are you a hero, are you a guide? I think the guide is where we should all be leaning towards and trying to get to as quickly as possible. That's where we really get to be in service. And that's where I think fulfillment comes from. Final question for you, what's your definition of greatness?

Greatness is positioning yourself as and being respected as a role model. as I was talking to you before we started recording. For me, I think about the end of my life. Hopefully that's decades down the road, but who knows? When I die one day, I don't want to be viewed as or talked about as this man who ran ultra marathons and lifted weights and could do fitness in his sleep. I want to be viewed and talked about as a role model with.

The.

Content that I've produced, with the way that I've led my team in business, with the way that I've served my family, being known as and respected as a role model from people that personally know me in my life, my daughter as she grows up. and people who know me from creating content online, that for me would be greatness.

Nick, love it, man. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it.

I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus Channel on Apple podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com/newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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