There's truth & power in the quote "what we think, we create..."
As we peel back the layers of our deepest convictions, Colin Stevens of Better Men Connect joins us. Colin is a performance coach to several NBA athletes, inspirational speaker, and author. Colin's successful collegiate basketball career as a 5' 7" athlete was inspired by his father, a 5' 5" NFL star who didn't listen to the word 'NO'. His father is one of 5 people to play professional football under 6 foot tall!
With vulnerability as our guide, we garner the following takeaways:
🧠 How our beliefs shape us and how to build an unbreakable belief system
🧠 Uncovering the strength found in positive affirmations and the mindful consumption of information
🧠 Turning vulnerability into a guide and weapon for success
Connect With Colin!
Website
LinkedIn
Make Your Mark - Colin's Book
Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
Keep in touch below!
There's truth & power in the quote "what we think, we create..."
As we peel back the layers of our deepest convictions, Colin Stevens of Better Men Connect joins us. Colin is a performance coach to several NBA athletes, inspirational speaker, and author. Colin's successful collegiate basketball career as a 5' 7" athlete was inspired by his father, a 5' 5" NFL star who didn't listen to the word 'NO'. His father is one of 5 people to play professional football under 6 foot tall!
With vulnerability as our guide, we garner the following takeaways:
🧠 How our beliefs shape us and how to build an unbreakable belief system
🧠 Uncovering the strength found in positive affirmations and the mindful consumption of information
🧠 Turning vulnerability into a guide and weapon for success
Connect With Colin!
Website
LinkedIn
Make Your Mark - Colin's Book
Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
Keep in touch below!
I think that illusion is there is because most people don't show their weaknesses or their vulnerabilities or really the truths right. We want to show people the good stuff and hoping that they accept who we are and they'll, you know, they'll like us, they'll rock with us, and so my purpose, always in being open and honest, is to allow people to understand that they're not alone and they can achieve more by believing that.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Win Today podcast, a weekly tool intentionally crafted to help people enhance performance, feel inspired and conquer life. Our commitment is that you will learn from some of the most disciplined, heartwarming and inspiring people on the globe, in addition to receiving a piece of a winning playbook from myself or a renowned expert in their field. My name is Ryan Cass and I'm your host, and it is my purpose in this world to inspire people to establish a foundation for sustained success by developing systems that will enable you to accomplish your goals, break systemic trends of adversity and chart a desirable course for life. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please help us achieve our vision of becoming one of the top podcasts in the world by subscribing to the show, sharing it with somebody who you believe will benefit from it and leaving a review. Let's connect with our guest. You're looking to make your mark in 2024.
Speaker 3:We have the person here today that is going to teach us all about it, joining Colin Stevens, who is an author, speaker, trainer of elite athletes, including several folks that have gone on to play in the National Basketball Association, the NBA, and he is also the founder of a community group, better Men Connect. Colin, great to have you on the show, my friend.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Ryan. It's a pleasure to be here, man.
Speaker 3:So someone can look you up and see that you've got the books and you've trained NBA athletes and you've experienced success as an entrepreneur for over a decade, and it can be easy to jump straight to those things, especially NBA athletes. What I like to know with high performers like yourself is before we get into what you do, let's get a little deeper into who you are. So what is something that we can't see about you on your website that's easily accessible, that makes you really proud, and why?
Speaker 1:I think my love for basketball. You can't see it through the computer here, but I'm 5'7 and I fell in love with a tall man's game and most everybody told me that I would hit my head on the ceiling of my potential as a high school basketball player. So I wasn't recruited very little at the Division 3 level. I still thought I could play Division 1 basketball and so I think, and I wound up walking on to the basketball team at Coastal Carolina University and earning a scholarship, becoming a starter and a senior year team captain, and so I would think that something that you can't see about me would be that once I have a belief about myself or something that I want to do or something that I'm passionate about, that I have enough moxie to go after it and regardless of what everybody else would say.
Speaker 3:Now that's interesting 5'7, college basketball usually those two things don't go together, but you have me thinking about some folks in the NBA moxie bokes, who 5'3, and people like that that show us that, despite the norm the norm being that you need to be 6' something to have any remote chance of success in basketball there are people in this world that show us that it really comes down to your belief systems.
Speaker 3:And also it's interesting that it seems like this runs in your blood, because as I was doing my research on you, I learned that your father was one of five people that played in the National Football League at 5'5, and when you were saying that in a podcast interview, I truly thought that you were confusing the NFL with the NBA, because I knew that there were short NBA players. Never would I believe that anybody in the NFL would be under 6' even if they were a kicker. So what is it about hearing that you're 5'7, you can't make it? And maybe even your dad being your 5'5, I'm sure he heard the same things Was that a belief system passed on from your father that, hey, you can do anything in this world? What did you convert those voices of no into in those days?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean because we hear the voices of no, we hear the doubters and the people who say that we can't do stuff, and the reality is probably they didn't do anything extraordinary and my dad was absolutely behind me chasing my dream. There was no guarantee for me to get to play for Coastal Carolina. I might not have made the tee. In fact, the year before I got cut from a Division I school who was worse than Coastal Carolina. So, by all means, if you just do a little bit of rationalization, you go.
Speaker 1:Well, it's probably not for you, but I think it just goes to speak to the fact that when we have a belief that is so powerful within us, we can do things that don't necessarily make sense to everybody else. And a lot of times we go through life where I think we all kind of take beliefs that somebody else has for us. Maybe our parents want us to be a doctor or a lawyer or this or that, and so we adopt the beliefs of other people and then we try to play those out and they don't have nearly as much power if they were our own beliefs, and so we have something that's within us that compels us to keep going when everybody else believes we should quit. I think we're hitting that spot of where there's some passion here that can push and create something that most people don't create.
Speaker 3:Now, our belief systems are as strong as we allow them to be, and I believe that a belief system is like a muscle, that it's got to be maintained and that's reinforced rather by the positive self-talk, your influences, who you choose to be around, the information that you choose to consume. How do you fortify this belief system? So, from an early age, people are telling you you can't. You've seen your father that showed you. No, yeah, you can. And then, throughout time, you went into the corporate world and jumped out and faced some difficulties early on in your entrepreneurship journey, which we'll get into, and I'm sure there's still times, just like everyone else, where that belief system gets tested and it's up to the foundation that you've built around it that allows you to keep going. So, as we're in this new year, how have you maintained and fortified your belief system?
Speaker 1:I think it's just getting clear on what it is that I want. Right, I'm a really proud father and husband. I've got two kids and a wife that I've been with for 20 years, married for 16 years. I've got a couple of businesses that I've been pushing to build for a long time, and I I love connecting with people and and and helping them improve their life. And so when I get really clear on what I want, I I just spend time every morning Ruminating, meditating on what it is that I Want to achieve or I want to get after I want to be good at right.
Speaker 1:So the the thing about being an entrepreneur and a family man is that sometimes you know Sometimes the fire to be put out, as in the business, but sometimes the fire to be put out as at home, and there's this back and forth of you know where do I give my time, but I think it's it's being able to focus on what it is that I that I desire, and then you know what other people want for me. I have to filter out. Some of it is pertinent, depending on if they're in my inner circle or not, but try not to get I try not to get too too pressured by society or by Industries or institutions on what they desire from me. As long as I'm Loving my family well and I'm showing up for my, my business, my employees, in a way that's inspiring to them, then I think I'm on the right track. I.
Speaker 3:Had a conversation last week with my friend, jen Drummond, who recently said again his world record is the first woman to summit the seven second highest peaks in every continent, and along the way I was asking her about what prompted her to to pursue this journey, and she mentioned that it just felt like this very calm and soothing voice that kept hanging over her after she experienced a traumatic incident, that hey, this is your, this is your next adventure, this is your next summit. And I believe one thing that people struggle with or wrestle with is what should I do next? Or how do I know if this thing that I want to do or that I'm doing right now is the right thing? And you mentioned that One thing you do is get really clear on what you want. So what have you found to be effective in establishing clarity in what you want and what you're seeking in this, in this life? Colin, I'm always interested to know From high performers what that process is like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, honestly, part of it is a big part of it is getting quiet. Hey, right, I think we can get so busy with life and so distracted that we can lose touch with what makes us tick, with what we are passionate about and and certainly what we desire. So now, if I was telling anybody, if I just had a new player come into my gym and they were looking to reach a particular goal, well, they have to be clear on their goals so we can map out a plan on how they can achieve it. And so, for anybody who's you know, think about what's next, it's what, what are the possibilities?
Speaker 1:The reality is, if we're chasing after something, our path is probably not going to go just as designed. But when you're pursuing something and you're challenging yourself to see how good you can be, a lot of times the the best stuff in life shows up then. And because we're putting ourselves out there To experience failure, to experience loss, to experience disappointment, but we also have the chance to experience High achievement and some special things in life. Hey, amen to that now With your journey.
Speaker 3:You mentioned experiencing failure, and I'm curious as to what your relationship is with that word, because for me, I don't view failure for Purely failure. Failure really equals opportunity. Opportunity to do it again, opportunity to get better, opportunity to Attempt a different route Versus hey, you failed, you suck and Maybe you shouldn't do that thing at all. What Meaning does that word have in your Arsenal?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it sounds like we have some alignment on our approach to failure. The reality is it's just, it's a, it's a part of success. Failure is a part of success, and a lot of times the, the fear of failure, stifles us into taking no action at all. But if we're gonna do anything of significance in this life, we are going to fail. And this idea that our life should just be comfortable and winning all the time, you know like it's it's, it's ridiculous, but it's also I understand it. I mean, when you're looking, when you're looking on your phone and you're seeing everybody's highlights and your own line and everything just looks so good and and it's not reality. Reality is the icons that we look up to that inspire us, went through a ton of difficult shit to get to when they got to, you know. So what makes me think that I'm not supposed to go through any tough stuff, right? Yeah, no, but you know.
Speaker 3:Villars, temporary, it absolutely is. Nobody's add to it. And, as you're saying, that, beesies, and that sometimes the internet could make it seem, the internet's a highlight reel, depending on how vulnerable someone is. And, yep, as I'm looking through, as I was looking through your LinkedIn profile, what can I learn about Colin? What can I extract so we can have the most powerful conversation possible? And as I'm scrolling down, what I appreciate is that you are very vulnerable and you do share that.
Speaker 3:Some parts of this journey haven't been so glamorous. When people see your name and then training NBA athletes is it's, it's exciting, it grabs attention. Okay, let me learn more about this guy. Nba, oh, it must have, he must just have had this raw talent. It's always been this way. And then I found this picture of people playing basketball in this old raggedy warehouse. And then I read the caption and and this was a point in time where you're making the jump out of entrepreneur, out of corporate correct me if I'm wrong and you are you've been training people at gyms. They said you can't train here anymore. Okay, well, I'll go get my own. And you stumble upon this warehouse that's got no heating and no air conditioning when it's hot, and here you are, so talk through the real journey of having the opportunity to work with now some of the greatest athletes in the NBA, and highlight the fact that it hasn't been so glamorous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's funny that you bring that post up, because that's that's the one that certainly is like man, this is, this is the reality of things and I've always that. That to me, is really important and in fact, in my book that's the, the correlation that I that I put in my book is like hey, you know, the icons that we respect, it was. They were not always on the top. We just see them at the top and we're like, oh, we want to be like that. And then we start down that road and they were like, oh shit, this is hard. Maybe I'm with the wrong because they're. They make it look so easy.
Speaker 1:So, as I was starting my training business yeah, was that a guy's, believe it or not? A guy's house? Because he had a gym at his house and it was great for the first you know little while. But as things started to grow, he was like dude, I need my house back. Yeah, there's too many. Two of the kids coming in and out of here and I was just training, you know, high school players, middle school players, and.
Speaker 1:But my business was growing and I needed a place to go and I Took a risk on myself and Got a loan and bought a sport court and went into this dingy warehouse and Dude it was so. It was so bad in the summer that way that would get hot and humid, the floor would get slippery and I like couldn't train, almost had to train people Stationary just because it was like nearly dangerous man, we we had in the winter we're we're training in full sweats and the stocking cap in like almost gloves. It was just Thinking about that. Now it takes me back to, like man, maybe I did earn this shit, maybe I did put my time in, because I think when we, when we're willing to build a foundation, then we have a chance to have sustainability and I think that's for relationship, I think it's for businesses and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:When we are willing to do the stuff that other people don't want to do the unsexy stuff, the unseen stuff In order to build a foundation that has surreal solid footing, based upon hard work and treating people right and and doing a really good job. I think that's the thing is if you do a really good job, you give yourself a chance. When you build that foundation, then, as you keep going like it doesn't surprise, other people might surprise. You know, when I first am I first NBA client? It was like oh wow, like this is awesome, you know, and the reality is is I would have been building the foundation for years and years and years.
Speaker 1:And we want things in the society, we want them so quickly, we want them so easily. And there's this old saying like what's built fast, more last, and what's what's built over time with sustainability is what will carry on, and it carry on beyond me, like I have a bunch of other coaches and trainers now that are working for me and with me, and that's an exciting part. But I just say, man, we gotta do the unsexy stuff in the beginning To even see if, if, if we deserve it, if we deserve on, what's the other, what's on the other side of it, yeah it on.
Speaker 3:We had it. It occurs to me that experiencing levels of success to which you have now that it's a prerequisite to that is experiencing the troublesome moments and being willing, even first having the willingness, and then actually experiencing the difficult times, because at the end of that is the greatest version of yourself, or the vision that you've always Dreamed of, the business that you've always dreamed of. And for some, maybe, the troublesome moments or the difficulties are really the opportunities are Fewer than others. I like to bring up the story and what will get into the book after this. But 409, the household cleaner. 409, do you? Do you know why it's named 409.
Speaker 3:I don't so a lot of people probably have a bottle of 409 or they've purchased a bottle of 409. And used it to clean their house. And 409 got its name because the founders went through 408 opportunities, I'll say, but you can call it unsuccessful attempts or failures, whatever you want. It took them 408 attempts before 409, which is what they went with, was actually approved and the ingredient and the solution, the formula that could actually be sold as a product in stores and wow, it's, I believe, the prerequisites to that Not stopping through the troublesome moments and having the willingness to go through them. There's so many others that I love to bring up, where even Ali Baba, who is the Asian equivalent now to Amazon.
Speaker 3:A lot of people look at Jack Ma, who's the founder, who in and he's he's constantly fluctuating is between the top five and top 10 richest people in the world wealthiest people in the world. And what people probably don't know about Jack, if you don't look at his story, is that he was rejected from Harvard 10 times. There were 25 people at attempting to get a job in KFC in Asia and 24 of them were selected. Guess who didn't get one? Jack guy couldn't even get a job at KFC. Not to not to bash KFC. Kfc is awesome, but again those prerequisites. Man, people look at you. Oh, he trains NBA athletes. Well, did you know that he got basically will caught kicked out of his friends gym, scrambled to find another gym, took a bet on himself, took out a loan, gets a facility that in the summer you can barely train on. It's a beautiful story. There's so many lessons packed in that man.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you, and you know it's funny is like even with 409, or with Jack, or even with my story. It's like you don't know. You don't know how long it's going to take, you don't know the amount of iterations it's going to take in order to get to where you want to get to. And that's the risk, right. The risk is like, oh no, it might not work. But the risk is also like, well, it might work. What if it does work? What if we do get there? And that's the exciting part of it.
Speaker 3:One of your books, make your mark, which I brought up in the introduction when I read through the Amazon reviews. So whenever I interview a guest that's an author like to become familiar with the book, do a lot of research, see what and then see what people are saying about it. And what people love about it is that not only do you share stories of people like Sarah Blakely, michael Jordan, a lot of the, a lot of the greats that we often talk about and sometimes think that their journey was this linear path, but then you also couple that with your own stories and your own struggles and make it relatable that the same things that people we admire you, we share the same struggles and opportunities that they do, and there's not many separators from us and them. I'm curious as to what was the genesis, the driving factor for writing make your mark and exposing your story and being so vulnerable, because a lot of people it's easy to write about other people. It's not so easy to write about yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. On on that point. I think many of us have an illusion that other people have it easy and we don't, and I think that illusion is there is because most people don't show their weaknesses or their vulnerabilities or really the truth. Right, we want to show people the good stuff and hoping that they accept who we are and they'll, you know, they'll like us, they'll rock with us, and so my purpose always in being open and honest is to allow people to understand that they're not alone and they can achieve more by believing that. The precipice, the reason that I wrote make your mark and I'll write several more books.
Speaker 1:This book right here, though, is I got sick with with Kobe in 2020, and this is before they knew very much about it. I think I probably got another virus in there too, but I was jacked up for six or seven months where I couldn't work out. My heart rate was wildly elevated. I went to a pulmonologist. I went to a cardiologist gastroenterologist like anyologist, you think I went to and nobody had any answers. And when I got, when I initially when I was sick, I was quarantining in my house and I came downstairs, had a mask on and, in the hallway, my daughter. I came down and she was crying. She was sitting in the hallway crying with, kind of her head in her hands and I was like, sweetie, what's wrong? And she looked at me with tears running down her cheeks and she said that, are you gonna die? So many people that were passing away that nobody thought would have? And you know, I didn't think it was gonna take me out. But when she had brought that up it was like and like, I hope not, I don't think so. But that brought me to. Well, I went back upstairs and went back to my room and had some time to fake and then I went to the bathroom and I looked in the mirror and I was like man, if this was it, if this took you out, you know, at 37 years old, would you be proud of the life that you lived, and too quickly? The answer was no, and like so, at this point I have a family and I've had my business. And the answer was no.
Speaker 1:Not because I didn't have any special achievement in my life. Certainly, there were things in my life that I was proud of, but what I had come to realize was that I was actually holding back a lot, holding back my beliefs, holding back my ideals in ways to make other people comfortable and you know, there's a thing of being a people pleaser which I think is more fear based and being people pleasing and all. But I realized that there was a lot of me that I was holding back because I didn't want to make anybody else feel uncomfortable. So I took on all the discomfort and I would shape myself or morph myself to be accepted and like and this and that, and so when I had that decision come through of like no, I would not be totally proud of how I live this life.
Speaker 1:It was now like okay, so if I get a second chance at this, if I get healthy and I get back to being able to do the things I want to do, I need to proceed as though not anything is guaranteed.
Speaker 1:I need to proceed in a way where I believe my family would be wildly proud of the way that I lived, even the people who I work with or work for or who work for me.
Speaker 1:Like I don't want to go to lay my head on the pillow and be like dang, like I didn't give it everything today, and so, with Make your Mark, it was like you know what? I have some beliefs, certainly around religion or politics, that I just need to be able to own, because you know, when we're dealing with some of those big institutions, you know they want you to believe a certain thing in order to be accepted. And there was part of me that was I. Just I had different beliefs. I had different beliefs than my parents, and I had maybe boys then, and so I wanted to be able to somehow put that on paper to where somebody else might resonate and say and instead of them having to go through a sickness or a really, really difficult moment on their own, maybe this could compel something in them to say you know what? I need? To own my beliefs, I need to own my ideals and then I need to live a life that I'm proud.
Speaker 3:And that was the, the, the impetus to the book I appreciate the deep introspection in a moment of what some could argue may have been to spare, and I'm curious as to what contributed to the discovery of you holding yourself back. You arrive at this question of if my life ended today and I'm uncertain as to what the future may hold, given the condition of my health right now. And if life ended today, it's not something that I would be okay with because I believe that there's more inside of me. That's what I heard. Now, with that pinpointing, you know what I'm really holding back in these areas. What allowed you to discover it was that, versus so many other things that you probably could have thought up at that moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think it was a lingering sense of this for much of my life. And finally, there was a maybe, the maybe the scales were peeled back, or or, or maybe the fear was was peeled back enough to actually reveal something that maybe I was scared to show. Hey, and I think the fear of passing away, or the fear of passing away and not living a life that I was wildly proud of now was had gave way to. Okay, so what are the possibilities? What would it be like if I really lived a life where I was actually, you know, honoring myself and my own beliefs?
Speaker 1:That was scary for me my whole life, and I think at some point it was like eff it, like this is the time, this is the time to actually go ahead and live it. And then it's this I've got two kids and damn, if I don't want them to go out and do some awesome stuff, to be some awesome citizens, to love people strong, to to make something special of their lives, and if I don't do it, how could I expect them to do it If me and my wife don't live a life that's inspiring and and and loving and giving and pursuing? If we don't do it, how could we expect our kids to do it? And that was all kind of crashing at the time because I think it was just, you know, like I didn't have a whole lot else to really care about. So while the moment of despair it sucks A lot of times, it opens up for the real stuff to come out.
Speaker 3:What encouragement do you have to offer to people to be unapologetically themselves, Because that's really what I'm hearing that you are now and what you desire to create for your kids. Be unapologetically you, and I want you to be like this now, versus arriving at this we'll call it crossroads at age 37. Live your life this way now. So what encouragement do you offer for folks to hey, be unapologetically you now, versus when it comes down to some something that life may give you in the future that you would never predict?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean to be honest. I think it's pulling back the layers of the lie that everybody should like us. The reality is we're not for everybody, and that's totally okay. I think many of us are trying to get other people. We're trying to present a person that other people will like and we adapt to this setting and we adapt to this setting.
Speaker 1:Well, and while context matters in life, you know so, so it matters, we shouldn't be shape shifting in order to get people to like us. And so I think the biggest thing right now is me getting comfortable with people not liking me, Because if I'm comfortable with it, then I'll just present myself. If I'm uncomfortable with it, then I'll shape shift a little bit and I'll read them and I'll try to figure out oh, they like it when I'm like this or like this, and so I think it's really just get that like sinking your teeth into the truth that not everybody is going to like you and, in fact, if you do something really cool in this life, there should be a lot of people that don't like you, Maybe Because they wish that they were doing something sad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right, it's. I just listened to a podcast with Andrew Huberman and David Goggins and yeah, and for those that know Goggins, he is definitely unapologetically himself through and through. And to your last question, to your last point about not necessarily carrying so much about what folks have to say, but to the to the latter that rather, where if someone's hating on you, it's really in most cases a projection of their insecurity or the fact that they want to do that thing that you're doing or that you've done and they're scared or they're holding themselves back. And it's easier to criticize Colin than it is to attempt to go write your own book or open your own gym, train your own basketball players. It's easier to criticize you and I also love that you just straight up said be comfortable with not being liked by everybody. I believe that if we seek to gain everyone's approval or thumbs up, then we're not going to experience the life that we can ultimately be proud of.
Speaker 1:I say that, yeah, and if we seek to, if we seek to gain everybody else's approval, well, actually lose the approval of ourselves. And that's where life is horrible, because we look at the mirror and we don't know who we're talking to. We don't know who we are and so we have to honor ourselves 100%. It came up just the other day. So I've got the Better Men Connect is personal development for men. That started a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1:We do retreats, we meet monthly, and the other day I had somebody new say they were coming and it was kind of an influential person in our area and you know it came up in me oh no, am I going to be able to do how I do normally? What if they don't like it? So it's not that that is gone, it's just that my response is no, no, no, no, fuck it, we're not doing that anymore. Nope, if they don't like it, they don't come back, right.
Speaker 1:And so there is this change of perspective of like, hey, it's okay if I'm not for everybody, right, but if I'm authentically myself, I give my audience, my clients, the best of me, then they actually have the best chance of growing and developing because they're getting the best of me, right, and I want the best of them, so I wanted to make that point too. As I'm overcoming some of these things, it doesn't mean that they're totally gone and I don't ever have, you know that fear pop up into my mind again. The reality is, I have to combat it with a courageous no. This is how I want to live. This is actually who I want to be.
Speaker 3:And that's powerful, that last piece because, regardless of going back to earlier in the interview, having this fortified belief system and being positive, choosing this way of being, or still humans, and as humans, we seek comfort and protection. And whenever we may be doing something big, or, in this case, where someone big announced that they were coming to your event then that doubt creeps in and it's that human wanting to protect you and maybe some of that doubt comes in there as well. What are some of the most practical exercises that you have to keep that voice tamed in, to remain in this elevated state, even though it'll be challenged? But I experience you as somebody that lives in an elevated state, that you're generally, you're positive, or something doesn't go your way. There's a positive you can extract from that. I like to know what your best practices are, because the intent of this show is to provide as many tools and nuggets possible that people can incorporate into their lives immediately. That's going to allow them to win today and in the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think number one the time in the morning of meditation and setting my compass, if you will, on the direction I want to go for the day, to be intentional with that and then, honestly, number two is keeping my fitness regimen on point. Most of the time it's something that I have become consistent at it right. So six to seven days a week I'm either in the gym or I'm out running or I'm doing something that is physically challenging my body and that puts me in a state of, hey, I will accept other challenges and knowing that it's not supposed to go perfectly, knowing that I could feel like I'm going to fail and when that we were talking about running prior to recording and I feel like I'm kind of a novice at it and there's man, if that doubt monster doesn't creep up in my mind when I say that I'm going to go for this many miles and I feel exhausted halfway through. But to have that challenge on a regular basis and for me to choose that challenge I think allows me to keep that perspective when it comes to business or coaching my clients or even having difficult conversations with my wife and my kids.
Speaker 1:One of the other things that I do is I'm a cold plunge guy. When I get the opportunity, we have the ocean here in Rattle Beach, and so when I can go into the cold, I do cold showers too. But that's also an embracing of the discomfort, which is actually something that's very good for you, scientifically very good for you, but it's something that most of us would rather not do because it's not comfortable. So those are some of the things that, day in and day out, will challenge my mind. To stay in that elevated state of things are not supposed to be easy. They're not supposed to be comfortable and just to keep pushing.
Speaker 3:Choose your heart is what I heard. And also a big fan of the cold plunge, love it, and I believe that putting yourselves through continued, continual tests, choosing hard, allows you to stay hard when life gets hard, and it allows you to counter the voices that would often crush most people, because you know that sure it might be a voice just to protect you, but it's probably a voice that just isn't even true and you're making up some sort of story and dialogue in your head. Colin, we're at a new year and, before we close out, we'd like to give you an opportunity to let us know what you're looking forward to most and how do we keep up with you and your work, not just in 2024, but for the years to come. You mentioned you've got several books in you, so what's lighten up your soul right now and how do we be a part of it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a leadership conference that I host here in Rural Beach coming up in February. Better Men Connect is something that I'm super excited about, because I believe that men don't do a great job of connecting and being real and getting encouragement and pursuing a life of greatness. So, continuing to build on my speaking brand, I was able to get with a bunch of companies and basketball teams last year in universities and continue to push that envelope and see how far I can take that. But really altogether, I am just. I want to infuse people with belief and light and goodness, and my main message is that people have more in them than they think. Right, they have more in them than they think. They have more toughness, more patience, more compassion, more character, and the only way for us to find out exactly how much we have in us is for us to be tested, and so I would encourage people not to shy away from the test but to welcome it and just see how good they can be. Let's freaking go.
Speaker 3:Now, colin, it's customary to end the show with a rapid fire session, and the way this works is we're going up an elevator, we're going up three floors and on each floor someone gets in. They're going up one floor and they ask you a question. So the only amount of time you have to answer the question is the amount of time it takes to go up one elevator floor. And the format of this is one gem, one step, one book. So the first person gets in the elevator and maybe they listen to this interview so they recognize you. They say, colin, what's one gem that, whether it be a quote or a mantra that you live your life by, that I can put in my back pocket to live a better life.
Speaker 1:Bet on yourself. Be willing to take the risk and bet on yourself.
Speaker 3:Now next person gets in and they ask Colin, what's one step I can take today to make my mark in this world?
Speaker 1:Start by giving. Start by giving something that's a value to you, that would be of significant value to somebody else. Best gift is to give back.
Speaker 3:Last person gets on. Colin, what's one book besides yours that I can read in 2024 to enhance my mindset?
Speaker 1:You know, I really like the compound effect by Darren Hardy. Very simple, but to the point of how important our decisions are as they compound on each other, I just think consistency is the key to any greatness. I love that and, folks, all of the content.
Speaker 3:I'm going to talk about and all of Colin's information will be linked in the show notes. Keep up with Colin, and what I got from this is it's important, as we're in this new year, to be unapologetically yourself. Choose hard and understand that challenges and opportunities are simply prerequisites to the life and dream that each of us envision. Do those things, and you are going to crush 2024 and win today. Thanks so much for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.