Motivation is a fickle beast. One day, your motivation soars and you finally start a fitness program. The next day, your motivation strands you and threatens your goals.
The trickiest part about motivation is how quickly it comes and goes. Despite it consistently being unreliable, we still feel the need to want to feel it before tackling a big goal.
Well, today’s guest, Paul Clingan (aka The Trooper Transmission CT-3939), the founder of The Trooper Transmission—a Star Wars based fitness program—has stumbled on a way to “hack” your motivation by borrowing it from your favorite movie characters.
Whenever he feels unmotivated, he asks himself what Luke Skywalker would do. And while this may seem a bit weird, it’s incredibly effective.
In today’s show, Paul and I discuss:
- Why borrowing motivation and mindsets from your favorite movie characters give you a sustainable way to hack your motivation and improve your happiness
- How your beliefs and self-image can both inspire you and sabotage you
- Why having more fun in your workouts leads to more consistency and motivation (and eliminates imposter syndrome)
The Better Man Podcast is an exploration of our health and well-being outside of our physical fitness, exploring and redefining what it means to be better as a man; being the best version of ourselves we can be, while adopting a more comprehensive understanding of our total health and wellness. I hope it inspires you to be better!
Use the RSS link to find the Better Man Podcast on other apps: http://feeds.libsyn.com/404744/rss
Show Highlights with Paul Clingan
- How mixing yoga with strength training can entirely eliminate your back pain—while also chiseling you like a Greek god (9:52)
- Do you feel guilty after missing a few workouts? Here’s how to become okay with missing a workout or two without self-sabotaging (10:56)
- The weird way yoga instructors in studio classes risk your body for their ego (15:42)
- Why odd environmental hacks—like hiding an Xbox in a weird location—can actually help you break your bad habits (23:57)
- How donning an alter ego for your workouts make you look forward to them (even when you’re exhausted and unmotivated) (33:57)
- The “North Star” secret for fueling your motivation tank to the brim (35:50)
- How your beliefs about yourself, good or bad, become a self-fulfilling prophecy (and how your favorite movie characters can unlock better beliefs about yourself) (51:28)
- The one question—from a collegiate mental performance coach—that can instantly free you from the vice grip of resistance (1:15:26)
00:00:00:07 – 00:00:26:15
What’s up, guys? It’s Dean. Welcome to the Better Man podcast. Today I am joined by Paul Clingan, who has been a friend of mine since 2018, when he started a a handle, a company, a business called Down Dog Athletics. I love the way it looks so I think I forgot how we connected. But anyways, he has gone on a transformation since then.
0:00:26:15 – 00:00:45:29
He’s figured out what he really wanted to do and created this amazing brand which is incredibly popular and super fun. So we’re going to talk about this thing called Trooper Transmission, which is, from what I can tell, it is a Star Wars based fitness program. So it looks like a ton of fun. Paul, I’m really excited that you’re here.
0:00:45:29 – 00:01:05:07
Thanks for joining me. Yeah, thanks for having me. And that was the perfect intro. Well, that’s I’m really glad because I didn’t write anything for that intro. Usually I write I try to write down intros and I just I usually butcher them anyways. So I just I need to just drop that expectation that I’m going to be good at any sort of intros.
0:01:05:11 – 00:01:24:28
Well, it’s it’s funny because you can learn a lot about your branding by how people who haven’t been, you know, PR brought up to date on what exactly to say. Right. So we kind of talk about this for like let’s say you go on Jimmy Fallon and his team is like, all right, you got to say this about our actor and like, don’t say that.
0:01:24:28 – 00:01:45:12
And so if you just like, look at it at a glance, you be like, oh, it’s Star Wars and Fitness. Or like, I could look at yours and be like, Oh, it’s guys doing yoga, and you’re like, Sweet, you got the concept. And so I’m like, Wow, like, this is so relaxing because it’s very clearly branded as to like what you’re going to get on this page and what I’m about.
0:01:45:27 – 00:02:05:16
Yeah, totally. And I also find that I have a I have a lot of conversations with people who are like, I had a friend with my I had a conversation with a friend of mine who’s thinking about starting a business. And if I can’t understand the concept clearly, like if you can’t explain it to me, I’m like, I’m kind of doubtful that it’s going to take off.
0:02:05:23 – 00:02:28:17
Like, I just if you can’t explain to me what it is in like 30 seconds, I’m just like, I don’t get it. But also like, I’m not I won’t claim to be like a successful all around entrepreneur. Like, I figured out how to do it with what I’m doing with mental yoga and that took like eight years to be anything remotely successful.
0:02:29:27 – 00:02:51:28
But yeah, like it’s a good was good having clear litmus test because I’ve had ideas and my wife will be like, what is this? But I knew, I didn’t know I had something that was cool. I just thought it was cool. Regardless of what other people thought. But my one of my friend’s moms was like, Hey, your stuff’s really cool.
0:02:51:28 – 00:03:08:17
I get it. Your other stuff I didn’t get, but this I get and I was like, Sweet, you’re 60. No idea what Star Wars is. And you get it. You know, I love it when like your I love it when your mom or your parents can like and or like older people can look at it and say, oh, I get it.
0:03:08:28 – 00:03:50:10
Yeah, it’s like validation. It’s like, oh, yeah, perfect. Thank you. So let’s talk about let’s talk about 2018 down dog athletics. When did you start or when did you start kind of getting full time into working in fitness? Yeah. So like 2017, I was working at Amazon. I did a five year stint in the advertising world, corporate stuff, and I got into yoga with a buddy in 2017, 2018, and then just went on this whole mindfulness journey, started meditating, started realizing that I probably don’t want to play 30 hours of video games and black out three nights a week.
0:03:50:21 – 00:04:13:26
And I was like sitting in a yoga class, looking at myself in the mirror where you were you black out while playing video games? Probably. Oh, my gosh. Like I can’t imagine having the coordination to do that. I no, it probably is more just like I’d play video like wake up play video games on a Saturday and then go out and then Sunday, spend it eating pizza and just, you know, the stuff you do when you don’t have it.
0:04:13:27 – 00:04:34:27
I mean, yeah, that’s like the early twenties stuff. Yeah. But I just like sit in this yoga class and just like, man, I don’t want this for my life. And so then just went on this whole, all right, I’m an athlete and I do yoga. And that was kind of like the first example in like, hey, let’s take two things that don’t really go together, mesh them together.
0:04:34:27 – 00:04:54:19
So people then kind of turn their head and like, Oh, interesting. I get it. It’s like contrarian to what you normally think. And so for then for like two years, I basically did like personal training, taught yoga in Seattle, became a Lululemon ambassador, and it was all about like, hey, you need to have the light and the dark side and yoga as a light side.
0:04:54:19 – 00:05:15:05
And you need to also like, you know, do the fitness stuff so that you’ve got like your dark side. So you’re like, Rah, I’m an athlete. And then I was like, okay, for your hands, you know, is your what was your sport? Baseball. Okay. I was a catcher. All right. So you’ve got a great squat. Exactly. Everyone’s like like your ankle mobility is, like, amazing.
0:05:15:10 – 00:05:40:29
Yeah. And everyone’s like, how are your knees? And I’ll be like, fantastic. Because from 15 to now, I’ve gotten asked to grass, like, 3 hours a day. Yeah, it’s amazing. I remember meeting there’s a guy who I work with at Central Athlete who is a the lifting guy there. One of the lifting guys there and his knees go like, I don’t know, like six inches, seven inches passed his toes with his heels on the ground.
0:05:40:29 – 00:06:00:29
Wow. Just like nuts. I’m just like, where is that coming from? And then I try to do it and I’m like, Oh, we have different bodies. Yeah, exactly. My femurs. Not as long as yours. Yeah. So cool. So down, Doug. Out. And that actually sounds a lot like what I did when I was, you know, from like 2013 to 20.
0:06:01:08 – 00:06:26:27
I was a 2017 until my numbers area really took off. I would say that’s what I was doing. I was like, same thing. I was like doing personal training. I was trying to find and I was like throwing all that back into, like trying to build an online business. Yeah. So, and then you, so you kind of, you kind of pivoted or like what, what was like, what was your experience with trying to teach?
0:06:27:08 – 00:06:50:15
Trying to what was your experience with like trying to trying to try to grow down dog athletics? Because it’s it’s an awesome name. Like, it’s a fantastic brand. I feel like, you know, I feel like it could have, you know, I don’t know. Yeah. So I think what ended up happening was like, I’ve Dove, I had the Dunning Kruger effect where I was like, I don’t know anything about health and fitness.
0:06:50:15 – 00:07:16:03
And I came in being like, This is the best way and I know everything. And the more I learned, I was like, Wait, like this isn’t the best way. And so I think I almost kind of like gaslit myself into not being as confident as I was about just being polarizing. And I tried to kind of just like, melt into, like, oh, well, we could like do nutrition and yoga and fitness and mindset.
0:07:16:03 – 00:07:43:13
And then all of a sudden I was just like everything to everyone and nothing well, and nothing specific then. So then I just kind of was like, All right, I’ve fallen out of love with this polar izing perspective of like, I’m going to be the yoga guy. And I also get tired of having to always position myself as like I do yoga every day because there came a time where I was like, I don’t want to do yoga anymore.
0:07:43:19 – 00:08:05:07
And I got to like running. And then I was like, What am I going to be like Marathon Yoga guy and like nutrition yoga? I just it just got to the point to where I learned more and wanted to try different things in the fitness space. And I was like, I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into always being like the athlete who does yoga.
0:08:05:24 – 00:08:25:28
Mm hmm. That makes sense. Yeah. First off, I want to say, like, I totally resonate with the not wanting to do yoga every day, because, like, I think I just go through periods. Sometimes I don’t do yoga every day and like, I talk with other people in the Manville Yoga community, our members, people who are like, really? There’s this one guy, his name is Joe Bernier.
0:08:26:06 – 00:08:49:04
He’s an animal. He’s like, he’s 50 years old. He may be 51 now, but he was turning 50. He had, you know, back problems like just stiff office worker. And he decided like, okay, I’m going to fix this. And he started doing manual yoga and then he started weightlifting. Whether that was like advice for me or like just from, you know, one day weightlifting doesn’t matter.
0:08:49:04 – 00:09:05:06
But he started doing weightlifting and combining with man for yoga. And now he’s like, he’s jacked. He’s incredibly flexible. He’s more flexible than me. I’m not even going to like it like he says, you know, sometimes he’ll post things and then I’ll be like, Wow, it’s amazing. He’s like, Not as good as, you know. I’m like, No, you’re better than me.
0:09:05:18 – 00:09:34:12
Yeah, I’m totally fine with admitting it. And he’s super strong. And, and I’ve made this podcast recently and I said, you know, like sometimes I don’t want to do yoga every day. And he was like, I’m really glad you said that, because I don’t feel like doing yoga every day right now and I feel guilty about it. So, like, people feel guilty when they have to, you know, feel people feel guilty when they have this this image that they’re trying to put out and they have to stick with it.
0:09:35:18 – 00:10:00:23
And it’s really tough for, you know, people like you in that situation because you feel like you have to maintain a certain image. And it causes, at least for me, I think it also my personal experience of that is that it causes a lot of it causes a lot of stress that you don’t that you’re not aware of because you’re you’re putting off this one image of yourself to the world.
0:10:01:06 – 00:10:26:04
And really, you’re kind of like you’re hiding yourself and you don’t realize how much of a toll that takes on you. Yeah. I’m curious for you, what was your experience with with that? I think that’s a really good way to put it because it kind of reminds me of maybe you find like a high school sweetheart and you’re like all about it and then you’re like, Wait, I’m growing and we’re not growing in the same direction.
0:10:26:04 – 00:10:44:06
Or it’s just like, isn’t what I thought it would be five years later? And so I think that’s kind of what happened where I had all this stress to keep going down. Like imagine being an entrepreneur and be like, This is the first business I’m going to start. I know nothing and I’m going to get it right. The first time and I’m going to stick with it.
0:10:44:08 – 00:11:05:22
Like any entrepreneurs got a graveyard of bad ideas and it was really stressful feeling like I had to make this work, realizing how much I didn’t know, and the more I knew, the more I was like, Wait, this might not be how I want to live the next 20 years. Mm hmm. Now, like, my wife and I did yoga yesterday.
0:11:05:22 – 00:11:30:27
We’ll do yoga today. And, like, I’ve come back to it a little bit, and I enjoy it thoroughly, but I was the proposed a handstand trying to do crazy stuff all the time. Yeah, I think I just. Well, I remember one thing happened 2019, I got rear ended by a trolley and I was like, wait, like, I can’t do what I used to be able to do.
0:11:31:07 – 00:11:58:17
Like in a span of three years, I think I had two concussions, one from surfing, one from something else. And then I got hit by the trolley and like my entire back was so weird and I got down. Dog was painful. Yeah. Yeah, that’s it’s. And that’s also like a really, uh, it’s a really unfortunate situation when you’re a yoga professional and you’re like, I can’t do that right now because, you know, because my back hurts.
0:11:58:24 – 00:12:17:21
And people are like, What? But you’re a yoga instructor. You should be able to do that. And I don’t know about you, but like when I was doing, when I was really doing like lots of handstands and propose and stuff, my shoulders were killing me. Yeah. Like my shoulders killed me also. I was like, trying to do I did scorpion scoring.
0:12:18:00 – 00:12:36:03
I was like, so if you don’t want Scorpios, I know you know what that is. But if you don’t know what Scorpion is, go like just Google a photo of like scorpion pose. And it’s this really, you know, potentially strenuous backbend, handstand thing. And and I would do it just for the photo and I would like, you know, I just I’d kind of just grit my teeth and get through it.
0:12:36:16 – 00:12:57:02
But, you know, the combination of the handstands and that and my back hurt, my shoulders are trash like I had to. I remember I had to stop at one point. I had to stop doing planks at one point, wow. Like I couldn’t even do a plank. Not because it hurt doing the plank, but because afterwards my shoulders would just be.
0:12:57:15 – 00:13:21:02
And so I started, you know, realizing, oh, I have to do pulling exercises, I need to do resistance training, I need to do things that yoga is not. And I talk about this all the time, but yoga is not like it can be branded and it can be perceived as like the the the panacea of fitness. Like it’s like, oh, it’s body weight, it’s natural, it’s this ancient practice.
0:13:21:10 – 00:13:49:11
And really like, no, it’s not like it’s not a balanced workout. You’re only doing pushing exercises. Yeah. You know, and there are certain, there are certain ways of doing the poses where you’re not getting benefits like, like ankle mobility is one thing that I’ve noticed is like is, is totally lacking in yoga like a lot of the poses encourage you to keep your your knees behind your toes and if you want to have strong ankles, your knees need to go past your toes.
0:13:49:17 – 00:14:06:09
Right. A lot of like what I, what I try to do and I don’t know. But what’s your experience with this. Yeah, that’s a that’s a great that’s I think you hit the nail on the head and it was like I didn’t want to have to be in what I saw as dogmatic to where I go all that all the time in yoga class.
0:14:06:22 – 00:14:27:10
They’ll tell me to do a pose and I will do what I want to do because like, yeah, sure, you’re supposed to have like this perfect form for a side angle or a reverse triangle or whatever, but it’s like that doesn’t feel good on my knee, so I’m not going to do that. Have you been to a class and got yelled at by the instructor?
0:14:27:13 – 00:14:49:18
So I haven’t because I know what that’s like. That’s what I mean. Like I was like reading books and like, I’m like, wait, like this is like I forget how many poses, but like the same poses every single time. And this is like so dogmatic where this is almost like this religious cult. And I was like, I want to just be able to do something that feels good for me.
0:14:49:18 – 00:15:21:25
And now I almost take pride in it. Like, if I want to shave Arceneaux for the last 20 minutes, I just lay down and I like so I was like, why don’t you, like, do the stuff anymore? And I’m like, because I don’t need to do Birds of Paradise to make the instructor feel cool. Because that’s another thing I realize is all of these poses I was trying to get, you know, either like students to do or when I was in class, like it’s just this big ego stroke of the instructor will come and be like, and if a one handed arms or a one handed handstand is in your practice, go into it now.
0:15:21:26 – 00:15:50:21
It’s like it’s not. And no one in this room has the shoulders to even do a handstand. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And that was like something for me that was like so striking in the yoga world was like this preaching of Nona ego when really everything was like ego driven. Yeah, like, like it was like it was like, oh, I’m so non egotistic I’m so non I’m so much more non egotistic than you are like, yeah.
0:15:50:21 – 00:16:13:04
And they’re alo yoga booty shorts, right? Like that’s some like contradictory. Yeah. I mean, yeah, in a lot of ways I try to think of mental yoga as like the anti yoga yoga brand and I love how you respond to like comment like I’ve, I’ve watched everything you do or like since finding your stuff and just how you respond to people are like, that’s not yoga.
0:16:13:11 – 00:16:40:18
Or someone who’s like, why isn’t it woman flow yoga? And you’re just like, because it’s not alone. I know. Yeah. Like I’ve had to. I used to get so worked up about social media comments. Yeah, I would like walk around for like 3 hours at the end of the day, just pissed about something that one person said. And it took a while for me to realize, like, oh, this is like really damaging my personal life.
0:16:41:02 – 00:17:01:02
And so I, yeah, I don’t, I don’t do my social media anymore. I don’t use I don’t even I don’t even do stories myself. I take videos on my phone and I send it to I send it to our our, our customer service manager also does our social media. So I take videos on my phone and I send it to him.
0:17:01:16 – 00:17:18:08
I even have trouble posting things now. Yeah. Like I tried to get on the platform, post something. I was like, Why can’t I post something? I feel like, what’s trending audio? I feel like a baby boomer right now. Like I can’t like I’m having a lot of difficulty with this and yeah, because it was just so stressful for me.
0:17:18:21 – 00:17:50:21
Like I think I’m a little bit more detached from the comments now. Like I look at it and, and, you know, I don’t have to now. I’m like, Oh, that’s just something that one person says and I don’t have to like. I don’t have to convince everybody that I encounter that they have to be on my side. Yeah, but like it took a really long time to be able to like detach from that that I envy the ability to post on any page and not have to be in it.
0:17:51:15 – 00:18:15:14
There’s a, a plug in that I’ll use called News Feed Eradicator that yes, it blocks the idea for the feed and on desktop. So I’ll go and phase right like delete on mobile and just only produce. Mm. And like my mental health will be the best. But I notice this and I’m starting to really be careful with it because if a video goes viral, that’s when you get like the worst comments.
0:18:16:01 – 00:18:44:18
And so I’ll be like in the comment section, like having these mental wars and then I’ll put my phone down and my wife’s like, Hey, did you do the dishes? And I’m like, No, I didn’t do that. And yeah, oh shoot. I’m just about it. Charlie four two, eight, seven. Yeah, it’s tough because like you, you don’t want to bring it up because then you’re like, Oh, I’m so stupid because I’m letting this comment affect me, but if you don’t bring it up, then you bring that, that angst into your personal life.
0:18:44:29 – 00:19:03:27
Then it’s like it’s one thing to do it with just your wife, you know? Obviously not a good thing, but it’s another thing to bring that when you have kids because then you’re like, you know, then it’s then it’s like, I think it’s way worse. Yeah. And by the way, you just got you just had some. Am I allowed to say this?
0:19:05:00 – 00:19:26:09
Um, this will go out in, like, three months from now, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. That’s right. Yeah. I’m going to email, I’m going to I’m going to send this to all your friends and family, like next week and just to help. So to graduate like this, this is our this is our launch party. We reached out to some some some podcast to release the news for us.
0:19:26:13 – 00:19:52:19
Yeah, exactly. We’re going to send you like a send you a link. Yeah. So anyways, so that’s cool. How are you feeling. I I’m, I’m excited. She’s the one that really wants kids. Mm hmm. And maybe I’ll change. I’ll probably change my tune once I have kids, but I’m like, oh, yeah, like I get because I honestly love like, I love what I do.
0:19:53:08 – 00:20:14:08
So, like, for me, like, I can just do that all day and like, occasionally come up for air and so, like, to, like, then have something that’s like, hey, this is now like your purpose. I’m like, there’s like a part of my mind that’s like, leave me alone. But once it happens, I know I’ll be so excited because we have two cats, Luke and Leia, very on brand, and I’m obsessed with them.
0:20:14:25 – 00:20:38:00
And I know as soon as I have a kid, I’ll be like, obsessed with them. And, you know, I’m also just like, I’m so excited for my wife, her side of the family, my side of the family. Like it’s just like will be a big deal to so many people and I’ll grow into being stoked as well. Yeah.
0:20:38:00 – 00:20:57:29
I mean, for me, I just didn’t realize what was I didn’t I didn’t appreciate it until it happened. I was like, oh my God, there’s a baby here. Yeah, exactly. It’s just my my focus is so on, just like what I’m doing. Yeah. That it needs to be in front of me. And then I’ll be like, whoa, my focus is totally different.
0:20:58:18 – 00:21:19:21
Um, which is great. But yeah, it’s like, it’s different when it’s not your body, I imagine. Like for women, they’re like looking at these blood tests and ovulation cycles and it’s like, Wow, I have like one job. And then the baby comes and I have a thousand jobs. Yeah, yeah. I’m a I’m glad I don’t have to give birth.
0:21:19:28 – 00:21:47:06
It’s a, it’s, it’s a pretty cool deal that I got the house. How old yours Declan is three and Marley is six months. Wow. That’s a yeah. What they do for Halloween. We dressed up very quickly as the Addams Family. Nice. Yeah. Did you watch Wednesday? Isn’t that what that show? I don’t know. Rested. My wife. Did my wife watch that show?
0:21:47:07 – 00:22:08:22
I think she liked it. It looked good. Um, I try to. I know that if I watch a show, I will watch all of it. So, like, I don’t watch a single episode because I’m like, I’m in need to watch the whole thing and then I’m, I know no one’s like forcing me to be at work. So, like, if I watch a show and I like it, I’m like, I’ll just like, excuse myself from work for the next three days.
0:22:08:29 – 00:22:28:15
Yeah. So I just, I just don’t do it anymore because I know what will happen. There was a video game that came out called Starfield in September and I didn’t have an Xbox. Mm. Like an Xbox series. I had like the old Xbox One didn’t play it. It was up in like a closet somewhere. And then my brothers were like, Dude, you got to get this game.
0:22:28:15 – 00:22:48:05
And I knew that I would like the game and I’d probably watch like 30 hours of YouTube videos on the game. And so I got it. And I want to say in two weeks I put like 50 hours into it and that that Xbox is all the cards disconnected, like hid across the house like an Easter egg. We put it away.
0:22:48:20 – 00:23:09:09
Yeah, so did you. So I love that because that’s like, you know, people struggle with trying to break habits and they don’t realize, like, they don’t think of, like, let me do something that’s weird, but works. Yeah. No, it’s something that’s weird, but works is you can unplug that shit. You can unplug it. Like you could even put your TV in a closet if you wanted to.
0:23:09:15 – 00:23:31:06
Oh, yeah, I could. You make it really inconvenient and weird and prevent yourself from doing it. I’m all for doing that. Whether it’s deleting social media apps and people being extreme, I’m like you. Like I always talk about this with clients. We’re talking nutrition, but if you’re like addicted to something, let’s say you’re addicted to heroin. You stop doing heroin.
0:23:31:29 – 00:23:49:17
You don’t just like have a hit every week because how are you ever supposed to break the cycle? And so then what’s so hard with like food or TV or something like that is like the food for specific. Like you have to have food. So someone would like, oh, can I have like a beer a day or like a soda a day?
0:23:49:17 – 00:24:09:20
And I’m like, if you ever want to, like, reorient your relationship with it. Absolutely not. Like, you got to have moments of, like, pulling it out. So you can sensitize yourself to it and then come back to it with balance. So yeah, I’ll hide stuff in the closet, I’ll put a bunch of like things on top of it.
0:24:09:20 – 00:24:40:19
Like whatever I got to do to just make it seven, eight, nine steps. And hopefully by like step four, my conscious prefrontal cortex comes online and it’s like, Dude, you actually don’t want to do this. Slow down. Yeah, that’s exactly the point. Like, you’re not like, you’re not making it so impossible that if you really needed to do something like that, like if you really needed, like, let’s say, like there’s a game that you want to watch like, and your wife wants to watch it and you’re like, well, you still won’t be able to use the TV sometimes.
0:24:40:19 – 00:24:56:00
So like, you don’t want to get like you have to like you don’t have to like dig it out of the backyard, like, you know, dig a hole in like on a course and not got to dig a hole. But like you do want to make things. You want to put barriers to entry, so to speak. So to speak.
0:24:56:00 – 00:25:23:15
I keep on saying sort of speak, so to speak, so that you have enough time to ask yourself, is this really what I want to do? So you’re not like you’re not doing it to like totally prevent yourself. You’re doing it so that you have enough time to say, Is this what I want to do? And usually for most people you realize the second that other part of that is that I realize we like doing things like that because they’re so easy to do.
0:25:23:23 – 00:25:43:22
Mm. Like they’re so easy to do. And if you make them a little bit harder to do, your mind is like, oh, that’s too much. I don’t want to do that. Like if you had to do 2020 push ups to turn your TV on, you probably wouldn’t do it. Like if your TV had like a built in function that it didn’t go on unless you did 20 pushups, you did like 5 minutes of exercise, you wouldn’t turn it on.
0:25:44:01 – 00:26:05:29
You really, really wanted to do that. So true. What’s also funny though is let’s say you are I really wanted to play Xbox in the if I wasn’t working, I would troubleshoot that for like 3 hours. But then if my wife’s like, hey, you know, prime video’s not working, I want to watch the Kardashians, I’d be like, Nah, password doesn’t work.
0:26:05:29 – 00:26:32:07
I don’t know why. Yeah. I mean, there’s, you know, different standards for for all those things. Yeah, totally. All right. So I want to talk about, like, how did you move from down dog athletics to eventually, you know, getting into did you do other things between this and trooper transmission? Yeah, I made this like E for Fit Method that was fitness, nutrition, all of these different things.
0:26:32:07 – 00:26:52:13
And those first all come together and it was probably the worst brand on planet Earth and the name was Elemental Coaching Project. And I got hacked maybe like two months ago or two years ago on that email. And I’ve never been happier to be like, All right, we are throwing that away. I just created all new email, all new YouTube channel, like everything.
0:26:52:13 – 00:27:14:08
And I was like, that was meant to be hacked. But it did teach me. I had just all of it taught me lessons anyway. So now it’s the trooper transmission and people that I work with join Fit Nerd Academy because there is a fear of mine where I’m like, At what point is like Bob Iger going to come on my door and be like, Stop doing that?
0:27:14:08 – 00:27:37:13
I think I’m nowhere near the threshold, so I’m totally fine. But talk about talk about Nurturing Academy, Fit Nerd Academy. So it’s just essentially like all the stuff I do on YouTube, all the stuff I do on Instagram, Facebook group, like it’s all free. And then if someone wants to work closely with me, I take them through this like Gamified Academy where they start out as cadets.
0:27:37:22 – 00:28:00:06
So yeah, I send them like a shirt and then halfway through they get this little badge and become a third do. And then I just set this up with a guy who’s an armor builder and they’re in the cosplay community for Star Wars or something called the five oh first Legion, which is like everyone has then screen accurate, like the best costumes.
0:28:00:06 – 00:28:23:07
Like if you go to a sporting event or you see them at hospitals, they send these people as like charity work. So anyway, I got a guy who’s in it and he’s going to make personalized clone trooper helmets like this one behind me as like the prize for going through the academy and finishing the program that people can buy, kind of like their graduation gift.
0:28:23:23 – 00:28:50:10
And so it’s just this like think of it as like there’s the free version and then there’s the paid version and the paid version is just sick. Okay, yeah, that’s awesome. That’s really fun. So, like, all right, so and what do you I just I saw so I remember seeing something like a week ago on this and you put out like, I forgot what it was, but you use, like, really fun terms.
0:28:50:10 – 00:29:12:12
Like you use like I wrote a smoothie, like a Sith or like, okay, so I go, okay, this is probably my favorite thing about being a pretty cool kid. And that’s like, you know, like the prequels and then the original trilogy. Yeah. So the prequels are like we’re talking like episode 21, two, three. Okay, no. Episode one, two, three.
0:29:12:12 – 00:29:29:28
So the ones you have seen in like the early 1999, early 2000s. So like that, that, that was Maya. And now those kids are all getting to be three years old. And there’s just so many memes and so many like one liners that if you go in any, like Star Wars community, it’s almost like a completely different language.
0:29:30:14 – 00:29:45:21
So I come up with these challenges where I’m like, All right, we’re going to do the Kessel Walk Challenge, which is like something that Han Solo did. He did the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. So I’m like, Right. Instead we’re going do the Kessel walk. So for 12 days in a row, we’re going to do 12,000 steps.
0:29:45:21 – 00:30:12:20
And then people are like, Yeah, let’s do it. Like for Han Solo. And so then I did another challenge. I was like, All right, Senator Pal, Protein wants you to get your protein in. So for 30 days we’re going to have a protein smoothie. And these are way to force be with you protein smoothies. And so I just like rip out like basically like meme one liner dad joke puns as little challenges for the community and they just they go ham.
0:30:12:27 – 00:30:31:15
And so the community this is this is free yeah that’d be people can do they can do like I’ll post like here’s what the smoothies are and I use that as a way like shared on your story and tag me. But then the people who all work with I’m like, all right, like we’re doing this challenge. Winners get, you know, prizes or whatnot.
0:30:31:22 – 00:30:52:02
And so it’s like this little micro game inside of the bigger academy. Okay, so you have your bigger academy, and those are people that you work like more closely with, like, yeah, one. Yeah. Oh, man. Do you get those people in like a, like a community? I know, I know. That’s like, can’t do that. Can’t be free. That’s worth more that you’re worth more than that, man.
0:30:52:09 – 00:31:17:29
Yeah. So we’ll well we’ll have a sideline chat on that. Yeah. I mean is the I think the interesting thing is like seen all the stuff you do on YouTube. I don’t know if you follow Alex Ramsey, but the yeah, I’ve got concepts which just like make something that is like so good and then give it away for free and like build as much goodwill as possible so that they’re then like, how can I pay you?
0:31:18:18 – 00:31:38:11
And so for like this started may, may the fourth like may the force be with you. I did my first 30 day challenge on YouTube. And so it’s all very new. And I’ve just been like my mind’s been like, all right, just dump goodwill into these people and then start to create, you know, products and offerings. Yeah, totally.
0:31:38:13 – 00:32:01:07
That resonates with me. Like, that’s literally what my strategy with Mantle Yoga was when I started in 2013. I didn’t I didn’t offer a single thing like I probably until like 20, I don’t know, 2016, 2017. Yeah. Like everything was free. Yeah. Like totally makes sense. And we still, you know, we still have our free YouTube channel. We have free challenges with that, like, you know, tons of free content.
0:32:01:20 – 00:32:32:00
So like totally makes sense, but yeah, so will do. What you saw was the senator power protein smoothie challenge and really like the whole essence of everything is the I don’t know if there’s a book called the Alter Ego Effect. And so the whole idea of the channel is the trooper transmission is I’m the trooper and I’m, you know, on my microphone transmitting messages of like working out and positivity to the to the Army.
0:32:32:19 – 00:32:49:28
And so do you have like do you have like a voice modulator and like you record audio fitting and send them out? So on my on the YouTube videos, I’ll do intros where I put the helmet on and then in post you can edit the audio to sound like it’s going through like, like it would sound like it’s in a helmet.
0:32:50:07 – 00:33:06:00
So you do like a voice effect and all this. So I’ll, I’ll put on the helmet, I’ll be like, all right, like I’ve got a mission for you. General Kenobi needs help on the front lines. But like, in order to make sure that you’re fit enough to go in, like, work with the best of the best, you need to do this pushup challenge.
0:33:06:29 – 00:33:29:25
And so then people will go through and do like a 15 minute workout push ups. And then at the end of that, congratulations like you just completed it. They go out there and make the Republic proud. That’s awesome. That’s so much fun. I love that you’re doing challenges because like challenges are just, in my experience, both personally and also with other people and programs that I build.
0:33:30:05 – 00:33:50:28
People love following challenges because they know that there are other people doing them. There’s a community around them that gives more motivation, that gives more inspiration. They also like that it’s it’s a finite amount of time. So when you’re in like week one and it’s really hard, you’re like, Wow, this is really hard. I don’t know if I can keep this up, but knowing that there’s an end line in sight, right?
0:33:51:00 – 00:34:08:09
Knowing that like, oh, I only need to do three weeks of this for like I only do four weeks of this, then it makes it a lot more doable. So I love to hear about like, what’s your experience with challenges both like yourself and also within your community? Yeah, I was just talking about this because the the free Facebook group is okay.
0:34:08:09 – 00:34:29:18
I know you always talk about this, but like, how do you work on motivation? And I was like, one, you got to have clarity. So many of you guys want to like get a better routine. And I’m like, Well, why? And you have no idea. And so I’m like, Instead it should be like, I want to wake up at 6 a.m. so I can workout at 630, so I can get my pull up stronger so that by December 31st I can do to pull ups.
0:34:29:24 – 00:34:47:23
Like then you’ll be motivated. You have a northstar to go towards, but no one’s motivated to just like walk aimlessly in the desert, which is what everyone’s doing. So the challenge basically just gives you like for lack of a better term, like a horse track or it’s like run this track three times and you will win the race.
0:34:48:11 – 00:35:18:04
Mm hmm. Yeah. And clearly so important. That’s like a theme that is that’s a theme that has emerged on this podcast. Probably one of the top three themes that has emerged on this podcast is just the more clarity you have around something, the easier it is to do something. And clarity not just in like not just in the sense that like really, really clear, like going deeper than like I want to be able to do pull ups.
0:35:18:26 – 00:35:31:11
Why do you want to be able to do to pull? Yeah, you know, like because I want to be strong. Why do you want to be strong? I want to be strong because I think I’ll look cool. Why do you want to look cool? Because I want more people to like me. Like why do you want people to like you?
0:35:32:00 – 00:35:49:04
Because it will make me feel good. Like, why do you think that’ll make you feel? You know, you keep going deeper and deeper and you get to, like, the real answer. And it’s so cool. It’s such a cool process. I love doing with people because the deeper you go, the more they’re, like, hesitant because they’re like. It’s like, it’s right here.
0:35:49:07 – 00:36:10:05
Yeah, it hurts my heart. I’m so vulnerable right now, and it’s like, but that’s what you need. Like, that’s the clarity that you need in order to have, you know, this, this sense of motivation that will remind you to do things when it gets tough. You know, if it’s just this general, oh, I just want to be more fit.
0:36:10:14 – 00:36:37:14
Like, that’s not good enough. You got to really go deeper. Yeah, totally. And to that point, you’re going to have tension when you have like what you really want. And it’s like clearly articulated what you really want and what you don’t want. So like a really good example is I had someone who was like, dude, I just took a picture next to my niece and last year I took a picture next to my niece and I was so embarrassed with how I looked.
0:36:37:14 – 00:36:55:26
And now this picture is way better. And I’m like, That’s the specificity and clarity that if someone can just admit to themselves that they want to be able to do a pull up because they couldn’t at age seven and they got bullied for three years and it would have them feel that they overcame all those years of trauma.
0:36:55:26 – 00:37:22:03
It’s like, wow, that’s a compelling reason to get out of bed. Yeah, I, I totally agree with that. So talk more about trooper transmission challenges. Like what are some of the challenges that you guys do? Yeah. So it’s, you know, this, it’s a lot of work to make stuff. I remember you made a post the other day, really?
0:37:22:03 – 00:37:43:22
Like I crossed. I think it was like a thousand videos or 4000 videos or something. And I was like, wow, like, that’s a lot of work. And if I’ve learned anything about YouTube, it’s just like, make a thousand videos and look up. And rather than trying to have a video go viral and having like the perfect video, it’s like you get better by doing so.
0:37:43:22 – 00:38:07:21
My whole approach has been like, I’m going to get helmets of all the different characters from Star Wars and I’ll do 30 Challenges and every character, and then it will eventually be big enough to where it’s like you can kind of like choose like do you want to do the beginner intermediate advanced of the troopers? So there’s like a cadet trooper challenge, a50 first trooper challenge and an ARC Trooper challenge.
0:38:07:21 – 00:38:30:13
So beginner, intermediate, advanced. So people now can start as a cadet, do bodyweight for 10 to 15 minutes and work all the way up to ARC Trooper, which is like weighted vest kettlebell 30 minutes of like just Beeston and so now I’m working on a Mandalorian series which is like Mandalorian, Boba Fett, Jango Fett. You’ll be able to go through and do that.
0:38:30:24 – 00:38:49:10
And then next year I’ll work on the Empire. So I’ll be like a storm trooper, a death trooper trick and snow trooper you can think of. And so the whole idea is like from video games, you would choose your character and rank up within a faction. So it’s like, hey, you want to rank up within X, Y and Z, choose this challenge.
0:38:50:19 – 00:39:18:21
And you have all the if I did a Jedi one, which wasn’t as fun, I probably got to redo it. But I was doing like yoga and sword combat and just bodyweight squats and the and Skywalker cosplay. But like, truthfully, it’s just like I just enjoy it. I like put the helmet on and I’m like, All right, like I’m X Y and Z and I’m working out for the Republic and other people just happened to like it.
0:39:19:23 – 00:39:47:06
So I’m like, I’m really curious. Like, so are people that are successful with this kind of gamified version of fitness? Are they more successful with this than they are with previous attempts at fitness? Yeah, I get messages all the time where it’s like I haven’t been able to work out for seven years and this was the one thing that gave me hope and I’m now £15 down and I’ve got way more confidence about myself.
0:39:47:16 – 00:40:07:23
Yeah. And you know, I, it’s only again, it’s only six months old, so I’m sure there will be more things that are only six months old. Yeah. And so awesome. There will be, there will be like with fitness like it takes time to cook. Thank you. Got to leave it in the oven for for the changes to happen.
0:40:08:28 – 00:40:31:08
But I’m optimistic that people will learn that if they tap into an alter ego and this is something that I got from this book that they’ll realize there’s a version inside of them that is capable and that’s a hero. And all of these helmets that I put on is just me trying to connect with people who, like they identify with Boba Fett, they identify with Darth Vader.
0:40:31:22 – 00:40:51:15
I don’t know why you identify Darth Vader, but maybe you lost your life tragically. And so it’s just like, you know, inside of you is this power. And if you tap into that, you can do amazing things. And I’ve always had this fascination with the hero’s journey, which is this what so many movies, Star Wars especially is about.
0:40:51:27 – 00:41:10:12
And so the whole idea is like, you’re going to you’re going to kick and scream initially being like, I can’t work out. And it’s just like Luke saying, I can’t go fight the Empire. And then I’m Obi-Wan being like, You can come with me or not, and then eventually you’re going to hit a turning point and realize, Wow, I have no choice but to go down this path.
0:41:11:10 – 00:41:30:19
And the hero’s journey is just basically getting kicked in the nuts for months and years, getting back up and then finally beating that challenge that you had. And like, that’s what I want people to feel and experience as they go through this. MM So it’s the book that you mentioned. Are you talking about Joseph Campbell Hero’s Journey? Are you talking about a different book?
0:41:30:22 – 00:41:52:10
So the, the book that was the catalyst kind of like aha for me was called the Alter Ego Effect by Todd Hermann. And it spoke specifically to a study in it called The Batman Effect, where they would tell kids, you are, you know, you are Dean, you are Batman. And then just refer to yourself as the second person like I like I am doing whatever.
0:41:53:02 – 00:42:13:09
And the kids who were told that they were Batman would stay at these different tasks longer and they’d be like shouting as they pounded on this box, like, Batman doesn’t give up. And I read this like a really tough time that I was going through. Like I was doing. I was taking Adderall for my ADHD. It was 2021.
0:42:13:12 – 00:42:35:19
Pandemic was like in full swing and I would have these like really high highs and then just crash, super depressed, super dull and gray. And I read this book the same week that my psychiatrist is like, are you like, sound like you’re depressed? Like, let’s get you on depression medication. And for whatever reason, I was like, give me one more week.
0:42:35:19 – 00:42:52:21
Like, I can figure this out, which like I wouldn’t necessarily recommend to people, but essentially like I would look at this helmet on my desk and I was like, Oh, let me like put it on. And I would ask myself like, what would Captain Rex do? Which is kind of like what those WW Jedi bracelets were, if you remember those from the nineties.
0:42:52:27 – 00:43:09:18
Yes. So I was like, you know what? Like, I don’t feel like working today, but Rex, like, you’d probably get it done. Like, I don’t feel like working out. But Captain Rex wouldn’t lay on the couch. He would go work out and, like, lead his troops. And I went from, like, I’m a posse. I’m not a leader of my household.
0:43:10:02 – 00:43:36:03
My wife should just, like, leave me because I suck to wow like I am leader because that’s what Captain Rex would do. And that’s literally how the channel was born. And I’ve just been like chewing on this idea for probably a year and come May, I was just there. April, I started filming. I was like, Screw it, this has been in my head for a while.
0:43:36:03 – 00:43:55:14
It’s not going anywhere. And I didn’t tell my wife this, but I went down in my home gym and for 30 days I probably shorter than that because I filmed multiple workouts a day I’d put on the helmet, I’d work out. I would, like, take it off to intro back. All right, troopers. Like, we’re going to go and work out and do your body.
0:43:56:23 – 00:44:15:26
And I didn’t tell her until it was released. And like upon the initial release, I think I got like 2000 subs in two days. Wow. And Instagram jumped like 10,000. And I was like, babe, you know, I’ve been like going down to the gym and you’re like, Why are you so sweaty? Like, This is what I’ve been doing.
0:44:15:26 – 00:44:40:02
And she’s like, Wait, wait, that’s awesome. That’s so cool. I don’t even know where to. I don’t even know where to begin asking about that. So like, I’m really intrigued by this alter ego effects. Like I’m wondering what I like or so how can I, how can I benefit from that? Like, what would my alter ego like do you think is the alter ego like?
0:44:40:02 – 00:45:01:16
Do you see that as embracing like a different not a different side of you, but like a different, you know, like a different you entirely. I kind of look at it as like method acting so like and I would say like your alter ego, you may call it something different, like you’re dean, but then you’re also man flow yoga, right?
0:45:01:17 – 00:45:21:14
It’s like your brand behave differently on camera than you might as a dad. Yeah, I might not, too, but it’s like. It’s like it just happened. Like, I even even then we have meetings, everyone. I like Google Docs, like we take a lot of our notes just on Google Docs or like Dean or like an image of Dean here.
0:45:21:25 – 00:45:48:05
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Because it’s like. Yeah, it’s just like I’m like it’s like fitness dean or like fitness can or like, I don’t know, whatever to call it, but like, yeah, that’s how it feels sometimes. Yeah. And so with like method acting, I always remember the story of Heath Ledger and how he like method acted. The Joker and then end up taking his life because like he couldn’t like get out of that persona in a sense.
0:45:49:14 – 00:46:08:28
But it really is just like, all right, you know what would explain Z do? And so when I’m thinking through this, like I’ll wear put on a different helmet, I’m like, all right, kind of like, how would Boba Fett work out differently than a clone trooper? And I’m like, Oh, he’s a little bit bigger, so he might lift a little bit heavier.
0:46:08:28 – 00:46:29:22
He might have longer rest periods, and he might be a little bit more gruff in how he talks to people right. Just like if you tell an actor, like, all right, you know, Jacob is a doctor from Kansas and he played high school football and he’s like big. And so you’re like, okay, cool. Like, I’m going to like, what would what would this Jacob guy do?
0:46:30:10 – 00:46:56:17
And so I just think there’s everyone’s got they’re like Peter Parker and everyone’s got their Spider-Man. And so if you can put the book talked about was like Black Mamba is Kobe Bryant’s alter ego. Sasha Fierce is what Beyonce becomes when she performs and I think everyone has it inside of them. But giving it a name and giving it again, like this character allows you to very clearly say, like, all right, what what attributes does that character have?
0:46:57:08 – 00:47:15:29
Mm hmm. And I think it is all me, but I also use it to kind of leverage. Like when I was running a marathon in 2020, and I would lay on the couch, didn’t want to run out, like what would a sub three hour marathoner do? And it allowed me to create this binary like they would go run as opposed to they skip their workout.
0:47:16:29 – 00:47:41:26
And so if I’m like, this is not something I’ve experienced, but I’m like, if I were to go to a club in Miami, I’d be like, What would Maximus Decimus Mauritius do? Like, how would he act in this situation? Because in the movie, have you seen The Gladiator? Yes, but like, okay, keep going. He he strikes me as a man of like honor and integrity and the emperor, his daughter is like Maximus, like, come back to me.
0:47:41:26 – 00:48:00:13
And he’s like, no, I got a family at home and like a wife and a kid. Like, I’m not going to just throw that away to be with the Empress or the Emperor’s daughter. It’s all like, put like do these like what would X, Y and Z do to try in social situations? I’ll be like, How would Tom Hiddleston act like?
0:48:00:13 – 00:48:23:28
What would Tom Hiddleston do? Like for me, he’s just the most charismatic dude and always smiley. So I’m like, All right, like I can have some social anxiety. But Tom Hiddleston, he’d probably like smile a lot and I just jump around and kind of like try and draw upon these different characters. That sounds really freeing. So, like, I have a friend who’s I have a friend who’s a dancer and.
0:48:23:28 – 00:48:52:26
We’ve been to some of her shows and afterwards still have their small shows, you know, like less than 200 people, less than 200 people in the audience. So after the show, like, sometimes you’re you’re able to ask questions and you realize you ask them like, hey, so like, what are you thinking about as you’re going through that? And they talk about it and then you also realize just how, how deep they have to go in order to be able to fully express their bodies.
0:48:52:26 – 00:49:24:13
And I imagine that it’s such it’s such a freeing experience because you have to get so in touch with yourself. But I’m curious with you, like when you do these alter egos, like what is what is the experience to your to your overall all wellness, like your overall mental and emotional health? Does that make sense? Yeah, I don’t notice anything bad because I identify with characters that have traits that I want to have.
0:49:24:29 – 00:49:50:10
Mm hmm. Right. And that that might be an area where, like, an actor has a harder time if they need to portray a character who is, like, really unconfident and really depressed. Right. And you look at like the Joker in Heath Ledger. So if it’s and what I would I would also say to this, too, is like, what you believe about yourself in your identity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
0:49:50:10 – 00:50:13:11
So if I’m sitting there being like, oh, it’s literally comes back to I am statements, I’m a piece of shit, I suck. I’m a terrible husband. Mm. Oh, well, how would a terrible husband act? Oh, you’d probably, like, ignore his wife and go to the bar, you know, and just that simple IM statement, we do that every single day with beliefs about ourselves.
0:50:13:11 – 00:50:36:05
I just find it’s easier to articulate and encompass and visualize what you’re trying to be when you have a character that’s already been displayed for you. Right. And we identify with those characters. That’s why they’re our favorite movie characters. That’s why people loved Star Wars, because, like, I see myself and Luke, so I’ll talk to clients. I’ll be like, you’re you’re at the moment right now.
0:50:36:05 – 00:50:57:11
Like you’re Luke Skywalker. You’re about to jump off and go on this crazy adventure, or you can stay at home and be a moisture farmer and, like, live a very boring, terrible life. Like, who do you want to be right now? Well, that’s a good question. That’s such a cool way of, you know, like like one book. I’m really big into habit formation, like understanding the science of that.
0:50:57:11 – 00:51:14:15
So Atomic Habits is a really, you know, really, really powerful one. I think that might be one of the top ten most popular books of like, I don’t know, the last ten years. I’m curious to see how many copies it’s actually oh, you have it behind me. And I, it’s one of my five that I’ll recommend to clients.
0:51:14:20 – 00:51:37:29
It’s like, make a habits harder, make habits easier, write like literally every paragraph is like, I got to write that down. Yes, every. It’s amazing how how much anyways how much impactful information is in that thing. But one thing that it does do is like if you’re trying to if you’re trying to have better habits, it helps to go deeper than just saying, oh, I need to do this.
0:51:37:29 – 00:52:06:17
Like, I need to do whatever. I need to eat three meals a day or whatever you’re trying to do. Not that three meals a day is even a good thing. But you ask yourself, what would a fit person do? What? What a healthy person do in this situation? And it helps you make better decisions. And to me, it sounds like you’re going you it to me it sounds like attaching a specific character to it makes it even easier because you’re creating more clarity around it.
0:52:06:24 – 00:52:34:02
You’re like, What would David Goggins do? Or like that? Would you know, what would you know? What would Michael Jordan do? What would Black Mamba do? You know, I don’t think we can. I don’t think any of us, aside from Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, could be Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant for their entire lives, but maybe you can resonate with them for 45 minutes or like an hour, right?
0:52:34:15 – 00:52:56:18
So like, I think that’s a really cool way of looking at motivation in a different way. And I think to the there can, there’s always going to be a light and a dark side to everything. You can create more anxiety if you’re saying, you know, what would David Goggins do, for example? Right. And like, let’s pretend you’re a dad with four kids and you’re working a town in your life.
0:52:56:18 – 00:53:17:27
What would David Goggins do? And he’s like, Oh, David Goggins would not sleep. And you’d work out and like punish himself. And it’s like, is that really like what you need to tap into? And so maybe it’s like a matter of self-awareness, but I think you can also cause more problems by trying to be someone that you’re not or someone that actually, like, isn’t a good character to model.
0:53:18:05 – 00:53:37:16
Yeah, yeah. Like, if you woke up and you’re like, I’m going to be Darth Vader all day. Yeah. Or if you’re like, I want to be Joffrey from Game of Thrones. That’s who I want to be today. I think some kids probably do make that choice, even if it’s Yeah, if you’re gorgeous on TikTok, they’re just a bunch of Joffrey’s everywhere.
0:53:37:23 – 00:53:56:00
Yeah. Like, I wonder if I had, like, I wonder if I had, like, different characters for different parts of my day, you know, like, I’m gonna be Mister Rogers when I’m at home. I imagine when I am a dad, I’ll be like, All right, you’re in dad mode now. Like, yeah, choose like a and that could simply be like, what would your dad do?
0:53:56:00 – 00:54:30:13
Like if you a good father figure, like what would my dad do? The situation. People ask themselves all the time, that type of question. Yeah. And that requires mindfulness to be able to do that. It requires you to be able to have the presence of mind or it requires basically it requires you to have a minimal amount of stuff going on so that when you know things come up or things happen, you have the ability to stop what you’re doing and ask yourself, how do I want to behave in this situation?
0:54:32:01 – 00:54:50:19
So that’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, because right now I’m in I don’t know. I don’t know. I would I would call it like a period of change in kind of my work and also in my personal life. And it involves a lot of work right now. Like I’m working a lot more than I want to right now.
0:54:50:19 – 00:55:18:02
I’m also doing a lot more than I want to right now, and it makes it really hard for me to yeah, at the end of the day, like after I’ve worked all day to be able to be the the father that I really want to be and so, like, I’ll lose my temper. Or like last night my, my son woke up at like 3:00 because sometimes kids wake up at night, but he took a late nap.
0:55:18:08 – 00:55:40:28
You’ll learn all about over tired and what overtired means and why naps are so important and you know soon. But he wakes up at 3:00 and we’re like, oh, why is he awake? So I go upstairs, I’m like, Hey, what’s up? What’s going on? You know, why are you awake? He’s he’s mumbling, he’s not saying anything. And I start my thoughts goes like, we’re going to go to sleep.
0:55:41:11 – 00:56:00:10
And then he’s like screaming. He’s like, he starts crying over. So I’m like, No, I’m crying what kind of safe? And, you know, it’s like, okay, well, that’s that’s not that’s not the father that I wanted to be in that moment. But like that, you know, that’s where I am right now because I have less patience because I’m doing too much right now.
0:56:01:29 – 00:56:21:28
So, yeah, I’m sure my brain is like, I got to go to bed right now. I’ve got a6am meeting and I need to do X, Y and Z. And that’s, you know, that’s like anxiety depending on your brain. And you’re just like, go to bed so I can go to bed. I know. Yeah. So now I’m thinking like, maybe if I can, like, what if I just embrace these before I go into it?
0:56:21:28 – 00:56:38:12
I’m like, okay, this is my character, this is my scene, you know? Yeah, I think there’s a resistance to that because I like I have this idea that I would like to be the same person. I would like to have consistency in every part of my life. Like I want to show up the same way that I do one thing.
0:56:38:12 – 00:57:01:21
I want to show up the same way to everything. But I, I totally get that. And like, this isn’t something that I’ve obviously spent 30 years chewing on and I don’t have books on this, but I look at it as like rather than like this is my personality, like, this is my personality. And I can go to different parts in it.
0:57:02:29 – 00:57:22:01
And like that circle of who I am is actually bigger. Yeah. Than I realize. And I’m just like tapping into the thing that I need to be able to utilize. Like if you’re a basketball player, right? Like, yeah, you like to shoot a lot, but if you need to tap into the dribble, drive and dish like you can, right.
0:57:23:00 – 00:57:41:13
So I’m curious for you, you know, you figured out something that really resonates with you. It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun while it I mean, most people aren’t able to go into their basement and film a bunch of workouts wearing, you know, a helmet for 30 days in a row unless they really enjoy doing it.
0:57:41:25 – 00:58:02:11
So I’m curious, like, how has that helped your your personal life? Like, how are you showing up to your relationship? How are you doing when you’re not working just overall? What’s that done for you? Yeah, I’d say I feel, for lack of a better term, just like lighter. And it’s not like this is the first thing that comes to mind.
0:58:02:22 – 00:58:22:01
Is this a bad reference? But it’s not like I’m like coming out of the closet and I’m gay. But there is a part of me where I’m like, Finally, I can just like, even nerd. Yeah. And what I realized before I started filming this is I have like, Pocklington, that’s my personal Instagram. It’s just me and my wife now and our cats.
0:58:22:18 – 00:58:50:04
And I was about to say, like I was before I started filming the initial 30 day challenge, I was obsessed with this idea that I was going to run a sub three hour marathon and lift £1,000 in the same week. So I was going to train like a hybrid athlete. Nick Beyer Fitness. I had his workout plan and I was going to do a weekly vlog of my training, and that was going to be my YouTube channel because I like them all.
0:58:50:04 – 00:59:05:23
I love you too. I’m just like, Why have I not been doing YouTube? I’m like, Dean’s a genius. I need to be. I just I just put on your I just put out that dick videos about how to make your dick bigger with yoga and. Yeah, and people love it. I was watching that video actually a couple of days ago.
0:59:05:23 – 00:59:25:07
I was like, Wait, this is genius. Like, it’s perfect, it’s specific. It actually is helpful. The comments were all like, Wow, this is so helpful. Like, I’ve been working on my pelvic floor or whatever. Yeah, but yeah, like I was, I was going to do this like I was, I had it like a name for it and I had everything laid out.
0:59:25:27 – 00:59:50:11
And then I had someone ask me or I don’t, I don’t remember what this specific situation was, but the question basically came like, what would you do if no one knew that you did it? What would you do if no one knew that you did it? Like if you didn’t get credit, like if no one knew that you had 400,000 subscribers or no one knew that you could run a sub three hour marathon and lift £2,000, like, would you still pursue it?
0:59:50:25 – 01:00:17:07
Mm hmm. And that question had me being like, damn, like, I’m about to go on this stressful as balls journey, working out 2 hours a day for a year just to show off to probably four or five guys that I am insecure with, that I’m not a loser. And like, I just kind of had that realization that I was doing that for someone else.
1:00:17:07 – 01:00:35:17
Mm hmm. And it was in that moment where I was just like, No, wait, no, no one no one has asked ever. Like, Oh, do you look at the Google search or the YouTube search queries? No one’s asking for Star Wars workouts. No one’s asking for clone trooper workouts. And so I was like, I’m doing this for me.
1:00:35:21 – 01:01:02:26
Yeah, there’s I think not a lot of competition for that. No. And like I had I’ve had someone I was working with with Google or YouTube stuff and they’re like, this is a terrible idea. That’s like, I don’t care. Like, this isn’t for you, this isn’t for anyone. Like, I’m just going to do this because I think this would be cool and tired of sitting in the gym with my buddies and being like, How would a clone trooper work out if they had a Clone Trooper workout program?
1:01:02:26 – 01:01:25:21
I’m like, Let’s just make it. This is what they would do. And so I just made it. And I think a lot of people initially were like, Haha, this is novel, this is funny. And then they’re like, Wait, this guy’s put out 150 videos in six months. Like, What’s going on? Is this for real? And it’s like like in my mind, I’m like, I’m going to do this for ten years.
1:01:26:03 – 01:01:57:19
I’ll do every single character in the Star Wars universe that has a helmet, and they’re all going to have 30 day challenges. And I’ll do this until either Disney like tells me to stop or they hire me or I have 3 million YouTube subs. Yeah, that’s awesome. I wonder like, how cool would that be though, if, like, Disney contacted you and they’re like, here’s a 40 page, not here’s a 40 page like cease and desist like that could happen.
1:01:58:01 – 01:02:26:12
The the thing that gives me peace. There’s there’s no way I there’s no way because there’s so many people on YouTube especially that are negative and literally just make their money on a monetized channel about tearing down every single movie and show and producer and whatever. Like, here I am trying to help people around the world change their lives if they sent me a cease and desist for doing it and it’s all my creative idea, I’m not reposting videos.
1:02:27:04 – 01:02:52:09
I mean, if they took down you, they would have to take down like, Oh, you looks like you have a fan account. We’re going to have to ask you to take that down. Like, yeah, they would have to take down YouTube. And so I feel fine with that. And like speaking of specificity, I have here, it’s like 3 million subs hired by Lucasfilm cast in a movie because there’s a part of my brain that’s like, if I train everyone in real life, maybe they’ll ask me to train the troopers in a show.
1:02:52:16 – 01:03:11:17
MM. And then I want to lead a workout at one of their, like, Star Wars Celebration Comic-Con. So, like, be on stage and like raise my hand, like, we’re all Spartans and have everyone shout for the republic. And I’m just like, I’ll just do this until that happens. And if that doesn’t happen and I do this for ten years, like I bet good things will still happen.
1:03:11:25 – 01:03:30:17
Mm. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah. I think that’s a good question that we can all ask ourselves. What would you do if nobody knew that you did it? And did you do you think that you had to be like did you have to get yourself into a state of mind to be able to ask yourself that question? Or was this something that you just kind of had in the back of your mind for like a long time?
1:03:30:17 – 01:03:56:02
And it was like it clicked. It was a lot of like meditation and it wasn’t like months of two hour meditations. It was like seven days of me being super stressed about which YouTube channel I should make. Hmm. It’s like, should I do this? Like, ego lead athlete? Look how great I am. Channel or should I do this thing that, like, no one’s asking for?
1:03:57:03 – 01:04:15:29
Yeah, you’ll probably get made fun of. I had so much anxiety about like because there’s a number of people that I know in like the fitness and coaching space and they saw it and like I had so many worries of like, what are they going to say? What are they going to think? And I’m just like, This is me.
1:04:16:04 – 01:04:37:13
Like, this is my nerd dick out. Like, laugh at it, whatever. I don’t care. Like, and I feel way better because I think, like, again, like I’m still me. Like, I think people think I’m like, weirder than I am and maybe I am weird. No. And just, like, tap me on the shoulder and be like, Paul, you’re weird.
1:04:37:13 – 01:05:05:06
But I approach all the content on it as I did on my personal channel. Like, it’s inspirational, it’s me being goofy, it’s me being educational. I can just now weave it through a lens that a specific community appreciates, and people will come there and they’re like, What the hell is this? And I’m like, It’s literally me saying, like, take ownership of your life, be accountable, stop playing the victim and lead your family from the front.
1:05:05:06 – 01:05:34:15
Here’s how you can do it in a fun way. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, I think it’s all fantastic. I love it. I think it’s like it’s so fun. It’s like a totally new layer of totally new way to think about and motivation. And it’s going to resonate with it’s, it’s just genius. Like, I can’t wait to see what eventually happens with like, I’m like five years from now, you’re going to be like super famous and mean.
1:05:34:16 – 01:05:57:27
Like, I had him on the podcast once I want, I wish I had bandwidth because I think this would crush in any fandom. If you did like the Game of Thrones or the Marvel or the Harry Potter version of this, and it’s like, hey, like, you know, the Wizards are attacking Hogwarts, like do some broom push ups. It was over attacking.
1:05:57:27 – 01:06:15:17
And we have to like we have to we have to do squats to get over the whatever the grind we have to do squats to go through. This grind of field is a grind. You who is that? Is that a thing? Grindy Well, I don’t know, whatever it is, but like, I’m just not I’m also not as well versed in those.
1:06:15:17 – 01:06:40:14
Yeah. So if anyone listening to this wants to go and make a Ironman workout program, knock yourself out. Yeah, but at the same time too, I don’t know how many people are weird enough to want to sit in a helmet for hundreds of hours and just like sweat and go through the uncomfortable wholeness of not being able to see your breathe.
1:06:41:10 – 01:07:05:13
So I’m like, sure, like I would welcome it if other people do and I’ll see other people tag me like doing workouts on Instagram. Mm hmm. And I think people think I work out in helmets. Like, actually, like, yeah, I work out normal. I just do these. And for other people, it might be advanced, but like for me, like dumbbell, reverse lunges with minimal visibility, like, yeah, you can do that, right?
1:07:07:01 – 01:07:34:17
You could anywhere in here. Here’s a here’s an idea for your your social media. I think you should start doing a series where you go into gyms like fully dressed up and start working out now get like that would go looks like great content that like that the like even people who weren’t interested in it would be like, dude, there’s this guy walking in or he’s like, he’s doing squats at like God’s gym with like a fucking helmet on, like, just yelling for the republic.
1:07:34:23 – 01:08:03:19
Yeah, that’d be awesome. Dude, I dressed up as Mannequin and had, like, full cosplay with a light saber and went to UFC and was like, Hey, guys, here’s how you, like, get your groceries. Like, here’s what I’m putting in my grocery grocery list. Well, that’s that’s my idea. Like taking off you show up to the like that makes actually that makes a ton of sense like if you’re trying to have a cleaner diet and you dress up as mannequin skywalker and you walk through like, what would a Jedi purchase what?
1:08:03:19 – 01:08:25:12
He purchased processed food. No, he wouldn’t he would purchase he would go straight to the produce section. You’d have like, you know, he’d have fresh vegetables and he’d have only grass fed meat and the finest eggs and, you know, like nothing that would put his Jedi mind. Like, I think that would be like that makes total sense. I think that I can I could see how embracing those alter egos would be helpful.
1:08:26:01 – 01:08:52:16
So, yeah, it’s all it’s all stuff I want to do. It’s you realize how quickly, like much time becomes an issue when you’re trying to do like all the things and it is probably like 100 till like about 100 hours to do a 30 day challenge. And so I’m like, all right, like I could put on like I don’t I just told you I put 50 hours into a video game in two weeks.
1:08:52:28 – 01:09:14:17
You know, I can put that into my YouTube channel, which is honestly kind of is like a video game if you look at it through the lens of like numbers and stats and all that stuff. Yeah, it’s, it’s tough to have that big of a to do us though. And not like want to like for me if I had that I would like I just want to do it all and finish it.
1:09:15:03 – 01:09:36:15
So like I’ve, you know, I’ve, I think how do you think about content chunks on your channel? Like do you do you have like, right, this is an initiative that we’re going to make and it’s going to ladder up and do something for the community. Or are you just like, Yeah, people wanted a video on how to have sex and so we’re going to do a sex video.
1:09:36:15 – 01:09:56:04
I like to do things and I like to do things in series. So I like to make like anywhere from 3 to 6 videos and I try to make them consistent. So like, I’ll try, okay, these are going to be 15 minute long. They’re going to focus on this. They’re going to have like so I like them. I like to create different series of things instead of just I used to create just sometimes like just one offs.
1:09:56:15 – 01:10:18:17
Like I used to just show up and I’d be like, This is what worth this is what I’m feeling today. And I’ll record this workout. And it was. And so now what I do is I try to make series of things with consistent formats and I try to think of who is this going to be for? So I make it for, you know, I’ll go into the video knowing this is who I’m recording this for, this is what it’s going to focus on.
1:10:18:17 – 01:10:37:24
This is what it’s going to do for you. This is how it’s going to be different from another workout. So I go into it now with a much clearer idea of what I want. Get out of it and then what? Somebody else will go of it. Yeah. With releasing those series, are you releasing them one a day or dropping it Netflix style?
1:10:38:24 – 01:11:02:19
No, we release we release one workout per week. Gotcha. Yeah. And we know it’s like anywhere from like 1 to 3 per week, but normally it’s like, yeah, I’m not because I’m not putting out like, yeah, I know I can’t put out like one a day. That’s, that’s impressive. I might have done more than that in the past, but, like, I can’t do one a day right now.
1:11:02:29 – 01:11:22:01
This will probably make you, like, roll over and you’re not grave because you’re not dead. But when I do these 30 day challenges, I’ve done like a daily release and I was like, This is way too much work, so I’ll just drop 30 videos Netflix style. I can get so many subscribers on the day you drop them on YouTube.
1:11:22:12 – 01:11:50:14
Yeah. Oh, my God. No, don’t do that to that. You got to drip them. Dude, you’re killing yourself. I mean, you know, you do your thing I don’t want to tell you, but like like I get the I get what I’m doing wrong. But then the other part of like the time, which I don’t this seems so daunting but like 30 videos that means 30 thumbnails.
1:11:51:05 – 01:12:15:22
Mm. And when I’ve done like filming and spending time in Final Cut Pro. Yeah, the last thing I want to do is thumbnails. No thumbnails. And that’s going to dictate even how many people watch the video. I know. So like it’s so important. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so you’re the second six months, you’re going to be better. Okay?
1:12:16:02 – 01:12:42:04
Yeah, I’m curious to see how. Curious to see how how like you deal with if burnout happens and how you, you know, like how that how that evolves. Yeah. Just with like the release schedule. Yeah. I mean, because that’s just that’s just a ton of content. That’s like maybe, you know, and you’re really excited about it now like what I will say, like from I’ve, I’ve slowed down like I haven’t released anything and it’s been probably like a month.
1:12:42:10 – 01:13:06:09
Okay. Or probably probably a month. But like my initial thought was like, build a moat. Mm hmm. So that, like, if I was releasing, like, one video a week, it would take me a year to, like, establish, like, what I’m about versus if I’m like, all right, this these next six months are going to suck. We’re going to do 530 day series.
1:13:06:09 – 01:13:27:28
But like, then you have something to be like, Here’s what I do, and then you can slow down and just start to like release. That was my my whole strategy. We’re going to have a separate conversation about this because I want to see this do as well as I possibly can for you. And I have I have some I have some experience on YouTube, I would say.
1:13:27:28 – 01:14:08:28
So I will a lot somewhat. All right. So I got to get into part two and these are my rapid fire questions. So. Oh, good. So what do you think is one habit, belief or mindset that has helped you the most in terms of your overall happiness? Oh, overall happiness. Um, I think the term is nihilistic. I can’t remember, but I just, I remember in college baseball, we had a, what’s it called, mental performance coach and you’d always just yell compared to what?
1:14:08:29 – 01:14:30:04
So we’d be practicing like 6 a.m., 30 degrees snow on the field in Pullman, Washington. And he would just be like in the dugout, like under the heater compared to what? And we’d be like, it’s not that cold. Like it doesn’t suck that bad. Like, compared to fighting a war and, you know, being like in 120 degree heat in Afghanistan, it’s not bad.
1:14:30:04 – 01:14:50:08
And so the whole idea is just like, yeah, like what you’re going through sucks. But like, compared to what? Like compared to, you know, not like, so like I could and this isn’t to diminish anyone’s problems or mine for that fact, but any time I find myself getting worked up, I’m just like, dude, you make star Wars workout videos.
1:14:51:09 – 01:15:11:29
Like two things you enjoy. You could be punching numbers or not even having a job. Like, it’s not that bad. Yeah. And so that, I think that brings me back to like yeah. Yeah. Mm. And then I’m typically, I call me like a black lab personality type. So if I can just like pull myself back to center, I’m back.
1:15:12:12 – 01:15:39:06
Black lab being around. Gotcha. Cool. What’s one thing that you do for your health that you think is overlooked or undervalued by others? Mm I would say in the last year I’ve really cut back on alcohol like we, we went on our honeymoon in July and we drank there and I got sick right after because my immune system was shot.
1:15:39:06 – 01:16:05:03
And like any time I go to a wedding, I’ll get sick after like I rarely drink. And I think it’s just so overlooked. On how that impacts your gut health, how that impacts your sleep cycles, your immune system, not even getting into body composition and estrogen and crank it like crushing the testosterone. I think that’s one where like I’ll be 40 years old and people are like, Oh, you should have good genetics.
1:16:05:03 – 01:16:29:21
And I’ll be like, Now for the last eight years I like but good things in my body. Yeah, I agree with that. I stopped drinking. Well, I can’t say I stopped drinking entirely, but like I stopped drinking more than like two beers at a time years ago. Now, I actually I don’t even I think I’ve had two drinks in the last like six months.
1:16:30:12 – 01:16:49:11
Yeah. I can’t imagine being a parent, dude. It’s exhausting. Over. Yeah. Oh, God, I would never do that. And even like, even just having like one beer when you’re with your kids is for me, it’s difficult. So like, I don’t know. And yeah, like it doesn’t have to do anything with like body composition. Like, like, yeah, that’s part of it.
1:16:49:11 – 01:17:09:14
But like, who cares? It’s just all tired. Like, I just, I get if I have one beer, I will be so tired the next day and then that that’s where my brain will go. Like, well, like if I’m tired and I need to, like, work on a project, this decision I’m making Friday night is going to impact me.
1:17:09:14 – 01:17:32:20
Monday. Mm hmm. And so then that’s where I kind of bring it. If I boil it down to, like, if I’m on vacation, and the only thing I need to optimize for is like the angle of my beach chair. Like, sure. Like, yeah, I’ll knock myself out. Yeah, yeah, I think it can be good. Yeah. Like, there’s some reasons why you would want to do it, but if it’s like, yeah, I think for the most part there aren’t good reasons.
1:17:33:19 – 01:18:06:19
So what’s the most important activity you regularly do for your overall stress? Some sound lame, but walking? No, I mean, it is lame. And it’s also amazing. Like walking is I’ve been doing a lot of reading on longevity recently and like walking is like the number one thing that you can do. I wish I had a, you know, an answer like I, you know, steamroll my hair with bamboo twigs feel like I just walk and listen to, like, podcasts or Star Wars books.
1:18:06:22 – 01:18:30:24
Mm hmm. And it’s a nice hour to myself. Yeah, totally. What’s the most stressful part of your day to day life? Who? It’s not like a specific part, but it’s just like trying to drink from the fire hose. Okay I’ll have to talk with my wife probably weekly, where I’m just like, I’m trying to do this and this and this and this.
1:18:31:09 – 01:18:54:17
And then I’ll hear myself say that and I’m like, Dude, you’re doing fine. Like, you don’t need to do that. And so like an example could be like, I’ll be like, look at my Instagram and I’m like, Oh, I haven’t posted in two days. I don’t like, but I need to send this email to my list and like I have client check ins I got to do and I’m just like, don’t post on Instagram, no one cares.
1:18:54:17 – 01:19:19:13
Yeah. Or This is what I’ve actually been doing. I love doing. I’ll just repost stuff from three months ago cause I got 10,000 new people who haven’t seen it and works. Most people didn’t see it the first time anyway. And guess what? If they enjoyed it, they’ll enjoy it again. That’s what movies like. People rewatch a movie or a show like how many times that people rewatch the office.
1:19:20:01 – 01:19:58:13
You imagine if the office is like goes, we need to make five more seasons like they’ve already gone through it like just posted again, right reruns. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing men and their wellbeing today through. I think it’s so broad, but I just think ego and like more specifically the belief that they don’t need to change anything or nothing’s their fault.
1:19:58:14 – 01:20:15:21
Like my wife and I will. We call it like tick tock therapy where like she’ll send me a video of something that she likes that’s like about like marriage or dating or whatever, and like, how to, like, date your wife and then I’ll send her something on my k see? Like, nagging is bad and so it’s like, Oh, good, that’s good.
1:20:16:01 – 01:20:37:19
That sounds like a great passive aggressive exchange. That’s yeah really helping a lot of stuff. It’s so my, the algorithm is a lot of just like, men don’t do this, women don’t do this. Mm hmm. Just like it’s everyone’s fault. And no one wants to say it’s my fault. They want to put blame on everyone else. And so it’s like it’s their wife’s fault that the marriage didn’t work.
1:20:37:24 – 01:20:59:22
It’s their kids fault. They don’t have time to work out. It’s their genetics fault, their parents fault that they don’t have, you know, the life that they need. It’s the government’s fault that they don’t have X, Y and Z. It’s their bosses fault. They’re not getting a raise. And it’s just like everything is your fault. Mm Yeah. So not having the humility to take accountability.
1:21:00:01 – 01:21:33:08
Yeah, exactly. And it’s again, it’s like the defensiveness and the ego to be like, I’m not doing anything wrong. All them. Yeah. And I see that as like that’s something I need to work on. Yeah. And so I think just the, the I we’ve talked a lot about like what would Jesus do or what would whatever do? Like even just having that thought like before any conversation or any argument, like what am I messing up on?
1:21:34:08 – 01:22:00:20
Like, what am I missing? Yeah, because it’s very rare that you’re perfect. And even if you are perfect, like, how can you be more empathetic or see it from someone else’s side? Yeah. I find in those situations, like the easiest thing to do to one is realize like you’re just going to be mad and angry and all of your feelings for the next 5 minutes are just garbage to disregard them.
1:22:01:08 – 01:22:18:15
Yeah, that’s one thing I learned that I was like, that makes a lot of sense. And then if you can try to put yourself in the other person’s position and like sing from their perspective instead and think, Oh wow, I bet this would really hurt if, if like that was me in that situation. Here’s what I would be upset about.
1:22:18:15 – 01:22:42:00
It is like there’s no point in saying how you at least for me there, it doesn’t seem like there’s much point in saying like, this is how I feel because like I think the other person already knows how you feel. Yeah, right. And you’re totally in that like us sending stuff is passive aggressive, but I have seen stuff where it then makes me realize and I try and just be aware like, oh wow.
1:22:42:00 – 01:23:04:29
Like when she’s responding in this way, she’s actually saying something else. And so like, I, I’ve when I’m like, when I’m like, slow down and can be mindful, I’ll ask myself while she’s upset, like, what is she really saying? Right. So she could be like, you didn’t lock the door. You do. You hate the you hate the family and all this.
1:23:04:29 – 01:23:27:03
And it’s like she’s really just saying, like, Hey, I want to be safe. And I’m like, Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, I think, yeah. I had this one exchange with my therapist when I was mad about like my wife not being explicit about something. And I was saying, stupid, stupid woman nonsense. And then he was like, Well, the Japanese have this culture where they say they don’t say no.
1:23:27:03 – 01:23:47:12
They say that would be difficult. And so you could say, Well, that’s stupid Japanese culture. Or you could just or you could say like, Oh, this is what she’s really saying. It’s my responsibility to understand when that’s happening and to be more and to be more aware of it. So that makes sense to me. All right. This is a great conversation.
1:23:47:22 – 01:24:13:29
I’m going to wrap it up. Where can people follow you and and all the all the cool stuff that you’re doing? Paul Yeah, I’m just active on the trooper transmission. So the trooper transmission Instagram, the trooper transmission on YouTube channel. Can I hire you to show up at her kid’s birthday party? Oh, yeah. Okay, cool. I’ve got seven helmets and Obi-Wan Kenobi and a mannequin cosplay.
1:24:13:29 – 01:24:41:07
I dressed up as Anakin for Halloween and pretend to, like, take out the younglings and saved a lot on order. Hardly gave away any candy. Nice. I didn’t get to scare any kids this year because yeah, I was with I was with our six month old and my plan was to have a leaf blower inside and then like pretend to be handing them canning and instead like blow them with a leaf blower to freak him out.
1:24:41:07 – 01:25:01:13
Yeah. Didn’t just do that next year. The next year. So yeah. True transmission. And then my name if you’re like I just remember this turbo transmission guy is Paul calling and I’m sure that’ll be what’s actually in the podcast. If you want to call me by my what is it, my alter ego. I thought you were going to give out your phone or I was like, Hold on, hold on a minute.
1:25:02:07 – 01:25:38:19
Yeah, no, my, my, my, my, my, my designation when I am the trooper is 39 nine, which is just my college baseball number repeated twice. So I’ll sometimes in emails be like Paul 3939, clinging. Hmm. And so they know like that’s my my Spider-Man. Awesome. Cool. All right. Well, Paul, thanks for joining us for the conversation. This is awesome that we touched on a lot of great topics and I’m looking forward to seeing how Trooper Transition grows for you over the next few months and now we’ll stay in contact.
1:25:38:19 – 01:26:00:28
So yeah, definitely all the YouTube stuff. Cool. All right, guys, thanks for listening to this episode and I hope you join me on the next episode of The Better Man podcast. If you like that episode, check out this other one right here. I think you’re really going to enjoy it. If you haven’t subscribe, click this subscribe button over here and you can listen to the full episodes on any major podcasting platform for full details below in the description.
Resources mentioned on this episode:
The Trooper Transmission: If you’re a fellow Star Wars fan and want to follow the workout plans troopers would follow, follow Paul on his Instagram and YouTube channel.
- Follow The Trooper Transmission on Instagram here: @the_trooper_transmission
- Follow The Trooper Transmission on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCIy79ZSYcvLM6ErO-wScrA
Related Episodes:
- Episode 84: How To Get Back On track When You Lose Motivation
- Episode 63: How to Hack Your Motivation
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