Eric Hinman is an endurance athlete and well known influencer in the fitness / wellness space. As a 5x IRONMAN and Crossfit Games Competitor, he's a specialist in physical transformation & maintenance.
Eric partners with and is an angel investor in several emerging wellness brands including Ten Thousand, Beam, Ice Barrel, Kane Footwear, and many more.
This episode journeys through Eric's candid sharing of his struggles with identity and purpose, providing a raw and inspiring look into how pain and joy can profoundly mold our lives. Together, we uncover the true grit of an athlete's humanity and the transformative power of single-minded focus and wellness alignment.
Eric walks us through lifestyle design and how to create a perfect day!
Connect With Eric!
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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!
Eric Hinman is an endurance athlete and well known influencer in the fitness / wellness space. As a 5x IRONMAN and Crossfit Games Competitor, he's a specialist in physical transformation & maintenance.
Eric partners with and is an angel investor in several emerging wellness brands including Ten Thousand, Beam, Ice Barrel, Kane Footwear, and many more.
This episode journeys through Eric's candid sharing of his struggles with identity and purpose, providing a raw and inspiring look into how pain and joy can profoundly mold our lives. Together, we uncover the true grit of an athlete's humanity and the transformative power of single-minded focus and wellness alignment.
Eric walks us through lifestyle design and how to create a perfect day!
Connect With Eric!
IG
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!
Finally, I got to this place where, you know I'm like I just want to feel good day in and day out, and that kind of led to the perfect days chapter, where I realized like I just want to live perfect days and exercise is a huge component of that and I can inspire others to do that and you know that is my new passion and purpose that I am going to live with. But those two years from 2014 to 2016, where I was leaving the sport trying to get right into CrossFit, you know still having this identity as a high level athlete and just constantly battling with what is my passion now, what is my purpose now, if I'm not this elite triathlete anymore and you know I'm not going to be this elite CrossFit athlete in a one year period you know who am I.
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 would 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.
Speaker 2:Let's connect with our guest. Our guest is known for saying this quote that really struck me at the heart the ultimate measure of happiness are perfect days. We've got someone here that is a champion of wellness, an endurance athlete, brand builder, works with some of the most iconic wellness brands that we see today, such as Cuts 10,000, cane Footwear, ice Barrel, but beyond that, I'd also call him the epitome of fun and wellness intertwined into one amazing being, and that's our guest today Eric Hinman. Eric, welcome sir.
Speaker 1:What's up, Ryan? Thanks for having me, brother.
Speaker 2:Stoked to have you man. So I mentioned that from a quick glance and before we got rolling, people get to see little sneak previews of you and they'll see that you work with the cool brands that I just mentioned. They'll see that you have people over all the time. They'll see that you're getting ready for the CrossFit Games, all these incredible things, and you're an absolute machine. But the first question I always ask is beyond that, what is it that really makes you human and, like one of us?
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question. I mean, just like everyone else, I have up days, I have down days. I've had a journey. I've lived different chapters of life. I've learned along the way from both. You know great things that have happened and bad things that have happened. You know, I experienced pain just like others, and I experienced happiness just like others.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I think Instagram specifically, which is the platform where I share most of my content, has been through a lot of my highlight years, from when I moved to Colorado in 2017 through today, in 2024, they've very much been highlight years, but you don't really see what got me to those highlight years, which was certainly a daily grind of going through the motions, building an insurance business that gave me some freedom and flexibility, to then start taking risks. Colliding with a personal trainer in upstate, new York who, when I was 27 or 28 years old, was able, over about an eight-month period, to get me into aesthetically good looking shape. And then colliding with some friends in Syracuse, new York, that had these really fancy triathlon bikes that, uh, that allured me into wanting to buy one and, by buying one, kind of forced me into signing up for a triathlon, because that's where you rode those bikes was in a triathlon. It wasn't all that comfortable to ride just for road rides. And then, yeah, I mean compounding consistencies.
Speaker 1:And you know, just having laser focus for four years specifically on triathlon led me to, you know, being pretty unfit in my late twenties to towing the line with some of the best athletes in the world at the Ironman world championships, and that taught me a lot of lessons. It taught me that you know, if you focus on one thing for long enough, you you can become world-class at it. If you just execute on a daily basis and you have a plan and you have blinders on to that plan and you say no to many other things, you can be world class at something and the people you surround yourself with and the environment you're in is going to heavily dictate your reality. And that's ultimately why I'm here in Colorado now, where the mountains that I'm staring at right now just beg me to be outside playing in them. And same with my friend group here. Like, no one is asking me to go out to a bar at 10, 30, nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:Like I did that in my twenties I hosted some massive parties at my state college I went to. But you know, now my life is is very much designed around my passions and purpose, which I ultimately found during those Ironman years when I had a lot of time alone in nature with my heart rate elevated, and I was able, instead of just like executing and taking calls and being in the mix of it, I was able to take a step back and be like I'm not really thriving in life right now and I feel so damn good after this run and this bike ride and doing this Wednesday night triathlon. Why am I not basing more of my life around wellness practices? And you know, when I, when I started doing that, opportunities all of a sudden started coming my way, instead of me having to chase opportunities.
Speaker 2:You highlighted it some of the transformation that you've made that ultimately has created who you are today, and I'd like to bring it back to that. As you mentioned, instagram is your primary platform and if someone looked at it for five seconds they'd see this guy that, again, is just ripped and lives life. And one thing I appreciate about your posts is that if people actually look at it and read the captions and scroll a little bit, they'll be like, wow, this guy hasn't always been that way, and you've had some posts recently that compare your 27 year old self to now your 43 year old self, and the two photos are vastly different. So bring us back to that younger version of yourself, because I want to dive a little deeper on the fact that you haven't always been this way. People might see the picture and be like, oh, this guy was born ripped good genes, and that's far from the case. So who is Eric? 1.0 to now 2.0?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the evolution was. I kind of feel like now I'm living my life more like when I was a kid, before the public perception of success and marketing got a hold of my brain. So you know, when we're kids, like we're just playing, like I had friends over to play basketball in my parents' backyard and I played team sports, I ran cross country, I ran track, I was just like living it up. And then you know you go to college and all of a sudden there is, you know, this comparison and judgment and you're very concerned with what others think of you. And you know also you become a victim of marketing. You see these drinking to excess and that leads to being around beautiful girls and all of the things that marketing tells us is successful we see on TV and billboards.
Speaker 1:So in my early 20s I was chasing money, I was chasing the public perception of success. I was trying to buy fancier suits and nicer watches and a fancier car and a bigger condo and I just wanted to be perceived as monetarily successful car driving 50,000 miles a year, just chasing money, chasing business, and then on the weekends partying like a rock star and I had some really fun nights. But you know I also woke up with some massive hangovers, made some really bad decisions and, you know, in my late twenties, found myself pretty out of shape. Right now I weigh 185 and I'm a very muscular 185. Then I was like 202 pounds and, you know, I had a beer gut and I did not look like an athlete whatsoever. So I hired a personal trainer and it was very vanity based. I was still kind of just living for the public perception of I want to look good, I want to look successful. So I hire a personal trainer and about eight months in, you know, I start to get some definition back.
Speaker 1:But I also started to correlate how I was feeling with the exercise. It wasn't that, you know, I was getting some abs again and that you could see some definition in my arms. I felt so energized throughout the day. I didn't have this lull anymore in the afternoons. I was making better eating decisions, I was drinking less, I was sleeping better, my mental clarity was going up and I was starting to again like take a step back and be like, hmm, you know, if this is making me feel so fulfilled, why am I doing all of these other things?
Speaker 1:And then, ultimately, when I got into triathlon. You know, that's what I call my psychedelic experience. That's when I didn't have at the time I had a BlackBerry. That's when my BlackBerry wasn't constantly going off and I wasn't inundated with emails and phone calls. I was able to think and reflect on how I had been living life and then how all of this exercise was just fueling the best version of myself. I felt so energized and so creative and I felt like I was just attracting so many amazing people and opportunities into my life. So I'm like, why don't I just design my life more around exercise? And you know, ultimately that's led to the chapter I'm living now.
Speaker 1:But during those years it was more just a lot of introspection and I wasn't monetizing it. I still was building businesses. Granted, those businesses were starting to become more and more an extension of me. I opened a gym and I opened these healthy, fast, casual restaurants and a software company. So the businesses were starting to align more with how I was living my life and they weren't separated with, like, personal life and business life.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, fast forward to social media. All of a sudden, it gave me this platform to broadcast. This message of movement is medicine. I feel so damn good from the way I'm living my life, that I want others to know this secret, that I've figured out that, like movement and exercise and eating healthy and sleep, there's this snowball effect that just kind of catapults you into realizing your full potential and like exuding this magnetic energy, that's what I felt like I was exuding during those years, this energy that was just again attracting amazing people and amazing opportunities into my life. So like, why, why don't I just design my life around exercise? And you know, hopefully eventually I'll figure out some, some way to monetize it. And you know, if you add enough value and you are creative enough in you know ways and who to work with, then you know you can monetize it as well now, especially with social media.
Speaker 2:That's, man. What an adventure just hearing you say that. And another piece that you talk about a lot, eric, is community and relationships and people. Another piece that you talk about a lot, eric, is community and relationships and people, and I did some reading on what you said about yourself also in those early years, and now you also talk about the component of community and hosting people regularly and really designing life filled with amazing people around you that are also engaged in this wellness space and fitness and fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in those earlier years you mentioned that. You know it may have looked like there was, there were a lot of people around you, and externally it could have been like man Eric's the man, and not not saying you're not, but internally you could have had a completely different feeling. What was your actual approach to relationships in those early years to now, to relationships in those early years to now? And I also want you to hit on a transformative experience you had when someone gave you the book Never Eat Alone. I'd love for you to talk about the influence that people have also had along the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think relationships in my twenties were very much based around impressing people. You know again with with money and fancy things and nice dinners and buying expensive bottles of wine. And you know again with with money and fancy things and nice dinners and buying expensive bottles of wine. And you know, now relationships are built around like I'm, I'm doing me, I'm living my life and I welcome people into that. And you know, I know that with my life I'm able to leave people with these memorable experiences, whether it's joining me for a workout or a mountain bike ride or a hike in the mountains or, you know, most likely a sauna session or contrast therapy session here at our house. Like it leaves people with this memorable impression. But I'm not flexing. You know, I'm just living my life, doing me. And you know I've been doing this long enough now to know that again I can attract people into my circle and that leaving people with a memorable experience specifically for me around. You know, sharing in some discomfort, that that creates these strong bonds and long lasting friendships and deep conversations. Like you go in a sauna, you go deep quick. You know you're in this small box that's really hot. Your phone isn't in there with you because it'll overheat in three minutes. And like the conversations go deep real fast. You're not talking about the weather and you're not talking about hey, you know where are you from. Like you're talking about like, hey, here's, here's what I'm going through right now. Or here's a business idea I have. Here's what my typical day looks like, and the questions flow freely. There's tremendous vulnerability. So I love building community and building friendships around these contrast therapy sessions and overcoming obstacles together, these contrast therapy sessions and, you know, overcoming obstacles together. And I think I learned a lot of that in the in the triathlon years, where I started to just have these incredible friendships with friends I was doing Ironmans with. And I'm like there's gotta be something to this. You know this. It brings us together when we overcome something hard together. There's this shared sense of accomplishment that you have with those people that you're doing it with. So, yeah, that's how it's changed.
Speaker 1:And community, in my opinion, is one of the most overlooked forms of wellness. I mean, we're tribal creatures. We're designed to have these close networks. We're designed to want to help others. We're designed to want to get help from others. So, you know, I've I've found that over the years that I get just as much of a dopamine hit from you know, helping someone else or sharing value with someone else, as I do from getting value. So I mean that's why I enjoy it so much. And I also enjoy connecting people. I enjoy seeing you know several people that came over to the house to sauna and then all of a sudden like they're really good friends and they're working out together and they're going on trail runs together. I love seeing that.
Speaker 2:It's interesting how, as we evolve and as we stay really committed and laser focused to something such as community connection, fitness, how everything else really just, I'd say, for me it just bounces right off Meaning. You know, I find it. I just turned 31 and I would much rather engage on hey, what are, what are you doing in the community? I just had a mastermind dinner at my house on Sunday. Every quarter I bring people together to have dinner, share what you're doing in the community and what you're doing for yourself to make this world a better place, and then we honor a different nonprofit every time and I've been doing that for two years and that to me, eric, is like the most fulfilling, rewarding type of night and something that I would love to have every day. And eventually you know we're getting there. But I could care less now, especially at this age, about what people think about the news or what's your opinion on politics. Hey, how about? What are you what? What good are you creating? Or how are you challenging yourself? What good are you creating, or how are you challenging yourself? So I appreciate your commitment.
Speaker 2:Lifestyle design keeps coming up, and I'm going to bring up the opening quote again because when I heard you say this on Creatures of Habit. I immediately wrote it down the ultimate measure of happiness are perfect days. You talk about living perfect days in lifestyle design. So someone thinking about this right now may think all right, what is lifestyle design? But more so, how can I design my ideal life? What type of internal inventory should I be going through to create this ultimate sense of happiness and keep the stack in perfect days For sure.
Speaker 1:I mean, everyone's perfect day is going to be different. Everyone has different glass balls they can't drop, so my perfect day is going to be vastly different than someone else's. But I mean, what allowed me to get to that point was making two lists making a list of all of the people, conversations, environments and activities where I was wishing I was somewhere else. I was wishing I was with someone else. I was wishing I was doing something else. So, for example, I was a member of a bunch of boards during that time period and I was specifically on those boards because I wanted it as this accolade on LinkedIn. I wanted to look important. But during these board meetings I wasn't adding much value. I wasn't getting much value. I was doodling, I was thinking about other things.
Speaker 1:And then fast forward to the triathlons and these Wednesday night triathlon clubs I was going to and my training sessions with super positive people, and then the conversations I would have with with them after it, or the conversations I would have with people after hitting a CrossFit workout. That's when I was just completely in the moment. I felt like I was getting value and giving value. Um, they were in in, in environments where I felt like I was surrounded by other like-minded people. So I started making that list of I am completely present, I am in flow state, Like these are the environments I want to be in, these are the activities I want to be doing, these are the types of people I want to be around, these are the types of conversations I want to be having.
Speaker 1:And I mean it wasn't overnight that I was able to change from one to the other, but slowly I was able to weed out a lot of the, you know, energy draining activities where I didn't feel like I was in alignment, and I was able to start building my life around all of these presence based activities, people, conversations and environments where I felt like I was in alignment with how I wanted to live my life. And I mean the ultimate move was when I moved here to Colorado in 2017. And you know that really switched up my environment, which also switched up the types of people I was around. It switched up, you know, my access to activities that I enjoyed and it just made it easier. So I always tell people that the easiest way to switch up your life is to switch up where you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your environment plays a key factor and, as you mentioned, the type of person you want to. You started focusing more on the type of people you want to be around. Fitness continues to come up. I read one of your blogs from 2023, and you introduced this concept of making a VIP list and something you started doing in your 30s. So I'm curious is there what is on your what's on? What's the criteria of your VIP list? Is it simply someone who is hyper-focused on wellness, fitness and boom, like they have a chance of being in the circle or are there other things that you're really looking for on that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's people that aren't in my environment. So it's going to be people that are in, let's say, la or New York, or you know my past life in Syracuse. You know people I'm not interacting with on a regular basis that I want to interact with on a regular basis, but I'm very much in the moment and I'm very much a product of my environment and very much like in my environment. In reality, I'm not great at maintaining relationships outside of my current bubble. So I made that list because these are people that you know I, over the years, had amazing conversations with. I learned from them, they learned from me, we grew from each other and ultimately, the sum was way greater than the parts, and it ranges from entrepreneurs to athletes, to someone who's just super passionate about something where I had a great conversation with them. So that's what that list is. It's just people that I don't want to lose track of, because the sum is just so much greater than the parts the sum is just so much greater than the parts.
Speaker 2:I love that I have a binder that I made when I started setting goals in 2011. I call it my success book, and so every set of goals from 2011 to now 2024 is in there, and then also every quarter I have an appreciation section where, as I meet people throughout my life, I'm like damn, looking back, I am not a product of myself. None of us are. So who do I have to thank and who is ultimately responsible? Who do I want to keep around? And you made me think about that list, and now I get to go update that here soon. I haven't touched it in 2024 yet.
Speaker 2:And another thing on lifestyle design we constantly evolve. Now it would surprise me to hear you say that you envision something for your life beyond being a champion for fitness and wellness and continuing to work with small brands and build them up and host people. But you also you still host or conduct quarterly audits. In another blog you mentioned that there's six key questions you ask yourself, but talk through your quarterly audit the importance of that and how that plays into this lifestyle design and where you're going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think reflection is super important. Just, many of us are inundated with our day-to-day, myself included. I have tons of obligations, I have the things I enjoy doing each day and I allow very little time for just downtime to kind of work on me instead of just the day-to-day grind. I do try to do, like you know, an hour of mountain biking, 90 minutes of mountain biking every day, where I call that my moving meditation. That just kind of resets my nervous system and resets my social battery.
Speaker 1:But it's not really a long enough time to dedicate effort to, you know, real reflection. A long enough time to dedicate effort to, you know, real reflection. So I feel like on a quarterly basis, just taking a step back and you know asking yourself am I thriving? Am I, you know, still in the environment that I want to be in? Am I interacting with the people I want to be interacting with? Am I progressing? Are all things that are super important to reflect upon on a regular basis.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, again, just taking time and scheduling it into your calendar, just like you would schedule in your workouts and schedule in your meetings, like schedule in this reflection time, so you can make sure that you're still in alignment because, you know, we all live various chapters of life and I think it's very rare for any of us to live one chapter. I think most of us, you know, we live out multiple chapters because we change over time. We want different things over time, our passions and purpose change over time. So I think it's important again to just be like am I living the chapter I want to live, or is it time to, you know, end this chapter and start writing a new chapter?
Speaker 2:Have you ever had since your transformation, eric, and since really committing to this have you ever had an audit or reflection? When you're going through this exercise that's made you realize something that you didn't in the present moment Like you're sitting asking yourself these questions and as you're looking at it on paper, you're thinking holy smokes, I had no clue that was in me. Or holy smokes, we need to make a change here.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely, yeah. I mean, especially towards the end of my Ironman years, there was a good one-year period where my ego was still attached to Ironman, where being in this small city that was my identity and I felt like I had to continue doing it because I was known as this high level Ironman triathlete and people were rooting for me and I love that. But ultimately I was starting to skip races. I didn't really enjoy the training anymore. I was just super burned out. I was, you know, going through the motions 25 hours a week training and I had made so many sacrifices during that time period. So I mean, that was a really hard period to to be like I don't really want to do Ironman anymore. I really want to start living my life in other ways.
Speaker 1:And I tried going right into CrossFit at the same level and I just kept getting hurt and you know that was affecting my ability to train, which was affecting my energy levels and my mood. And finally I got to this place where, you know, I'm like I just want to feel good day in and day out and that kind of led to the perfect days chapter, where I realized like I just want to live perfect days and exercise is a huge component of that and I can inspire others to do that. And you know that is my new passion and purpose that I am going to live with. Um. But those two years from 2014 to 2016, where I was leaving the sport trying to get right into CrossFit, you know, still having this identity as a high level athlete and just constantly battling with what is my passion now, what is my purpose now, if I'm not this elite triathlete anymore and you know I'm not going to be this elite CrossFit athlete in a one year period you know who am I CrossFit athlete in a one-year period. Who am I?
Speaker 2:As we transition into wellness now, I would love for you to share.
Speaker 1:What is a perfect day? Walk us through it. Yeah, a perfect day is waking up with no alarm around 6 am, heading downstairs trying to make the perfect cup of espresso for myself, my girlfriend and whatever other friends we have, staying here at the house, and then the mornings are pretty slow. The morning is planning out the day and also trying to get through something I likely won't get through later in the day. So anything that's going to take longer than 30 minutes I try to do in the morning because I know the rest of the day is going to be fast and I'm going to be on calls and podcasts and just executing.
Speaker 1:8 am 8.30 am is my first real big win of the day. It's that first workout and it's generally strength and conditioning CrossFit type workouts that takes about 90 minutes to two hours, depending on the time of season that I'm in, and that is very specific to progress. I'm looking to progress in the sport of season that I'm in and that is very specific to progress. I'm, you know, looking to progress in the sport of CrossFit. So I follow a specific training plan and I follow, you know, specific percentages and periodization for the weight training After that workout I have about a three hour work time block After the workout. I know that's when I'm generally going to be the sharpest, I'm going to have the most mental clarity, the most energy, and for three hours I'm on calls, generally with brands I'm working with or new brands looking to work with me. That's when I schedule a lot of podcasts. I'll create some content during that time period and then I know after about three or three and a half hours, you know my cognitive power and my energy is going to start to decline. So that's usually when I go off into the mountains. I just leave right from the house and typically I go for a mountain bike ride if the season permits. If it's winter, then I'm usually going for a trail run or a ruck. I'll do that for about 60 to 90 minutes and then I schedule another about two hour time block of work.
Speaker 1:So more calls, creating more content for brands, brainstorming various things, jumping on podcasts, and then from five until 630 every night, that's contrast therapy People coming over to the house to do two to three rounds of going from a hot sauna into a cold body of water, and then I'll generally smoke meat at home on our smoker for myself, my girlfriend, whoever else is staying over our dog Blaze. And then for about 45 minutes in the evening I'll just kind of wind down and try to learn something. So, watch YouTube, listen to a podcast, just try and learn something. So watch YouTube, listen to a podcast, um, just try, and, you know, learn something and wind down for the night, hit the hay around nine o'clock again, depending on the, the, the time of year and when the sun is going down, um, and then again rinse and repeat 6am next day. Uh, doing it all over again.
Speaker 2:You striving to make the perfect cup of espresso makes me think about my girlfriend, who loves her espressos, and I love drinking them, so I can resonate with you on that. Now, eric, you're really a hallmark of discipline in my view, and that's what's coming out here. I love the concept of your perfect day and replicating that and turning that into your everyday. Now I would imagine that you have a list of non-negotiables things that, as it relates to your health and wellness, that you're also doing every day, and it fits into that perfect day. We live in the world now where there's so many different modalities, and you should do this type of workout, you should eat this type of food, walk through what works well for you and uncover a little bit of the non-negotiables, in addition to the various forms of wellness that work best for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean non-negotiables. For me, exercise is top of the food pyramid. So, you know, getting some form of exercise in every single day. I'm not jumping on a plane, I'm not doing anything until I'm able to get some exercise in. So that's the top of the food chain and generally for me that's going to be lifting some moderately heavy weight and doing some kind of anaerobic conditioning. That's the type of workouts I'm enjoying most right now and that's where I feel I get the most bang for my buck. If that's not possible, I'll get some kind of aerobic workout in. So, going for a 60 minute mountain bike ride or a 60 minute trail run or ruck, um, top of the food pyramid, that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Eating single ingredient foods, that's kind of the next thing on on the on the food pyramid, um, where I'm making sure that I'm not eating anything that is going to or at least 85% of the time, not eating anything that is going to massively affect my mental clarity. That's going to affect my energy levels. I don't want quick bursts, I want, like, long sustained energy and mental clarity. So, um, especially breakfast and lunch, I'm very cognizant of what I put in my body. Dinner, you know, that's when I'll overeat or indulge and maybe have dessert, but breakfast and lunch I'm not going off the plan pretty much ever Sleep. This is the next one on there where I'm making sure that I'm getting at least seven hours of sleep and more likely eight hours of sleep. And you know, a lot of these things I'm doing are setting me up for restful sleep, of eating good foods and spending time with others and getting exercise in and avoiding highly stimulating environments late at night, like all of those things are setting me up for deep sleep. Um, and then you know supplements, a lot of these other things. You know they're icing on the cake. You know, if you want to, you know, be the best at something, then all of it matters. The air purifier matters, the supplements matter, as the recovery matters, all of it matters. But you know, if you you just want to be, if you want to thrive, you want to be a good business owner, employee, father, husband, like, prioritize those things first. And then, you know, start looking at some of these other things that you know just allow for a little more leveling up.
Speaker 1:Contrast therapy is huge for me. I do do that every single day. So the three rounds of sauna and cold exposure, and that's one of those things where I consider it multitasking. Without multitasking I'm getting physical benefits of reducing inflammation so I can train hard again the next day.
Speaker 1:I'm getting the mental benefits of, you know, putting your, your, your body in the fight or flight mode. I'm getting that mood boost from it, so getting an endorphin rush, emotional benefits again, just feeling good, reducing anxiety, boosting my immune system, and then also spending time with others in an environment where I've had some of the best conversations of my life. So I kind of look at all of the different things I'm doing throughout the day and thinking like, could I do something else that would allow for even more with spending the same time? You know there's a lot of things I can do for recovery and there's a lot of things that work for recovery, but for me that's that's why I do specifically the contrast therapy is because it checks so many different boxes in that 70 minutes that I'm doing it.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that insight. Now, eric, you're really at the forefront of the wellness space and, working with so many different brands, you get a preview of all the new technology that is coming out there and is available to us. Now I'm curious as to what really excites you most in the wellness industry. What can we expect to see, and what are some products that you're looking forward to testing out or that you recommend that we should look out for?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'm excited about more technology that will track what is going on underneath the hood. So you know we have whoops and we have Apple watch and Khoros and all of these. You know activity trackers that will measure heart rate variability and exercise, and you know they'll give you a score based on if they think you're ready to train or not, but none of them are tracking what's actually going on underneath the hood. You know how are my lifestyle choices affecting my cortisol levels? How are they affecting my testosterone levels, ldl? You know all of these biomarkers that we know are heavily correlated to healthspan and lifespan. So that's probably what I'm most excited about is more technology that comes out that is just continually monitoring your. You know your underneath the hood and telling you like, hey, this is how various things are affecting these biomarkers.
Speaker 2:That certainly is exciting and, being a Coros fan myself now, I'm starting to see HRV as one of my daily metrics and starting to study that more. I'm also curious about some of the products that you mentioned, or things that really see what's under the hood. Now, eric, the way we end the podcast is with a rapid fire session, and this is one gem. One step, one book. Envision that you and I are on an elevator going to grab some lunch at a cool spot in denver and we're going up three elevator floors. One person gets on at each floor and is only going up one floor. So that's the amount of time you have to answer the question that they're about to ask you now. The first one is eric, what's One gem that you have, whether it's a quote or a mantra that you live your life by, that I can put in my back pocket and live my life by as well?
Speaker 1:Yeah, movement is medicine. Just movement is so correlated to physical, mental and emotional well-being so I literally consider that to be medicine.
Speaker 2:Motion is lotion. No doubt about that, Eric. What's one step that I can take today to be of service to others and improve my?
Speaker 1:Share your story. I mean, no one has your story, so that's often what I'm doing is I'm just sharing my story. People don't like to be sold to. People don't like to be preached at. You know, I don't think most people like the scare tactics, but people respond well to stories. So just share your story and know that your story is unique to you and it'll likely inspire you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you never know who may need it. Eric, what's one book that I should read in 2024 to enhance my mindset?
Speaker 1:I mean you stated it earlier how to Win Friends and Influence People is one of my favorite books the Power of Relationships. I mean pretty much all of the knowledge that I get is just coming from conversation with others. So don't discount how important conversing with others is. Others, so don't discount how important conversing with others is. And you know, really the only way to fast track success in the world is to find someone who's gotten where you want to go and befriend them.
Speaker 2:Great, great book. Now, how do we keep up with you, sir?
Speaker 1:Yeah, instagram is best. Just my name, eric Hinman.
Speaker 2:Wow, eric, what a treat man. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Folks, check out Eric, link up with him. Everything's in the show notes. Really appreciated you dissecting lifestyle design and the wellness space and things that we can do to improve our overall well-being. Take advantage of what's out there and going back to ultimately creating those perfect days and stacking them and making that our lifestyle day in, day out. Eric, I appreciate you. Folks, check out Lifestyle Design. Write down what you believe your ideal day, your perfect day, looks like and seek to create it and you're going to win today. Thanks so much for tuning in.