Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 94. Neen Williams, Pro Skateboarder

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94. Neen Williams, Pro Skateboarder · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Life is what you make it. You know, you manifest
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: your own reality. If you think life is nice, life
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is nice. If you think life is bad, then life
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  Speaker 1: is going to be bad.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: You know, you get to choose your route.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: What shaken Hurdler's My name's Emily Abadi and you are
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: listening to episode ninety four of Hurdle, a wellness focused
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: podcast where I sit down with inspiring individuals to talk
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: about everything from their big wins to how they've gotten
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: through some of life's toughest moments. On the show, you
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  Speaker 3: can expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid discussions with everyone from
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  Speaker 3: top athletes to aspiring entrepreneurs and what it really takes
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  Speaker 3: to follow your passions. My mission is simple to inspire
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  Speaker 3: you to be your best self, move with intention, and
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: have some fun along the way. Coming off of that
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: New York Times mentioned from last week, it has been
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: a stellar seven days for Hurdle, which makes me feel
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: like it's probably pretty important to quickly reintroduce myself again,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Emily Abadi living in New York for the past nine years.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Where does the time go on a day to day basis?
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: I split my time between this podcast and working as
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: a freelance fitness writer and editor, creating content everywhere from
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: GQ to Runners World. I am happy to report that
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Hurdle peaked at the number three spot on the Health
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  Speaker 3: and Fitness charts in iTunes, surrounded by content from God,
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  Speaker 3: so many creators that I admire, like Jay Shetty and
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  Speaker 3: MPR and ABC News at Gretchen Rubin. It just felt surreal.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: So all of this just building up from me to say,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: from the bottom of my heart, thank you to the
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: old and new hurdlers listening in. Thank you for coming
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: to my corner of the Internet and for allowing me
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: just to take up some space today. I am amped
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: to bring you my conversation with Nim Williams. He's a
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: pro skateboarder and major fitness enthusiast, growing up outside of Chicago,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: nin Nu from a young age that skate was his calling.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Moving to Los Angeles on a whim to embrace his passions,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Williams recalls a life or skate and partying were intertwined.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: In episode ninety four, he opens up to me about
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the devastating Hurdinle moment that involved a trick gone wrong
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: and an aceltair that changed his life. Forever. Now five
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: years sober, william says he's in the best mental and
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: physical shape of his life as he's shifted his focus
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: and prioritized his well being. We talk about what that
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: looks like on today's pod, as well as his new
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: spice business seriously, and also the great things that have
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: come from his choice to leave his partying ways behind. Now,
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  Speaker 3: before we get into today's episode, I want to take
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: a moment to call out my sponsors. As you guys know,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: I've been working on Hurdle all on my own for
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: over two years now, but the reality is is that
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  Speaker 3: girl needs some help. I've been looking to expand my
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  Speaker 3: team and that's where LinkedIn jobs comes into the picture.
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  Speaker 3: Hiring the right people is one of the best ways
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  Speaker 3: to help grow your business, but it should not take
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  Speaker 3: time away from all of your other priorities. With LinkedIn jobs,
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  Speaker 3: social media, organization, you name it. Find the right person
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  Speaker 3: Just visit LinkedIn dot com slash hurdle again. That's LinkedIn
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  Speaker 3: dot com slash hurdle to get fifty dollars off your
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  Speaker 3: first job post today. I also want to take a
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  Speaker 3: second to thank my sponsors at Athletic Greens with the
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  Speaker 3: single day off in the right direction. Now. I have
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  Speaker 3: feel like everyone around me is worrying about getting sick.
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• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Hit me up on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: find me at Hurdle Podcast at Emily a Body. If
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  Speaker 3: you have a hurdle moment of your own to share
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  Speaker 3: you just want to say hi, feel free to email
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: me over at Emily at hurdle dot us. And with that,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: let's get to hurdling today. I'm sitting down with me
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: and williams nan is a professional skateboarder, amongst many other things.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: I feel like the multi hyphen it reigns supreme. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: it's like, you are a professional skateboarder, you are a
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: small business owner, you have all these certifications and kettlebells
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: and steel meson whatever.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: It is, just trying to get as much as I can.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm well, I'm amped to be here. I
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: just got off a flight. We're in Los Angeles, And
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: thank you for sitting down on the pro Skateboarding.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Thanks, for having me, for sure, I'm excited.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Have you always been into skateboarding?
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, for the longest that I could remember. I started
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: skating at like thirteen years old. So there was life
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: before skateboarding, but it was mostly like childhood life, playing
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: with toys and you know, wrestling and jumping off trees
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and random stuff like that.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: And you grew up in Chicago, Yeah, I grew up
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: in Chicago. Whereabouts Pilsen? Okay, do you know where?
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: That is?
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Not much. I know very little about Chicago. I ran
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: the Chicago Marathon this year, but I stayed very central
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: aside from the marathoning part of it. Yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was born and raised in Pilson. It's about
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: a ten minute drive from downtown. It's like a little
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: historical area of Chicago. It's not like downtown per se,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: but it's like one of the neighboring neighborhoods.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So growing up in Chicago, did you have a
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: lot of friends that weren'to skateboarding or how did you
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: kind of stumble into it?
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: No, I actually didn't have any friends that were skateboarders.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: I got into skate because when I was younger, my
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: mom used to move around a lot.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: You know. We lived in.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Different suburbs too of Chicago as we're growing up, so
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  Speaker 1: I got to go to different schools and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 1: And when I was in this one school, I believe
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: it was in Berwyn, It's like a neighboring suburb. It's
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: about thirty minutes from downtown. The kids there skateboarded, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: that's how I got into skateboarding because I was friends
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: with them. They skated every day after school and I
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: just picked it up.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: I remember growing up my brother skateboarded and the minimal
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: attempt situation that I had with it. It's not easy, No,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: it's very hard. Why first did you find that you
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: were good at it? Or it took you a while
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  Speaker 3: to kind of get into it.
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  Speaker 4: It took me a while, definitely.
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  Speaker 1: I was more of one of those like wild kids,
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  Speaker 1: So I would fall and jump off trees and wrestle
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  Speaker 1: and this, that and the other.
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  Speaker 4: Pain wasn't really a big thing for me. So the
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: trial and error of learning how to skateboard was not
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  Speaker 4: as hard per se for me because I was used
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  Speaker 4: to falling, you know, and skateboarding a lot.
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  Speaker 3: Of it is falling, Yeah, a lot of it. I
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: feel like sometimes they say with sports like that, the
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  Speaker 3: most important thing is that you have to learn how
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  Speaker 3: to fall the right way exactly, and then the rest
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  Speaker 3: of it kind of comes after that in levels of importance.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Give me an injury round up. So far in your career.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: So, I've had two broken wrists. I tore a muscle
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: in my back like five L six and the disk
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: slid out a little bit from twisting too hard and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: falling at the same time. I had two ACL reconstruction
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: surgeries for each leg. My moniscus is pretty much gone
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: in my right leg, a pateller tear in my right leg.
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  Speaker 4: The list just keeps.
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  Speaker 3: Going, Oh my god. So when you have that much injury,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, you really have to have a passion for
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: what it is that you're doing to keep going with it.
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, skateboarding is like the most therapeutic thing for me,
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  Speaker 4: you know, so regardless of how many times I get hurt,
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  Speaker 4: it's like it's still my first.
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  Speaker 3: Love for sure. For sure. Okay, So you grew up
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  Speaker 3: skateboarding in Chicago, and when did skateboarding turn into something
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: that you saw yourself kind of taking beyond just having
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: some fun with your friends.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Probably a few years into learning how to do tricks
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that, me and my friends we would
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: get video cameras and start video recording ourselves and making
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: mixtapes of our tricks and stuff. And then you give
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: those two the local skate shop that you buy all
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: your skateboards from. As I got older, as like years
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: went on, the skate shops started to recognize that I
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: had a skill for it, you know, and decided to
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: hook me up and stuff, give me a discount on
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  Speaker 1: product and everything, maybe a free deck here and there.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: And from there that's when things started going up.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Right. So, like, what age was that about, Like seventeen maybe? Okay,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: So what is life like for you outside of just
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: skateboarding in Chicago?
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Life outside of skateboarding?
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  Speaker 1: I mean I just hung out, you know, like any
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: other teenager, Like hung out with friends, girls, like drink
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: forties and smoke weed.
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  Speaker 4: And stuff like that.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: You know. I was a good student, but when I
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: was sixteen, I dropped out. So that was all just
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: because I really wanted my driver's license so I could
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: drive to places to skate and stuff. And I couldn't
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: get my driver's license because I was absent too much
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: because I would end up being like two hours away,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't get to school the next day, so
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I was absent too much. So They're like, you can't
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: get your driver's license till you're eighteen, so at this point,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and I was just kind of over school at that point.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I was like going for my driver's license basically. Then, Yeah,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I just kind of days past and I just never
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: went back.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: What did your family have to say about that.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they were concerned, but they didn't really say
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: much about it at that point, you know, sixteen seventeen.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I've always been kind of like the streets raised me,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: you know, So I've always been on the streets. I
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't like really that person that would get you're going
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: to your room kind of stuff. Yeah, Like I was
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: in the streets, you know, so no one was really
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: there to check up on me and tell me that
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: it was a bad idea or anything like that.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: You know, what does life start to look like for
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: you when school isn't even part of the equation?
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: Skate all day every day, that's all it was.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I would get free product from my sponsors at the time,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and I would sell some of it for money for
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: food and stuff like that and gas money or whatever
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like e actually when I got my license, you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: but yeah, just.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: Skate every day all day. I would take trips.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I would go to New York and then I'd be
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: stuck in New York for like two months, and then
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I would like find someone from Chicago and hit a
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: ride back home, you know, and be home for a
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: couple of months. And then I'd go to Florida and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: then be stuck out there, and I would do that
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: for like years.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: There are like two types of people in this world.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: There are the people that are like you, that are
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: totally fluid and down with that kind of thing, and
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: then there's probably someone like me that would be like, wait,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: what do you mean you don't know where you're going
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: to be next month?
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I literally would just pack a backpack. And because I
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: had different sponsors for different things. That's like the thing
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: with skateboarding is you have a shoe sponsor, you have
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a clothing sponsor, you have like all these different sponsors.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: So when I would find myself in a place, I
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: would just call like my connection at each spot there
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: and have them like send me a little box for
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: like the month or whatever, and i'd have clothes.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it's like having run the runway but
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: not needing to pay for it, and it just shows
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: up for you.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: It's pretty sick.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Wherever you are. So, who was your first sponsor?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: A first sponsor was a skate shop. It was I
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: believe it was First Gear. It was the neighboring skate shop.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: A couple of my friends are on there.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean you have like a crazy list
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: of sponsors now.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I have a bunch from all walks of life, you.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Know, walks of life.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: So you're skating, you're kind of traveling around and then
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: you get a call from your friend and he's like,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: why don't you come out to La? Mm hm, talk
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: to me about that.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: So a few of my friends moved to La because
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: their parents moved and they just wanted to get out
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: of the weather.
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: And one of my friends had like a compound.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: He turned pro on a bunch of big companies, so
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: he had like a big apartment with a couple of
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: rooms and tons of floor and carpet space and couch space.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: You know. So they hit me up and they're like, hey,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: we got all the homies in one apartment, come down,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: like you could stay on the couch for as long
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: as you want and just skate and you know, figure
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: it out.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: The weather in La is a lot different than the
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: weather in Chicago.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I was. I was twenty two at the.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Time, and that was like my saving grace pretty much,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: you know, because I was already starting adulthood at this point,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you know, and kind of thinking about like what I
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: should do in life. I actually just had an ACL
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: surgery in my first one. I was recovering from that,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and I was like starting to skate again, like starting
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to get strong again, and I got the call from
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: my friend, so you know, right away, I was like
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: all right, cool, like packed up a backpack again, grabbed
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: my board, and just like flew out Long Beach, California.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: So you get the call on you're out to La.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm just full straight for it.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: How does it feel to arrive in La? Oh?
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: It's great because before this point I would come to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: LA every winter basically for like two months and skate
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: with my friends and all that. So there was a
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: build up, you know, so I already kind of knew
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: how La worked, you know, and how the weather was
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: in the winter and stuff like that. So I was
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: really stoked to just be going here indefinitely, you know,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and going to stay.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: You feel like you're like finally kind of onto something.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: You're landing on your feet.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: And so, you know, we skate every single day, party
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: every single night. Partying started getting pretty heavy. We're just
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: an apartment of a bunch of young adults that just
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: want to have fun. Yeah, you know, and there's no
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: one looking after us or telling us what we have
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to do, or we don't need to wake up and
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: check in clock or anything like that, you know, because
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: we're just we're making we're making means to just get
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: by the life of no responsibilities.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: Did you find that from a young age was skating
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: that partying kind of went hand in hand with that,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: or was partying not as much of a part of
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: it when you were younger?
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: No, we I definitely.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: I probably started partying at like, yeah, fifteen or something
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: There does become a point where the drinking kind of
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: catches up to you, though.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it caught up to me later on around mid twenties.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Okay, so when things get bad, what does that mean?
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Tell me about that.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I moved up to Hollywood, California, so I'm now up here.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I was probably like twenty six, so I kind of
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: just got into the whole like rave scene, party scene, nightclubs,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: doing all types of drugs, designer drugs, everything you could imagine.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Not really the downeries because I wasn't really into going
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to I wanted to stay awake and party and dance
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and whatever. There was like a span where there'd be
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: some nights I'd be up for two to three nights,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: like I would just stay up and keep partying and
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: call like different people over. Like some friends would go home,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I'd like know the other people that were awake around
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: that time, so I'd call them, they'd come over, and
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: it would just continue. And I would skate less basically
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: because of this, because I would I was hungover for.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: Most of the time.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: But when does it catch up to you?
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: So it pretty much caught up to me one night.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I was still skating at the time, but I wasn't
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: skating as much. During this time. I actually turned professional
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: for a lot of my sponsors, so I was starting
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to make some decent amount of money, so I was
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: able to party harder. So that's what kind of helped
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: me party even more.
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: You know. So at this point, I.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Was still doing doing my skate doing skateboarding for a
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: living and being a professional skateboarder where I have to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: film video parts and shoot photos and stuff for the magazines.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: So one of these nights I was super hungover, haggard,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: like just not healthy, you know. I had to shoot
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a photo for one of my sponsors and we lit
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: up the spot. It was like this long like gap
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: to clear, and I tried this trick and I felt
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: like I had it, but my body was so broken
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: down and beat down that like it wasn't right. And
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I went for it anyways, and I did the splits
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and that just took out my knee and I just
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: tore my second ACL And I was twenty eight at
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the at that point. And that was the catalysts that
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: basically put me in the direction that I'm in today.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Were you just on the ground thinking to yourself, what?
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: Oh? I was so sad.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: It was so sad because at this point I've been
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: skating for so long. I worked super super hard to
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: get to where I was in skateboarding with my sponsors,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: with you know, being a professional and all that, and
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: like I had good skating coming out, but I was
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: just like throwing it away little by little by just
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the partying was so easy for me, Like getting getting
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: messed up and being out for nights on end was
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: so easy that it was just slowly like taking away
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: from what I've built, you know. So I was on
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the ground, I could feel the pain. I knew it
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: wasn't right. I got up and like kicked the air
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and you could just feel the looseness because the ACL
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: is what holds your knee together, so it buckles if
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: you if you mess it up, you know, you'll know
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: that it's not connected correctly. Yeah, and uh yeah, I
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: mean twenty eight. Skateboarding's kind of it's a young you know,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and if you're still if you're getting towards like your
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: thirties and stuff like that, in skateboarding, it's like you
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: need to be performing correctly. So I was definitely sad.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I was like, I was scared to lose it all
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: at this point, and I knew I was throwing it away.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: When you were on the ground, were you angry at yourself?
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: Definitely.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Whenever you mess up in skateboarding, you're mad at yourself,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: you know, and especially when you injure yourself and know
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: that you did something bad to yourself, and acl recovery
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: takes like nine months to a year to be able
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to like roll around again. And that's not to get
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to the point where you wore professionally, you know. That's
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: like you still need a couple more months to get
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to where you were, you know. Yeah, so it was
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: definitely a heartbreaking situation.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: But I'm the type of person that takes.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Disasters, things that go wrong in my life like negativity,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and I'll flip it around and turn it into a positive.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: It's just that idea that failure doesn't need to be
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: a setback, it can be a lesson exactly.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: So it just all it did is it helped me
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: kick into gear and really focus on what was important
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: to me, and that was my career. That was everything
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: I worked so hard to build. That was I just
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: wanted to reach my optimal performance and you know, my
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: optimal life and do the best that I can while
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I can and really make a difference in the world
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: in skateboarding and in the people that follow me and
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: all that. You know, I just wanted to like lend
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a hand, do my best and be the best person
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I could be.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Talk to me about what the rehab process looks.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: Like, the rehab mentally.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Well, I guess we have two parts to talk about.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: First the actual physical rehab and then the mental rehab,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: because I'm sure both of them we're probably equally as taxing.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, physically, you know, you go get reconstruction surgery,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: then you start physical therapy and all that. You got
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to get the range of motion back in your knee,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: make sure it's bending right, make sure you're walking right,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: make sure you could start taking impact, all of that,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and uh, physical therapists will help you with that. The
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: thing that I always tell people is always make sure to,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: you know, go to a physical therapist. You know, if
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: you want to come back to skateboarding or doing active
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: stuff like playing baseball with your kids or football or whatever,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: it's like you want to do your physical therapy, you know.
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: So that that was the first step.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: That was like all the physical stuff and actually going
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: to the physical therapy. That helped me because I at
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: this point, you know, before I got the surgery, I
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: decided that I was gonna quit drinking, quit partying cold turkey,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: quit basic. At this point, I have nothing to do,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: so I go do my physical therapy.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: I come home, I'm like ANTSI because I'm used to
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: skating all day.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I'm used to burning a ton of calories all day
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: because I'm moving all day.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: And you're used to being surrounded by stimulation twenty four
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: to seven.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and being outside and just being fired up. I
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: end up going to physical therapy. The little rehab for
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: my knee isn't doing enough for me. So I start
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: asking them to give me like upper body and core
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: workouts and stuff like that. And the physical therapists they're
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: all my friends, my trainers and stuff. So they start
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: making these workouts for me, and they start making them
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: really hard because they know, like I'll want hard stuff. Basically,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I end up building like a vice towards it, Like
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: I want to work out. That's like my new thing
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: while I can't skate, you know, Right, So I started
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: that was keeping me occupy while I wasn't partying and
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: skating and stuff like that.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: I think it's really special that you grew so attached
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: to it. I think that's a hard thing for a
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: lot of people to deal with when they're injured. Right.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: It's like, I'm a big runner, and if you hurt
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: your foot or your legs or I mean your body,
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: just like in skateboarding, and you can't run. It's so defeating.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: It's like you identified as a skateboarder. I identify as
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: a runner. And when you can't do those things, all
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: of these questions pop into your head about who it
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: is that you really are. And so I get so
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: many messages from people, whether it's on social media over email,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: just being like, I am injured and I feel so lost.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: So you're feeling lost, but you find this purpose almost
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: in your rehab, which is magical exactly.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: So it basically saved me, and little by little because
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I started getting into fitness and you know, taking care
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of myself. Little by little, the steps started lining where
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: it was. I started to want to reach my optimal performance.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm here, I'm twenty eight at this point,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and I'm just like, man, I want to I want
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: to be the best I can be at this point
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in my life. You know, how can I reach my
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: highest potential?
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Taking a break from today's episode to talk up linked
• 25:25
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• 25:27
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• 25:30
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• 25:33
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• 25:41
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• 25:46
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• 25:57
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• 26:26
  Speaker 3: It's interesting that you started to be able to define
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: your highest potential in a different way than you did
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: when you were skating all the time.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Fitness brought it out in me because it was like,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: if I strengthen these areas of my body, I will
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: be able to perform better on my skateboard, and I
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: will feel stronger and I'll feel better in life. After
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: working out, you feel great. You're like, oh, hi, on
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the endorphins and whatever. And you know, those are things
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: that kind of brought me into it.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Were you doing any sort of like strength training or
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: any other working out aside from skating when you were
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: big into skate before the injury.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Before an injury, I would do like pushups and bench press,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: like dips, like you know, just the random ones, maybe
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: like pull up challenge with your friends or something like
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: just random.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: You know, what does training look like for you these days?
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: And I mean there's a little bit we're skipping over,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: but I'm just kind of curious.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: So I trained six days a week.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of conventional training, building certain areas
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: up and keeping areas strong.
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm not a powerlifter. I believe in lighter
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: to moderate weights.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: You know, I want longevity. You know, I'm not trying
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: to blow myself out at thirty four. How that's how old.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: I am now, you know.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm trying to like, I want to be my
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: strongest when I'm sixty seventy, you.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: Know what I mean.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: So I'm just slowly building my way up, but at
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the same time, I'm strengthening myself and keeping sure I
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: do my mobility drills and all that stuff.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: So you're hanging out with all of your friends at
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: the rehab center, all the people that are helping you
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: get strong again. And when do you get back to skating.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I get back to skating nine months, ten months or so.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: And at this point we can just you can just
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: like cruise around. You could do a couple flip tricks
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: on the flatground and stuff. You can't really do much,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: you know, and as the months passed, probably like four
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: more months or so, then you could start, you know,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: pushing it, like jumping on tables and stuff like that.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Did it feel different.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: At the beginning?
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: It does, because you haven't done anything for nine months,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: you know, But eventually it breaks in.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: You know. It's a mind to muscle kind of connection.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: You know. It's like if you grew up drawing or
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: something like that.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: It's like if you didn't draw for a couple of months,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: you'll still be able to draw something.
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: It's like a mental connection that you have with it.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: You just kind of jump right back in.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: Did you always think during the time that you were
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: working to get your strength back that you would definitely
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: get back into skating or was there ever a point
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: where you were like, maybe this isn't going to be
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: my thing anymore.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: No, I was completely focused and dedicated to getting back
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: into skating. And it's my baby, you know, it's all
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: I know. It's what gives me my freedom. You know,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: it's what allows me to be a creative person and
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: really expressed myself.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: So talk to me about the first few months when
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: you really feel like you're back in the saddle when
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: it comes to.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Skating, getting back into skating. I mean, it's all just
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: a learning curve. It was just little by little getting
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: things back, like, you know, making sure I'm back and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: prepared before I'm able to jump down stairs and gaps
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: and stuff again.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: Stairs and gaps and stuff like that. As you're skating
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: more and feeling stronger, are you still like not partying,
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: not doing any of that kind of stuff.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I stood true.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: You know, I stopped partying and drinking and I have
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: five years now on my belt. I haven't tasted alcohol.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: How does it feel?
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: It's great?
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: What would you say you've noticed has been like one
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: of the biggest differences in you since making this shift.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: The biggest difference to me is I'm more able to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Back then, when I was drinking and partying and all
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: that stuff, I was living for the now. I was
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: like just living by day by day. Just what can
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I do now now that I don't drink or party
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: or anything.
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: I live for the future.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Like I'm more planning for, you know, the years to
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: come ahead. You know, I'm smarter. I could focus on things,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: you know, and it's just living on both sides.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: You know. It's like I'd rather be like I.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Am today, Yeah, because it's like if I was like
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I am today when I was twenty, who knows how
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: much I would have taken care of at this point
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: in my life, you know.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: What I mean.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not drinking, not partying for so long has given
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: me so much free time to like create and do
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: other stuff. So I've been skating. I'm still skating super hard,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: same way I used to. But instead of going out
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: to the bars and throwing away the rest of the
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: day and drinking, I go home and you know, I
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: actually started my own business and my own company, and
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I make spice rubs.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: Now you know where did that come from? Where did
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: come from?
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: It's pretty sick how it came to play. So on
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: my social media. It's Nan Williams on Instagram. I my stories.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of cooking in my stories, like
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: clip by clip by clip, and I just always I
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: did this for fun forever, you know, for years, for
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: like my friends and followers and fans and whatever, just
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: to kind of give dinner, lunch, breakfast ideas or whatever.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: It's just it's just fun. It's not even like I'm
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: not trying to do anything. It's just all for fun.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: And I would make this chicken with a certain like
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: batch of seasoning, and I made a YouTube video about it,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and people started making my chicken and like tagging me
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: in it on Instagram and stuff like that, and they're like, oh,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: this is the best chicken, like we love this and
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: you know, and it was like I had something there.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: So my Lady Jazz, she told me like, hey, we
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: should make spices, you know, and I was like yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: And then one of my other friends that he worked
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: for Whole Foods, he hit me up one day because
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I was started to make my own T shirts, not
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: a damn chance T shirts, you know.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: And I don't know, tell me about your not a
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: damn Chance T shirts.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: So like after I would make my food on my
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Instagram stories, I'd have a big plate of food and
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: I'd crush it, eat it all, you know, clean the plate,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and I'd just say not a damn chance, and I
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: throw the napkin or like throw the plate off the table.
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: Whatever.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: But it caught on and people started doing it too
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and sending it to me, and it was just like
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: this big fun thing, you know, and we still do.
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: It to this day.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: So I made not a damn chance shirts. I actually
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: have one on right now. And my friend hit me
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: up and he was like, hey, what's up with like
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: your own hot sauces or your spice rubs or this
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: that and the other, you know, And I was like,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: oh yeah. And I remember my lady Jess. She told
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: me to do it too, you know. So I was like, yeah,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I think it's time time.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: I can't imagine that, like figuring out how to distribute
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: spices or make them in any sort of mass quantity
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: is like an easy thing.
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: Well you know that. What's great about nowadays is there's YouTube.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: You know. YouTube has answers for everything, you know, so, uh,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: my lady went on YouTube and figured it out.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: I need to date any man that just refers to
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: me as his lady.
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: My lady lady.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: She figured it out and then came up to me
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: with like the plan and a couple of manufacturers. We
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: had a meeting with a manufacturer and they're really cool,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: family owned.
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: You know, we liked them and we started doing business
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: with them.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: We gave them, like I gave them my specific recipes
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: for each spice rub and he sent me some samples
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: that he made in bulk, and you know, once we
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: nailed the formulas, it was like it was like clockwork.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: We're just boom boom boom.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: And these are all for sale online.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're all on my website, which is nine williamsco
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: dot com.
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: I figured to make it as easy as possible. It's
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: just my name.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Talk to me about what does it mean for you
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: to be healthy these days?
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Health has become like a religion nowadays towards like everybody,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like either you're this, or you're that,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: or you're that. You don't do this, you don't do that.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: And to me, health is just feeling good and knowing
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: what you're putting in your body, like being mindful of
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: what you're putting in your body, taking care of yourself
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: and feeling good.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: Like that's what health is to me.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what you choose to eat, just make
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: sure it's clean and it's from the earth. And you're
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: doing so much better by doing that instead of like
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: these little nitpicky things. Because there's so many diets out there,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: there's so many routes you can take, and so many
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: people like this is the healthiest, that's the healthiest, and
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: it's like just eat whole foods. Yeah, like that, like
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: eat stuff from the earth, Eat stuff that grows out
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: of the ground. Like if you eat animals, like eat
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: clean animal products that don't have like hormones and this,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: that and the other put in them, and you're going
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to be well off.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's what I think.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: And I'm okay with everyone's diet choices and you know,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: morals and stuff when it comes to.
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: Food and eating meat or eating veggies.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: And this that, and it's like I'm cool with that
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: because I respect everybody.
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: You know, and your choice is your choice, and.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not here to tell you which way to go,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: but do what works for you and what you.
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: Believe is your healthy and that's that's it. That's it,
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: you know, like it's easy, it's simple. You know, when you.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: When you stopped partying so much and started really focusing
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: on your health and then the rehab and then getting
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: back into skating, did you start to hang out with
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: different people.
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that was one of the first steps.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Like we went over like the physical of rehab, mental rehab.
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: Being off of alcohol and off of partying.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Was I had to stop hanging out with like the
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: crew I used to hang out with, you know, and
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: it was sad, you know, losing friends and stuff. I mean,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: there's still my friends if I hit them up, you know,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: but it's like I'm not about that life anymore, you know.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: And we could connect.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: In like a skate skate way, you know, but in
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: a party way. It's like, I'm not about that anymore.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: So that was like the first step.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: And people asked me that all the time on Instagram
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: and stuff in my dms.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Just like how did I stay sober?
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Basically, first two weeks I came out of surgery, I
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: was in a brace. It's so painful to move after
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: an ACL surgery, any surgery anyways.
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: You know. So I was in a brace.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I was on the couch for two weeks playing video
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: games because that was the only thing.
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: I could do.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: And then yeah, I just had to stay away from
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: going out to bars and clubs for like.
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: Three three the first.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Three months or something, until I had a strong enough
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: will to like go out to a bar and be like, yeah,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I don't want a beer, Like give me a water
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: or a soda.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: Water or something.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: That must have been really hard.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean even nowadays, I don't really go out
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: to bars or anything. Like, if there's an event, I'll
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: go out, But there's no point for me to be
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: in a dark little bar if I'm not drinking.
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: It's just there's nothing going on.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, unless it's like early and it's a
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: business meeting, I'm good, you know. But if it's like
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: eleven PM, it's like I need to go home.
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: And obviously we're touching on the mental side of things.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: Did you go to some dark places to get through this,
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: because I can't imagine that.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: It was easy dark places.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: As you're sitting there, your leg is all sorts of
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: messed up. You aren't hanging out with the people that
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: you used to hang out with. I mean, it's just
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: such a drastic shift and very sudden.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: I have like a weird, like strong will in my head.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: My girl, my lady, and she actually she actually decided
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: to not drink and party two with me.
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: I had her with me.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: She works from home too, she's a baker, so me
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: and her we just kind of hung out and she'd
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: be bacon.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: I'd just be.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Playing video games and there was no darkness. It was
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: just like, well, I'm home here, I am. I mean,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: I was just playing video games.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Or as someone who wants to have that kind of willpower,
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: like what kind of advice would you offer them? Because
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: this isn't just like advice as to how you stayed sober.
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: This is like advice for anyone that wants to go
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: after something that they're after.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: I always say, focused on the positive.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: We as humans tend to veer off into all the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: negative things in life. The best way to rid yourself
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: of that is to just focus on like the positive
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: outweighs and negative. You know, but we always tend to
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: focus on the negative. If we just get away from
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: that negative and remember this to focus on the positive,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: will will be so much better off, you know, because
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: there there are so many more accomplishments and so many
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: more positive. There's so many people that care for each
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: and every one of us all, you know, like focus
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: on that instead of that one person that's pissing you off.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: And I'm sure the path that you took to getting
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: better and to getting stronger, it wasn't one vertical line
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: up to the top. You must have had setbacks along
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: the way. So staying positive, how do you stay positive
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: when you feel like you're at a plateau?
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Well, there's tons of ups and downs and fallbacks. I
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: stay positive by just remembering my goals, you know, and
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: being grateful where I am in life and what I've
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: accomplished and what I'm trying to get to. You don't
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: bring if something happens on the streets, you don't bring
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: it home.
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: You let you let it go.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: You're gonna have a better day if you are happy
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: and positive. If you bring you know, that guy that
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: cut you off and like flick you off and spin
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: on your car home with you, you're gonna be a mess.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: You know. Then you're gonna you're gonna walk in your
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: house and you trip on your skateboarder you and fall
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: on your ass or something, you know, like like bad
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: things are gonna keep happening.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: But if you're happy and you let it go, that's
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: what you need.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: To let things go and keep moving forward, you know,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: don't let anything.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: Take you down.
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: So then, what does life look like for you? These days?
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: You're skating, you're training six days a week.
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, life is It's good. It's like one one.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Big science project basically, like I'm working out fitness, getting
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: myself to my.
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: Optimal level, like highest performance.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I feel great. I feel better than I ever felt.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously I have some wear and tear thirty four.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: I've been skating since thirteen fourteen. You know that's a
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: long time, jumping off the stairs and stuff since then,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: taking injuries. But I'm at my best, you know, I
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: feel great. I'm happy all the time. I have my company,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: you know, that is going up and up and up.
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: You know, it's fun.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: It's cool to see like people tagging me in their
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: food that they're making with my spices and stuff, which
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: is super awesome to get to share these things with people.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: You know, and life is nice. I mean I always
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: think it's life is what you make it. You know,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: you manifest your own reality. If you're if you think
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: life is nice, life is nice. If you think life
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: is bad, then life is going to be bad. You know,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: you get to choose your route.
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: I love that we're both wearing the whoop right now.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we're trying to level up our potential. What
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: would you say, is like one other thing that you
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: added to your routine or like your overall well being
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: that has kind of been a little bit of a
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: game changer for you.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: The one main thing that I started like working on
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: a little bit more and actually being aware of because
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: I was never aware of it was recovery. Yeah, you know,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: and actually the whoop actually helps me with that the most.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: You know what changed with that just being aware with
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: it of it, taking ice bats, you know, eating when
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I have like a shitty day of recovery, I'll eat
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: a bunch of like I'll have a cheat meal, Like
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I'll just slam a bunch of bread and pasta and
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: just a bunch of carbs to like replenish my body,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: you know. Making sure to pay attention to taking days off.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: That's like a really big thing. And I think that's
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of the reason why I would get injured.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: When I would get injured. Is I wasn't resting with skating.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: You want to skate every single day. You want to
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: skate all day about like eight ten hours a day. Yeah,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: you know, like you just want to skate, skate, skate, skate,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: and even if you're sore, you skate through the soreness
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: to where you don't feel sore anymore. But I think
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: the problem with that is your body isn't recovered, so
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: you're prone to get hurt at that point.
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: You know, what are you excited about right now?
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: I'm just excited about everything, Excited about the future, excited
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: to see what the future holds.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: I'm excited to keep.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: Going on with what I've been doing and sharing with
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: people and helping people. And I get stoked when people
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: take stuff from what I'm saying and what I'm doing
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: and like apply it to their life and then it
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: helps them, you know, Like that's what excites me.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: You mentioned your social media following. You have quite the
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: social media following. I think the last time I checked,
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: you at over four hundred and twenty two thousand followers
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: on Instagram. A lot of those people they come to
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: your page, they see a guy that likes to skate,
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: he's got a lot of tattoos. Yeah, when you look
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: in the or what is it that you see?
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, I see a person that definitely has his flaws,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: you know, and that is steady working on them and
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: you know, trying his best to to be a better
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: person at all times. You know, that's kind of what
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: I see, is just trying to be better than the
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: previous day, the previous week. You know, like, how can
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: I how can I do something bigger better?
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: How can I be a better person?
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: What would you say has been one of the best
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: pieces of advice that you have received? Let's go with
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: since your accident.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Best pieces of advice would be probably from my boss,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: the boss Andrew Reynolds. He when I was quitting like
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: smoking cigarettes and like drinking and stuff, he told me
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: to wait whenever you got an urge, to wait ten minutes, like,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: don't act on it, wait ten minutes. And you know,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: after those ten minutes have passed, like nine times out
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: of ten, you're you don't have that urge anymore, and
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: you're off to doing something else. And that was a
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: very big and important thing that I that I live with.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: You know, It's something that helped me through the process
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: of staying off of partying, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol.
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: All of that.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: You know, it was just wait ten minutes and you
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: end up you're like doing something else in your mind,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: somewhere else, you know, and it's perfect.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: That's amazing.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: That's the best advice possible.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: I sat down with a registered dietitian named Lisa Hiam
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: on the pod and she said to me, when it
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: came to food cravings or you wanted to eat something specific,
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: sit down for a second and think about how you
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: would feel in ten minutes from right now if you
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: ate the thing you wanted to eat in that moment.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: Oh my god.
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, a lot of times with food especially, it's such
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: a mindless thing that we do while we're doing other things.
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: But what if you're intentional with like what you're putting
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: in your body or what you're about to do, and
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: you do take this time that you're.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Saying, like a funnel cake or something, you're just like, yeah,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I am not going to feel good in ten minutes
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: after eating this.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: So that means it's a no go. All right, you
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: have an opportunity right now to offer yourself one piece
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: of advice. Looking back on your hurdle moment when you
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: are on the ground, laying there thinking shit, you have
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: an opportunity right now to offer yourself one piece of advice.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: What is it that you tell yourself?
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: Everything will be all right.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Just keep pushing, Focus on your goals, focus on what
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: you want out of life, you know, and keep pushing,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: like don't let don't let things stop you, you know,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: like keep climbing in and keep being a good person,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: and you know, keep fighting.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: Keep fighting. Thanks so much for your.
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: Time, Thank you, thanks for having me.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: Please take a moment and leave a quick review of
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: the pod by clicking the link with the description to
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: this episode. We all face multiple hurdles in life. I
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: want to hear about yours. Reach Out to me at
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: Emily at hurdle dot us. Connect to the podcast on
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle podcast nin Where do they
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: find you? Where do they buy your spices? Give me
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: all the details again.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: So I g Facebook. All that stuff is Nan Williams
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: and E. E. N. Williams, plain simple, easy, you know,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: spice rubs and my company T shirts not a damn
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: chance t shirts. That's at nanwilliamsco. Dot com. And it's
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: all there.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: And I love it. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: next time.