Latest / The Growth Project / Episode 381: Building Resilience and Confidence with Adekunle Olusanya

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Episode 381: Building Resilience and Confidence with Adekunle Olusanya · The Growth Project

• 0:00
  everyone wants progress, everyone wants progress. And sometimes why relationships are hard to. Especially when you're in that weird line of like, let's say you're dating somebody you don't know if you can get made or what if you don't know?
• 0:09
  There's been progress is being made again, wherever there's ambiguity, this chaos. But when I can streamline everything and show someone that, hey, this is getting better, it always leads to better results.
• 0:20
  Welcome to the Growth Project, a podcast put out by Angelos.
• 0:25
  I'm doctor Gabby. Caveat is. And today I'm going to be joined by,
• 0:30
  a great local,
• 0:33
  business owner who works in the world, sports and athletics. Very excited to introduce him to all of our listeners.
• 0:41
  name is Adam Conley. Olusanya. Perfect. Got that. Okay.
• 0:46
  You're by arcade. Yes, but it depends on where I'm at.
• 0:49
  So some people say adekola. Some people say I de. If I'm fighting you, they'll say aka. So. Okay. Yes. All right. Well, thank you for being here. Thank you for making the time.
• 0:58
  I'm excited to go into this conversation. You have such a interesting backstory, and you're doing such great work. Thank you.
• 1:07
  student athletes, training.
• 1:09
  So really excited to get into it for our listeners. I'm sure we have some, you know, you, but you don't, walk us through how you got to where you're at today. Okay. It's quite a long story. So it depends on how much time we have today, but just, bring it back to the beginning. So I'm from Nigeria.
• 1:27
  I was born in America, but I was. I was born in America, but I was raised in a Nigerian home. Right? My house. You cannot tell that we are in America, right? Very traditional in the way that my parents raised me from speaking our language to the different characters. Then they try to believe in me. And so they always say in Nigeria that, you have three options engineer, doctor or lawyer, right?
• 1:45
  The standard very high. And so, you know, I grew up with parents who were, they always challenged me. You know, mentally, physically, spiritually, we believe in Christ. And so, you know, just to give you kind of an idea, every Sunday since maybe I was the age of 5 or 6, my dad would wake us up before church and he was run and run around the block and we would be.
• 2:07
  And it wasn't like your cheery, good leisure jog. I mean, it was intense, right? And my dad would make us sing military songs and we it got to the point where all the neighbors, they would know that, like our route and our routine, until they would come out and they were cheering for us. And if they feel bad for us.
• 2:21
  Or they were just, you know, motivated by what we were doing, they would try to give us water and my dad would snatch it. And, but dad would have a stick and everything, you know, he really just wanted to push us. You know, even, like, when I was younger, my dad, he would have us, like, box kids in the neighborhood.
• 2:32
  And when the kids didn't want to box with us, we had boxer dads and uncles and stuff. And so I feel like I grew up very, challenging. You know, sometimes in sports, they say, why do we practice so hard to the game won't be. And so I think I had a very challenging upbringing. And as a youth I didn't really appreciate those things.
• 2:47
  But now as a man, I'm I do that. Thank you. You know, and we and we have a great relationship and sometimes too. And we'll talk about this with parents like you have. It's a fine line between, you know, disciplining your child, loving your child, but also setting them on the right path. And, so, yeah, well, it really sounds like from a young age, you were pushed to your limit.
• 3:07
  Yeah. Yes, yes, for sure, for sure.
• 3:10
  Which leads into I think. And I'd be curious to hear from you. Yeah. Your company limit lifter. Yeah, yeah, for my head. Yeah. You were placed to your limits. Absolutely. All throughout your life. Yeah. So now helping, young athletes. Yeah. You know, lift their money. Yeah. Absolutely. Anywhere close to where that name came from?
• 3:31
  Yes. Yeah. So before we even got to Limit lifter. So all the discipline that and my dad, kind of tried to instill in us. And I'm the youngest of three boys, so I was always getting beat up from my brothers. Just like left and right. But, you know, it makes you tougher. But taking that mentality, and then I end up playing football at Furman.
• 3:46
  So when I graduate from high school, I had about 20 scholarships. And, I really I was committed UCF. And I really want to go there purely for fun. Not nothing motivational, nothing like good. Right. But then I had a crush on my parents. Furman offered me maybe like 2 or 3 weeks before, signing day and I, we came on a visit and we just talked about the, you know, the small school getting away from some of the crowds that I was hanging around in Florida and end up being one of the best decisions.
• 4:10
  And so, through my career at Furman didn't necessarily have the career that I wanted. I got I got hurt a lot. And that's really where kind of this is the inception of limbo, dude, even though at the time I didn't know. But I really I got injured. I think I had 34 times at Furman and I've never really been hurt before.
• 4:27
  And during that time, you know, I really struggled a lot with mental health, right? Hey, I'm here in South Carolina, but I'm an athlete my whole life and I played every sport, right? I was always active. And it's like, okay, well, I'm no longer an athlete. Like I'm I'm a shell of myself. I can't even do this. Like why they bring me up here and give me this money if I.
• 4:43
  So I dealt with a lot of, is it mental? I mean, you see, I don't that I would clinically say with depression at the time. But now looking back and working with so many people, I was pretty depressed. And so my career didn't really go the way I want. I still got to play. I still got to do some things, won a championship, but it wasn't what I wanted for myself.
• 5:00
  And so during that time, you know, actually noticed and a lot of my friends and a lot of my teammates, right, when you get hurt and it's like you're not being an athlete, it's like, who am I, right? The athletic identity. Yes, yes, yes. And it is such a big part of me. Yeah, yeah. You know, I see I'm actually with my son from an athlete, okay.
• 5:18
  Especially through an injury. Yeah. That is such a, process. I mean the rehab. Yeah. Yeah. But then the mental side of it. Absolutely. And a lot of people don't talk about it. He go to rehab you know. Hey we fix your ankle we fix your ACL. But nobody really talks about the mental struggles. And so when I was going through his mental struggles a lot a lot of missing pieces in between.
• 5:39
  But essentially after I graduate from Furman, I partner with a guy who started a company called Next Play, and it was made to help athletes transition from, hey, I've been an athlete my whole life. I've been playing sports. All my friends have come from here. What's next? Right. Because what you find is that a lot of athletes feel like they've missed out of.
• 5:54
  I've been at football. I've been at this. I've been at that. I haven't had the opportunity to go get a job interview. I haven't had the opportunity to go to job fair. And so a lot of these athletes, we feel like we're missing stuff. But when you actually think about the real world, people love to hire athletes. People love the the things that athletes go through that make them stronger.
• 6:09
  And so, long story short, this guy's name is karma. One of the smartest guys I know, especially in the tech world. But essentially, when we were studying and going through this thing called Next play, we found this term called identity foreclosure, which essentially. Right. If you think about your house, I'm sure you know this is right.
• 6:23
  But hey, one chapter of my life is over. What's next? Right? And a lot of people are confused with a chapter of your life being over versus your life being over. Right. And we were seeing this like in parents and and, and mom say, I've been a mom the last 18 or 20 years. My kids are going to college.
• 6:37
  A lot of times those people will be depressed. Even my mom struggled with this bad. But people understand because their identity is gone. And sometimes you see it in CEOs, right? I've been running these businesses. I've been juggling all these jobs now sort of my life slowed down, who am I? And so upon finding that term identity foreclosure, we started building this company and it went really, really well.
• 6:55
  And then Covid happened. And so essentially through that process and again, kind of dealing with depression during that time as well, we said, okay, you know what? So we kind of went our separate just because the company closed down. And then I said, hey, you know what? Instead of waiting for athletes to get to the end of their careers and trying to figure out what's next, how can we practice this?
• 7:12
  Like, just like medicine, right? Instead of waiting for you to have bad blood sugar. But what if I started helping you with your diet beforehand, right. And so the idea of lemon that just came from how can we help athletes take the, the success principles and the lessons from sports and apply it to our life? And instead of waiting for the end of their career, how can we teach them from the front end as they're going through it?
• 7:30
  Because sometimes to like, you know, looking in hindsight is one thing, but when you're learning as you're going, it's a little bit more powerful. So that's essentially where limit lifters came from, trying to help athletes on a front end identify that, hey, success principles are universal. What makes me better in sports is going to make me better in life.
• 7:45
  And relationships. Yeah, I love the the emphasis on preventative. Yes, absolutely. It's the same mentality I take. Yeah. Working with my athletes. You know, I did a lot of work. Student athlete well-being. Looking at depression rates with, collegiate athletes. The problem is we don't put an emphasis on. Yeah. Until they're depressed. Yeah, yeah.
• 8:12
  So then we're like, oh my gosh, how do I help you now. Yeah. What if we can help them before that. Yeah yeah yeah I think it's that point. And so hearing that that work is being done just really. Yeah. It inspires me.
• 8:25
  And hopefully it resonates with a lot of our listeners. Yeah, yeah. Don't wait until absolutely the world is crashing and burning.
• 8:32
  Yeah. It, early. So talk to me a little bit about where you're currently at with Limit Lifter. Again, local in Greenville. Yeah.
• 8:43
  What is it? What does it look like? Yeah. Currently look like man. God is good. Limit lifters. Is it soaring? You know, I can say with confidence that we are the best training facility, especially for sport.
• 8:55
  I mean, we have a lot of we have a lot of kids who they don't play sports, but they want to build healthy habits and their parents want them to, you know, build discipline and have a good body image and things like that. But we really specialize right now and building confidence at the end of the day, you know, some people, I mean, a lot of everyone comes in to get faster and stronger.
• 9:10
  But at the end of the day, my job as a coach is to build belief, right? Doesn't really matter how strong and fast and athletic you are if you don't believe in yourself. And so our job is to build belief in our athletes and even our clients. We train, you know, we train adults and stuff too. But the way that we do that or the tool that we use that is really through our sports training and so we always say there's three phases of development, right?
• 9:30
  There's the physical, there's a mental right. And then the spiritual and then also like the actual health, right. Nutrition. And so we've gotten to the point now where we use so much science and data, like everything we do is based off KPIs. We always say, if you're not tracking, then you're really just guessing. And especially with kids and people who have real goals, you don't want to just guess and hope you're doing the right exercise.
• 9:50
  You want to know for sure. And so whenever there's ambiguity, there's chaos, right? And so as long as we can build these certainties with our athletes and with our with our clients, everybody knows we're on the same page. So the way that we do that is when you come into our program, we do assessment for KPI from your speed, your flexibility, your injury risk.
• 10:06
  And some of these things might change depending on your sport. And some of these things are actually similar in most sports. Right. And then once we do your KPI based on an assessment, we'll hand you a piece of paper and say, hey, this is where you are, right? This is the standard. And this is especially for an athlete who's trying to track and go to college, because we've been able to basically take all the data over the last eight years.
• 10:22
  The data is from our own, athletes and the data from other athletes, around the world. And we've actually been able to reverse engineer, hey, if I'm a freshman and I want to go play at Clemson or whatever school, this is where I need to be right now, physically, right? Hey, as a sophomore, this is where I need to be here as a junior.
• 10:37
  This is where I need to be now. The skills training, right. We do do skills training as well. But our main focal point is, is fine tuning the body. Right. And so we've been able to actually predict what kid will run a 100 meter dash, will care to run the 400 meter like we've been able to get. The data is so fine tuned that we literally can identify where you are to the pinpoint precision, right?
• 10:56
  And just a physical standpoint, which is really important. And then we also have a mentorship program. So we have different. But the Drew's always give me books whenever I see
• 11:03
  him here I got a guide.
• 11:05
  There's not many people who read more books than me, but that guy, that guy reads. Right. And so then we have different mentorship courses, so we have different books.
• 11:11
  One of my favorite one is called Chop would carry water where basically. But essentially the goal behind is like, hey, there's a book that a lot of the main character in the books, and I deal with a lot of things that we as people go through or the athletes go through, and then we create our own curriculum. And so then the student athletes will have to take the lessons from the book and apply it into their life.
• 11:27
  Right? We don't really care about, hey, what happened on page 2 or 3? But it's like, hey, you know what? Let's just say the main character's dealing with jealousy right now with social media. Instagram athletes are seeing people getting offers. They're saying, hey, I'm better than this person, but they're playing. There's so much chaos that's happening. And so we'd like the kids to self-reflect.
• 11:42
  And so I ask them like, hey, are there been any times that you've ever dealt with jealousy where that jealousy coming from? A lot of times, you know, we experienced these feelings, we experienced these physical things. But a lot of time there's an underlying factor for it. And then you'll find out some stuff. Some kids, they're really just their teammate because they have jealousy of their sibling from a long time ago.
• 11:59
  And I mean, there's so much stuff that I'm finding out and it's like, you would you would never guess. I haven't had a girl one time who she had ACL, she had ACL surgery and the hospital we have a lot of partners. They can't. It's like, man, we just don't get she's just not coming in. We don't know what's happening.
• 12:12
  And we found out because as a lady, she said she feel like she's she should have beautiful legs. But every time she goes to rehab and she looks at the scars now she doesn't want to wear dresses. And I sure don't want to wear shorts. And so that mental aspect is what was actually determining the outcomes of her physical.
• 12:26
  Right. And so a lot again, we kind of mentioned it before, but a lot of people don't talk about how the mental affects the physical. So long story short, we've been we've been in all these different phases, and liminality has gone to a point where if you come into our building, you're gonna get better. What a I mean, what a great way to be able to produce out.
• 12:44
  Absolutely. Not only the fiscal but the mental. You absolutely like said spiritual as well. Those KPIs. Yeah. It sounds like there was so much. Yeah, I went into this. I can't and brain hurts that, to gather all that thing, and be able to predict. Yeah. What metrics are you. Yeah. Get to wherever it is.
• 13:07
  Yeah, I get to, Now, one thing to note is, you know, recent has, update in your life. Yeah. You become a new dad. Oh, yes. Yeah.
• 13:19
  And I think it's really fascinating to hear, you know, you've had limitless lifters for, a while, and then now you became a dad. Yeah. In fact, and being a business owner.
• 13:28
  Yeah, yeah. First of all, I like to say I think my son's the cutest child in the world. He's so. He's so. I mean, we've been blessed. Honestly. Good health. He's sleeping 11 hours a night. He's been doing that since for weeks. My mom was like, just wait, do you have another one? And I was like, right.
• 13:45
  But it's really it's really, I really had to get better at my time management. I feel like I'm a I'm a recovering workaholic. And so especially to build the company into the way that we've done it, you know, like, if you want to go fast, go by yourself. But if you want to go far, do with the team.
• 13:57
  And we have an amazing team. You know, one of the one of the biggest testament I can do, actually, on my team is that I don't have to work for six week. I do. My son was born and that that was awesome. I kept trying to grab the phone. I kept trying to go to the gym, but I could trust my staff.
• 14:08
  But I really have had to get better at my time management, you know? And, just balancing, you know, hey, and this is something that everyone goes through, right? Like, so my business. Right. Being a good husband, being a good father. But just, you know, I feel like my eyes have been open to what's really important in life.
• 14:25
  And I've always known that relationships were important, which is why we have our company. But being there for my son has been important. And when you really think about it, especially as parents, what they're always asking is, what can we do? What can we do? I mean, there's nothing you have to do. Just be there. And a lot of times being there and not saying anything and just observing and just being present is the most important thing you can do for your child.
• 14:43
  Or you know, your wife or your partner. And so he's still young, right? So it's not like a lot of adversity and stuff like that, but it's really opened my eyes to like, I really want to do this for him. And so and then taking the time to be home and do nothing like our world moves so fast.
• 14:56
  You can grab your phone, you can do this. There's always an opportunity. But how many times of people just sat there and did nothing I won't. Last time we talked to a baby, right? When was last time you had a conversation? I did a movie for it in business. Right. And so it's been really eye opening just to be still, with my son.
• 15:12
  You're hitting on one of the most important factors for mental rest and well-being. It's detachment. Yeah, yeah, that ability to separate. Absolutely. The busy right from the stress demands. But to your point, what we found through research is that people struggle to do that.
• 15:35
  Because, you know, like you said, the world doesn't stop.
• 15:38
  You have to be okay with prioritizing detachment to be present. For this matter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And people, you know, people understand, like, there's some tools that might be really good for you in this season, but they're not great for you in the next season. And so part of my drive right now, I tell you how I got brought up pretty challenging was no, don't be lazy.
• 16:01
  Hey, we're coming from we're an immigrant to Nigeria. You have to like, leave your mark and you have to work hard and you had to do that. So it was great, right? It was great in sports to use that kind of underdog approach. And it was great to always keep going and keep going. But in this season, my life that isn't served me right.
• 16:15
  And so now I need to be still right where I need to be patient, right where, hey, not every day is in me. Necessary a milestone, right? If you and especially you get the psychology you guys are always uncovering things from like the. I've heard from a psychologist before in my personal, therapist like, hey, everything has happened to you right now is from the first seven years of your life, right?
• 16:33
  So those skills that made me a great football player, those skills that made me a good businessman, they might not serve me as a husband, right? If I'm always impatient or try and get to the next thing, well, how does that work? When you and your wife are having a sensitive conversation, or when someone is talking about something that maybe you don't and it didn't necessarily affect you in the same way, but where's your empathy?
• 16:49
  And so starting to understand that, you know, if you want to be successful in life, you have to have different tools, right? And there's different times to use those things. And I feel like the best leaders, they know when and how to use a different tools at their disposal. Yeah, I'm hearing a lot of values, and a lot of variety in the values.
• 17:08
  And there is discipline. Yeah, patience. But there's also urgency. Yes. Yeah.
• 17:14
  Empathy. I completely agree. You cannot, deny the fact that in different seasons of your life. Yeah. You have your values. Yeah. Different areas. And you need to for success and. Yeah. Wellbeing. Now one facet of your life, you know, we've talked about limitless therapy.
• 17:38
  Yeah. About your family a little bit. You personally know, you also are pretty big and. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'd love to hear a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Some people think I'm too nice to fight, but I'll fight. Just depends on what side. You see what's going to pull out. I'm going to say, you know, if our listeners, if they're just hearing you talk, you know, about the work that you're doing.
• 18:01
  Yeah. The way you speak about your family. Well, what a nice like an empathetic. Yeah. Emotionally intelligent. And then you've got the I'll he's out there and. Yeah I'll go into that. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. And so so march the martial arts I mean it's, it's so fun and actually I enjoy it more than I enjoy football. For a lot of reasons.
• 18:24
  One, I feel like you're you're always learning, right. Like, you know, sports football. Basketball is different sports. They're actually. I thought they're a little bit they're finite. Right. As a receiver there's certain things I can do as a DB, but I am fighting like I mean, you and I can have the same coach for seven years and have complete different fight styles, right?
• 18:40
  I could fight this person and this works and I can fight this person and it doesn't work. Right. And so it's like you're really playing chess with not just your body but your emotions. Being able to stay calm in the midst of adversity. You want you want to face some adversity, go in the ring. And so I do practice my martial arts, but I'm I'm majority I'm mostly a kickboxer, more Tie fighter.
• 18:58
  So it's basically stand up striking. And so I've been doing that move for two to 6 or 7 years. And I've had a great I've had a great career title fights, big fights. Finding here locally had the opportunity to actually represent team USA in 2024. But unfortunately, because I had to keep my priorities straight with business and working this, I wasn't able to go, but I've been able, I've had some good results in fighting.
• 19:25
  And so, you know, fighting is great because when I'm in the ring, I'm not necessarily I mean, obviously, yes, there's someone trying to punch you and kick you, but my biggest fear every time is not being the best version of myself. Like, I can lose a fight, but if I really perform to the highest level, I'm cool. I've had some fights where I've knock somebody out and I was disappointed in myself because I felt like I wasn't the best version of me.
• 19:45
  And that's really the thing. That's a struggle that a lot of us have to deal with. And I think especially meant, am I good enough, right? And am I good enough to perform at what I know I can do? It's different when you're at practice or when no one's with you and the lighter and bright, but when there's thousands of people screaming and your opponent has a will of his own, right?
• 20:00
  He's not just like, oh, hey, AK can beat me up now. He wants to take, you know, he wants to take what you have and vice versa. So being able to stay calm in the midst of adversity, it's really helped me in other areas of life. I never would have thought like, hey, fighting is going to help me in the way I do business fighting, going to help me in the way that I react at home.
• 20:14
  Fighting is going to help me really, just to stay calm under pressure. That's, that's that's like the biggest thing. If you watch me fight, you're going to like, oh man, this guy has no emotions. Like, I'm just really just trying to keep myself calm and try to stay composed, especially as life throws so many different punches at us.
• 20:27
  Yeah, it is interesting because I think the stereotype around the fighter is that they're just these rage fuels. There are definitely there are definitely some rage filled fighters. I will say that for sure. It you know, I think that what I've seen and I'm new to the world. Yeah, me and I'm new to the world of, UFC, but, what I see is that the best fighters are very calming.
• 20:50
  Absolutely. Yeah. And control. Absolutely. So, yeah, it it is a skill.
• 20:56
  I've also seen that that moment when you're getting ready to go into the ring, that has got to be one of the most mentally demanding. Yes. Yeah. What goes through your mind? I'm getting ready. So my over the last three years, my fights, I've either been like championship fights or number one contender fights, and I've.
• 21:17
  I've really only fought against either champions or past either champions or number of contenders. Right. So all my fights have been like late at night like main event and stuff like that. I mean, so you're just sitting there all day and there's so much to it. There's weight cutting, but just how much the fight itself, like when I used to play football, I think it's almost at the top a little bit like I could, I could gain mentality, right?
• 21:36
  Like I might be scared or nervous, but you're my teammate. If you have heart, you have good energy and stuff like you might I might be able to borrow your energy. I, I that's one of the biggest, skills that you don't really talk about, right. The ability for people to borrow your energy. Right. Yeah. I'm scared or I'm scared or nervous, but you're not.
• 21:51
  And so now I borrow your confidence and fighting it all really happen like that, right? And so I used to listen to, like, a lot of, like, oh, rap music get me hype and stuff. But now if you come into a locker room, I'm listen to praise and worship. I'm on my knees. I'm praying. I'm just trying to find so much stillness.
• 22:04
  So that way I can actually be present in the moment, right when you just fill yourself with chaos or this or that, just to kind of block the noise or whatever, you're not really stepping into who you really are. And I think a lot of times the people we don't really face the man in the mirror, that's what that's what it is like, you know, in the face of me in the mirror.
• 22:17
  Like I watch fights where you see people lose, but they really lost themselves, right? They start to get tired. They start to get fearful. Then they start to act according to that which then led to their demise in the ring. Right. And so you it's the moment before the fight, right? You have a lot of nerves, a lot of anxiety.
• 22:33
  You're just waiting all night. You're watching your teammates fight. That's the hardest thing, watching your teammates, when your teammates fight on the same card as you because you're emotionally invested in that. And sometimes they win and it can give you a boost. Sometimes they lose. And so but trying not to carry the weight of their outcome, but yeah, the day of the fight, just trying to be as calm as possible.
• 22:52
  Stick to my routine. Right. And then when the fight happens, just let it loose and, let God take care of the result. Yeah. The pre performance routine. Yeah. I am says this a lot with any of the athletes. I man is, you know, game day and even the night before. Oh and what is your process.
• 23:11
  Yeah. If you don't have a process. Yeah. To set you up for success. Yeah. You're preparing to fail. Yeah. Yeah. And people don't understand, I mean, fighting is different. Like, take the weight cut. The weakest part, the worst part, because you really are fighting yourself like you're hurt or you stay disciplined in the wake. I don't know how many people know about weight, coach, but essentially a lot of time I'm trying to give you a quick synopsis.
• 23:34
  A lot, a lot of times people. So, for instance, I walk around 195 pounds, but I find as low as 167 and yeah, and so it's just a manipulation of water. So carbs and everything like that. So you don't actually lose that weight. Like for instance, my next fight me at 179. So I'm going to be walking the next six weeks, I'll be walking around like I won 90.
• 23:54
  So. Right. Do I lose 11 pounds a day of the fight? No. Right. You manipulate the water and carbs, but then you get back to the fight and you'll be back to your normal weight. Right? But even just like being disciplined and then also you're still training, but you're not really eating. So essentially you eliminate salt, you eliminate calves from your diet.
• 24:09
  Right? So no seasoning, right? No bread, no rice and all the things that you like right now, you can you can do some carbs if you time it up with your training and things like that. But essentially you're on a very restrictive diet, right? So you're battling that fatigue. And then even for me, man, I'll be training the kids.
• 24:23
  And I like when I when the kids know when I fight week. You got one time for me to tell you. If I had to repeat myself, just forget about it, dude, just I just this guy. Yeah. And so. But yeah, you're battling with that, like, you know, I remember I had a fight. Oh my God, my friends that came over there.
• 24:36
  Ian Chinese food there in Skittles and peace. They didn't even care. But again, I signed up for it. Right. And so you're going through that process pretty much like, you know, the last week or so, you know, getting your diet down. And then the actual weight cut is when you actually sit in a sauna or you sit in a bat and, a salt bath and you actually, like, lose the water.
• 24:56
  Wait, it's that's actually what the cutting is. And so, like, my last fight, I think I woke up the day of the day of weigh ins at 179 or 178, and I had to cut 78 pound for my championship fight. And it's brutal. You literally just sit and you sit in the water bath for 15 minutes or so.
• 25:09
  You wrap yourself in a blanket like a burrito, and you just go layer and you just, you just lose. What have you ever sweat 8 pounds laying down? Want people to understand how hard that is? So to do that, the night before, then the weigh in and then the fight, the urge to eat all the junk food in the world and then to go fight the next day, you know, it's a lot.
• 25:25
  And even talking about sports, I call you like, yeah, I'm pretty lean guy like walk around like probably 7 to 8% body fat. And usually when I fight I'm usually got 3 or 4, which is not healthy, by the way. I don't recommend it. But even you get body dysmorphia. You look Leni, look cut, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, hold on, what is this?
• 25:42
  Right? And so even like, man, me and my wife been talking a lot about this because, you know, especially having kids pregnancy in different things like that, you don't always look how you used to look. But there is a lot of there's a lot of factors. You have to deal with psychology, some of them before the fight, some of them after the fight.
• 25:55
  Right. In a similar vein, I have a lot of friends who. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Seeing them go through prep. Yeah. The cuts. And then following through with like a bowl game. Yeah. All that taken care of us. Yep yep yep. And then you don't realize like when you are putting your body through that much stress.
• 26:21
  Stress there's this not only is it hard on you mentally and physically, but I mean your hormones, cortisol. Yeah. Skyrocketed. And it's a tough thing to do. So the the grit of that. Yeah. Is. Yeah. Next level. Yeah. For a lot of people I mean we always try to coach people like hey like the weight cuts I mean it's all hard, but the weight cuts the hard part, the fights, the fun part is the reward.
• 26:47
  Right? A lot of times you'll hear people say, you got to make somebody pay for that. Wake up. So when you go in the ring, you take it out on them. Yeah, but man, I honestly, I like to do hard things. So part of the reason I like to fight is because most people are not willing to wake up, get in the ring and fight in front of thousands of people.
• 27:01
  Right. And then put your in losses and fighting is a little bit more personal. Right. Because I might we might have a football game. We all lose together. Still sting still hurt, still don't bring a lot of emotion. But when you lose in the ring like it's there's no blame. I mean, some people like to blame, but like it's just you and there, you know.
• 27:17
  And so it, it's, it's a, it's a little bit different. But I'm thankful I haven't got hurt. And some people get hurt and I've hurt some people, you know, in the ring physically. And so, it's a different sport. It's a fun sport. I don't really know how many more fights I have left. I talked to my wife about that, but, but I, I enjoy to do it.
• 27:36
  Yeah. It's, an interesting area to be in, and I'm sure you've learned it sounds like you've learned a lot. Yeah, absolutely. In terms of getting that that calmness. Right. Yeah. Those high pressure situations.
• 27:51
  my tie in to this is now you're working with young. Yeah. Athletes. Yeah primarily I mean you still work but you train adults and things to you.
• 27:59
  But yeah a big portion of your client base. Yeah. So talk to me a little bit about what principles you are instilling in those athletes and how that shows up. In your training session. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm a pretty chill guy. The only time I try, I mean, different different times call for different tools.
• 28:22
  Right. But really like you can ask my kids the then I miss them makes me upset the most. Obviously pissed me off the most is when they quit because quitting doesn't happen in isolation. Quitting is is something that if you do it once, it's going to bleed into other things. And I feel like right now we live in a society where it's very easy to quit.
• 28:39
  And what I mean by that is especially like with social media and dopamine, right? Hey, I don't like what you say. Unfollow you. I don't like what you say. I'm gonna leave the group chat. Like, even like, I feel like a lot of people are avoiding hard conversation. And so when I see kids quit, maybe something was difficult.
• 28:53
  A lot of times you see that they just don't understand how to do it. They don't get on the first try, so they stop that. To me, it's like I see beyond what's happening right now in the exercise, right? I'm like, no, you're showing me that when things get challenging or tough or when you face adversity, you quit.
• 29:04
  But guess what? Whether you play sports or not, relationships are difficult, right? There's crucial conversation you might need to have with your boss. This crucial conversation you might have to have with your parents. Right. And if you build the habit of quitting, you're not going to all of a sudden be like, okay, well, I'm not going to quit now.
• 29:17
  And so when kids quit, that's one of my biggest pet peeves. And so I'm a real stickler for that, right? Even let's say if it's I say it's a ten yard sprint, if you stop a nine and a half yards, make you take your butt back, do it all over again. Right? And so we are big again. We're always trying to teach a life lesson.
• 29:33
  So, I, one of our biggest things is not quitting, right? Finishing what you started. And then also just having fun, too. A lot of kids are having fun. There's a lot there's a lot of pressure for everybody to go to the NBA or WNBA or to go to college and go D1. And like, one of the things I wrote when I first started, I know everyone's going to college, everyone's.
• 29:51
  But I really, you know, there might be a girl that I'm training that, you know, maybe before she got to us, she she might not have really played on her high school team, but taken a girl from. Hey, I've never played or not never played, but, hey, I'm just going to be on the bench to. Hey, you know, my senior year, I was able to hit a game winning shot or I was able to be a contributor.
• 30:07
  That's a that's a big deal because it doesn't end with sports, right? This is just a small step along the way. And so getting kids understand that being the you want to train to be the best, but being being the best isn't always the indicator of your success. Right? There's a lot that happens with the journey. If I prepare like I'm the best.
• 30:25
  So we train every athlete like they're going to play in college. Not necessary, because I really I mean, I do want them to play in college, but not because like that's the end goal. But if you train like the best along the way, the things you'll learn will carry you through in life. And so just trying to get that to our kids and just, you know, for them to have fun, man, because there's so much pressure now with social media and every day you get online, this kid got recruited.
• 30:44
  And every day you go online, this kid's ranked top ten. I mean, you got top ten, you got top ten rankings for fourth graders who care about that. Like puberty. Sometimes there's puberty, right. And so there's a lot of there's a lot of thing, there's a lot of damage. I think that happens society. So my job is really to protect their mental.
• 30:58
  And so again, making sure they work through adversity. Also making sure they have fun and just teach them life skills along the way. That comes in the training room. Yeah. The, that piece, the pressure. Yeah. Young athletes are crazy. It's no different than it was. Yeah. Even 20 years ago. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Social media is one of the recruiting process has become crazy.
• 31:20
  You know, freshmen who are being recruited. Yeah, yeah, being recruited in, you know, verbally committing. Yeah. Yeah. That is. Yeah. I mean, that is. Doesn't make any sense. But it is a part of the world we live in now. So the fact that you are taking this approach of like, yeah, yeah, it is so crucial, and needed for our young needs.
• 31:46
  So the programing piece. Yeah. Drew's son comes to you. Yes it does. I've heard just great things about the program. You do. And it comes from a very knowledgeable background. Yeah. Exercise physiology. Yes. So can you walk us through like how do you program. Yeah. Different ages. Yeah. Different weights, different sport. Yeah. Yeah. So the first thing I'll say is that there's many ways to skin the cat.
• 32:15
  Right. The results speak for itself. And over the last six years we've had over 150 athletes go to college from SEC to d D1. Like we've helped a lot. So because of the results, I know what we're doing is working. But for a lot of people, there's a lot of different ways to train. And what works for you might not work for this person.
• 32:33
  Right. And so we always start with our KPIs. We're always and an assessment. It just makes sense. Let me find out where you are first okay. And then knowing what we know with the data okay this might be where you need to get to. But what is actually what is what needs to be optimizing? Okay. So when the kids come in we'll look at them.
• 32:49
  All right. The things I always look through is what are the demands of your sport. Right. There is now this word sports specific gets thrown around a lot. Would saying not saying that's not true, but I don't think it has as much merit as people think because really, if you're under the age of 18 and you're in high school, if you get more athletic, stronger, more powerful, faster is going to make you better in your sport.
• 33:08
  That's kind of the first piece, right? In general preparedness, right? If I have a weak athlete, whether they play soccer, then you get stronger, right? And so the first thing to look at with individual is their their injury risk, okay. Because no matter how strong you are and how fast or if you're hurt, you can't contribute right in the best ability is availability, right.
• 33:25
  And we always say we'd rather you be 100% healthy and 80% fit, then 100% for an 80% healthy, right? And if people don't understand, like my job is not necessarily to make you stronger and faster, my job is for you to be healthy, to be able to perform right, I have to take care of your body and your mental.
• 33:39
  And same thing with the mindset, right? You might be 100%, but if every time you get nervous when your coach talk like that's also part of it too. But to answer your question. So we always start off with what are the risks of the sport? Where is this athlete? Individualized programing is more important than sports specific programing, right.
• 33:53
  And so once we look at where the gaps are we're always going to try to improve, their speed. Right. Their strength. And how I always look at it is there is a general timeline, right. Also to look like are they in season or in the offseason. Right. There's a lot of there's a lot of components to how you train and how I train you between February and April might be different than how I train in the summer.
• 34:12
  So again, so there's a lot of different moving parts, but at the end of the day, every athlete needs to get stronger, every athlete to get faster, every actor needs to get more explosive, and every athlete needs to have an awareness of their body. That's another thing I think a lot of kids are missing. I don't know if his kids are on their phones all day.
• 34:25
  I don't really know what it is, but there's not a lot of body awareness. If I can't tell my body, if I can't tell my body what to do and have it do it when I want to do it, that's when injuries happen, right? When I'm trying to react to somebody moving and stuff like that. And so we work on a lot of proprioception, but we work everything from the ground up, right?
• 34:41
  If my feet are messed up, it's only problems. The knees and the problems in the hips, which will travel up the body. So kind of a varied and varied answer to what you're saying. But again, like, it just really just depends on the athlete. But in general, speed, strength, injury prevention are always going to be the first things that we look at to help an athlete grow.
• 35:00
  So let's say I bring my kid up to your facility. Yeah, I'm wanting to get them started. Yeah. The first thing you do is take them through an individualized. Yes, yes. Yep. Yeah. From that point then, you you create the individualized plan. Yep. Are all of my kids training sessions and one on one are they group based off of similar, like, KPI metrics?
• 35:29
  Yeah. Yep. So yes. So a couple a couple different possibilities and sometimes two. So when we do the assessment I'll make a recommendation. Right. So you might let's just say you might be really athletic, but you really struggle with confidence. It might not make sense to throw you in a group with a bunch of other kids, even though from a physical standpoint, you can handle it, right?
• 35:45
  So when we do our KPIs, we'll make our suggestions. Hey, based off this, we think you should do all one on ones based off this. Hey, you can do all group. Hey, based off this, you should do a one on one. So our most popular pivot a hybrid program. Because I really believe that individual attention is great, right?
• 35:58
  I need to be able to look at you and just work on what you need. But, you cannot replace competition. I don't care what you say. Like, how what do you think you need an individual standpoint. Everything is a competition right now, right? And if I don't know how to turn that competitor on, it's not going to work.
• 36:12
  Right? So my my, my always recommendation is to do both one on one and group. And then we will do your will make it customized workouts based off what we find the KPI. And then we'll retest you in 3 to 4 months. And then there's some improvements here. So when you first came in flexibility might have been the biggest thing.
• 36:28
  But hey, three and four months later, if we were able to work on that enough doesn't mean we're going to abandon it. But now there might be something else that we need to work on. Yeah, it's, it's a really unique. Yeah. That you go through what I've seen in a lot of, training facilities as you go in.
• 36:44
  Yeah. Bring your kid in. Yeah. And it's like, great. We'll get them in their age group. Yeah.
• 36:50
  But by the time, like, your set up is very. Yeah, yeah, it's much more individualized. Yeah. But then there's still this ability to component that. Yes. Training. Yeah. Very unique. So I heard you talking to drew when you walked in his I'm kind of hitting.
• 37:08
  Oh yeah. Yeah. Can you explain to our listener what benchmarks are primarily because from my background in performance psychology,
• 37:18
  need motivational principles. Yeah absolutely. Process oriented short term goal. Especially for young athletes to really keep them motivated to increase it. Absolutely. It sounds like that's what those benchmarks. Yeah yeah yeah. So the benchmarks do a couple of things.
• 37:34
  One they keep us honest as coaches. Right. You're going to come in, you're going to pay a certain amount of money. You want to know that it works. Right. And it's kind of like a hey, when you look at these benchmarks from August 1st and then in December, if they got better, you know, you got your money's worth.
• 37:46
  But for the kid, it's so important because, I feel like a lot of kids just they don't believe in themselves. Right. And it's easy to believe in yourself when things are going well. But how about when you're facing that challenge? And so the cool thing about the KPIs and we keep it all, we have all the files.
• 37:59
  So you can you can pop at any time. The cool thing is that, you know, we might have been doing this lift or whatever and then, okay, hey, let's go, let's go do your broad jump. Right. And you brought them six inches higher than what it was or farther than what it was three months ago. Well, guess what you're like.
• 38:12
  Oh, snap, I'm getting better. And everyone knows. And sports confidence is everything, right? If I know that I'm getting better in the weight room, I now know that I'm going to be better on the field. I always do a good job of trying to help parents and kids understand, okay, hey, because you're getting better. This is what you can expect, right?
• 38:27
  So broad jump has a strong correlation, with how fast you are in your first 3 to 5 steps. Right. So Nate's a receiver. Hey, Nate. Essential items getting better. You can anticipate that you'll be better off the line as a receiver when you're attacking a defender. And because you're gonna be faster off the line, it gives you more options.
• 38:43
  Right. And so even his bench press went up. And that's something that Nate really excited about. A boy like every boy loves the bench press. Somebody I do like Ben to me. Never goes away. No it doesn't. And honestly, when you look at all the metrics, I'm not saying it's not important. It's definitely important, but it's not the most important.
• 38:58
  But every coach can be bench. Coach. Can we bench? I'm like, dude, no, we don't need a bench today. But again, being able to see your numbers go, I don't care who it is in the world. I don't care if they're an athlete at
• 39:09
  everyone wants progress, everyone wants progress. And sometimes why relationships are hard to. Especially when you're in that weird line of like, let's say you're dating somebody you don't know if you can get made or what if you don't know?
• 39:18
  There's been progress is being made again, wherever there's ambiguity, this chaos. But when I can streamline everything and show someone that, hey, this is getting better, it always leads to better results.
• 39:27
  So essentially we have 15 different KPIs we can take, but just depending on the sport, some of them might change. But there's six generic KPIs that we take.
• 39:34
  So the ten yard dash, which is your ability to go from 0 to 10, right. Your initial speed, five and a ten, which is basically your ability to pick up momentum and they keep running. So how much space, how much momentum can you pick up in five yards? Your broad jump, your vertical jump, your ability to jump up high, your ability to jump out bench press and squat.
• 39:51
  Right. And then you also do the five, ten, five which is your lateral agility. But some sports my friends instance, your golfer might not need your five, ten, five. But the first six I mentioned we always do that no matter what the athlete is or what sport is, because those are those are going to correspond to every single sport.
• 40:04
  Yeah. It's it is. Yeah. So true that we all want to see progress. Absolutely. What I love those in your explanation. It's not only look you went from you know this number to this number. Yeah. And here's how this translates. Absolutely on field. Yeah. Or on court. And that's what keeps kids interest.
• 40:28
  Absolutely. No I mean they care about the numbers. Yeah. They also want to know well what does this do for me. Who am I getting better. That I mean we ask yourself that question I am I getting better psychologist. Am I getting better at podcast. Am I getting better at speaking like we all want to make progress? Like.
• 40:42
  And when you're making progress, you're more likely to stay in it when you're not making progress. That's a lot of times where people quit. I feel like I'm in this relationship every time I talk to my boyfriend girlfriend, they don't listen. That's not progress. Therefore, you want to exit like that. That's what people are. Understand? At the end of the day, we're all chasing the same stuff.
• 40:57
  But if you can have certainties, that's where people feel more confident, right? Well, I know we're we're getting close to our, our time here. It's been a really great conversation. The last area I wanted to touch on is,
• 41:11
  you know, this summer camp that we're going to be. Yes. Very excited. Really excited about it. Yeah. First conversation.
• 41:17
  Yeah. All fired up.
• 41:18
  is really going to be an opportunity for our athletes to come in to limit lectures, get a real taste of your training. Absolutely. And then also get a sprinkle of the mental. Absolutely. Sport psychology. Yep.
• 41:31
  you know, this summer camp, talk to us a little bit about how it came about.
• 41:35
  And then we'll kind of go into what to expect on that. Yeah. Yep. Everything starts with relationship. So we also have in-house DT by the way, which is, which is it's been a great, flash point performance, Matt Hannan and his team. And so basically, I think you I don't know why you went in there, but you I don't know if you went in there, you had a conversation, but Matt's always like, hey, I met this person at the gas station.
• 41:57
  You should talk to him. I'm like, okay. And so he's always, like, sending people and stuff like that. He told me about you and how you're working. And he was like, so he didn't mention campus at first. He was just mentioning a sports like, college sports psychologist. And then he was like, campus. I was like, campus. I like me, and you're like this.
• 42:11
  A matter of fact, people don't know this. But 4 or 5 years ago, when I first started working with Nate, I wanted to go to I want to be a sports psychologist. It was like a pride thing. I want to be the only person who is certified in strength training and, sports psychology. And drew is like, nah, you don't need to go.
• 42:24
  And it was, it was, it was. I'm happy that he told me that. But long story, short mention and post mention to you. And so then I was like, you know, I'm so take a leap of faith. I'm gonna call her. And I called you. We had a great initial conversation, and, we shared a lot of the same.
• 42:37
  I feel like core principles and mindset, I mean, understanding that just how sports psychology plays a role in the in your sports and how vice versa, how sports or your physical preparation in your body plays a part in your mental. And so just us talking and being like minded, you know, drew kind of brought about this. And the biggest thing I loved about what you guys do, and especially your conversation, is I this is a lot of people don't understand.
• 42:58
  And I hope these kids really take advantage of that. What you guys do is so awesome, but you don't typically get access to this at the local level, right? Professional setting, you know, or the college setting. But you don't really get at the high school level. And guess what we talked about before prevention. Why you don't have to wait.
• 43:13
  If we can help these kids right now, it'll really help them. And so after our conversation, I got fired up as well. And so when people come to this program, they can expect a couple of things when expert training. Right? We're going to be training you for about 60 or 75 minutes, taking you through kind of a little bit of a taste of a level that there's work out.
• 43:28
  We'll work on speed, we'll work on strength or off on injury prevention, and then we'll let the masters talk and we'll we'll give you guys an opportunity. Another an hour and a half to 90 minutes. Of you guys talking about different tangible skills, that's what I'm really excited about. And hopefully we'll talk more about that on this podcast.
• 43:44
  But they're going to people are going to walk away not only feeling better and getting faster and stronger, but they're going to have tangible skills to attack life. That's what I'm excited about. Yes. And on on our in this tangible skills are so crucial because I can sit here and and talk to you about confidence building. Yeah. Or regulating their emotions.
• 44:04
  But putting that into practice. Yeah, is really where I like to think. Yeah, yeah. Because you're just telling them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, how do I put this into practice? Yeah, we'll be doing a lot of interactive, trainings on the mental side. Yeah. Well, Yeah. Putting them through, like, high pressure. Yeah. And how do you integrate?
• 44:31
  Breathing techniques. Or mindfulness. So I'm really excited. Yeah. And the dates for that is going to be in June. Yes. Yeah. I think we solidified today. Yeah June 16th to June 18th. But I think that's a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And if I remember correctly, I think we're gonna be going from a, oh I think it's gonna be from 9 to 12 or 10 to 1.
• 44:54
  But we will confirm that as we send that out. But it'll be midday. We've got a three hour camp. So come ready to work. Come ready to learn. And I think it's going to be a great experience for everybody who's involved. Yeah, we're excited about it. And there's more details to come. Yeah. Keep an eye out for that.
• 45:08
  If you have kids that are interested in having them join this camp.
• 45:12
  to to close it out here, just, a final question, like, what is what's next for you? You and limit lectures? Yeah. There's a lot of stuff that, I'm going to we're trying to do some expansions. We're trying to get a new facility.
• 45:28
  But we we really want to be a hub of good information for people in the community, whether it's training, whether it's being able to link people to sports psychologists or pets. We want people to be able to trust that when they come to us, they're going to get better, whether it's through our hands or through people that we know are connecting.
• 45:43
  But the most important thing I want you to know our hearts. Okay? At the end of the day, we really do care. And like any one of my coaches, can have the same podcast with you. And every loss of my principles. But let me know if this was really built off this principle that comes from the Bible.
• 45:55
  It comes in the book of Proverbs that teach a child in the way they should go, and as they get older, they'll never depart. And that's what preventative medicine and preventative techniques and preventative, whatever you want to call it, come from, right? We want to make sure that these kids are set up for a life of success in sports and business, in relationships.
• 46:11
  Right. That takes work to and, when people come to live matters, there will be no limits. That's where that name came from. And, we just want to help people unveil the veil of life and just find what's best for them. Yeah, that's that's great. And and helping our listeners get in touch with you. Yeah. Or, find you.
• 46:28
  Yeah. Social media. Yep. Yeah. So our website is easy limit lifters.com. You can always submit an inquiry and, they'll get to our team and we'll get back to you. If you want to watch a lot of the stuff that we do, my personal Instagram is aka the limit lifter and the limit of their pages just limit lifters.
• 46:45
  And so we post a lot of content from the things we talk about, post a lot of content from actual drills and exercises you're doing and with the kids are doing. And so if you just go on there, you look at our reviews, you'll see that this this is the best place to train. You know, there's other places that are great, but there's not a lot of places that can guarantee your success.
• 47:01
  And we can attest to that. Yeah. It is and it's the best. Yeah. The best place if you're looking for somebody to to your dad. Yeah. Not only for the physical but the mental. Yeah. And highly support all the work for parents. You're welcome to. You guys need to train too. I'll tell you. I'll tell you this when your child sees you training and taking care of your body and practicing what you're preaching, that is the biggest influence.
• 47:22
  Because a lot of these kids, let's just say you come in twice a week, that's two hours out of the week. A lot of time they're with you, right? They're listening to you. And a lot of times too, I've seen with parents not to go on a tangent, but if I'm yelling at you to work hard and do this and do this, but then you're not doing it, you know it.
• 47:37
  Even the message doesn't hit the same. That's part of the reason why I fight, right? Everything that I'm preaching to the kid, I do the same workout. Sometimes I jump in the workout and show the kids who's boss. But when the kids see me compete like, oh, wow, like this guy, right? It's not like a guy. A coach is 200 pounds trying to teach them on speed, right?
• 47:51
  Right. We're practicing what we preach. So at the end of the day, that's the biggest thing you can do for your kids, right? They'll do what they see, not what they what not what they hear. It is. And it's so true. Well, thank you so much. Absolutely, for being here, being on the podcast, we'll be sure to link all of the, the links to your website.
• 48:08
  Yeah. And pages for any of our listeners who are interested to find out more information. And please stay tuned for further updates on the summer camp. Yeah, yeah, look forward to, seeing you all again on the next great Project podcast.
• 48:24
  Thank you.