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Speaker 1: Hey guys, Emily a body here with episode seventy one

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Speaker 1: of Hurdle, a podcast that talks to everyone from entrepreneurs

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Speaker 1: to top CEOs and athletes about how they've gotten through

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Speaker 1: tough times hurdles of sorts by leaning into wellness. Today,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be chatting with David Thomas Tao. He

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Speaker 1: is the editor and co founder of barbend dot com.

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Speaker 1: We have a lot to vibe about, especially both being

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Speaker 1: journalists and his determination. It's contagious and I know you

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Speaker 1: guys are really going to dig this episode. Before I

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Speaker 1: get into it, quick shout out to my sponsor, Athletic Greens.

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Speaker 1: I feel like I don't have a lot of things

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Speaker 1: that are one hundred percent constant in my life. I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to the exact same office every day. My

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Speaker 1: schedule totally varies. Sometimes my runs in the morning are

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Speaker 1: three miles, sometimes they're nine miles, sometimes they're.

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Speaker 2: Not at all.

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Speaker 1: But what I do know is that no matter what,

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Speaker 1: before I walk out my door to get the day

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Speaker 1: really started, I'm jumping head first into a glasswell of

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Speaker 1: Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens gives me the consistency and the

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Speaker 1: regularity I need to be my best. They are offering

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Speaker 1: hurdle listeners a special deal. It's twenty travel packs a

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Speaker 1: seventy nine dollars value, absolutely free with your first purchase.

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Speaker 1: Just head on over to Athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle Again,

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Speaker 1: that's Athleticgreens dot Com slash Hurdle to grab yours today,

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Speaker 1: No code necessary. All right, now, let's talk about dtt

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Speaker 1: as I affectionately have nicknamed David Thomas Tao David Tika.

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Speaker 1: I really admire. He has had a hand in building

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Speaker 1: two very big digital media properties, both Greatest at the

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Speaker 1: start of his career and now Barbend dot Com, And

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Speaker 1: like me, he's had an interesting journey along the way

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Speaker 1: in his journalistic path. In today's episode, we talk about

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Speaker 1: the hurdle moment that had him contemplating what he really

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Speaker 1: wanted to do with his career while walking around the

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Speaker 1: streets of Las Vegas. Sounds dramatic, I know. We also

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Speaker 1: wrap about owning your strengths and letting go of your weaknesses,

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Speaker 1: about this idea that it's okay not to be able

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Speaker 1: to do everything on your own important tacoay, And also

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Speaker 1: he gave some really great advice about slowing down, about

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Speaker 1: taking time to yourself, and just really listening to that

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Speaker 1: internal voice, that voice that tells you what you need

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Speaker 1: that we don't always like to acknowledge. I know about you, guys.

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Speaker 1: September it feels like a month of opportunity. It feels

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Speaker 1: like I am ready to just end the year the

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Speaker 1: strongest version of myself. I feel like at the end

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Speaker 1: of the summer was a bit of the whirlwind. I

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Speaker 1: felt like I was sprinting to the finish, trying to

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Speaker 1: fit everything in. But honestly, falls my favorite time of year.

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Speaker 1: It's the best time because you're not absolutely miserable running

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Speaker 1: in the morning anymore, and I have my arms open

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Speaker 1: for all the good things that I feel like this season.

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Speaker 2: Is going to bring me.

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Speaker 1: You guys know the drill at Emily a Body at

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Speaker 1: Hurdle podcast. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, want

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Speaker 1: to say hi, whatever, you can always reach me at

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Speaker 1: a DM or hit me up over email at Emily

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Speaker 1: at Hurdle dot us. And with that, let's get to hurtling. Today.

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Speaker 1: I'm sitting here with David Thomas Tao. He is the

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Speaker 1: editor in chief and co founder of Bar Bend.

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Speaker 3: Hi, thanks so much for having me this morning.

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Speaker 1: There was a little trial and error happening coming in

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Speaker 1: here today.

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Speaker 3: It was it's the mean streets of New York City.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes I just like that.

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Speaker 1: So thankful to be recording here at the Smile Radio

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Speaker 1: inside the Smile to go at the free Hand. But

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Speaker 1: lucky for us, there was some beautiful construction happening a

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Speaker 1: couple weeks ago, but we're back in the studio.

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Speaker 3: It was really nice. So I live pretty close to here,

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Speaker 3: and it was nice to be able to walk by

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Speaker 3: yesterday morning just to see at the same time to

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Speaker 3: see if construction was still going on. And I felt

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Speaker 3: like when I sent you the thumbs up, I was

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Speaker 3: just like, we're all clear.

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Speaker 1: We're clear, and you were able to get really great coffee.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's really good coffee here here.

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Speaker 2: We're good. Awesome.

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Speaker 1: Well, thanks for stitting down with me today. Before we

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Speaker 1: jump into it. What I would love to explain to

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Speaker 1: the hurdlers first and foremost is talk to me about Barbend.

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Speaker 2: What is it?

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Speaker 1: What do they find there?

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Speaker 3: Great Barbend dot Com is a resource for all things

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Speaker 3: strength sports. So if you're interested in powerlifting, CrossFit, weightlifting strongman,

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Speaker 3: or you're just someone maybe starting out on a strength

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Speaker 3: journey trying to incorporate strength training into your lifestyle. We've

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Speaker 3: got great resources for that. We started as a news

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Speaker 3: outlet for those strength sports, so if you wanted to

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Speaker 3: see what was going on in the world of weightlifting

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Speaker 3: or among elite crossfitters, that's what we started out with

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Speaker 3: about three years ago, and since then we've expanded. We

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Speaker 3: don't just write articles. We also do video. We have

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Speaker 3: a podcast now, and we do produce a lot more

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Speaker 3: content on the science behind strength training, how to get

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Speaker 3: started if you're new to it, different topics there. So

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Speaker 3: we wanted to be an all encompassing resource for all

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Speaker 3: things strength. We still write that news. We still a

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Speaker 3: big core portion of our audience. Every time we something

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Speaker 3: about the site, they're like, well, we'll we still get

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Speaker 3: event results. Can we still see the news? That's not

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Speaker 3: gone anywhere and we'll never go anywhere, I don't think.

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Speaker 3: But we've definitely expanded our offerings over the past couple

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Speaker 3: of years as well.

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Speaker 2: What's the podcast called The.

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Speaker 3: Bar Bend podcast? Real complex name the.

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Speaker 1: Bar Bend comp say it. It's so easy, I can't

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Speaker 1: even say again. Okay, bar Beend got it. First follow

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Speaker 1: up question, have you always been into strength trending? What's

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Speaker 1: your deal?

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Speaker 3: I have always been. I've been interested in strengthening since

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Speaker 3: since high school. One of the first time I stepped

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Speaker 3: in a weight room and I was like, oh, this

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Speaker 3: is cool, not really knowing what I was doing, because

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Speaker 3: I went to an all guys boarding school and everyone

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Speaker 3: was really into like being strong and being like buff

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Speaker 3: or like attempting to whatever that meant in high school.

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Speaker 1: Where'd you grow up?

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Speaker 3: I grew up in Kentucky and I went to boarding

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Speaker 3: school in Tennessee, so it was like a southern all

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Speaker 3: guys boarding school. There was a lot of like there

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Speaker 3: was just like a lot of testosterone and a lot

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Speaker 3: of like young athletes and everyone I was like, oh,

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Speaker 3: I got to hit up the weight room, even if

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Speaker 3: they didn't really know what they were doing, even if

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Speaker 3: it wasn't like conducive to their sport.

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Speaker 1: In that environment, are guys still all trying to be

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Speaker 1: really macho? Or because it's like all guys, is it

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Speaker 1: like okay to be a little sensitive or what's that

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Speaker 1: kind of bring about.

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Speaker 3: I thought the school did a pretty good job. Now

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Speaker 3: I assume it was much different like decades before I

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Speaker 3: went there, when it was like a military school. But

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Speaker 3: when I went there, I actually thought the school did

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Speaker 3: a very good job and the faculty and staff did

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Speaker 3: a very good job at nurturing an environment where you

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Speaker 3: could be a bit more open. Now, there was a

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Speaker 3: lot of stuff that I always felt like I couldn't

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Speaker 3: talk to like my roommate about or I had to

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Speaker 3: kind of hide behind this veil of what I thought

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Speaker 3: masculinity was, and that's just I think a part of adolescence.

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Speaker 3: But it was called the McAuley School, and kudos to them.

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Speaker 3: They actually had like a fantastic mental health and counseling staff.

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Speaker 3: Nothing was perfect, as nothing is in high school. But

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Speaker 3: I joke about some of the stereotypes for an all

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Speaker 3: guys boarding school. It was a bit more open than that.

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Speaker 3: It was a bit more approachable than that.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to go to boarding school?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a choice because I.

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Speaker 1: Grew up going to summer camp and ended up from

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Speaker 1: the time that I was a camper through the time

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Speaker 1: I finished being a counselor was there for fifteen years.

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Speaker 1: I loved going to summer camp, so I imagine that

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Speaker 1: boarding school is just like summer camp for long periods

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Speaker 1: of time you.

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Speaker 3: Think it is. I love summer camp too. When I

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Speaker 3: was a kid, I loved camp. I went to boy

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Speaker 3: Scout camp and four H camp as a boy and

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Speaker 3: debate camp. I mean, it's pretty obvious. I had so

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Speaker 3: many merit badges. But boarding school when I first when

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Speaker 3: I first visited the school, I was offered and I

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Speaker 3: was offered a scholarship. I was like, this is great.

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Speaker 3: It's going to be like camp year round. It's not

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Speaker 3: like you're going to you're going to school, and high

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Speaker 3: schools like a tough time for everyone, but there are

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Speaker 3: elements of that. You're living around your friends. You have

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Speaker 3: to get along with people and like learn to do

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Speaker 3: some personal conflict resolution, which as an adolescent is very

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Speaker 3: very difficult. So I thought that was a really good

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Speaker 3: environment for me to learn how to interact with people

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Speaker 3: who have different opinions and like have to learn to

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Speaker 3: live with them. Because it's not like two weeks later

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Speaker 3: your parents are going to pick you up and you're

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Speaker 3: not going to see them for a year, or you're

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Speaker 3: not going to see them ever again. You're still living

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Speaker 3: in the same dorm.

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Speaker 1: Right, right, And then with boarding school, do you you obviously.

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Speaker 2: Come home in the summers.

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, following well, I went to camp during the summer,

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Speaker 3: so I'd be home for like a week and then

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Speaker 3: just off to camp for twelve weeks and then home

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Speaker 3: for like a day and then back to boarding school.

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Speaker 4: Oh.

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Speaker 1: Mom, Mom must have just been having a blast.

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Speaker 3: She I'm an only child, so I think that there

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Speaker 3: were some summers where she was like, do you want

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Speaker 3: to just like not go to camp and just be

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Speaker 3: here for a bit? And I was like, I, Mom,

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Speaker 3: I'm busy.

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Speaker 1: I'm busy things to do.

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Speaker 3: No one's really busy when they're fifteen.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So when you're growing up, what do you think

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Speaker 1: that you want to do when you get older.

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Speaker 3: I always thought I wanted to be a journalist, so

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Speaker 3: that was something I probably started developing an interest in

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Speaker 3: in like maybe sophomore year high school.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And when you first thought that you wanted to

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Speaker 1: be a journalist, what kind of journalist did you want

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Speaker 1: to be?

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Speaker 3: I thought I wanted to be a financial and business journalist,

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Speaker 3: which as a fifteen year old is like the weirdest thing.

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Speaker 3: When you're talking to your friends about what you want

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Speaker 3: to be and you say that, the room just goes silent,

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Speaker 3: and they're like, Okay, let's move on to the next one.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean when I said that I wanted to

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Speaker 1: be a journalist, I wanted to be like Carrie Bradshaw

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Speaker 1: and write about love and sex and all the things.

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Speaker 2: That I felt so awkward talking about anyway.

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Speaker 1: But I was like, this sounds so glamorous and wonderful,

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Speaker 1: and maybe I'll talk about celebrities and we're really awesome clothes.

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Speaker 2: And that's just not how it played out.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, when I was FI, when I was fifteen, I

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Speaker 3: was like, I want to write about what Microsoft is doing,

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Speaker 3: and everyone was like, that's that's really lame.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's superlae.

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Speaker 1: And it's like we could have said anything, right, Like

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Speaker 1: we could have said I want to be a celebrity

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Speaker 1: or I want to be an astronaut, or I want

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Speaker 1: to be President of the United States, and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I want to be Carry Bradshaw.

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Speaker 3: I mean, that's pretty good. That's aspirational.

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Speaker 1: It is definitely something.

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Speaker 3: It's also the weird thing about characters on TV who

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Speaker 3: lived in New York at that age, especially if you

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Speaker 3: don't grow up in New York, like you aspire to

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Speaker 3: their lifestyle, but like, have you seen Carrie Bradshaw's apartment?

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Speaker 3: Have you seen the apartment on Friends?

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Speaker 2: Like it's impossible, so unattainable.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So you're growing up, you want to be some

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Speaker 1: sort of like business financial journalist right right.

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Speaker 3: With maybe some variation there, but journalism definitely like.

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Speaker 1: Into that Okay. And where do we go to college?

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Speaker 3: I went to Harvard?

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Speaker 4: Oh, Jazzy, that's I've never heard Jazzy to describe.

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Speaker 2: Are you serious?

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Speaker 3: I I like Jazzy's much like a much nicer I

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Speaker 3: get ow, I get like hoity toity or fancy, which

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Speaker 3: was like not my college experience at all. Jazzy was

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Speaker 3: actually pretty close to my college experience.

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Speaker 1: Well, tell me about your college experience.

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Speaker 3: It was a very positive experience. I had a fantastic time.

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Speaker 3: Uh so much so that I still live within like

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Speaker 3: ten blocks of three or four of my roommates from college,

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Speaker 3: just because we all moved to New York.

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Speaker 1: As a sitcom just like waiting to be filmed here.

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Speaker 3: It's a really really boring sitcom. But yeah, I was

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Speaker 3: involved with like TV and play production in college. I

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Speaker 3: played on the rugby team, I studied immigration, which was

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Speaker 3: a really cool thing that I got to do. And

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Speaker 3: I actually got funding to travel through Europe and actually

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Speaker 3: study immigration in Europe, which is something I'd always kind

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Speaker 3: of been an interest of interest to me. And Yeah,

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Speaker 3: that was a really fantastic set of experiences. And the

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Speaker 3: fact that I got funding to travel a lot in college,

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Speaker 3: both with the rugby team and also for my own

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Speaker 3: research was something that I think has really helped shape

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Speaker 3: my worldview today. And growing up in the South, going

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Speaker 3: to boarding school is something that I hadn't had the

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Speaker 3: opportunity to do before that, right.

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Speaker 1: Right, you know, it's funny. I thought so many times

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Speaker 1: about studying at Broad in college, but I was always

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Speaker 1: too worried about the fomo of not being on campus.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't until only just recently that I actually started

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Speaker 1: traveling and doing a lot of it. And last year

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Speaker 1: I did this solo trip to Italy, and while I

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Speaker 1: was there for ten days, all I could think to

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Speaker 1: myself was, Wow, when and if I ever have kids

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Speaker 1: like I am totally pushing them to study abroad.

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Speaker 3: So I spent most of the time where I was

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Speaker 3: doing my research in Italy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, actually, and where about in Rome?

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Speaker 3: So I was studying migrant integration into Rome, and Italy's

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Speaker 3: very it's different city to city and region to region.

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Speaker 3: Really like Sicily is very different than Lasio, like it's

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Speaker 3: very at Rome's very different than Florence. So I really

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Speaker 3: tried to like study one metropolitan area, which itself was very,

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Speaker 3: very difficult. And even within Rome, you have Rome, you

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Speaker 3: have the Vatican, you have all these different link diverse parts.

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Speaker 3: It was a really good It opened my eyes a

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Speaker 3: bit to the fact that you can have a developed

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Speaker 3: country where the lifestyle is just a complete one eighty

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Speaker 3: from what I was used to.

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Speaker 1: Right right, Okay, so you're at Harvard, You're doing all

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Speaker 1: this travel, you come back, you graduate, and what happens

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Speaker 1: on the job front.

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Speaker 3: So I applied to law school, I got in, and

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Speaker 3: I deferred from law school for two years because I

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Speaker 3: was like, well, that was also like shortly after the

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Speaker 3: financial crisis, everyone was saying, become a lawyer because they'll

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Speaker 3: always have jobs, which is not necessarily the case, but

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Speaker 3: like we all were just panicking and we didn't know,

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Speaker 3: we didn't know what to do or if there'd be

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Speaker 3: jobs available. So it was like just punt it, go

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Speaker 3: to grad school, put off finding a job for three

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Speaker 3: or four years, but I wanted to try the journalism thing,

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Speaker 3: so I moved it. I deferred from law school for

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Speaker 3: two years, moved to New York, started writing for Fortune

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Speaker 3: and Fortune dot com. So I was like doing the

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Speaker 3: business journalist thing, and quickly was offered quickly, shortly the

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Speaker 3: after it was offered a position at a startup. And

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Speaker 3: after a few weeks working what I thought was a

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Speaker 3: version of my dream job when I was in high school,

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Speaker 3: I left for a startup.

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Speaker 2: Okay, why.

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Speaker 3: I figured that since I was deferring from law school

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Speaker 3: for two years and I never ended up going to

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Speaker 3: law school. By the way, this deferral just became like

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Speaker 3: a lifelong thing. I was like, well, I should just

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Speaker 3: say yes to all these opportunities because I'm deferring for

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Speaker 3: two years to try and be a journalist and try

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Speaker 3: and experience this thing I always thought I wanted, but

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Speaker 3: like probably wasn't realistic. And so I was like, well,

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Speaker 3: you know, I had a few weeks doing that business

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Speaker 3: journalist thing I always thought I was going to do.

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Speaker 3: Now I'll go work for a startup. And it doesn't

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Speaker 3: matter because in two years or in a year and

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Speaker 3: a half, I'm going to go back to law school.

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Speaker 3: And then, you know, I one thing led to another

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Speaker 3: and I got involved in fitness and wellness journalism, and

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Speaker 3: now that's what I do for a career.

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Speaker 1: You stop working as a journalist and you go to

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Speaker 1: the startup, what do you do at the startup?

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Speaker 3: So I'm still a journalist. So I was. I was

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Speaker 3: the first editorial director of Greatest Yeah. Yeah. So it

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Speaker 3: was like it was it was still within the content

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Speaker 3: creation field, but instead of writing, instead of like going

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Speaker 3: into the staff meeting every morning and pitching the Fortune

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Speaker 3: dot Com editor or you know, my editor at Fortune

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Speaker 3: dot com on this like specific business thing that I

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Speaker 3: would spend the next two days doing, it was more

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Speaker 3: fast paced. It was multimedia creation. I was working with

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Speaker 3: a very you know, young team and really helping to

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Speaker 3: build that young team yeah, of people, a lot of

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Speaker 3: people fresh out of college, trying to build this online

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Speaker 3: presence and build a site from the ground up. And

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Speaker 3: one thing that really did appeal to me from that was,

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Speaker 3: you know, when I was at Fortune and Fortune dot Com,

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Speaker 3: it was you You're very siloed. You like write on

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Speaker 3: your thing, you post your thing, you move on to

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Speaker 3: the next thing, and at least I in my very

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Speaker 3: short time there wasn't learning a lot about the other

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Speaker 3: aspects of building a web presence, right right, And so

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Speaker 3: this this was like I was like, oh, well, since

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Speaker 3: I'm only doing this for two years anyway, and I'm

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Speaker 3: going to go to law school, clearly I'll get to

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Speaker 3: just learn about building a website. I'll get to learn

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Speaker 3: about the tech end and design and running an editorial

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Speaker 3: team and all these little things that I'll never get

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Speaker 3: to experience again, which ended up being a really good

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Speaker 3: opportunity because I needed exposure to all those different aspects

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Speaker 3: and I needed to learn what I wasn't good at.

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Speaker 2: When you got there, what was your title?

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Speaker 3: I was the first editorial director.

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Speaker 1: How do you walk in being an editorial director? Like

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Speaker 1: so fast out of college?

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Speaker 3: It was a It was a really it was a

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Speaker 3: situation where I'm certain I bid off more than I

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Speaker 3: could than I could chew. But that was the position.

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Speaker 3: That was a position I was offered, and I was

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Speaker 3: evolved with greatest from a very early stage. And it

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Speaker 3: wasn't necessarily I don't think it was a position that

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Speaker 3: maybe I was built for at the time, but it

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00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:49,040
Speaker 3: was a position they needed filled. And you know, I

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Speaker 3: knew the founder. I'd gone to college with the founder.

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Speaker 2: We were very close, and can we talk about that.

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Speaker 1: You obviously had a good friend that helped you get

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Speaker 1: into greatest A lot of people feel that when they

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Speaker 1: don't know someone at a certain place and they're interested

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Speaker 1: in a job there, then sometimes it's like, what's the

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Speaker 1: point it's going to be such a hard job to get,

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Speaker 1: especially at really big companies. For someone looking at an

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Speaker 1: opportunity coming from that angle, what kind of advice do

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Speaker 1: you offer to them to give them an edge on

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Speaker 1: someone who may know someone like you had, I.

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Speaker 3: Think a really useful thing to do. And this is

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Speaker 3: true very much in the fitness industry. As I'm sure

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Speaker 3: you know and can attest to, you don't always have

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Speaker 3: to meet people first in a super professional environment. You

379
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Speaker 3: can meet them. I've met a lot of people I've

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Speaker 3: done business with at the gym. I've met them at meetups.

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Speaker 3: I've met them in situations where the expectation isn't from

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Speaker 3: the beginning that we're going to necessarily work together. One

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Speaker 3: thing I love about New York is that you can

384
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Speaker 3: and this can be tough to do in other cities

385
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Speaker 3: there are structured ways to kind of expand your personal network.

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Speaker 3: One thing about fitness journalism is I feel like these days,

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Speaker 3: whenever I hear about and this is true of of

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00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:02,560
Speaker 3: the Barbin team and the team we've built, I never

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Speaker 3: I rarely meet our team members first in a job

390
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,159
Speaker 3: interview when they're interviewing or applying. Most of the people

391
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Speaker 3: on the team I met through something else in the

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Speaker 3: fitness industry or through someone else in the fitness industry.

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Speaker 3: They were really good at keeping that contact. I made

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Speaker 3: an effort to keep that contact. When we have a

395
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:24,480
Speaker 3: position for them and they find out about it, they

396
00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:26,360
Speaker 3: already kind of know someone on the inside and I'm

397
00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:29,160
Speaker 3: already familiar with their skill set. Now, obviously we still

398
00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,000
Speaker 3: have an application process and we want to higher the

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Speaker 3: most qualified folks. But whether it's a fitness industry or

400
00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:40,440
Speaker 3: another industry, I mean it sounds really cliche, but always

401
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:44,959
Speaker 3: build your network, Always follow up with folks off. It's

402
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:46,960
Speaker 3: easier said than done, and I think it's a skill

403
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:49,720
Speaker 3: that you can curate and get better at with time.

404
00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:51,800
Speaker 3: I think it's something that was really, really, really terrible

405
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Speaker 3: at my early twenties, and it didn't really hit me

406
00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:57,080
Speaker 3: until years later, it's like, oh, this is something I

407
00:18:57,119 --> 00:19:00,159
Speaker 3: should invest in. Have gotten a little lucky with, but

408
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:02,399
Speaker 3: I can probably put some more structure behind.

409
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Speaker 1: What do you say to someone that says like, well,

410
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Speaker 1: that's why this happened.

411
00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,760
Speaker 3: I mean, that's exactly why that happened. That's exactly why

412
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:11,520
Speaker 3: that happened. Because I had gone to college with with

413
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:14,280
Speaker 3: Derek the founder. We were friends in college. We worked

414
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:16,960
Speaker 3: on some projects in college and some like multimedia projects

415
00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:22,040
Speaker 3: and production in college, and we really vibed and we

416
00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:24,560
Speaker 3: have a lot of I think common qualities but also

417
00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:28,120
Speaker 3: a lot of different qualities that complimented each other. And

418
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Speaker 3: when he told me about the project, I was like, cool, Like,

419
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:33,520
Speaker 3: let me know how I can help out. But it

420
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:37,520
Speaker 3: evolved to the point where, you know, a few months

421
00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:40,199
Speaker 3: after I had graduated, he was like, well, you know,

422
00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:41,879
Speaker 3: you can come on full time and do this and

423
00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:44,440
Speaker 3: help get this thing off the ground that I'm trying

424
00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:47,040
Speaker 3: to build. And it was, you know, very much Derek's baby,

425
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Speaker 3: very much his idea and his vision, and it was

426
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,359
Speaker 3: a vision that he, you know, very effectively sold me

427
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,760
Speaker 3: on and I was really proud to you know, I

428
00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:58,919
Speaker 3: was there until the end of twenty thirteen, and I

429
00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,960
Speaker 3: was really out of the work we did, the team

430
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:06,600
Speaker 3: we built, and you know, I think it was an

431
00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:11,160
Speaker 3: influential site, especially during that time when it came to

432
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,920
Speaker 3: what wellness content could be online. I know, the site

433
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:15,359
Speaker 3: went through a lot of changes, produced a lot of

434
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:19,879
Speaker 3: different types of content. The team, you know, grew and expanded,

435
00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:21,760
Speaker 3: and they partnered with a lot of other different companies,

436
00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:24,480
Speaker 3: but it was it was a time in the web

437
00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:28,280
Speaker 3: where I don't think wellness journalism was very well defined,

438
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Speaker 3: and I think that Stage of Greatest really helped give

439
00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:31,280
Speaker 3: some shape to it.

440
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:33,439
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of like the influencer space and

441
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,560
Speaker 1: that there's like so much room for the spread of misinformation,

442
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 1: and so it's so important in all aspects of journalism,

443
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 1: but especially in health and fitness journalism to work with

444
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 1: qualified experts who can help you make smart, fact based content.

445
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,359
Speaker 3: And one of my biggest jobs, they're one of the

446
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,040
Speaker 3: biggest projects that I ever did, was build the greatest

447
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:57,880
Speaker 3: expert network. And now a lot of websites have expert networks.

448
00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,359
Speaker 3: Barbend has an expert network, a lot of the major

449
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:05,560
Speaker 3: just generalist wellness sites online have an expert network and

450
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:07,960
Speaker 3: research references and we were doing a lot of that

451
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,040
Speaker 3: at Greatest before it was before it seemed to be

452
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:13,160
Speaker 3: the editorial standard.

453
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,600
Speaker 1: Okay, so you leave Greatest in twenty thirteen, and then

454
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:17,200
Speaker 1: what happens?

455
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:21,240
Speaker 3: So I did a lot of content consulting for brands

456
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:25,080
Speaker 3: big and small. I helped open up some gyms. I

457
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:29,119
Speaker 3: did some writing for the CrossFit Games website and was

458
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:33,200
Speaker 3: involved was involved with that media team as a consultant.

459
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 2: Can we talk about consulting?

460
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:36,120
Speaker 3: Sure?

461
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:41,800
Speaker 1: People think consulting. How do I say this? Consulting is

462
00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:43,879
Speaker 1: one of those things that if you don't really know

463
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,320
Speaker 1: what goes into it, people are like, oh, they're a consultant,

464
00:21:46,359 --> 00:21:48,879
Speaker 1: and you're like, what the hell does that mean? And

465
00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:52,280
Speaker 1: so my question to you, I guess after that blanket

466
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:55,239
Speaker 1: statement is how do you even start consulting? And how

467
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,440
Speaker 1: do you monetize something like that? Because a lot of

468
00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:00,480
Speaker 1: people I'm sure could be interested in doing some consult work,

469
00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,280
Speaker 1: but it's like, how do I even start consulting?

470
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:05,520
Speaker 3: For me? Was a result of people approaching me. A

471
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,560
Speaker 3: lot of folks I met in the gym or through

472
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:11,320
Speaker 3: other like, they started in non professional capacities approaching me

473
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:13,720
Speaker 3: and saying, hey, can you can you help me out

474
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:15,600
Speaker 3: with this, or like, I have a company, I need

475
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 3: to build an editorial team, can you can you help

476
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:19,440
Speaker 3: me do that? Or can you help me find writers?

477
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,080
Speaker 3: Or can you write for me or produce content for me?

478
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:26,120
Speaker 3: And I started getting approached so so much about that,

479
00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:29,120
Speaker 3: and I was trying to just give advice, but then

480
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,479
Speaker 3: I realized that that wasn't being effective, and just like

481
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,439
Speaker 3: sitting down for coffee with someone and giving them some

482
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 3: pointers on like what I would do in the situation

483
00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:41,600
Speaker 3: would always result in them saying, Okay, cool, can I

484
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:42,520
Speaker 3: pay you to do this?

485
00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:45,080
Speaker 1: Did you know at first what the right amount of

486
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,160
Speaker 1: money was to charge anyone to do these things?

487
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,680
Speaker 3: I had no idea, and I still don't know necessarily.

488
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:52,600
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really great point to make,

489
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,400
Speaker 1: is that a lot of people you look at them

490
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,200
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, they must have it all figured out.

491
00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,320
Speaker 1: But I mean, I've been doing this for three years.

492
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:01,239
Speaker 1: You surely do it for a chunk of time, and

493
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: a lot of the times we're just like running with

494
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: what's the phrase I'm trying to say, going by the

495
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 1: seat of your pants, running by.

496
00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:10,639
Speaker 3: Skin of your teeth, seat of your pants.

497
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:12,000
Speaker 1: You're just going by the skin of.

498
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,959
Speaker 3: Your teeth, running with scissors. Yeah, sure, that's that's different.

499
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:20,359
Speaker 3: It's it's tough too, because I think that that was

500
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:24,240
Speaker 3: that was also a situation where people would would approach

501
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:27,280
Speaker 3: me and like right when I took that leap and

502
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 3: I started doing you know, being a contractor and being

503
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:33,399
Speaker 3: a consultant, and you know, people want different things and

504
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 3: they don't necessarily know what they want. Some people are like, cool,

505
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,399
Speaker 3: we want you to help us be an editor for

506
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,879
Speaker 3: like two months for this for this writing team we have,

507
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:42,879
Speaker 3: and like get them up to speed and then move on,

508
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,960
Speaker 3: like cool, that's that's a project that's defined. And then

509
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 3: some people approach you and they want help with the

510
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,199
Speaker 3: marketing and the content, and they don't necessarily know what

511
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:53,240
Speaker 3: they don't want and what they what they do want,

512
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 3: or where they want that to stop. And you basically

513
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,400
Speaker 3: become like an in house or out of house chief

514
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 3: marketing office and you're working on paid acquisition and organic

515
00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 3: and that was a really cool way for me to

516
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 3: learn about a much broader scope of marketing and how

517
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:14,640
Speaker 3: that integrates with content. But those projects sometimes went on

518
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,080
Speaker 3: for much longer than I thought, became much more deep

519
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,919
Speaker 3: than I thought, because you know, after two weeks they'd say, oh,

520
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:22,320
Speaker 3: can you do this as well? Can you do this

521
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 3: as well? And then suddenly you know your life is

522
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 3: basically being a consultant for that particular company, which can

523
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 3: be fun and which can be rewarding. But you know,

524
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 3: you look back and you're like, wow, where did the

525
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,359
Speaker 3: months go? Because this is what I've been doing full bore,

526
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 3: and I thought it was going to be a shorter

527
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,120
Speaker 3: term project. So that's something that I think a lot

528
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,879
Speaker 3: of people in that situation who I've talked to can

529
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:45,679
Speaker 3: I don't want to say suffer from, because it's not

530
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 3: necessarily a bad thing, but they it takes a lot

531
00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:51,960
Speaker 3: longer and it becomes a lot more involved than maybe

532
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:52,679
Speaker 3: they thought it would be.

533
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: So your big piece of advice to someone who's interested

534
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:59,199
Speaker 1: in doing consulting is one hundred percent define the scope

535
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 1: of work up.

536
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:04,120
Speaker 3: Even more than the scope is to find the timeline. Yeah,

537
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 3: be like, I want to do this for this period

538
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:11,119
Speaker 3: of time because I think it's only fair to you,

539
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,640
Speaker 3: it's only fair to your client, and also you might

540
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 3: have other clients who you want to work with down

541
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:19,119
Speaker 3: the line, and you don't want to kind of leave

542
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 3: them hanging and saying like, oh, give me until next month,

543
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,280
Speaker 3: give me until next month. So scope is one thing,

544
00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:27,399
Speaker 3: but even easier to define that I think helps you

545
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 3: define scope is here's the timeline.

546
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 1: All right, So it's twenty thirteen. You're consulting. How long

547
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:34,159
Speaker 1: do you do this for?

548
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 3: I do that for about so twenty, from the very

549
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 3: end of twenty thirteen, all twenty fourteen, all twenty fifteen

550
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 3: into early twenty sixteen.

551
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,000
Speaker 1: And I find that from people I know that have

552
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:49,119
Speaker 1: gone freelance, you either really like it, you think you

553
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: can do it, it doesn't work out, or you can't

554
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 1: do it.

555
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:57,240
Speaker 3: That's correct for me. I think it worked out. I

556
00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 3: don't know if I anticipated doing it for that long, Okay,

557
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 3: I think it started working out better than I thought,

558
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 3: from like a financial perspective, from like working with the clients.

559
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:08,360
Speaker 3: And the thing is I had a great time. I've

560
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 3: worked with a lot of clients. I was helped, you know,

561
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:12,280
Speaker 3: I did some writing for a CrossFit. I was helping

562
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 3: open gyms and market gyms. I had a great time,

563
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,239
Speaker 3: and I worked with a lot of awesome people. It

564
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:22,960
Speaker 3: wasn't bad work. It was awesome work. And I didn't

565
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 3: necessarily anticipate it having that level.

566
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 1: Got it of success, right, Okay, So what happens then

567
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen?

568
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 3: So in twenty sixteen, I go to CEES Consumer Electronics

569
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,160
Speaker 3: Show in Las Vegas. I'm invited out by a company

570
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 3: I'm working with, and they're doing some work with some

571
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 3: pretty massive tech companies as well, potentially exploring some stuff

572
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 3: in the fitness wearable space, integration in you know, in

573
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 3: integration in gyms and trying to basically develop better fitness

574
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:57,159
Speaker 3: trackers with some really massive tech companies using data in

575
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 3: gyms to influence that. Really cool project, really cool folks,

576
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,199
Speaker 3: and just massive potential, Like the upside to that is

577
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:10,280
Speaker 3: just ginormous, right, I mean, this is like developing new technology.

578
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:13,159
Speaker 3: And I feel like the red carpets rolled out. So

579
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:14,879
Speaker 3: I go out there, and i'd been traveling a lot.

580
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 3: So I had been traveling. I think it was in

581
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,920
Speaker 3: twenty it was twenty fifteen. I was on the road

582
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 3: for twenty six weeks of the year.

583
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:24,200
Speaker 2: Wow.

584
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 3: And it was just it was a lot of travel,

585
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 3: and I thought, that's a lifestyle I wanted. I was

586
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 3: spending a lot of time in Miami and DC, and

587
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 3: sometime in California and then and then I get to

588
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 3: go to Vegas, which is like the third time, second

589
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 3: or third time I'd been to Vegas for a long

590
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,360
Speaker 3: period of time working with these clients, and they roll

591
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 3: out the red carpet and I, you know, I have

592
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,560
Speaker 3: access to all this fun stuff at CEES and it's

593
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:53,160
Speaker 3: just this giant, awesome, awesome thing. And I know there's

594
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 3: partying everywhere, and that's an option for me, and I

595
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 3: get to meet like, you know, celebrity DJs and like

596
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:01,919
Speaker 3: cool off like that. And I took way too much

597
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:07,200
Speaker 3: advantage of that partying aspect of it. And I had

598
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 3: this moment where I got some texts from some friends

599
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,919
Speaker 3: seeing how things were going, and I realized I just

600
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,600
Speaker 3: wasn't responding to them. I wasn't curating life. I think

601
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 3: I wanted to curate for myself in New York. I

602
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,919
Speaker 3: just had this moment where I felt hungover and completely

603
00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 3: disconnected from everything that was important to me at home.

604
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 3: And at the end of CEES, I knew to myself

605
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 3: that I needed to re establish my roots and I

606
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 3: wasn't sure at all how I was going to do that.

607
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 3: But that lifestyle for me, it's great for some people.

608
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 3: But at that point I was a bit emotionally and

609
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 3: spiritually tapped out.

610
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 1: A quick break from today's episode to give my sponsor,

611
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612
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613
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614
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615
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616
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617
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618
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619
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620
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621
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622
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623
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624
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625
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626
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627
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628
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630
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631
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632
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Speaker 1: trust me, you got to check it out. Now, let's

633
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: get back to it. I find that when I'm traveling

634
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 1: so much, or I keep saying yes and yes and yes.

635
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 1: It's one thing to say yes to really great opportunities.

636
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: It's another thing to say yes to get away from

637
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 1: other things that you don't want to deal with. Right So,

638
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: for me, a lot of the time when I'm traveling, I,

639
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 1: before I say the yes, ask myself, like, what is

640
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: the benefit of this experience? What am I going to

641
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: be able to do here? What will I produce here?

642
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:45,959
Speaker 1: What will I get out of it? What will If

643
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:47,719
Speaker 1: I'm working with a brand, what will they get out

644
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 1: of it? Is that what I want to be doing

645
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: or is that what foot I want to put forward

646
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 1: right now? Because a lot of the time, back to

647
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,600
Speaker 1: this idea of establishing roots. When you're traveling all over

648
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:00,640
Speaker 1: the place, you really do give up a piece of yourself.

649
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,080
Speaker 3: I agree, and I think some people are fantastic at

650
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 3: balancing that. Though a lot of the folks I worked with,

651
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 3: I thought I could do what they did. They spent

652
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 3: a lot of time on the road, but they were

653
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 3: still fantastic at maintaining that home life, whether it was

654
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,720
Speaker 3: bringing family members with them, whether it was blocking off

655
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 3: vacation time or time where you know, they were just

656
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 3: focused in on their families and their home environment. They

657
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 3: were great at that. And I was trying to keep

658
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 3: up with them and live this lifestyle without spending any

659
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 3: energy or any thought to valuing that aspect and that

660
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:42,280
Speaker 3: part of my life right. And it wasn't the kind

661
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:45,160
Speaker 3: of thing where, you know, I felt like I was

662
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 3: going to to, you know, die. It wasn't the kind

663
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 3: of thing where I felt like it was a completely

664
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:56,360
Speaker 3: unsalvageable moment. But it was an experience where personally I

665
00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 3: started feeling extraordinarily empty, and I knew that the longer

666
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 3: I continued with it, the more difficult it was going

667
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 3: to be to recognize that I was undervaluing something about myself.

668
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:11,040
Speaker 1: So how do you get out of the funk?

669
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 3: I just kind of quit Cold Turkey. So I was like, hey, folks,

670
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 3: and this was with a few different companies I was

671
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:23,480
Speaker 3: working with. I was like, I need some time. I

672
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 3: don't think I can do this anymore. You've been fantastic.

673
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 3: I can connect you with people who can do what

674
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:30,880
Speaker 3: I've been doing, which I really tried to do, and

675
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 3: I think is important in that situation because inadvertently or intentionally,

676
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 3: these companies, if you're consulting, will build a lot of

677
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 3: systems around you, and when you leave those people can

678
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:46,480
Speaker 3: kind of suffer the consequences of that. So I was like, look,

679
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 3: I can connect you with folks, but I just have

680
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 3: to quit Cold Turkey. And my intention was to kind

681
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 3: of do like I guess I would call it a

682
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 3: walk about in Australia, just like take some time and

683
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,600
Speaker 3: reevaluate and not work. I thought maybe I was going

684
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 3: to thought maybe I'd go home to Kentucky and like

685
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 3: spend some time living at my mom's house for a

686
00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 3: couple of months and just getting away makeup for lost time,

687
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 3: but also just get away from from everything. That's when

688
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 3: I that's what I thought I would do, and it's

689
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 3: not what I did. And when we were talking about

690
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 3: you brought up a really good point in you bringing

691
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:22,520
Speaker 3: up this point in a lot of your podcast, Emily,

692
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 3: and when we were first chatting about this recording, you

693
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:31,280
Speaker 3: brought this up, leaning into what you know and for me,

694
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 3: shortly after I decided to take this time off, I

695
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 3: was connected with my co founders who ended up co

696
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 3: founding bar and with me, and you know, they said

697
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 3: they wanted to work with me on some different projects

698
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:49,640
Speaker 3: and they said, I said, I need some time, and

699
00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 3: they're like, well, what do you really want to be doing?

700
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 3: What really motivates you? And I was still super super

701
00:33:56,320 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 3: motivated by the fitness industry and by producing like content

702
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 3: in the fitness industry and finding the gaps and filling

703
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 3: that I didn't want to stop. I realized I didn't

704
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,879
Speaker 3: want to stop working. I just wanted to work here.

705
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 3: I wanted to be in New York. I wanted to

706
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 3: be present, I wanted to be building something here. And

707
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 3: we ended up launching Barbend about a month after that,

708
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 3: and that was really just the site I always kind

709
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 3: of wanted to see. But the intention with that was

710
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:29,040
Speaker 3: start a company where I can build some roots and

711
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 3: grow something and really focus in on it without feeling

712
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 3: like two months later, I'm going to be working for

713
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:36,280
Speaker 3: a completely different company.

714
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 1: Right when you start Barbend from scratch, do you have

715
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:46,360
Speaker 1: any sort of trajectory or dream of what will happen.

716
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,760
Speaker 3: I thought we were going to be just the news

717
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 3: site for strength sports, and one thing that really appealed

718
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,400
Speaker 3: to me about it was I wanted to develop ways

719
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 3: to cover the news from where I was living at

720
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 3: the time, New York. I was done with the travel.

721
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,759
Speaker 3: I wanted to really build my roots here. So I

722
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:07,720
Speaker 3: thought that if we're just covering written news blog style,

723
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 3: I can cover that from anywhere. I can interview people

724
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,359
Speaker 3: over the phone, I can get my sources that way.

725
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:15,840
Speaker 3: Barbon's grown since then. We do more travel. Now we

726
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 3: have a team that travels. I travel personally less. But

727
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:20,359
Speaker 3: I thought it was just going to be like that.

728
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:21,960
Speaker 3: I thought it was going to be kind of a

729
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 3: small blog news style article. I thought maybe we could

730
00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 3: monetize down the road, figure it out down the road.

731
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:31,760
Speaker 3: But I figured to be like me and my co founders,

732
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:33,480
Speaker 3: and we were also working on some other projects at

733
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 3: the time, and they had some existing projects they were

734
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 3: working on. But I was like, that'll be it. Well,

735
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 3: we'll grow that and it'll be like a fun lifestyle business.

736
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 3: You know. That's what I'll that's what I'll do.

737
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,240
Speaker 2: I'll have my little blog, my little blog, my little.

738
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 3: Blog, which you know is it's cool like people who

739
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:51,799
Speaker 3: are professional bloggers and they have those personal blogs, like

740
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 3: kudos to them. They make it work. And it's really,

741
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 3: I think, very tough to make those work in today's

742
00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:57,720
Speaker 3: digital environment.

743
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,360
Speaker 1: When you started with your little blog in your head,

744
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:03,600
Speaker 1: what were you thinking about money?

745
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 3: I wasn't or not as much as I should have. Maybe. Yeah,

746
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:13,520
Speaker 3: we had some my business partners, my my co founders,

747
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 3: we had some other projects we were doing at the time.

748
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,359
Speaker 3: We were and and here's the thing. We I still

749
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,120
Speaker 3: ended up doing some consulting on the side to kind

750
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 3: of pay the to basically pay the bills. But we

751
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 3: realized a few months in that if we wanted to

752
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 3: make this work, it couldn't just be like three dudes

753
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 3: and a blog forever, because that that's just not how

754
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,759
Speaker 3: like you put food on the table. So we did

755
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:41,840
Speaker 3: end up raising a round of funding actually shortly thereafter,

756
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 3: like okay, we can we set out a business plan,

757
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:45,920
Speaker 3: we can we can grow this, we can make it

758
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:50,080
Speaker 3: a business. The honeymoon period was like I'd say three

759
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 3: to four months.

760
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 1: Okay, and then bar Been starts to take off.

761
00:36:55,520 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, it starts to We get a good influx of

762
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,880
Speaker 3: traffic in like middle of twenty sixteen, just from some

763
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:08,800
Speaker 3: random events like Eddie Hall, who's a strongman competitor deadlifted

764
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 3: five hundred kilograms. He was the first person to ever

765
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 3: do that, the only person to ever do that. We

766
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 3: wrote an article on it. Suddenly we're getting picked up

767
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 3: in Bleacher Report and on CNN and like Men's Health

768
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,919
Speaker 3: and all these other all these other sites are linking

769
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 3: to us and citing us, and we get this huge

770
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:26,320
Speaker 3: traffic influx. We cover World's Strongest Band that year, same

771
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:29,680
Speaker 3: thing happens. We cover the Crossfeit Games, same thing happens,

772
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 3: and that traffic influx gets us a little more attention.

773
00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 3: We get approached by USA Weightlifting later that year to

774
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,320
Speaker 3: partner with them. That was kind of our first official

775
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 3: media partnership, one of one of several, and those are

776
00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 3: kind of the inflection points that really made us say, Okay,

777
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 3: we have to turn this into an actual business, and

778
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:51,359
Speaker 3: maybe we can.

779
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: I think also what you're pointing out here is that

780
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 1: you guys were in like a very small niche, like

781
00:37:57,280 --> 00:38:01,600
Speaker 1: you had a very unique skill set, and that is

782
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: when you really have a really big opportunity to grow

783
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,640
Speaker 1: something or monetize something. Right Like I have a friend

784
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:12,840
Speaker 1: who is one of a few of very skilled running

785
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: race photographers, and him and his friends now have a

786
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: business of sorts going around the country and shooting races

787
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,400
Speaker 1: because they are really good at what they do and

788
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: they have great access, and this is what works for them.

789
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 1: I think that by being in such a small niche,

790
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 1: with such a desired skill set, it makes you so

791
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,160
Speaker 1: valuable for a greater population.

792
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:36,520
Speaker 3: It was the kind of thing where I didn't realize

793
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:39,719
Speaker 3: so we were producing. We started off producing news about

794
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,880
Speaker 3: strength sports. I didn't realize that was a commodit. I

795
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:44,960
Speaker 3: thought that was a commodity people wanted to read. I

796
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,799
Speaker 3: didn't realize that was a commodity at the time that

797
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 3: brands wanted to get involved with that, organizations wanted to

798
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 3: get involved with that had that monetary value. You're completely right.

799
00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,000
Speaker 3: I think a lot of companies like ourselves start up

800
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:02,520
Speaker 3: off really niche, and we expand a bit broader, and

801
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 3: they expand a bit broader. And that's exactly what is

802
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:07,280
Speaker 3: happening and has happened for us, We've had to expand

803
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 3: a bit broader, so not like just the news anymore. Yeah,

804
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 3: but realizing that we were really good at covering that

805
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 3: specific thing that other people weren't investing the time in.

806
00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 3: It took a while to convince myself that that had

807
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:21,280
Speaker 3: tangible value.

808
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: What's the first partnership that comes your way that really

809
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,319
Speaker 1: shakes you like, while we have got something here.

810
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,200
Speaker 3: It was our USA Weightlifting partnership. Yeah, definitely, because to

811
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:34,240
Speaker 3: see your logo on a Team USA dot org site

812
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,480
Speaker 3: and then shortly after to have them say, well, can

813
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:41,359
Speaker 3: you run color commentary at the Pan American Championships? Hey,

814
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 3: can you run color commentary Atternational Championships? Hey? Even like

815
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:47,920
Speaker 3: the next year, hey can you help run color commentary

816
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 3: at the World Championships, which they ended up hosting kind

817
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 3: of last minute. Actually, that was when I was like, okay, okay,

818
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 3: this is real. And when you start being able to

819
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,800
Speaker 3: say that. When I would introduce myself is someone from Barbend,

820
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:03,839
Speaker 3: people would be like, okay, cool, I've heard of it,

821
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 3: and then it suddenly changed to hey, Barbend, we're you know,

822
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,520
Speaker 3: the official media partner of UFA weightlifting people took us

823
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 3: a lot more seriously.

824
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: Right, and when does the team become more than just

825
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:16,360
Speaker 1: three guys?

826
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:21,640
Speaker 3: We started hiring folks in We hired two staff writers

827
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 3: who are now staff editors. They're both still with the

828
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 3: company in late twenty sixteen and you know, had to

829
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:32,080
Speaker 3: move into a different office actually build editorial systems. And

830
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:35,479
Speaker 3: the team's grown a bit, actually quite a bit since then.

831
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:39,319
Speaker 3: We're now based in Dumbo in Brooklyn, which seems to

832
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:41,960
Speaker 3: be like a media media team hotspot, or at least

833
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 3: part of our team. As part of our team is

834
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 3: in Austin, Texas as well, so we're kind of split

835
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:50,279
Speaker 3: and we have an office there and the team, I'd

836
00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:55,920
Speaker 3: say between early twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen we had

837
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 3: about a year where the team didn't grow at all.

838
00:40:57,440 --> 00:40:59,320
Speaker 3: We were like, let's build it this size, so we

839
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:03,839
Speaker 3: had five five folks total. We've hired a good bit

840
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:06,480
Speaker 3: since then, and a lot of that hiring has been

841
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 3: on the multimedia side, so video production, graphic design.

842
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 1: Right, right, So how do you feel about the work

843
00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:14,320
Speaker 1: that you're doing now?

844
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:17,600
Speaker 3: The work we're doing now is better than any work

845
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:21,880
Speaker 3: we've done before. It's not going to be enough in

846
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 3: six months. We have to expand what we're doing. When

847
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:27,680
Speaker 3: we started off, it was just written content, and then

848
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:30,759
Speaker 3: we start producing some graphic content, and then we start

849
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 3: incorporating video. Now we have a podcast. You have to

850
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 3: do it all. Even if you're a niche brand, you

851
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 3: have to do everything. You have to meet consumers in

852
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 3: your niche audience everywhere. They want to consume content, whether

853
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 3: it's listening, reading, watching, and so we're going to the

854
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:52,279
Speaker 3: goal is to produce more specialized content for all these platforms.

855
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:55,959
Speaker 3: So we need content for IGTV, we need content that's

856
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 3: we need. We have one podcast now, we'll probably have

857
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:03,439
Speaker 3: four different podcasts in the next year specialized for these subniches.

858
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:08,400
Speaker 3: More and more audiences don't want to release search for

859
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:12,279
Speaker 3: the content or search for a specific brand. Necessarily, you

860
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:13,719
Speaker 3: have to meet them on the platform.

861
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,320
Speaker 1: What's interesting is that I asked you how you feel

862
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:20,440
Speaker 1: about what you're doing, and you just completely shifted it

863
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 1: to brand.

864
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,439
Speaker 2: So how do you feel about what you're doing? Oh,

865
00:42:24,480 --> 00:42:27,360
Speaker 2: you caught me so good, You're welcome.

866
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:32,399
Speaker 3: What I'm doing is I need to move from a

867
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:36,840
Speaker 3: role where I am doing a lot of editing to

868
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 3: a role which I think I'm pretty good at. I

869
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 3: like to think I'm pretty good at it. I can

870
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:46,640
Speaker 3: always grow to a role where I'm just supporting our

871
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:51,320
Speaker 3: editorial team because there are things that they are better

872
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 3: at than I am at. And as our team continues

873
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:56,719
Speaker 3: to grow, we will bring on people whose skills are

874
00:42:56,719 --> 00:42:59,000
Speaker 3: just light years ahead of mine on those specific things.

875
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 3: And I need to figure how to support those people

876
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:04,440
Speaker 3: who have skill sets that maybe I don't even fully

877
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,759
Speaker 3: understand that deeply because there's so much better at them

878
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 3: than I am. You know, how can I support them?

879
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:12,600
Speaker 3: How can I make sure they have the resources they need.

880
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:15,239
Speaker 3: That's going to be a big learning experience for me

881
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:16,759
Speaker 3: because I'm going to be doing a lot less of

882
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:18,640
Speaker 3: the day to day as the team grows.

883
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 1: And what have you done to be more present than

884
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:25,440
Speaker 1: in your relationships since coming back to New York and

885
00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:28,400
Speaker 1: growing roots in twenty sixteen.

886
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,400
Speaker 3: Spending a lot more face time with people. When you

887
00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:36,440
Speaker 3: told me that you recorded this podcast in person, it

888
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 3: was like the best thing I had heard about, because

889
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:41,640
Speaker 3: the one great thing about living in New York is

890
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:45,239
Speaker 3: you can meet up with people so easily. You don't

891
00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 3: have to drive ninety minutes you can hop on the

892
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 3: subway or you can I mean I walked here. You

893
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 3: can spend a lot of face time with people, and like,

894
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:57,240
Speaker 3: no one does long catch up phone calls anymore.

895
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:01,440
Speaker 1: I don't think I try radically. I have some very

896
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,319
Speaker 1: good friends that live all over the place, so but

897
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:06,160
Speaker 1: I will say they're like you and far between.

898
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:06,359
Speaker 3: Right.

899
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:10,959
Speaker 1: It's like once every other every two months, I'll have

900
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 1: a call with my college roommate and it'll last for

901
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: forty five minutes and we'll both be cooking dinner and

902
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 1: I get off that phone call every time and I'm like, wow,

903
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:20,760
Speaker 1: that was so nice.

904
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:22,440
Speaker 3: I am so bad at that.

905
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are.

906
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:26,680
Speaker 3: I think I've had three of those in my entire life. Okay,

907
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:30,680
Speaker 3: Like I am just so bad at having these long

908
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:34,120
Speaker 3: catch up conversations on the phone. So being in person

909
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 3: is huge. I am that person who will text you

910
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:39,799
Speaker 3: like what are you doing for dinner tonight? Or what

911
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:42,400
Speaker 3: are you doing for breakfast, even though I'm not a

912
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 3: morning person, like I really, and I'll just show up

913
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:48,240
Speaker 3: at people's apartment buildings so like, oh, I'm like nothing,

914
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,400
Speaker 3: I'm like great, I'm ten minutes away.

915
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:52,560
Speaker 1: Well, when all of your friends live in a four

916
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:54,040
Speaker 1: block radius.

917
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:57,000
Speaker 3: Not all of them, not all of them, not all

918
00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 3: of them. And one really cool thing about have a

919
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,200
Speaker 3: space now now that you know Barbon has the space

920
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:05,919
Speaker 3: in Dumbo, is you know, we can have people over

921
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:09,239
Speaker 3: so it's not necessarily me running around to folks. We

922
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:12,319
Speaker 3: can host people, people that maybe we are working with

923
00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:14,520
Speaker 3: or want to work with, or people who are just

924
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:17,439
Speaker 3: fans of the brand who are friends. They can come by.

925
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,239
Speaker 3: We have a space where like we can catch up.

926
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 3: It's comfortable, yeah, you know it. It looks cool. We

927
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:27,799
Speaker 3: have a cool rooftop as well, so more people have

928
00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:30,040
Speaker 3: like started coming to us and spending FaceTime with us,

929
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 3: and it's really cool to see not just me, but

930
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:34,440
Speaker 3: the entire Barbend team. If they meet people at like,

931
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:37,479
Speaker 3: you know, a shoe launch event like we were talking

932
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,000
Speaker 3: about before we started recording, right, you know, they'll then

933
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 3: invite people over to the office and that's a really

934
00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:44,040
Speaker 3: really cool way to connect with folks.

935
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:49,120
Speaker 1: Totally, you've had a hand in building now two really

936
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 1: great editorial brands, both Greatest and bar Bend. When you

937
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 1: look over this stage in your career, what would you

938
00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:00,080
Speaker 1: say has been one of the best pieces of advice

939
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:01,880
Speaker 1: that you've been offered.

940
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:04,360
Speaker 3: Except that you're not going to be the best at everything.

941
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 3: It's a great piece of advice. I'm bad at listening

942
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 3: to it oftentimes because I think that and I'm sure

943
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,600
Speaker 3: this is something as someone who you're someone who does

944
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:17,520
Speaker 3: a lot of different things in media, and you've worn

945
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:20,239
Speaker 3: a lot of different hats as a writer, as a podcaster,

946
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:24,360
Speaker 3: as an editor. It's really tempting to say, my skill

947
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,040
Speaker 3: set can be superlative and can be awesome in all

948
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:30,200
Speaker 3: of this, and it can be like, you can be

949
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:34,920
Speaker 3: very skilled, but ultimately you're going to find people who

950
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:36,840
Speaker 3: are better than you at things, and you need to

951
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,360
Speaker 3: be able to not only accept that and embrace that.

952
00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 3: That's fantastic advice I've heard from a lot of different people.

953
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:45,319
Speaker 3: I'm really bad at accepting it because like my ego

954
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:47,279
Speaker 3: just gets in the way and I'm like, oh, but

955
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:48,919
Speaker 3: I'm going to be the best editor on the team,

956
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 3: but I'm going to be the best podcaster on the team.

957
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,960
Speaker 3: That's all blowney, right, It's not going to like it's

958
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:55,280
Speaker 3: not going to be that way forever.

959
00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:55,879
Speaker 2: I think.

960
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 1: Also, you get into this place where you're doing different

961
00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:02,000
Speaker 1: things every day, wearing so many different hats, and when

962
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:04,399
Speaker 1: this version of you is in the world and other

963
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,839
Speaker 1: people see you executing on so many different fronts, it's

964
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:09,640
Speaker 1: almost as though they have an expectation that you can

965
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 1: do everything, when in actuality, there are going to be

966
00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:15,960
Speaker 1: days where you feel like you're not good enough to

967
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:18,680
Speaker 1: do X, or you have negative self talk about why

968
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:21,240
Speaker 1: or whatever the case may be. Like today, for example,

969
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:25,920
Speaker 1: in a little bit of a pivot of job versus life,

970
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 1: I was out for a run, or I was getting

971
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: ready to go out for a run, and there were

972
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 1: like twenty reasons why it was not going to happen

973
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 1: in my head, Like I tried five different pairs of headphones,

974
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:38,960
Speaker 1: all of the wireless no cord headphones weren't working. And

975
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:40,719
Speaker 1: then I remember that at one time in life we

976
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:43,600
Speaker 1: used ones with chords, and I had the old iPhone

977
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:46,719
Speaker 1: corded headphones in my in my bundle of cords in

978
00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:48,120
Speaker 1: my living room, so I got those.

979
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:48,879
Speaker 2: I went out.

980
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:50,560
Speaker 1: I was wearing leggings because I thought I was going

981
00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:51,719
Speaker 1: to go to the gym, but then I didn't have

982
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:53,239
Speaker 1: time to get to the gym, so I just needed

983
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:54,800
Speaker 1: to start running. And I went out there and I

984
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 1: felt bloated, and there were already all these things, and

985
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:00,960
Speaker 1: I posted on the Instagram on the instare I posted

986
00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:03,280
Speaker 1: on my Instagram like, man.

987
00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:04,880
Speaker 2: That just sucked and that was awful.

988
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:07,279
Speaker 1: And it was like as though my audience thought that

989
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:09,960
Speaker 1: I never had a bad day. I'm like bad days

990
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 1: happened all the time. Like just because I can run

991
00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:16,000
Speaker 1: well sometimes doesn't mean I'm gonna run really well all.

992
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:16,319
Speaker 2: Of the time.

993
00:48:16,400 --> 00:48:19,480
Speaker 1: So to this idea of you being you know, an

994
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 1: editorial director, a writer and editor overseeing a team doing

995
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:25,879
Speaker 1: all these things, like every single day, you aren't going

996
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:28,759
Speaker 1: to be the best editor or the best writer or

997
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,560
Speaker 1: the best editorial director. But it takes someone that's really

998
00:48:31,600 --> 00:48:35,400
Speaker 1: strong to own when they feel as though maybe this

999
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 1: isn't my day.

1000
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,920
Speaker 3: I'm I will say, following you on Instagram, I I

1001
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:42,440
Speaker 3: feel like absolutely nothing can stop you from running. So

1002
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,440
Speaker 3: that's really that's some really good insight into the into

1003
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:48,439
Speaker 3: the psychology there. It has to be like but clearly

1004
00:48:48,520 --> 00:48:50,280
Speaker 3: has to be like five different factors.

1005
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:52,640
Speaker 1: Five different bears of the six pair of headphones, they

1006
00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:53,239
Speaker 1: would have been a wrap.

1007
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:58,200
Speaker 3: It's it's tough and I think that you know, especially

1008
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:01,400
Speaker 3: when you are used to being in the early stage

1009
00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:04,000
Speaker 3: of building a brand, or being in the early stage

1010
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,799
Speaker 3: of building like building your podcast. Right when it first

1011
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:09,839
Speaker 3: started off, you were doing everything and you're still wearing

1012
00:49:09,840 --> 00:49:13,120
Speaker 3: a lot of different hats. But as this podcast has grown, right,

1013
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,360
Speaker 3: you're leaning on different people for resources. I love the

1014
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:19,560
Speaker 3: redesigned podcast thumbnail and logo, right, but you had to

1015
00:49:19,560 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 3: rely on a very talented friend to help do that,

1016
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:25,920
Speaker 3: because that might be I don't know, I don't mean

1017
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:27,960
Speaker 3: to insult, but that might be beyond your design.

1018
00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:30,680
Speaker 2: Skills, on my design skill.

1019
00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:33,319
Speaker 3: So as anything grows, you have to be able to

1020
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:36,520
Speaker 3: accept that. But I just sometimes have a really and

1021
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 3: maybe this says something about me. I have a really

1022
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:41,720
Speaker 3: tough time of like pushing my ego aside and telling

1023
00:49:41,760 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 3: myself like, you're not the best at this. You don't

1024
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 3: have time to learn to be the best at this,

1025
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 3: And it's not good for the business to brand the

1026
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:53,400
Speaker 3: people around you if you're wasting your time trying to

1027
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:55,480
Speaker 3: be the best at this. Because there's someone right there

1028
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:58,040
Speaker 3: you can already just knock this out of the park,

1029
00:49:58,080 --> 00:49:59,759
Speaker 3: and you need to trust them and you need to

1030
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 3: spend your time.

1031
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:04,719
Speaker 1: Supporting them, right, especially when you are a contractor and

1032
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 1: you know what your skills are. If you could spend

1033
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:09,680
Speaker 1: two hours doing something you're really good at to make

1034
00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 1: a lot of money, then it almost is a no

1035
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:15,560
Speaker 1: brainer to use those two hours and the money you

1036
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:17,920
Speaker 1: make in those two hours to pay someone to do

1037
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:20,680
Speaker 1: something that would have taken you three hours to do

1038
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:24,839
Speaker 1: so much worse than they could do it. Like if

1039
00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:27,360
Speaker 1: I tried to redesign the hurdle thumbnail, I would have

1040
00:50:27,360 --> 00:50:30,400
Speaker 1: been sitting there staring at things for like four hours

1041
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:33,759
Speaker 1: on like really subpar free software on the Internet, and

1042
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:36,440
Speaker 1: it would look nothing like what I have now, and

1043
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 1: I would have eventually been like, Okay, maybe I actually

1044
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:39,160
Speaker 1: get some help.

1045
00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:40,840
Speaker 3: It'd be like an upside if I did, it'd be

1046
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:43,799
Speaker 3: an upside down stick figure, and your name would be

1047
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:44,200
Speaker 3: missed out.

1048
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:48,080
Speaker 1: Perfect perfect. Okay, So we've talked great career advice, but

1049
00:50:48,239 --> 00:50:50,200
Speaker 1: before I let you go, I feel like we need

1050
00:50:50,239 --> 00:50:52,960
Speaker 1: to nerd out at least a little bit on some

1051
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:56,359
Speaker 1: string stuff. Is there anyone specific in the world that

1052
00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 1: you report on that you just have such like an

1053
00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:03,640
Speaker 1: unwavering a fan I want to call it fanboy kind

1054
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:05,279
Speaker 1: of thing about But I feel like that's kind of

1055
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:10,040
Speaker 1: like a weird way to put it, that's not super woo, that's.

1056
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 3: Not super weird. Okay, one of my favorite athletes, and

1057
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:15,160
Speaker 3: I just don't think she gets enough credit.

1058
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:17,720
Speaker 1: I love that you brought up a woman.

1059
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:21,280
Speaker 3: There are women's strength sports, are that it's the fastest

1060
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 3: growing demographic by far. I don't think she gets enough credit.

1061
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:28,239
Speaker 3: Is Jen Thompson. She's a powerlifter. To say, multi time

1062
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:31,719
Speaker 3: all time world record holder is like the understatement of

1063
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:35,920
Speaker 3: the century. She has And we've done some content with

1064
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 3: her at Barban. I've actually never interviewed her personally, but

1065
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:41,160
Speaker 3: whenever we publish an interview on her, I get a

1066
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,479
Speaker 3: lot of I get really envious of, like the writer

1067
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:45,920
Speaker 3: who got to do that, because I've been following her

1068
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:49,160
Speaker 3: career for so long. She's been called the world's strongest

1069
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:52,840
Speaker 3: soccer mom, which is she is a soccer mom, like

1070
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 3: her kids play soccer. But she's been a powerlifter, competitive

1071
00:51:55,920 --> 00:51:59,239
Speaker 3: powerlifter for well over a decade at this point, and

1072
00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 3: she's just especially in the bench press. I mean, she's good,

1073
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:05,200
Speaker 3: strong all around, but she's just slight years ahead of

1074
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:08,280
Speaker 3: her competition in her weight. In this multiple weight categories

1075
00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:11,080
Speaker 3: she's competed in and the thing I like about her

1076
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:14,120
Speaker 3: is the numbers are just so jaw dropping. It's a

1077
00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:16,600
Speaker 3: really good way to introduce people to powerlifting. Like, what

1078
00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:21,000
Speaker 3: she's done is just so impressive to say that, you know,

1079
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 3: a woman of her of her body weight, you know,

1080
00:52:25,080 --> 00:52:27,960
Speaker 3: call it depending on what bodywaight category she's competing on.

1081
00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 3: You know, one hundred fifty pounds hundred forty five pounds

1082
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:34,040
Speaker 3: is bench pressing three hundred pounds three hundred and fifteen pounds. Wow,

1083
00:52:34,120 --> 00:52:36,440
Speaker 3: Like people can visualize that, right, because even if you're

1084
00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:38,879
Speaker 3: not a fan of powerlifting, but you've been to a gym,

1085
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:40,960
Speaker 3: you know what three plates on each side of a

1086
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:43,759
Speaker 3: barbell looks like and you know that like maybe the

1087
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:47,319
Speaker 3: biggest guy in your globo gym maybe might be able

1088
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:50,759
Speaker 3: to bench press that. But this, but what about like

1089
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:53,839
Speaker 3: a forty something year old woman and you know, mother

1090
00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:56,839
Speaker 3: of I think she has two kids, to just come

1091
00:52:57,080 --> 00:52:59,080
Speaker 3: come in and be able to and be able to

1092
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:03,279
Speaker 3: do that in a competition setting and to competition standards. Yeah, right,

1093
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:07,399
Speaker 3: it's kind of mind blowing and bringing up her accomplishments

1094
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:10,919
Speaker 3: are such a cool way to introduce people to powerlifting

1095
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:13,480
Speaker 3: because people, I think a lot of people don't realize

1096
00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:17,520
Speaker 3: the human body is necessarily capable of that. Right. She's also,

1097
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:20,840
Speaker 3: I think, a fantastic ambassador for the sport. She's friendly,

1098
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:25,880
Speaker 3: she's knowledgeable, you know, she coaches athletes. People love working

1099
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:29,000
Speaker 3: with her. She's just one of my favorite athletes for

1100
00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:32,120
Speaker 3: so many different reasons, and especially because I think that

1101
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:36,200
Speaker 3: following her career is a great way to get a

1102
00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:40,080
Speaker 3: sense of like, what's what's possible in the grand scheme

1103
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:41,799
Speaker 3: of building strength over time.

1104
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:44,040
Speaker 1: You mentioned the lessons that we can take from her

1105
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:47,640
Speaker 1: when it comes to your own personal fitness routine. What

1106
00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 1: do you learn when you're in the gym that you

1107
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:53,120
Speaker 1: bring back with you, either to your personal relationships or

1108
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:55,160
Speaker 1: maybe into the barbend offices.

1109
00:53:56,560 --> 00:54:01,840
Speaker 3: Take time off. I for a long time and still

1110
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 3: will push myself to overtraining very quickly. And I've dealt

1111
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 3: with a lot of injuries. I've had a partial risk reconstruction.

1112
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:13,719
Speaker 3: I've had knee surgery, like I've had a bunch of

1113
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:17,920
Speaker 3: different things that maybe could have been avoided if I

1114
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:20,720
Speaker 3: had listened to my body and taken more recovery time.

1115
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 3: And look, getting stronger happens outside the gym. You break

1116
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:27,799
Speaker 3: your body down, You break down muscle tissue, and you

1117
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 3: train your nervous system, and then you recover outside of

1118
00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:33,640
Speaker 3: the gym. I know that seems really basic. I know

1119
00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:36,640
Speaker 3: that's something we've all heard, right, But if you really

1120
00:54:36,719 --> 00:54:39,200
Speaker 3: enjoy being in the gym, it can be a difficult

1121
00:54:39,360 --> 00:54:42,719
Speaker 3: lesson to learn, and recovery is not linear. You might

1122
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:45,520
Speaker 3: recover this week different than you recovered last week, different

1123
00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:47,520
Speaker 3: than you recovered two years ago when you were a

1124
00:54:47,560 --> 00:54:50,600
Speaker 3: little younger. And I think that lesson can apply for

1125
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:54,320
Speaker 3: a lot in life, right, taking time off, taking time away.

1126
00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 3: You don't necessarily need to be pushing at one hundred

1127
00:54:57,080 --> 00:55:00,360
Speaker 3: percent all the time, and if you do, your progress

1128
00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:04,440
Speaker 3: might stall, it might stop. So I think time in

1129
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:08,600
Speaker 3: the gym building strength. It's a good analogy for a

1130
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:11,080
Speaker 3: lot of things in life. And I know that sounds cliche,

1131
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:15,200
Speaker 3: but every time you talk to a strength athlete, or

1132
00:55:15,200 --> 00:55:18,000
Speaker 3: at least the most common thing I hear from strength athletes,

1133
00:55:18,120 --> 00:55:21,320
Speaker 3: is that I'm overtrained, or I overtrained again, or I

1134
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:22,080
Speaker 3: push too hard.

1135
00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:26,240
Speaker 1: It's hard to take that step back, right, It's hard

1136
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 1: to when you love it so much. Understand that the

1137
00:55:31,239 --> 00:55:33,680
Speaker 1: time off is what's going to help you stay in

1138
00:55:33,719 --> 00:55:37,000
Speaker 1: the game, because when you don't do it, it's as though

1139
00:55:37,040 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 1: you feel as though a part of you is missing,

1140
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:42,600
Speaker 1: or you don't feel excellent in all the other areas

1141
00:55:42,600 --> 00:55:44,520
Speaker 1: of your life. If I don't wake up and I

1142
00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:46,319
Speaker 1: go for a run, or if I don't get that in,

1143
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:48,920
Speaker 1: I feel as though part of me just isn't complete.

1144
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:51,239
Speaker 3: And you identify as a runner totally. It's part of

1145
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:54,160
Speaker 3: your being. It's who you are, right, So if you

1146
00:55:54,680 --> 00:55:56,920
Speaker 3: didn't run on a given day, are you not a

1147
00:55:57,000 --> 00:55:59,840
Speaker 3: runner anymore? It's the same if you're a crossfitter, a powerlifter,

1148
00:56:00,200 --> 00:56:03,160
Speaker 3: a weightlifter. I think crossfitters are the most guilty because

1149
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:06,200
Speaker 3: they're like, well, I'm a crossfitter. I work out nine

1150
00:56:06,239 --> 00:56:09,800
Speaker 3: times a week and just at one hundred percent capacity.

1151
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:14,400
Speaker 3: It's like, maybe maybe don't do that right. And I

1152
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:16,920
Speaker 3: think a lot of folks, you know, they do feel

1153
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:19,239
Speaker 3: like part of their identity is missing if they're not

1154
00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:23,759
Speaker 3: pushing that and making that the number one priority every day.

1155
00:56:23,840 --> 00:56:26,279
Speaker 3: And you know, as a runner, I know it's something

1156
00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:30,160
Speaker 3: where if you were to miss two weeks due to injury, right,

1157
00:56:30,160 --> 00:56:31,719
Speaker 3: there'd be a lot of self questioning.

1158
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:34,520
Speaker 1: There, oh yeah, and getting back after two weeks off

1159
00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:36,320
Speaker 1: is always like a huge.

1160
00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:37,200
Speaker 2: Hurdle within itself.

1161
00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:39,640
Speaker 1: As we wind down the podcast, I always end it

1162
00:56:39,680 --> 00:56:43,440
Speaker 1: with the same question. You have an opportunity, David Thomas

1163
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:48,840
Speaker 1: Howe DTT to offer yourself a piece of advice looking

1164
00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:52,160
Speaker 1: back on that time in Vegas where you're unsure about

1165
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:54,240
Speaker 1: what you're doing with your career. You put a hard

1166
00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:57,200
Speaker 1: stop on so many of your commitments. You have an

1167
00:56:57,200 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 1: opportunity to offer yourself one piece of advice looking back

1168
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:03,840
Speaker 1: on that hurdle moment right now, what do you tell yourself?

1169
00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:07,520
Speaker 3: I would tell myself all the people that I was

1170
00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:09,960
Speaker 3: working with where I said, hey, hard stop, I got

1171
00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:11,680
Speaker 3: to put all this on hold. I got to do

1172
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:15,600
Speaker 3: something else. You know what I didn't do, like six

1173
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:17,640
Speaker 3: or eight months after that. I didn't follow up with

1174
00:57:17,720 --> 00:57:20,600
Speaker 3: him and say, hey, here's what's going on, and here's

1175
00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:22,760
Speaker 3: what I ended up doing. Some of them. I did

1176
00:57:22,800 --> 00:57:25,840
Speaker 3: some of them. I like ran into again, right, But

1177
00:57:26,280 --> 00:57:29,280
Speaker 3: I really wish i'd done that, because I don't. I

1178
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:32,400
Speaker 3: like to think I didn't burn any bridges. But maybe

1179
00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:35,640
Speaker 3: those relationships could be like really really strong right now,

1180
00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:39,800
Speaker 3: and maybe they aren't because I didn't take that time

1181
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:42,520
Speaker 3: to be like let me explain myself, or here's I

1182
00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:45,280
Speaker 3: have some perspective. Now. I don't think it would have

1183
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:48,240
Speaker 3: taken much time, and I think they would have appreciated it,

1184
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:49,680
Speaker 3: and I don't think it would have been annoying, because

1185
00:57:49,720 --> 00:57:50,920
Speaker 3: it would have just been like an email or a

1186
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:53,840
Speaker 3: Facebook message or a text and like, what's the worst

1187
00:57:53,840 --> 00:57:55,840
Speaker 3: that happens? They're like, oh, okay, so that's what he's

1188
00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:58,520
Speaker 3: up to, and they like, just don't respond. It still

1189
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:00,440
Speaker 3: would have been nice, and I think it would have

1190
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:03,360
Speaker 3: been the right thing to do, and I don't and

1191
00:58:03,640 --> 00:58:06,200
Speaker 3: I regret not. I regret not doing it in a

1192
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:07,040
Speaker 3: timely fashion.

1193
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 1: I love this idea of just being kind to people.

1194
00:58:11,720 --> 00:58:14,080
Speaker 1: It's been something that I've been coming back to a

1195
00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:17,880
Speaker 1: lot lately. Is just you never know when in your

1196
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 1: life someone is going to come in and come out,

1197
00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:22,440
Speaker 1: and come in and come out, and so if the

1198
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: best thing I can do is be the best version

1199
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:27,320
Speaker 1: of myself for the people that are around me and

1200
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:29,360
Speaker 1: the people that I come into contact, whether it isn't

1201
00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:32,880
Speaker 1: a personal or a business relationship, I don't burn the bridges.

1202
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:36,000
Speaker 1: I put my best foot forward. Just being kind can.

1203
00:58:35,920 --> 00:58:39,040
Speaker 4: Just go so far and it goes back to why

1204
00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:41,840
Speaker 4: I think I had that, I'll call it a light

1205
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:46,919
Speaker 4: existential crisis. Light just a light existential crisis is because

1206
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:48,600
Speaker 4: I didn't feel like I was connecting with people I

1207
00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:51,720
Speaker 4: wanted to connect with. That should have applied to the

1208
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:54,240
Speaker 4: people that I was working with as well, because I

1209
00:58:54,280 --> 00:58:56,800
Speaker 4: really enjoyed working with so many of these people. And

1210
00:58:56,840 --> 00:58:59,400
Speaker 4: so the whole point of kind of quitting a lot

1211
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:01,920
Speaker 4: of that culture lists that I could connect better with people,

1212
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:04,360
Speaker 4: and then I just failed to do that for this

1213
00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 4: with this group of people, with these groups of people

1214
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:08,320
Speaker 4: who were pretty important to me, I think I kind

1215
00:59:08,320 --> 00:59:10,280
Speaker 4: of missed the forest through the trees there.

1216
00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:12,560
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for hanging out with me.

1217
00:59:12,800 --> 00:59:13,640
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on.

1218
00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:16,560
Speaker 1: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by

1219
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:19,440
Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We

1220
00:59:19,560 --> 00:59:22,520
Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear

1221
00:59:22,520 --> 00:59:24,920
Speaker 1: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle

1222
00:59:24,960 --> 00:59:27,760
Speaker 1: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter

1223
00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:31,480
Speaker 1: at Hurdle Podcast. David Thomastow, where do they find you

1224
00:59:31,560 --> 00:59:34,000
Speaker 1: on social? Where do they find Barbend? Give me the

1225
00:59:34,040 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 1: lowdown on Instagram?

1226
00:59:35,600 --> 00:59:38,600
Speaker 3: I'm at David Thomas Tawe on Instagram. We're just at

1227
00:59:38,640 --> 00:59:42,439
Speaker 3: Barbend Real, real, simple, Twitter. I'm at d Underscore tow

1228
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:46,960
Speaker 3: at Barbendnews on Twitter and then obviously barbend dot com,

1229
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:49,720
Speaker 3: where you can find all of our content. You can

1230
00:59:50,080 --> 00:59:53,360
Speaker 3: watch our videos, read our articles, and we also right

1231
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:57,040
Speaker 3: there in the top menu post all of our podcasts, recordings,

1232
00:59:57,080 --> 01:00:01,520
Speaker 3: full transcriptions, details, interviews with the guests, all that sort

1233
01:00:01,560 --> 01:00:02,560
Speaker 3: of fun stuff.

1234
01:00:02,480 --> 01:00:06,440
Speaker 1: All the content, all of it. I am at Emily

1235
01:00:06,480 --> 01:00:10,320
Speaker 1: a body, another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.