OoM 051： Joe De Sena ｜ Living the Spartan Way of Life
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Summary
Joe DeSena, founder of the Spartan Races, shares why the life of pushing, discomfort, and pain helps us become the men we were meant to be. He has competed in 20+ Ironman competitions, 50+ ultra-marathons, and even completed the Iditarod trail on foot. He is a New York Times bestselling author of the book Spartan Up, and he has his own podcast, Spartan Up. Joe has another event, The Agogi 60, which he personally calls me out in this episode.
Transcript
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Everywhere you turn, it seems we as a society are continuing to look for a life of ease and
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comfort. And while there's certainly merits to finding more efficient ways of doing things,
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my guest today, Joe DeSena, founder of the Spartan Races, shares with us why the life
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of pushing, discomfort, and pain helps us become the men we were meant to be.
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly
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chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is
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who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Man, what's up today? This is Ryan Michler. I am the founder of Order
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of Man. Now, if you're new to the podcast, we talk about all things manly, self-mastery, relationships,
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leadership, wealth, business, health, so much more. Basically, all of the manly conversations
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that you want to have all wrapped up in one podcast. Now, today, we're going to be talking
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with a man that needs no introduction, Mr. Joe DeSena, founder of the Spartan Races. Now,
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if you know me, you know that I attribute a lot of the success that I've had with getting
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in shape to my participation in the Spartan Races, so I'm stoked to be having this type of
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conversation today. Now, real quick, let me give you our weekly reminder of the elite
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mastermind group, The Iron Council. By now, you probably know about what takes place in
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the mastermind. There's weekly calls, Battle Brothers, which are accountability partners,
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daily challenges, weekly assignments. We just got our book club launched. Man, there's so much
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going on, but the bottom line is this. If you need to take your life up a notch, maybe you're
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having problems in your marriage, maybe you're not happy with your level of fitness, maybe you feel
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dead with regards to your work, and you want to start a new business. Maybe you're broke, and you
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don't want to be broke anymore. This is the place that you need to be. This week, we're covering
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all things personal and family leadership, and we want you to be one of the first 100
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members. We call them centurions. So, if you're interested in that, head to orderofman.com
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slash ironcouncil to get all the details and join us there. Now, let's get into the show. Remember
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that you can find all of the links, the resources, and the discussion, including information about the
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Agogi race that I talk about with Joe. You can find that at orderofman.com slash 051, and of course,
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you can join in the conversation we're having now with over 2,400 men in our Facebook group
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at facebook.com slash groups slash orderofman. Again, guys, I'm stoked to be introducing you to
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my guest today, Mr. Joe DeSena. He is the CEO and founder of the Spartan Race, which is a series of
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high endurance obstacle courses. Now, if you haven't participated in these things, I don't know what
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you're waiting for. They will literally change your life as they have mine. Now, not only is he the
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founder of the Spartan Races, he is a man that leads from the front. He has competed in 20 plus
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Ironman competitions, 50 plus ultra marathons, and he even completed the Iditarod trail on foot.
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He's a New York Times bestselling author of the book Spartan Up. He has his own podcast, Spartan Up.
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And on top of all that, Joe has another event, the Agogi 60, which he personally calls me out today
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in this episode. So let's get right into it. Joe, thanks for joining me on the show today. I'm glad
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you're here. Thanks for having me. I'm glad somebody wants to talk to me. Yeah, no, we do. I told you
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before we even started to hit record today is that I've been a big fan ever since I went on the Spartan
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cruise that you did last year. Was that the first cruise that you've done, that one in 2015?
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Yeah, the first and maybe last. The only way I said I'd do another one is if we could rent like a
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battleship, an aircraft carrier. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That'd be really cool if you're able to do that.
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So are you looking into that then? We are. They're quite expensive.
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Oh, I bet. I bet they are. Well, I'll have that on my radar. And then if you guys end up doing that,
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we'll compete in another one. But I did get my trifecta last year. So I was excited about that.
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Congrats. Nice work. Yeah. No, it was exciting. You know, the biggest reason that I've really been
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a fan of Spartan races is because, and a lot of guys that listen to this podcast know this,
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three years ago, I weighed 50 pounds more than what I weigh today. And I actually attribute a lot of
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the ability to keep the weight off and continue to get in better shape to Spartan races because I just
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sign up for bigger and better ones before I'm even ready to do them. So I appreciate that.
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Well, you got to be careful what you say here because I'm going to call you out live. I'm going
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to have you sign up for the Agogi in June in Vermont. What do you think of that?
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Let's do it. I'm all for it. Is it in June, you said?
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Okay. I'm going to get that on the radar too. We'll take a look at that because I think I need to,
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I did the Beast in Temecula. Is it in Temecula, San Diego? I did that last year. And so
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that was tough though. I cramped up. It was tough. So we'll see if we can
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Yeah. Agogi is all you. We're going to, we put something out this year called a Delta.
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Yeah. So to complete the Delta, you've got to basically knock out the Agogi, knock out a
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Hurricane. You've already done the Trifecta, Spartan X, SGI. There's a bunch of things and
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we should put you through it. Because it's exactly what you just said. By making that commitment
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and putting something on the calendar, that drives you to stick to the plan, lose weight,
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stay healthy. Right? We don't, no matter who you are, I'm a pretty self-motivated guy. You need
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these little social cues to stay on track. Right. Yeah. I noticed that's definitely been
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the case for me. It's pretty easy to get off track and get sidetracked and make an excuse and
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have life come at you. And unless you're committed to doing it and you have it on the books, you're just
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not going to do it. That's right. That's right. So Joe, tell me a little bit about the Spartan way
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of life. Because obviously I know probably most of the guys listening to this are familiar to some
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degree with Spartan racism, what it is you're doing. So I'd rather take the approach of what is this
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Spartan way of life and why is it resonating with so many people? Yeah. It's a tough thing we're
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selling, right? Because we're selling commitment. We're selling discipline. We're selling discomfort.
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And all toward making yourself a better person, get you out of your comfort zone, growing mentally,
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physically, losing weight, staying fit, living longer. That's a tough thing to sell. Every company
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is selling the opposite, right? They're selling comfort, convenience, efficiency, easier, better
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ways to do things. And so we're up against a tie when you're trying to convince humans that no,
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actually, it's going to be harder. It's going to be more uncomfortable. But that's the mindset. And
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that's what we're preaching. And we're preaching it because we think the pendulum has swung too far
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in the wrong direction. I think 400 years ago, it made sense that we would invent indoor plumbing,
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a warm shower. In the middle of winter, jumping into ice cold water was not as much fun as it was
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during the summer, right? So there are things that certainly we do need to make our lives
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more sustainable. But it's gone too far. So far, in fact, right, that everybody gets a trophy.
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I have a farm in Vermont, you know, we were in Vermont for 10 years. And it's a little microcosm of
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what goes on, you know, not that I want to get into politics, but it's what goes on nationwide,
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or with democracy in general, which is people will continue to ask for more and more stuff.
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And in Vermont, listen, there are people that deserve and need some help and assistance. I get it.
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But by and large, when you're just giving stuff away, and you're telling people, look, once you
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earn more than X amount of dollars, you're going to be taxed worse, you're going to lose your health
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care, it creates disincentive to work. And that's, the pendulum swung too far. And it's creating all
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kinds of strange things occurring. And so we're trying, we're basically, you ever see the image
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of homo sapien, you know, you see the ape, it turns into the man, five or six images. I love the one
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where the image is that except the last guy turned around and says, hey, guys, let's go back,
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we fucked this whole thing up. And I haven't seen that.
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Oh, it's great. And so my, the whole philosophy here is bring people back towards, towards that
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kind of living, even if it's only 1%. If I can, you know, if I can move them 1% backwards,
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I think, I think we've won. Mindset, cold shower in the morning, it's uncomfortable,
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just get it done. I do it, it sucks, but you do it, right? Burpees every day, they suck.
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Get them done, stretching. It's very important to be mobile and flexible. Eat healthy. Don't stay
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out late at night. Don't drink coffee and teas and all this bullshit. Oh, coffee exists, it's got
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antioxidants. Listen, the whole, and sponsors are going to hate me for saying this, but at the end
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of the day, a company, if you and I were running a large multinational and we were sitting in a boardroom
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in New York, no matter how altruistic we are, at the end of the day, the conversation boils down to
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how do we sell more stuff? Right, right. That's always the conversation, right? We've got to make
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our quarterly numbers. We've got to get paid. And so, just get back to basics, right? Would your
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grandmother or great-grandmother be eating it? Drink water. You don't need much more than that.
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Make sure you're getting your nutrients. So, when you say, hey, what is this Spartan lifestyle? It's
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pretty damn basic, right? It's going back to basics. Well, and I love that you're talking about it
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because this is an underlying theme with my group and the community that we've created is this idea
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of personal accountability and responsibility. And all the way from the time that we're children,
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all the way up to, again, without getting into politics, the presidency, the office of the
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presidency of the United States has this inability to take personal accountability and responsibility
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for our own choices. So, I'm really glad that you're talking about this. You know, it's funny,
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I actually get a lot of people as I started to compete in Spartan races last year that would come up to
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me and say, and this echoes what you talked about earlier, why would you pay to put yourself through
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pain like that? So, I know exactly what it is that you're talking about. Yeah. People are going to hate
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me for this one. But I don't think the majority of people can make the decisions we're talking about
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here. Like, if I had my way, I would just ban a lot of these foods and drinks and access to this
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stuff because we've shown as human beings, we're not capable of making the good decisions, right?
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We had doctors on television in the 1970s saying, nine out of 10 doctors recommend Marlboro cigarettes.
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Are you fucking kidding me? Sure. Right, right. Right? So, we're just not capable of it.
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So, how do you suggest somebody, I mean, because obviously that's not going to happen anytime in the
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near future. So, how do you suggest that somebody take on this new level of accountability? Here's the
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thing is, I think all of us know what it is we need to do. All the things that you just said, every guy
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listening to this probably knows to a degree what it is you just said. But for some reason, we aren't
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implementing it. So, how do you suggest guys start implementing discipline and commitment and
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dedication to all the things we already know how to do? Well, what I do is, and this is a, you know,
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there's a University of Pennsylvania researcher, Angela Duckworth, you may or may not know. She's a
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preeminent researcher on grit and her and I talk a lot, grit, resilience. And she wrote a research
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paper recently that we talked about where she suggests that part of the ability to stay gritty
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and have resilience is the ability to put up little, for lack of a better word, guardrails in your own
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life. So, in other words, you want to make sure you don't, you remain faithful to your girlfriend or
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wife, don't go out at night, don't hang out at bars, right? You want to make sure you don't overeat,
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don't buy donuts, don't have them in the house. So, in other words, you just avoid putting yourself in a
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situation where you might slip. And so, when you say to me, you know, everybody knows how to do this, what
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should they do? You got to put yourself in a situation where you're forced to do the good things. And you got to
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put yourself in situations where it's harder to do the bad things, right? So, you make a commitment
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publicly at a dinner table to a lot of people and you say, hey, I'm signing up for the marathon or I'm
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going to do this or I'm working out at 6 a.m. You have somebody meet you at 6 a.m., right? You're less
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likely to not show up if there's somebody meeting you at 6 a.m. So, you got to commit publicly, I found,
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is a good little trick, a little guardrail to actually stay on track. And then, don't buy the
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beer. Don't have it in your house, right? Don't meet guys out at 11 o'clock at night. There's nothing
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good that's going to happen. Yeah. And this is something as simple, like for me, I know this
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sounds maybe even a little silly, but it's exactly what you're talking about. It is that I'm more likely
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to get out of bed in the morning at 5 a.m. when I get up and go to the gym if I actually lay my clothes
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out the night before. So, I have my shoes ready, my shorts, my shirt ready. And just that small
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little move right there just pushes me one step in the right direction. So, you're just setting
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yourself up for success and eliminating the opportunity of failure. Put your shoes and your
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clothes like in the living room and put the alarm clock way far away from the bed, right? So, now you
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have to get up and go get it. Put a trip wire between you and the alarm clock so the lights go on when
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you hit the string. But set yourself up for success, I guess, is the point. All those little
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details matter, right? All those little decisions add up to a successful life.
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Right. Yeah. No, it makes a ton of sense. Now, obviously, we're talking more universal right now,
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but with the races that you have going on, some people are just participating in the races,
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but how is this transitioning into the way they feel or the way they even approach their life? Let's say
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they've never done a race before. They go out and they do a Spartan sprint, for example,
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and they come back. How is that then transitioning into what else they're doing in life?
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Well, one, you're going to start to build something we call obstacle immunity, right? When you're
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freezing cold, going across a pond or completely full of mud trying to get over a wall or trying
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to do that rope climb or force to do 30 burpees, believe it or not, you're putting a physical
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imprint on your brain. Your brain is remapping from that experience. And so, the next time you
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deal with adversity, God forbid somebody gets sick, you get fired from your job, you literally,
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you might say to yourself, all right, that's bad, but thank God I'm not crawling under the barbed wire.
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Thank God I'm not. You've got a new frame of reference, right? If you grew up, to understand this,
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if you grew up in Disneyland and everything was perfect and then you got airdropped into Delhi,
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India, you would not have the skills or the mindset to deal with India, right? If you grew
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up in India or Eastern Europe, I mean, look at the top tennis player in the world right now,
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how he grew up, right? He's fighting for milk even though he doesn't need to because of the way he
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grew up. So, yeah, changing your frame of reference is really important. It's important
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that you don't become so comfortable that you can't deal with adversity. And so, when you say,
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how does the race change you? It makes you uncomfortable so you can.
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Teddy Roosevelt refers to it as the strenuous life and how that, like you said, immunity. We
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actually had that as I was preparing to go to Iraq. I spent some time in the military and we didn't
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just go to Iraq. We spent literally six months of training stateside and then we did some real-life
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scenarios before we even got into the situation. Then we did more training in Kuwait so that when
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we got to that point, we had at least some idea of what we could expect. But I can't even imagine
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if we didn't have the training what it would have looked like. And so, this is all about building up
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resilience and strength against some of the things that we know are going to happen in life, right?
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No doubt about it. I mean, that's the whole philosophy. That's the whole reason we're doing what we do.
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So, how did you even get into this? I mean, is this something that morphed over time?
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I grew up in a strange neighborhood in Queens and I was lucky in that I got into the construction
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business and working on swimming pools. So, lots of brick work, lots of cement work. So,
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it was a very gritty, resilience building environment I was in. And I then ended up on
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Wall Street where I was sitting at a desk and making good money. And it just didn't feel as
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good as pouring cement, as crazy as that sounds. So, I stumbled upon adventure racing as a way to
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get off the trading desk. I fell in love with it and I raced all over the world. I did all these crazy
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self-supported races where you cover 500 miles, a thousand miles by foot or bike or kayak. And
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we're all three. I had this thing in my mind as I was doing those races that, yeah, maybe I'll put
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on a race. And in 2000, I put on a race down in the British Virgin Islands, which was awesome. And I
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continued to put on races and they all lost money. The world really wasn't ready for that level of
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event. It was just too big, too expensive. Social media hadn't really kicked in yet. And then in 2010,
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the idea at the dinner table came up to create Spartan. And the name was perfect. Felt like I
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was selling out a little bit again, because I was coming from these races that were, you know, 10 days
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long. But it was actually, it was the perfect length because what was happening was the training
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required, right? Like even an Ironman, you're on your pike five, six hours on Saturday. You're in the
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For the average person. You can't, you can't also have a life. And with Spartan,
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it just, it was the right mix, right? It's tough. It's a serious accomplishment when you finish,
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especially the trifecta. But you could also have a normal life. You can go for a hike as part of
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your training. You don't need to sit on the damn bike for five, six hours or wake up at 5am and jump
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in the pool. It all came together. Social media hit in a big way. You know, I'd love to say we're super
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successful and it was easy, but we're successful in the sense that we're in, you know, 30 plus
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countries, 150 events, million participants. But boy, I've never been, I haven't been paid in 16
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years. So, so I'm waiting. Sorry for the noise in the background, but that is my trusted friend
00:18:37.400
That I was going to guess. It sounds like dishes to me. So you got to do what you got to do though,
00:18:42.160
I'm on board with that. I mean, I work out usually, I'd like to say every week, five to six
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days a week, but it's more like four usually a week. And, uh, between that and some weekend
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running, I, it wasn't very difficult to come complete the Spartan races. And then, you know
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what? I actually had my boy down in, uh, let's see in Temecula last year, I actually had my two
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boys, my eight-year-old and my five-year-old run the kids Spartans as well. And they had a blast.
00:19:06.500
Oh, nice. Love to, love to, love to hear that. Kids do love it. Kids are, um, kids are meant for this.
00:19:12.340
Right. And so, um, and that's another problem. I mean, I, we have four children and our kids,
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um, this morning I was waking them up for their workout at five 45 and I got, I needed to throw
00:19:22.720
them a bone to get out of bed. And first thing I, you know, all I got to do is say, Hey, jump on your
00:19:27.740
iPad for a minute before we start training and they're at attention on their iPad. Right. So these
00:19:33.520
iPads, um, Steve jobs done some wonderful things, but boy, he's killed us in other ways. And it's true.
00:19:39.760
I mean, these kids want to get on that iPad immediately and start playing Minecraft or
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something really. I mean, think about it when you and I were growing up. Well, I don't know. I
00:19:48.420
don't know how old, how old are you? Yeah, I'm 34. 34. So I don't know if this is the case for you,
00:19:52.700
but for me, Atari was just kind of getting going probably when I was 10, 12. And so before that,
00:20:01.600
it was like you were outside to the point where your mother was screaming. Everybody's mother was
00:20:05.940
screaming at 8 PM to get inside and no one would come in. And today moms are all screaming,
00:20:12.480
get outside. Yeah. Yeah. Man, there's just so much information out there for us to consume.
00:20:19.200
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00:21:25.480
stitcher and start taking your life to the next level. We really enjoy the show and we think you will
00:21:30.120
as well. Now let's get back to my interview with Joe. I even had that. I remember waking up in the
00:21:36.160
morning and then my mom would say, all right, time to go play. And we'd have a little bit of
00:21:39.020
resistance and she would literally lock the screen door. So we couldn't come in and we would be out
00:21:43.940
there all day long. And the thing I remember most is climbing on rooftops and dropping GI Joe's off of
00:21:49.960
rooftops with little parachutes. And we just had a blast. So we always found something to do. I'm not an
00:21:54.780
Atari generation. I'm the original Nintendo generation. So a little bit, a little bit behind.
00:21:58.880
There you go. But you know what? I think men truly need, I mean, to your point and boys,
00:22:03.840
everybody, humans need a challenge. It's what we're built for. So what was really interesting
00:22:08.340
is I saw my eight-year-old who tends to be a pretty passive boy. He's a little tender. He's
00:22:14.800
a little shy. He's a little timid when it comes to sports. We got to the starting line and I said,
00:22:20.500
all right, I'll go run with you. So I actually ran with them. I was expecting him to stay by my side
00:22:25.120
and that gun went off and he was gone. I mean, gone. And I didn't even, he was there sitting at
00:22:31.820
the finish line waiting for me and my youngest son, my five-year-old son. And it was so cool to
00:22:37.280
see like the fire in his eye and him have a little bit of excitement. And just, like I said, that
00:22:42.660
challenge is something that I think all men need.
00:22:44.860
No, you know, we brought back a little taste of what Sparta was like way back when. You know,
00:22:50.880
apparently the kings and queens and really wealthy families back then would send their kids to go
00:22:57.060
train and do the agogi in Sparta because they were so impressed what the outcome was to living that
00:23:04.360
lifestyle. There was apparently mumblings from the upper class and the rulers. Hang on, my phone's
00:23:13.100
just ringing on the other side. That would say, you know, the Spartans get like a vacation when
00:23:17.840
they go to war compared to the way they train. Really? Yeah. It all goes back to that strenuous
00:23:23.980
life we were talking about earlier. Yeah. So what's the, uh, what's the future do you think
00:23:28.940
of obstacle racing? Because I know there's a lot of other players in the game and they're doing
00:23:32.740
different things and some of them are easier and we're trying to make it different. We're shooting
00:23:36.800
for the Olympics. So, um, hopefully in the next couple of years we'll have this thing in the
00:23:41.400
Olympics. And once we have any Olympics, there'll be a standard format. And then it's, um, it's
00:23:46.340
written in history, right? That this thing is here to stay. And so that's our plan. I think if you
00:23:51.700
were thinking short term and just wanted to make some money, you'd probably focus more on the beer
00:23:55.600
and the party aspect. But, um, but our focus is, is the sport and getting this thing in the Olympics.
00:24:01.060
Yeah. No, I love that. I think I actually heard you talk about that. So that's pretty cool. So
00:24:04.620
you say in the next couple of years, you see that happening?
00:24:06.460
Yeah. It's moving, moving really quickly. Super excited about that. I mean, I can't imagine being
00:24:12.040
an Olympic event with my family and watching the first ever obstacle race in the Olympics would be
00:24:18.480
incredible. Yeah. And something that you, you know, you, you were at the forefront of is it would be
00:24:23.940
pretty cool to see that vision. Did you have any idea when you started this, what it would be to this
00:24:28.100
level now, or is this completely further or a different track than you thought you'd ever be on?
00:24:32.160
Uh, much further than I ever expected. Really? Yeah. So tell me, walk me through a little bit
00:24:37.460
about that and how maybe that's changed your perspective or the way that you've approached
00:24:41.600
things. Uh, obviously it sounds like maybe you weren't as open to how broad or how big this would
00:24:46.140
get. So how has your perspective changed to new trials and new things that you're wanting to try at
00:24:52.000
this point? I don't want to try anything new. I've, I started so many businesses as a kid and through
00:24:57.960
my life, um, I'm on, I want to be on the downhill. I don't want to start any more businesses. And if I
00:25:03.780
look back and say what mistakes that I made, I made the same mistake with every business I've
00:25:07.680
started over my life, which is, um, you, you really got to assume it's going to be successful.
00:25:12.400
I've always, even though I'm an optimist, I I've always been really resistant to building
00:25:16.440
infrastructure in the early days, whether it's technology or whatever, because you just don't
00:25:20.620
know, at least I don't, right. Is it going to work? Am I going to want to do this?
00:25:23.420
And if I had to do anything over again, it would be, no, it's going to work and we're
00:25:28.800
doing this. And so let's build all the infrastructure and everything from the beginning. Whereas
00:25:33.200
I've always taken an approach in life to, you know, rather than ready, aim, fire, I'm, I'm
00:25:37.840
fire, ready, aim. And so that's, that's what I would, that's what I would do different.
00:25:42.460
This was really just going to be a hobby and it turned out to be, um, a pretty, uh, decent
00:25:47.480
sized business. Yeah, no, it really sounds like it. I know it's been instrumental in changing
00:25:51.780
a lot of people's lives. And I can, and I mean, just even just crossing that finish line and
00:25:55.020
there's just that sense of accomplishment and pride and, and the fact that you overcame,
00:25:59.400
uh, this challenge and, and getting through those burpees is a nightmare, by the way.
00:26:05.580
I, uh, this last month, I tried, my goal was to do so many burpees this last month so that
00:26:09.980
in March, when I compete in the Vegas race, I've done so many burpees in the month of February
00:26:15.260
and March that I wouldn't have to do any in the race. So that's what I'm, that's what
00:26:19.200
I'm shooting for. I think, uh, last race I ended up doing 30 burpees. I missed one obstacle,
00:26:25.900
but I hit everything else in a beast. So I felt pretty good about that.
00:26:30.420
Let's talk about creating a community or creating a tribe, because what I've seen with
00:26:36.340
Spartan and several other brands out there, maybe not necessarily an obstacle racing sector,
00:26:41.100
but is this ability to create this thriving community and this thriving tribe that people
00:26:47.120
are just excited to be part of that? Can you tell me why you think that is?
00:26:51.480
I think everybody wants to be part of something, right? I think, um, I think whether it's work or,
00:26:56.940
or family or friends or their company, or, uh, they, they tie themselves to brands who wears
00:27:03.420
Lululemon or et cetera. And so, um, what a bet, there isn't a better thing to be tied to than,
00:27:11.020
than this lifestyle. I'm sure your friends will think you're crazy, but, but, um, look,
00:27:16.640
even CrossFit, right? There's a bunch of people that are CrossFitters and you, you could, you could
00:27:19.880
pick them out in a bar. Um, so people love community. It's gone on, uh, since the beginning
00:27:26.920
of time, right? People are part of tribes and, and we're just, uh, we're no different. If you fit
00:27:33.400
into this hole, you're that kind of peg, you're part of this multi-million person community. That's,
00:27:40.260
it doesn't matter what culture you're from, you're, you're a Spartan.
00:27:43.040
So, is there things that you've done consciously to build that or is it just built organically over
00:27:48.320
time and it's just morphed into this own thing on its own?
00:27:50.920
You know, it just morphed into it. I, I wasn't thinking tribe. I never really thought about it.
00:27:55.880
I, we had our farm, people would come up to the farm. We'd, I'd make them pull canoes to the top
00:28:01.460
of the mountain in the snow. I'd carry boulders around cause that's just what I wanted to do.
00:28:06.160
Sure. And it created, um, there were people that were interested in that pulling canoes and carrying
00:28:13.220
rocks. And, and I tended to attract those people and then they attracted some people. And then
00:28:21.280
before you know it, I heard this word tribe. Yeah. And so we found all the people that,
00:28:26.880
that like this kind of stuff and I'm sure we're recruiting many more as we speak.
00:28:31.920
Yeah. Well, I hope so. And anybody who's listening that wants to participate in Spartan races,
00:28:36.380
if you guys want to do it with me, just shoot me a message and let me know because I'd love to have
00:28:39.840
a hundred, 200 guys from order of man come and compete in these races. Cause I know I've had
00:28:44.040
a blast with some of the guys. I've done it. I'm going to do a deal for you and your community
00:28:47.520
with a go. We're going to, we're going to get everybody to Vermont in June for the experience
00:28:52.740
of a lifetime. I'm sure anybody that looks it up, it's a G O G E is going to be scared and say,
00:28:58.480
no way. Am I ready for that? I promise you, you're going to come out of that thing,
00:29:02.260
a different human being. It'll be like, Oh, you, you will come out a different human being.
00:29:07.540
It's the most incredible event. It's, it's, it's five levels up from anything we're talking about,
00:29:12.420
but, but it's really, it's doable. You'll finish and you'll come out. You're going to thank me for
00:29:18.220
it. And is there a, I'm sure there's a training regiment that goes along with it that we can
00:29:22.640
adequately prepare over the next three or four months. Yeah. You guys, we'll give you something.
00:29:26.460
You'll be easily ready for this thing. And, and, um, listen, it's going to hurt and it's going to
00:29:31.200
be a big deal. It's going to be an accomplishment like that. You'd never thought it's going to be
00:29:34.500
well beyond an Ironman. This thing is unbelievable, but, but I'm telling you, you're going to come
00:29:38.880
out of it and say, I'm ready. I'm ready to tackle anything. I love it. Okay. We're going to,
00:29:43.120
we're going to see if we can get some guys out there then. Cause I think that would be awesome
00:29:45.580
to be able to do. Yeah. Shoot me an email when, um, when we're done and I'll, I'll connect you
00:29:50.240
with the appropriate folks and we'll get, uh, we'll get your team. Let's see who's got,
00:29:54.580
who's got the commitment. You know, you, you've heard the joke, uh, who's more committed, the pig
00:29:58.740
or the chicken at breakfast, right? The pigs, pigs, pretty damn committed. He kills himself
00:30:02.860
for you to have bacon chicken, just produce an egg. Let's see who's really committed in your,
00:30:07.440
in your listening group. Yeah. Cause I know what's going to happen. I'm going to put this
00:30:10.860
out there and I'm going to have a hundred or two and guys say, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to do it.
00:30:13.720
And I'll have two guys show up. Oh, that's what happens. I, I, I used to give speeches at Cornell
00:30:17.920
and I'd get like 600 kids. I'm giving the speech to, right. And I'll hire anybody like you. I want
00:30:24.240
to help any kid. Right. And so I come down. So 60 kids, 10% of the audience comes down. We,
00:30:30.020
I give out business cards, get in touch with me of the 60, 20 actually follow through.
00:30:35.680
Yeah. Right. And even that sounds high. Yeah. It's a high number, right? Of the 20,
00:30:39.780
10 are like, Hey, we're coming this summer. We're going to work. Of the 10,
00:30:43.620
10, four show up of the four, one last 48 hours. The others all quit. Right.
00:30:49.720
So like one out of 600. Well, let's talk about this then for a second, because I think
00:30:55.080
we as human beings have a tendency to coast and be mediocre and settle for comfort.
00:31:02.020
And we create a lot of excuses. So what are some of the common excuses that you see? Not only when it
00:31:07.820
comes to participating in a race like this, but just in life in general. Well, your mind, right?
00:31:13.860
There's terms in every culture, every language that explain this, but your mind, when your back's
00:31:21.080
against the wall, when times are really tough, your mind will give you perfectly legitimate reasons why
00:31:27.940
you should not be doing this and get out of the discomfort. And the trick is to figure out when
00:31:34.400
your mind is messing with you and when you should listen. Because there are times when you should
00:31:38.740
pivot in life or turn around or quit. But most of the time, just because it's uncomfortable doesn't
00:31:44.960
mean you should quit. So the trick is to push through. I had a kid, we've had many people come
00:31:51.980
up to the farm. I had a guy come up to the farm and woke him up early in the morning. We head up to
00:31:56.160
the mountains. We're carrying bags of sand up the mountain. I said, listen, meet us at five o'clock
00:32:01.340
at this building. And we're going to do it again later today. Sure enough, I get a text. He's on a
00:32:06.460
bus. He's gone pretty quick. I said, you get off the bus, turn around and come back. Because if you
00:32:11.920
don't, you are going to regret this forever. Yeah, I know I've done. I've done enough events. I know
00:32:17.860
the tricks that your mind plays on you. Sure enough, he still emails me today. You know, six years later,
00:32:23.640
it pisses him off that he got on that bus. But and you can't undo that. So I can't tell you how
00:32:30.500
many people have wanted to quit some of the long races we put on. And I've let some quit. And others
00:32:36.900
I've said, you get your shoes back on, get back out there. Because I know they just need a little
00:32:42.340
kick in the butt. And they thank me, you know, five, eight years later. Thanks for sending me back
00:32:48.780
out there. Because that domino that fell me completing that event, triggered something else
00:32:54.260
in my life, which triggered something I changed my life forever. So that's the trick. And that
00:32:58.700
makes total sense. I remember when I got back from basic training, I felt invincible, just because
00:33:02.960
all the hell that we'd been through over the past, you know, four, six months of training. And I came
00:33:07.820
back and I just knew that I could conquer anything that ever got in my way because of what I just went
00:33:12.040
through. So it sounds very similar to that. Cool. Joe, I really appreciate you taking your time. I know
00:33:16.720
you're busy. A couple of questions as we wind down. The first one, I prepared you for this question.
00:33:20.760
I hope I gave you enough time. I'm sure I did. And that is, what does it mean to be a man?
00:33:25.280
Yeah, I've been thinking about it as we've been talking. And certainly with my wife here sitting
00:33:29.940
next to me, I can't, I got to be careful with the answer. She's listening in for sure.
00:33:36.300
Yeah. I mean, your instinct right away on what the answer is for that is, it's as a protector,
00:33:43.060
right? It's the human that needs to stand up and get stuff done for the family. But listen,
00:33:51.800
women are pretty damn tough. I've raced with women. I'll get a great story to answer this
00:33:56.060
question. I got a friend who he and his wife rode a rowboat from San Francisco to Hawaii.
00:34:02.840
And he convinced his wife to do it. His wife did not want to do it. And he said they were about seven
00:34:07.700
days in out there alone. And a storm blows in. And the storm blows them like 300 miles off course.
00:34:15.880
And he breaks down. He starts crying. And his wife, who did not want to come, looks at him,
00:34:20.500
looks him in the face, slaps him and get a hold of yourself. We are getting this done.
00:34:26.300
And she ended up being the reason. They pushed through and, you know, another 35 days,
00:34:31.440
whatever it was. Is that what it was? Yeah. Some crazy, you know, 3,000 mile row. And so the point,
00:34:38.860
you know, I got to be careful what I say, because women are pretty damn tough. You know, listen,
00:34:45.760
you want to turn to your boy, right? And say, hey, listen, I got to go. You're the man of the
00:34:49.120
house. Now you got to take, I don't know. A woman in a house is just as good. So I don't know.
00:34:54.360
Yeah. So what my favorite story with my wife is, is, uh, I, there was a couple that was stranded on
00:35:01.580
the road and they were a young couple and I pulled over. And for some reason I just felt right about
00:35:06.460
it. And long story short, I ended up bringing the couple home and put them up in a room in our house
00:35:12.260
for the night where they woke up the next morning. We fed them. I took them to the mechanic, dropped
00:35:17.180
them off, set them on their way. And somebody questioned my wife and they said, wow, you must really
00:35:22.880
trust your husband's judgment. And she says, yes, I trust my husband's judgment, but I also trust my
00:35:27.540
second amendment rights. So I wouldn't, uh, I wouldn't mess with my wife either. It's all about
00:35:34.220
finding a good woman, right? Joe, I appreciate your time. Hey, how do we, uh, like I even need to bring
00:35:39.780
this up, but how do we connect with you? We want to learn about the race. Obviously you and I are
00:35:43.200
going to talk about the Agogi as well. Um, I'll get to everybody that's listening some information on
00:35:47.520
that, but other than that, how do we connect with you? Yeah. So you can go to, um,
00:35:51.100
spartan.com. You can see everything. We've got a, a podcast out there as well. Spartan up
00:35:56.660
is that podcast, um, somewhere on the website. I wish I knew how to do all this stuff.
00:36:01.560
And that's right. We'll direct everybody there. Yeah. And then I'm pretty open book. So if anybody
00:36:05.400
wants to email me, feel free. I'm Joe at spartan.com and I'll get you the stuff on the
00:36:10.120
Agogi and we'll do, um, I really, I mean it. I mean, if you're, if you're motivating a bunch of,
00:36:15.880
you know, 30, 40 year old guys, this is what they need. It sounds self-serving and I'm pushing
00:36:21.020
it, but I'll, I'll take the price way down for you. So it's really not about the money. It's more
00:36:25.660
the transformation that I'm interested in. So let's, let's make that happen.
00:36:30.560
Okay. I'm excited about that. Well, Joe, I'll let you get going. I appreciate you. I appreciate
00:36:33.720
your time. And, uh, you know, just, I know you hear this probably day in and day out,
00:36:37.900
but I really appreciate what you've done in your life because it's really helped me transform mine.
00:36:41.120
So I got to say, thank you for that. No problem. Thank you.
00:36:44.780
There you have it guys. Mr. Joe DeSena talking about the Spartan race,
00:36:47.540
the Agogi and living a life of discomfort. Now, quick reminder to head over to order of man.com
00:36:53.120
slash iron council. So you can get all the details on our elite mastermind, the iron council. You'll
00:36:57.900
want to be part of that. If you're ready to take your life to the next level, if you want to build
00:37:00.880
some solid relationships with other men and have some accountability to actually get the stuff done
00:37:05.020
in your life. And also, if you're seriously interested in participating in the Agogi with me,
00:37:09.940
go to order of man.com slash zero five one and get some of the latest resources on that event.
00:37:16.900
From there, after you've gone through the resources and you find out what the event's about,
00:37:21.060
if you're still interested, you can shoot me an email at ryan at order of man.com.
00:37:25.020
We'll get you on the team. It is limited. So if you're interested, you got to act fast on the Agogi.
00:37:30.320
You can also join the conversation that we're having about this and masculinity and a strenuous life and
00:37:35.440
all the discussions that we're having in our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups
00:37:39.240
slash order of man. Guys, I look forward to talking to you next week, but until then,
00:37:43.480
take action and become the man you were meant to be.
00:37:46.900
Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life
00:37:51.420
and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.