WATCH THIS To 100x Your Productivity TODAY! | Isaac Brown

The baby steps, right? When they first start, it's inch by inch by inch, and you look and you're like, that thing's not moving. It's not moving at all, right? But once they get going, they get that momentum. Now it's unstoppable.

I want to hear straight off the bat, what's the secret to peak performance?

Secret?

I mean, you work with all these athletes, NFL, cfl, so many. What's the secret?

The secret is discipline. And I think that's, you know, it's not a huge secret, but it's something that's not always seen. So people, People think it's a secret, Right. People don't see the athletes and even anyone in life, anyone in life who's highly successful. People rarely see the things you do behind closed doors, the things you do to get ahead. Right. And it's those disciplines that aren't shiny and bright and praised, but they make you who you are, right?

Yeah.

Discipline.

Well, when you think about the discipline, and I think that's definitely a secret to success, when it all boils down to it. I know that I do a lot of stuff behind the scenes that's never seen, um, you know, but, you know, you get a lot of praise and accolades for, you know, accomplishments and stuff like that. And I kind of feel like getting that much praise for the, for the success and not necessarily the fight is kind of a disservice to humanity. So I'm glad you actually brought that up because it's nice to talk about it. When it comes down to it, you know, you work with folks, I mean, elite levels, you know, your heart led God fearing man. God, you know, puts his faith in the forefront when it comes down to developing discipline. And someone who, like, for myself, for example, I didn't always have discipline. In fact, I was geared much more towards distraction than discipline, more than anything else.

Yeah.

So how do you take someone? Because you've worked with all kinds of folks, right? Elite athletes and more. When you take them, I assume that not all of them come in with the discipline. They may come in with natural talents or natural skills. So how do you cultivate a spirit of discipline?

Oh, well, the first thing I do is I model it myself. I walk the walk, you know, in what I do and how I carry myself. Even, just even, you know, a small example, even at work, the gym. I keep that gym as immaculate as I can. You know, I always make sure everything I'm asking our players to do, I do. You know, I don't leave weights out. Weights Out, I make sure I clean up everything. If I see a piece of trash, I'll pick it up. Those are small disciplines that are often walked by, you know, but other than that, it's really getting to know the person and what's important to them and getting to know their triggers and what makes them tick, you know, and that that's what I use oftentimes as motivation, because that's what works for me, as motivation. The things and the people that are counting on me, those are my motivations. So when I don't feel like getting up at 3am it takes one split second to just think of those bigger than me. And then I get to it, you know, so it's a process. But that's a few of the things I do. I model it. And I also get to know the person on a deep level. That's why I love my job so much, because it's not transactional. It's not transactional. It's relational. It's relational with me even. Sometimes the guys are on the team for a month and then they're gone. What kind of impact did I make in that month? Every day is important.

Well, I also know that these strategies, these techniques, these principles, if you will. I often say that principles govern promises. If you're not living by a strategy or principle, you're not going to end up with a promise. And it never fails. I'm almost certain. I'm almost certain we can go down this road pretty quickly. Is it safe to say that, like yourself, like. Well, like, like many like myself, that some of these behaviors didn't come naturally and you kind of developed them and learned them over time and if so, how.

Yeah, 100% I learned them as a, as a kid. Right. Now, let me, let me replay phrase that. I didn't learn them as a kid. I fought them as a kid.

I fought them as a kid and I accepted them as a, as an adult.

Yeah.

Right. You know, in the Bible it says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he won't sway from it. Right. My parents. My parents did a great job. Right? They. They taught me those disciplines. And you know, work ethic and discipline are two things. And humility. Work ethic, discipline, and humility are two things that my parents really, really drove home to me. And as a child, I fought it. And then as an adult, it just naturally started to be a part of who I am. And I thank God that it was that way when I was young, even though I didn't like it. Now. I love now. Now I love it. Right. Because it's a big part of what makes me successful.

I think there's some proverbs around that whole concept, too, about not liking it early on, and then all of a sudden you're like, hey, okay, now I can figure out this actually built me over time, like, I am the man I am today because of these things. And I think that people take that for granted. I think a lot of folks, especially what I refer to as aspiring success leaders, aspiring leaders in general, aspiring people that are chasing whatever variant of success that it means to them in almost every single case. It seems like one of the number one roadblocks that's holding them back is the fact that they use their past or their adversity or something to say, no, this thing is chaining me, if you will, to prevent me from moving forward. And I think what you and I have both learned is that's not how it works. You break the chains on your own. Talk a little bit about.

That's right. That's right. You know, there I've broken. I've had to break a lot of chains, you know, and the thing. The thing is recognizing it not as. Not as something that's holding, holding you back or as an excuse, but recognize it as something that is in opposition to you. So you attack that thing and you defeat that thing, and then you move forward, you know? So when it comes to chains, I see it in athletes all the time. You know, some guys. Some guys that come up here in this league, in the Canadian league, and I had the same. I had the same issue my rookie year. They come up here with the chain to the NFL. Right.

Yeah.

Thinking, I'm only up here because I didn't make it down there or I had a bad break down here. And then that completely disables their ability to make the most of this opportunity. Yeah, right. A lot of American players come up here with hopes to get back in the NFL, but if they're constantly looking back in the NFL, they're not looking at this plate. Right. And making the most of the opportunity right here, you know, so. So chains can be things that you see as missed opportunities. They can. They can be broken relationships. They can be, you know, things you wish you never would have did, but you did. You know, they can be regrets. It can be more. It can be all types of things. You know, everybody has their different type of chains.

Well, you know, I think one of the things that, you know, I heard it said, I forgot who said it, but I heard it said it's about keeping the promises to yourself. And I know that you're. One of the things that's like top of mind or top of heart for you is the power of a covenant.

Right.

You know, I would say covenant with yourself and family and your occupation. How would you describe covenant and why it's so important.

I describe covenant? It's. It's a commitment. It's a deep commitment, though. It's a commitment to see it through to the end, no matter who it has to transfer over to. Yeah. You know, and that's kind of what you see in the Bible. There was a covenant made between God and people. And sometimes one person could only carry the baton so far, but that covenant continue in the. In the hand of the next. The next man or the next woman, you know, so for me, the covenant is, you know, leaving. Leaving a generational impact on my family. You know, I. I can't live a thousand years and I can't live 16 more generations. Right. So I have to do what I can to create that generational legacy in my nephews and my kids, even in my brothers and, you know, because my parents and my grandparents, they're leaving a generic generational legacy inside of us. Right?

That's right.

And every generation, it changes, and you tweak it to make it better and better because you evolve with the times. Yeah. You know, so that covenant, it means a lot to me from, from my work to my relationships to my relationship with God, you know, and it's a. It's a very deep meaning to me. And that's, that's why I had it on my website, because that's how I approach my business with. With my, my clients and anyone that works with me. It's a commitment. You know, I'm here for the relationship first and the business second. Yeah, right.

Yeah. One of the things I love most about the word covenant me. To me, a covenant is nothing more than keeping the promise. Even when things get hard, actually. Especially when they get hard.

That's right.

You know, are you. Are you the same person in the light, in the dark, or your same person on camera than you are with your family? Like, how do you, you know, kind of how you handle yourself in a daily interaction, kind of how you see yourself, how you see other people, you know, and I know that especially in your world, in the athletic world, I'm sure there comes a lot of folks that are incredibly skilled, incredibly talented at a specific. You know, maybe it's catching the ball Maybe it's running the ball, maybe it's breaking a tackle, you know, whatever that special skill is. But I also know the tendency to get lost in your own skill set, your own identity tied to your. What you perceive your strength to be and how ego can then step in and then begin to pull you away from that specifically. And I know you always have a team focused mentality. How do you help people break free from selfishness that comes along with, you know, kind of their identity? Maybe it's tied to the NFL or maybe it's, you know, that kind of thing. How are you able to kind of work with people and break that and actually show them the team is where it's at?

Well, I embody and I push what our head coach pushes. You know, he always says we are better together. Right. No one person on this team is better than everybody else. No one person on this team can take the team somewhere that all of us collectively can't go.

Yeah.

Right. So I embody that. And, you know, when I have. Or when we have new people coming in, new players coming in, you know, it's always a welcoming culture. Honestly, our whole culture of the team is. Is very welcoming. So it's. It's not so much on me. It's really. I'm just a part of the big. A part of the big puzzle. You know, I work. I work closely with all the players because they all come into the weight room. I spend a lot more time with them than most people on our staff.

Yeah.

And again, it's like, you get to know them. You get to know them on a deeper level. You know, I'll stop and sit down at my desk with a guy in the middle of a whole workout.

Yeah.

Because. Because that individual is important to me. Right. As well as the whole team. But if they're running efficiently, I can take the time with this guy.

Yeah.

You know, because everything else is going to run. Right. So it's. Sometimes it's more difficult.

Oh, yeah. I deal with people.

Sometimes it's more difficult. Right. But those, those types of people, they either come around or they go away. Yeah. You know, it's just. It's a sad story because you can't help them all. But. But yeah, they either come around or they go away. And in this business, there's not a lot of patience for selfish, me, me, me type guys, you know, so that's good. Our culture's pretty good, though.

Yeah. I mean, that's great stuff. I mean, you know, one of the things I've always loved about the athletic industry specifically is it translates really well to me to the entrepreneurship industry. In fact, you see a lot of athletes, once they're done with their, you know, the athletic careers, they go into business in a various form. And I think it comes down to the same skill sets of high performance that go into being a high performance athlete. Mentorship, diligence, work ethic, commitment, you know, all of that stuff transcends really life in general, you know. And one of the things I love about what you just said is about making, you know, is how folks come in and after some molding and being able to sit down with them one on one, to me that's an extreme act of love, even though a lot of people wouldn't take the word love and put it down to it. But I think anytime that you invest yourself in the life of someone else, you are actively showing them love. And I know absolutely the book that we read says love, love one another as I have loved you, abide in my love. Right?

That's right.

What does it mean to let the word love showcase itself on the football field, in the family life, in the occupation? What does that look like to you? Because I know it's something you do really well.

Yeah, it means meeting people where they're at, no matter, no matter who they are and no matter what they're going through, meeting people where they at. And I have learned that, and I'm still learning that, you know, because sometimes my impatience or I'll be looking at someone through the eyes of my expectations and not the eyes of just where they're at, you know, so it's something that I have learned and I'm continuing to perfect that because I work with so many people and I'm going to continue to work with so many people. Right. So I always have to keep that filter that, not even a filter of love, but embody love, you know, and always meet them where they're at. I think that's the first thing. I think the second thing is being completely non judgmental about where they're at. You can meet them where they're at and then you can judge them where they're at and then you won't move forward. Right. So the two things for me is meeting them where they're at and then not judging them for where they're at and then figuring out where they want to go and helping them get there. That's my life, that's what I love to do in life. And I think you helped me word that because I've Never said it that way before. You know, meet people where they're at, don't judge them. Figure out where they want to go and help them get there. That's me.

Yeah.

If you ask me who I. That's. That's me, you know, So I think that's some. I think that sums up the question, but I need to write that down so I don't forget.

Well, luckily we're recording the whole thing. Right? We got it forever now.

Right, Right, right, right.

Let's park on the thing for judgment for a second because there's, you know, I know there's really. There's really two. Well, yeah, there's really two forms of judgment. There's judging yourself and there's having others judge. You actually know there'd be three because you judging yourself, others judging you, and then you judging others. Right. So we call that. I guess we can. Now we can coin the phrase the judgment trifecta or something. The trifecta of judgment.

There we go.

Talk to me a little bit about just a couple of prime examples of things that folks who are. Who are struggling with emotional intelligence would struggle to judge. Where love would do it this way. So judgment would do it this way, Love would do it just this way. Any couple examples maybe you can share?

Obviously, no names, of course, but I do, I do. So, you know, I worked with a player. I worked with a player one time, and there were.

Behavioral issues, to say the least. You know, and some coaches wanted to just straight get rid of them. Some coaches wanted to help him. I wanted to just figure out what's wrong with this guy.

Yeah.

You know, I was, I was not on either side of the fence. I just wanted to figure out what's wrong with him, where is he at and why is he there and how can I help him get out of there? And it turned out like most, most of the young black male players that, that I was, that I was coaching years ago, he grew up without a father. Never, never had a male authority type figure in his life. Even his high school coaches were, you do what you want, you know, and then you get recruited. You get recruited, and then you're able to basically get your butt kissed.

Yeah.

By every major school. Right. So then when you do come in contact with a confrontation, so to speak, or just structure.

Yeah.

Grew up with no structure, you know, so it was like, get rid of this kid because he won't follow in our ways. Or let's meet this kid where he's at and help him build structure slowly. Let's show him what structure is, why it's important, how it's going to help him, and then let's help him move forward. Right. But there, there were instances like that many times where the patience level with those type of athletes was, was very low. You know, even if they were, even if they were elite. Elite. Yeah, you know, things like that. So. And I've seen cases like that in the pros. I've seen cases like that in the pros. And it's just a, it's a sad thing because you don't, you don't want to see that thing happen and you want to help everybody, but you can't help everybody. You know what I mean? So, you know, in those instances, what does love do? Love meet somewhere they're at. Yeah. Does. Doesn't judge them. Helps them figure out where they want to go and then helps them get there, you know?

Yeah. I mean, I love that because I work with a lot of folks at scale and micro moments and the vast majority of them know that they're stuck. Like they have an awareness that something's off, something's amiss, something's awry. They have an awareness of I'm not super happy with myself. I have an awareness that maybe I react in a non positive way in any given circumstances. Maybe it's an outburst of anger or maybe it's an outburst of literally loneliness and fear. Right. Outbursts in general. And it seems like all of them, the most common denominator in almost every case is essentially no self awareness. They've never actually done the research to go inside. And it takes people like yourself to say, hey, look, let's do this together. Right. And you can only do that if there's no judgment. Right. So when you look, when you look at that, when you look at some of the stories of where maybe what I call a catalyst moment or a aha moment has taken place, what are you seeing as being some of the most common roadblocks that are holding people back in general from being their best version of themselves?

Oh, you know what I think? I think it's real. It's people realizing. I'll start with athletes. I think it's athletes realizing that their mindset in the field of play, whatever sport it is, transfers to life. It transfers to everything in life. But the thing is they only associate that mindset with that sport.

Yeah.

And then they think they have to come into the rest of life with a mindset they have to rebuild or a mindset they don't even have or just they don't even know where to begin. Well, if you got moved to a different position tomorrow, you would know exactly where to begin.

Yeah.

Do what the coach says and work hard and you'll learn it. It's the same thing in life. Right? So that's what. That's with athletes and with people. I think not. You don't have the athletic portion, but you have the, okay, what type of adversity did I go through and overcome in life? So you take that mindset that you use to overcome that adversity, and then you apply it to the next thing. But I think when we go through hard times, we forget what we built climbing that mountain, and then we go back down in the valley as if our backpack is empty. And we don't have any tools. No, you have tools from the last mountain you climb. Yeah, every mountain gets right. Everything you use from one mountain, you can use it on the next. Yeah, that's what. That's kind of what I think about it.

Yeah. I mean, I think that's so good. Again, you know, one of the things I've tried to always do with the show is I've tried to, you know, get practical takeaways because, you know, to your point earlier, people come in with their journey at all different. All different levels and scales. And, you know, we've got folks that we work with that are. They're super high performers, and they're just trying to figure out how to go to another level. We've got some folks that are. That obviously are just trying to figure out life, like, how come my bank account keeps getting empty and how come, you know, I'm. I had this relationship that just ended for the umpteenth time and all these kinds of things. And, you know, I see a lot of that, too, when it comes down to identity. But one of the things I wanted to ask you about, you know, we call the show Stuck to Unstoppable, right? And stuck to Unstoppable for me means stuck. Means you're. You're not making progress. You're held in place, you're. Whatever that reason is. And unstoppable means you're consistently making progress. Consistently. You never stop.

That's right.

If I refer to the word, the phrase stuck to unstoppable to you, what does it mean to you in your world?

Baby steps to sprint. That's what it means, you know, when you're stuck. I look. I look at it like this. One of my players came in the other day. This was two weeks ago. He came in and he's a big guy. He's huge. And he's actually. He's probably the biggest guy on our team. And he came in, he says, what do you think about me pushing your car for my conditioning today or your truck? I have a truck, right. And I'm like, no, but good idea. That's cool, right? And he came into my mind because when you're pushing a car or a truck, you go from being stuck to unstoppable. Just think if you're pushing it up a hill or downhill, whatever, from the moment you start pushing. You ever watch the strongman contest or they're pushing cars? Yeah, yeah. It's the baby steps, right? When they first start, it's inch by inch by inch. And you look and you're like, that thing's not moving. It's not moving at all, right? But once they get going, they get that momentum now. It's unstoppable. You get a plane rolling, how hard is it to get the plane stopping? You never. You. You never see the guys stop. The airplanes that they're pulling. They just pull them, and then the plane stops when it stops, right?

Yeah.

So I think it. I think it's baby steps to a sprint, you know, in those, baby steps are the small disciplines that you form, Right. And you might not see them in the beginning. It might be inch by inch by inch, and you're like, I'm not getting anywhere. But you'll never become unstoppable if you get impatient with being stuck. Right. Because once you start, you have become unstuck. Once you start, you've become unstuck just because you don't visually see the process. I bet the people outside, they see small behavior changes. They see small success. They see the small things you don't. Right. That's why it's good to have a group of people around you who can encourage you and say, listen, you don't see it, but I see it. You lost 2 inches off your waist, or this and that and the other. Right? And once you get that momentum, those disciplines that were small, they become easier. And then you can pick up new disciplines. As Jim Rohn would say, you pick up new disciplines for the future. And that's when you just. Your momentum just. And then you're not pulling the plane. You're driving the plane. You're taking off.

That's right. That's right.

But that's what I think.

That's awesome.

Right?

So, gosh, there's two directions I want to go. Let's go down all right, I'll go down this path next. Relationships. Okay. So a lot of the athletes that I've worked with in the past, you know, I've had some professional fighters, I've had some. Some folks, entertainment industry, some other folks, when they left their industry, okay. They lost their identity. They were so tied to that. How important is the relational circumference in your overall development? Right. Because a lot of them didn't grow up very well. They had poor influences. They broke through the bad influences, kind of went on isolation mode, became super successful. Then they have a life crisis, what I refer to as a life crisis, which is anytime your identity is being tested. Right. And then there has to be a shift. How have you seen relationships play a role in developing people who.

I can speak all day on that.

Let's go.

I've seen it save lives, to be quite honest. I've seen it save lives. Because.

When you're a professional or college athlete or any type of elite athlete and you're still performing or even when you're done, it may be more important even when you're done. But when you have people who care about you, and I'm talking your coaches, your therapists, your trainers, when these people actually care about you relationally as a person person, that does a lot for you.

Yeah.

Because everyone else only cares about what you can do with. With your physical gifts and your athletic abilities. They only care about that. And it's very important that when. When you leave your. Your sport that you have people who care about you as a person. Right. I will. I will never forget. I was given a presentation when I was down in University of Tennessee. I was giving a presentation to our players about identity, about this very same thing. And I was looking up professional football players who had had those types of identity crisis. And I came across an article that Imani Toomer. Did you remember Imani Tumor? Right. I'm from Michigan, so I. Yeah, my.

Wife is from right here.

Oh, what is that about? Port Huron. Ish.

It's Wayne.

Right.

Outside of Detroit. Wayne.

Michigan. Okay. Yeah, I'm from Michigan. I'm from the middle right there.

All right.

So I came across this article that he did, and he was talking about the way he felt after his career. And this is the saddest thing to me, he said, I used to be Amani Tumor of the Oakland Raiders. I used to be Imani Tumor of the Kansas City Chiefs. Now I'm just Amani.

You were born just Imani.

Yeah.

Right. The Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs didn't add any value to you. Right. They added fame, they added recognition, they added maybe a little bit of money, but they didn't add anything to your value as a human being.

Yeah.

You were born a moni tumor. Right. You were put in this earth to be a monotumer.

Yeah.

Right. And that, that right there is, is one of the things that I have trouble with when I have athletes come through and all they are focused on is their sport.

Yeah.

They're not focused on the afterlife. They're not focused on who they are. They're only focused on what they do. Right. I don't even want to say what they are. They're only focused on what they do. You know, and that's part of my biggest mission is to detach that identity as I am a basketball player, football player, whatever. No, I am this, this is who I am. And what I do is I play basketball. What I do is I play pro football. What I do is I play pro baseball, but without pro baseball. I'm a heck of a guy. I'm a heck of a woman. I'm. You know, so it's to detach that, detach that identity is not married together. It's an expression of who you are. It's an expression of your personality, but it's not your personality. It's not your identity. I'll tell you this, if football was my personality, then I would walk around headbutting people random on the street.

You can't do that.

I'd walk around tackling people. Right. I'd be in jail for being violent on the street. I played the game violently, but that's not who I am. That was just an expression of that sport that I played. Right. I'm a soft spoken dude. If, if you saw my film, you would never guess I did that to people.

No, seriously. But it, but it's a thing of identity, you know, And I think there's. There are professional athletes, professional fighters, boxers who have a hard time pulling themselves apart from what they felt like inside the ring and how they, how they felt like that type of monster inside the ring and they're having a hard time detaching and understanding that's not who I am. That's what I did and that's who I was when I did what I did. But that's not who I am. Right. So it's a man. I could talk about that for days. It's a passion. It's a passion of mine.

Yeah, well, I mean, it should be because there's a lot of Athletes, wonderful people who just don't know how wonderful they are as people. You know, I discovered it the kind of a, kind of a backwards way in that, you know, a long time ago, I discovered there was really four great needs in life. To be seen, to be heard, to be valued, to be appreciated. If you have those things in your life on a consistent basis, you're going to have a life of purpose, meaning and significance. The problem with that is, is it's solely dependent on the approval or the thought process of other people. And until you have a healthy identity, you end up chasing those things. And a lot of people in this, in the professional sports realm that we've both worked with have been, it's the only thing they, that they've ever been affirmed for or appreciated for. How many yards they, you know, they ran, how many touchdowns they threw, how many blocks they have, you know, what schools they went to, you know, and they overcome a lot of hardships, right? There are a lot of folks come out of hardship, hard, real hard times that, you know, their, their vehicle is the sports and entertainment industry. That gets them out of that.

That's right.

Unfortunately, so many of them forget to deal with the identity piece and the relational piece prior to their careers ending, you know, so they, they feel like they have to flex and they, you know, all this kind of stuff to kind of show they have meaning. And, you know, I think it's such a good, a good, a good subject to talk about. The idea the healthiest relationship you can ever have is the one with yourself, like, and being totally cool with it. I want to take one more, one more U turn if I can, or at least a right hand turn. All right, Talk about fear. Okay, let's break down fear a little bit. Obviously you work with crazy successful folks. You've been crazy successful on your own. How has fear played a role in your life or in the lives of other people?

Fear. Fear played a role in my life in sport.

Because.

Fear was the driver, so to speak, for me to not be embarrassed. Fear was the driver for me to be successful. You know, I feared failing. I feared failing. I feared not being good enough. I feared not doing good enough, you know, and when I finally got over that fear, that's when I walked away from the game and I was like, I'm good with it, right? And then two months later, I end up coaching.

So that's how it played a role, you know, kind of in my life.

And in the lives of others.

I've seen, I've seen fear make People super, super prideful.

And I'll speak. I'll speak to the population of men that I work with. Fear keeps men, the majority of them, from being and showing vulnerability.

Yeah.

It keeps them, it keeps them prideful. It keeps them away from humility because of what other people are going to say. Right. They don't want. They don't want to admit that. They don't want to admit that. I don't want to hear what so and so is going to say about this or I don't want so and so to know my business or I'm ashamed. So I'm afraid to speak what I want to speak. I'm ashamed. Right. And I've been that guy.

Yeah, me too.

I've been that guy for a long time. Right. And I would say within the last maybe five years, I've come out of that, I've shed that. Right. I've grown out of that because I know by me holding in my vulnerabilities and by me being afraid to step out and say something that will reveal a lot about me, if I'm holding that in, I'm causing a thousand other men to hold it in as well. Yeah, right. Yeah. One can set a thousand a flight to 10,000. It is amazing how vulnerability will unlock the mouths of other people around you, you know, just being vulnerable. So fear has played that type of role also in my life by keeping me keeping my mouth shut. And once I got over that fear, I opened, I started opening my mouth, but it's still playing that role. And a lot of, a lot of people that I work with, it's still playing that role. It's keeping them quiet. But, you know, I just tell myself the more open that I am and the more relational I am and the more real that I am. And you can't be afraid to be real relational and open. Right. You can't have fear and do that or you'll just do it at a very small scale and that won't be effective. Right. So the more, the more that I run away from that fear and get away from that fear, which really doesn't exist too much for me anymore. I'm trying to help the others step out into that too, because there is so much power and vulnerability. There's so much power in being humble, you know, and not just in the athlete world. They think being humble is. Oh, you don't praise me. I'm not going to boast about my career stats. No, that's not, that's not it. We're talking that's very surface level we're talking about deep down in your heart and in your mind, what are you struggling with and how can we help you and why are you keeping it a secret? That's the humility and vulnerability we're talking about. Right? It's on another level. But yeah, that's a little bit of what I.

No, that's why I want to hit these subjects, man. Because, you know, as a fellow man, I can tell you that at times in my life it's been very lonely to be a man. Because you fear sharing something with somebody else. I would dare say that that's probably why there's a higher suicide rate historically with men than with women is because men have been told from day one, we're supposed to be a knight in shining armor. We're supposed to be impervious. We're supposed to defeat the dragons, beat the tigers. And we're not. If we get cut, get scratched, get injured along the way, we're not supposed to cry, we're not supposed to let it out. And for God's sakes, you can't tell, can you? Can't tell anybody because if you tell somebody, then all of a sudden you appear weak, not realizing that weakness in that respect is actually strength restrained. Right? So it's that. It's that getting stronger, man. I love it, dude.

Oh, man.

I got. So I want to go down this journey if it's all right, and if it's not, I can edit it out. But the. I want to talk about faith. I want to talk about, if it's alright with you, maybe a brief synopsis of your own testimony how you found faith and why it's so important to your life. Because I want to. My life and everything that I'm doing now is directly correlated to my faith. Finding my faith, discovering my faith, how I handle people, how I look at people, everything. But I want to hear more about your story if you're okay with sharing it.

Awesome. For sure. All right, so my story. So I grew up in the church. My parents, we went to church every Sunday. We were always in the church. And again, like. Like the work ethic and discipline, I fought it, right? But. But yeah, you know, but there came a time. There came a time where I was 17 years old and this was before I was. Before I went to college. I started reading the Bible. And my dad asked me one day because he saw me reading it and he saw me reading it a lot, right? Like I would sit on our front porch and just read. And he Asked me one day and I didn't know how to answer the question. He said, why do you read the Bible? That's what he said. He said, why do you read the Bible? And I didn't have an answer. And I. And I just said, because I like to. Right? That's all I could say, you know? But now, now I can answer that question. The Bible gives me hope. It gives me. It makes me happy, right? It gives me peace, it gives me understanding, it gives me wisdom. The Bible, it feeds my relationship with God. You know, the Bible is my food. Now I understand the verse where it says, man shall not live on bread alone. But every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, the Bible gives me life.

And I did not know that back then, but all I knew is that now looking back at 17, all I knew is that when I read the Bible, I felt more and more alive on the inside. The outside didn't change much.

But on the inside I felt like every time I read the Bible, I felt like something was growing and changing on the inside of me. And so I went off to college. I went to Central Michigan, followed my brother there. He was two years ahead of me. So I went off there. And my freshman year was so rough, man, it was so rough. Thank God for the book of Psalms.

Because I spent day and night reading psalms. And I just kept reading it and reading it and I. And I related so much to what was in Psalms because it was a lot of, you know, prayers to God to save you because I thought, because.

Saul is after you with a knife and a dagger.

I thought, I thought college was the worst thing in the world. I thought the classroom was the worst thing in the world. Football was not easy at that point, right. So I was, I was at a point where I just felt back was against the wall, you know, And a lot of psalms is like that, right? And then there's, there's spurts of hope in psalms and there's promises. And so that kept me alive. And that's where I really started my journey. Joined our athlete Bible study group, got in there. And then three years later, when I turned 20, I got baptized. I got baptized by my brother and my pastor up there. And.

A life changing moment, you know, and. And from there, you know, the faith was up and down, roller coaster, you know, it wasn't always pretty. God wasn't always happy with what I was doing, but I was growing, you know. Yeah. And he's patient. He's patient. Way more patient than me because I would have left Me, right? I would have left me. But where my. Where my journey got way different and deeper is my first year at the University of Tennessee. I started. Now, I had always read the Bible every day. I had always done that. But when I started writing, when I started reading and then writing notes and keeping a spiritual journal, that. That was in 2013. When I started doing that, man.

It was like. It was like God would speak through the pen. You know, oftentimes he would speak through the pen, and I would take my quiet moments. Sometimes I would get there early before everyone else at work and take my quiet moments in my office and get a half hour in. Or I would do it at home sometimes. But, oh, man, that is when it got different. That's when it got different. And I met an awesome pastor down there in Knoxville, Pastor Scott Cagle at Northstar Church. And he was such a huge part in my spiritual journey down there. I went to his church. The very first day I went to his church, I knew that was home. I knew it was home. And I found it on Google.

I just went on because it was my first couple weekends, and I'm like, all right, I gotta find a church.

Yeah.

So I typed in. I typed in churches in Knoxville, and then I see North Star, and it wasn't far from where I live. Went there very first Sunday. This is home, right? And I remember that whole journey and all the way to the end, you know, the day that I was actually left to move back up here on a Sunday. So I got to go to church that morning. And let me tell you, man, I cried the entire service. The entire service for two reasons. For one, I was touched in a different way. I don't. I don't recall ever crying in church until that day. And the other reason, I was so heartbroken to leave my pastor. I really was. He's such a great man. I was whole. Heartbroken. And I could barely talk to him after church because I was crying so hard, right? Grown man in there just sobbing. People like, what's wrong with this guy?

You know, I mean, there's. There's. There's guys. There's guys and gals that we come up, that we meet along the way, that you can tell when they've got a covering on them, you can tell. It's almost like you literally have. My grandfather was that way. His nickname was the Silver Fox, right? He put up with five years of me being a person, a professing atheist, throwing all kinds of science at him and all kinds of stuff, and all he Would say was just dig a little deeper. Just dig a little. I only wanted to dig as far as the answers that I wanted, you know, And I've discovered that once people do that, it's not really hard to understand that there's. There is a creator that is divine in nature that does love you and does care about you and wants to see you live an amazing life.

Absolutely.

It doesn't take a lot to get there. But you know what? I would literally have something crazy going on in life, and I would want to sit at his feet and just listen. You know what I'm saying? What's the anointing? Drops from the beer. Right. So just sit there and listen and just soak it in and soak it up. And, you know, it sounds like your pastor was that guy for you. But, you know, I just.

Just.

There's just some people that just have the. Have. A word that we would use in our faith is anointing upon them.

I was just about to say that they're anointed.

Yeah.

You know, and it just draws you in. Draws you in. Yeah, man. And from there, came back up here and I continued my writing, you know, and. And as the years went on, my writing has gotten more and more intimate. Got more and more intimate, even to the point where I took the whole year from April 30, 2020, to April 30 this year, and I wrote biblical prayers every single day. And I've got over a thousand prayers. Straight scriptural, straight scriptural. All I did was take. Take the scriptures and I inserted myself right where it would say, you know, go in the strength of the Lord. I just put. I go in the strength of the Lord in Jesus name, you know, So I. So many prayers, and it's. It's evolving, right? Like, it's an evolving relationship, just getting deeper and deeper with God. And doing that made me study the Bible even deeper, because every day I made a commitment. I made a commitment to write at least three per day or at least one per day, Sometimes three. So every day there was. Sometimes it was tough to find a scripture to pray, right? So I had to really study and really dig. Right? So that deepened my relationship and, you know, my prayer life. And another thing that I've been doing, I've been doing this ever since last year, 2020, or January 2020. I started to fast every single month. I'll do some type of fast every single month, and, man.

I can't. I can't even begin. I can't even begin. I'm telling you so My relationship with God has become so much, so much less about me. If I could put it into any words, it's become so much less about me and so much more about everyone else. There, there will be times where I'd hear someone going through something and I would start fasting the next day for them, for them. I would put my body through that for them. And then I would hear that, boom, they're doing great. And, and I'm like, I prayed for you and that's it, right? I don't need credit. It's not about me, you know, so it's my faith. My relationship with God is transforming me as a man. And you know, just to come this far from what I used to be and where I used to be. I'm grateful. I'm grateful, man, I'm grateful. But I'm going to keep writing, keep reading, keep spending that quiet time every single day like, like I have been. Because it's again, it's like that feeling when I was 17, it has never gone away. Every time I read something is growing, right? I just feel more and more alive. And that's almost, wow, that's almost 20 years ago. I'm 30. I'm 36. I'm 36. So in a year that'll be 20 years that I've started really studying God's word, you know. So, yeah, that's my faith journey, man.

It's good. I always like to bring, you know, it's. I had the fortunate pleasure of talking to a lot of folks and some of them, many of them share my faith and some of them don't, which is fine. I mean, we have great conversations, we share ideas and concepts and things we see very, you know, very similarly and stuff like that. But when it comes down to someone that has a strong faith, you know, I always want to bring it up and talk about it a little bit because I, part of the reason is because I'm, I'm selfless, selflessly selfish in that I want everyone to hear how powerful a faithful journey or faith journey can be. My grandfather and I used to have these 40 day walks of faith. That's what we used to call them. Right. So obviously comes, you know, 40 days around the mountain, 40 day fast, Jesus in the desert, right. And I would always, you know, fast from the very thing that I wanted most. It wasn't always food. Like if I wanted to, if I desperately wanted to be connected in a relationship with a, with a woman, for example. Right. In fact, that was the very Last one, right before I met my wife was my heat. My grandfather made me. I say made me. Influenced me not to date for a solid 40 days and spend that entire. That entire 40 days in prayer and fasting. I met my wife on day 41. Right.

You know, not surprised.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just, you know, I'm just.

Saying that is how it was. Amazing. Yeah.

But, you know, but I think it just goes to show that, you know.

For most of us. And this was me, too, for most of us, the. We go to faith last after we've tried everything else in front of us. Our own power, own will, our own do everything we've got to do. And experience has taught me that the journey is important, the faith journey is important, but more importantly, it's the first place you go.

I see.

You know, I've gotten to that place. I just. That's the first place I go. Lord, what are you trying to teach me?

You know?

Yeah, that's. I was. That's funny, because I was thinking about that today because I just moved into a. This whole neighborhood is spanking brand new. Right? Like, they're still. They're still doing the landscaping. Our driveways aren't paved anything. Right.

Yeah.

And I was just thinking if there's any problems, it would be like the contractor standing in my driveway, but I run down the street to my neighbor to tell them my front door's off the hinges.

The contract is in the driveway you overlook. You want to come to them last, but you want to ask for the shortcuts first.

Yeah.

You know, and it's the same. That's the same thing. Like you said, man. That's awesome. That's awesome. I love.

Well, dude, I love hanging out with you. I know. I know you. I know. We gotta run, but where can everybody find out more about you and learn more about what you're doing?

Oh, I'm pretty active on social media, so my Instagram handle is Coach Isaac Brown. Also Clubhouse. I'm really active on Clubhouse.

I'll have to find you after the show, then.

Yeah, yeah. My handle on there is Coach Isaac Brown, and if you just typed in my name, it would just be Coach Isaac. But those are the two places. Facebook as well. My name is exactly the same on Facebook, Coach Isaac Brown. I keep it consistent so people don't try to.

I've got to underscore on some of mine because there's apparently another Steven Scoggins out there that around 20 years ago, got a Twitter account, posted twice and never, never looked back. So yeah, Twitter won't let me have the handle, so.

Oh, well, catch it up to do. And also my website is Coach Isaac Brown dot com. So you just put a dot com on the website. It's the same as everything else, but, yeah, that's where you can find me. And I'm pretty, Pretty reachable. I'm pretty available. You know, I don't. I'm not that busy, but I'm busy.

Well, dude, I've loved hanging out with you to do it again and keep checking in on you and see how things are going in the career space, But I'll definitely have to hook up with you and find you on Clubhouse now that I know you're there.

Please do. Please do, man. That'll be awesome.

All right, Doofa. One second here. See you later.

Appreciate it, brother.

Guys, I told you that dude was amazing. If you love that conversation, I know you're really going to love this one right here. So go ahead and check it out.

What's going to help you is finding somebody who is currently where you want to be one year from today.