The Industrial Athlete Mindset Every Tradesperson Needs

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Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

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Unknown
Oh!

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Speaker 3
Welcome, everyone, to Blue color Startup. I’m one of your hosts, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media. Derek is on vacation this week, and we, took advantage of Derek being on vacation this week. So, we’re doing a live here. Normally makes it really hard for us to get in one room, but, today we’re here.

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Speaker 3
We’re in my kitchen. Welcome. The crew from Catamount Consulting. Yeah. Scott McKenna. Perfect. Stacey and Jason Spector. Guys, thanks for coming out.

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Speaker 1
Make us trip. Yeah. Thanks for having us.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. It’s, I really do prefer doing the life. I know you do, too.

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Speaker 1
Me too. And inside, since it’s 98 degrees in the shade right now.

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Speaker 3
Yeah, it’s a little hot out there, but I’ll take it. It’s better than snow, as far as I’m concerned. Oh, I disagree, that’s. Well, that’s because you you do winter. You have winter hobbies, I do. All I do in winter is break ice for pigs and sheep. Makes everything harder. So, so let’s introduce the topic today.

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Speaker 3
So we’re talking about a term that you guys, use. And and it’s more than a term. It’s really like an idea. But the we’re talking about the industrial athlete. So who wants to explain what the industrial athlete who wants to take that charge? Well, I’ll kick it like.

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Speaker 2
It’s a little bit of, something that I’ve really put a lot of time into and, and have, you know, found it to be a passion space. So, you know, when you say the word athlete, most people will think of a professional football player or, you know, UFC fighter or, Olympian, someone at the highest level of performance.

00;01;49;01 – 00;02;20;21
Speaker 2
But, you know, if we actually take a look at some of the the men and women in the trades, construction, mining, general industry, I would argue that there are some of the toughest athletes out there. So, you know, when you’re climbing steel hundreds of feet in the air, when you’re welding in extreme heat temperature, when you’re operating machinery for 12 hour shifts, that’s some physical heavy lifting type athletic activity, also involving a huge component of how you perform with a mindset that will support that.

00;02;20;21 – 00;02;50;06
Speaker 2
So we have played in that space. That’s that’s our space, our bread and butter of, you know, safety and leadership. So we started to look at it through lenses of training, leadership training, peak performance in the same way that you would train an athlete. So an industrial athlete to to us is someone who intentionally trains their body, their mind, their character, so they can show up safely, consistently, effectively at work, but more importantly, at home as well.

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Speaker 3
Since you guys first introduced the idea of this to me, I hadn’t really ever thought about the way or the fact that, you know, when you’re doing any job for that matter. Right? Of the tour takes on your body. We, you know, after high school, a lot of people stop being as physical as they were when they were younger.

00;03;09;27 – 00;03;34;09
Speaker 3
And then you get workplace injuries and all these things happen. And but a lot of it’s avoidable, right. And by being proactive, but more so by really I think that the mind shift that you guys talk about with, hey, if you’re if you’re going to be going up on a roof for the next six hours, like what are you doing to prepare your body before that happens, not just the hour before, but the weeks before you’re doing it.

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Speaker 3
Right. So can you dig into a little bit more as far as, like what that looks like in a lot of the trades right now, as far as preparing your body and doing the things that you need to do.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I would say, you know, when you start to have conversation and where this concept of training like an athlete, where the mind and the body and the character comes into play is starting to educate, you know, we would put a lot of content in, in educating the physical components of the job because of the wear and tear and even changing a little bit of the stigma of, you know, wanting people to be more, engaged or, you know, looking to enter the trades.

00;04;11;27 – 00;04;31;14
Speaker 2
There’s been a stigma on like, I don’t do blue collar work. Right? Because it’ll it’ll be hard on your body. But if you take a proactive approach and you support your workforce and you provide them with tools of how they can protect their body and how they can stay resilient, both mind and body, it changes that stigma.

00;04;31;16 – 00;05;08;20
Speaker 2
It’s not a sentence anymore. So if they know about nutrition, right? Are you eating the right amount? Protein. Are you hydrating correctly so your body can recover? If you do have that 12 hour shift, are you you know, do you have strategies for some of the emotional intelligence, composure issues or stress? Right. And then when we start to go down the road of mental health and construction and mining and the numbers that we see associated with that, we really dove in, head first to really trying to provide that physical component of everything that you could think of from sleep and conversations about ergonomics and preventative measures to help the body, which also help the

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Speaker 2
mind. So there’s a cognitive correlation to all of it as well.

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Speaker 3
So where did the industrial I like the idea actually first come from for you guys. Like where did it originate.

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Speaker 2
Yeah. Anyone can jump in. I feel like I’m.

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Speaker 3
Well, we know these guys are being unusually quiet.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I joined them. I actually slipped them something before we started drill.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. No, we’re not drugged. The the industrial athlete mindset and physical component we’re talking about really came from all of our backgrounds inside of athletics, through high school and college and continue to stay fairly competitive. So as Stacey’s mentioning and says it’s the same function really, if you think about it, to show up for high cost, high stress, at risk type environments, which athletics are you got people watching you, you got failure, you got winning.

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Speaker 1
You’ve got, teammates. It’s the same as in the field. So that’s that’s where it originated. And we just kept kicking around. We kept saying it and kept using it. And that’s been a good probably 2 or 3 years now that we’ve been putting in pretty much everything that we’re we’re looking at. And as Stacey mentioned, the mental health, mental health situations that we have in both mining and construction and, the number one cause of fatality currently in construction is suicide.

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Speaker 1
And that’s, scary when you think about it and put it all on the play of all the stuff that those men and women are doing. So this is that, working on the mind. The body also helps, helps that component. So,

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Speaker 4
Yeah, I think, Stacey, that, professional, former, competitive bodybuilder. And I think that, you know, the value that she brings to the table and former collegiate, field hockey player and Scott Knight with wrestling and coaching, but actually the origin and actually, on the way here, Stacey and I were talking about this is, you know, I think where it originated was when we saw for the first time a stretch and flex being done and how wrong it was, how it was, this series of static movements that was like it, you know, 7 a.m..

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Speaker 4
This is like anything that I know about performance and readiness is to, you know, you don’t want to statically stretch a muscle fiber and lengthen it. You want it to actually shorten and length and shorten in length. And which is why dynamic movements, ballistic movements are important for readiness. So we kind of wrapped our brain around like let’s reinvent a stretch and flex that’s going to be jobsite friendly, that’s going to be workforce friendly and, you know, time efficient and effective.

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Speaker 4
And so we started playing around with this idea of readiness for work through stretch and flex around, hey, this should look like a football team or a soccer team getting ready to take the field, not, you know, a bunch of guys like trying to touch their toes or bend their fingers back and hold that position for 20s.

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Speaker 4
If you were to take a fall after doing that, you’re more likely to break your wrist or sprain your wrist badly than have the reflexive nature to be able to catch yourself on the ground using the muscles and the ligaments and the soft tissues to support yourself. So really, I think that was kind of the spark that ignited this idea.

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Speaker 4
And around the idea of identifying as an athlete, there’s a spirit that an athlete has. A performer has an energy and an engagement that you have. When you start to really reframe your eye the way you identify, I think a 12 hour shift in any blue collar, space is easier than a two hour NFL football practice. Right?

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Speaker 4
And so I think that, you know, rebranding, recalibrating, whatever you want to call it, reframing the idea of being an athlete as opposed to being, boots on the ground, you know, grunt, you know, it. It’s more exciting.

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Speaker 3
Yeah. I and I think that’s an important thing. And we’ve kind of touched on it. And we obviously in other conversations we’ve had over the last couple of years, we’ve we’ve talked about it, but the the reframing of what actually makes someone an athlete and what goes into that and why people in the trades should continue to view themselves as that.

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Speaker 3
Right. Like, can we touch on that a little bit?

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Speaker 2
And I would say as far as, you know, we spend our, our time in the trades primarily with the clients and companies that we work with. But it’s broad enough to defined an athlete if it’s, you know, focusing on things. If you look up the definition of athlete, you see words like, you know, consistency and training and, proficiency.

00;09;30;20 – 00;09;55;28
Speaker 2
And so all of those things for performance, all of those things go into the recipe to be the best version of yourself or to perform at your highest level in whatever capacity or whatever, position that you’re in. So, I mean, it’s it’s universal enough where it’s blue collar, white collar, no collar. It’s it’s a standard or an identity of showing up and putting in the work to perform at your best.

00;09;55;28 – 00;10;17;10
Speaker 2
It’s a self-mastery, I think, standard. So it doesn’t necessarily have to apply only to the construction and trades industry. It’s an identity. If you want to perform as your best version. There’s all of those elements that go into it. It’s intentional and it’s easy to, you know, use the metaphor of an athlete and say, you know, a high performing, athlete like, you know, a Tom Brady.

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Speaker 2
Would he just show up on game day and hope that the outcome went well? No, I mean, there’s a routine that he follows and it’s the same recipe for anybody to perform at their best.

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Speaker 3
How do you see if you talk about stretch and flexes

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Speaker 3
when it comes to a more traditional idea of an athlete for sport, right. Like every sport is a little different. Training for that sport is different. Being getting ready for a swim meet might be different than getting ready for a football game or getting ready for, to run a marathon, right?

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Speaker 3
So your training is different.

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Speaker 3
Do you see in the trades? Like are you shifting what that getting ready for game day looks like based on whether or not they’re a welder or a lineman or a roofer or, you know, they’re in there in mining or what? I mean, like, does it change or does it really just more about having an overall complete.

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Speaker 4
I think there’s a there’s a, universal approach to, you know, all the sports that you mentioned and the readiness, but like some of the obvious ones. But then there’s obviously sports specific type experiences. I think somebody who’s getting jostled around in an excavator, and, you know, one of the things that I think brings some, some evidence or some some realistic value is like, I’ve been stacking rocks for the last month.

00;11;42;04 – 00;12;03;12
Speaker 4
I got 300ft of stone wall that I’m doing on top on my job, that I actually am a teacher year round. So Stacey and I have been working after hours, for the last three weeks, this weeks my first week off from school. But I’ve, you know, use excavators and skid steers and some of the worst experiences aren’t the actual jobs.

00;12;03;13 – 00;12;21;06
Speaker 4
I don’t have the equipment. It’s the jobs I have, the equipment getting in and out of the equipment and, running the equipment for three hours at a time and then getting out and, like, feeling beat up from the machine. And so somebody who’s operating machines, circulations really important. And getting in and out of it safely is really important.

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Speaker 4
And also composure is really important. There’s a psychology factor. And then I feel like somebody who’s actually boots on the ground doing all the shoveling or lifting or we want to make sure their glutes are activated, and we want to make sure that our core is strong. We want to make sure that their, rear chain, the posterior chain is through some of the movements like we do a warrior three that activates.

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Speaker 4
It looks a lot like an RDL, or there’s a hip hinge element. So yeah, I think that, you know, there are some specific, you know, overuse kind of things that you’re trying to curb if you’re talking strict stretch and flex. But, as a whole, I think, you know, movement is medicine and, the body is its own pharmacy.

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Speaker 4
So if people have, you know, if their blood is circulating and they’re, you know, getting themselves moving prior to doing work, that’s that’s a win.

00;13;07;17 – 00;13;24;13
Speaker 1
And you mentioned there’s there’s some differences. Yes, there’s certainly differences. And, what we’ve done at Catamount is taken a specialized approach and actually brought in. We have a full time physical therapist on our staff, Alicia, and she’s able to look at the specific tasks of Jason’s talking about, I’m going to be climbing in and out of an excavator live.

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Speaker 1
She can pinpoint, okay, here’s what we need to work on, whether it’s your hamstrings and your stretch and flex your mindset. You’re gonna be in there a long time and you could hit someone. You’ve got to be delicate with the bucket and the stack of stones. So we can dial that in to be very specific. And that stretch or that readiness would be different for a swimmer.

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Speaker 1
That would be a football player. Same way for equipment operator as someone who’s shuffling. So we can we can break it right down. But based on task.

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Speaker 3
What do you say to the the man or woman that is in the trades? And they’re like, well, I go to the gym three times a week or four times a week, like, you know, is that enough to obviously you’re you’re doing things that are going to make you stronger or make you healthier, but like, is that enough for what you need to do for the job, that or the role that you’re in?

00;14;09;14 – 00;14;27;03
Speaker 1
Well, not necessarily, because some of the things that we’re doing the job is to reverse something we were doing during the job. For example, if you’re sitting a lot, you’re in a flexion position with your vertebrae. So when you stand up and do a mountain pose, you get to extend that. And and that could be a two second exercise, you know, just specific to someone who might be sitting a piece of equipment are sitting at a desk.

00;14;27;06 – 00;14;43;18
Speaker 1
So it’s it’s just different. And there’s also a level of readiness that it comes up when you do something different. Right? Jason mentioned movement as medicine, meaning get up and move once in a while. Is that every hour is that every 45 minutes is every two. I don’t know the exact number. We can dial that in, but you got to get up and move around.

00;14;43;18 – 00;14;53;08
Speaker 1
And that turns into a little stretch and flexible movement, a little bit of dopamine into the brain and back down. Now you’re productive again. That’s part of part of the answer to your question, I think.

00;14;53;12 – 00;15;25;04
Speaker 2
I think I look at it as sort of as like there’s micro and macro components of it. And so, you know, if you go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, then I feel like you’re hitting, you know, a bit of a macro in that sense that you have a, consistent, movement program. But on a micro level, some of the work that Alicia brings to the table would be looking at the specific movement of getting in excavator or climbing up on a piece of equipment and modifying at a micro level what stretches you should do or what you should pay attention to of of your movement patterns.

00;15;25;06 – 00;15;46;09
Speaker 2
And then, you know. So going to the gym is great for psychology and for your body. But then, you know, in the macro bucket, what are you doing on a consistent basis to train the mind. Right. Yeah. Of do you have tools and strategies to deal with the stresses that you have in your life? And what are you looking at for some of the hydration and nutrition on a macro level?

00;15;46;09 – 00;16;07;11
Speaker 2
So you could be hitting a few of the macros, but there’s always other areas that you can improve on or update. And we like to say our people are flawed. So we have areas that we can all sort of look at reprograming or updating our systems on. And then the very micro levels is where we get really gritty into the job specific things or the task specific type, skill sets.

00;16;07;14 – 00;16;27;10
Speaker 4
Yeah. I think there’s also, you know, I play around with, acronyms and letters. So I think of like the three E’s that I use for growth mindset. But I like that you want everybody to show up energized. Right. And so if it’s hard to be energized at 6 a.m. or even 9 a.m. for some people, you know, after, you know, a week’s worth of labor, you’re sore, whatever.

00;16;27;10 – 00;16;39;04
Speaker 4
But no one’s ever said at the end of a stretch and flex that I’ve run, and I’ve run several on job sites for different companies. And a lot of guys are. Yeah, I’m one of the famous stories. A guy smoked a cigarette during the stretch and play.

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Speaker 2
I don’t know if he smoked it, but it was glued to his bottom lip. That was impressive. That’s a.

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Speaker 4
Skill. But, you know, no one, even that guy at the end of the, you know, it’s sometimes it’s six minutes, sometimes it’s 15 minutes. It depends on, you know, that that I read the audience, but no one ever said that was a waste of my time. They always appreciate it. And they. There’s an energy factor that you can, you know, build up from movement, you know, and going through that.

00;17;06;10 – 00;17;27;21
Speaker 4
And then the second thing is, is the idea of being efficient with our bodies, which is athleticism. Right. That’s if I’m an athlete I can, you know, traverse and navigate space effectively, whether it’s on a field or climbing up and down something or stepping over or, you know, and so being efficient. And then the third one is being able to execute like you got to you got to score.

00;17;27;22 – 00;17;44;14
Speaker 4
You got to put points on the board and get the job done. And I feel like the other component is this emotional, which was goes back to my growth mindset. E is emotional. Composure is if I identify as an athlete, I know that the officials are going to screw me. I know that the other team is trying to beat me.

00;17;44;20 – 00;18;02;23
Speaker 4
I know that there’s a clock that’s going to run out, so I have the ability to realize that there’s control balls and there’s uncontrollable, and I’m going to focus on the controls. So the emotional, edge or the emotional piece, the you know, the psychology is an advantage as well.

00;18;02;25 – 00;18;24;03
Speaker 3
Well, I’m glad you touched on the growth mindset stuff. Well, because one of the things that, I’m thinking is you guys are talking is what I’m hearing is it’s part of it is injury prevention. Right. But the other part, though, is also that there are people that want to perform at their absolute best, which is a characteristic of athletes.

00;18;24;10 – 00;18;35;07
Speaker 3
Like every athlete you’ve ever known or heard about. Right? They like they want to be better. They want to win. They want to do the best job possible. Is is that fair? Like as far as what?

00;18;35;09 – 00;18;36;13
Speaker 4
That’s fair. Yeah.

00;18;36;14 – 00;18;54;29
Speaker 1
We and for an athlete your end point might be the end of high school or maybe college for a very small percentage. So for the industrial athlete side in the work we’re looking to to in long date that profession to say 7489 to mean we can work in this field for a long time if you take care of yourself.

00;18;54;29 – 00;19;14;28
Speaker 1
Bold mind body though it’s there’s there’s opportunity there and we need it. We got five generation of people working in the trades currently. That’s a big span 19 year olds all the way to late 70s. And, they take care of themselves. They can they can make that happen for a long period of time. Injuries always the downside to everything that we do.

00;19;15;01 – 00;19;25;17
Speaker 3
I mean, given that Jason are both injured in some fashion right now in dealing with with injuries, it’s, it slows you down. Yeah, it does, it really does. It changes the game entirely.

00;19;25;19 – 00;19;48;18
Speaker 4
Well, to that point, you’re never going to watch, NBA or an NFL or WNBA game and not see, you know, 11 players, 4 or 5 players for either team that aren’t managing some sort of ailment or injury. Right. And you play injured. That’s what professionals do. You figure out how to compete injured to a degree. Right.

00;19;48;18 – 00;19;58;12
Speaker 4
Like appropriate. But yeah, you’re always managing. You know, I laugh, you know, the the a lot of guys stop at Stewart’s on their way home. Shout out to Stewart’s right now.

00;19;58;12 – 00;19;58;28
Speaker 3
We love Stewart.

00;19;59;05 – 00;20;16;14
Speaker 4
I stop at Stewart’s and get my bags of ice after a hard day so I can cold plunge, because without the cold plunge, I’m going to be a hurt unit come 10:00 at night when it’s time to go to bed. So I mitigate my swelling from bending over and picking up rocks. I’ll move four tons of stone. That’s a low estimate.

00;20;16;17 – 00;20;34;23
Speaker 4
My dump trailer is full of four tons of stone right now, and it will be empty tonight before I stop working. And so if I’m going to move four tons of stone, I’m going to stop at Stewart’s and get two bags. Right. That’s just. And I won’t get alcohol because that’s going to enhance the swelling, you know. And those are the commitments and sacrifices that athletes make.

00;20;34;23 – 00;20;50;12
Speaker 4
And now some athletes can can do both get the beer and another and maybe have a beer in the ice bath. And that’s fine. But every you know, the conscious awareness of is this helping me or hurting me? Is this making me better or making me worse is what athletes are always doing well.

00;20;50;12 – 00;21;02;28
Speaker 3
And so that kind of comes back to the the mindset of the athlete versus the mindset of or the mindset of the industrial athlete versus the mindset of someone that I’m just showing up. I’m punching and punching out. At the end of the day.

00;21;03;00 – 00;21;36;25
Speaker 2
Yeah, there’s there’s a lot of different takes on you. You know, look at it. The the athlete mindset versus the worker punch in punch out mindset. Right. And so there’s a big difference. And you can even relate that to is it an engaged or unengaged mindset. Is it a victim or an owner mindset. Right. You know, one of my is going to have strategy, is going to be proactive, is going to take ownership of the fact that if they’re, you know, showing up with pain every day, that it’s their responsibility to find ways that are going to help them feel better and perform better, especially when we go back to some of those statistics

00;21;36;25 – 00;22;02;14
Speaker 2
within the construction and mining industry. When we look at the number of people that report consistent levels of pretty significant pain, we’re like in the 40%, range of that. So that’s significant. And we got to have strategies and education to put into the mix, rather than relying on some poor coping strategy like cracking that beer make might make you feel a little bit better for an hour or two, but it’s kind of cause a whole bunch of other problems and intensify the pain.

00;22;02;14 – 00;22;31;06
Speaker 2
So it’s education. It’s being, you know, proactive and showing them that there’s a different approach to it, which doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re looking to, you know, go out and be the, you know, star, a player of, of the team every single day button to have, a mindset and to have your body not hurt as bad and to be able to come home, to be able to play and be engaged with your family, that’s, you know, some of the, the, more realistic approaches that people will grab on to.

00;22;31;08 – 00;22;50;17
Speaker 2
And so it’s just a space that really hasn’t been discussed much or, you know, been looked at much in the, in the construction and trades because, it’s always been a little bit of, outdated mentality of suck it up and work through the pain and keep going. That doesn’t that doesn’t work so well.

00;22;50;17 – 00;23;13;04
Speaker 3
And it’s I mean, you’re touching onto that something I was going to bring up is that in the workplace, specific jobs have a higher at least I believe they do a higher propensity to have certain kinds of injuries. Right. And so a lot of people just tell themselves a story of, well, this is just what happens, right? I sit in a loader for 12 hours a day.

00;23;13;04 – 00;23;36;15
Speaker 3
I have back pain. Right. And and they just think that that’s that’s just the way it is. Right. But that’s not necessarily the way that it is. Correct. Right. And and taking that athlete approach to your job of yeah, I’m going to work 12 hours, but before I work that 12 hours I’m going to stretch and flex, I’m going to, you know, other days in the week I’m going to prepare my body in other ways.

00;23;36;18 – 00;23;37;17
Speaker 3
Right. Is that there is.

00;23;37;25 – 00;24;00;18
Speaker 4
Yeah. I love, I love the ownership, versus victim, victim versus owner, comparison. And, you know, this is kind of gets into the psychology of what we do. We just had a amazing safety day with, Zack mechanical. And one of the topics in the past, we’ve talked about being a linchpin. You know, that really important, irreplaceable part of the company.

00;24;00;18 – 00;24;22;11
Speaker 4
And that needs to, you know, be there in order for things to get done. And, and we so we always have a theme and the theme that we discussed, in our performance session for two hours with them, a couple weeks ago. I don’t know if this last week or the week before, but was the idea of being a revered man and like, there’s all men, there, there’s some women in the office.

00;24;22;11 – 00;24;37;25
Speaker 4
But for the group that we were working with was all men. And what does it mean to be revered and have reverence? And one of the big, attributes is to have a checked ego. And it’s hard to check your ego if you’re not self-aware and you’re not vulnerable. So those were two other things that we went into.

00;24;37;25 – 00;24;59;28
Speaker 4
And this is maybe some mushy stuff and some touchy feely shit that people are going to be like, but honestly, like you’re either doing one or the other, you’re an owner or you’re a victim, and if your ego is jacked, you’re an owner. And if you have too big of an ego and which is a unhealthy, self-image of your own importance, then you are in a victim mindset.

00;25;00;03 – 00;25;25;06
Speaker 4
And that’s really powerful when you stop to think about that. Now, if I identify as an athlete, I’m already stepping toward ownership, right? If I don’t identify as an athlete and I identify as somebody who’s kind of managing and kind of muttering through and just doing what I do, getting my paycheck, and that’s a victim. And that person probably has, rage issues, emotional composure issues.

00;25;25;06 – 00;25;44;02
Speaker 4
People at work probably get frustrated with them easily. They’re getting frustrated with they’re all over the board and it’s a lack of ownership. And I think it comes from self in IT image and how you identify. So our industrial athlete is not just the physical, it’s also the mental side of it. And the way that we identify is how we show up.

00;25;44;05 – 00;25;58;27
Speaker 4
And if you show up as an owner, that’s because you’re there to perform, you’re there to execute. Now, it doesn’t always get done. We don’t always win the game. We don’t always put points on the board, but we’ll go after it and we’re going to kill ourselves trying, you know, going to win. Yeah.

00;25;59;00 – 00;26;15;19
Speaker 3
It really is like I think about it like when I’m doing something, am I something? I catch myself in some scenarios where I’m just kind of just doing it because I got to do it as opposed to trying to crush it. Yeah. And, but it feels good when you’re trying to crush it, which comes back to that, that athlete mindset.

00;26;15;19 – 00;26;20;02
Speaker 3
Right. Like you’re trying to win. You’re trying to do the best you possibly can.

00;26;20;05 – 00;26;40;12
Speaker 4
That’s part of our drive. I mean, that play, it’s the research that we have on play and the the, the stuff that’s out there is mind blowing how important it is for mammals to play. Like every mammal plays like every animal you can think of. There’s evidence in research. But I mean, how do humans play like competitively. Right.

00;26;40;12 – 00;26;58;20
Speaker 4
And if you take this group of like people that are saying, this is touchy feely bull, you take them to the company picnic and you have a volleyball game or cornhole tournament or an arm wrestling match. It gets crazy, right? Ax throwing with Galicia that you guys did, it gets crazy, right? There’s a drive that we all have to compete and play.

00;26;58;23 – 00;27;08;25
Speaker 4
And I think stepping toward being, identifying as an athlete, it creates a camaraderie. It can it creates a connection. And we’re competing against the day.

00;27;08;28 – 00;27;08;29
Speaker 3
Know.

00;27;09;02 – 00;27;26;28
Speaker 4
We’re we’re performing and we’re competing against ourselves and the deadline that needs to get done. I will finish 340 Rockwall by the end of tomorrow. Even if I’m out there tomorrow night at 10 p.m., I will finish it. That’s what the homeowner asked me to do. They got a big party on the 4th of July. That job gets done right.

00;27;26;28 – 00;27;36;02
Speaker 4
And that’s what I’m living for right now. And yesterday I had some dark conversations with myself over there in the sun like I had. I had cramps.

00;27;36;02 – 00;27;37;21
Speaker 3
Of low mom. I had some.

00;27;37;24 – 00;27;41;12
Speaker 4
Stroke. I know I had. Heatstroke is probably like the worst degree of heat.

00;27;41;18 – 00;27;42;04
Speaker 3
So hot.

00;27;42;04 – 00;28;05;29
Speaker 4
Right? I was having chest pains and I’m like, if I die, it’ll be a glorious something cool. I got dark, I got dark yesterday, but like, that’s the challenge. And I’m not certainly suggesting that it’s okay to like, die on the job. So but I’m just saying, you know, there’s a level of engagement that Stacy said you bring to the table when you see yourself as part of a team that’s pushing to win.

00;28;06;02 – 00;28;25;25
Speaker 2
I’ll clean that up. So let’s put a little bit of a strategy to it as far as some of that conversation of self-talk. So that’s part of, you know, what we look at when we, we do work with, with people is for the mindset component. What what are what is self-talk to you? What is the narrative and what’s the recording that you have when you wake up in the morning?

00;28;25;25 – 00;28;50;02
Speaker 2
Right. So we got to retrain or create some new pathways. If your self-talk is really negative, right. Or in an a victim mentality. And then, you know, we play a little bit with and this is a directly from, sort of a sports psychology, approach of, you know, your alter ego. Right? So your alter ego says it would be a glorious death, right?

00;28;50;02 – 00;29;16;03
Speaker 2
If I go out this way because I’m putting in 100% effort. So that’s a little bit of like coaching yourself, talking to yourself to allow you to to push through and be resilient. So there’s strategy behind it as far as the psychology, but it’s all components of educating yourself on it, understanding it, and having it as a tool in your tool belt for times when things get challenging and you need to rely on something that if you just leave it to chance, then you lose complete control of the outcome.

00;29;16;06 – 00;29;42;13
Speaker 3
Well, and I have to say too, so I’ve been a runner most of my life and, you know, run to me, it doesn’t matter if it’s a five mile run or a 15 mile run. I can tell you that the first mile this like I get out, I’m feeling slow and kind of heavy. And it’s, you know, the first half mile of a ten mile run will say, and I immediately the self-talk is like, dude, no frickin way.

00;29;42;13 – 00;29;58;20
Speaker 3
You’re hitting ten miles right now, the way that you feel with this, right? And then to your point, though, at some point in the run, something will happen. Maybe I’ll get a chest pain there. That literally has happened to me. And I literally said to myself, well, if I’m going to die on this run, then I’m going to die and frickin run.

00;29;58;22 – 00;30;21;27
Speaker 3
You know, like I’m not stopping. I if it is, I don’t think I said glorious death, but I was like, if this is going to be it, then I’m not stopping the run. But like, but that that mindset though, and I don’t know that I’ve ever until having conversations with you guys about the industrial athlete stuff. I don’t know that I’ve ever really equated that mental conversation, and sometimes there’s some low points in those conversations.

00;30;21;27 – 00;30;45;05
Speaker 3
But, I’ve I’ve ever equated it to like, my professional life until you guys started talking about this industrial athlete and why I think it’s such a cool thing because it’s like, yeah, if you’re taking that, I’m going to die a glorious death completing this job. I mean, that is the kind of things as an athlete, whether it was whether the last time you were in an athlete was in high school or college or whatever it was.

00;30;45;05 – 00;30;52;29
Speaker 3
But like, that’s that mentality, right? That mindset that you have to have in order to achieve and and show up right and perform.

00;30;52;29 – 00;31;15;15
Speaker 4
Yeah, I agree, and I know it’s a little weird, but what I always say around that weirdness is what’s actually weird is the conversation you’re having in the first have mile, and then believing that that’s the weird part, and then stopping, right? That’s that’s what actually, that’s why I do what I do as a high school teacher, as a physics teacher, I teach a class called Peak Performance.

00;31;15;15 – 00;31;41;22
Speaker 4
I work with all our athletics teams, and the way that we’re very unself aware of how we talk to ourselves, and we’re also not aware of how well we listen to ourselves. And what I love to say to teenage girls in this context, because it’s the same probably for us as adults, is if I recorded you for 24 hours from the minute for 12 hours, the minute you put your feet on the floor, when you wake up till the end of the day, when you go back to sleep.

00;31;41;25 – 00;32;03;22
Speaker 4
And I were to read that script to you of how you’re talking to yourself. You would hate me because of how nasty we are to ourselves. And so it’s a, you know, reminder of how mean we can be and how demotivating we can be. And then we listen to ourselves and we, you know, and that’s we get into that victim versus owner, you know, the victim.

00;32;03;25 – 00;32;16;06
Speaker 4
And I had my wolf tattoo a man. It’s the fear wolf and the courage wolf and the fear wolf. Why don’t you to stop it? You know, mile one. Yeah. And the courage wolf is like, no, it’ll be a glorious death if we make it to my all time. I like love and so.

00;32;16;06 – 00;32;24;11
Speaker 3
Literally going to say that the next time. I bet I got that going on in my brain on a run, I’m going to be like, I’m in the die glorious death mile five. All right.

00;32;24;17 – 00;32;44;18
Speaker 2
And then some of that reminds me of an I believe it was maybe through Brian Fiend’s, work or his, experiences where he, he spoke of, of, I think it was in baseball. There was, a particular player that he was working with that was obsessed in looking at and reviewing film of all of his errors.

00;32;44;18 – 00;33;04;22
Speaker 2
Right then, that’s all he spent time on and was looking at his errors and reviewing the film and all of the mistakes. And and there was another player that was like crushing it, and he would literally watch a highlight reel of himself in the tapes that I reviewed. So the psychology behind it is pretty impressive and important to know and be self-aware of your gaps and where you need to put in some strategy and tool.

00;33;04;22 – 00;33;30;04
Speaker 2
But like the fact that, you know, they approach to have a highlight reel yourself, it is pretty amazing for your psychology. And we’ve been playing around with it. This kind of it probably shows our age because our, our 19 year old is like absolutely disgusted by it. Thinks it’s the stupidest thing ever. But playing around with like, you know, music and I and some of the songs we could generate, we, we’ve done some like self affirmation.

00;33;30;06 – 00;33;30;21
Speaker 4
Use your.

00;33;30;21 – 00;33;35;05
Speaker 2
Alter ego type songs and, you know, if you listen to that and it.

00;33;35;07 – 00;33;37;16
Speaker 4
Says, I’ll make you a song and say.

00;33;37;18 – 00;33;38;01
Speaker 3
It makes.

00;33;38;01 – 00;33;58;08
Speaker 4
Thank you. So that’s the stuff that you can do now. I mean, it’s you. Why would you ever have a, you know, a professional walk up song or walkout song in MMA when you can make your own and like, so, and they’re just as good, if not better because they’re specific to what? Whatever you want.

00;33;58;11 – 00;33;58;21
Speaker 3
Oh, well.

00;33;58;21 – 00;34;06;28
Speaker 2
Then you think of the run. Like, what if you had that in their first mile and it was personal to you, like I think you would, it would change your first mile, right? Yeah.

00;34;06;28 – 00;34;23;20
Speaker 3
For sure. I mean, I definitely set my playlist up knowing that, like, there’s going to be certain miles for me, they’re going to be harder than others. And that first ones I saw, I had to always like any of the fast moving, like, get me charged up, get me moving out there, and so that when I start going, yeah, dude, you can’t do it.

00;34;23;20 – 00;34;45;22
Speaker 3
You know, like, that’s the worst. I yeah, I, I’m wondering how you guys deal with. So you, you mentioned it like you didn’t use the term blue, but, you know, the term will write it in like the woo stuff, the mushy stuff. And you’re dealing with blue collar people that typically are on the other side of woo and mushy.

00;34;45;24 – 00;35;02;01
Speaker 3
And you know, or like you mentioned, the guy with a cigarette pinned to his lip during the stretch in flex. Like, how do you go in and deal with people that just think all of it’s kind of silly, like, what do you mean? I’m, I’m going to go sit in a loader for the next eight hours. Why am I doing a stretch in flex?

00;35;02;01 – 00;35;13;09
Speaker 3
Like, this is dumb. Like like how do you deal with that, that mindset specifically? Like how do you overcome it? Or maybe not overcome it, but help them to see the light, so to speak?

00;35;13;11 – 00;35;29;20
Speaker 4
Yeah. You just gotta chip away at it. I mean, as a teacher who’s who’s working with a huge population of kids for 27 years, like, I got to be likable. I got to be relatable. I got the information I share with them has to make sense, and I got to share it in a way that’s, making sense.

00;35;29;20 – 00;35;46;04
Speaker 4
And that’s, you know, they can they can pay attention to. And we’ve had a lot of success with that. I think that’s where we do really, really well, people will, you know, one off, bring us in and, we’ll do our thing and they’re blown away. They have no idea what or what they expected, something completely different.

00;35;46;04 – 00;36;08;16
Speaker 4
Because I think we’re uniquely more relatable than most. I think the value that we give is more digestible and appreciated because that group, even though they, you know, are rough around the edges. I’m thinking of the crew out in Pennsylvania, that does the shaft sinking. They go down like 1500 feet into the earth, 24 as well. Yeah.

00;36;08;17 – 00;36;26;16
Speaker 4
While and they’re like, that’s how we are, you know, we’re roughnecks and they pride themselves on that. Yeah, but they’re all a lot of them. I don’t know if they had any women on their crew, but they’re all grandpas, dads, brothers, sons like. And we get into that space with them and they turn to mush because they’re human.

00;36;26;17 – 00;36;44;03
Speaker 4
And then you bring humanity to the work that they do. And nine times out of ten, we hit the bullseye. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all going to become like, you know, yogis and do crazy stretch and flexes, but, we chip away at them and, we’re in years, you know, I don’t even know what year it is, was they.

00;36;44;05 – 00;37;07;02
Speaker 4
But we have the buy in that we’ve gotten with their check is, unmatched. You know, and then there’s a few other really high performing groups, and I want to name drop everybody, but, the buy in that we’re getting from some rough around the edges, humans, is is definitely a speaks to how relatable we are and the way that we come out.

00;37;07;05 – 00;37;21;23
Speaker 1
I don’t I wouldn’t say that we’ve had a lot of, pushback either. Really. Like Jason said, to chip away at it. But this is the formula, right? The formula is they’re hiring us to be a coach or retaining us as a coach and as a coach. We’re going in saying we’re going to look at all of these components.

00;37;21;23 – 00;37;41;22
Speaker 1
We have gaps and a number of these things, and let’s work on that. And this is the reason why it’s, if there’s science behind it. We’re we’re very serious about the industrial athlete idea. We’re very serious that it’s semi non-negotiable. You got to take care of your mind in your body so that you can show up and perform not only at work, but when you go home and, spend time with your family.

00;37;41;24 – 00;37;46;22
Speaker 1
So it’s, that’s that’s they they accept it, I think accept it.

00;37;46;22 – 00;38;04;10
Speaker 2
And I think the approach. Yeah, the approach helps to, to have some relatability into how it carries over into their personal lives with, you know, as a father or as a mother, as a spouse certainly helps with stories that we share, but we approach it with a lot of humility and we understand, you know, the the levels of buy in.

00;38;04;12 – 00;38;08;10
Speaker 2
You may be, you know, looking at someone that says, oh, absolutely not for me.

00;38;08;14 – 00;38;31;15
Speaker 2
and then slowly, you know, they might get to the next level is like, well, I’ll try a couple of things. And then ultimately in this could be a three year process. Process. It could be longer. Based on some of the brain scans that we know, it’s really difficult to pave new circuits in the brain, like some of those circuits have been, have been moving at high, high speeds, like high speeds, traffic here for years, you know, 30, 40, 50 years.

00;38;31;15 – 00;38;48;19
Speaker 2
And to pave a new roadway or a new circuit in the brain is sometimes as difficult as, like chopping through a dense jungle with a dull machete. So there’s time. And then when they can reach a point where they see it no other way, like there’s no other option but to to dive in and use all these tools.

00;38;48;19 – 00;39;08;04
Speaker 2
So it’s it’s approached with humility and it’s sort of a little bit of a practice. What we preach of an approach of being emotionally intelligent with the with the group that you’re in front of, in the individual that you’re in front of. And if there’s one nugget that they, you know, lean into a little bit harder than others, then let’s really focus on that and feed them information.

00;39;08;07 – 00;39;21;16
Speaker 1
And we’re at the point now, if we all sit here and look at where we are inside of the space of work, especially blue collar work, because there’s not a whole lot that’s changed. I mean, there’s a lot of new equipment and new tools and but we still have a lack of engagement. We still have the same injuries.

00;39;21;16 – 00;39;40;05
Speaker 1
We still have the same citations from government. We still have all of the same things causing fatalities. And it’s usually around behavior and I’d say backs and things that we can control. So when you’re bringing tools to the table and things that they can control, that’s that, you know, and not focusing on things that are out of their control, which is be the same as the official giving you a penalty on a football field.

00;39;40;05 – 00;39;57;16
Speaker 1
That’s like OSHA coming in, writing a ticket for something that, that, that you’re doing your job. So that’s a, that’s a problem, right? That’s a flaw. We got to fix that. And it’s 2026. Right. Why are we still having the same issues on job sites we had in 1978 isn’t because we aren’t looking at the other layers that are needed.

00;39;57;18 – 00;40;14;09
Speaker 1
If we look at it truly as a coaching standpoint, we’re just having a conversation among coaches as to what are you doing to perform as the best version of yourself as a coach, to get the basketball team ready to go, and you’re still doing the same thing your coach did in the 90s. It’s, probably not very effective compared to some of your other competition.

00;40;14;11 – 00;40;35;01
Speaker 1
You’re you’re you got to throw on the the mental side and the, the, the mindset piece that a lot of people just are not doing and that’s that they’re not winning consistently. And the same with a construction firm. You will not win consistently, you will lose bids, you will lose jobs. And, you won’t be at the table eventually, especially if you have too many injuries.

00;40;35;01 – 00;40;52;17
Speaker 1
You just your experience might be so I you’re done. You’re not even invited to that table. There are just so many correlations when I can speak. And I’m sure, Jason and say the same thing because we’ve talked about a lot, but we we spend a lot of time on mindset with our athletes when we were coaching because it was very, very important then.

00;40;52;17 – 00;41;08;01
Speaker 1
And skill is important. But, mindset had to be in the mix, segment though I used to spend at least a third of my day, a practice day, which was roughly 2.5 hours on mindset. It might be blended in and mixed into the practice, but there’s a lot of time talking about it.

00;41;08;03 – 00;41;14;21
Speaker 3
So let’s talk about the three truths of performance. You guys want to you want to list those out. What are.

00;41;14;21 – 00;41;29;20
Speaker 1
They. Yeah. Well they came up a little bit already in just conversation. Jason has mentioned at least two. The third one is everyone needs a coach, but, the the three truths are one. People are flawed. Every one of us. Two mindset is everything, which we’ve talked a lot about in three. We haven’t spent a lot of time talking about.

00;41;29;20 – 00;41;45;15
Speaker 1
But everyone needs a coach. Those are the three the the three truths around P performance. And, you got to be focusing on that a little bit all the time. You know, it’s a, it’s a third, a third, a third. And making sure that you’re constantly working in the space.

00;41;45;17 – 00;42;03;20
Speaker 4
Yeah I think the, the idea of people being flawed is, is a nice opening because it kind of it just, gives us all permission to maybe think the way we can think sometimes and try to rationalize some of the behaviors, you know, taking shortcuts or, you know, making an excuse and kind of falling into the fear.

00;42;03;20 – 00;42;26;18
Speaker 4
Wolf, voice that’s inside us, telling, justifying whatever it is that we’re trying to make sense of. Right. Even though it doesn’t. And, get into that victim role. So we all have that wiring, within us to path of least resistance energy conservation. There’s some great work around the pleasure trap. So, you know, it’s more gratifying to think like the fear Wolf.

00;42;26;18 – 00;42;46;05
Speaker 4
Right. But, in the short term, but long term, you know, the courage wolf always prevails. And that’s where you get a lot of fulfillment. Right? And, the the idea of mindset is everything is, you know, you could be and we’ve seen it like, you know, guys at your gym that in jujitsu that are like, you know, super skill.

00;42;46;05 – 00;43;08;14
Speaker 4
They’ve been there forever. They’re put together. But when they go to a tournament and they underperform, and it’s because all of their preparation has been physical. They get to the tournament, the environment changes, and then they clam up and they show up 60%. And, they don’t have the the ability to just, to, to compete in that space.

00;43;08;14 – 00;43;15;25
Speaker 4
So it’s really a six inch space between their ears thing than it is a biceps or, you know, technique thing. Yeah.

00;43;15;27 – 00;43;54;11
Speaker 3
I’m actually a joker. Like legit like, especially like I still see it in some fashion today. But back in high school when I was running track, like I run a 450 mile, right? Yeah. I think my best was like a 447. And, I remember, like, there was a couple of big races that I had to go to and a joke and ran like a 515 and came in third place when I should have been smoking everybody on the thing, you know, and to this day, I still sometimes see it where like, I really need to, I still win, but like, not in the fashion that I should or sometimes I don’t

00;43;54;11 – 00;44;12;11
Speaker 3
win. Yeah. And I’m and it’s not because I’m not physically prepared or I’m not whether, if it’s not like a physical thing or I’m just emotionally I’m not prepared and, it’s like, you know, trying to work on that note six inches between your ears. Yeah. So yeah, I’m like.

00;44;12;14 – 00;44;30;16
Speaker 4
You know, it’s funny, like, I, I kind of laughed, but I it’s not funny. It’s actually I’m probably internally sad when you say that and I, and I can identify too. Like when I was in college, I had a really good wrestling career. I finished third twice in the Division three nationals, so I performed at the national level.

00;44;30;17 – 00;44;49;08
Speaker 4
But then I got into MMA and I lost to the biggest scrub you could ever imagine bruising to it. It makes me want to swipe everything off this table. Leopard. And and actually, the story was I kicked the crap out of my first opponent. My second opponent was for the belt.

00;44;49;10 – 00;44;50;19
Speaker 3
That meant nothing, right?

00;44;50;22 – 00;45;11;12
Speaker 4
Burlington brawl, heavyweight championship. And, I rolled my ankle five weeks before, so I only swam. I was so confident five weeks before I fight this guy with a broken ankle. And so I swam for five weeks. I show up to the fight and I had this epiphany. What if I get punched in the head? I’m going to see four of them, I haven’t.

00;45;11;14 – 00;45;29;04
Speaker 4
It’s like when you haven’t done a cartwheel in a long time. You do ten of them and you can’t see anything I like. I haven’t been punched in the head in five weeks. I’m screwed. And I panicked, shot a double, choked me out and humiliation. Right. And that’s shooting the double was the most cowardly thing I think I’ve ever I can.

00;45;29;04 – 00;45;44;23
Speaker 4
It’s one of the top five most cowardly things I’ve ever done, because I did it 1,000% out of fear. Now I avenge that loss. I went back and kicked the crap out of a guy that he went three rounds with. Like, He tapped from six punches. I took him down in 30s, so I was ready for that one.

00;45;44;23 – 00;45;57;10
Speaker 4
So I’m redeeming myself on video. Yeah, but the idea was, man, it was a coward that took that double, right? I choked as bad as in front of my wife in front of them. But it was bad. But it it was.

00;45;57;10 – 00;45;58;11
Speaker 2
Stirring the getaway car.

00;45;58;17 – 00;45;59;09
Speaker 3
You are.

00;45;59;09 – 00;46;16;06
Speaker 4
Done. Well, in the worst part of it was I suffered, my rib got. He need me in the ribs because I was athlete. He. I still had side control, but he had me an arm and guillotine. I try to step over. You got my leg, but I try to step over because he got three shots in the ribs with his knee from his back, and it was terrible.

00;46;16;09 – 00;46;41;00
Speaker 4
But anyway, yeah. So I can identify. And you choke when you aren’t confident. Right. And the reason you’re not confident is you haven’t practiced that situation. Right. And I didn’t practice that situation. You’re not practicing that situation. I would blame on your coaches for not bringing mindset into like the high stakes, high stress. How are we going to make it high stakes and high stress.

00;46;41;00 – 00;47;00;05
Speaker 4
And we have to replicate that. That’s why a third of his practices have mindset involved. So in wrestling you say, you know on the mat you have his ankle, he has your ankle. 22nd go man. Number one’s up by two. Go. And so now the men number two has got to figure out how he’s going to get three points on the board or at least tie it.

00;47;00;05 – 00;47;23;29
Speaker 4
Right. So there’s high stress, high stakes moments that you put in situations. And you know, how do you recover from a bad start? You know, what’s a bad start even look like. And so I feel like, you know, your confidence is fostered through situational experiences. And if you haven’t had those, yeah, I can predict you’re going to do something cowardly or you’re going to choke.

00;47;23;29 – 00;47;43;02
Speaker 4
Right. Like it’s predictable. Yeah. So you have to replicate those high stress, high stakes moments as much as you possibly can. And then you have to make it very clear nothing changed at your track meet. It’s a different venue. And there was a bunch of different strangers there. It wasn’t your home town. It wasn’t the neighboring town. It was the sectionals, right.

00;47;43;02 – 00;47;53;03
Speaker 4
Or whatever. And so you and they call that demonizing a monster sizing. That’s the second thing that zaps confidence. It’s like you make it really scary. Echoes got a tattoo?

00;47;53;03 – 00;48;13;10
Speaker 3
Well, that was like an in the track scenario. What happened was no one knew who I was and I was smoking everybody, so they weren’t allowing me to score. They’re allowing me to run the race. And I heard about I wasn’t going to be able to score because that will keep me out of the records, so to speak, for these bigger matches that we had coming up.

00;48;13;10 – 00;48;35;11
Speaker 3
And then they would put me into place. Yeah. And so it was the ones where they actually put me in the place. I was choking on those races because all of a sudden they mattered. The races I was dusting everybody, they didn’t matter. So there was no pressure on me. Right. So it’s, but I’m curious, though, so it’s easy for us to talk about it from a high school college sports standpoint.

00;48;35;13 – 00;48;40;00
Speaker 3
How does that relate, though, to the workplace?

00;48;40;02 – 00;49;00;09
Speaker 1
It directly, I mean, we’re all looking at each other, probably say the same thing. If you can get a team to be able to even take losses but be able to recover quicker, right? So a matter of a morning or an hour versus a week, you’re going to outperform the other, the other construction firm, which high performing construction firms, just as the example, do exactly that.

00;49;00;09 – 00;49;19;26
Speaker 1
They have very good psychological safety. It’s okay to say, Michael, you screwed that up. Okay. How do we fix it? Versus you storming off and crying in the corner for for two hours because you can’t take that that, shot or that blow or that that knee to the ribs, but and, and recuperate quickly. They’re conditioned and ready to recuperate quickly.

00;49;19;26 – 00;49;32;14
Speaker 1
And that helps them, succeed compared to the others. And I mean, they got the mindset, but they also have the the mental. They’ve had their sleep. They probably have got better nutrition. They’re hydrated. Right. All those components certainly hold them.

00;49;32;17 – 00;49;54;26
Speaker 2
Yeah. Maintain you know, to bring it the layer of now adding strategy or tool for on the job site real time. Like how am I going to lower my blood pressure, get my limbic brain back into the executive state. And so we explain that the brain science behind it. So, you know, when you’re in that free state, fight, flight or freeze because of your limbic brain, you’re not operating on all cylinders.

00;49;54;28 – 00;50;10;18
Speaker 2
Because somebody said something that pissed you off. You have a deadline that’s looming over you. Something didn’t get delivered, and now you’re in this freeze or fight state because of your limbic brain. How what tool can I give you to to get that brain more collected so you can take the next right action? So we talk about movement.

00;50;10;18 – 00;50;39;23
Speaker 2
We talk about breathwork and the benefit of Bert. Talk on your psychology and what it does to activate your parasympathetic nervous system to calm you down. So it’s having a real time tool available to them in a situation, not a, an athletic example, but, I, on the job site, real time experience. And, you know, I would say there is a direct relationship to some of the physical components of, of, you know, that stress or that that mind that’s racing and worried about the outcome.

00;50;39;25 – 00;51;04;21
Speaker 2
Because when you look at specifically with safety and why people can operate sort of on autopilot or do things that they know are wrong or shouldn’t be done, or they become complacent, we see that high stress without tools to regulate that stress will reduce your working memory by up to 40%. So now I didn’t retain the instructions or the safety, procedure that goes along with this task.

00;51;04;24 – 00;51;20;27
Speaker 2
I can even be affected. My fine motor skills can have a significant reduction because of that, high cortisol, high stress response in my body. So understanding all of those moving parts, I think are an important piece that we bring to the table when we talk tools and strategy and practicing scenario work.

00;51;21;00 – 00;51;41;02
Speaker 4
Which is the conditioning, like if you’re conditioned. And so people who are more composed during those and using utilizing some of the breathwork and, you know, and some of the most conditioning groups we have will say, oh, yeah, I use the, physiological side. That does work. You know, I went through it three times and it really helped me because I was going to tear this guy’s head off, you know?

00;51;41;02 – 00;52;03;27
Speaker 4
And so there’s definitely but that’s all conditioning. If you’ve never if you’ve never heard of stoicism, you’re lacking conditioning. If you’re in, you know, high energy, high intensity emotional space. So, I mean, every police officer should know was stoicism, right. And practice it like a it’s non-negotiable. So if we do law enforcement stuff, we always bring stoicism to the table and get into it.

00;52;03;28 – 00;52;23;24
Speaker 4
How to neutralize things and get into next right action conversations. And so and then Jocko is video good like I now I love that that’s the ultimate example of conditioning right? Scott said something last week. It was a bit of, you know, punch in the gut for Catamount. But he goes, I’m going to celebrate it. That’s a hell of a statement from the owner.

00;52;23;24 – 00;52;36;13
Speaker 4
Right. But that’s that’s conditioning, right? So if you’re conditioned, you’re going to figure out a way to turn the chicken shit in a chicken salad. If you’re not, you’re going to stand there and point at the chicken shit and complain for a whole.

00;52;36;13 – 00;52;39;28
Speaker 3
I never heard that before. No, that’s basic chicken shit. The chicken.

00;52;39;28 – 00;52;44;23
Speaker 4
Salad. That’s why I exist. My, school wrestling coach turned me into chicken salad.

00;52;44;26 – 00;52;47;13
Speaker 3
That’s amazing. Yeah.

00;52;47;16 – 00;52;58;04
Speaker 3
what I hear you guys saying is that a lot of this just, like, in anything, but it’s the, the thought that you don’t rise to the moment you sink to the level of your training.

00;52;58;06 – 00;52;59;21
Speaker 4
100%. Right.

00;52;59;24 – 00;53;06;06
Speaker 3
And. But all of us, because of our egos, think that we’re going to rise to the occasion. And really, that’s not what happens. Right?

00;53;06;08 – 00;53;24;01
Speaker 4
And I think that the athlete knows that. And that’s why I said if you identify just your self-image around being an athlete, you have a checked ego. Like, you know, there’s people that are faster than you. But if the fastest person doesn’t always win, it’s who runs the fastest on that day, right? So or doesn’t joke right now.

00;53;24;03 – 00;53;26;21
Speaker 3
Just try to be real. Try to keep it real. Yeah.

00;53;26;23 – 00;53;45;19
Speaker 2
But I also think it goes to being coachable too. Right? So everybody needs a coach or can be a coach to somebody. But being coachable is a significant piece of that checked ego, right? So if your coach provides you with tools and strategy or guide you, then you’re going to be a coachable person that will try, you know, these strategies.

00;53;45;21 – 00;54;01;12
Speaker 2
And we always like to say, you know, for the most deadly words are I’ll do it myself. Like, I don’t need anybody else, I don’t need a coach. And so, you know, coaches are a vital piece of this whole equation. And that’s why it’s one of our three truths. Everyone needs a coach or to be coached somebody else.

00;54;01;18 – 00;54;25;28
Speaker 4
If you looked at yourself before you started jujitsu, compared to yourself now, and your ego has shrunk immensely, and your confidence has grown immensely around your ability to handle yourself, right? So you walked into a room pre jiu jitsu like judging, comparing, wondering, maybe taking things personal, you know, and now you walk in the room calm right. Let’s call it the peaceful art.

00;54;25;28 – 00;55;07;01
Speaker 4
Right. So the idea of like identifying as a grappler has made you more vulnerable, more calm, more peaceful, more grounded. Right. The opposite, because you’re also a dangerous human right, but you don’t ever have to. It’s Jordan Peterson talks about that be a monster, but have the ability to control it. And I think that identifying this is deep philosophic, you know, philosophy and psychology around if I identify as the guy who scores touchdowns for my team, like, I’m going to be able to show up and perform, right, rather than if I identify as an athlete, I can show up and realize that, win or lose, it’s how you play the game, right?

00;55;07;01 – 00;55;13;18
Speaker 4
There’s it’s different. Self-image makes you better, it’s a better way to show up.

00;55;13;20 – 00;55;25;27
Speaker 3
And I agree with you. I think I’ve just had my ass kicked so many times now. Jiu jitsu. So I set it up there. You have no choice but to be humbled when you’ve had, you know, balled up that many times by different people.

00;55;25;29 – 00;55;49;15
Speaker 1
The other thing you don’t really think about in the conversation on the investor athlete is all of the supporting staff. So yes, we talk about coaches. Everyone needs a coach, but there’s athletic trainers. There’s folks that are in the in and providing our nutrition shakes. Right. There’s all kinds of people that are and in this equation and in the world, the employment world, we’ve got personnel directors, we’ve got human resource, which sometimes is the same thing.

00;55;49;15 – 00;56;05;26
Speaker 1
We’ve got internal, attorneys, but they’re all continuing to grow and expand on their ability to be a good coach and show up and provide the tools that they have necessary for all the rest of us. That also helps us be successful. So it’s, it’s the it’s the office, it’s the staff and the truck. It’s the equipment operators.

00;56;05;26 – 00;56;27;00
Speaker 1
It’s the folks, digging out stone at the mine operation. It’s the the folks delivering our bottled water. It’s everything. Right? Everybody has to have that mindset that they’re there to help the rest of the team grow and expand. And it’s a it’s the whole equation. Because if any of that falls apart that’s there’s gaps and the happens often.

00;56;27;03 – 00;56;42;14
Speaker 3
So I and I know we’re getting to our own time. But if you’re going to call someone an industrial athlete, what exactly should they train like what is we talked about like, you know, training for sport. But what is training to be an industrial athlete look like?

00;56;42;17 – 00;57;00;08
Speaker 4
I would I would go back to our three disciplines. I where am my I have a dozen or more of these t shirts. I wear them every day in uniform to school. I feel like that’s really the thing that’s lacking. Most in our youth is the ability to be self-disciplined. But there’s a hierarchy of three levels, and this is really how you would train the industrial athlete.

00;57;00;08 – 00;57;22;18
Speaker 4
The first one is your structural discipline, which is you know what you’re eating, how much attention you’re paying to yourself, and the kind of care that you’re taking from sleep to nutrition, hydration, all those things. And then if you’re doing that, well, the next level is to really put some attention into your, emotional composure we call reactionary discipline.

00;57;22;21 – 00;57;49;17
Speaker 4
So are you reacting to the world or are you responding to the world? And if you are extra reactive, you’re probably tuning into your feelings too. Too often you might be listening to that fear Wolf more often. And if you are more stoic, if you’re more responsive, if you are, keeping your emotional composure and check, then you are more expansive or more, reactionary, disciplined or, responsibly disciplined.

00;57;49;17 – 00;58;11;18
Speaker 4
So it’s this ability of controlling your emotions. So your structural discipline is good, your reactionary discipline is good. And now the third level is, expansive discipline. And that is. What’s the last book you read? And what’s the last, podcast you listen to? What’s the last article? What’s the last ChatGPT search you did on trying to get better at the thing that you do?

00;58;11;21 – 00;58;34;00
Speaker 4
And so what’s the last question you ask somebody to try to improve. And so that would be expansive discipline. And that’s a real hierarchical thing. Because if I rewind the tape and when we go into our emotional composure trainings, you know, I’ll, share personal experiences where I’ve melted down and like, almost got myself in some serious trouble, like there’s a pizza fight.

00;58;34;01 – 00;58;34;11
Speaker 4
I’ve heard a.

00;58;34;11 – 00;58;35;20
Speaker 3
Couple of stories, actually.

00;58;35;24 – 00;58;58;22
Speaker 4
There’s a pizza place I can famously not go into. Right. Because I’m banned and I lost my composure there. And I can make a really good fear wolf argument. Why the person needed to hear what I had to say. But the truth of it is, society doesn’t work the way that I was trying to make it work. And the reason for me acting that way was because I lost my composure, because my structure rules were off, I did.

00;58;58;23 – 00;59;17;08
Speaker 4
I wasn’t sleeping right. I had a lot on my plate. I wasn’t managing my time well. 3 or 4 things went against me like the world was fighting me. I had all kinds of crap going on, normal stuff like red lights and just losing things and stuff. Not showing up to Napa on time and like just little things that just.

00;59;17;11 – 00;59;42;05
Speaker 4
But I wasn’t taking care of myself, so I lost my composure. And so it is a cyclical hierarchical. And if I’m not doing the structural, then I’m going to be a hot mess, a rage a holic, you know, road rage stuff. And then I’m going to have no time to even grow. Right. And so if I can take care of the structural and reactionary now, I can read a book and I can get better and I can understand stoicism on a deep level.

00;59;42;11 – 00;59;56;05
Speaker 4
So what would it cause me to rage out in that pizza place? I’d probably just get up and walk out. I wouldn’t even I wouldn’t even wait for my food, you know, it’s. I lost $40. Okay. Big deal. I move on. Right. And so that’s just a different way to look at it.

00;59;56;07 – 01;00;19;27
Speaker 2
And we bring that into our some of our discussion in the mental health space. Knowing the statistics in the construction and mining industry, of really the four quadrant quadrants of life. So you can be in that, you know, negative high energy stage, which is like the fire everything is in, terrible late catastrophe emergency. Or then you can drop down into the lower energy but still negative space of being in the mud.

01;00;19;27 – 01;00;47;24
Speaker 2
We call it the mud zone, ruminating over all of those terrible things. And most people spend a lot of that time just recycling within those two zones. But if you can get over into the positive zones of the build zone, right, great wins and victories or the maintenance on which is a lot of of restorative practices, it’s understanding sleep and understanding your fundamentals for nutrition and having play in your life and having the ability to maintain yourself just like you would maintain your equipment.

01;00;47;24 – 01;01;10;07
Speaker 2
You would never not puts you all in and or make sure that your your machinery is lubricated correctly. Do an oil change so people miss some of those small micro things that go into truly being restorative to yourself, your maintenance space. And that’s what ultimately will allow you to make your highs higher, your wins bigger, as well as your lows higher.

01;01;10;10 – 01;01;17;11
Speaker 2
That’s kind of weird to say, but your lows will be higher because you will be able to be resilient and bounce back much quicker.

01;01;17;14 – 01;01;46;14
Speaker 4
Like the four quadrants of life that you just referred to is a game changer. And anyone listening should really reach out to Stacy at Catamount and ask for further understanding. If you want to bring value to your team, and you want to try and put a dent in this mental health crisis that outpaces, like the statistics around mental health, and not just from suicidality, but also from overdoses and, you know, drug and alcohol coping mechanisms.

01;01;46;14 – 01;02;15;08
Speaker 4
The four quadrants of life is one of the greatest ways to, capture how people are living and then be able to it’s not just restorative, it’s transformative in that lower right quadrant. So it’s it’s deep and it takes time to go through. But I’m telling you, man, it’s one of the cleanest, clearest, like eye opening day lessons that I think Catamount offers that I think is next level.

01;02;15;08 – 01;02;34;16
Speaker 4
And it’s one of the greatest values, greatest gifts you can give a team member or a group of team members. We’re it’s I’m super excited about it. I actually messaged you maybe two months ago. We gotta get the, a mental health podcast. It’s so you have to be so nervous so that we could cover with the four quadrants.

01;02;34;23 – 01;02;35;03
Speaker 4
Okay.

01;02;35;09 – 01;02;39;28
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah, it’s. I was in the mud yesterday ruminating. Yes. I was like, you.

01;02;39;28 – 01;02;40;14
Speaker 2
Weren’t with the.

01;02;40;14 – 01;03;02;05
Speaker 3
Pigs, you know, the way. And actually, it was the sheep. It was the sheep that, I got a sick lamb. And, obviously I hurt my arm. And so, like, I had to bring the sheep to the vet, and because she was going to die if I didn’t do it. And I went to grab her and she bolted, and she put my shoulder out of socket, and I had to go get it put back in this morning.

01;03;02;05 – 01;03;24;16
Speaker 3
Oh, God. And but like, that was the first thing that. And then it was just. And then on the way back from the vets, it was funny because I was telling Kristen about this last night. I’m driving back from the vet and I’m like, that’s it, we’re selling the effin farm. She did stupid animal. And I’m just I’m just, you know, every negative thought, like every and then anything else I thought about it like, that’s dope too.

01;03;24;16 – 01;03;25;20
Speaker 3
And you know, like it says.

01;03;25;25 – 01;03;48;01
Speaker 2
Well I’ll tell you why I. So if you look at the brain science behind it, it’s because you were focusing on that negative and your brain is going to filter the information. There’s so much information around you. Right. We’ve got to have a way that that we have a filter with all the stimulus. And if what you’re focusing on is in the negative space or the ruminating space, your brain is going to seek evidence in your environment to support that.

01;03;48;06 – 01;04;06;00
Speaker 2
So you’re going to see all of the negatives. Oh, yeah. And it’s supporting the, the, you know, state that you’re in. It’s the reticular activating system. Yeah. Filtering the information around you. So that’s exactly what kicked into play there. Well, yeah. And the first, was it the kick or.

01;04;06;03 – 01;04;26;19
Speaker 3
It was when that, when that lamb bolted in my shoulder came out. Well, and again, because I’m trying to heal from the torn bicep tendon. So like when that happened, there was just the lightning ball of pain in my shoulder. And then the idea and it started with, that’s going to screw up my recovery from my arm. Like I’m not going to get back to anything like.

01;04;26;19 – 01;04;28;09
Speaker 3
And it was just and it was all downhill from.

01;04;28;09 – 01;04;33;03
Speaker 4
The worst part about it is it’s of lamb. I imagine a lamb being 40 pounds kind of peaceful and Jen.

01;04;33;03 – 01;04;34;22
Speaker 3
40 pound lamb.

01;04;34;24 – 01;04;38;07
Speaker 4
Like 80 pound, a 40 pound leper. Show me this lamb I don’t.

01;04;38;12 – 01;04;38;23
Speaker 3
I.

01;04;38;26 – 01;04;41;26
Speaker 4
Want to kick it. Teach it a lesson.

01;04;41;28 – 01;04;50;16
Speaker 3
Guys, if people want to learn more about four quadrants, which I, I sounds amazing to me. How do they find you guys? Where they where do they get a hold it?

01;04;50;18 – 01;05;14;22
Speaker 2
Yeah, they can, find us on our website, at Catamount Consulting llc.com. You can reach out to me at s specter at Catamount Consulting. I welcome they get my direct email. And we’d be happy to share everything that we have and even, you know, see what the possibilities might be into doing some either one on one coaching or, you know, be working with the organization.

01;05;14;25 – 01;05;34;02
Speaker 3
Amazing guys. Thanks for coming. Yeah. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Anytime. Nice to be back at the farm doing podcast in person as opposed to being on zoom all the time. Living my life on zoom. Thanks, everybody for listening. Of course, you can find us at Blue Color startup.io and our podcasts are on Rumble, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

01;05;34;09 – 01;05;48;23
Speaker 3
Please make sure you subscribe to YouTube. We’re trying to get those numbers up over there. They tell me it’s good if we have a large YouTube following, so, which we do not currently. Most of our listeners are Spotify, so jump on over to YouTube, subscribe, hit the like button, all that fun stuff. Thanks for listening, everybody.

01;05;48;25 – 01;06;16;25
Speaker 1
And that wraps up another episode of Blue Collar Startup. A big thank you to our sponsors, Five Towers Media, Daigle Cleaning Systems, Daigle Fire Solutions, The Michaels Group, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction People, and Catamount Consulting for making this podcast possible. And thank you for tuning in. If you learned something or felt inspired. Connect with us on our website at Blue Collar Startup Bio or email us at hardhat Dot CSU at gmail.com.

01;06;16;25 – 01;06;29;23
Speaker 1
We’d love to hear your questions and topic ideas. Help us spread the word by sharing the show and following us on social media for updates. Until next time, keep on building. Keep on dreaming and keep hustling like your future depends on it.

01;06;29;26 – 01;06;38;29
Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

01;06;39;01 – 01;06;40;07
Unknown
Oh!