Path to Personal Growth Through Running with Shawn Buttner

Hey, my friend, are you looking to level up in fitness or maybe even in your professional life? Well, I have the pleasure of speaking with a high performance coach who will share his personal experience and coaching philosophy that can help you in multiple areas of your life. Hope you enjoy.

Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. Here you will find inspiration whether you are looking to take control of your health and fitness or you are a seasoned runner looking for community and some extra motivation. Hear inspiring stories from amazing runners along with helpful tips from fitness experts. Now, here's your host, Richard Connor.

Hi, my friend. Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast. Today I have the pleasure of sitting down with Shawn Butner, who is a certified high performance coach and owner of SB High Performance Group, llc, operating out of Berkeley, California. After a successful career in technology working for companies like Walmart and Apple, Sean now helps individuals live better lives through high performance coaching. His method of coaching includes a holistic approach to find higher levels of performance in your career, health, relationships and wellbeing. Welcome to the show, Sean.

Thanks, Richard. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, so excited to have you here. I love to talk about, you know, the work that you're doing from a coaching standpoint. Plus, I know that you're a runner, I think a relative new runner, but you've got a great story there and really to help, you know, our community, our listeners in their own journey, whether they haven't run before and they're looking to take that first step, or they're looking to level up and do something that they haven't done before. So excited to have you here.

Yeah, excited to be here and I definitely can help with all of that. So.

Cool. Cool. Well, let's get into it. Let's hear, you know, a little bit about you and a little bit about your running journey.

All right, so I was a late bloomer when it came to running in high school. I was athletic, but I was a lineman for football. I did track and field through shot and disc. So a lot of weight room, a little bit of sprinting. Really did not like running. My best friend growing up went on cross country in high school, lost a bunch of weight, continued his running journey, eventually running the Chicago Marathon, where I'm originally from Chicago. And I, when I left college, I had done a couple like 5Ks or whatever, the Bix 7 mile race in the Quad Cities, Iowa, if you're familiar with that, with my friends, and then moved to Arkansas for a job at Walmart. Didn't know anyone and got sick of staring at the paint on my walls after work. And that was when I decided to sign up, probably just out of boredom, for the Chicago Marathon. And I couldn't really. I did a couple races. It was more like half walking, half running with your friends type thing. But I had nine months to figure out how to go from not really being able to run for 15 minutes straight to 26.2 miles. And so that's how I got into running. I was inspired by my friend. If he could do it, I could do it. And then out of desperation, maybe like, okay, let's try to make this happen, so send in the money. And that was the beginning of years and years of running.

I love that. I love that. And hearing the origin story of having a friend bring you into the kind of the running world and running community is really wonderful. And I love how you just kind of embraced it. And it wasn't like, no, I can't do that. You know, maybe some other time you really embraced it and you figured out a way to get to that. And, you know, my background is I am a runner since, you know, running since high school, track and cross country. And I did enjoy running, but I still haven't run my first marathon. So, you know, hats off to you for. For doing that, you know, seemingly right out of the gate.

Thanks. Yeah, maybe I would have done it a different way. I might have warmed up a little bit more. It was tough.

Stretched a little bit.

Stretched a little bit. But that was also part of the. The fun, like, every week. So I got Hal Higdon's how to train book, which has, like, classic, like, how to train for the Chicago Marathon, you know, should be able to run, like, three miles, three days a week before you start training. And so that was my first three months, was just trying to get to that base, you know, but each time I hit a new mileage goal for the week or a new long run, it was this excitement of, like, I have never push my body in an endurance way that far before. So you get kind of addicted to that. It's kind of good and bad.

That's awesome. And you. But you have to get over kind of that. That hump of, you know, can I do this or am I willing to commit to this? So, you know, I'd love to hear whether you, you know, some. Our listeners, whether someone has done their first 5K and they're like, well, maybe that's it. Or they've never run their first 5K. And maybe there's a lot of reasons why, like, what were your reasons, maybe that first came to Mind were like, oh, run a marathon. Like, what are kind of those objections? And then how did you overcome that within yourself?

Well, part of it was naivety. Like, I had been athletic, so I'm like, I could probably figure this out. So I think that belief of, I think I can do this, right? It starts with that throwing down, setting the deadline, where I had nine months in October. I'm going to be part of that race. I'm either going to walk it, I'm going to run it, or I'm going to die. Right? And so being that committed to it, and then past that, it was getting a clear plan. So, like, I mentioned getting that Hal Higdon book, what I needed to do, so I didn't have to think about that. And then the rest of it was just a little bit of faith in consistent showing up consistently. Right. So if I knew I had to just, like, starting out, like, the first month of training was mostly me just putting on my running gear, showing up to where the route that I found around my apartment building to where I'd start. And it's like February in Arkansas, so it's like, chilly and icy and, you know, not really inspiring to go out and run and just being okay with, like, I put on my stuff, I got here, nine times out of ten, I'd be like, oh, if I'm here and I'm ready to go, I should just start, right? And so it was like setting up the environment to be. To make it easy to take the next logical action, which was to do the training. You know, past that, I think I got into a mindset of, like, if I don't train, I'm going to show up to that race, and I do not want to die. So the training was a survival thing. And I don't know if that's like, a weird thing that other people have when they run, but, like, for the marathon, like, that was. That was it. You know, it's like, I need to do this to not perish during this journey.

Mm. Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting what you said, kind of, you know, how your thoughts and your actions leading up to the marathon, because I could see a parallel with the pillars that we have that we talk about here on the show in terms of, like, mindset movement and motivation. So, you know, let's talk about each one of those individually, you know, go a little bit deeper. So, like, in the mindset part, you said, you know, you believed you could do it. So in some part, maybe you didn't know exactly what you're getting into. But another part is it's. It's 26 miles, so there's going to be some effort there. And then based on what you've done in the past, you believed. Is there anything else? If you weren't into sports, maybe earlier in your life, are there other things that someone could do to say to, you know, really believe that they have the capability to. To do things that they've never done before or get to that next level?

That's a great question. And I think other than believing you can do it, another belief is believing you can figure it out and make it work for you. Like, I didn't have to be the one that's winning the marathon. And I came in with, like, if I do that, I'm going to hurt myself or, you know, it's not gonna. It's gonna be a terrible experience to, like, go from zero to top performing in that. But I think what really helped with having the clarity of the training program kind of laid out, it's like, oh, I need to get up to this level and I'm not there and accepting that, like, oh, okay, I. I am not great at this right now, but I can get better. And what's going to get me better is showing up consistently. And there will be days where it's amazing and I feel great about it. There will be days where, like, I get a mile in and it feels a little terrible and maybe you're extra tired and sleep or whatever and like, hey, I showed up and that's okay for now. As long as you're continuing to show up and progress.

That's. Yeah, for sure. I mean, showing up is super important. And, you know, it's interesting. Like, you're starting in one place and. And you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and being comfortable with not being perfect kind of at the beginning. And I could tell you from my own experience, I get super frustrated if I can't do something. So anything to do with mobility or anything that's overhead, like, something that takes a lot of coordination, doesn't come naturally for me. So I get super frustrated. But that's the only way you're going to get better is if you show up to do those things and you keep working at it until you get to where you want to be.

No, totally.

So tell me a little bit about the training now. So I think that takes us a little bit into, like, the movement. So you mentioned that you had the training plan that, that you followed. So how did you find it? What was it like, for you, you know, how you stick with it. Any tips that you would want to share after, you know, kind of following that plan well.

So as a high performance coach, I found out, you know, I became a coach after this part of the journey. But, like, being very clear on what the next steps are saves you so much energy. Like, if you have to get up and be like, what do I have to do for my run today? Like, is it a 7 miles and a 5 mile is an easy 1 mile. You'll spend a half hour trying to think about what you got to do. And that could have been a half hour that you're running. And now you only if you allocate an hour, like, you have 30 minutes now to do your thing. So really being clear on it, so clear on the training, which is kind of how I found that book. There's also a recommendation from my buddy who ran the marathon the year before, and I'm like, well, that's what worked for him. And like, you look at Hal Higdon's book, like, hundreds of thousands of people have used it from beginning training to, like, more advanced. And so there's a little bit of credibility on that there. And it's not, I mean, it's just miles, right? So at least with running for marathons, you're either gonna like, judge yourself by distance or time spent running. And so for me, it was if I just did the distance and being okay, like, if I had a five mile day and I ran four miles and walked and ran the last mile as long as I got the mileage in, like, that was the goal. Right? And so could either do it by time and say, I'm going to, you know, run my three miles in 10 minutes, which is crazy, or, you know, elite level, or I'm just going to do the three miles, however long it takes me. And so I think that distinction in that particular case of training really helps me. But it's pretty impactful in other areas of your life too. Like if you are running a business and you, you could either say, I want to grow it, you know, either by this much, or I need to grow it in this amount of time. I think for me, breaking down that goal into either time or result is changes the effort. Right?

Okay. Okay. So first off, being clear about your goal as well as your next steps, you're not spending all of that brain power and time trying to figure it out. And then for the actual plan, making sure you break it down in terms of, um, what it is that you're going to do in that particular day and then meaning it based on whatever your criteria. So like you said, move. Either I want to finish that four miles or like in my case, I typically run by time. So that could equate to the four miles or it could equate to more or less depending on, you know, how I'm running that day. So. But being really clear about that as well, definitely, you know, and I love how you brought kind of your, your coaching experience into the conversation. So you know, what other words of wisdom would you have kind of based on, you know, your, your performance coaching.

Practice when it comes to running and high performance coaching. So high performance coaching is just beating whatever your normal result is consistently over time without burning out. So be in a sustainable way. So, you know, clarity is one of the big points that we teach, but it's also, you know, managing your energy. So I'm sure we can have a really huge talk about how to fuel your body. Four year runs, like people love to nerd out about it. Everyone has their own favorite things. For me, I could tell you a crazy story about my first Chicago marathon. That was back in 2009 and that was the year where it got canceled halfway through because it was so hot. And so yeah, like, you know, usually in October, Chicago starts like probably like the east coast where it's cold at night and warm during the day. So like 40s or 50s at night. The race at 6 o' clock in the morning started at like 75 degrees, which was nuts. And so there wasn't any water and stuff. But you know, so managing your energy. I bring that up because I learned from, you know, getting halfway through and then having the thing canceled on me that I needed to bring my own water. So like, you know, the, the camelback, like light, like hiking water hydration system is with me now from that for anything over four miles, right from gonna hydrate and then like goo's really helped. I, I think like hammer gels which I think cyclists use, which is a better carbohydrate protein mix really worked for me. But like so in coaching we talk about energy. So you talk about the nutrition component there or how you're feeling your body outside. You know, you read stories of ultra marathoners who just need calories. And so in the middle of a 60 mile race I'll eat two cheese pizzas, which is insane to me, you know, but there's a better way to do it than that. It'll probably help you long term with your energy, but sometimes calories are calories. But as we talk about that, we talk about in high performance, one of the outcomes also is taking bold action. And for me, it was throwing my money down on that race that was kind of the driver for forcing me to show up when I didn't want to during that training, you know, again, because it was this like basically survival mentality, which I don't know why I thought that was a good idea, but I just remember being in that headspace and also in a weird way, running. So I out of school, I had about $80,000 of student debt. And my first corporate job was not covering student loan payments, car payment, food. And you know, I was in that kind of rough spot in my early career where I'm like, do I buy food this week or do I fill my car up with gas or do I.

Which bill?

You know, that whole crazy thing. And the running and training became therapeutic. So one, I could burn out emotions and then, you know, part of keeping my mind off the pain in my body was trying to do math of like, okay, like, how am I going to get myself out of this? And it allowed me to confront my financial, like, personal financial situation because I could burn through the negative emotions of just like being feeling so overwhelmed and not in control of my destiny at that time. So that was super powerful. And part of these coaching outcomes. Two other outcomes in high performance coaching that applies to running are just productivity. So what, what is getting you the results? What are distractions? You know, so trying a like 50 different shoes before you start running is not really productive. But running and the bust it up shoes that you have and then upgrading later when you need it, you know, the experience that I had of just like, just get in it and then we'll figure out the equipment. Don't get distracted by that stuff. And then like influence, like for me, the first friends that I met in Arkansas at this new job were people through the running store because there was a, like a rush shout out to rush running small like mom and pop running shop. I think the guy used to, the guy who owned it used to run for the University of Arkansas. I think it was a sprinter, a really cool guy. But that's where I could ask questions. That's where I could connect with people. I did a couple of crazy runs with them where like they had a sprint and I'm like, this is too much for me. I didn't run for three days because I was so sore after that thing. But yeah, you know, helped me connect with the community in a new place. So which is super, super cool.

I love that running stores are so important for the running community. Just, you know, your local community and they provide so much more value than, you know, obviously, the running shoes, but just so, so much more so. I love that you brought that up and, you know, I appreciate you sharing, you know, your personal story. Right. About what was going on in your life during kind of those early years. And you know, from what I've seen through the conversations we've had on the show and others, is running is there for folks, you know, during challenging times. Right. If they're going through some sort of change in their life, whether it's family related health or job, and running is there for them. So I love. It's not the reason why you got into it, but I love how it was there for you when you needed it most.

Definitely. I don't think I could have gotten past that phase of my life if, if it wasn't for running in a kind of weird way that when I say it out loud, it sounds weird, but it's definitely true.

No, no, I love that. That's. And, and you know what? And your experience is one of the things that I'm trying to bottle and share, you know, with our community because it's so powerful, what you said. And if you're not a runner, if you haven't experienced those things, it's hard to think of it that way. But once you do, oh my gosh, like the benefits, just great. So I appreciate you sharing that and if I could recap, I'm going to try to say them all, but I might need a little bit of help here in terms of like connecting this with your coaching practice. So we talked about getting clarity, managing your energy, taking bold action.

Yep.

Influence. But I know I missed one, so. Which is the one that I missed.

Productivity. So not getting distracted and focusing on what's working.

Oh, okay. Okay, got it. So I'm, I'm gonna try this again then. So get it, get it. Clarity. Actually, you know what? It's better if you, if you say it, because I'm probably gonna mix it up again.

Yeah, no problem. So, yeah, it's having clarity on the next steps. It's managing your energy. It's being bold and taking courageous action towards your plan. It's focusing on your productivity. So it's working and eliminating the distracting things that get in the way of you doing the work. And it's the influencer community, like leadership, people skills. But in this particular sense, it was community.

Love it, Love it. And you shared a wonderful story about, you know, local running stores and that community. So I really love that. That's really awesome. So, you know, one of the questions that I love to ask the guests on the show is, you know, throughout your running journey, what would you say was your biggest obstacle and how did you overcome it?

The first thing that came to mind was I had tendonitis in my IT van. And so I ran three marathons, like basically three years in a row. So the Chicago first time Chicago or got canceled. Second time I ran with a buddy, we finished, which is awesome. Third time was Kansas City. And so I think I over trained because I was like, I didn't realize the science right now, but I was constantly tired, I was extra irritable. And then with this tendinitis, every time I'd run longer than two miles, my knee would puff up the size of like a grapefruit. And so the biggest obstacle now is I went to the doctor and I told him like, this is a common marathon medical story where you go to the doctor, like, how did you injure your knee in like marathon training? And he's like, the guy like threw down his clipboard and he's like, you're not going to listen to anything I say. You know, it's like, you guys are crazy. If you just take Advil, if you really want it to go away, you have to stop for a while. But you know, give me my $300 because I'm the doctor that just told you to keep running on Advil. But so the biggest obstacle there is after my third marathon, I took a little break which turned into a years long break. And then like the biggest struggle I was getting back into running consistently where I'm not thinking that I can run a marathon when I really like, my physical capability as I've gotten older is not as great.

Right.

So it's been trying to chunk things down into smaller distances, into figuring out how do you get back to being more consistent. So that's been my biggest struggle right now with running.

Yeah, yeah. And you know, we were talking about this before we started the conversation about habits. Right. So if you're not in the habit of doing something, it's such a huge effort to start to build that habit. And then once you get going, it's so much easier. I mean, it's still hard, right? But it's so much easier because you're not really processing and thinking about like what we talked about earlier. You know, what do I have to do today? You just kind of know and your body's, like, accustomed to doing it. But yeah, if you fall out of that, you know, you have probably the anxiety of, hey, I'm going to lose. I might lose some of my, you know, performance and progress by taking a break, but then also kind of rebuilding that habit when you're, you know, getting back into it. So I can understand that. Yeah.

Or the third option is you don't have the good sense that the powers that be gave you, and you push yourself so hard that you can't walk for a week. You know, you overdo it. You know, that's been another part of the struggle is just not knowing when, hey, you should slow down or stop instead of pushing through. So.

And have you done anything differently as a result of that? Have you done anything differently from, like, a strength training or mobility standpoint because of it? Or is it truly just kind of taking a break from the running?

Taking a break? I got into yoga to kind of help with. With flexibility because that is historically, for my body, been not a strong suit. So I'm working on that. I've been doing, like, couch to 5K. Apps, like, have helped because especially, like, in the earlier parts, there's a whistle that'll tell you to stop. So where I would normally just keep going because I'm like, I could do this. It's been good to kind of have that structure. So sometimes apps can help. You know, getting into the habit of just kind of running a couple miles a couple times a week, too, has been really good. So. So, yeah, just kind of either have some external help. I haven't had a running buddy in a while. I think that's part of my current thing. Because if you're talking with somebody, that's a natural limiter. So you're not like, sprinting the whole time, because I don't know why I do that, but I do. So, yeah.

Okay. Very cool. Very cool. So, you know, any other, you know, things that someone could do? So again, we're talking about how do we get to that next level? How do we do something we've never done before? We talked about believing that we can and then taking it one step at a time. And then you mentioned some of those concepts around kind of the high performance. So, like, or anything in general that could help someone kind of get into something that, you know, may not be something they think they could do or something that's appealing. Anything else that, you know, could help someone get into the right mindset for.

I think finding what makes it fun can be really great. So if we take a thing outside of running that I found really hard in the last five years, it's been jumping into my coaching business as a solopreneur, trying to figure out the marketing and how to talk to people. Like, coming from an analytical background as a software engineer, it's extra hard. I think what's made me, like, basically not get kicked off the horse as it's bucking. You know, this new experience has just been like, how do I connect with people? Like, that's really fun. Like, when I coach somebody, that's an amazing feeling to help people make realizations. And so that's super fun. And so focusing with running, like, what made the initial training fun was pushing my body and having new PRs every week during training that made that fun. Running with a friend, that made it fun. So where's the fun in the running and the new exercise routine, in the new job, in the new phase of life? And I think if you can connect with that consistently, when things go wrong, they tend to be more funny than debilitating, you know, and if you can approach it with that sense of joy, with that sense of, again, confidence that you'll find your way through and your unique way, too. Like, there's no right way to do it, but there's your way, and that's cool. I think you'll go a long way, maybe even a marathon.

I love it. Sage advice for our listeners. Sean, this has been an incredible conversation, and I love how you shared your journey, how running has helped you, and your advice and tips to help others along their journey. Again, whether it's running or other aspects of their life, and getting into something that's new and something they've never done before, or maybe at first believing, may not believe that they can do it. So I appreciate all that. So, you know, just to kind of, as we wind down here, one last question I have for you is, you know, what is the one thing that you would say to inspire our community to run or do something new, like if it's a new race or another area of their life?

I think if there's one thing, if you're doing, if you want to get into running or you want to do something hard in life, it's to welcome the challenge, but understand that it's going to be hard. Right? I think a lot can be overcome if you're like, this is just going to be part of it and I might not like it, maybe I can get used to it, or maybe I can shift it in a way where it's not so hard. Right? One of my favorite questions in a coaching setting is what? I guess it's a couple questions. It's either what would make this easy? What would make this if you could do this in half the time, what would you need to do? And those types of questions get you thinking about, oh, like I have control over how this goes for me and I could find a different way. And that puzzle like problem solving, to me, I think if you can approach it as a problem that you can solve, you'll be able to get through it and you'll probably find that fun that enjoy along the way. So love it.

Love it. Thank you so much, Sean. So what's next for you? What what's coming up for you in your running journey?

Running journey? I am getting into rucking, so it's just not running but it's, you know, weighted walking with a weighted backpack. And I'm looking at some races actually. I think doing some 5Ks, I realized that if I don't have a goal, it's also much harder. So maybe that's another thing to like put a line in the sand where you're going to sign up for something or do something with people. And I think that socialness, whether it's a formal race or not, will help carry you through. So, yeah, so looking at some, some 5Ks, awesome, awesome.

Thank you so much, Sean. Great value provided here on this. In this conversation, I'd love to connect, you know, our community, our listeners to you, follow your running journey as well, get connected to you through your high performance coaching business. So share a little bit about where folks can find you.

All right, you can find me at my website, www.seanbutner.com or you can find me on Instagram at Coach Underscore, Sean Butner or YouTube @Sean Butner Coaching. I think we'll put that in the show notes. I'll send that to you.

All right, we'll do that. Thank you again so much for coming on the show, Sean, and good luck for with the rucking and that you're going to sign up for. And with that, thanks and have a great day.

Thanks, Richard. It's a pleasure.

That's it for this episode of Inspire to Run podcast. We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level. Be sure to click the subscribe button to join our community and also please rate and review. Thanks for listening.