Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Dirk Durham and this week I have a guest
Speaker 1: who is someone I've been following on Instagram for years.
Speaker 1: He's a motivational speaker and his attitude on life is contagious.
Speaker 1: Anytime I start thinking that I cannot physically do something,
Speaker 1: my mind drifts to Sydney and I'm motivated to try harder.
Speaker 1: Sidney Smith, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2: Hey Derk, thank you so much. This is exciting. I've
Speaker 2: been following you for a long time too, so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and you motivate me. Oh that's that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Man, that's I don't know, I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: even know how that's possible.
Speaker 2: But that's one thing. You never know who you're motivating.
Speaker 2: So it's important always share your story because well, person
Speaker 2: told me your story maybe another person's survival guide. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that's true. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I had I had someone tell me that years ago.
Speaker 1: They're like, there's someone out there that you maybe you
Speaker 1: barely even know them, but you've impacted their life somehow,
Speaker 1: some way, just even by meeting them, greeting them and
Speaker 1: having a simple conversation, you've probably impacted someone's life to
Speaker 1: where they think about that moment or that that whatever
Speaker 1: it was that you told them or the conversation or
Speaker 1: whatever it was, they think about that a lot, and
Speaker 1: that gives them a reason. So yeah, that's I think
Speaker 1: we kind of all get kind of muddled down in
Speaker 1: our own little bs of our daily lives, and we
Speaker 1: kind of like forget about those kind of things. But
Speaker 1: but then I start thinking, like you know, all the
Speaker 1: little things like when I'm feeling down in the dumps
Speaker 1: or whatever, I start thinking about the things that someone
Speaker 1: or something has happened. That that's that's makes me like
Speaker 1: shake it off or whatever.
Speaker 2: So oh yeah, no, I've had that, like even years
Speaker 2: and years, Like I'll speak out of school and they'll
Speaker 2: be like five or six years later, you know, they're
Speaker 2: all grown up with two kids, and they told me, say,
Speaker 2: I remember when you spoke at our middle school and
Speaker 2: you I just in this story and this and this
Speaker 2: really changed my life. Here. I was like, I had
Speaker 2: no idea. I had no idea. You can make impacts
Speaker 2: on people's lives. So that's that's very true. It could
Speaker 2: be infectious.
Speaker 1: So we'll good, that's incredible, So tell tell our listeners. Uh, tell,
Speaker 1: take us down the path of your story of how
Speaker 1: you even became a motivational speaker.
Speaker 2: Well, it's something fairly newish, like it kind of fell
Speaker 2: into my lap. When I was in college, I had
Speaker 2: to take one elective course that you know, just to pass,
Speaker 2: you know, and to get my degree, and so I
Speaker 2: had to pick some course out there, and I chose
Speaker 2: public speaking because they said that was the easiest. And
Speaker 2: I had straight a's through college except for one class,
Speaker 2: and it was freaking public speaking. Because I'm like, I
Speaker 2: hate public speaking. Everyone says it was easy, but I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but you got to do something I absolutely hate, you know.
Speaker 2: I hate talking in church, I hate speaking in front
Speaker 2: of people. And so I ended up getting like a
Speaker 2: C in that class. But it's still it's still better
Speaker 2: to me. But what ended up happening is is, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I never I said I'll never speak again.
Speaker 2: This is, you know, dumb. I'm glad I got that
Speaker 2: off my list. It was just to get credit for
Speaker 2: a class. And then turns out that in twenty fifteen
Speaker 2: I had my legs amputated due to complications to a
Speaker 2: disease I was born with called Charco Marie Tooth and
Speaker 2: just a backstory with that. You know, it's it's something
Speaker 2: that's a progressive muscular distripty, something I gained genetically sometime
Speaker 2: down the road, and it progressed heavily in deforming my
Speaker 2: feet to the point where I couldn't function. Then I
Speaker 2: couldn't do the things I love, such as hunting and fishing,
Speaker 2: hiking and all that stuff. And then when I hit
Speaker 2: about thirty three, doctors kind of gave me an ultimatum saying,
Speaker 2: you know, we coul get a wheelchair or we could
Speaker 2: try you know, amputation and see what prosthetics will do.
Speaker 2: So in twenty fifteen, I did this surgery, and you know,
Speaker 2: it was hard, you know, changed my life. Obviously, it
Speaker 2: was a big decision, But in the long run, it
Speaker 2: was the best decision I've ever made because I've had
Speaker 2: so many amazing things happen in my life that's blessed
Speaker 2: me and my family and has taught me things about
Speaker 2: you know, gratitude and things to be grateful for and
Speaker 2: how you know, God gives us certain trials in life
Speaker 2: to make a stronger individuals and purpose to help other
Speaker 2: people that are also struggling and to be the example
Speaker 2: to others. And so yeah, I just caught the fire
Speaker 2: after that point. And someone suggested that I speak to
Speaker 2: a group of cub Scouts and telling my story. And
Speaker 2: I said, okay, I'll talk to these you know, ten
Speaker 2: year old boys and telling my story and the challenges
Speaker 2: that I've overcame and the things that I've accomplished. And
Speaker 2: it felt good. And next thing, I know, you know,
Speaker 2: a couple of schools started reaching out and and then
Speaker 2: before you know it, I started going, you know, traveling
Speaker 2: all over the country. It's not something I do full time.
Speaker 2: I have a nine to five. It's just something I
Speaker 2: enjoy doing. And uh, it's it's been a blessing in
Speaker 2: my life to share my story. So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1: Man, that's awesome to Probably one of the hardest things
Speaker 1: of that whole story is back to what you were
Speaker 1: saying about public speaking. I mean, I think for a
Speaker 1: lot of us that's really hard. I know for me,
Speaker 1: I struggle public speaking too. I get nervous and I'm
Speaker 1: always always my worst critic, of course, but it's it's great,
Speaker 1: like you're like overcoming a lot of hurdles a lot
Speaker 1: of us have on a daily basis, right, you know,
Speaker 1: back to when you had to have your legs amputated.
Speaker 1: I mean that, like that whole process has got to
Speaker 1: be like so.
Speaker 2: Impactful. It's not just like, oh I just cut off
Speaker 2: a hangnail. This is something that's.
Speaker 1: Like like just the healing time of becoming to where
Speaker 1: you know you're where you were amputated, to get that
Speaker 1: to heal and to be like not painful all the time,
Speaker 1: and then to try to like dig out of the
Speaker 1: there's got to be some depths of depths of despair
Speaker 1: there too, Right, how did how do you find how
Speaker 1: did you find your way out of such a dark
Speaker 1: place and into the light after that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you nol that it it's not it takes time.
Speaker 2: It's not like I woke up out of the hospital
Speaker 2: bed and been like, okay, I'm I'm ready to to
Speaker 2: to go kill an elk or do an ironman or
Speaker 2: something like that. It it at first, it was actually
Speaker 2: really difficult to the especially the day of the surgery,
Speaker 2: to wake up. And I remember I was in the
Speaker 2: hospital bed and I looked themder the sheets, and you know,
Speaker 2: sure enough I knew this day was coming. And it
Speaker 2: was always kind of a surreal moment, but to actually
Speaker 2: see gone it was it was hard. You know, there
Speaker 2: was tears in the hospital bed and knowing that, you know,
Speaker 2: I won't be able to feel cold grass and the
Speaker 2: sand beneath my pose, and and you know, the fear
Speaker 2: of the unknown, like am I gonna do activities such
Speaker 2: as hunting and fishing and the things I love, play
Speaker 2: with my kids, keep a job. And then my wife
Speaker 2: came into the hospital room, and you know, I'm still
Speaker 2: down on myself, and I'm telling her, you know, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: this is now a burden on you. I was just thinking,
Speaker 2: you know, you, you might as well just go ahead
Speaker 2: and leave me, honey. I totally won't judge you for that,
Speaker 2: And she says, you know I could, but the doctor
Speaker 2: gave us this handicapped parking pass and now that, uh,
Speaker 2: we can get excellent parking at Walmart. I don't see
Speaker 2: any reason why I would leave you. So, uh, there's
Speaker 2: there's a there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2: But that's back to your back to your question, where
Speaker 2: do you find, you know, to get out of the
Speaker 2: dooms of stuff like that? Uh, you know, for me,
Speaker 2: it it was hard to accept the fact that life
Speaker 2: is going to be harder at first, and I just overall,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be a kind person, and ultimately I
Speaker 2: felt guilty that I was a burden to everybody, and so,
Speaker 2: you know, the thoughts of a suicide came in pretty
Speaker 2: heavy towards at the beginning. But then, you know something
Speaker 2: that I with this disease. I've always felt like life
Speaker 2: is not fair, but it's just the way it is,
Speaker 2: and you know, you have to live with that. And
Speaker 2: for me, I've thought, you know, maybe this, you know,
Speaker 2: why did God give me this challenge? And you know
Speaker 2: it's not fair, but you know, I still have to
Speaker 2: live with it, and I have to have a positive attitude.
Speaker 2: And when I was thinking of suicide and you know,
Speaker 2: all these awful thoughts, I still had a young family
Speaker 2: at the time, and I had a little daughter. She's
Speaker 2: now ten years old, but she was just learning how
Speaker 2: to walk, and ironically we're learning to walk together. Oh wow.
Speaker 2: And I just remember learning to walk with my prosthetics
Speaker 2: and she's learning to walk at the same time. It
Speaker 2: just dawned on me that you know, it may not
Speaker 2: be fair that I had gotten this disease, but to
Speaker 2: her it's not fair that they she'd have a dad
Speaker 2: that may end his life. And I can't control my disease,
Speaker 2: but I can control the outcome of my daughter. And
Speaker 2: so it just kind of clicked that the purpose of
Speaker 2: life is a lot different than what I thought at
Speaker 2: that moment. It's not all about me. It's all about Noah,
Speaker 2: my kids, and and everyone else as well. And so
Speaker 2: I just knew I had to combat this fear and
Speaker 2: anger that I had towards this disease in my situation
Speaker 2: and find myself out of it. And so I heard
Speaker 2: at church one time the opposite of fear is faith.
Speaker 2: That is the antidote. But they work the same way.
Speaker 2: Where you can't see fear and you can't see faith,
Speaker 2: but if in your mind, if you have a belief
Speaker 2: in one and grow and develop that, nurseh you know,
Speaker 2: the fear or the faith, one has a positive aspect
Speaker 2: and one has a negative aspect. And so I what
Speaker 2: really started it all was just faith. Is that I
Speaker 2: had to believe that I was going to get better,
Speaker 2: that God has a plan for me. I'm going to
Speaker 2: trust in him that He's gonna provide me a life
Speaker 2: that's going to be worth you know, hanging on and
Speaker 2: that's where it all began. And I just kept believing
Speaker 2: that and exercising that faith to where it's turned into
Speaker 2: something beautiful and strong. Yeah, that's awesome. It kind of
Speaker 2: reminds me.
Speaker 1: I hate to be so cliche, but it reminds me
Speaker 1: of a saying I seen on Instagram, and it said,
Speaker 1: we all have two wolves inside, and you know, a
Speaker 1: good one and a bad one, you know, and whichever
Speaker 1: one you feed will grow, right, So that kind of
Speaker 1: goes right back to what you said, you know, you
Speaker 1: either feed your faith or you feed your fears. And
Speaker 1: I can, yeah, I can definitely see that. It seems
Speaker 1: like negative thoughts. If you're dwelling on negative then more
Speaker 1: negative comes. And if you're dwelling on positive things and
Speaker 1: you know, keeping the you know, shutting out the negative
Speaker 1: stuff just kind of keeps you on track. So just overcoming,
Speaker 1: you know, the part of losing your legs and and
Speaker 1: trying to find a way to live a normal life again.
Speaker 1: Now that's one thing which is remarkable that in itself,
Speaker 1: to me, is is motivating. But then I look at
Speaker 1: a lot of the other things you do. You you
Speaker 1: go hiking in the mountains, you go elk hunting, you've
Speaker 1: competed in iron Man, you've competed in triathlon, you've you've
Speaker 1: been in a body building competition. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've just checked off a lot of boxes that like
Speaker 1: to do one of those in a normal person's life
Speaker 1: would be like an accomplishment, right that like a bucket
Speaker 1: list accomplishment. You you are checking all these boxes and
Speaker 1: people might think or see like you know, no, nobody
Speaker 1: sees the hard work, right, no matter what anyone does,
Speaker 1: they always see the outcome, like the result, like you know,
Speaker 1: a successful el kint summit on a mountain, you've you've
Speaker 1: you've hiked up to or or you know your your
Speaker 1: your body condition at the end of training for a
Speaker 1: body competition. But the day in, day out training and
Speaker 1: grueling to get from point zero to to the to
Speaker 1: the goal that is that's that's the real stuff. And
Speaker 1: I feel like not everybody gets to see that, And
Speaker 1: what are your opinions on that? Like you have you
Speaker 1: probably have put in so much work that nobody will
Speaker 1: ever see, and overcame a lot of little things, like
Speaker 1: little things we take for granted on a day to
Speaker 1: day just to accomplished those those things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it I My wife is uh to the point
Speaker 2: now it's like, hey, when are you just gonna sit
Speaker 2: back and relax honestly, and uh, I My personality is
Speaker 2: just consist where I have to be doing something new.
Speaker 2: It just keeps my mind out of the gutter. I
Speaker 2: like challenges. I like things that are going to test
Speaker 2: my body to the limits. But that's that's part of
Speaker 2: the fun. Like, for example, in the Iron Man, that
Speaker 2: was still to this date the hardest thing I've ever
Speaker 2: done was an iron Man. But the race itself it
Speaker 2: was hard, but that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest
Speaker 2: part was all the training. I had an infection six
Speaker 2: months prior to the race that almost put me out
Speaker 2: where I you know, they had to drain all go
Speaker 2: in there and cut into my limb and drain all
Speaker 2: the infection just you know, twenty plus hours of a
Speaker 2: week of just training every Saturday completely on my bike
Speaker 2: or swimming eight or nine hours and then eating. Just
Speaker 2: in doing that for a year straight, that was difficult.
Speaker 2: Like even hunting season. It was frustrating when I wanted
Speaker 2: to go hunting, but I had to to go run first,
Speaker 2: and so that little stuff like that. That was the
Speaker 2: hard part. But that's you know, if it wasn't if
Speaker 2: it was easy, then everybody would do it. That's that's
Speaker 2: the part that is rewarding, is that that grind. And uh,
Speaker 2: I mean, just to answer your question, it's not easy,
Speaker 2: but that's what makes it worth it. That's what really
Speaker 2: is going to change as an individual, because if it
Speaker 2: was easy, then then you wouldn't see this, you wouldn't
Speaker 2: have the desire, wouldn't be as cool for you. Rewarding, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's proof to the thought that human
Speaker 2: humans are capable of amazing things in and our abilities
Speaker 2: are way further than what we first you know, the
Speaker 2: first little stop our brain says, oh, I think we're done.
Speaker 1: I feel like we are capable of so much more
Speaker 1: than past that first little speed bump.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: You you talked about, you know, having that infection six
Speaker 1: months before your your race, and like how many how
Speaker 1: many of us during elk season have gotten like an
Speaker 1: ingrown toenail or a little blister on her foot or
Speaker 1: something like, oh man, I don't know if.
Speaker 2: I can go down to the hell all the day.
Speaker 2: It's and you know, it's it hurts.
Speaker 1: It's it's you know, or you know, there's always like
Speaker 1: some little little thing that that's difficult, that's not easy,
Speaker 1: that like will derail a lot of people. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like you're saying six months before that you almost
Speaker 1: derailed by having that infection. It wasn't just a simple
Speaker 1: little thing. It's like a lot, you know. And then
Speaker 1: to stay the course, do you just like what do
Speaker 1: you what do you focus on to stay on that course?
Speaker 1: Do you'd like sit there like looking at that set
Speaker 1: back and think, what is your mind? What's your mindset?
Speaker 2: Are you saying?
Speaker 1: Are you saying, Okay, just we're gonna get through this.
Speaker 1: You know, it's gonna be fine. We're just gonna as
Speaker 1: soon as soon as I can get this healed up,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start working hard again to accomplish this. What
Speaker 1: what what do you tell yourself to get there?
Speaker 2: Then it's gonna be worth it. Like that's that's the
Speaker 2: goal right there, It's gonna be worth it. And I
Speaker 2: don't I think the older I've gotten, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: now in my forties, the thing that's hardest to live
Speaker 2: with being older is regrets. Right, That's just something I
Speaker 2: just find I don't doesn't go away. And when I
Speaker 2: had that infection, you know, ultimately I talked to my
Speaker 2: coach and my doctor. I says, okay, I'm out for
Speaker 2: a few, you know, six weeks. I can't train. I
Speaker 2: basically has started all my endurance over. You know, what
Speaker 2: do I do? And and I thought about it, prayed
Speaker 2: about it, and this was this was in twenty nineteen
Speaker 2: when I did this race, and so I was like, well,
Speaker 2: maybe I'll push the race into twenty twenty, Like what's
Speaker 2: the worst that can happen in twenty twenty. And as
Speaker 2: you can see, I decided not to go that route.
Speaker 2: And had I done, you know, then the race of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty would have been canceled because of COVID, and
Speaker 2: then who knows what other things could have happened in
Speaker 2: my life that would have completely derailed me from the race.
Speaker 2: So I just said, you know what, it's going to
Speaker 2: be worth it. I'm going to give it my best,
Speaker 2: because I'm not going to regret it if I don't
Speaker 2: give my best. If I don't finish, that's one thing.
Speaker 2: I could always sign up and do this again. But
Speaker 2: if I if I don't even show up to the course,
Speaker 2: and don't even try. Then it's it's not going to
Speaker 2: be rewarding, because that's that's where it is. Same thing.
Speaker 2: Like like we talked about elk hunting that this last
Speaker 2: fall or this current fall, sorry that we're in, I
Speaker 2: guess it's still fall. I just shot an elk last
Speaker 2: month and my biggest bull to date. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: super stoked about it. But when I shot him, I
Speaker 2: shot him down at the bottom of this canyon and
Speaker 2: it you know, I knew when I saw him he's
Speaker 2: one of those bulls you just don't be like, well,
Speaker 2: he's too hard to get. I'm not going to pass.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a once in a lifetime thing
Speaker 2: by far, And I went and I shot him, and
Speaker 2: and the best thing about elk cunning is having buddies
Speaker 2: with you because then you feel confident getting him out
Speaker 2: of there. Right. Sure, we spend all day breaking him
Speaker 2: down and you know, boning him out and getting him
Speaker 2: up the hill. And you know, my buddy was like,
Speaker 2: you know, you should have shot him from the road
Speaker 2: or you know, to see if he would have came
Speaker 2: up the road. But I look back at it now,
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm glad that he was in the
Speaker 2: worst hell hole. Otherwise this reward wouldn't be as as great.
Speaker 2: I mean, it would felt like I mean, don't get
Speaker 2: me wrong. If they're sitting on the road, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, just to earn that bull
Speaker 2: has now made it more of a memory and every
Speaker 2: you know, this is my first bull that I'm actually
Speaker 2: going to mount, and now I will remember that elk
Speaker 2: and that experience of the pack out more than just
Speaker 2: you know, if I were to shoot him on the road,
Speaker 2: and so it's got to be worth it and that
Speaker 2: those are the moments you got to live for. Otherwise
Speaker 2: having regret, it's just an awful thing to have. Absolutely, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: living with regret it sucks. I know. Over the years,
Speaker 2: I've been elk.
Speaker 1: Hunting, deer hunting for thirty I don't even know thirty five,
Speaker 1: forty forty years, but thirty five plus years, and like
Speaker 1: there's some some times I can think back to where
Speaker 1: I didn't give up my all or I gave up
Speaker 1: on whatever, and then I had to live with that
Speaker 1: regret for a whole nother year. But then it's not
Speaker 1: just another year. It's it's that one little thing that
Speaker 1: always like gnaws at your the back of your mind.
Speaker 1: I to this day there's still someone some do overs.
Speaker 1: I really wish I could of just because I gave up,
Speaker 1: you know. You know, I like to talk a big
Speaker 1: game and say, you know, don't ever give up. But
Speaker 1: that's a lot of that is me talking to myself,
Speaker 1: don't ever give up. I have to give myself that
Speaker 1: my pep talk every now and then because it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you do face hard, hard hunts or hard things, and
Speaker 1: it's like, well, do you want to you know, you
Speaker 1: want to think about this for the you want to
Speaker 1: carry that monkey on the back of your back for
Speaker 1: the next year or the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: No, I don't.
Speaker 1: So yeah that I can definitely see see that you
Speaker 1: don't want to live with regrets. How hard was it
Speaker 1: to relearn to walk?
Speaker 2: I can only imagine, just be.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a whole new process versus like
Speaker 1: and I hate to even compare this, but I had
Speaker 1: ankle surgery here a couple of years ago, and I
Speaker 1: had to go into a bunch of physical therapy and
Speaker 1: I could walk, but it wasn't right, you know, I
Speaker 1: had to they had to show me how to do
Speaker 1: it right. So I would learn how to use that
Speaker 1: ankle again properly, but with muscles that I've used in
Speaker 1: the past to walk. Now I can imagine everything is
Speaker 1: different now with prosthetic limbs, with prosthetic legs to walk,
Speaker 1: you're using some of the same muscles but differently, and
Speaker 1: there's probably some other muscles that coming into into play
Speaker 1: to learn how to walk.
Speaker 2: What was that like? Well, it it is different for
Speaker 2: like a single amputee versus a double amputee. Like a
Speaker 2: single amputee guys that I've I've hunted with with my charity,
Speaker 2: they they struggle with like the fatiguing and then the
Speaker 2: other leg. For me, where my struggles is because I
Speaker 2: don't have an ankle, a lot of my stability comes
Speaker 2: into my knees and my hips, Okay, and so one
Speaker 2: of the things you know, when I train at the gym,
Speaker 2: those are things I like to focus on, is you know,
Speaker 2: stability on my hips, mostly because that's what's gonna help
Speaker 2: with my walking. But to answer your question, like how
Speaker 2: hard was it to learn to walk? You know, prior
Speaker 2: to having my legs amputated, I wore those forest gump braces,
Speaker 2: those big metal things, and so you know, ironically, I
Speaker 2: got those braces when that movie came out, and so
Speaker 2: everybody at the playground would always say, you know, run
Speaker 2: Sydney Run. So that's and I still have those braces.
Speaker 2: But because of those braces, they actually kind of helped
Speaker 2: me understand the mechanics of relying on a device. And
Speaker 2: so I actually picked up pretty well on the prosthetic,
Speaker 2: but I still had pain. Like when you first lose
Speaker 2: your limb, your your your limb is huge and it's
Speaker 2: got to loose size. And then your they change the
Speaker 2: shape of your socket that go you know, the socket
Speaker 2: goes around your limb and that changes, and then you
Speaker 2: have to have soft because throughout the day the volume
Speaker 2: can change based off like sweat, your diet, inflammation that
Speaker 2: your calf muscle because it's got a atrophy completely. And
Speaker 2: then it was about probably going this yo yo about
Speaker 2: a whole year. Did I feel confident where I could
Speaker 2: walk throughout the whole day and not have any pain.
Speaker 2: And then when it came to hunting, that was you
Speaker 2: know another element because now I'm adding pressure on my back,
Speaker 2: which is more weight inside my socket, which is you know,
Speaker 2: this hard carb fiber. So I got to adjust to
Speaker 2: that I'm more top heavy, and so the carbon fiber
Speaker 2: has a different response based on my weight, and so
Speaker 2: I got to adjust to that. Sissy sticks. I know
Speaker 2: Bryce Bishop with the Peaks equipment. He got me some
Speaker 2: of those trekking poles. Yeah, I use those for hunting,
Speaker 2: even when you know the trail is actually not treacherous.
Speaker 2: I still like that. But you know, challenges for me.
Speaker 2: You know, a sage brush because I can't feel the ground.
Speaker 2: I can't feel when that sage brush grabs your feet,
Speaker 2: you know, because I'm trying to scan scan the horizon,
Speaker 2: trying to look for animals. Uh steep going downhill just
Speaker 2: because my my toe doesn't flex downwards, so I'm basically
Speaker 2: walking on the edge of my heel. That's kind of hard.
Speaker 2: Uh goll league upheels nice because that my my foot's down,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of digging in anyways because it's flat, right.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's that's kind of the gist of prosthetics.
Speaker 2: It could take a beating. I I've had experiences where
Speaker 2: I've broken my prosthetic in the mountains. You know, I
Speaker 2: get blisters, I get sores, just like everybody else. It's
Speaker 2: just in different places. Yeah, do you do you once
Speaker 2: you kind of once you get I would assume it's
Speaker 2: just like anything, the more you use it, the tougher
Speaker 2: it gets. Right.
Speaker 1: So you know, if you're if you're training for one
Speaker 1: of like a marathon or whatever, training for elk hunt
Speaker 1: maybe if you've been sedentary for a little while and
Speaker 1: then like, okay, I'm gonna start picking up my training here,
Speaker 1: I would assume like you probably in the beginning start
Speaker 1: having some blisters, but then you will it'll like things
Speaker 1: can target toughening up right. You know, by the time
Speaker 1: elk seasons there, it's pretty good. But then you get
Speaker 1: on some other train and you may experience some other
Speaker 1: other other issues with blisters, but it probably develops more
Speaker 1: of a callus there. Eventually probably use it and lose it,
Speaker 1: or use it or lose it.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I mean the beginning, like you taw archery
Speaker 2: season starts in August, and you can't to replicate, you know,
Speaker 2: to train for hunting. The best way to train for
Speaker 2: hunting is go more hunting, go hunting more, I guess,
Speaker 2: And so usually August is when it's like those first
Speaker 2: few hikes or you know, oh that kind of hurt
Speaker 2: and then by the time I'm hunting in October November,
Speaker 2: I'm a row But yeah it uh, I would say, yeah,
Speaker 2: the blisters are pretty much healed and calloused over and
Speaker 2: and my muscles are you know, a little better shape
Speaker 2: for for for hiking. So it it's just like, yeah,
Speaker 2: just like anybody else.
Speaker 1: So now bodybuilding, you shared some some pictures and your
Speaker 1: bodybuilding story on Instagram and I didn't even know you
Speaker 1: were training for that, and then you showed your before
Speaker 1: and after pictures and I was like, holy cow, Like
Speaker 1: what a what a transformation? An incredible transformation, And like
Speaker 1: working out a lot is is one thing, but then
Speaker 1: there's got to be an insane diet control, you know,
Speaker 1: to get into that kind of in that kind of
Speaker 1: shape to look like that.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about your your training and then also
Speaker 2: your diet working for your for body your bodybuilding competition. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're not the first person that says, WHOA, I didn't
Speaker 2: even know you were doing this, And there was a
Speaker 2: reason for that.
Speaker 3: Like it, I I was playing basketball about a year
Speaker 3: ago and I tore my mcl and you know, I
Speaker 3: couldn't run and do the you know basketball for a while.
Speaker 2: So I decided to hit the weights, and I just enjoyed,
Speaker 2: you know, lifting weights in the iron and talking to
Speaker 2: guys at the gym and seeing that you know, they've
Speaker 2: done you know, bodybuilding shows. And I just kind of asked,
Speaker 2: you know, what do I do help me? What do
Speaker 2: I need to do? I'm curious about it. And so
Speaker 2: my biggest demise is I can exercise all day long,
Speaker 2: but when it comes to food, I love to cook,
Speaker 2: I love to smoke, I love to to Food is
Speaker 2: a social thing for me, and I eat, you know,
Speaker 2: poorly most of the time. Right, So that I knew
Speaker 2: that was going to be the hardest. Every time I
Speaker 2: tried to lose weight for something, it's it's always the
Speaker 2: pizza and the cookies that end up getting after me.
Speaker 2: The smoked meats, oh yeah, the smoked meats. So I
Speaker 2: just I just decided, you know what, this is kind
Speaker 2: of a new iron Man for me. It's something I
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's in good puts me in a
Speaker 2: good headspace to have a goal that's hard in mind.
Speaker 2: And so I just told myself, I'm going to do
Speaker 2: a show in October and and and go for there.
Speaker 2: So how it looked out, I gave myself about a
Speaker 2: year to prep for this show. I was two thirty
Speaker 2: six when I started, and it just what it looked
Speaker 2: like was in the beginning, I would, you know, eat
Speaker 2: high proteins. My calories would be pretty high, about thirty
Speaker 2: five hundred, and I just have a high protein to
Speaker 2: try to bulk up, tried to get strong, lift heavy,
Speaker 2: and then I continued that from about oh December till
Speaker 2: May ish is when I started what they call the cut.
Speaker 2: And so I figured out, you know, how much weight
Speaker 2: or how many calories I needed to cut back before
Speaker 2: I started losing weight and then minus five hundred calories.
Speaker 2: So I kind of measured everything that I ate, weighted
Speaker 2: everything that I ate, logged everything that I ate, and
Speaker 2: then I watched my scale. If I started losing weight,
Speaker 2: then that's what I knew where I was supposed to be.
Speaker 2: So I went from like thirty five hundred calories to
Speaker 2: twenty five hundred calories and then I kept that for
Speaker 2: a while and I was hoping to lose about a
Speaker 2: pound and a pound and a half, and then I
Speaker 2: dropped to two thousand calories because sometimes I would plateau,
Speaker 2: but I for food wise, I ate probably a whole
Speaker 2: elk all by myself because elk has the best protein
Speaker 2: per calorie ratio, and when you're trying to keep for
Speaker 2: calories low and your protein's high, like for my macros,
Speaker 2: if I weighed about two hundred and twenty pounds, I
Speaker 2: wanted to try to eat two hundred and forty grands
Speaker 2: of protein, which is that's a lot of food. And
Speaker 2: so you know with you know, mountain hoops, protein shakes
Speaker 2: and elk, and I fish a lot, so I caught,
Speaker 2: you know, kept all of my fish that I would catch.
Speaker 2: I just kind of developed a diet. I got a
Speaker 2: little creative with like different egg whites and chicken, but
Speaker 2: ultimately I had to cut out the things I loved,
Speaker 2: which was pork, you know, you know, starchy foods, bread,
Speaker 2: you know, heavy breads, pizzas, sugar, soda, all that. And
Speaker 2: that was the hardest part of the bodybuilding show. Actually
Speaker 2: the muscles. There are just muscles that I had. I
Speaker 2: don't think I really grew any stronger. I didn't get
Speaker 2: stronger in the gym. It's just when you lose all
Speaker 2: that weight from doing all calorie deficit, that's when it
Speaker 2: shows up. And that is the hardest part is just
Speaker 2: the food. So were you did you avoid carbs at
Speaker 2: all costs or were you mixing in some carbs some
Speaker 2: like clean stuff. I do what they call a carb
Speaker 2: rotation or so on leg day and back day, which
Speaker 2: were my largest groups of muscles that I was exercising,
Speaker 2: I would have more carbs. But ultimately the goal was
Speaker 2: to be about one hundred carbs for the day, except
Speaker 2: for the last month. The last month is when it's
Speaker 2: extreme cutting. I was anywhere from twenty five to fifty
Speaker 2: and very irritable and angry, and I was a little bitchy.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. My wife said. I was on
Speaker 2: PMS for the month of September.
Speaker 1: Man, I feel that anytime I do, like try to
Speaker 1: do carnivore or keto, dude, I get so pissy. I'm
Speaker 1: just like a grouch and like walking around bambug, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the hell's wrong with you?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: Like why are you so grouchy? And then it's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I don't have any that comfort.
Speaker 2: Food to just like, oh, chinnamon rolls or mashed potatoes
Speaker 2: or any of that fun stuff to eat. But man,
Speaker 2: it's not fun to eat strict that and you just
Speaker 2: said it, like that's a lot of us. That's our
Speaker 2: biggest nemesis is you know, working out, and that's one thing.
Speaker 2: But they say you can't outwork out a poor diet.
Speaker 2: Right No, absolutely, not, Like even if you when I
Speaker 2: was doing the Iron Man and I was you know,
Speaker 2: thousands of calories I was burning on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: I still had a good old tire belly like it was,
Speaker 2: you know, a beer belly. And it's just because I
Speaker 2: was eating so much carbs and sugars to try to recover. Right, No,
Speaker 2: I learned a lot about my body in this competition.
Speaker 2: Like I could still like I've had pizza a few
Speaker 2: times since my competition. I could still find waste to indulge,
Speaker 2: but I I mean I would eat like a whole pizza,
Speaker 2: and now I can be okay with just a few slices.
Speaker 1: Right did it kind of almost change? Like I found
Speaker 1: I feel like after I've eaten really strict for a while,
Speaker 1: I don't like the things I used to love. I
Speaker 1: don't like them as much. I mean I still kind
Speaker 1: of like them, but it's not like, oh, I have
Speaker 1: to have my mashed potatoes with my steak, my elk steak,
Speaker 1: or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's like, eh, I'm good with or without it. Oh, correct,
Speaker 2: your body responds when you're eating clean for that long.
Speaker 2: Your body responds to port or bad foods, you know
Speaker 2: pretty well. Like for example, our neighbors brought us some
Speaker 2: Christmas cookies and I tried one. I'm like, oh, that
Speaker 2: was good. So I tried another one, and my whole
Speaker 2: body was like, oh, you suck eras I just felt
Speaker 2: like I ran into like a pole. And it's so
Speaker 2: I quickly learned that eating clean, you're just you're doing better.
Speaker 2: You think better, you feel better, you know have you know,
Speaker 2: I have more confidence, and uh, you know, you'd be
Speaker 2: more efficient. Like even when I was you know, I
Speaker 2: was training for this competition. You know, the carbohydrates that
Speaker 2: I could have was rice, and I it's amazing what
Speaker 2: a cup of rice could get me two or three
Speaker 2: miles on the mountain, just just a little bit of rice.
Speaker 2: What those carbs could do. You know before I would
Speaker 2: have to eat, you know, a box of donuts to
Speaker 2: get that kind of carbohydrates effectively in my body. So right,
Speaker 2: I noticed that too.
Speaker 1: One time, I ate keto all summer and then a
Speaker 1: couple of days before Elksen. I'd been I'd been hiking
Speaker 1: this hill every day, this steep ass hill, and I'd
Speaker 1: hike it, and with zero carbs, I was just I
Speaker 1: would struggle it take a you know, just like fu
Speaker 1: one foot in front of the other. And then a
Speaker 1: couple of days before I left for my elk hunt,
Speaker 1: I grabbed I was like, you know what, I think
Speaker 1: it's it's close enough. I'm gonna I'm gonna eat some
Speaker 1: And so I got me a couple barbecue beef burritos
Speaker 1: from the deli at the store, at the at the
Speaker 1: gas station, and.
Speaker 2: I ate those.
Speaker 1: Man, I flew up that hill. It was like I
Speaker 1: was I had rocket fuel. It's like, holy cow, like
Speaker 1: doubled my time up and down. It's like, holy cow,
Speaker 1: that was awesome. But that doesn't that doesn't work like
Speaker 1: that when you've been eating like crap all the time, No,
Speaker 1: it you're slug then yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Because well, because your body already has all that glycogen
Speaker 2: storage in you, it always all that flat storage in you,
Speaker 2: and so when when you already are just adding to it,
Speaker 2: it does nothing but makes you feel like crap. It
Speaker 2: doesn't burn like a like a like a fire inside
Speaker 2: it's so, yeah, you did the right thing. By that's
Speaker 2: that's probably the best time to have that kind of
Speaker 2: food is when you know you're gonna burn it off.
Speaker 1: So you're Elk, you got a heck of a bull. Elk,
Speaker 1: you were talking about how what what kind of a
Speaker 1: tag was that?
Speaker 2: Was that?
Speaker 1: A like did a rifle tag? And for how long
Speaker 1: was the season? And tell tell us about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got blessed. I was given a tag my
Speaker 2: brother in law, he kind of worked out some magic
Speaker 2: with a friend of his that owns cwn U property
Speaker 2: here in Utah. And it was a tag that not
Speaker 2: normally like there's there's you had a chance at a
Speaker 2: bull because it was very late season, which I've never
Speaker 2: hunted late season bulls like that. So I mean, i'd
Speaker 2: really you know it it like you know, I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of watching Corey Jacobson films and Elk one
Speaker 2: on one stuff and so you know, I I, you know,
Speaker 2: I blow phelps and so I thought, oh, I could
Speaker 2: call a bull in, but at that time of year,
Speaker 2: they don't like to be called It's more like a
Speaker 2: mule deer hunt, right, And so I was just it
Speaker 2: was kind of out of my element, you know, to
Speaker 2: not call or to try to locate. Instead, we're just
Speaker 2: basically going up on these ridges. It's here in Utah.
Speaker 2: It's a transition unit. So what they told me that
Speaker 2: this hunt could be where it was a five day
Speaker 2: hunt and it could be anywhere from seeing a couple
Speaker 2: elk the whole trip, or seeing twenty or thirty bowls
Speaker 2: the whole trip. Wow. And prior to this hunt, we
Speaker 2: had a really nice snowstorm in late October and it
Speaker 2: just triggered all these elk where every day we were
Speaker 2: seeing probably eighteen or nineteen bowls and that's it was awesome.
Speaker 2: Like it was like, I've never been a part of
Speaker 2: a hunt where you see that many elk. I mean
Speaker 2: where I live. I live in you went to mountains
Speaker 2: northeastern part of Utah. It's an open bowl unit. And
Speaker 2: you know, if you see a spike elk in this
Speaker 2: open bowl unit, that's a trophy. Yeah, and you may
Speaker 2: not ever see another elk ther whole time. And so
Speaker 2: it was really hard to to pass on an elk.
Speaker 2: But when you see on the first day, I think
Speaker 2: we saw fifteen bowls and uh, you know, I was like, oh, lead,
Speaker 2: I don't want to shoot one on the first day.
Speaker 2: Then the hunts over, I already got worked off, and
Speaker 2: all my buddies were saying, don't shoot one on the
Speaker 2: first day because we don't want to go back to
Speaker 2: our wives. Let's just try to this as long as possible.
Speaker 2: Let's enjoy this, Let's let's sit back and enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I mean we were we were we were cush hunting,
Speaker 2: like we I brought my camper and we were you
Speaker 2: know that had a you know, heater in it and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. So we we were having a good
Speaker 2: old time. And and the second day hit saw a
Speaker 2: few more bulls. I saw really really pretty five point
Speaker 2: like score is not something i'd chase per se. But
Speaker 2: if there's there's a difference between oh that's a pretty
Speaker 2: pretty bowl and there's another one that makes your butthole flinch,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, and this this
Speaker 2: this bull had that and so but at the same time,
Speaker 2: I don't I saw him on the second day and
Speaker 2: I wanted, I want to shoot this big, huge five
Speaker 2: point I mean, just super mature body, but he was
Speaker 2: uphill it was like six hundred yards, and I just
Speaker 2: didn't feel comfortable. Shooting that distance. I could, but I
Speaker 2: didn't feel comfortable because it was just an awkward position.
Speaker 2: So we tried to get a shot and never could
Speaker 2: get him. And then I spent the next two days
Speaker 2: trying to find him and never did. And then it
Speaker 2: just so happened to be where we found this other
Speaker 2: bull that ended up being bigger. Oh wow. And you know,
Speaker 2: in the meantime, I was, you know, passing three hundred
Speaker 2: inch bowls through fifteen's and that was you know, that
Speaker 2: was really hard to do to pass an elk that size.
Speaker 2: And then when I saw this bowl, it just is
Speaker 2: the same thing. It was just like you just know, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's it's just there's just next level. You know, your
Speaker 2: heart starts sinking, your eyes your eyes start you know,
Speaker 2: watering because it's just so beautiful. I love it. I
Speaker 2: love it it. That's that's so awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you got to enjoy that experience a
Speaker 1: hunting one of those cwmus. You know, some people will
Speaker 1: sit here and they'll they will throw rocks and poo
Speaker 1: poo on that.
Speaker 2: Oh it's privately, no, nope, I'm out.
Speaker 1: You know, you get all the comments and it's like man,
Speaker 1: sometimes normal guys should get that opportunity, you know, every
Speaker 1: now and then, which I'm all for. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not always some rich dude getting those tags. It's it's
Speaker 1: cool to see regular guys that you know would really
Speaker 1: appreciate it get that kind of a hunt. And some people,
Speaker 1: I mean, how many people would turn down an opportunity
Speaker 1: to do that if somebody said, hey, why don't you
Speaker 1: come up here and hunt? Nobody's turn that down?
Speaker 2: Right, So I knew this was a once in a
Speaker 2: lifetime thing for me too. I mean, I don't I
Speaker 2: don't have a lot of money to mount animals, and
Speaker 2: so I I knew this was one that I would
Speaker 2: have to mount because I knew I wasn't gonna get
Speaker 2: another shot. But yeah, you get you do hear the
Speaker 2: negativity and it's usually the same loud group that's against
Speaker 2: the cwm US. I know a lot of operators. What's
Speaker 2: nice is a lot of other these operators will work
Speaker 2: with my nonprofit charity where we give you know, kids
Speaker 2: that are terminal an opportunity to hunt elk on these properties. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the way they treat the property like the elk, the
Speaker 2: very healthy animals, beautiful properties and really the way people
Speaker 2: forget and you taw you could draw for these units.
Speaker 2: In fact, in this this unit that I hunted in
Speaker 2: of course, there was you know, guys that buy the
Speaker 2: tags every year. They have a lot of money. But
Speaker 2: the guy that shot the biggest bowl this year was
Speaker 2: was a public land guy that drew that put his
Speaker 2: name in it and drew it. He shot a three
Speaker 2: sixty bowl. Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to hunt a CWMU here a
Speaker 1: few years ago, twenty twenty two, and there was a
Speaker 1: guy and his son. The guy had drawn a tag
Speaker 1: and yeah, he got to stay at the same place
Speaker 1: I got to stay. They even provided a guide for
Speaker 1: him they. I mean, it was awesome, like that guy,
Speaker 1: you know, was out there just living living the dream.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a good program, you know. I
Speaker 1: feel like everybody should get a chance someday to to
Speaker 1: go on that.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, with the drawing systems, it makes it tough. You know,
Speaker 1: it's really hard, especially utahs is you got to be
Speaker 1: invested for a lot of years to to draw a tag.
Speaker 1: And but but anyway, so what's next, what's uh, what's
Speaker 1: on the horizon. Do you got any or do you
Speaker 1: or maybe you don't want to share what your next
Speaker 1: big goal is. Man, you've checked some pretty impressive boxes. No,
Speaker 1: there's there's always something on my mind. I'm working on
Speaker 1: one right now.
Speaker 2: This I usually don't go this long, but I wanted
Speaker 2: to find something that kind of resonates with me. And
Speaker 2: there's one that I've always wanted to do, and that's
Speaker 2: to swim the English Channel. It's from France to England.
Speaker 2: It's it's a marathon, but it's a swim. But it's feasible.
Speaker 2: It's really hard. You know, my my wife right now,
Speaker 2: it's not something she's eagerly anxious about. There's something that
Speaker 2: I'm probably going to do this year is to swim
Speaker 2: to Alcatraz Island and back. So I'm working with a
Speaker 2: charter company out there to see what it costs and
Speaker 2: see if I could, you know, maybe do a charity
Speaker 2: event where I can raise money for that swim. And
Speaker 2: you know, I just there. You have to swim at
Speaker 2: a certain pace otherwise the current to go to out
Speaker 2: to Alcatraz will push you off course where you're actually
Speaker 2: not going forward, you're going sideways. And so I have
Speaker 2: to qualify for that to swim to Alcatraz Island and
Speaker 2: back and they so that one's probably something that would
Speaker 2: be the next one that's coming up twenty twenty five. Awesome.
Speaker 2: Are you a pretty strong swimmer? Yeah? I swim in
Speaker 2: high school and in college. I mean with my disease
Speaker 2: because my feet were deformed, it was just it was
Speaker 2: something that I could do well at. The disease is
Speaker 2: in my hands as well, but it's it's uh, I've
Speaker 2: been working with the physical therapist I'm on. I got
Speaker 2: on tier T here a couple of years ago. That's
Speaker 2: kind of helped me retain muscle, and so the disease
Speaker 2: hasn't really affected that badly. There's some days it's bad,
Speaker 2: but for the most part, I'm still able to use
Speaker 2: my hands. Do you feel pain or is it just
Speaker 2: loss of function? Both? Pain just because uh, the arthritis
Speaker 2: and it everything's really feeble, like I have a broken
Speaker 2: wrist that still hasn't healed, and then just functions. So
Speaker 2: like fatigue, So like with swimming, if I get too tired,
Speaker 2: then my hands can't they cramp up like this like
Speaker 2: a I guess while we're on a podcast, so kind
Speaker 2: of like a monkey hand where it just kind of
Speaker 2: closes up, grip yep, and so to swim, I want
Speaker 2: my hands open, so I can, you know, like paddles
Speaker 2: and to hold that position is it can be hard
Speaker 2: when my disease gets gets bad. Oh wow, yeah, right on.
Speaker 2: Well man, what are any closing thoughts you'd.
Speaker 1: Like to give our listeners as far as motivational stuff,
Speaker 1: I think we'd all like to hear a little bit
Speaker 1: of the good stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the things I love to talk about,
Speaker 2: and this, you know, applies to everybody, I think, not
Speaker 2: just hunters or is one of the things what I
Speaker 2: when I go out and I public speak. The topic
Speaker 2: that I am most passionate about is gratitude because it
Speaker 2: honestly is the most powerful thing that we can have
Speaker 2: as human beings. Powerful feeling besides love, is to to
Speaker 2: have gratitude. And one thing that I learned through many
Speaker 2: lessons in life is, you know, is you have to
Speaker 2: be grateful for what you have. And the more things
Speaker 2: that you spend focusing on what you're grateful for, you know,
Speaker 2: you won't find any time to sit around and say, well,
Speaker 2: I'm not grateful for this, or I'm you know, woe
Speaker 2: is me and this sucks. It has a powerful force
Speaker 2: behind it to where I try to practice gratitude every day.
Speaker 2: I make it a goal in the morning, especially in
Speaker 2: the morning, because I feel like that's when my mind's
Speaker 2: the clear where I could set the tone right for
Speaker 2: the day to think about at least two things that
Speaker 2: I knew in my mind that I'm grateful for. And
Speaker 2: you'd be surprised, like that does not get old. There's
Speaker 2: always something to be grateful for, you know. My even
Speaker 2: with my situation, I could say that I'm even grateful
Speaker 2: for my trials because it's taught me things that I
Speaker 2: don't think I could have gained anywhere else. Taught me
Speaker 2: things like patience and perseverance and compassion for other people
Speaker 2: with disabilities. That has rewarded me in life like it's
Speaker 2: made me a better husband, it's made me a better father.
Speaker 2: That's given the patience and over chaos, has helped me
Speaker 2: get stand out at work where I've gotten promotions. And
Speaker 2: all these attributes were something that I gained because of
Speaker 2: this trial. So I mean I could safely say that
Speaker 2: I would never change my life for anything else. So
Speaker 2: as I guess to add on to that or to
Speaker 2: close of that is, I I think maybe reconsider some
Speaker 2: of the hardships that we've had in our lives as
Speaker 2: opportunities to learn from and and find ways to grow,
Speaker 2: where these are just stepping stones to your success.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, I love that, I really do. I think that's
Speaker 2: a huge point.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of us skip that, skip
Speaker 1: that gratitude getting up in the morning. You know, I
Speaker 1: think all the other things with life and all the
Speaker 1: other clutter, you know, whether it's you know, politics, news,
Speaker 1: social media, whatever it is you're facing with your day
Speaker 1: to day grind, it's easy to lose lose that focus
Speaker 1: on gratitude.
Speaker 2: Especially in the morning. Like what's the first thing most
Speaker 2: people do when they wake up? What do they go for?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they go for the new the news, or their phone,
Speaker 1: their phone, Yeah, they're gonna get the or social they.
Speaker 2: Want to see who's who's like this, or who's doing that,
Speaker 2: or who's doing this. Of course social media it's got
Speaker 2: some beautiful things to it, but a lot of times
Speaker 2: people look at like, oh man, I wish I was
Speaker 2: doing this, I wish I was doing that. And in
Speaker 2: the end, it's just you know, to start your day
Speaker 2: where you just wish you were somebody else. Is not healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I starting your day with envy. Just practice, yeah, practice gratitude,
Speaker 2: then look at your phone, you know, just try it,
Speaker 2: try it out. Yeah yeah, I'm going to do that.
Speaker 2: I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1: So Sidney, where can people find you? If they want
Speaker 1: to follow you?
Speaker 2: You could? I'm pretty active on social media, I guess
Speaker 2: with with Instagram. I haven't caught on to to Snapchat,
Speaker 2: although my kids think I should. I don't. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to do that, but I can. I can only
Speaker 2: keep up with really one snap or Instagram. Facebook. I
Speaker 2: don't do really much on TikTok, but uh, Instagram, that's
Speaker 2: trying no the tri I underscore, no feat and then
Speaker 2: our Facebook is just Sidney Smith. I'm probably the only
Speaker 2: Sidney Smith that doesn't have legs, so I think that's
Speaker 2: one easy way to find me that way.
Speaker 1: So right on, Well, I appreciate you coming on telling
Speaker 1: you sharing your story. Like I said, I've been following
Speaker 1: you on social media for years, it seems like, and
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed I've enjoyed your motivation and and I just
Speaker 1: wanted everybody else to be able to enjoy it as well,
Speaker 1: so thank you for.
Speaker 2: Having for coming on. Hey, I fell honored, Dirk. I
Speaker 2: mean it's like I said, I've been a fan of
Speaker 2: what you guys do and I look forward to seeing
Speaker 2: you at the Hunnecks be here in a few months. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I can't wait to hope to see you there. Good deal. Thanks,
Speaker 2: thanks again,