Order of Man - NICK BARE ｜ Forward Thinking, Backward Planning

00:00:00.000 Men, as you're thinking about your New Year's resolutions, it's easy to become trapped in

00:00:04.140 daydreaming. So many men look forward to what they want to accomplish, but rarely do they

00:00:08.600 calculate the plan to achieve their objectives and most importantly, take the actions necessary.

00:00:14.180 Today, I'm joined by former Army Ranger and founder of Bear Performance Nutrition, Nick

00:00:18.520 Bear. We discuss removing ego from the equation, looking at life as a series of sprints, managing

00:00:24.580 expectations with important people in your life, also keeping yourself from becoming resentful

00:00:29.440 and callous towards others and ultimately the power of forward thinking and backwards

00:00:34.120 planning. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and

00:00:38.940 boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every

00:00:44.160 time. You are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life.

00:00:50.960 This is who you are. This is who you will become at the end of the day. And after all is said

00:00:56.160 and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:00:59.440 Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm the host and the founder

00:01:03.460 of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome to December 2022. Yeah, we've been here

00:01:10.780 for a couple of weeks, but guys about this time of year, it seems like everybody's thinking

00:01:15.100 about goal setting and new year's resolutions and what they want to accomplish in 2023 and

00:01:20.880 how they want next year to be different than it is this year. And to that end, we've got

00:01:27.480 this podcast. We've been doing it for almost eight years now and it has done phenomenally

00:01:34.120 well. And that's a testament to you. That's a testament to the fact that we as men want

00:01:40.020 this information. We want to improve. We want to get better. We want to hear from each

00:01:43.040 other. We want to learn. We want to grow. We want to implement. And so I just want to

00:01:46.620 give you a shout out and thank you for tuning in. Whether you've been here for a week or a

00:01:50.760 year or all eight years with us, we got some big things in the works moving forward. If

00:01:56.140 you are new, this podcast is designed to have conversations with men like my guest today,

00:02:01.800 Nick Baer, very successful in his own right. Other guys like Jocko Willink and Cameron Haynes

00:02:07.360 and Andy Frisilla and Terry Cruz and Tim Tebow. These are all men we've had on the podcast and

00:02:13.780 so many more incredible guys doing incredible things. So we're going to get to it in a minute.

00:02:19.140 I want to let you know the great news today is that we are actually open. Finally, I've

00:02:23.600 been talking about the iron council for weeks, if not months, we are finally open for the

00:02:29.260 last time of the year. I'm going to talk more about it a little later in the show, but for

00:02:33.000 now, if you want to join with other men who get it, meaning they are on the same path as

00:02:38.000 you, they're wanting to do the same things as you. They're wanting to succeed like you do.

00:02:42.320 Then you need to check out the iron council because we're open until the end of the year.

00:02:46.900 And that's it. You can check it out at order man.com slash iron council. Again, I'll talk

00:02:51.980 about it later for now. I really want to introduce you to my guest. He is a former army ranger.

00:02:58.120 His name is Nick Baer. He's the founder of the hugely successful company, Baer performance

00:03:02.440 nutrition, which he started in college and he built through a military deployment to South

00:03:07.780 Korea and has since turned it into a multiple eight figure nutrition company.

00:03:13.400 I'm super inspired by Nick, especially as he successfully navigates running his company,

00:03:19.280 taking care of his mental and emotional, and of course, physical health, and also recently

00:03:24.260 becoming a father for the first time. Nick is using his passion for exercise and nutrition

00:03:29.440 to improve people's lives through sports performance. Also his content online. He's reaching millions

00:03:35.080 and millions of people, his book, 24 hours a day, speaking engagements, and really at the end of it

00:03:42.220 all, just embodying the type of person others can look up to and learn from. So enjoy this conversation.

00:03:50.240 Nick, what's up brother? Glad to have you on the podcast, man.

00:03:53.500 Ryan, thank you. I appreciate it.

00:03:55.440 I think we got, I'd been following you for a little bit and then I think we got synced up.

00:03:59.220 I was down there because you're in Austin, right?

00:04:01.400 Right outside of, yeah.

00:04:02.680 Yeah. Yeah. I was down there with our literary agent and then I met up with Cam and then I think

00:04:10.080 you and I got synced up a day or two, like right after I had left. Otherwise it would have been

00:04:14.360 cool to record a podcast face-to-face. I like doing that better, but we'll make this work.

00:04:19.140 Hey, next time you're in Austin, let me know. I have the spots for dinner. I have the spots for

00:04:25.180 some drinks. We got a podcast studio. We got a jam. We can hit it all in one session.

00:04:29.860 Right on, man. I also want to train with you too because that to me is where the real value would

00:04:36.360 come from because I'd be able to see what that training schedule is like. I'm not sure I'd be

00:04:39.680 able to keep up, but I'd like to do it nonetheless. Honestly, that's one of my favorite ways to

00:04:45.260 meet someone and get to know someone because you're both humbled by something difficult and challenging.

00:04:52.240 You have something to bond over and it kind of just breaks down sometimes the awkwardness of like a

00:04:59.660 new interaction. And you leave that experience as such closer people and acquaintances and friends.

00:05:07.820 Yeah. I actually think more men ought to do stuff like that because in modern times,

00:05:13.740 we're told, men are told that in order to build friendships or bonds, they need to do it like women

00:05:19.680 and they don't resonate with it, which is basically sitting across from each other talking about who

00:05:25.080 knows what. As opposed to men, we best bond over a common objective or a common enemy. So if it's in

00:05:33.300 the gym, that's a common objective. We're pushing hard against something. We're challenging each other.

00:05:37.100 We're pushing each other. But yeah, generally society would say, don't do that. Just sit around and

00:05:41.160 talk about your feelings. And that just hasn't worked for me, let alone any other guy out there,

00:05:45.760 I'm sure. Well, I think that's why I've seen parallels and similarities between my time in

00:05:51.500 the military and then building my company because both things are very physically and mentally

00:05:59.680 challenging. And you bond together through this difficult objective. And I've seen such

00:06:06.860 similar crossover between the two experiences. Yeah. I know your story a bit about joining the

00:06:14.060 military and then going through ranger school. I was really curious about your transition out of

00:06:19.320 the military. I think if I understand correctly, you started your nutrition company while you were

00:06:25.120 still in the services. And then you transitioned after you came back from South Korea, I believe.

00:06:31.940 So I started my company in 2012 while I was still in college. So I went to school. I went to school

00:06:39.000 out in Western Pennsylvania at the school called Indiana University of Pennsylvania, IUP. No

00:06:45.120 affiliation with Indiana University. It's just in a town called Indiana. And I studied nutrition there.

00:06:52.100 I was on an Army ROTC scholarship there. And between my junior and senior year of college,

00:06:57.480 I decided to start my business, which was probably the worst time I could have started a business because

00:07:03.920 a year later, I graduated with a degree, I commissioned in the Army as an infantry officer,

00:07:09.480 I got sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for a year. I was in, you know, Fort Benning for a year through

00:07:15.980 the infantry officer basic course, ranger school, airborne school. And then I got stationed in Texas

00:07:21.040 in 2014 at Fort Hood, served four years in, in the Army. Most of that time as a infantry platoon leader,

00:07:29.280 transitioned out in 2017. And that was like the first opportunity for me to, to go all in on the

00:07:35.540 business. But I spent, I spent those, those five years leading up to that moment, building the brand

00:07:41.420 as much as I could in my free time, which was outside of my time in the military. So I did set

00:07:47.840 myself up for success pretty well through my transition. I can't say that a lot of people do

00:07:53.300 that. I've seen a lot of people struggle with the transition of military to civilian. But I am

00:07:59.840 grateful and fortunate that I did set that, that transition up pretty successfully.

00:08:04.820 Well, where did I get South Korea from? Am I way off? Am I thinking about something else?

00:08:08.760 No. So I was in South Korea in, in 2016 with the military for nine months.

00:08:14.840 Got it.

00:08:15.360 And so I got to, I got to Fort Hood, Texas. I was stationed there. I was leading an infantry

00:08:20.960 platoon there. We had orders to go to South Korea for nine months. I spent nine months there

00:08:26.440 training at Camp Casey. And I actually, I built the business a lot when I was in South Korea

00:08:33.560 because what I realized is when I got there, I thought my brand, I thought my business was going

00:08:39.140 to die because I thought I was going to have zero free time to do anything. What I quickly realized

00:08:44.000 was we were doing the same job in South Korea that we were doing back in the States. However,

00:08:48.860 now I didn't have a 35 minute drive to and from work every day. I had a 20 second walk from my,

00:08:56.640 my barracks to, to my office. So what I told myself when I got to South Korea was I wasn't going to

00:09:02.980 watch any TV shows, no movies. I wasn't going to hang out with anyone. Every waking moment outside of

00:09:09.560 my job as a platoon leader, I was going to spend building the business. I was going to read books.

00:09:14.300 I was going to listen to podcasts. I was just going to learn as much as possible. I rebranded our

00:09:19.140 website. I relaunched new products and we scaled the brand. I scaled the brand when I was in South

00:09:25.220 Korea. So when I got there in February of 2016, we were doing $2,000 a month in revenue. My goal,

00:09:34.100 my goal was by the time we left or by the time I left South Korea, I wanted to be doing $10,000 a

00:09:40.080 month in revenue. We hit that in the first 90 days of being there. Really? Yeah. So that was just

00:09:46.480 building the brand on social media and, and gaining brand awareness and just documenting my life while I

00:09:53.280 was over there and sharing the story. And it started picking up traction. And that was a, you know,

00:09:59.080 there's a positive correlation behind building these platforms and the brand and in sales and

00:10:04.980 revenue. Yeah. We, we have a, we have a similar story in that I made a similar decision when I was

00:10:12.940 in Iraq in 2005. I made the same decision. I'm not going to do the TV shows. I'm not going to do all

00:10:19.940 this and that, that the guys are doing. I spent some time in the gym. Of course, I hung out a little

00:10:23.700 bit with the guys, but a lot of my time was spent studying for my life insurance and investment

00:10:31.000 qualifications so that when I came back, I could jump right into a financial planning practice that

00:10:35.600 I was planning on starting. And it was amazing how few guys were actually doing that. Most guys in

00:10:41.680 their time off were sleeping or binge watching 24 was the show at the time. And I was amazed at how few

00:10:50.040 of us were taking that time and maximizing every moment. Did you find the same thing when you were

00:10:54.300 in South Korea? Were guys dinking off doing their thing or, or were there a group of you guys who

00:10:59.300 were dedicated to something more above and beyond what you were doing there? No, I was definitely

00:11:04.320 the rare one in the bunch. I bet. Yeah. But a lot of the soldiers and non-commissioned officers in my

00:11:11.320 platoon, they were talking about their future transition out of the military. And I challenged them

00:11:17.900 with, Hey guys, like you need to have a plan. You're, you're either going to like go to school

00:11:23.180 or you're going to find a job or you're going to start a business. But the time to start that

00:11:27.440 business is not the day after you get out of the army. Right. Right. That's going to be a really

00:11:32.720 tough transition. And I saw that happen to a lot of guys where all they wanted to do is leave the

00:11:37.620 military. And they thought the grass was greener on the other side and they left. And then the day

00:11:43.560 after they decided, Oh, I'm going to start this business and this business is going to blow up and

00:11:47.160 I'm going to, you know, be living this, this amazing life. And it took, I I've been following

00:11:53.080 some of these guys months and years to get it off the ground if it ever did. So sometimes it's, it's, you

00:12:00.980 know, it's too late for a lot of people. You got to start earlier. And I was really encouraging

00:12:05.180 these guys to, Hey, let's like, let's build a plan. So that when you do decide to transition out,

00:12:10.620 you already have some, some momentum moving into it. Right. Yeah. It's always interesting at how

00:12:16.660 often we underestimate, I guess, how, how long it, it will take to build a business. So many people

00:12:25.960 might see your success or see the success of what we've had with the podcast and the movement and

00:12:30.000 think, Oh, well that's easy. You know, you just talk to cool people or you make a couple of

00:12:34.440 inspirational posts on, on Instagram and all of a sudden you're off to the races, but yeah,

00:12:40.280 it takes a lot of time. And that actually translates into something I've heard you talk

00:12:43.540 a lot about, which makes sense to me is this concept of forward thinking and backwards planning

00:12:47.860 where I think most people are forward thinking. They're always thinking about what's next. What

00:12:55.940 do I want? Maybe not specifically, or they're not doing it right, but they are dreaming. Right.

00:13:01.000 But so few people seem to get to that second part of that, which is backwards thinking. I'd love to

00:13:06.360 hear more about that philosophy for you. So backwards planning, you know, the military is

00:13:12.240 huge and backwards planning, right? And it's pretty self-explanatory where you set a goal,

00:13:18.180 you have an objective, you have a mission, and then you build a timeline based off of where you want to

00:13:25.000 be when, where, and where you're at right now. And you fill in that gap with things that you have to

00:13:33.700 accomplish to get you to point B to get from point A to point B. What do you have to do at what point

00:13:39.620 and where to be successful? Right. And you learn this in the military. And if you directly apply it to

00:13:46.340 your civilian life, it works out pretty well in almost anything you're going to do. And what I

00:13:51.600 quickly realized was a lot of people were just unfamiliar to this pretty simple tactic. And you

00:14:00.580 know, in a business, there's always a visionary in a business. We're implementing the system in our

00:14:07.180 business right now. It's called EOS entrepreneurial operating system. And it's based off of the book

00:14:12.420 traction. I don't know if you've ever read traction, but I haven't amazing book. And we're implementing

00:14:17.660 this, this business system right now called EOS. And within EOS, you have an accountability

00:14:23.700 function and structure for your company. And at the top of that accountability or organizational

00:14:30.620 structure, you have a visionary. That is someone who is thinking into the future, coming up with the

00:14:36.880 crazy ideas and just kind of painting a picture for where you see this company, this organization,

00:14:42.940 and these people moving to be successful. You are painting a trajectory. So I think that's been

00:14:50.000 one of my strengths in, in my life is I am a visionary. I'm always looking into 12, 24, 36,

00:14:58.900 48 months out. Where are we trying to be in the future for either my business, myself personally,

00:15:06.140 my family, where am I trying to get us to? And then what do I have to do from now until then

00:15:12.860 to make sure that it successfully happens? So I'm always forward thinking and then backwards

00:15:19.300 planning. What that visionary does, you can be a visionary for your family. You can be a visionary

00:15:25.020 for yourself. You can be a visionary for your team, for your business. You are painting this picture

00:15:30.840 of where you're heading. And then you build a plan of this is how we're going to get there.

00:15:35.600 And what it does is it creates very clear steps in communication for the people around you of this

00:15:44.080 is how we're getting there. And this is when we're going to do it. And this is where it's going to put

00:15:48.080 us. So it provides a lot of clarity for not just yourself, but your team, your family.

00:15:53.340 Have you found as a person who is a visionary that you are good at the backwards planning where the

00:16:01.740 forward thinking might be your strength? Do you feel you're as strong with the planning? I know

00:16:06.240 myself personally, I'm more of a visionary personality. I can see things that other people

00:16:11.720 can't. I can envision what that might look like, what I want it to be. I'm not really, I can plan.

00:16:17.960 I'm not really as good at implementing the, the minutiae, the day-to-day activities that need to

00:16:24.200 be done in order to accomplish it. I'm kind of like, Hey, just go for it. And let's just see what

00:16:30.340 works. That's my personality. I think it depends on the scale. So I, I enjoy being a visionary. I enjoy

00:16:40.660 painting this picture for people to see where we're heading. If I have to backwards plan for myself,

00:16:46.440 say I'm doing a marathon prep or trying to gain or lose weight, I can be very successful in that.

00:16:54.600 And for like smaller teams, I can backwards plan for smaller teams pretty well. I think in my opinion,

00:16:59.760 as the organization gets larger and there's more moving pieces, I like delegating that to someone

00:17:06.700 else who is, who's better at doing it than me. It's like, I like paint the picture and I love having

00:17:12.780 a team now that can execute on that picture and step in to do the moving parts, the backwards

00:17:19.400 planning for me. So how have you then, let's say you've got your team now. And I imagine,

00:17:25.260 I think I heard on a recent podcast that you're, you're bringing more people in, in the right places

00:17:29.840 to be able to scale the business even greater. Have you found any sort of contention or even just

00:17:36.600 disagreement between yourself as the visionary who wants to accomplish this big grand thing

00:17:41.740 and your team who is in charge of the day-to-day activities? And they're like, whoa, hold on a

00:17:47.820 second. Like we still have to do these things. And you're like, no, that's, that was two months ago.

00:17:52.380 We're on to bigger, something bigger and better now. How do you manage that conflict if it,

00:17:56.760 if it arises and comes up? That's like the, that's the growing pains that I've experienced as a

00:18:03.260 business owner for the last couple of years. I bet. I think a lot of that comes down to

00:18:07.860 ego and removing, you know, limiting ego. I think there's, there's definitely a time and place to have

00:18:14.360 ego. And if you're leading an organization, you're leading your family, you're leading something,

00:18:20.180 you're leading a sports team. You have to have the ability to make a decision and be decisive in

00:18:27.960 that decision-making. But I think you also have to have the humility and eliminate that ego to see

00:18:35.900 everyone else's perspective. You know, like I've done it before. I failed at this many, many times

00:18:43.040 where I have this vision of where we're going to go and like, where I want this company to be in

00:18:48.760 12 to 24 months. But it's really easy to overlook everyone else's role in all the things that they have

00:18:56.860 to do in order to move their ship with the bigger ship, you know, to keep rowing the ship in the

00:19:03.520 same direction. And you can really easily crush people and overwork people and hurt people through

00:19:09.960 that process. So that's, that's something I'm constantly trying to navigate is yes, I want to

00:19:15.420 put these big projects in emotion. I want to, I want to achieve these massive goals, but is it actually

00:19:22.500 feasible for the team to keep up with and accomplish as well? Because if I win in the business wins,

00:19:31.180 but it crushes everyone through the process. Well, that's a failure in my opinion.

00:19:35.160 Sure. Sure. Yeah. It's not. I do the same thing. I think any high achiever has that problem to a

00:19:43.020 degree. And I used to say, or think, well, what's your problem? Just get on board and like catch up

00:19:48.840 or you're not. And then I would pin it back on worth of that person, you know, that they were

00:19:54.000 crushed or deflated or whatever it might be. And I'm trying to be a little bit more mature. It sounds

00:19:59.160 like you're working through some, some of the same things I am of, Hey, look, it's not as effective

00:20:06.320 long-term to be 100% in going as fast as you possibly can, but nobody's there to help or to build.

00:20:15.700 It's just not a sustainable way of doing it. In my opinion, in my experience,

00:20:19.720 I mean, it's tough because, you know, we're talking from like a business perspective right now,

00:20:25.100 you care so much about the health and the success of the organization that,

00:20:31.260 you know, in my case, I started over 10 years ago. I now identify with this company. I've sunk

00:20:38.760 so much time, energy, and money into it. And I care so much about the success of it,

00:20:45.020 but I equally care about the people who have uprooted their life that have moved their family

00:20:51.260 across the country to come support the mission as well. So I think it's, it's balanced. And

00:20:57.180 I don't know if I'll ever solve it or find a solution, but as you're pushing one, sometimes

00:21:04.640 you neglect the other, you know, it's like, I'm, I'm pushing the business so hard. And then I'll

00:21:11.280 realize, Oh shit. Like I, I, I crushed some people through this process. And then you're in your head,

00:21:17.080 you're in your mind of, did I make it, did I make a wrong decision? Am I a bad leader? Like,

00:21:20.940 am I, am I a bad business owner? Like, these are things I'm always, you know, navigating in my mind

00:21:27.360 as I'm trying to push people and develop people and do something that is almost unbelievable in,

00:21:36.400 in, in terms of what I thought was achievable 10 years ago. How, how is your, how is that mentality

00:21:42.920 and specifically the way that you've run the business or even viewed your, your employees and

00:21:50.300 coworkers through the lens of being a father? Cause I know you've got what, a five or six

00:21:56.640 month old little girl. And you know, that's, that's going to change things as well, obviously.

00:22:02.220 A five month old daughter. And I'll tell you what, man, like completely changed my life. And

00:22:07.760 I I've, I've been told six months ago before Charlie Grace was born, I was told by many other dads,

00:22:15.560 this, this child of yours is going to change your life. And like, I thought I understood that I

00:22:22.180 really did until it actually happened. And it has completely changed my perspective on what really

00:22:28.580 matters in life. And I know that sounds probably pretty cliche, but you know, now with this being

00:22:34.260 my new life, five months later, I'm navigating changes. Uh, I am realizing that can't be as selfish

00:22:43.440 with my time anymore. And I also realized I want to be super present with my family. I want to be

00:22:48.640 present with my wife. I want to be present with like my daughter and our future kids. And, uh, it is

00:22:54.660 definitely changed the way I, I operate the business. It has changed the way I look at team members and

00:23:02.160 employees, especially employees and team members that have families that have kids who are, who are

00:23:06.360 married. Um, because if I'm being honest with myself and I've had this conversation with my wife,

00:23:11.680 the last couple of years, my head has been like, it's been down and it's work, work, work.

00:23:18.620 Of course.

00:23:19.500 And I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs like can resonate with this and you never come up and kind

00:23:24.680 of look around to see possibly what damage you have done. When our daughter was born, that was like

00:23:30.620 the first time in a while where my head came up and I was able to look around it. I guess some of

00:23:34.440 the damage that I've done, it was okay. I should have been more present with my wife the past couple

00:23:41.840 years. That's something I'm actively working on right now. And, um, I'm, I'm honestly now forward

00:23:48.380 thinking and backwards planning in terms of the father that I want to be the husband that I want to

00:23:52.860 be in the future and how that changes my role in the business. That's something I'm actively navigating

00:23:58.760 as we speak. Yeah. It's, it's challenging too. I I've got, I've got four kids and my oldest is 14.

00:24:07.380 So I've, I've been in the game for 14 years now. What's a challenge for me is being vigilant about

00:24:14.360 that. You know, it's, it's, I'm not going to say it's easy, but I do think it's at least more

00:24:19.520 on the top of your mind that, Hey, I want to be available and present for my wife and my,

00:24:24.200 my six month old, but then she's going to turn one and two and three and five. And it's really

00:24:30.060 easy for myself. I imagine you're very much the same way for us to slip back into default mode,

00:24:36.560 which is for me business mode and, and remaining vigilant about staying on top of that balance of

00:24:45.380 wanting to be with the family, wanting to run the business and trying to find the right amount of time

00:24:51.980 and energy and effort to give to both. Yeah. I always explain it to my wife as I'm like, Hey,

00:24:57.080 Steph, I'm about to go into a sprint again. And she's like, Nick, you're always in a sprint.

00:25:02.780 Like, stop, stop giving me this bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. Like sometimes she can tell you that.

00:25:08.220 Yeah. But like, you know, sometimes in business, you know, there's a sprint that's about to come up.

00:25:12.700 It's like, maybe there's a new objective for the next quarter or your team is about to grow,

00:25:16.720 you're launching a new product and you know, like, Hey, I'm about to go into this sprint and it's,

00:25:21.400 it's going to be, it's going to be heavy. Um, but I think my wife has kind of just picked up on

00:25:27.440 finally that it is sprint after sprint after sprint, but I'm trying to plan for the future of,

00:25:33.840 you know, what do I want my life to look like in terms of my, my business, my work, my goals,

00:25:39.820 my family, all of that. And, uh, I'm really excited for what that looks like in the future.

00:25:47.340 I don't know what it looks like right now, but I'm, I'm really excited for it.

00:25:49.580 So how do you anticipate managing those sprint periods and not letting them roll into the next

00:25:57.320 sprint from sprint to sprint to sprint and actually coming up for air or, you know, slowing down the

00:26:03.320 pace or the tempo with business because you want to be more deliberate and intentional with the

00:26:07.240 family. How do you anticipate dealing with that as it, as it comes up? Cause she's probably right.

00:26:11.600 I mean, our, our wives are often right about our, the way that we're showing up in, in, in less than 0.95

00:26:18.700 favorable ways. You know, they're typically right about that.

00:26:22.160 Well, I'm a, I'm a doer by, uh, by nature. So if, if there's something that needs, needs to get done,

00:26:28.880 I'm going to do it. I'm just going to step in and do it. So building a business has actually

00:26:34.520 been a great lesson for me in terms of delegating responsibility and empowering people to do that

00:26:41.260 job. Because what I've realized in the past and where I failed is I have delegated responsibility

00:26:47.240 to someone who I've hired and I've empowered them, but then I took away that power by going and doing

00:26:53.000 it myself, which if I was working for a company, I, I wouldn't want that to happen to me.

00:26:59.420 So something I had to like really realize as growing this business is delegation is important.

00:27:06.640 Empowerment is important, but truly empower them to succeed, to fail, to learn, guide those people,

00:27:15.720 develop them, but you got to allow for that empowerment. So something I'm actively doing

00:27:22.020 right now to kind of prepare for, for my future with my family is we're hiring more people.

00:27:29.420 And especially people who have the experience, who have done it before that I can truly delegate

00:27:35.480 responsibilities to and empower and know that they're going to run with it like they own it

00:27:40.860 themselves. So that's been a huge part of some changes we've made to the business in the last

00:27:46.220 year is hiring more people who bring experience that can take on some of the responsibilities that

00:27:52.980 I previously had so that I can truly operate in the role that I want to operate in the business.

00:27:57.180 Yeah, no, that's, that is important is bringing in the right people and then trusting that they can

00:28:06.660 do the work that that's, that's been a challenge for me is okay. I know I need to delegate. I know

00:28:11.920 I need other people. And then you see them even do something that's not wrong necessarily, but

00:28:17.380 different than you might do it. And then you step in immediately. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa,

00:28:21.040 hold on a second. You, like you said, you gave them authority to do that. Like you actually have

00:28:26.760 to trust them to be able to do it. And then guide, of course, and instruct where, where,

00:28:31.120 where it's appropriate and where it needs to happen. But that is definitely a challenge,

00:28:34.740 especially for something like you built, which I imagine you feel like is your, your baby outside

00:28:40.280 of your actual baby. Well, it's like, I was telling you, I identify with this company.

00:28:47.340 I was thinking about this the other day, as I was on a plane, coming back from a work trip,

00:28:52.000 is this thought of, you know, you, you, I founded BPN in 2012 and I put blood, sweat,

00:29:00.920 and tears into this business. And after doing that for an extended period of time,

00:29:05.960 you truly identify with it. And someone asked me the question a few months ago of, well, Nick,

00:29:11.640 who are you without your company? And I was like, you know what? That's a great question

00:29:17.520 because I've, I've truly identified with building this thing for a decade now that I've invested

00:29:24.920 everything into it. So sometimes you so truly identify with what you've built that I don't want

00:29:32.020 to say you lose a part of you, but, um, I think it's just part of being an entrepreneur that you

00:29:38.180 have to accept. How, uh, how are you answering that question or what, what work are you actively

00:29:44.640 doing to be able to answer the question of who you are outside of, outside of the business that

00:29:49.240 you've created? I haven't had an answer for it yet, but I do think that having our daughter five

00:29:56.740 months ago is helping me identify with like who I, I really am. And if I think about who I want to be

00:30:05.760 known for, like when I die one day, whether that's tomorrow or whether that's 40, 50 years from now,

00:30:13.780 I don't want to be known as Nick Barry's like that, that beast guy who lifts weights and,

00:30:19.340 and runs marathons. I don't want that on my tombstone. I love to train. That is one of my true

00:30:25.840 passions in life. I probably trained more than I should, but I want to be known as a role model.

00:30:30.260 I want to be known as a role model for, for fathers, for my children, for people who follow

00:30:37.000 me on social media. I want to be known as the guy who chose the hard right over the easy wrong

00:30:42.520 and who built a life that was respectable. So that's, that's a long way of saying that is what

00:30:52.540 I want to identify with and the things that I do in my life now. And then in the future, moving forward,

00:30:57.200 that's what I want to be known for. And it's, it's choosing things to work on, whether projects

00:31:05.540 or myself with my family that align with those values. I'm, I'm writing that down. Cause I think

00:31:12.640 that's a good frame is, is answering the question. What, what do I, what do I want to be known for?

00:31:18.460 Who do I want to be known for? That's a good, I'm constantly thinking about prompts or questions

00:31:25.480 that I can ask myself and other people can ask that, that we haven't before that might get us

00:31:31.080 thinking about our lives a little different. Cause I think that's what needs to happen. You know,

00:31:35.520 so many guys are listening to this podcast and they're thinking to themselves, I want a different

00:31:40.220 result out of my life. I want a different marriage or I want a different business, or I want to be in a

00:31:44.000 different spot financially or, or, or from a physical perspective, but they don't know how

00:31:49.340 to do it. And, and I've always been the mentality of like, well, if you want something, just change,

00:31:53.300 just do it. It's like, that's really easy to say, but if you don't know what to do,

00:31:58.440 that can seem like a very daunting task for people. And that's why I think looking at these

00:32:04.120 from a different frame is so crucial. So I really liked that question. It's a powerful question.

00:32:08.680 I also like thinking of like, what do you want to be known for, known for and by who?

00:32:14.540 So by all these people who, who really don't know you, that's, what's hard with social media,

00:32:20.900 right? It's like, I have people comment on some of my posts and they say, Oh, Nick,

00:32:25.720 you're such a good leader. Nick, you're such a good husband. Nick, you're such a good father.

00:32:30.200 How do you know? You don't work in my company. You don't, you don't have a bed in my house.

00:32:36.120 You're not around me. You know, when I spend time with my wife and my, my daughter, you really,

00:32:42.060 you see what I show you, but you don't know if I'm a good husband or a good father. It's like,

00:32:47.140 what do I want to be known for by who? A lot of it's my family. It's the people that are really

00:32:52.380 close to me in my life. Yes. I want to be a role model for these people online who follow me for

00:32:57.400 content. But at the end of the day, who, who really matters? And it's, it's the people I'm living in a

00:33:04.980 house with. Yeah. It's a good point because you can actually begin to buy into it, even though,

00:33:10.720 you know, you're deficient in certain areas. And I am, I know I am, you know, but other people will

00:33:16.120 see and say, Oh, you're so good at this. You're so good at that. And you're like, yeah, I am.

00:33:19.680 And you try to convince yourself that you are pretty good at those things. When you know in

00:33:23.180 full reality that you have so many flaws and room for improvement that you might overlook if you

00:33:30.400 begin to buy into that bullcrap that you're, you know, God's gift to whatever.

00:33:34.880 I was listening to this podcast a few months ago. It was probably over a year ago at this point.

00:33:39.840 And I told this story before on my platforms, but I love this story. And in the podcast,

00:33:44.980 it was this gentleman who was being interviewed, who he just sold his business and he sold his

00:33:50.060 business for a hundred million dollars. And the person interviewing him said, you know, sir,

00:33:55.540 you just sold your business. You spent the last two decades building this thing. You sold it for

00:34:00.000 a hundred million dollars. What are you going to do now? And he said, well, I'm going to travel the

00:34:04.180 world with my family. And he looks over at his family and his family goes, dad, we don't even

00:34:10.200 know you. We don't want to travel the world with you. So I always think about that story where,

00:34:15.660 you know, from the outside, it's here's this happy family. You know, the husband, he just built

00:34:21.580 this business. He sold it for a hundred million dollars. They're going to go travel the world.

00:34:24.420 They're going to live this dream life. And his family says, I don't even know you.

00:34:30.780 I always think about that in terms of what do I want to be known for and by who?

00:34:37.760 All right, man, I'm going to step away from the conversation very quickly. I told you,

00:34:40.840 I was going to tell you more about the iron council. You all know that having men in your

00:34:45.220 corner is crucial. I haven't met too many men who don't believe that's the case, but why is it then

00:34:50.400 that, that it seems if a few men have other male friends in their lives? Is it because we're busy

00:34:56.800 or is it because we don't know where to turn to find strong men to band with? Is it because even

00:35:01.660 if we do, it's hard to broach crucial topics that can serve us all well? I think it's likely all

00:35:07.160 three. And fortunately we've addressed all of these problems inside our exclusive brotherhood,

00:35:12.380 the iron council. And when you band with us, we focus only on the most important issues,

00:35:17.740 utilizing tools that have been proven to be effective and efficient. So you're not wasting

00:35:22.180 a bunch of time on trial and error and, and on unproven strategies. You're also going to be

00:35:28.220 connected to men who are on the same path as you. I said it earlier, some further ahead and some a bit

00:35:33.300 further behind. These are men who get what it's like to want to thrive. And we've created a system

00:35:38.600 that allows you to have the deep and meaningful, impactful conversations. Most men aren't having

00:35:43.820 in order to drive the results that most men don't ever experience. The good news guys is that we're

00:35:50.860 open right now for enrollment for the next couple of weeks till the end of the year. And then we shut

00:35:55.600 it down again. So if you're thinking about banding with other men and making 2023, the best year ever

00:36:01.040 head to order of man.com slash iron council. Again, that's order of man.com slash iron council.

00:36:07.920 Do that right after the conversation for now, let's get back to it with Nick.

00:36:13.180 So this is, this has been a struggle for me personally, you know, as we're talking about

00:36:20.040 this, you've been successful financially, career-wise with your business. I've been

00:36:24.580 successful with my business. And so I think it's easy for us to say, yeah, we don't know our families

00:36:30.620 and we actually have the luxury because of what we've done, you know, and it's not to discount the

00:36:35.040 work, but we do have the luxury of saying, yeah, I am going to go on vacation or I am going to take

00:36:40.900 this week off, or I am going to take Thursday from noon to four off every week to be with my kids or

00:36:48.700 to coach one of their teams. And we have that luxury because of the work that we've done, but man,

00:36:53.600 you know, there's times and I do too, where yeah, like we don't have that luxury because we're trying

00:36:59.100 to make the mortgage payment and it's paycheck to paycheck. What do you say to that guy? Who's

00:37:04.420 like, yeah, I would love to be able to know my family, but I got to work. I got to put food on

00:37:08.060 the table. And they truly are in that position. It's a sprint. Sometimes like you got to sprint

00:37:14.460 with it. And, you know, I think anyone who has achieved some sort of success or has luxuries to

00:37:21.140 enjoy now, they also had to go through some, some mud that sucked for a long period of time.

00:37:27.960 And I've had a few of these years, 2017 was honestly one of these years for me where

00:37:35.340 this is the year I transitioned out into the army. It's the first year we did seven figures in revenue

00:37:41.700 and it was the hardest year of my entire life. It was three of us. It was me. It was my brother.

00:37:48.680 And it was our friend, Joe. He was our first employee. He still works in the business.

00:37:52.440 He's director of operations now. And we moved down of all fulfillment in my house. And we signed a

00:37:59.280 lease for our first warehouse. It was 6,000 square feet. We could not afford it by any means,

00:38:04.940 but we signed a lease for a warehouse. And this entire year was the hardest year of my life because

00:38:13.660 we were growing and we were growing fast in terms of where we relatively started.

00:38:20.080 And inventory demand was crazy. We had no loans. We had no line of credit. We were financing all the

00:38:30.260 inventory on our own. Cashflow was so tight. There were multiple months where our rent was due

00:38:36.080 the next week. And our rent was, I think, $8,000 a month. We had $3,000 in the bank and we had to

00:38:43.720 pull together an additional $5,000 to make it to the next week and month. I think we all go through

00:38:50.500 these periods and you have to be self-aware to realize where you're at right now. And it might

00:38:56.640 suck and it might be really hard and it might be really challenging and it probably hurts pretty bad. 0.82

00:39:02.980 But if you forward think and backwards plan and be really intentional and deliberate with it,

00:39:07.320 you can build a strategy to get yourself out of that hole. And through that process,

00:39:13.100 you might have some wins. You're probably gonna have some failures and losses and you're probably

00:39:16.300 gonna get your ass beat through it. But most people can dig out of that hole with a plan in place.

00:39:23.300 But I think you have to be pretty realistic and aware of, this is where I'm at. This is where I

00:39:28.520 want to be. It's not going to change overnight. And I got to take one day at a time and just follow

00:39:34.900 the plan. Yeah. So in 2017, so when you were going through that, were you married at the time?

00:39:43.020 I was single. I wasn't married. I wasn't dating my wife. So I mean, I could dedicate all my time

00:39:50.360 to the business, which, you know, I realized most people don't have that option. People have kids,

00:39:56.780 people have a family. And I can personally say, I can't relate to that. Like I built the business

00:40:04.200 during a time, 2017, when I was responsible for myself and that's about it. I had my brother and

00:40:11.220 Joe and I didn't have a family. I didn't have kids that I was trying to manage during that process.

00:40:17.580 I can't personally relate to someone who's going through that. And I can only imagine how challenging

00:40:22.840 and difficult it is. But you can't, and I get that. I actually appreciate you saying that,

00:40:27.740 but you can relate to having a wife, having your child now and going through those sprints. So

00:40:35.600 when there are moments of sprinting and it sounds like she's called you out on it a little bit,

00:40:42.860 what are your conversations with her? Because you get it, right? You're like, I got to do this for

00:40:49.020 work. It's your vision. It's your dream. It's what you want to accomplish. It's all up here in your

00:40:53.320 mind. You totally, you're bought into it clearly. Cause it's your plan, but she may not be fully

00:40:58.900 bought in. Now she's committed, right? Cause she committed to you, but how do you get her buy-in

00:41:03.700 on these sprints when she just wants to be with you?

00:41:10.480 I mean, I've, I've done it poorly and I've done it successfully. I've done it poorly and I failed

00:41:17.840 more times than I've done it successfully. When I've done this successfully, I've, I've been very

00:41:23.800 upfront and honest with her and the sooner the better, better of, Hey staff, like we're about to

00:41:28.960 go into this big sprint. Like here's the days and be gone. Here's the nights I'm probably going to

00:41:33.820 work late. Things are probably going to change, but like, here's the expectation. Um, and sometimes

00:41:40.940 like for me right now, I'm in a sprint right now. We're, we're prepping for 2023 and we're making

00:41:46.660 some big changes to the business where we put the baby down and then me and staff spend some time

00:41:52.760 together and then she goes to sleep. And then that's when I go into the computer room and I

00:41:58.480 work for a few hours while she's asleep. And like right now I'm in one of those sprints where

00:42:02.880 I'm sleeping very little to make sure that I'm making my wife happy and I still get my work done.

00:42:10.680 So I'm always looking at like a 24 hour period of work. And I allocate some hours to get certain

00:42:20.120 things done. And what can I eliminate through that process to make sure I'm working my priorities?

00:42:25.540 I can pretty confidently say right now I have zero hobbies. It's spending time with family,

00:42:31.780 it's training and it's work. And at some point in the future, I will incorporate some hobbies into my

00:42:39.760 life again, hopefully. But like right now I'm prioritizing what I have to get done. And there's

00:42:45.800 only like three focuses. It's, it's my fitness, my training, it's my family, it's my business and

00:42:50.860 nothing else right now is coming in the way of that because we're in one of these sprints.

00:42:56.000 But I think that's what, that's where a lot of people struggle and fail is people want to add

00:43:02.400 things onto their life. They want to add projects and goals and ambitions and all these new things.

00:43:09.460 But they're not willing to eliminate or sacrifice other parts of their life that can be considered

00:43:15.240 luxuries. You can only add so much onto until you're, you're overwhelmed. As you add something

00:43:23.180 on, you typically have to take one thing away. And, uh, I think it's one thing that a lot of people

00:43:28.720 actually do struggle with. Is that why you wouldn't consider like training, running a marathon,

00:43:34.800 that activity? Is that why you wouldn't consider that a hobby because it's a non-negotiable or

00:43:40.220 because you're a professional in this space? Like, why don't you consider that a hot? Cause

00:43:43.460 when I think of hobby, I think something that's recreational that I enjoy and that's good for me.

00:43:48.840 And I think training and physical fitness would fall into that category. So I'm curious why you

00:43:53.500 wouldn't call it that. Yeah. I think for me, it's, it's a little unique because that is content that

00:44:00.340 we use for the business. So we use these training series as content to generate brand awareness and

00:44:07.740 traffic and sales to the business. Um, but also selfishly I show up as a better person. I show up as

00:44:15.840 a better husband, father, leader, business owner. If I move my body, if I'm working out, if I'm

00:44:22.420 training, um, and part of it is I just love it. Right. Like I can, I can pretty confidently say

00:44:30.780 like, I need that in my life to be a happy person. If I don't, I'm, I'm probably pretty shitty to be

00:44:36.300 around. I bring it up because I know so many men and I've done it where we're willing to give up

00:44:44.980 things that are good for us, you know, and it may not even be physically, maybe it's mentally,

00:44:50.440 spiritually, emotionally. It's like, that's good. That's going to go on the back burner

00:44:53.120 because we're busy and we're doing one of these sprints. And then it seems like more often than not,

00:44:59.200 we never get back to our hobbies. It might be hobbies. It might be friends. It might be certain

00:45:05.600 trips that we take. Like for me, hunting trips, you know, the fall is usually a busy time for me.

00:45:10.100 We were talking about campaigns earlier, you know, that he falls more in line with that. Like

00:45:15.780 that's him, right. That's a non-negotiable than a hobby. For me, it's more of a hobby, but so many

00:45:20.980 guys just don't go back to those things that enrich their lives in other ways outside of family and

00:45:25.500 work. And I think we need it. We have to have it. I agree. I mean, it's like, it's very unique to the

00:45:31.460 individual, but it's what makes you, you is what brings like life and passion into your life. And

00:45:36.460 if we're not thriving and we're just kind of moving through the motions,

00:45:41.060 you're going to kind of show up as just this bland, non-unique, just thing. There's just person.

00:45:51.440 Like you can tell when you have a conversation with someone, you meet someone, you have dinner

00:45:54.940 with someone and there's just like energy flowing through their body. Like they're, they're passionate

00:46:00.280 about what they're doing. They're happy. They're enjoying it. They want to share that with you.

00:46:03.940 And then, you know, you've had conversation with people where it's just,

00:46:07.620 it is what it is. There's just that, there's not that fire there. And I thrive off other people's

00:46:15.180 just like fire and passion.

00:46:18.500 Have there been times in your life or is this just a personality trait where you've always had

00:46:23.040 something to fixate on that, that drives you that, that, that you're passionate about? Or have

00:46:28.680 there been times where you've been that other guy where it's kind of just blah, like just going

00:46:32.420 through the motions, just trying to survive one day to the next, et cetera, et cetera.

00:46:38.380 I would say, honestly, ever since I graduated college, which was 2013, I've had something I've

00:46:46.360 been actively working towards ever since I started my business, actually in 2012, like that moment

00:46:52.360 really did change my life because I set this huge goal and objective. And I had, I was very quickly

00:47:00.020 humbled by it. You're one of our business. I told my dad, I said, dad, I'm going to make a million

00:47:05.980 dollars this first year. And he said, Nick, if it was that easy, everyone would do it. And there's

00:47:11.120 a reason that those words are now painted in this office right next to me is because that first year

00:47:17.120 we did $20,000 in revenue. Year two, we did $20,000 in revenue. Year three, we did $20,000 in revenue.

00:47:24.100 My dad said, Nick, if it was that easy, everyone would do it. And I was very quickly humbled by that

00:47:32.200 process, but I saw what the, I saw the process was teaching me and I saw what I was learning through

00:47:38.480 it. And since that moment on, I've been setting goals and I've been working towards, and I've,

00:47:45.140 I've failed many, many times. And there's still goals that I'm working towards that I haven't

00:47:50.800 accomplished, but I've, I've had some wins along the way. I'm a very obsessive person. Like

00:47:56.900 naturally I'm an obsessive person where I set a goal and I'm going to do whatever I have to do

00:48:03.160 to achieve it. I control all the variables. I obsess on the process. I obsess on, on every part of it

00:48:11.440 drives my wife insane, but I've seen the result of when you obsess on something and you are very

00:48:20.480 consistent and committed to the process, it gets you really close to achieving, or sometimes you

00:48:26.680 actually achieve it. But if you don't give yourself a chance, you're never going to get there.

00:48:31.540 Yeah. What is your, what is your goal planning? Like? Cause I've seen it just from the outside

00:48:35.880 looking in, I've seen you have different fitness goals. Some are short-term. It looks like some are

00:48:40.960 long-term. What, what is some of your strategy for planning out your goals and business, fitness,

00:48:45.660 family, that sort of thing? A lot of it's, you know, what, what do I actually want to do?

00:48:52.420 What do we actually want to do? I think sometimes, and I've done this myself, people set goals that

00:48:59.500 they personally don't want to accomplish, but they don't really care about. They set goals because

00:49:04.680 other people are going after it or there's some clout behind it, or it seems cool.

00:49:09.940 And I've set goals before. I'm like, I don't know why I'm setting this goal. I really don't

00:49:15.580 want to do this. But when I set something, I want to go after this and it's because I actually want

00:49:22.380 to do it. I'm passionate about it. Well, that's when I had the most fun with it. That's when I see

00:49:27.660 the most reward through the process. So I think that's the first step is like, what do you, what do

00:49:34.240 I actually want to do? And then it's, is it feasible based off this time in my life? How's

00:49:40.000 this going to affect my family? How's it going to affect my business? How's it going to affect

00:49:43.900 employees? And then it's kind of from there, can we all get behind this? Because I can decide what

00:49:51.820 I want to do, but if I'm being realistic, it does affect a lot of people. If I, if I choose a certain

00:49:58.020 goal, it's going to possibly change the trajectory of our marketing strategy and our business plan,

00:50:04.480 the people in this, this building, or it's going to affect my family, my wife, you know,

00:50:09.560 my daughter. So it's, it's really being aware of who else affects the goals that you're putting in

00:50:15.640 place. Yeah. Yeah. That's important to take that into consideration because they will, they will be

00:50:21.560 impacted by the things that you're doing. And so it's important to take it into consideration and

00:50:26.040 then learn how to communicate effectively with those individuals as well. Right. Oh, absolutely.

00:50:30.460 I mean, I'm sure anyone in a relationship or anyone who's married has, has heard the communication

00:50:36.660 segment, but I think the biggest thing I found with communication, yes, it, it, it makes things easier

00:50:45.900 in terms of planning and just a relationship, but it reduces the feeling of resentment. And

00:50:54.880 if I go into something and I lack communication with my wife or I lack communication with people in

00:51:02.420 the business and I'm not clear in terms of what I expect or what's going to happen. And as soon as

00:51:08.740 you start and you don't feel like you are supported, you don't feel like people understand people aren't

00:51:14.460 behind what you're doing. It's very easy to build resentment towards other people who you feel aren't

00:51:20.880 supporting your goals. So that's what I found the biggest part of, of communication in terms of

00:51:26.000 setting goals for thinking backwards planning is if it's done correctly, you won't build resentment

00:51:34.220 towards too many people. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's important factor. I found that in addition to

00:51:42.440 resenting other people, you almost become calloused towards people that you actually care about.

00:51:49.560 You know, if you don't feel like, for example, you're, you're getting the, the emotional support

00:51:55.740 or, or whatever that you're, you're looking for from other individuals, not only do you become

00:52:00.680 resentful towards that person, then you start to cut yourself off from that person or put up a wall

00:52:06.680 like, well, I don't care what you think. It doesn't actually matter. It doesn't impact me. And so we put up

00:52:11.060 these coping mechanisms and then you drive on in the face of somebody you care about who might not like

00:52:16.940 what you're doing or might not be on the same page and communication could have solved it,

00:52:20.660 but you put up this big barrier, this big wall, and now you're blowing the whole thing up.

00:52:25.540 Yeah. I mean, that's one of the hardest parts I think of, of for me being an entrepreneur and being

00:52:32.120 a business owner is, you know, in the beginning, we've talked about being this visionary and it's

00:52:38.420 really easy to forget that it's in your head. Like you see where you're going, you see where,

00:52:44.700 what you're working on and you see why you're working on it. And then when you start working

00:52:50.120 on this project or towards this goal and no one else understands why you're doing it,

00:52:54.800 it's really easy to forget that they don't see into your brain. No, no one knows like what you're

00:53:00.760 thinking and where you're going. So when they don't follow you, they don't support it. They don't

00:53:05.020 understand. It's not because they don't care. It's because you didn't properly communicate.

00:53:11.220 And I mean, I'm sometimes horrible at this where clear example, I'm having a conversation with my

00:53:19.280 wife at dinner and I'm there physically, but you know, I'm thinking about something in terms of work.

00:53:26.240 Like my, my, my brain is always just like cooking. Yeah. Like sometimes people will say, you know,

00:53:31.220 Nick, you're like, you're being really quiet. I'm not actually trying to be quiet. It's like,

00:53:34.940 there's something going on in my head. I'm like, I'm trying to navigate some sort of issue right now.

00:53:39.740 And it's, it's, it's so present in my head that I think it's, it's verbally and audibly out loud,

00:53:49.220 but it's not. So no one else sees it. And that's why I love running so much is I run in the morning

00:53:55.940 because that's like my one time where I have some solitude in the morning by myself to navigate

00:54:05.020 through issues and they just come to my mind. And I just, I kind of just find solutions for the

00:54:10.720 problems I'm experiencing. So then I show up to the office, I show up for my family after that morning

00:54:16.140 run. I'm more clear with what I'm trying to communicate. Cause I just had an hour to digest

00:54:22.940 and navigate the process. Yeah. You know, I was going to tell you what's interesting about

00:54:27.960 with you running is I'm sure there's such a stereotype. Like you, you don't look like a 1.00

00:54:33.920 quote unquote runner. You look like a strength guy. You look like a bodybuilder, right? So it's,

00:54:38.720 so I wanted to tell you that because my son, my oldest son, he always asks like, who's coming on

00:54:42.760 the podcast. He's coming on. And I said, Oh, this guy, he's coming on next week. We scheduled

00:54:46.780 something. And I showed him your Instagram account. He's like, Whoa, he's big. And he like,

00:54:50.300 he's a runner. Cause my son's a power lifter. That's all he wants to do. So it is pretty cool

00:54:55.400 to see you kind of changing that stereotype around what a runner looks like versus, you know,

00:55:02.140 what a bodybuilder, a power lifter might look like. Well, I'm even heavier now than I, so I ran a

00:55:07.360 marathon this past May and that was Buffalo, New York marathon. And I ran two 48 there and I was 187

00:55:14.260 pounds, 187 pounds for me is extremely light. So I had to, I had to diet down and a lot of the

00:55:21.580 training facilitated that weight loss. And now I'm sitting about 225 pounds and you know, it's

00:55:27.780 middle of December. My body naturally wants to sit around 210 to 15 to 20, but I'm trying to pack on

00:55:36.040 some size right now, but I love being a bigger runner because people do question it. They say,

00:55:42.560 Oh, for sure. You can't be big and you can't run. It's well, you can. So I'm going to really lean

00:55:49.500 into that. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. When's the, so are you training for a marathon right now?

00:55:56.080 Not right now. No, right now the plan is to pack on some size and strength until March 1st. And then

00:56:03.120 I'm going to start a diet and then I'm gonna do a bodybuilding show in June. I've done a bodybuilding

00:56:09.360 show since 2012. So it goes back to like setting goals. I was itching for something like new and

00:56:17.460 refreshing. And I was going through like this nostalgic period of time in my life where I was

00:56:23.280 looking back at when I was strictly strength training and putting on size. And I did my

00:56:27.600 bodybuilding show in college and I was listening to like the old music I used to listen to. Then

00:56:32.980 I started wearing chucks again on my feet and these nostalgic feelings just, just had me

00:56:39.120 gravitating towards a bodybuilding show. So it was like, you know, what do I want to do?

00:56:44.780 Where will I thrive right now in this moment of time? This is how I want to train. And this is what

00:56:49.900 I want to train for. So I'm going to document this process. And then I'm sure in the future,

00:56:54.120 I'll, I'll be itching for a marathon or another ultra or something like that, but I'm setting

00:57:01.660 these goals based off of what I actively want to do right now. And right now it's nostalgic feels.

00:57:10.180 Yeah. So is, so is, is building muscle, putting on weight part of the plan for bodybuilding? So

00:57:16.420 you'll, you'll bulk up, you put on that weight and then you'll diet down, lean out. So you're ready

00:57:22.040 for that, that, that show body, right? Yeah, it's a plan. I mean, during these last couple

00:57:28.220 ultra marathon triathlon preps, I did lose some significant size. So I'm doing about like a nine

00:57:37.600 month build or bulk. And I mean, muscle memory is a real thing. I'm, I put back that, that size and

00:57:44.040 strength fairly quickly. And the goal is to pack on some size and that's why I'm putting on weight

00:57:50.200 intentionally so that when I diet down starting March 1st, uh, I can kind of expose some of that

00:57:56.500 size that I've packed on in the last nine or so months. Right. Got it. I am curious with the muscle

00:58:02.960 memory as I see my two oldest boys get really, really into powerlifting. And that's not, that's

00:58:09.360 something that I was never much into. I was always athletic. I was always into sports, but never

00:58:14.120 powerlifting team sports mostly for me. Uh, do you know of, of research or, or, or something like

00:58:22.700 that, that shows that their development of muscle during their like high testosterone years and going

00:58:29.940 through puberty that the body that becomes like the standard for the body. Do you know what I'm

00:58:35.340 saying? Yes. I see what you're saying. I don't know if any research that supports that.

00:58:40.460 I did have, uh, Dr. Lane Norton on the podcast, on our podcast a few months ago, and he did reference

00:58:49.160 some research that showed that, you know, muscle memory is a real thing. And in terms of, if you put

00:58:54.260 size and strength on, and then you lose that over a period of time, it's easier to build that back up

00:59:00.220 as opposed to if you didn't have it at all. I don't know if like in your early years, if,

00:59:06.380 you know, as your testosterone is higher, naturally, if that impacts anything, I started

00:59:12.660 really strength training when I was 18, 19, 20 years old. That's when I got really, really serious

00:59:19.720 about it. And I packed on a lot of size and strength then. And I lost it, you know, many times.

00:59:25.180 I lost it when I went to ranger school. I lost it when I was in the military. I lost it through

00:59:30.040 like these endurance, uh, preps and races. So like right now is the biggest that I've been

00:59:37.080 since my military days. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting. I'm not, I'm just very curious about that because

00:59:45.080 of how, how dedicated though it's actually really cool to see my two oldest boys. So dedicated to it

00:59:50.140 because I'm trying to think about when I was 14 and 12, which is their ages. Like that's not what

00:59:56.200 I was doing. I mean, they're, they're leaps and bounds ahead of where I'm at, which is pretty cool

01:00:00.140 to see. It was impressive. I mean, it's impressive, uh, to build that type of routine and consistency

01:00:06.580 and kind of goal setting early on. Yeah. And I'm sure a lot of that is, you know, learned and

01:00:13.940 replicated through you being a father. Um, but like that's only setting them up for success in the

01:00:20.600 future. Definitely. I did want to ask about your, this, this mentality of going one more and I want

01:00:30.100 to ask it in a, in a different way that I don't, I don't know if you've been asked. I'd be curious

01:00:33.940 is, is there a time when enough is enough and you shouldn't go one more? And if that's the case,

01:00:43.500 when would you know that? It's a good question. If we're being honest and like being

01:00:50.380 smart, the, the intent of going more was never to be just another rep in the gym or just another

01:00:57.440 mile spent on a run or never just another hour spent on a project you're working on.

01:01:03.380 It was much larger than that. And we established this, this phrase in 2018 and I discovered it

01:01:12.320 during a training run for a marathon prep. Go on more is applied to everything you do in your life.

01:01:17.920 When you think that you just can't go any further, like you want to give up, you want to stop.

01:01:23.880 You always have more effort that you can, you can put forward. Now, if we simplify it in terms of

01:01:32.180 like physical training, if say, for example, you're doing an ultra marathon in the Rocky mountains of

01:01:39.800 Leadville, Colorado and your body's on the break of absolute collapse, it might be smarter for your,

01:01:48.660 your health to, to DNF and go to the aid station and like, Hey, this is like, it's not my year

01:01:54.860 for safety reasons. But if, if we take like a, a broader perspective and approach to go on more

01:02:02.460 disregarding like safety for your health, I think there, there is a point where it can be too much.

01:02:11.300 And I'll kind of like put this in a, an example of a scenario, like say right now I'm in this,

01:02:19.700 this, this sprint of business, say like I had to get the business to another level

01:02:24.760 in the next three months. And I have my wife and I have my daughter and they're being neglected.

01:02:32.140 I'm not present at home. I'm always gone. And I'm just driving the business, just like hard charging.

01:02:39.380 And my wife says, Hey Nick, like I can't do this on my own anymore. Like I need help. I'm home.

01:02:46.500 I need help with a baby. I can't get anything done. You're always gone. If I were to say,

01:02:51.520 Hey, you got, you, you hold down the house. I got to keep going in this business.

01:02:56.480 Go one more, hon. Just go on. Yeah. Apply, go on more to that. It's yeah. Now you're neglecting

01:03:02.600 like your priorities, your responsibilities. I do think that you can overdo it, but

01:03:07.820 that's one of those examples of who's being affected in the process of you trying to

01:03:14.100 push yourself and apply, go on more to your life. If it's causing damage to people around you,

01:03:19.640 especially your family, I think you have to highly consider if you should actually keep

01:03:24.760 pushing on that objective. Yeah, that makes sense. It sounds like you're talking about

01:03:30.080 taking all of your priorities into consideration. You know, it's, it's a luxury to be able to focus

01:03:36.520 on one priority and not have to worry about these ancillary things. They're not even ancillary.

01:03:41.080 That's probably not the right word, but these other things that are equally, if not more important.

01:03:45.060 Uh, I think we have to take that whole pie and in, into equation rather than just one slice. We may

01:03:51.440 be hyper-focused on. Well, as I've gotten older, life is, life is changed. It's different. You know,

01:04:00.180 I was talking about 2017 earlier where I can make a decision and it might impact like one or two parts

01:04:08.540 of my life. Do I get, do I get sleep tonight? And are we going to make more money in the business?

01:04:13.980 Right now, as I've gotten older and I have a family with more employees, I have more

01:04:17.320 responsibilities. That same decision might affect 10 to 12 different parts of my life

01:04:23.920 that I need to highly consider. And as you have more responsibilities and you have more roles and

01:04:30.900 duties, these decisions carry more weight and they affect more things and people. And I think you

01:04:36.680 really need to highly consider that. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, Nick, this has been a great

01:04:41.960 discussion, man. I got to tell you, I've been inspired by you for some time, so I'm glad we

01:04:45.100 could finally have it. It sounds like we're going to get together face-to-face at some point and at a

01:04:49.180 minimum, get a training and maybe even share the stage at some point together too. So, uh, not the

01:04:55.140 bodybuilding stage by the way, but maybe just speak. Are you sure? Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure

01:05:01.120 about that. All right. I mean, we're, we're taught like, we're talking about priorities here and

01:05:05.720 choosing what's important. Um, I'm sure about that. Now, if it's a jujitsu competition, that's

01:05:12.920 something that I'm going to actively be working towards. So that, that'll be my route.

01:05:17.320 It's interesting. I had, I had life Babin on the podcast. Oh yeah. Yeah. Talking about jujitsu and

01:05:23.840 that's something I've never personally gotten into. I'd love to in the future, but I think I'd be truly

01:05:30.140 humbled going into that for my first time because I know I will try to muscle everything through that

01:05:35.820 process and I'll just get absolutely crushed. Yeah. It's really interesting. You know, where

01:05:41.080 you're, you're big and athletic and you're strong. If you take somebody, would you say you weigh 225 or

01:05:46.020 so you said roughly? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. You take somebody who's maybe 200 pounds, who's been training

01:05:51.820 for three, four or five years. It, it, it will equalize that strength very, very quickly. Now you

01:05:59.200 might have an advantage over somebody who's 160 pounds and it's like, there's no gap that's going

01:06:04.080 to make up for that. Right. But if you're talking about 20, 30, maybe even 40 pounds on a high level

01:06:10.080 jujitsu guy, it's amazing how quickly they can level the playing field. I'm curious. Are you,

01:06:16.760 have you ever done any martial arts at all? Like, did you wrestle or anything like that or? No, never.

01:06:21.580 Yeah. You'd be, you'd be a beast, man. You'd be a handful for sure.

01:06:24.720 It'd be brand new for me for sure. Yeah. Well then maybe that's a good place to go,

01:06:28.740 you know, start, start something you haven't ever done before. Hey man, I know you've got a,

01:06:32.560 a new campaign coming up to you. I wanted to give you a minute to talk about that and then also let

01:06:36.860 the guys know where to find you. Yep. So we're launching a brand campaign on January 1st and it's

01:06:44.820 a sub sub campaign of go one more and it's called prove yourself right. And the whole concept behind it is

01:06:52.400 a lot of people will, will go after objectives or challenges, or just try to do something in their

01:07:01.540 life to prove others wrong. And I hate that concept because you're investing time, energy,

01:07:09.320 and resources into what other people think in terms of doubting you instead of believing in yourself.

01:07:16.080 So I'd love to like flip that script in instead of trying to prove other people wrong,

01:07:21.260 prove yourself right. Because if you prove yourself right, you believe in your ability to do it. Now

01:07:25.940 you just have to put in the work. So this brand campaign launched in January 1st, it's called

01:07:30.400 go one more, prove yourself right. Our call to action is to get people to commit to something

01:07:35.820 challenging, something hard in 2003, 2023, something physically hard and hard is relative. It could be,

01:07:45.180 you know, your first 5k. It could be your first half marathon. It could be your first hundred mile

01:07:52.500 ultra marathon. It's what is hard for you. And like I said, hard is relative, but we, we want to

01:07:58.300 encourage people to sign up and commit to something physically challenging in 2023, because we know

01:08:04.680 they will grow significantly, physically, immensely through the process. And it's all about just proving

01:08:11.840 yourself right, not trying to prove others wrong. So that's a brand campaign we're launching. People

01:08:17.540 can find me on YouTube. It's Nick Bear. I've been documenting my life on YouTube for the last

01:08:22.840 nine years now. And I have over 800 videos of, of just vlogs of literally, literally where I started

01:08:30.380 when I was in the military. I documented my nine months in South Korea. I documented building the

01:08:36.440 business. We have a podcast called the bear performance podcast. And on Instagram, I am

01:08:41.720 Nick bear fitness. Right on brother. We'll sync it all up. So the guys know where to go. I appreciate

01:08:45.820 you and looking forward to connecting very soon. Thanks Ryan. Appreciate it. Thank you, man.

01:08:52.900 All right, you guys, Nick bear. What did I tell you? I told you that was going to be a good one.

01:08:56.440 It did not disappoint. I hope you feel the same way. Make sure you connect with Nick on Instagram,

01:09:02.160 very active over there. Uh, he's got his YouTube channel, hundreds and hundreds of videos on

01:09:07.440 nutrition and fitness and goal setting and planning and sticking to your commitments and forward

01:09:11.560 thinking and backwards planning and all of the other things. He's also got that a brand new campaign

01:09:17.560 that he's running in January. So make sure to be connected. So, you know, when that comes out and

01:09:22.960 then also check out the iron council, which is open for enrollment for the next couple of weeks only.

01:09:28.120 And then we're shutting it back down. Uh, if you would, as I ask every single week,

01:09:33.100 take a screenshot right now that you're listening to this podcast on your phone

01:09:36.340 and or on your radio, tag me, tag Nick, let people know guys, this is a grassroots movement.

01:09:43.800 We've built this thing to phenomenal levels and it's because men like you are sharing it,

01:09:49.640 promoting it, telling other people what you're listening to and serving other people. Well,

01:09:54.740 so continue to do that. Connect with Nick, connect with myself, join the iron council,

01:10:00.620 join his challenge that he has coming up, which is proving yourself right. I like that reframe and

01:10:06.720 that twist. And, uh, those are your marching orders. We'll be back tomorrow for our ask me

01:10:13.080 anything, but until then go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.

01:10:18.080 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life

01:10:22.620 and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

01:10:28.060 Thank you.

Order of Man - December 20, 2022

NICK BARE ｜ Forward Thinking, Backward Planning

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