Latest / The Strength In Numbers Podcast / EP 27: Mike Nilson | A New Chapter in Coaching After 20 Years With Gonzaga

Transcript

EP 27: Mike Nilson | A New Chapter in Coaching After 20 Years With Gonzaga · The Strength In Numbers Podcast

0:00
One of the truths or one of the principles was I was not going
0:03
to be a strength coach forever. I was going to retire from
0:06
Gonzaga at one point. I knew I was not going to be 80
0:09
years old warming up the basketball team before the
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games. And so it's not a question of if
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I'm going to retire is when. And so it was really interesting
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is now I know I'm going to retire.
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So let's just take that whole conversation of should I retire
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off the table? Of course I'm going to retire.
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When is the optimal time to do it?
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I could kind of see up until I'm 70 years old, what my life looks
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like. I'm on one page of paper.
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I could see when my son Carter graduates from high school and
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when my daughter graduates from high school and when Carter
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graduates from college and when I turned 60 and when my dad
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turns 80. And you start looking at this
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and you see how fast is coming at you.
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I'd read an article about Jerry Seinfeld and they asked him an
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article how he became the most accomplished comedian of our
0:53
time. And he believes it's this.
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He commit commits to writing one joke a day.
0:58
What if I found an area that I was really interested in, found
1:02
who I thought was the most accomplished person in that
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field? And what if I studied them every
1:07
day for a year? 99% commitment is a bear, 100%
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commitment is a breeze. And I found that man, when you
1:15
cut off all other possibilities, it's actually super easy.
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If you miss one workout, who cares?
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That is 1 truth and another truth is it makes all the
1:25
difference in the world because if you miss that one day, then
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you can miss it the next day. And so I think it's so funny
1:32
because that one workouts not important yet it's the most
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important thing in the world. And I think the the magic of
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being a coach is knowing when the right thing to do is let the
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athlete miss the workout, or knowing when this is the most
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important thing to do. You know you set goals for your
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best days, but you make commitments for your worst days.
1:58
Welcome to the Strength in Numbers podcast.
2:00
I'm your host John Bloom, and today's guest is Mike Nelson.
2:03
Mike started a new career this year as a financial advisor with
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10 Capital after 20 years as the Director of Performance and
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Nutrition at Gonzaga University. In his new role, Mike is
2:13
passionate about helping athletes manage and understand
2:16
their finances, especially in the world of NIO.
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We dive into the principles that led to his decision to leave
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Strength Edition, how to approach building your
2:24
philosophy and frameworks, and what learning a variety of
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unrelated subjects taught him about steel acquisition.
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Mike also delivers a master class on the power of
2:32
commitments, how just 5 minutes a day can change your life and
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the impact of drawing out a life man.
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Enjoy the episode, Mike. It's, it's super exciting to get
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a talk to you. You're doing, you're going
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through some really cool transition and starting
2:45
something new and just launched a new podcast.
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And I think even with your previous podcast, whenever I've
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heard you talk, I can really feel and hear the intentionality
2:56
that you're trying to teach and help others with.
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So I'm just excited to get a talk with you and then also for
3:02
listeners get to hear that. Well, thank you so much for
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having me on. I've always been inspired by you
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and your passion and the way you bring people together.
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So it's an on and be on the show.
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Awesome. Well, Mike, for for people who
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who don't know you, could you just give a brief back kind of
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who you are and what you do? And I know that, you know,
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there's kind of a transition there.
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So be kind of cool for people to hear that that haven't.
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Well, gosh, when I used to give myself introduction before, it
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all had to do with basketball, You know, the 1st 25 years of my
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life was dedicated to hoops. When I was in junior high, I
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knew I wanted to play varsity basketball in high school and in
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high school I knew I wanted to play college basketball.
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And in college I knew I wanted to play in the pros.
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And I had a little change of plans.
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My senior year, I tore my Achilles tendon in the first
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round of the conference tournament.
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And I went from knowing, I mean, I was going to play professional
3:48
basketball the next year to wondering what am I going to do
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with my life? I can't play hoops for a year.
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Yeah, I was dating a girl that I was just about to propose to.
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And so that was, yeah, big shake up for me because there was that
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part of like, have to step back and say, yeah, what does life
4:05
after basketball look like? Because I probably should start
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it now. And I had a really good mentor
4:10
friend that said, why don't you be a strength conditioning
4:14
coach? You know, I was never the best
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basketball player, but I love being in the weight room.
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And I was loved that idea. If you take 2 athletes with the
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same skill set, they can shoot, dribble past the same.
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If one is a little faster, stronger, can jump higher,
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better balance, better conditioned, it'd be a no
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brainer who the better basketball athlete would be.
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And so I thought, well, man, what if I was a strength
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conditioning coach and it just hit me hard and I thought that's
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what I'm going to do. So that year when I did my
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rehab, I was studying for my CSCS and getting my nutrition
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certs and came back and I approached Gonzaga and I said,
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if you let me train the men's and women's basketball team,
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I'll do it for free if you let me come back and take some
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classes. And so I took anatomy,
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Physiology, took my labs. And so yeah, it was just so
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awesome to be rehabbing, knowing I wanted to go play over in
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Europe. But at the same time, I could
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feel the arc of my new career starting.
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So I got to play over in Europe for a couple seasons.
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And as that career was coming to an end, my strength conditioning
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career was kind of taken off, came back, and I got to be the
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director of performance at Gonzaga for the last 20 plus
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years. And that was just an amazing
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thing, too, to be part of the old program that I'd grown up
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with. Gonzaga kind of it was this
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program that was not most people didn't know about when I was a
5:28
player. We traveled down to California
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to play Pepperdine and Santa Clara.
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And in the airport, people would come over and they'd see all of
5:34
us wearing our sweat outfits. And they say, what's Gonzaga?
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And I'm like, well, it's actually Gonzaga.
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So it's a school up in Spokane. And so to see that rise of
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what's Gonzaga to people actually being able to pronounce
5:48
it Gonzaga was so cool. But over the last couple years,
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I kind of felt that arc starting to come down because I saw these
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athletes that really had a lot of resources when it came to
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strength and conditioning and nutrition and mentor
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performance. And now they were being, they
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were getting these large contracts, these NIL deals.
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Some of these athletes are making over $1,000,000 and they
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have very little financial education.
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And I thought about what I've done the last 20 years.
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Not only was I had the director performance at Gonzaga, but I
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started a physical therapy and sports performance business.
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And I'd also started investing in real estate and, and built up
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my real estate portfolio in the Gonzaga area.
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And those two things really allowed me to do what I love,
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which is strength conditioning for the past 20 years.
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And so as I started seeing this need, I thought, well, I really
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could be the person to fill it. I've lived in the weight room
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for the last 20 years. I know the demands of these
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athletes. I know what their lifestyles
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are. And I also know the financial
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side. And so when I saw that kind of
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coming to an end in strength conditioning, I thought, what if
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my new arc for the next 25 years was instead of nutrition
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education, what if it was financial education and
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financial coaching? And so 2 summers ago, I
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approached the what, men's women's basketball team and the
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athletic director and said, hey, I love Gonzaga.
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This has been my home for the past 30 years and I'd still love
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it to be my home, but instead of coaching athletes and nutrition,
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I'd love to be able to coach them in finances and they were
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awesome. There's a lot of hoops you have
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to jump through and we're still working through those hoops, but
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they love the idea of having me around and so it was.
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It was kind of surreal feeling to be part of a basketball
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season where I knew it was going to be the last pre season I'd
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ever do. It was the last WCC tournament
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I'd ever go to, and so it was just great to be able to enjoy
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every second with the teams. Yeah, just really be present for
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that last year. And so now my new career is I'm
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a financial advisor business called 10 Capital here in
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Spokane. And I went from 1 great team in
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the last 25 years being at Gu to another great team of
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professionals here and just learning a ton and just loving
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the change. Yeah, now that's so cool.
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And and I can just, I'm just thinking about like you're
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talking about they're going into that season knowing like this is
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the last time I do this, this last time I do that.
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I'm going to imagine kind of how special that was.
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Like I, I know I've had some somewhere we're going from my
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caught. Like I knew it was going to be
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my last certain things in college and moving there.
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And but that that must have been really special with that entire
8:19
season. Did did the athletes know that
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it was going to be your last one or is that kind of held off till
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the end of the year? Yeah, we started off the season.
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I I made the decision earlier that summer and met with the
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coaching staff, but we don't want to announce it until the
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fall. And I don't want to steal
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anyone's Thunder or make it about me at all.
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And so it was really nice to be able to say, I'm not leaving,
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leaving. You know, I've seen that in the
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past where a coach says, hey, I'm retiring and there's a lot
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of tears in the locker room. And there was really none of
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that because I said, hey, I'm not leaving.
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I'm not going anywhere. I'm just switching roles.
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Instead of helping you with nutrition, I'm going to help you
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with the financial piece. And people really like that
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because I think most of us are intrigued by money.
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All of us need to to be well versed in it.
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I mean, every single person here is going to have to pay rent and
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buy food and have insurance at some point.
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So, you know, money doesn't have to be a focal point in your
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life, but you have to be well versed enough to be able to to
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let it work for you and be able to support your lifestyle.
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So I think when the athletes found out that I was making the
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the switch, I think they were kind of excited about it,
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especially because we knew my replacement, at least we we had
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an idea for who my replacement might be.
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So we got to spend the whole year kind of working together
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and coaching him through and making sure that it was going to
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be a smooth transition. So I think for the athletes
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knowing potentially that the person that we were going to
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hire on, they already knew combine that with that I was
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still going to be around. It was, it was really smooth
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transition. That's great.
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One of my favorite books is Range by David Epstein.
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You know, I remember in, in one part of there, I, I think it was
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dealing with the, the Pat Tillman Foundation.
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He's working with these, you know, former military that are
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now transitioning to different careers and they have kind of
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this fear of being behind kind of starting our different career
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paths at a later term. But they actually found lots of
10:08
success because of the skills they built up and maybe
10:12
different aspects fed into that. Did you have a fear like that
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that, OK, you know, I'm starting this and I've got to kind of
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start over a little bit? Was there kind of also maybe
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even like a a sunk cost mindset where I got to put all of this
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into coaching and now I'm stepping away from that and
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starting over? Well, that book actually made a
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huge impact on my life because 10 years ago I started doing a
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daily commitment. I'd read an article about Jerry
10:39
Seinfeld and they asked him an article how he became the most
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accomplished comedian of our time.
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And he believes it's this He commit commits to writing one
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joke a day. And I thought, man, that is so
10:51
simple. You know, he's the the best
10:53
comedian of our time is not writing 100 or 1000 jokes a day.
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He's just committing to write 1. And then he puts a calendar on
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his wall and every day he writes a joke, he earns the right to
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put an X on his calendar. And after week he has seven X,
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as he calls it a chain of success.
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After a month, this whole calendar is filled with XS.
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And I'm like, this is awesome because one joke a day is pretty
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easy to do. But over the course of the
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years, 365 jokes. And so I thought, man, I'm going
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to do this. And it's hard.
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You know, as a strength conditioning coach, we have so
11:24
many different hats we wear. And so it's not like if you're
11:26
comedian, the way I kind of, this is probably
11:29
oversimplification, but if you write a joke a day, you're going
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to be a great comedian where strength, conditioning, have,
11:35
you know, vertical and mobility and nutrition and leadership,
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you have all of these different aspects.
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And so I thought, well, what if instead of just committing to 1
11:45
task a day, what if I found an area that I was really
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interested in, found who I thought was the most
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accomplished person in that field?
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And what if I studied them every day for a year?
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And at the time, I just got off a meeting with one of my
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financial advisors and my personal financial advisor.
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And every year we meet and, you know, I knew real estate and I
12:06
knew the business world, but I didn't know the stock market
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very well. And so we go to the meeting and
12:10
he said, hey, this is what we're doing with your portfolio.
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And I didn't really even know enough to ask the right
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question. And so I leave the meeting is
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still kind of a little bit confused.
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And so I'm like, this is the year I'm going to ask him.
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I'm like, hey, can you please explain like these small caps
12:24
and large caps and exactly what an index fund is?
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And he's like, oh, Mike, super simple.
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I'm glad you asked. And then he went on to explain
12:31
it and I didn't quite get it, but I was embarrassed, so I
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didn't ask any more questions. And so I read this article and I
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thought, man, you know, as far as my financial foundation is
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concerned, I have two really strong legs.
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I have the business side and I have the real estate side.
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And I wanted that third leg to be the stock market.
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And I thought, well, man, who's the most accomplished person the
12:52
stock market that I knew of. And I thought Warren Buffett.
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And so I decided I'm going to study Warren Buffett for 15
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minutes a day for the entire year.
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And they started kind of be like a fun thing to plan out for.
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I was thinking about doing this in November and by December I
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like, I, I bought my calendar for the next year.
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And then I started thinking like, OK, let's research all the
13:11
books on Warren Buffett And I bought like 1015 books.
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And I said, what, what kind of courses can you take?
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And so I found a guy that did a in person course that you could
13:20
take that kind of helps you study and understand the stock
13:22
market like Warren Buffett. And I bought a ticket to go back
13:26
to the shareholder, annual shareholder meeting a back in
13:29
Omaha. And so I just started kind of
13:31
planning out the whole year and it was so awesome because, man,
13:34
over the course of a year, you get so much smarter at not just
13:39
learning about Warren Buffett, but this field.
13:41
And so I wasn't an expert in the stock market at the end of the
13:44
year, but I felt really comfortable talking with people
13:47
who might be, you know, industry leaders in that field.
13:50
And so I did that one year, but by the end of the year, I was
13:53
almost feeling a little anxious, man.
13:54
You study spreadsheets and numbers and reading 10K's and
13:58
you're just doing that every day.
13:59
And I felt, man, I need a break. And so I thought, what if I
14:02
studied meditation? And the best person I knew in
14:06
that field was a guy to by the name of Tick, not Han.
14:09
And he's written over 60 books on meditation and mindfulness.
14:13
And and so I thought, what if I committed to meditating for 15
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minutes a day and studied Tick, not Han.
14:18
And so once again, do the same thing.
14:20
Where can I find him? Well, he's in Plum Village in
14:23
France, and he has a place in California where you can go and
14:27
spend the day just walking with the monks.
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And yeah, I just, I just started like digging into everything
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Tick, not Han and meditation. Then after that year, I thought,
14:35
well, what if I did something with movement?
14:38
So I studied Gary Gray and what if I did nutrition and what if I
14:40
did music? And so I studied guitar for a
14:43
year with John Mayer. And make a Long story short, I
14:45
was feeling pretty insecure about all these different things
14:49
that I was studying because I didn't really focus my
14:51
attention. And then I read the book range.
14:53
Yeah. And I'm like, wow, this is
14:55
actually been really helpful because as I was studying John
14:59
Mayer and learning about the structure and how he sees scales
15:02
and guitar, I could see pull back and see the bigger
15:05
principles that he was talking about with skill acquisition
15:08
that really helped me with basketball or really helped me
15:11
with piano or really helped me with the stock market.
15:15
And so it's been really fun because now in this new field, I
15:18
actually feel like that's a strength is to not have only
15:21
studied only finance, but to be able to studies these other
15:24
fields that I think give me a better appreciation for be able
15:27
to look out the macroeconomics of things or be able to dig in
15:31
to be able to study an individual business.
15:33
So anyhow, and you brought up the, the book range, I thought
15:36
that was the first time that I actually felt like good about
15:39
all my past experience versus like, you know, even in strength
15:43
conditioning, the the traditional strength
15:45
conditioning coach usually studies strength conditioning
15:48
and it does an internship and does a grad assistant and, and I
15:51
just had taken a different path. And so it's kind of fun how all
15:55
those dots that kind of seem random back in when I was
15:58
growing up and kind of going young and my career was, it
16:01
seemed like they all started to connect now.
16:03
Yeah, now that's, that's such a cool story.
16:05
And like, I think it's so cool too, 'cause like as you're going
16:08
through those different subjects and, and going through that
16:11
process of skill acquisition, like you're saying with like
16:13
kind of seeing it with John Mayer, like I feel sometimes
16:15
with skill acquisition, it's harder to maybe always see that
16:19
stuff when you're directly in your own field or for us, like
16:22
strength and conditioning. Like, but when you're starting
16:25
over, you're taking that beginner's mindset and for you,
16:27
like you're doing it repeatedly with these different subjects.
16:30
Like you're getting to really learn.
16:31
Like what does skill acquisition look like in the process of that
16:35
and how that shows up in new skills.
16:37
And then, you know, now when when when you're not talking to
16:39
somebody that you know, whether it was a strength coach, like if
16:42
you're talking to somebody and they don't have the same
16:44
background as you, or now you're talking to people when helping
16:47
them with clients and they don't have the same financial
16:49
background as you, You're able to kind of understand maybe that
16:52
process of when you're starting at 0 going to wherever it is and
16:56
kind of those steps of learning and skill out position and how
16:59
you can kind of meet them versus sometimes being so ingrained in
17:03
one subject. And thinking everybody has this
17:05
understanding they don't actually have.
17:07
Yeah, one of the best frames frameworks, I'm one of the best
17:10
gifts that I've gotten is from Gary Gray and I did the 40 week
17:13
fellowship, oh gosh, back in 2009 maybe through the Gray
17:18
Institute. And he talked about the PST
17:21
process. The P stands for principals, the
17:23
S stands for strategies, the T stands for techniques.
17:26
And as strength conditioning coaches, a lot of times we do it
17:29
backwards, which we focus on the technique first.
17:32
We focus on should we use the kettlebell or the dumbbell or
17:35
the barbell or the cable, and we get in these arguments about how
17:39
to train the hamstrings and what the research shows.
17:42
And we just keep focusing on the technique when instead we should
17:45
actually start with what's the principle that this is founded
17:48
upon? And of course, if you know
17:50
anything about the Gray Institute, they're really big on
17:52
the principle of 3D, you know, movement.
17:54
You have the sagittal plane, the frontal plane, and the
17:57
transverse plane. Pretty much every joint in the
17:59
human body, especially the major joints, they all move in all
18:02
three planes of motion. And so if a muscle crosses that
18:06
joint, of course the muscle has to function in all three planes
18:09
of motion. So if we're talking about the
18:10
hamstrings, we know it's not my opinion.
18:13
He would say it's a biological truth that the hamstrings
18:16
function in three planes of motion.
18:18
So if we know that's the principle, well then let's drive
18:21
a strategy. What if the strategy was, man,
18:24
we're going to train the, the hamstrings not just in the
18:27
sagittal plane, but what trained it in the frontal and transverse
18:29
plane. And so now when you get down to
18:31
the technique, that's the last thing that you do.
18:33
The last thing that you do is meant, let's find a technique
18:36
that has all three planes of motion and let's try it out.
18:39
And if it works, great. If it doesn't, we still know
18:41
that the strategy is we're going to find something that works in
18:44
all three, three planes. And the reason why that was so
18:47
helpful for me is because man, in our field, there are so many
18:51
awesome techniques and Instagram and all these people on TikTok
18:54
that make me feel insecure because they might know
18:57
something that I don't. And they have a cool ex cooler
18:59
exercise that their head coach or their athlete really wants to
19:02
do. And I really love the idea of
19:04
settling into the principles, really understand the
19:06
principles. And then the master coaches are
19:09
the ones that can take those principles and create a really
19:11
solid strategy. And then the techniques kind of
19:15
just keep them fresh if you want to try new ones or if they work,
19:18
keep going. If they don't work, try
19:20
something out different. I love that because I studied
19:23
that for the last whatever, 10 plus years and really got to
19:26
know that in strength conditioning.
19:28
Well, now this year I'm studying a guy by the name of Ray Dalio
19:32
and he started the world's largest hedge fund and he has a
19:36
whole book called Principles. I mean, the thing that is
19:38
incredible. Yeah.
19:40
It's such a good book. And it's so fun because he's
19:43
taken though that same PST process in his own way and
19:47
created that same framework for economics and investing.
19:52
And so it's just been so fun to dig into him every day this year
19:56
and to be able to see the parallels and and then be able
19:59
to kind of create my own. I love the idea of learning
20:02
someone else's system first. So when I studied Warren
20:05
Buffett, I tried to do it exactly like he did.
20:08
And by the end of the year, you realize you can't be Warren
20:10
Buffett, you know, like I had another full time job and wife
20:14
and young kids. But at the end of the year, what
20:16
can really stick? What are the things that he does
20:18
that are big picture, the big rocks that I could commit to
20:21
doing on a daily or weekly or yearly basis?
20:24
And so you really kind of get the best of what he does.
20:27
And then now it's been really fun.
20:29
Because, you know, as same thing with Ray Dalio, I can't do what
20:32
he does, but what are those big picture concepts?
20:35
What are the big principles and strategies that he uses that I
20:38
can sit within my framework. So yeah, it's been so fun to
20:42
just see how all these different fields just kind of overlap.
20:45
And the truce, really, especially when we talked about
20:49
the principle of 3D, it pretty much governs everything on the
20:52
planet. It doesn't just govern strength
20:54
conditioning. We talked about every color that
20:57
we see on the planet is made of the three primary colors, red,
21:00
yellow and blue. The tripod is the most stable
21:03
structure. You know, if you take away one
21:04
leg, it's no longer stable. If you add a fourth leg, you're
21:08
adding complexity without adding equal value.
21:11
And so I just love that idea of that concept of three planes of
21:14
motion and strength conditioning.
21:16
And if you zoom out, just blur your eyes a little bit, you can
21:18
see the big picture and say, man, we are more than just a
21:22
body. We're mind, body, spirit.
21:24
And so I've been trying to do that same things with investing
21:27
is what are those big picture principles that are even bigger
21:30
than investing that can help me become a better dad, a better
21:34
guitar player, You know, So it's been fun to be able to just kind
21:36
of just pull from all those different fields.
21:38
Yeah, now that's very cool. I listened to an interview you
21:41
did kind of reflecting on your, your 20 years of Gonzaga and you
21:46
were talking about the advice you gave JP Batista that they,
21:50
the coach that came in after you there, Gonzaga.
21:53
And you talked about kind of what you're saying right now for
21:55
him to really craft and understand his principles, his
21:59
philosophy. So then, like you're saying all
22:01
the all the stuff you see on social media, all the different
22:03
tactics you feel like you're to go to, like you can always come
22:05
back to that. As you're talking now about, you
22:07
know, studying Ray Dalio and and taking pieces from there to
22:11
develop your framework and your principles in this new setting.
22:15
As you're kind of finding like what fits your setting for you?
22:17
Like, are you, are you putting that in one place?
22:20
Are you, you know, writing it down, putting in a, you know,
22:22
notebook, like trying to intentionally craft and write
22:25
that? Or what is that process for you
22:27
of developing that look like? Yeah, I'm doing all of that and
22:29
that's just kind of how my brain works.
22:30
I like to see it down on paper and of course I love to build
22:33
everything out in threes. One of the best things I did as
22:36
a strength conditioning coach was starting the Hoop Commitment
22:40
podcast and website because it really, really force me to be
22:44
able to lay out and solidify what are my principles and how
22:50
am I going to formulate this strategy.
22:51
And so if we just take something like nutrition, I thought, well,
22:55
if I really understand nutrition, well, I should be
22:58
able to break it down into 3. And so it, you know, we talked
23:01
about movement. If you say, hey, tell me about
23:03
movement and I started talking about how the big toe moves and
23:07
how the shoulder moves, and you might get a little confused.
23:09
But if I started out and saying, oh, you want to understand
23:12
movement, the body can only move on three planes of motion,
23:15
sagittal, frontal, transverse. Same thing if we talked about
23:18
colors and if I started talking about some obscure shade of
23:21
blue, you might get a little confused.
23:23
But if you said tell me about colors, and I said, man, there's
23:25
only three primary colors that make up every color that we see
23:28
on the planet, you'd probably say like, oh, he's got a good
23:31
grasp of the big picture. And so when I looked at
23:33
nutrition, I started thinking, well, even take a step back,
23:36
what kind of strength conditioning coach do I want to
23:39
be? What are the things that I could
23:40
really hang my hat on that I could work towards being maybe
23:43
not the best in the world, but my personal best?
23:46
And I thought, well, the things that I really love are I love
23:49
strength conditioning for basketball.
23:51
I love nutrition, but not necessarily nutrition for
23:54
everyone. I'm not interested in helping
23:56
people. Maybe would do a fitness or a
23:57
bodybuilding competition. I just don't know.
24:00
Know that as well. And that's not my world, but I
24:02
love the idea being my best version of myself as a
24:05
basketball nutritionist. And then the third thing, which
24:09
I think might be even more important than all of those
24:12
things, was leadership. And once again, I don't know
24:14
leadership. If you're in the military,
24:16
there's probably some different chains of commands that don't
24:18
apply in the game basketball. But I thought, man, if I could
24:21
do eat, train and lead, those would be the three pillars, the
24:26
three legs on my new on my strength conditioning platform.
24:30
And so then I thought, well, OK, if those are the three things
24:32
I'm really going to dig into for the next 25 years and want to be
24:36
my best at, OK, how do I break down strength conditioning into
24:39
3 for basketball? And how do I break down my
24:42
leadership? If I really understand
24:43
leadership for basketball, how do you break it down into 3?
24:46
And so it was so fun. I would, you know, do Excel
24:49
spreadsheets, I would do those mind maps where I'm like flowing
24:52
everywhere and, you know, sometimes I can only get 2 legs.
24:55
And I thought, well, man, 2 legs on a tripod is not very stable,
24:59
right? I got to add that third leg,
25:01
man, I have four or five. Well, that's pretty stable, but
25:03
it's kind of confusing. Am I, am I really at this simple
25:06
side of complexity? And so, yeah, I went through and
25:09
built out the website and I really felt really good.
25:12
And so I like the idea of if you have this blank canvas where,
25:18
you know, you just you have you move in and you're trying to
25:21
move into a new house and like, OK, where do my shoes go?
25:24
Where does my basketball go? Where does the TV go?
25:27
And you just throw it all in one room.
25:29
It gets really overwhelming and feels cluttered.
25:32
But I love the idea of this cubby system where you're like,
25:34
OK, my shoes go here, my socks go in this one, my ties go over
25:38
here, and you have it organized. And then when you get a new
25:41
item, you know exactly where to place it.
25:43
And so I felt like I had that for strength conditioning when I
25:46
went to a new continuing education course and it was on
25:49
mobility, while I have this little framework for my 3 levels
25:52
of basketball strength conditioning.
25:53
And I could put it in that place.
25:55
So now I'm doing the same thing with the financial advising
25:58
world. What are my three things?
26:01
And I can't be everyone to everyone, but I love the idea of
26:04
being able to help people grow their way wealth.
26:07
Why even take a step back from that is before we even talk
26:10
about wealth. I love the idea of three.
26:12
A wealth is really important. It just is like I said, if you
26:15
can't pay the bills, if you can't afford to have healthcare,
26:18
if you can't afford to buy good food, you know, you just not
26:21
going to be able to live the life that you want to live and
26:24
be able to help others live the life they want to live.
26:26
So wealth is really important, but what is wealth without
26:29
health? And so I had open heart surgery
26:33
a few years ago. When you're trying to figure
26:35
out, you know, like, how is this gonna work?
26:37
Am I gonna be able to be around for my kids graduating from high
26:40
school? And then all of a sudden money
26:42
doesn't matter and you're like, man, can I just, I just be
26:44
healthy? I got to get this heart surgery.
26:46
OK, but who cares if you're wealthy and healthy if you don't
26:49
have levels to share it with? And so that's where my new
26:52
podcast comes in. It's basically a journey of
26:55
compounding wealth, health and happiness.
26:57
And so now I'm working on the major threes of each one of
27:00
those. And so the wealth one we talked
27:01
about is I'm not going to be able to help you necessarily
27:04
make your wealth. That's not what I'm necessarily
27:06
good at, You know, so if you're a strength conditioning coach or
27:09
if you're a doctor or if you're a small business owner, I
27:12
wouldn't necessarily come in and run your business.
27:14
But if you have wealth, how do you grow it?
27:17
How do you protect it? And then how do you share it?
27:19
And so those are kind of been the three pillars that I've been
27:21
working on. It's been super fun.
27:23
I'm throwing stuff out of wall, seeing what sticks, OK, putting
27:26
it back in place. I think I have it, you know,
27:29
really dialed in and then something comes up and I trade
27:32
something out. But really that's the fun part
27:35
is the journey of it. You know, it's just being able
27:37
to be able to find out what fits my personality because you know,
27:40
the way that I did the eat train lead, it's not right for
27:43
everyone. Not every strength conditioning
27:45
coach is going to be a nutritionist.
27:46
Not every person that loves nutrition is going to be
27:49
passionate about the leadership and the team building side of
27:51
things. And so I just took those
27:53
principles and I created strategies that work for me.
27:55
And so the same thing that the principles in economics or
27:59
financial advising, those, those will never change.
28:02
Those are tried and true, but the way that I apply them, well,
28:05
and so, yeah, I'm kind of in that fun stage of the journey
28:07
right now. Yeah, it's, it's so cool to see
28:09
how intentional and in all those areas you are of actually like
28:13
figuring out your own ideas and, and carrying out that process.
28:17
And as as you've been doing that in your new job, as you talk
28:21
about finding those principles and as you're figuring out those
28:23
principles, what are the the systems you've realized?
28:27
OK, I've got to, I've got to maybe build these systems.
28:29
I've got to build these skills to actually be able to deliver
28:32
these principles like you're saying, uniquely as I am as a
28:36
coat, as a, as an advisor, a coach, I'm for the people you're
28:38
now serving. Yeah, To me, I do think the
28:41
framework is really the place to start because, you know, I think
28:45
that the next stage is the continuing education and going
28:48
out there. And I've taken a ton of
28:49
different courses already just in my new role here.
28:53
And if you don't have the framework of where it fits,
28:56
yeah, you, you can memorize and you could pass the test, but can
28:59
you really apply it? And, and at least for my
29:02
personality and the way my brain works, I have a hard time doing
29:05
that. And so I kind of started back
29:07
even to be able to get into this field.
29:10
The reason why I'm here is because one of my buddies told
29:13
me about the idea of making a life calendar.
29:15
And he had read this article that basically kind of talked
29:19
about, you know, how many times are you going to see your
29:21
parents when it's all said and done?
29:23
And so right now I'm coming up on 50.
29:25
And so my parents are in their 70s.
29:27
And if let's just say for even math, you see him once a month,
29:31
well, I'm going to see him 12 * a year.
29:34
And are they going to live till they're 90?
29:36
OK, so they got another 15 years.
29:38
So if you go 12 * a year times 15 years, that number is pretty
29:42
small. And so you want to be really
29:44
intentional. If you start getting down to I'm
29:46
only going to see my dad 100 more times, I'm only going to
29:50
see my mom. You know, you start thinking,
29:51
what kind of conversations do you want to have?
29:54
I think, you know, the intentional is where that just
29:56
keeps coming on my mind. You want to be more intentional
29:59
with that time to be able to ask the right question, to be able
30:01
to share your appreciation and your love and your gratitude.
30:04
You want to do experiences with them.
30:06
So I read this article and I thought, man, that's, that's
30:09
probably a thing I should do. And so of course, I always like
30:12
to do stuff my own way. So I take this Excel spreadsheet
30:15
and I built everything out the quarters.
30:17
So it's 2026. I have quarter 123 and four.
30:22
And then I went all the way down.
30:23
And so now I could kind of see up until I'm 70 years old, what
30:27
my life looks like. I'm on one page of paper.
30:29
I could see when my son Carter graduates from high school and
30:33
when my daughter graduates from high school and when Carter
30:35
graduates from college and when I turned 60 and when my dad
30:39
turns 80. And you start looking at this
30:42
and you see how fast is coming at you.
30:44
And so I started thinking that what are the am I living my life
30:48
through? I want to, am I spending my time
30:50
wisely? Because I can see on this one
30:52
page of paper, it's coming at me pretty fast.
30:55
And one of the things that was really hitting me hard is my
30:57
oldest son is a nice little basketball player.
30:59
He's a senior. They won the state championship
31:02
this year, which is that's one of the highlights of my life.
31:05
To be able to hug your son after the championship game, I just
31:08
cried because I know how hard it is just to make it state and
31:11
I've never finished the finish the season on a win.
31:15
And the way he did it, it was so cool because the playing game,
31:19
the other team misses a shot to win the game and so they advance
31:23
last last second shot. First round of state they went
31:26
in overtime. Second round of state, they went
31:29
in overtime. The state championship game, we
31:32
hit a last second shot to win the game and it was just nail
31:37
biters all the way through. The team was so tough.
31:40
And so to hug my son at the end of it was just so awesome.
31:44
And I started thinking, well, he wants to play college
31:46
basketball. And if I'm still the head
31:49
strength conditioning coach at Gonzaga, I'm going to miss every
31:52
one of his games because every Thursday, Saturday when the Zags
31:55
are playing, I'll be out their games and he'll be off somewhere
31:58
else playing. And that just didn't ring true
32:00
to me. Because when I think about the
32:01
priority list of the things that are most important to me, it's
32:04
it's all family. It's I have this like, you know,
32:07
I have all these frameworks. I have one framework that kind
32:10
of talks about, you know, I have to take care of myself so I can
32:12
take care of my wife. Because if I don't have peace,
32:15
how am I supposed to give my wife peace?
32:16
If I don't have energy, how am I supposed to give her energy?
32:19
And so, and if she, her and I are doing well, then the next
32:22
circle, the next ring is my kids.
32:24
And so if my wife and I aren't doing well, how can I really be
32:27
a good dad of my kids, you know, And so how can I, if my wife and
32:30
I are peaceful, how are we supposed to bring peace to them?
32:33
And so, gosh, this is my inner circle.
32:35
And I'm going to miss every one of his games that just didn't
32:37
ring true. And so there was a lot of
32:39
factors that went into me changing careers, but it was
32:42
really cool. And this is something that Ray
32:44
Dalio taught me. He said write down your
32:46
principles, He says, because all these principles are going to
32:49
come up when you make a decision.
32:51
Don't necessarily write down the decision.
32:53
Write down the principle that helped you make the decision.
32:56
And so it was really interesting.
32:58
Is one of the truths or one of the principles was I was not
33:02
going to be a strength coach forever.
33:03
I was going to retire from Gonzaga at one point.
33:06
I knew I was not going to be 80 years old warming up the
33:08
basketball team before the games.
33:10
I knew that wasn't going to happen.
33:12
And so it's not a question of if I'm going to retire is when.
33:16
And so it was really interesting is now I know I'm going to
33:18
retire. So let's just take that whole
33:21
conversation of should I retire off the table?
33:23
Of course I'm going to retire. When is the optimal time to do
33:25
it? And so I started working through
33:27
my head and writing stuff down. Should I do it today?
33:30
Should I do it when my son's a senior?
33:32
Should I do it after he's graduated from college?
33:34
Should I do it when I'm 70? And what was funny was when I
33:37
talked to a lot of my friends and family, they were, you know,
33:40
I told him I was going to retire from Gonzaga and made-up my
33:42
mind. They said, oh, you can't do
33:44
that. You're crazy.
33:45
Don't retire from Gonzaga. And it was interesting because
33:48
they don't know it necessarily know about the PST process.
33:51
But I could go back and say, why are we having this conversation
33:54
of should I or should I not retire?
33:56
Of course I'm going to retire. Let's have the conversation of
33:59
when you think the optimal time for me to retire is.
34:02
And it just made so much sense for me to be able to do it when
34:06
the NIL is happening right now and athletes need help.
34:09
Hopefully in five or ten years, NC 2A or people figure it out
34:13
where these athletes actually do get the help they need.
34:16
But doing it sooner than later is is better for the nil part of
34:19
things and for my son sooner than later.
34:21
I should do it now. And even just looking at my
34:23
parents, you know, I want to be able to spend a lot of time with
34:25
them as they're aging and just knowing that my days are
34:28
numbered with them. And how lucky am I that they
34:30
just live 30 minutes away and I can have lunch with my dad a
34:32
couple of times a week. So a lot of those things went
34:35
into my decision making. But once again, it was those
34:38
principles that helped me instead of saying, oh, I can't
34:40
retire from Gonzaga. Such a great job.
34:43
And I love the people because for a lot of years I told
34:45
everyone that, you know, we did went through a lot of contract
34:48
negotiations over the last 20 years with my physical therapy
34:52
clinic and Gonzaga because I was actually not an employee of
34:55
Gonzaga for a lot of years. My business had a contractor
34:57
train all the athletes. And so it was really interesting
35:01
negotiations. I go sit down with the athletic
35:03
director and I'd start out the conversation by saying I'm not
35:06
going anywhere. So even if you don't give me an
35:08
extra dime, I'm still going to be here.
35:11
And this is what's so cool about the athletic director is he'd
35:14
say, Mike, I want to give you as much money as I can, but this is
35:18
what this is what we can actually afford to do.
35:20
And so man, it was so fun having negotiations that way versus I'm
35:25
not, I don't want to pay any anymore.
35:26
And then I would say, well, then I'm leaving.
35:28
And it was just like this collaboration of let's put the
35:31
athlete in the health of the athletic department at the
35:34
forefront and let's make sure it works for me and my family.
35:37
And so, yeah, it was kind of fun to go into that.
35:40
But I always thought, I'm never leaving Gonzaga.
35:42
And I should have known to think about the principle.
35:44
Of course, I'll lead at one at some point.
35:46
When's the optimal time to do it?
35:47
So yeah, I think that's where I normally start is map it out.
35:51
What are the, what's the big picture?
35:53
Where's that life arc happening? Because even if you step back
35:56
even further, everyone's having a life, life arc.
35:59
No one's going to live for 300 years.
36:01
You know, where are you in that life arc?
36:03
And, you know, depending on where you are, there's probably
36:06
things that you should focus on more than others.
36:08
I should really focus on if I'm ever going to put a pool in my
36:10
house now or actually yesterday is the time to do it because I
36:14
got three young kids. Don't do it when my kids are
36:17
moved out of the house. That doesn't make as much sense.
36:19
You know, if you think, hey, man, should I, should I go see
36:22
John Mayer in concert with my son?
36:24
Yes, do it today. Don't save that one for 20 years
36:27
because John Mayer might not be around.
36:29
And in 20 years, my son probably it's not, you know, doesn't have
36:32
the time to go to a concert with me.
36:33
So I've just learned a lot from being able to kind of step back
36:36
and and look at the big life arcs.
36:39
Yeah, I, I love that concept of, of making that life map.
36:43
I remember, but maybe a month ago, our past was actually kind
36:46
of talking about that with, with parenting and mapping that out.
36:48
Now he did that, he did that for his kids.
36:50
And you know, kind of like kind of the verse of what you're
36:52
saying of how often you're going to see your parents.
36:55
But, you know, it's like, how many more summers or days do we
36:57
actually have left until our kids are leaving the college and
37:00
then they're not living with us anymore at all.
37:03
And I think, you know, as you're talking about thinking about
37:06
some of those principles and decisions of, you know, seeing
37:08
your your son's games and things like that, I feel like, and I'm
37:13
sure you have too, you've had a lot of probably had a lot of
37:15
conversations, other coaches that say those same sentiments
37:19
of like, like, I don't, I don't want to miss this.
37:21
Or, you know, maybe frustrated with certain logistics of their
37:25
job, but they still stay and never make that jump like you
37:31
did. Do you feel like not fully
37:34
understanding their principles are not fully articulating to
37:37
themselves? Their principles leads to that
37:40
ultimate in action down the line potentially where you know that
37:43
maybe they're just working more from motion and they're feeling
37:46
there's emotions about it, but they they don't have the
37:49
principles to OK, this is actually the right time like
37:51
like you did. I think the probably the answer
37:53
for every person is different. I would guess.
37:56
You know, I think some people there is a no problem.
37:59
There is like, I don't even know how to do it.
38:02
You know, there might be like a confidence problem, which is
38:05
like, OK, now I have this time with my family and I don't, you
38:09
know, like, are they even going to want to spend time with me?
38:11
Or, you know, maybe there is like financial obstacles.
38:14
Man, I'd love to spend more time with my family, but if I want to
38:17
get a paycheck, I better be on the road recruiting.
38:19
And so I think there's, there's a lot of obstacles.
38:22
I think to me is, you know, this, my new podcast is called
38:25
the compound commitment. My last podcast was called the
38:29
hoop commitment. And obviously commitment is a
38:32
huge thing in my life. And the reason why I just love
38:35
that idea of a commitment is is when you turn, I want to and do
38:39
I have to? And I heard a cool phrase that
38:42
said you set goals for your best days, but you make commitments
38:47
for your worst days. And so we do a summer commitment
38:50
with Mike kids every summer and it's a 75 day commitment and
38:55
they get to pick whatever they want to do.
38:56
And so this summer, my son Carter pick songwriting and my
39:00
daughter Ella, she wanted to do some mobility or strength,
39:03
anything for dance. My son Memphis want to learn how
39:06
to play guitar. So doesn't matter what I don't,
39:08
I don't even care what it is. It's some skill that you can't
39:10
master get get good at in a day that's going to take you maybe a
39:14
lifetime. But for sure, summer to get good
39:16
at it and then the commitment is 5 minutes a day.
39:20
That's it. Now, my kids don't work in the
39:22
summer. So it's like, you know, you got
39:24
pool time, you got friend time, you got family time, you got
39:27
riding the bikes, you got playing video games.
39:30
You get, I mean, 5 minutes is so easy to do in theory, but you
39:35
could see where stuff gets off the rails.
39:37
You want to push it to tomorrow. And maybe you're doing things
39:40
that are so fun that you forget to do it.
39:42
So what I love about that is on a good day, their goal is, hey,
39:46
I want to do it for 15 or 30 minutes or an hour.
39:49
But on your worst days where you're sick, tired or
39:52
unmotivated, you make the commitment to do 5 minutes.
39:55
And my wife almost killed me two summers ago.
39:59
And last summer, whenever it was where my son was studying guitar
40:03
and I came home, I had some kind of event late at night, came
40:07
home, it was like 8:00, and everyone's hanging out watching
40:09
TV except for my son, Memphis. And like, where's Memphis at?
40:12
Oh, he's got a migraine headache.
40:14
Poor little dude. He was crying.
40:16
He went upstairs. He's asleep.
40:17
And so, of course, my mind goes to, did he do his commitment
40:20
today? And my wife's face just dropped.
40:23
And she said, I don't think he did.
40:25
And I started walking upstairs and she says, Mike, you're not
40:28
going to make him do the commitment.
40:29
And he's got a headache, you know, and I saw I'm not going to
40:31
make him do it, but I just want to make sure that he understands
40:36
that, you know, we got to do 75 days in a row.
40:38
You can't do 10 minutes tomorrow.
40:39
That's not how it works. That's how failure happens.
40:42
You know, if you can never miss two days, if you never, if you
40:45
don't miss the first day, but if you miss one day, it's really
40:48
easy to miss 2 or whatever. So I walk up, I have my guitar
40:51
in the hand and I gently wake up my son and he looks over and I
40:54
say, hey buddy, I'm so sorry, not feeling good.
40:57
Mom told me you got a migraine headache and just kind of just
40:59
just looking at me and I'm like, hey, now you don't have to do
41:02
this, but I know you didn't do your commitment.
41:04
So if you want to do your commitment, I have your guitar
41:07
here and I hope you do it. And if you don't, that's OK.
41:10
But just so you know, you start back at 0 tomorrow.
41:13
This poor little dude starts crying.
41:15
And as a dad, I wanted just to let him go back to sleep.
41:18
I just wanted to hug him and kiss him.
41:20
But I also know, man, this is such a great lesson for a lot of
41:25
a whole host of reasons. I can't even name all the
41:27
reasons why this is so good. And I said you, you want to play
41:30
guitar? And he just looked at me and
41:32
cried. I said, you want to take it back
41:33
down, even answered. And I said, let's just just just
41:35
do it, buddy. OK.
41:36
And so he puts his hand up and he makes AG chord and I strum
41:39
form. I said OK, now do AD chord OK
41:42
I'm strumming. And he just stood there with his
41:44
eyes closed crying. And he did his 5 minutes of
41:47
guitar and I gave him a kiss. Whatever.
41:50
The next day he was feeling better.
41:52
He was so proud of himself. And now you talk to him what he
41:55
accomplished. Like I, I can't give him that.
41:57
It's kind of like as a strength coach, my personalities, I'm,
42:00
I'm, I am really soft. My personality is, hey, this is
42:04
really hard. Instead of doing 10 reps, why
42:05
don't you do 2? I know 300 lbs is really heavy
42:08
on the bench press. What if we just did 50 lbs?
42:11
I want to be able to save people from that pain.
42:13
But this is a biological principle.
42:16
This is a truth. The only way for them to get
42:18
stronger is with resistance. And so if I really see that
42:22
truth in one area, the only way to get physically stronger is
42:25
with resistance. And if we take away all
42:27
resistance away, if we take away gravity, boy, gravity is pretty
42:31
hard on your shoulders and your posture.
42:33
If we take that away, not only do you lose muscle mass, you
42:36
lose bone density that you actually get weaker and weaker
42:38
and weaker and less healthy. And so we know we need the right
42:41
amount of resistance. And so now if it was a 20 minute
42:44
commitment and my son had the migraine, I would have never
42:47
made him do it. That would have been cruel.
42:49
The right amount of resistance, that 5 minutes was just right
42:52
for him. And what it did is now he just
42:54
knows I could do anything and it's not I want to, I have,
42:58
there's no way he's going to fail.
42:59
The other lesson you learned is get your stuff done early.
43:03
If you do that, if you did that before breakfast or lunch or you
43:06
would have been fine. If you wait till 8:00 at night
43:09
when the migraine comes on, well, then you're kind of in
43:11
trouble. And so I just love all the life
43:14
lessons that come from that. And so why don't people spend
43:18
time? If family's so important, why
43:19
don't they spend time with their loved ones?
43:22
And I think it might be just as simple as making a commitment
43:25
and it and you don't have to spend 10 hours with your kids
43:28
have a great relationship. The commitment is I'm going to
43:31
ask my son one meaningful question today.
43:34
Besides, how was school? I'm going to ask my son one fun
43:38
question today. I'm going to ask him one
43:41
question about his favorite memory of us together.
43:44
I'm going to ask him one question about his best friend.
43:48
I'm going to ask him one question about what he dreams
43:51
about or what he's afraid of doing.
43:54
And I think those are the things that will change your life and
43:57
change your son's life. And of course, time is
44:01
important. You can't be a great husband and
44:03
just see your wife for a minute a day, you know that that.
44:07
But I think in that minute that you see him, you could be really
44:10
impactful. And I am pretty lucky because I
44:13
Gonzaga, I didn't have to travel.
44:14
I got to be at most my kids games and practices.
44:17
I know that's not the same thing for a lot of strength
44:20
conditioning coaches is man, they got the early shift in the
44:22
late shift. I know you run in a private
44:24
business when I was running U District for a lot of years.
44:27
It's like when the athletes train, well, everyone's at work
44:29
during nine to five. Yeah.
44:31
And so you trained before work and you train after work and of
44:34
course, on the weekends. And so it's challenging.
44:37
So I realized that there's some things that words lux involved
44:40
or blessed or whatever you want to call it, where I got to spend
44:42
more time. But I do think that idea of
44:45
what's important to you, make a commitment and make a commitment
44:48
for your worst day, not for your best day.
44:51
And that's awesome. And, and one of the, I think one
44:53
of the best lessons with that story too, with your son is that
44:57
I feel like there are so many people are so many messages
45:00
today where it's giving you valid reasons and excuses why
45:04
you don't have to do those things each day.
45:07
And it just like the valid reason of he's got a migraine.
45:10
Like he very well shouldn't have to do that.
45:12
But the people that go so far and you see them doing things
45:17
like they're the ones who still find a way and they still stick
45:20
like you're saying on those words says they stick to their
45:22
commitments and they do that and they don't allow the, you know,
45:26
the message of side of like, just just take today off.
45:29
I can get back at tomorrow. Then they don't listen to that
45:31
voice. Yeah, and I'm fully aware that
45:34
there there's a spectrum and it's probably, you know, instead
45:37
of a spectrum this way, it probably meets at the other end,
45:40
which is people that are too disciplined might be just as bad
45:43
as people that don't have any discipline.
45:44
I maybe that's true. But I do think that, you know,
45:48
the majority of people probably could head in that direction of
45:52
more discipline, not for discipline's sake, but for
45:55
happiness sake. Music gives my kids so much joy,
45:58
gives me so much joy. I'm a crier.
46:01
And so my daughter will play piano and she'll sing and she
46:04
has the prettiest little voice. And I just literally just sit
46:06
there in the music room and cry when she when she for so many
46:10
different reasons. But one of the reasons is you
46:12
cannot learn how to play piano in one day.
46:14
You just can't not the would, not the level that she does.
46:17
It just comes from sticking with something over and over and
46:21
over. So she has the freedom to play
46:23
piano. I don't know if you play piano,
46:25
but we could pick any instrument that you don't play and say,
46:27
hey, look at you're able to go do this, Look at the pianos
46:30
right there. Go play anytime you want.
46:32
And you, you're actually not free to play.
46:34
And so I love the idea how that discipline actually gives you
46:38
the freedom to do what you want. So same thing.
46:40
Go have a quality conversation with your son.
46:42
Everyone's free to do that on a car ride to practice, but not
46:46
really. Not if you haven't practiced it,
46:47
not if you haven't, you know, don't have the skill of
46:50
conversation, not if you've done planted all those little seeds.
46:54
It takes time. So when is the best time to
46:56
start? Right now, some people listening
46:58
to this podcast are going to say, and I wish I could play
47:01
piano. I wish my I've had a lot of
47:03
wish. My parents made me play a
47:05
musical instrument when I was young.
47:06
And I'm like, bro, I just learned how to play piano three
47:09
or four years ago. Like I'm old.
47:11
You can start this. And so I just love the idea of,
47:15
you know, do it with kindness, do it with love.
47:17
I could make my son. I didn't make him.
47:19
I asked him, hey, do you want it?
47:20
He could, he could have said no and he would have started and
47:22
that would have been a great lesson.
47:23
You know, either way you're learning a lesson.
47:25
But I'm not going to have him to do anything that I'm not doing.
47:28
And I know how hard it was for him to be able to do that that
47:31
night because same thing the day of my open heart surgery, I got
47:34
up 15 minutes early so I could do my studying.
47:37
And my wife, she's bless her, she said, Mike, what are you
47:40
doing? I'm like, I'm gonna go study.
47:41
She's like, no, you're not. You know, I had to wake up like
47:44
at 4:30 in the morning so I could, you know, get shower with
47:47
the special thing. And so she sees me at whatever
47:49
415 waking up and she's like, what are you doing?
47:51
I'm like, I got to get my studying in.
47:53
She's like, you're not going to study today.
47:55
I'm like, how many years have you known me?
47:57
I have over 2000 XS. You think there's any way I'm
48:01
going to break the chain today? There's like no way.
48:03
And so I think there's so much power in starting smarter than
48:08
you think. If you think you can do 15
48:10
minutes, start with 5 minutes and then making a commitment
48:14
because really seriously, it's not that big of a deal.
48:17
If my son did not play guitar for one day, who cares?
48:20
If you miss one workout, who cares?
48:23
That is 1 truth. And another truth is it makes
48:26
all the difference in a world because if you miss that one
48:29
day, then you can miss it the next day.
48:31
And so I think it's so funny because that one workouts not
48:35
important, yet it's the most important thing in the world.
48:37
And I think the the magic of being a coach is knowing when
48:41
the right thing to do is let the athlete miss the workout or
48:45
knowing when this is the most important thing to do, you know.
48:49
And so I've spent a lot of years and I don't know the answer to
48:52
this. I probably screwed it up way
48:53
more than I've done it right. But in the weight room, when is
48:56
it right to be able to look a blind eye when someone cheats a
48:59
Rep or when someone doesn't go down and squat?
49:01
And when is it? No, this is everything.
49:04
I mean, it's one Rep out of a workout.
49:06
You might do 200 reps in the whole workout.
49:08
So they did 199 doesn't even matter.
49:12
But man, maybe it does. And knowing the difference is so
49:15
hard. And I think, you know, there's
49:17
the art and the science and, boy, I think that relationship.
49:20
Without the relationship, it's hard to know what the science
49:23
really says. Yeah, as you talk about doing
49:28
your 15 minutes of studying on on the day of research, what
49:30
what comes to mind for me is like the power of cultivating
49:34
momentum and right you had the momentum of 2000 something days
49:39
and exes before you. Like there's no way you were
49:41
going to let, like you said, commitment is for your worst
49:43
day, one of your worst days. It didn't stand a chance to the
49:46
momentum you had. But again, like you're saying,
49:48
you take that one day, that momentum's gone.
49:51
It's so much easier now to allow those things to now, now stop
49:55
that momentum from starting again.
49:57
But you're so right. I mean, to me, momentum's
49:59
everything because it's really easy to fail if you only have
50:02
one day of success. If you woke up bright and early
50:05
in the morning and you had your your eggs and your oatmeal and
50:09
you ran 10 miles and you'd got your lift in, you feel like
50:12
1,000,000 bucks. I mean, that's so powerful, but
50:15
if you wake up the next day and you're sore and it's dark
50:18
outside and it's cold, but your bed's warm and you hit snooze
50:21
and you skip the workout, boy, then your mind knows you can
50:24
skip another one. But if you can get to day 2 and
50:27
day three and you build on success, it just gets easier and
50:31
easier. Matter of fact, I heard this
50:32
quote. I love commitment quotes.
50:34
If you ever come across a good one, send it my way.
50:36
But this one, this one's kind of a cool when it says 99%
50:40
commitment is a bear, 100% commitment is a breeze.
50:44
And I found that, man, when you cut off all other possibilities,
50:48
it's actually super easy. Like it's really easy for me to
50:51
brush my teeth at night because there's no other options.
50:54
Even when I'm tired, just do it, you know, And so it was actually
50:56
really easy for me to be able to do my studying before the on the
51:00
day of heart surgery because the thought never occurred to me
51:03
that I would not do it. It's when you let that that that
51:07
doubt seep in. What if I just hit snooze?
51:09
What if I skip today? Even when I do it, when the
51:12
doubts crept in is so much harder.
51:15
It's like towing into a cold pool and you just get your foot
51:18
in there. Oh, it's cold.
51:19
You know, maybe I won't swim today.
51:21
And you just keep slowly each. You get so many outs and so many
51:25
chances to maybe just go back and oh, what was that you
51:29
calling me? I better come up and have
51:31
dinner. OK, Maybe I'll swim later.
51:33
If you just jump in the pool, don't even think about it.
51:35
Just go. It's so much easier.
51:38
So yeah, this commitment journey has taught me so much.
51:41
I would do it with my son's kids or my son's friends when I was
51:45
coaching the basketball team. And so we would do a 5 minute
51:48
ball handling commitment. And of course, all the parents,
51:51
they'd be like, this is so easy, you know, 5 minutes that should
51:55
be so easy. But I challenged the parents to
51:57
do the commitment with us and they could choose anything they
51:59
want. You can do 5 minutes of
52:00
stretching, you could do 5 minutes of walking, you can do 5
52:03
minutes of Bible study. I don't care what it is, 30
52:06
days, 5 minutes a day, Most parents aren't able to do it.
52:09
They just because they haven't made their mind up, because when
52:11
it gets hard, they say, well, I'll do 10 minutes tomorrow and
52:14
then you're really in trouble. And so, yeah, doing the
52:18
commitment has taught me so much.
52:20
I have so much more empathy for people, so much more
52:23
understanding because it seems like it's so, so easy to do.
52:26
So one thing for the listeners is I created 3 30 day
52:31
commitments that no cost associated with them.
52:34
You can just go to compoundcommitment.com and some
52:37
of you are are listening to this because you're interested in the
52:39
wealth part of it. Well, I have 30 emails every
52:42
single day. There'll be a little a challenge
52:45
or a little task for you to do comes directly to your inbox.
52:47
And at the end of 30 days, you have built out or at least
52:50
started the framework for a your own individualized wealth plan.
52:55
And then I have a health 1 you might like for 30 days.
52:58
You work on the three big aspects.
53:00
And this is what I'm kind of dialing in with.
53:02
How am I going to help people with health after basketball?
53:05
And I really think the nutrition is important.
53:07
I think the movement piece is important and then the recovery
53:10
piece. So we're going to spend 10 days
53:11
working on nutrition, 10 days working on movement, you know,
53:15
3D matrix stuff. And then ten days you dial in a
53:18
sleep routine. And then we have a happiness
53:20
one, which is my favorite one out of all of them.
53:22
But once again, for the people that are listening saying, yeah,
53:24
I wouldn't mind doing a 30 day commitment, sign up, up is free.
53:28
I have like for people that want to dig in deeper, I have
53:30
additional resources. But the cool thing you talked
53:33
about momentum, even if my information is not that great,
53:36
at the end of 30 days, you have built momentum.
53:38
You got in the habit of doing something good for yourself
53:41
every single day that just takes 5 or 10 minutes.
53:44
That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that.
53:45
And you know, I love that quote about the 99% versus 100%.
53:49
And I feel like I've realized I've felt that so much in
53:52
nutrition for myself where it's like, I think there there is a
53:56
really important part of like not being all or nothing to
53:58
nutrition, especially if you're trying to help athletes.
54:00
Just not always realistic to go from bad to great.
54:04
But for myself, if it's something like, OK, like sweets
54:07
or desserts or something like that, if I say like, I'm just I
54:10
can't have it at all, That is so much easier for me than, you
54:13
know, he can have fun or, you know, one day or whatever,
54:15
because then that always turns into more than just one.
54:18
But if it's like it's not even a question or a debate, I can't
54:21
have it at all. For me that that is so much
54:23
simpler. I think nutrition is a great
54:25
example of that idea of, you know, it's not that important,
54:29
yet it's the most important thing in the world.
54:31
And so we know that missing a meal here and there or having
54:35
pizza or burgers, even sweets, we know that that's actually
54:37
probably a part of a healthy diet.
54:39
At the same time, the people that go that route and say
54:42
everything is good, you look back and they rarely reach their
54:45
goals. And so I think, you know, one of
54:48
the things with basketball, even at the D1 level with athletes is
54:51
how do you get enough fuel in? And so make a commitment.
54:55
Not I want to not I'll try. I have to.
54:58
It is a commitment. I'm going to eat something for
55:01
breakfast every day. And you could be specific and
55:03
say I'm going to have this one bar or I'm going to have a bowl
55:06
of cereal or I'm going to make this one protein shake.
55:08
It doesn't matter what it is for 30 days, make a commitment.
55:13
You have to. And so to me is once you make
55:16
that commitment, it is life or death.
55:18
It is that important because you made a promise to yourself.
55:22
And if you can't keep that simple promise of yes, I'm going
55:25
to find a way to be able to whatever, have a piece of peanut
55:28
butter toast, better make sure you have 30 pieces of bread.
55:31
You better make sure you have that peanut butter there.
55:33
You better make sure that even if you are sick, you just take a
55:37
little bit of it. You find a way to get it down.
55:39
Because once you prove yourself that you can do that, if you can
55:43
do the easy thing. And the hard thing is just a lot
55:46
of easy things stacked up on one another.
55:48
And so I'm so proud of my kids. They they, they have this
55:51
mindset. They don't think they know they
55:54
could do anything they put their mind to.
55:56
Now, will they make the NBA know?
55:58
Will they be able to shoot like Steph Curry?
55:59
No, only Steph Curry can shoot like Steph Curry.
56:02
But my son knows he could be a really good shooter.
56:04
He could be the best shooter he could be by making a commitment
56:08
and doing it. They know they can play any
56:10
musical instrument. They know they could do any
56:11
profession. They could do anything they want
56:13
to do. Now, they can't be someone else,
56:16
but they can be their best. And I think that comes from
56:19
stacking those small wins by making a commitment.
56:21
Mike, this has been, this has been one of my favorite
56:24
conversations I've had. I mean, there's been so many
56:26
points that I've been, as we're talking, reflecting on myself
56:31
and my habits and my commitments.
56:32
You know, I'm going to go download or, or join, join the
56:35
newsletter of yours and download those.
56:36
And I want to go get my calendars.
56:37
And because I, you know, I've, I, I feel like even for me right
56:40
now with my, my job, business, all this, I allow, I allow these
56:45
excuses to, OK, you know, I'll do it next day or whatever.
56:49
And I felt my slip myself with some of my habits just slip and
56:52
allow those things to rationalize why I can wait.
56:56
But like you're saying, the best time is to commit now and find a
57:00
ways. This.
57:01
This has been great for anyone listening.
57:03
I know it'd be great, but even just for me if if no one
57:05
listens. So it's been awesome.
57:07
One last piece of advice, I think that the trap I've fallen
57:11
into is, man, if I can make a commitment to one thing, making
57:14
a commitment to 10 will be even better.
57:16
And I always cautious people to just make one change at a time.
57:19
I read a book called The Power of Lesson.
57:21
In the book they cite some research, and I think it's his
57:24
own personal research, but he says if you make a commitment to
57:27
do one thing, you have about a 80 to 85% chance of being
57:31
successful at it. If you make a commitment to do 2
57:33
things, it drops down to 35% chance of success.
57:37
If you try and make 3 changes today and you want to commit to
57:40
all three, you have less than a 10% chance of being successful
57:44
at any one of them. Because the minute you fail at
57:47
one, you're like well, I might as well, you know, just scrap
57:50
all of it. And so I love the idea of
57:52
stacking small wins. So anyone listening, don't do
57:55
the wealth, health and happiness commitment.
57:57
Just do the wealth or just do the one that's most important to
58:00
you now. And after you build that habit,
58:02
after 30 days of doing that one commitment, it becomes a habit
58:06
or a routine. Now you can take on the next
58:08
one. Because I think, you know, the
58:11
idea of, you know, if it really focus on one thing is going to
58:15
ensure that 80 to 85% chance of success.
58:17
Now I would argue with Leo, the author of the book, and say if
58:21
you make a commitment in a small enough commitment, it's not a
58:24
80% chance of success. I'd say you have to have the
58:27
mindset that is 100% chance. There's no way you're going to
58:29
fail because when you have that 100% mindset, it actually does
58:33
become a breeze. If you have the 99% commitment,
58:36
which is I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to get this
58:38
done. I'm fairly confident.
58:40
Boy, when you're sick, tired and unmotivated, busy, even if you
58:44
do it, it's going to be, it's going to be a bear.
58:45
Oh, anyhow, you have to give me a call later.
58:48
Shoot me an e-mail, let me know how that commitment goes.
58:50
For sure. And now I know you mentioned
58:52
your website compoundcommit.com, but maybe maybe just where could
58:56
they check out your new podcast and kind of maybe with the focus
58:59
is a little bit different from what the hoop commitment was?
59:02
Yeah, I would love for people to come follow me as everything's
59:05
at compound commitment on Instagram, Facebook, you know,
59:09
anywhere you listen to your podcast, Spotify, iTunes.
59:12
Yeah, check out the compound commitment.
59:14
And really it's a journey of compounding wealth, health and
59:18
happiness. And I just love the idea of
59:20
compounding because it's what you and I have done in our whole
59:23
careers, which is you don't get stronger in the bench press in
59:26
one workout. It's you have to make a
59:28
commitment first and foremost, make your mind up that you're
59:30
going to go to the gym. And then it's all those small
59:33
little deposits under the barbell that equate to to
59:36
success or equate to getting stronger.
59:39
And so I love that idea of I don't hope or think think you're
59:42
going to improve your bench press over the course of a year.
59:44
Any high school that comes in to work with you, you're going to
59:47
say, I know I can get you stronger if we can keep you
59:50
healthy if you just pop in the weight room and you commit to
59:53
doing these things. And so I love the idea of that
59:55
mindset work so much, so good for health.
59:58
And of course, you know, Albert Einstein said that, you know,
1:00:02
compound compounding is like the eighth wonder of the world.
1:00:05
We know it works in the financial world.
1:00:06
And it was been shocking to me is as I kind of looked at that
1:00:10
idea of range. Of being able to see how the big
1:00:13
picture of how what you see in the financial world also works
1:00:17
in the strength conditioning world, also works in the music
1:00:19
world, but it also works for happiness in relationships.
1:00:22
And so how do you compound your happiness?
1:00:24
How do I compound the time I spend with my wife and my kids?
1:00:27
It's the same thing that I have this, the same tools and
1:00:30
techniques, the same strategy that I'm going to use in any
1:00:33
other area. So I would say anyone that's
1:00:36
interested in learning about wealth, health and happiness,
1:00:40
it's a fun journey. I just try to bring bring in
1:00:43
people that are really good at what they do and be able to
1:00:45
learn from them and then share with the community.
1:00:47
So I'd love to have you come along the journey with me.
1:00:49
Yeah, and I've listened to a couple of your first couple
1:00:52
episodes before and they've been, they've been awesome.
1:00:53
So I definitely recommend people checking it out.
1:00:55
But again, Mike, this was incredible.
1:00:57
Thank you for being on. Thank you for just sharing your
1:01:00
wisdom. And also just super excited for
1:01:03
this new this new chapter for you and kind of what you're
1:01:05
doing and how you're doing it. Oh man, thank you so much and
1:01:07
really appreciate you having me on.