Scott Glenn: Discover How Completing A 75-Day Challenge And Accountability From Friends Helped This Father And Successful Executive Rediscover Himself

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing Podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. I recently met today's guest through the do the Thing Dating Dare challenge. As we were talking about the challenge, he mentioned how he was in the middle of the 75 hard program and since I've been so intrigued by this program, I had to have him on the show. I've heard of a few people doing 75 hard recently and I really wanted to dive in to how someone could actually complete it and get the self discipline and mental toughness you need to have or to develop to succeed at the program we scheduled this interview for right after he completed it. I wanted him to tell us how he got through the program while it was still fresh in his mind. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of determination and a true go getter attitude to make it to the end. Our guest did just that and more. In this interview, we not only were able to talk about the 75 hard program and what it took to complete it, I also learned that his drive and grit actually stem from a much deeper place. He opened up and revealed that he's been living on his own since the age of 15. That experience powered him through life and the skills he learned by living in such a resourceful way really exemplifies how he can do the thing in everything he does. Scott Glenn is a partner with Bearing Point. He's an ex professional golfer, father of three, peloton addict, and trying to navigate staying in shape and dating in his 50s. He's an all around great guy who models the do the Thing attitude and everything. His three sons picked it up too. Please welcome Scott Glenn to the show. Hey Scott.

Hi Stacy.

So I am so excited to get a chance to talk to you.

Yeah, I've been looking forward to this, sharing a little bit about my recent journey and some of the things I learned.

Yeah, definitely. I can't wait to dive in and learn more about it. So why don't you start off for the listeners and just tell everybody just about your background and a little bit about your story.

Sure. So I'm 54 years old, a very active father, and soon to be empty nester. My sons are 22, 20 and 17. I've been very focused on them in my career and sometimes doing that, you find that you forget about yourself. And so I think I can recall back in college, I went through a time where I just was focused on school and I was a student athlete and I kind of let myself go and learned a lot about staying in shape and how easy, I think it was eye opener, how easy the pounds could jump on. And again, when I became a father for the first time, I had sons who were 17 months apart. And again, another journey where I realized I gained 30, 40 pounds that I didn't want and needed to find a way to lose it. And then recently, I wouldn't say maybe gained 10 to 15 pounds that I wanted to lose. And had a friend who I was on a ski trip with who was telling me about this program 75 hard that she was about to take on. I remember commenting like, you're in fantastic shape, you look great. She's like, you know, we could always find ways of improving ourselves. And so it really just started getting me thinking, like, you know what? I have gained a little bit. It's time to start focusing on me again. But what's been really fun with this is I've had an opportunity not just to focus on health, but just everything, my mental state and know where I'm at in life and, you know, as I get, as I get ready to be an empty nester. It was an interesting 75 days to say the least.

Yeah. So that is, that is so cool that just hearing about it from your friend at the ski trip, you then were able to explore it more and decide that it was something you wanted to, to take on.

Yeah, it was, you know, it's fine. I consider myself a mini hypochondriac and that sometimes I try to diagnose myself with things that I don't have a problem with. And so one of the aspects 75 hard is you don't drink for 75 days, no alcohol. And she was somebody who we have a lot of friends in common who consider her a big partier, which she is, but I think people mislabel her. So she was telling me, she's like, I just need to do 75 days without drinking. And I started thinking about it and going, I need to prove to myself that I can do that because I've never been somebody who consumes a lot of alcohol. Like, I. I can't remember last. Honestly remember last time I would consider myself drunk. I have maybe a drink or two at most, but it's like, you know, five days a week maybe. And I thought, is that an alcoholic? So probably is it? But I told myself, I think I need to do this just to not only gain. Not only lose some weight and get in better shape, but. But prove to myself that I can go 75 days without drinking without it being a big deal. And that was something that I found was really important to prove to myself. I think my friend was doing the same, and fortunately, we were both successful. We both had good stories.

Yeah, I'm so fascinated about this program because I had one of my friends in my mastermind group. He was telling me about his wife who did it, and she just had so many amazing benefits from it, too. And so I'm 49, and, you know, as you age, like, it changes your. It changes your reason for doing things. You know, I have my personal thing. I had, like, surgery, and then I had Covid. And then it was like this moment where I could either go. I mean, I felt my body declining. Right. I could either go that route or I could go and get back into something. So I didn't do 75 hard yet, but I joined. I did a fitness program, and. And I already went off on the food. I'm doing the fitness part really well, but I've already gone off on the food, you know, and so I'm, like, trying to figure out what's missing, you know, in that. So I'm so. I'm really fascinated from this, for me. And then also, I have a lot of listeners that are also really interested in improving their fitness because that's how you go do good at everything. Right? Is your health Is your number one, your number one thing in life?

Yeah, it is. And, you know, for me, I was fortunate that the fitness part, working out, was not something that was a chat. It was more. I'm pretty good about working out and actually enjoy working out. I would say this just held me a little bit more accountable. But definitely sticking to a diet, cutting out my alcohol, drinking a gallon of water a day, forcing myself to sit down and read something that was more focused about mental improvement. I think those were some of the things that really mattered to me. And doesn't help. It doesn't hurt that I'm stubborn and one of those people and my friend and I who was doing it, I knew that we were both going to be successful because I know we're both stubborn and we're just not the types of. When we start something, we're both types of individuals that hold ourselves accountable. And it was helpful that even though she's a little bit ahead of me, we would text every single day about how we were doing just to kind of remind each other that there's somebody else out there keeping an eye on things.

Yeah, yeah. No, I love that. That extra element of texting too, that's really good because that kind of adds that other layer of accountability.

Yeah, it's one thing. I think it's one thing to, you know, sometimes it's easy to lie to yourself. It's hard to lie to people that you're close to. And I know my friend, I wouldn't lie to her. Like, I know she wouldn't lie to me, so I'm not going to lie to her. So I felt like, you know what, I can't say, oh, yeah, I did that workout when I didn't. So. And she was the same. There was times where she's texting me going, it's nine o' clock at night. I haven't done the stupid workout.

Yeah. And then she would do it and.

She would do it. She was calling me sometimes where she was outside and it was pouring rain. Me going, I just need someone to talk to because I have to walk for 45 minutes in their cold, in rainy weather. But I'm doing this, you know, I'm not. No excuses.

Oh my gosh, I love that. So, okay, so you mentioned a few of the things that are on the, in the program. But for people that don't know what the 75 hard program is, do you mind just kind of giving them a layout of it?

Sure. So for. It's basically signing up for 75 days. There's some hard rules like no alcohol. You have to drink a gallon of water per day. You'd have to do two 45 minute workouts. One of them has to be outside. The other can be inside or outside. There's rules around what constitutes a workout, but for the most part it's just common sense things. Then you have to follow a diet, but it's a diet of your choice that's a little bit unique in that they don't say, here's the diet. It's. You set the rules for your diet. You should be setting rules that will result in weight loss. But it's up to you to pick what the diet is and then stick to it and have no cheat days, no cheat meals. And then you have to read 10 pages a day of a book that is, I don't know if you call it self help or just something that's educational that will help you become a better person. So I say it's not self help. I read a book on new ways of leadership and business, and that was, you know, that was my first book. And you have to do 10 pages of that. And then you also have to take a picture of yourself every single day. And they encourage you to do something in the mirror. You know, I did as a guy, I would do shirtless pictures. My friend did one. She would have her sports bra on and, you know, really taking pictures of what you look like. And it, as much as I was like, I didn't, I didn't dislike it because I thought, I don't want to do this. It was more, I don't see the point of this. After looking at my day one and my day 75 pictures, I was really glad I did it because I could see a big difference.

Isn't that amazing when you're like doing something and you don't even know why you're doing it until you see the results of it? I think that's so cool.

It is. And you don't, you know, looking at yourself every single day, you don't really see the difference. And then, and then you go back and you look and you go, wow. Like, I didn't know I even noticed that. That was half. I guess you notice on the scale, you know, that things are happening, but then to actually see a picture of the results before and after, it's like, wow. That was something like that. Really. I've never been one who's been comfortable posting shirtless selfies. And I posted one and actually felt pretty confident. Yeah.

That's so cool.

So where.

When you did the picture, so you mentioned you posted, but was there any other kind of accountability that you had to take the pictures and to like put them anywhere, or was it. It was just you taking them for yourself? Pretty much.

I mean, you could take them for yourself. I had being someone who likes organization immediately when my friend explained the program I read online, I was just going to use a spreadsheet. And then she said, there's a $5 app. Just download the app. And so there's an app that each time it has the checklist and you check off the things that you've done. And one of the things, it has a little camera icon and when you click on that you can take a picture and it allows you to store the picture on your phone or just keep it in the app. For the most part, I would just keep them in the app. I didn't really want to see them on my phone, but it was fun to go back and look at them and go, okay, now I see.

Okay, I love that. So the app basically keeps you accountable also every day in terms of organizing, you know, making sure you've done the task. So you're basically, as soon as you've done each thing, you're checking it off, you're taking the photo, you've drinking the water, and then. And then. Then the new day happens. Is that how it works?

Yeah, exactly. And it has some features built in where you can set reminder. I never. I didn't use this feature, but I saw it was there where you could set a reminder like, hey, at three o', clock, remind me to check in and see where I'm at with my water. Or remind me at this time that I need to work out. And then if you didn't complete all the tasks, the next day when you logged in, you got a. What happened? Did you fail or did you just forget? It made you feel guilty? Because I remember the first day I woke up and realized, oh, I forgot to check off something. I'm like, is it going to make me start over again? And it at least it gave you the opportunity to say, I just forgot to register, but I did it. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Because just so you guys know, that's the other thing I like about this challenge is if you miss something and correct me if I'm wrong, Scott, because I've looked at it, but I haven't looked at it as much as you have. But if you miss something, you just start over. The 75 days starts over.

Yes. Yeah. So you could be. I was joking with my friend who had completed it because she, like I said, we text every day, and she sent me a note yesterday morning saying, congratulations, you made it to day 75. I said, just for fun, I should get. I should. I should drink tonight, right? He's like, oh, you want to start back from day one? I'm like, yeah, no, we're. I'm going to actually do this again in the fall, but with a few activities I have coming up. I said, you know, I've learned I could live without drinking, but at the same time, I'm going to Louisville and I do need some bourbon. And it's.

It's cool, too, when you see how you feel without doing these things also because you have a better, you have a better idea of what, what works with your body, you know, and what doesn't too.

You know, I probably slept better. Probably. I have slept better over the last 75 days than I have in years. And so that, that's a big, that, that was a big eye opener. That all of a sudden my sleep has, has improved dramatically. And I, I've talked to some medical professionals who said, yeah, that's alcohol will keep. Alcohol will do that to you. It'll disrupt your sleep. So good for you. You learned. And so that's got me to a point where I said, you know, I want to have a drink and be social with friends. But I'm definitely going to limit my intake as far as the number of days a week. I'm gonna probably stick to weekends because the sleep value is just amazing.

Yeah. And that's good because that's like what people say is the secret to everything is just being able to sleep well at night.

Yeah. And I told myself for years it was just part of getting old. And I would read articles that would agree with that. But now I usually get into bed about 10:30, and by 11 I'm sound asleep. And I tend to wake up 7, 8 o' clock with the alarm.

Wow. So how did you do the gallon of water? That's the thing that, like, when I saw that, I'm like, how do you actually drink a gallon of water a day?

You know, it's not as much as you think. It sounded like a lot. And so I have a smart thermos that I bought and I had had it, I've had it for a while. But what I do is the minute I wake up, the first thing I do when I wake up is I actually already have it sitting by my side of my bed. And when I wake up, I start drinking water. I take it with my vitamins. And I find just in my morning routine, just getting ready, I typically drink 20 ounces of water. And then I just keep it filled and keep it next to me. And I find that, you know, even if I'm drinking, I don't drink coffee. I have a bad habit of drinking Diet Pepsi, which is the next thing to go. But I'll have it sitting next to my Diet Pepsi. And for every sip of Diet Pepsi, I'll drink water. And I find that the gallon goes by. I actually drink more than a gallon because it goes by pretty quickly. I would tell people, if you do it, start drinking the water early because if you wait late in the day, you're going to be up in the middle of the night going to the bathroom.

Oh, right. Yeah.

The other challenge to think about is my friend said, oh, you get used to it. You don't. I have this world's smallest bladder, I think, so I'm constantly going to the bathroom, and I do have to time it where if I'm driving somewhere. Like, this weekend, we played a baseball tournament that was 45 minutes away. I had to remind myself to slow down my water intake for an hour or so before we left so that I wasn't driving and needing to pull over to go to the bathroom. And so that's something to factor. And actually, I timed this so that our big tournaments down in Louisville and we leave next week, and I wanted this challenge to be over because I can't see drinking a gallon of water when I'm driving six and a half hours.

Yeah, no, for sure. And actually, you're right. That is actually the one thing that keeps holding me back from that gallon of water is because of the. Just the time to go to the bathroom. But it sounds like that stays. That doesn't go away. You just have to accept it as a thing.

You have to accept it, and you have to learn to build it into your schedule. So actually, it's good because I always tell my staff the longest duration you get with me is 45 minutes, because I need to build in. I build in 15 minutes of my schedule every hour. And it's been very helpful because there's usually a bathroom break in that 15 minutes that I have for you.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So funny. So, yeah. So. And true, though. I mean, but it's also water is the thing that gives you the hydration to be able to feel better also.

Yeah. And you have to. I think one thing, too, to keep in mind if you do the program is if you weigh yourself and you're using your weight as a KPI of how am I doing? You have to recognize the first few days, your weight actually may go up because your body's not used to all that water. And then so I actually started. I think I gained two pounds. The first week, it was already going, I'm going the wrong direction. And then I realized, well, it's probably because I'm not used to putting all that water in my body. Sure enough, then it started coming off. And, you know, once you start seeing the weight drop down and it just starts to feel so much better. But again, for this challenge, it was, I think, the Weight was great, but it was the percentage of body fat I lost and the quality of sleep.

So what kind of diet did you follow?

So when I lost, when I was. When my kids were babies, I lost 35 pounds in three months doing the Atkins diet. And so I've always tried to follow a moderate modified Atkins. And so I told myself, I'm just going to do that. I'm going to really watch my carbs, but I'm also going to cut out any snack. I'm horrible at snacking, especially working from home. And so I'm going to cut out all my snacking and I'm going to basically limit myself to my regular meals, low carb and no snacking, no alcohol, and that's it. But I'm going to do that again every single day to keep myself honest. And that worked so cool.

And so you mentioned once you say you're going to do something, you pretty much do it, you follow through with it. So how does that work? How did you build that muscle of being able to follow through with something that you would say you're going to do?

I think it's just been. I've always been someone. So I grew up. My family immigrated here from Poland. I grew up in a very poor household. No one went to college. I remember when I was young, I had all these dreams and people told me, you know, people like us, people like you don't, don't, you know, you don't ever realize those dreams, so you need to set the bar a little bit lower. And I remember rather than saying, okay, it just fueled me and I moved away from my family and was on my own. When I was 15 years old, I got through high school couch surfing with friends, you know, just went house to house and hustled golf to eat, to be able to do things. And I just told myself that, you know, I'm going to college. I have going on a golf scholarship and I got my way through. And throughout my whole career, I've always pushed to be, you know, the top. And it's just my. It's just an attitude I've had where failure is not an option. It's kind of interesting because with my sons, especially my youngest son, I love listening to him. He's been telling people his whole life. Everyone tells him how hard it is to become a major league baseball player, and they give him the stats. This many people don't make their high school team, this many people don't make college, this many people don't make major leagues. And he's Basically his attitude has been if I fail it won't be because I didn't try. And I've never, I tell people I've never once I this is my first year not coaching baseball and but I always told the players and the parents every year I said if you want to know what it takes, just watch him. And oh, by the way, I don't tell ever. I don't tell him to go to the gym. He tells me to go to the gym and, and I'm like, there's just something inside of him that will not allow him to fail for lack of trying. And if that means he has to be in the gym four hours a day, he's in the gym four hours a day. And I think it's just something you have and you know, I know I have it and I love watching him and seeing what he has and just seeing the fact that he has, he develops a schedule. If he, that schedule means he can't go on a day. If that schedule means he's missing a school event, if that school that means his friends are out doing things and he's not, he doesn't care. His whole attitude is I have a goal and it's my goal and the only one who's going to cause me to miss that goal is me. And I'm not. No excuses. You know, it's, it's a, it's my goal and, and I'm just not gonna let anything get in the way. And that's, I've been the same way and I look back on my life, I've like I said, I very blue collar kid from the wrong side of the tracks who's now a successful executive. You know, big house, two cars, golf club membership, lapis vacations. It wasn't handed to me. It was you have to work. To me I still think of everything like that. And like my friend who was successful also doing the program, I think where her and I relate is she's very similar. She's somebody who has driven herself. You know, she's a successful attorney who is really self motivated and got to where she's at all by herself. And again kind of the same thing. I could see it with her when she started the program that she's going to succeed because she doesn't allow herself to fail.

Yeah. And I love being able to look at that kind of like that background of doing the thing right because you're doing the thing in fitness and this whole 75 hard stuff. But then seeing that these principles were developed over these years in your life and all the challenges you've had and how you've been able to get through.

Yeah, I think it's like I said, I think it's definitely a mindset. And I think I see, a lot of times I'll see it in the group that we're in with people. I did this with my own brother who struggled with dating. And you have to step back sometimes and say, am I the person that I want to date? And if I'm not, how do I become that person? What's it going to take? And if it means if dating somebody is going to be a key to my happiness, then I need to make myself more dateable. What does that look like? What do I have to do otherwise? I know a lot of people who don't care about dating whatsoever and that's great. But those who do, they don't ask themselves, what can I do to become a more attractive partner for somebody? And when I say attractive, it doesn't mean that's just saying physical. It could be mental. There's so many elements. But yeah, sometimes you just, you have to step back and think about what am I doing to be the best version of me? Because the only person who's stopping you is you is the way I see it.

Yeah. And it's amazing when you're able to look at yourself, right. And not look outside and blame everyone else. You're taking responsibility and ownership for, you know, who you are and then who you're bringing into your life.

Exactly. The part about bringing into your life. I think that was one of the things that was interesting with this, this program is I really started noticing, like, wow, I feel incredible. For 54, you know, I'm losing weight. I'm seeing my, you know, for the first time. I looked down at my stomach and I could see defined abs. It's like, wow, like, this is great. Like, but what else? What else isn't? If I'm not happy, what else isn't making me happy? And I started, I started realizing, you know, I'm going to be an empty nester. I don't really want to be in Michigan. I hate the winters here. That's a negative. That's something that's always negative in the winters. I notice I gain weight in wintertime because the weight I'm trying to lose now is from last winter. And it's because in the wintertime you can't get out and exercise. Sometimes I'll go two to three days of being in the house and not going out and I'll just go to a restaurant or a bar and I feel like I have to drink. And so I started telling myself it's time to look for a move to warmer climate if that's going to make me a better version of me. I also started thinking about people in my life who sometimes bring me down a bit. And they're not bad people. I always see people describe relationships and they talk about, this person was toxic, they were a narcissist. I'm a believer that everyone, or for most people, are inherently good. It's just sometimes the wrong people are in your life at the wrong time. And I started taking an inventory of that and I realized there were certain people in my life who, when I interacted with them, I didn't like the way I felt. And so it was time to cut those people out. Maybe it was temporary, maybe it's permanent, but I certainly started being more in tune with the feelings of what was driving some of the times where I felt a little bit sad or I wasn't necessarily the most positive version of myself.

Yeah, it's so good to be able to ask yourself those questions. I was just talking to someone the other day who mentioned, I think, I think it was Tony Robbins that said, the key to your happiness is to ask yourself the best questions for yourself.

Yeah, no, I agree. We don't do that a lot. I think. I think sometimes you just get so wrapped up and you don't step back and ask yourself. I started getting into a point where each day I would say to myself, how do I feel today? And if I wasn't feeling my best, well, why? And then what am I doing about that? And it's funny because as a baseball coach, it's one of the things that I really like. I said, I always told my son, this is your life, this is your dream, it's not mine. I don't care what you want to do in life. My oldest son is going to go. He's graduating college, and before he goes to grad school, he wants to go work as a ski lift operator. I remember him telling me that and looking at me saying, what do you think? And my answer was, if that's what makes you happy, then go do it. Do what makes you happy. Be aware of it. But at the same time, if you're not happy, ask yourself why. And if you're not getting the results you want, ask yourself why. And with my youngest son, it's the same thing. If you have a bad game, you can get mad at the umpires, you can get mad at your teammates. What good does that do? What are you accomplishing by doing that? You're accomplishing nothing. You just step back and take ownership and saying, well, what could I do better? If it is your teammate's fault, that's great. What are you doing to get on a better team? Is it really your teammates fault or is it really your fault?

Yeah, I love, I love that, I love that ability because it's so few people do that. Right. Like taking ownership for your part of the situation. I think it is so much easier to say like why it's not working because of something or someone else.

Yeah. You know, and last year he had his play. He, after four years of playing baseball for me and with his closest friends, at the end of the season, he said, dad, I think I, I think I've outgrown you and these guys. He's like, no offense, but I think I'm ready for another level. And he was right. I told him, I said, you know, that's again, you own it and you can't make excuse. You know, if you look at round and you say, these guys are giving me an excuse, I've got to eliminate that excuse that it's time to move on. And he ended up moving up a couple levels in baseball and the team he's playing for, you know, he pitched yesterday and it was, the team behind him was so much better and he walked, you know, we were going home. He said, dad, that made me. He's like, it was a big difference. He's like, it was a tough decision. But I did recognize that last year when I would get upset, I was doing everything I could. I was just surrounded by the wrong people. And they weren't bad people. He said, dad, they weren't bad people. I really liked my teammates. They just weren't focused as much as I was on where I want to go. None of those guys are going to play college baseball. Now I'm surrounded by guys who are going to go play college baseball and we take it more serious. And he goes, it was the right thing for me. It was really hard, but it was absolutely the right thing. Like I said, I've been mentally trying to think the same things about the people that I'm closest to and where I spent my time thinking, who are those people that are the most positive influence on me, that when I finish talking to them or being with them, I walk away going, wow, I feel great versus, you know, people who maybe are tracking me down because they always seem to have problems, right?

Yeah, it's that whole average of the five people you're around. Definitely. So can we talk more about your. Because I didn't know this, so I just think it's a huge part of who you are is just being on your own when you were 15 and having to figure it out, basically. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Like how you. How you kind of, like, navigated through that?

Yeah. You know, so I had a unique childhood. I was raised by my grandparents, and when I was in middle school, I was a hockey player and a golfer. And like I said, no one had went to college and my great grandfather had passed away. My great grandmother was on her own. She'd never been on her own her whole life. And she wanted to go down, she wanted to go to Florida, and she didn't want to be by herself. So my grandparents said, you know, you should go live with your great grandmother in Florida. And it's a chance for, you know, so she's not by herself. At the same time, you can work on your golf game maybe, maybe, you know, maybe someone will recognize you and you can play college golf, who knows? And so I went down there with her, and then she decided she hated it and so she wanted to be back in Michigan. And I decided I didn't want to. And I just told my family, I said, I have no desire to come back and I will find a way to survive. And I have good friends and I've met their families and they all like me. And I'm not asking for money, just a place to sleep. And that's what I did. Starting at 15, I basically just said, I'm going to do this on my own. And when you're dealing with a blue collar family who doesn't know any better, I look back on it and if my kids had told me they were going to do that, I would have said, you're out of your mind. Get your butt home. But I just, you know, my grandparents didn't know any better, so they said, well, if you think you could do it. And so I had a couple close friends and, you know, talked to them and their parents and they're like, you could stay, you know, so kind of bounced around a bit with different friends and I always paid my own way and paid for my own meals and, you know, I got, I was a good golfer. So I got jobs at the golf course. I would, I would hustle, I would go out and play people for money and always win. What I found was that I Got to be a bit of a mini celebrity. That was a very good junior golfer. And I play against people and beat them, but I don't think they minded. 20 bucks here and there for this kid who's fun to play golf with, Right? So, yeah, that was it. And I put myself. I finished the last couple years of high school that way and. And then went off, got a college, got to play in college, and then just never looked back. But my whole life, I would say it's been. I did a startup in the mid-90s, and the first offer I got, I sold my way out of it because I was so nervous, because I've never had anything to fall back on. And actually, during COVID I told my sons one night over dinner, I had all three sons living with me over dinner one night, I said, you know what my biggest wish for each of you is? And they said what? I said, to fail miserably. And they looked at me and they said, dad, why would you say something so horrible? And I said, it's not horrible. What I want you to understand is that if you're out of college and you try something and you fail, you have a safety net. You have two parents who've done very well. I don't know. I'm not going to speak for your mom, but if you came to me and said, I need a place to stay or I need to get back on my feet, I need some help, I tried something. I failed miserably. I'm here for you. I'm like, I didn't have that. I didn't have that. And that was really difficult when I was young. I'm like, I want you guys to understand the importance of that. I think for my youngest, he gets it more than anything else because he's told people, they said, well, you're setting the bar to be a major league player. What happens if you don't make it? And he goes, I don't think about that. I just think about, what if I do make it.

Oh, I love that. That's so great.

But at the same time, he's not worried. Like, he's even. He gets it. He said, he's like, if I don't make it, I don't make it. He goes, it's not the end of the world. He goes, it's not like I have a support structure. You look at, you know, I have something. If I find myself all of a sudden, I have no money in life. He's like, you know, it's not a bad. He's Like, I got a place to go, got a place to sleep. I got someone who'll take care of me. He's like, so I'm just going to keep pushing for my dream. What's the, what's the down? You know, he always asks people, what's the downside? Yeah, why didn't I do this? And I love it because it was, it was a little nerve wracking for me, I'll admit. Yeah.

That is so. That is so good. What if I do make it? I love that so much. That's so good. I might post that on my wall, actually.

That is. I wish I had that courage when it came to dating, but I don't. It's funny because I'm not a person who will go up to strangers and just start talking to them and you know, with a mindset of so what, what could happen? Right. And I'm an intelligent person and it is really a so what? What could happen. But it's just so far it's so foreign to me and so much out of my comfort zone that I just don't do it.

Yeah. And I'm glad you said that. So just so you guys know, so Scott and I met through, through a Facebook group and then I'm starting a challenge for. It's like a dating challenge. And, and, and yeah. And he's going to be part of it. And so it's like a four. It's actually, it was supposed to be 14, but everyone wanted longer to do both weekends. So it's a 17 day challenge. And I'd love to interview you after because I think, I think it's gonna. That statement is going to expand. Well, I know you're going to be traveling, aren't you, for part of it.

I'm going to be challenging. I'm going to be traveling for a good part of it.

Yeah. So we'll, we'll figure it out. But yeah. Because either way I could always send you the stuff after. But yeah, it's amazing to get to know. Yeah. More about, about you and then hearing it through your sons too. It just shows how much you've been modeling this do the thing attitude, you know, because they definitely picked it up sound. So I wanted to. Gosh, it's amazing. I'm just like, I'm like wanting to geek out more on your younger experience. But I do want to. Let's get back to 75 hard for a minute. I wanted to talk about the accountability. So in terms of the accountability goes and being able to keep up that program. Was it really just the app and then your friend, or was there anything else that you did to hold yourself accountable between checking everything off in the app, taking the picture and then texting your friend?

That's all really, for me, that's all it really was. Like I said, I'm very. Actually, there was a bunch, there's a few others who said, we're all going to do this. And then most of them within a week were out. And actually one of my friends who tried it a few times, she recently reached out and said, okay, I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna modify with my own rules. And I told her, I said, I think that's okay. I think to me, like, if somebody said, hey, is 75 hard worth it? I would say, absolutely. And they looked at it and said, well, I can't do this. It's like it's 75 days of something. I think that to me, that's why I told It's 75 days of discipline. You pick the discipline, you pick the rules. Like, what am I gonna do? I would definitely say the no alcohol. Take that out. That should be an easy one because you are in control. And there's a lot you can learn. Not drinking for 75 days. You can learn that it's not uncomfortable to ask for water at a restaurant. I didn't know how many non alcoholic beers there were in the world, but there are a lot and they're very trendy at restaurants now. If you're somebody who's traveling a lot and the water's difficult, well, then maybe set a different goal with that. If the workouts, if it's hour and a half of workouts are unrealistic because you're a single parent with little kids, okay, great. But what can you do? Ask yourself that. What can I do for 75 days that I'm going to then hold myself accountable for? And then no excuses, just do it. If you say I can do it, then you got to do it. You got to make time. If that means you have to schedule out your day in advance, which I think is a good routine, do that. But to me, it's just this mindset that says, I want to hold myself accountable. Like I said, it's nice to have the app that goes, yeah, I did that or I didn't do that. And then it also helps to have somebody else doing it. I think with any program like that, if you have friends who are doing it and you can hold each other accountable, I think it does. Like I said, it's easy to lie to yourself. It's hard to lie to your friends.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's true. So what do you think was the hardest thing for you during that challenge?

Early on, it was the alcohol. Because I just, I'm a creature of habit. And you go out to a restaurant and you know when you're by yourself, when you're single and you're by yourself, you sit at the bar and you sit at the bar and they come down, you don't want to just say, well, just give me a water. I feel really cheap because I'm always sensitive to wait staff, that these people are really working hard to make not the greatest living in the world ordering water. That's a huge part of the overall bill to keep the restaurant afloat. And that also factors into the tip. And so I had to convince myself it is okay to drink water. And if you want to tip more than 20%, tip more than 20%, tip 30% and then you won't feel so bad. But that part early on was just a mental. It was a mental change. It was a huge mental change for me to say it's okay to go sit at a restaurant and not have a drink or finishing a round of goth and all the guys are sitting around having a beer and you're just sipping on water. It's okay. I had to tell myself it's okay. That part early on was the hardest. After that, it was actually pretty. It wasn't hard. And my friend told me the same thing. She said, after the first 20 days or so, you're going to get into a routine and you're going to find that it's a new normal.

So for saying to yourself was it's okay, was that the one thing that you said that helped the most or was there anything else that you would say to yourself to like, quiet down the guy that wanted to drink?

That was the biggest. Because I found myself. I answered my question, my alcoholic, and the answer is no. Because I wasn't craving alcohol. I was craving normalcy. And I had to invent a new normal. And what I like is after the 75 days, I've invented a new normal. And I like that new normal. And so I've learned that I can drink water at a restaurant. It's okay. I could just tip a little bit more if I feel guilty, or I can get a non alcoholic beer that's low calorie, that there's lots of. I've learned there's lots of options. And that to me and Then just getting into habits, like the water. Like now it's. I don't even think about the water now. Like, I, I assume I drink a gallon. I know I actually drink more than a gallon because I just keep the thermos by me all day long. And it just, every time it gets empty, I walk to the refrigerator and refill it. And it got to a point where I would just lose count because I knew, you know, six filling it up six times was going to be a gallon or more. I probably fill it up eight, nine times.

What's like the number one piece of advice to people on doing the thing in terms of a challenge like this?

I think you gotta, you just gotta be somebody who, at the beginning of it, you gotta say, what is it going to take? And you gotta be really honest with yourself and say, you know, let's think of the excuses ahead of time. What are my excuses? Why. Why am I not going to do this? And then how do I. How do I mitigate that risk? And I know some friends failed. Again, to me, the. There's constraints and then there's mental issues. A constraint is, I don't have. I don't have an hour and a half in the day. Well, step back and say, what if I get up early and work out 45 minutes? What if the other 45 minutes is right before I go to bed? Is that feasible? If you're a single parent with kids at home and you can't do it, maybe you can't, maybe you have to modify it and that's okay, but don't set yourself up. I think for the people who I know who tried it and failed, they felt like failures. And it was, well, maybe you were taking on something that you weren't ready for. So start by saying, am I ready for this? And really thinking through, can I do this? And give it a lot of thought. Understand how you're going to. How you're going to do it and then do it. For the things that I would say aren't really constraints, where it's just the alcohol. You know, I had one friend who said, well, the problem is on weekends we all go out and we drink. I'm sorry, you don't have to. You could go out and not drink. I've learned that you can go out and not drink. Does it feel really awkward? Yeah, but so what? Stop it. That's an excuse. Eliminate those excuses. If you're truly constrained of not being able to do it, modify it, and then figure out what you can do and stick to it for those other things, force yourself out of your comfort zone and say, you know what? No excuses. I can still. I can go out with my friends and I can drink water and that's okay. Or if I think those people are bad influences on me, I'm going to avoid them for 75 days. I think it's really understanding and being honest with yourself up front and setting yourself up for success.

So good. So good. And then what do you think about. Because you've had such an unbelievable. You have such an unbelievable story, you know, from being, like, on your own pretty much at 15. And I'm using the word hustling. I think you use that word too, like hustling, to make it happen. What do you think your number one piece of advice on doing the thing in relation to that?

I think it just goes back to, you know, learning to not put blame on everybody else. And just. You know what I remember telling my son when he started to become a good pitcher is I said, the best. I'm not gonna. I remember walking out to the mound once and I just. I looked at him and he. And he said, what am I doing wrong? And I said, that's not what I'm here to talk to you about. What I'm here to talk to you about is controlling what you control and forgetting everything else. I said, because I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, this umpire strike zone is way too tight. You don't control that. All you do is you throw the baseball. You got fielders who are making errors. You don't control that. All you control is how you throw the baseball. If you think it's a strike and he thinks it's a ball, you can't control that. Why are you letting the things you can't control dictate everything? Stop it. That's my advice to you. I'm not going to change the way you pitch. I'm just going to tell you to stop focusing on everything else and focus on what you control. And that made him a better pitcher because he learned to focus on just himself. I would say with these programs, it's the same thing. Forget about all the outside influences that will make you fail. Anytime you're trying to do a program and just say, what am I in control of? And again, there may be some real constraints, but eliminate all those artificial constraints. And if that means you have to hang out with different people for a while, if that means you have to change, you have to get out of your comfort zone and what you think is Normal you have to get away from sometimes it's learning about yourself. I mean, how many of everyone has comfort foods, right? So me snacking is a comfort. I love my snacks and a lot of them are healthy snacks, but they're calories. At the end of the day, they're extra calories. And you have to teach yourself that. Okay, I'm going to be honest with myself. That is a weakness of mine. I have to eliminate that weakness. And it's up to me to do that. And the only way I'm going to be stronger is eliminating those weaknesses. I think it's just that just being honest and really focused on the things that you control and the things that you can improve and stop making excuses about why you can't.

So, okay. Scott, is there anything I did not ask you that you wish I asked you?

No. I think when it comes to this program, though, the only thing I would say is because I think people hear an hour and a half of working out and they go, oh, that's so intimidating. You know, the outside piece can just be 45 minutes going for a nice walk. It's not like you had to run or you had to do, you know, high intensity bike rides. Walking for 45 minutes is exercise. And so do that inside. It's not like, like, you know, there were days where I spent, you know, a couple hours in the gym with my son and those were some horrible sessions where I was very sore the next day. But I also had days where my 45 minutes inside was yoga and stretching and core workouts and things that weren't necessarily for a 54 year old that I could do every single day. I wouldn't be intimidated by the hour and a half workout. To me, that was the easy part. Walking outside for 45 minutes is a pleasure. Doing 45 minutes of stretching and yoga, I would say as somebody who had back surgery a few years ago, it's. It feels so good to do that. So don't let that part scare you. You can be very, you can do an hour and a half of very healthy activities that don't make you sore, that don't make you sweat, that don't make you, you know, feel miserable the next day.

That's a really good way to look at it. And that's really figuring out what can you do versus like immediately looking at the hour and a half and saying, oh, that doesn't work.

You know, exactly.

Because even if you take a phone call, like let's say you're, you know, an executive or salesperson or whatever you do. You could even do that, have a meeting or something. There's so many things that you can do to make it work.

Yep.

Yeah. Well, this was unbelievable. Thank you so much for coming on and talking to us about this, because it's something that I've really been fascinated about. I love. I love seeing people that, you know, sign up for something like this and then actually, like, finish it. And when did you finish it, by the way?

Yesterday.

Oh, my gosh. So cool. So you are. So. What are you doing to celebrate?

So. So, ironically, I'm. So tonight I can drink, and I'm not going to because I have no reason to. And then tomorrow I may. I have a friend who I went out with a couple times who knew I was doing the program, and so she was saying, well, you know, this is the first time, you know, in a while I can go have a drink with you. So I said, maybe. And then we head to Louisville on Wednesday for baseball. And I am having a bourbon at Old Fashioned while I'm in Louisville, but probably just one.

Yeah. Okay. So I'm giving you a pre do the thing dating challenge dare. Are you ready?

Yep.

So when you go out tonight, you're gonna. You're gonna tell everyone what you're celebrating, that you just finished this program, and you'll talk to. Just talk to two people about it. That's.

I will try that in the next. Give me a week. Because if I do go out tonight. I probably won't go out tonight because I'm gonna practice my. I'm gonna play. Probably play golf and then have dinner. And when my son and I have dinner, I live in a small town where I know everybody, and so it's hard to talk to strangers because they all.

You know, them all.

In Louisville, I will probably have that conversation with somebody.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Do it there. So that's one of the. One of the dares I'm giving you ahead of the time is, you know, because let's say you're at a bachelor party, right? It's like, you go. You'll. You go up to anyone when you're doing something like that because you're already celebrating, and that energy kind of overtakes the moment. You know, you could kind of keep that same momentum for something like what you just finished, you know, just by finishing the 75 day hard. And then it kind of immediately gives a talking point to make it easier.

Yeah, no, I'll keep that in mind, and I'll give it a try. You know, it's funny when I'm in. I don't know why, because I talk to people. I'm at conferences up on the stage and I've had employees who say, aren't you nervous? And it's like, no, I feel very comfortable. But then, like, in a social setting like that, like walking up to a stranger and starting a dialogue is terrifying. I couldn't tell you why. I could tell you it's very irrational. But yeah.

Yeah. Well, we'll explore it. All right. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on. It's been great.

All right. Thank you for having me. Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on Doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at do the Thing callcast Co. Or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.