EFR 763: Building an AARMY - The Intersection of Strength, Gratitude, and Mindset with Akin Akman

0:00:01 - Speaker 1 so I gotta kick things off first. We're saying that we're here at Strong New York 2023, and strength being strong. What does that mean to you?

0:00:13 - Speaker 2 Being strong. I mean, being strong is everything being strong, and not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, kind of like being a good person. All that means being strong. I think being strong means being able to be courageous, go after the things that you want to go after. It means being a person of action, a person who follows through. I mean, there's so many things I can say about being strong.

0:00:41 - Speaker 1 Do you feel like strength has evolved with you over the years? Maybe your definition is not what it used to be, for sure, for sure, I mean for me.

0:00:48 - Speaker 2 I think how you define words matter, even because stems from my father. When I was younger, I was a tennis player and my dad used to say winning is a habit and unfortunately, so was losing, and I'm like 10 years old, I'm like explain. So I had to kind of. I mean, I heard this I forget who said it, but I heard this from a mental coach and he said break down the word, win, win. If you focus on what's important now, you win.

So then that makes it have like more you know, you can have this like long-term dream or vision, but then you have to set your small, small-term goals or short-term goals to achieve that long-term vision and then it becomes more digestible. So then, even if you lose the match in tennis, if you were working on, let's say, your backhand hitting more winners, then you technically won that day. So let's say, reaffirming what it means in your mind.

0:01:52 - Speaker 1 What was the mission?

0:01:53 - Speaker 2 What did you show up to do?

0:01:55 - Speaker 1 Did you accomplish that? Your version versus what maybe other people are saying?

0:01:59 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and then being able to silence the noise of other people and what they say about you know if you're winning or losing, because most people don't understand the concept of falling forward Right, Absolutely, man, he gets it.

0:02:12 - Speaker 1 Everybody's right here. I know a little bit about your background. You have a profound kind of new passion for gratitude or not that new, but you've gone through some things in your career and your training. Getting out there, getting after it is no stranger to you and you have this. I heard you talk about this profound experience with gratitude now for what the body is capable of and what you are capable of doing every day, and I'm right there with you. My audience knows my story with overcoming major injuries, learning how to walk again and now. This is life. The gift of life is movement. Exactly how has that shift to gratitude change what you do physically?

0:02:55 - Speaker 2 I mean physically, I just feel like I'm super capable. I don't get upset when I get injured anymore, Like when I first got injured I was really Whenever.

0:03:07 - Speaker 1 That's my nice. I have more mics. If she wants to hop on, she's adorable.

0:03:16 - Speaker 2 She's already training to be a pro tennis player.

0:03:19 - Speaker 1 She knows where to go for the camera already.

0:03:21 - Speaker 2 She's ready. She's like a performer. She just came from hair and makeup.

0:03:24 - Speaker 1 Like a daddy, she did what was I saying Gratitude, the mindset perspective now with Andrew?

0:03:32 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean. So I was really hard on myself as an athlete. I was one of the like. I went into this like thing about like if I'm losing, I'm going to constantly lose, and if I went on the court, even if I practice and show up, I would like beat myself before I compete for a while.

0:03:51 - Speaker 1 Getting a good bucket to that again. That's really crucial. That I would beat myself before I even stepped on the court.

0:03:57 - Speaker 2 I already lost before I stepped on to play the game.

0:04:01 - Speaker 1 How many other people do you think are doing that Practice? I?

0:04:03 - Speaker 2 would win all the time. So it just like these fears developed about you know kind of what other people think about my game and then you kind of lose the purpose of why you started in the first place. So when I got the injury and I was really good, my serve was like 155 mass per hour. I was also like finally winning again.

0:04:29 - Speaker 1 Which is a good thing.

0:04:31 - Speaker 2 And then my coach, nick, who's the Hall of Fame coach. He told me he's like you should go to college, you should play pro now. And then I got hurt. I have like two hand-aided discs. I'm trying to shorten this story a little bit.

0:04:46 - Speaker 1 It's all important, man, it's all important.

0:04:47 - Speaker 2 I know.

0:04:49 - Speaker 1 Sorry, I'm like Michael, shut up. You talk about the same noise.

0:04:55 - Speaker 2 But so when I got hurt and I couldn't walk for about like for a year I had to do physical therapy and all that stuff. Luckily I didn't have to get surgery or anything. But when I finally could move without pain, it was like everything. So everything kind of changed after that and I didn't really care about what anybody was saying, like my mind just shifted.

0:05:16 - Speaker 1 I think sometimes you just have to kind of have like a either you got to go through the gauntlet, sometimes you got to go through something where it's like you either move forward and it's your choice and you practice that mindset, which I was trying to do, but then I was kind of forced into that growth in a way where it's like I'm so grateful that I could move the way I move and then when it's rooted in that you know it becomes, you can't really go wrong with that I think when if you started from gratitude anything you're doing, especially when it comes to your health and your fitness, coming back to that has got to be the most centering thing that we could ever do Exactly.

0:05:48 - Speaker 2 Well, it's almost like a default. So, like my default was like Very true this. Like anxiety of competing, which I also loved.

0:05:56 - Speaker 1 Anxiety of like losing or winning, like I want to win so bad. So it's either like peak one or peak the other. You're kind of sick like that.

0:06:03 - Speaker 2 And then now the default is like I'm just doing my best and my best is valid. And because of that. I'm better than I was before, you know. So it's just like.

0:06:14 - Speaker 1 Well, you're bringing this mentality, you're bringing this physicality to the masses. You've got millions across social media. Did you ever think that that many people would want to work out with you? Absolutely, I knew from the beginning.

0:06:26 - Speaker 2 Absolutely I was yeah, when I actually, when I first became a coach, I was very good at it. Immediately I taught at IMG Nick again my coach came to my court and his other coaches were like basically telling me I had to kind of do some things differently. And then Nick came on and Nick's like he's the only one that's doing it right. Everybody follow accurately.

0:06:51 - Speaker 1 Really.

0:06:53 - Speaker 2 And then I'm like I think, I started teaching there when I was 19. So then I was like, okay, and it's funny because I wasn't even going to fully Like. I wasn't thinking about full-time coaching at that time I was just like I need to make some money. I wanted to play tennis. I was in college, I had a scholarship.

0:07:12 - Speaker 1 How I put all this stuff together.

0:07:15 - Speaker 2 And then you have this idea as an athlete that if you become a coach, you're the failed athlete.

So I was also fighting with that mindset funny because my coach is in the Hall of Fame of coaching 13 Halls of Fame. Wow, he coached four generations of top players. And that was like right in front of me, but you can't even see the like where it could go, because you're you're like closing yourself off to it. So when I finally kind of was like okay, I can do this, like this can be my career, yeah, I was like holy shit, my coach built a whole academy. Braydon's in Florida have you been to IMG?

0:07:56 - Speaker 1 No, no, no, it's like that's in Florida, right yeah.

0:07:59 - Speaker 2 Braydon's. It's a giant facility, like compound compound. It's like a whole world and people fly in from all around the world just to train there and they grow up there.

0:08:11 - Speaker 1 And it's like look at the examples that he's put it onto the world from it. Yeah, if you come here, commit you know, abandon all that. If you build it, they'll come exactly.

0:08:19 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and there's nothing else really in Braydon's Florida but the Academy.

0:08:23 - Speaker 1 Yeah, I believe it.

0:08:25 - Speaker 2 I mean it's beautiful but. But I wanted to build something like that, where it's like a destination location, where people travel there just to work out and feel the energy and it shifts their entire life.

0:08:39 - Speaker 1 A buddy of mine recently did that, christian Guzman in Houston, texas, a big fitness YouTuber guy, just opened up finally, through COVID I think last summer, 18 acre compound for bodybuilding, strength training. He's got basketball courts, american Ninja Warrior course, restaurant, co-working space, lounge like just making this mecca, really, of the people that are willing to put in the work. Come here and just do the thing and then when you walk out like you're taking so much more with you than just the workout.

0:09:09 - Speaker 2 Yeah, who goes?

0:09:10 - Speaker 1 Is it like a pro? It's called Alpha Land.

0:09:13 - Speaker 2 Oh, you heard of it. Yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, I saw it, I saw it.

0:09:16 - Speaker 1 Alpha Land, that's great. Yeah, it's huge, just massive. I'm going to be there in a couple of weeks actually, so I'll hopefully walk out a new warrior we'll see. Awesome, but kind of keeping on the pulse of the social media aspect. But my in-laws are Middle Eastern right. My wife's Iranian American and I've been together for like 10 years. We've been together 10 years. What I've been doing here is about seven years old. I still feel like I'm trying to explain to my in-laws what I do for a living. How does that translate for you, man with like the culture and the difference, or is there one for you?

0:09:44 - Speaker 2 For me. I mean, my parents put me at IMG Academy when I was seven.

0:09:48 - Speaker 1 My sister, also played tennis, and we both were in IMG, so they got to know what they were getting into. My brother was a golfer.

0:09:54 - Speaker 2 They love sports. So, like my cousin's, also trained at IMG. So you guys are all in. Yeah, I come from a family of like athletes. My other cousins are like national water polo players in Turkey. So like they like every and what am I cousin's blood yet?

0:10:11 - Speaker 1 Or what's people like? Can we guess what so like?

0:10:13 - Speaker 2 actually you should see my, my mom is like fitter than anyone I know. She's 65 and she can like she's got to hold that standard Outlast?

0:10:21 - Speaker 1 I bet yeah.

0:10:21 - Speaker 2 And my dad trains with us too, so it's like a whole family thing. My sister trains with us now too, but she does the retail for Army. Okay, my brother and his wife are both coaches for me as well. We all work together and they're like founding coaches in the Army as well. So we it's like a whole family affair.

0:10:41 - Speaker 1 I love that. Yeah, I love that. Speaking of your coaching, one of the quotes that I found from you was, I think, paramount the great thing that everybody needs to remember through movement, I'm getting you to unlock your greatness. Yes, how do you do that? Through coaches.

0:10:56 - Speaker 2 So the way I see it is a skill building Just like tennis with skill building for me and it becomes like, it becomes emotional, it becomes your life and through that you learn how to do like everything, everything you need, every skill you need to have to, or or not even the skill, every. I call it like a blueprint, you know, you kind of have the blueprint.

0:11:19 - Speaker 1 If you can build this skill, you can build whatever else you want to build, just take this and overlay it onto the next project You're going to add on, but you overlay, add, overlay, add Exactly.

0:11:27 - Speaker 2 And I simplify it because it's like the way I coach is I coach all levels. I think for me, when I played people that were better than me, I got better, quicker, I got faster my reflexes became faster.

So we train all levels together. But the coaching is what you got to listen to and and you can see where it's going to go. But you start at level one. So like really like creating or coaching in a way where it's like specifically, like like you can understand it and comprehend it, like okay, I just came here, I should start at level one and then here's level two I'm aspiring to that and then here's level three is my longterm goal.

0:12:06 - Speaker 1 But what does level one even look like with you guys? Because I've seen the workouts, man, yeah. So if I start even level one, it's got to be pretty intimidating.

0:12:12 - Speaker 2 Let's say like like we're doing like a sequence for abs, I start with a crunch. That's the base move, that's level one.

If anybody if I add on something and the pace to you can go at your own pace. If I add on a sit up, that's level two, and then I'll add on a weighted sit up, that would be level three. So it's like I start with it and then I add on the levels as we do, and the people that are ready for that next level will start doing that and then everybody else will stay at, but everyone's moving toward a goal.

0:12:42 - Speaker 1 Okay, okay, and you know, in that, you guys build a phenomenal community, a community, I think, is the core of what army is up to, and it seems like you as well. But that's not an easy thing to do, especially in the health, fitness, wellness space. I think everybody, or most people, are trying to build that community along with them, because that's really a sustainable and that's how you grow, how you scale. How do you focus on building, how do you focus on maintaining? Are they two separate entities for you or is it all the same?

0:13:10 - Speaker 2 Well, for me it's, it's, it's. I love what I do.

0:13:16 - Speaker 1 I love getting people to kind of come alive which, by the way, I just want to say you guys got to look at the video for this. When you just said I love what I do, like the look on your face, dude, you just, like lit up, started smiling like that's no bullshit. Yeah, I love it, I mean I do it every hour.

0:13:32 - Speaker 2 I wake up at 5. I do. I have a 6 AM class, or we call it practice 7 AM, 8, 30, 10, 12. I'm teaching all those sessions and then I'll have like film sessions I don't know one or two and then we have like, because I'm the founder of CEO.

So then we're doing marketing meetings and some other things, tech meetings, and then we'll do a couple more sessions at night, like I do it all day long, so that the athletes have a chance to build it. Like, if you want to get really good, there's no excuse. I teach every hour, and then I built the app so that if you can't come in person or you don't live in New York, you can do that at any time you want to do it.

0:14:12 - Speaker 1 So like cutting out the excuse If you want to build it, you can build it Again. If you build it, they will come in.

0:14:19 - Speaker 2 Yeah, so when you show up like that, people with that kind of mindset or people that want to have that mindset start to show up and then you build the team. So within the, I kind of see it as team sports. I don't even call it community, because I think team is different, because community I said this recently as well I think community is great, but I think they'll accoddle you and they'll tell you what you want to hear and like sometimes, but the team like army too the team will hold you accountable.

They will get you to fight for your life, because everybody is there for the same mission.

Yeah, and you're going to show up as your best, and if you're not going to show up as your best, like why are you going to show up? Do your best that day. It doesn't have to mean that you have to surpass your best. Do your best every day, without comparing yourself. And then people become leaders in the team and then they start acting like leaders. So then I'll put certain people next to each other because I know like the leader is going to help this new person.

0:15:24 - Speaker 1 You're just like it's going to be a training. It's going to be a training, yeah, literally training, and I call them captains.

0:15:31 - Speaker 2 And there's this whole dynamic where it's a team that you're walking into when you first come in and there's high-fiving and celebrating each other and celebrating each other's breakthroughs, and there's this energy that happens when you come in, where you immediately feel like you belong. Damn Like this is my team.

0:15:51 - Speaker 1 That's the goal. That's the goal. So, all right, kind of through the lens of the business aspect, a lot of my audience I used to be there as well. You're growing, scaling, you're group coaching, you're one-on-one, you're app, you're whatever. Getting other people to buy into your vision as much as you are attached to it, I think is one of the most difficult things. How do you spot, how do you groom, how do you coach these other people to fall in love with your mission as much as you do, so that the whole picture can rise together while also filling them up, while also letting them kind of strive towards something on their own.

0:16:29 - Speaker 2 I think it's leading by example. I think when you love something, people want like they're drawn to it too and they start to live and breathe it. And then, when it impacts their lives and they change and they're more confident, they're more outgoing, they're more courageous, they get behind it. And I think there's phases to people's lives, just like me when I had, you know I think I got there sooner because I started working- when I was seven years old.

0:16:59 - Speaker 1 There's no quote here. There's work, it's work, it's work. I mean you're training six to eight hours a day every day at seven years old.

0:17:05 - Speaker 2 That's work. So I started working so young and I think I went through a whole mental journey and kind of inward journey where it was about me and then it was about not about me and you go through phases of your life and being patient with people and their phases. I think something that stuck out with me when I trained at IMG is you see, when a kid has it, you could see it very early on if they have the mindset to go all the way. Some people build it but you literally have a timeline to build that mindset and so they put people put more effort into the people who have already been unlocked at a young age.

0:17:55 - Speaker 1 I'm sure you have to it's business.

0:17:57 - Speaker 2 So I said, when I coach, I started coaching pros, which is great, but then I shifted into what I do now, where I do coach some pro athletes as well as the everyday person and I will be patient and take the time with them to have their unlock. When they're gonna have their unlock, yeah, you know. So it's a little different in that sense where it's like you have the time you know at Army, like we're gonna push you, but I'm also patient that you have, like it's not gonna run out, you can keep coming back until you figure it out. Incredible leadership right there. That's incredible.

0:18:43 - Speaker 1 You know speaking of Army, you know Ackens Army, right, that's the.

0:18:47 - Speaker 2 Army. Now it's just Army. Okay, it started with Ackens Army.

0:18:51 - Speaker 1 Well, it's AARMY right, that's kind of like the loose story behind it yeah. And I heard that you kind of got that in homage to the people that believed in your vision getting started.

0:19:00 - Speaker 2 So they called themselves Army.

0:19:02 - Speaker 1 Okay.

0:19:03 - Speaker 2 Yeah, so I used to teach at Crunch when I first moved into the city and I would have 6am sessions and sometimes I'd have to sub because, I was doing other work too, so I'd have to sub at 6am.

0:19:18 - Speaker 1 As one does in the fitness space.

0:19:19 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and they wouldn't email out anybody, so everyone would show up, but it would be another coach, okay. And so they were like all the people that would come for me would get really upset. And they're like Ackens, you need to start a Facebook page. And I was like okay, and they're like in control.

Yeah they're like, didn't call it Ackens Army and and then post on there. If you're subbing, if you're like teaching somewhere else, blah, blah, we'll come. Yeah, I was like, okay, that's a good idea. So I did that. And then the same thing happened with like why don't you make retail? So I made my first logo and at the time at American Apparel they were doing like screen printing.

0:19:59 - Speaker 1 Oh yeah.

0:19:59 - Speaker 2 So I did that and I gave everybody shirts, and then they're like when are you going to ask for it? Yeah, so I would just keep doing whatever they asked for when they asked for it. So then, eventually we got to this. But one of my business partner, trey Laird, he's in the creative director world in fashion and I convinced him to do Army with me. He's like a branding genius, oh great.

0:20:26 - Speaker 1 So once we did that, we just kind of like took off man it's like you've got an incredible group of people that believed in you from the beginning, and the reason I brought up that question is because you know a lot of us now, or have been for a while, in pursuit of our vision. We're doing the hours doing the thing when maybe no one else but ourselves believes in us. How do we push through when no one else believes in what we're doing except ourselves? How did you? No one else has to believe it at first you have to believe it.

0:20:55 - Speaker 2 If you don't believe it, why should anybody else? So the way I started it, coaching is just like I just knew I was good at it. Yeah, and then I really would educate myself, even with injuries. I'd be like, oh, this is great, I can learn how to heal this as fast as possible.

0:21:12 - Speaker 1 And then out of commission. Yeah, and I'll be a better coach and not out of commission.

0:21:17 - Speaker 2 I would twist my ankle. I tripped on a bo-soup ball when I was filming during COVID and my ankle was like this and I twisted my ankle so many times during playing tennis. But I went to like a foot specialist and they were like it's gonna take six months, you can't do anything. I'm like, nope, not good.

0:21:34 - Speaker 1 And I was back.

0:21:35 - Speaker 2 I was back in three days. Three days and I did a proprioceptive bo-soup ball program to heal my ankle.

0:21:43 - Speaker 1 But then everybody got stronger because of did you create a program around it for Army?

0:21:47 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and then I like the same thing, like I pulled my hamstring playing paddle tennis like four weeks ago and actually I think I probably tore it.

0:22:00 - Speaker 1 And you're up here walking. Yeah, I healed it. I healed it. It popped and I couldn't walk.

0:22:06 - Speaker 2 I don't think it was like a major tear, but it was bad, and then I just like let it heal a little bit but teaching still, yeah. And then I was just doing glute activations constantly, like really made it about like strengthening that and then, and then like my RDLs and all that stuff in the program All the shit that nobody wants to do, but it's like it worked and I healed myself quickly and I'm back playing paddle tennis again.

0:22:32 - Speaker 1 Again somebody. Please bottle his blood, but it on display, of course.

0:22:35 - Speaker 2 It is. It's like everything becomes this, like oh, this is great, it's an obstacle, it's a challenge, it's gonna make me better Opportunity and. I'm a coach, so the more I know about how to heal someone as fast as I can if I've lived it, not just reading it, you're more valuable. Exactly so. It's like anything that happens, especially in what I do. I know what the common injuries are and I know how to heal it, or a pre-habit, which is in the program of how we train anyway.

0:23:05 - Speaker 1 Crucial man. Amazing, you guys are really hitting it off from all sides. Yeah, what's up next for you? What's up next for Army? Like, where do you want to take this leg of the fitness industry? And maybe where do you kind of see the fitness industry going now? I mean, I think it's Infinite what it could be.

0:23:21 - Speaker 2 I have a couple things I'm working on. I told you one of my biggest dreams was to like make this sport. Yeah. Another avenue is I've been doing like a like world tour where I go and I they're gonna pop up, pop ups, but like, like I taught about like six to 800 people in Mexico like with this, like huge, like event, like Festival type thing, I went to Brussels.

0:23:45 - Speaker 1 Where the art like is everyone on a bike or doing the workout.

0:23:48 - Speaker 2 There's like we do bike or boot camp. They like find like six hundred bikes. Oh, moving together it's just like insane state shifting experience. So I kind of see it as like you know how, when DJs first started it was just kind of like you know I'm in their garage kind of mix usually.

0:24:07 - Speaker 1 Yeah and then now they sell out stadiums and concerts.

0:24:10 - Speaker 2 So I want it's. I think fitness is heading that way and I think we can kind of like pioneer that.

0:24:17 - Speaker 1 I'm calling it now fitness army and Diplo collab. Yeah, you need to get that out there for sure.

0:24:22 - Speaker 2 So I think it's gonna be like a big thing where it's like thousands of people come to move, but also I've, you know, merged the mindset piece and the physical piece so people can also like watch and listen, kind of like a Mindset piece, like Tony Robbins.

0:24:38 - Speaker 1 Oh, so just watch the workout.

0:24:41 - Speaker 2 They can watch or they can work out, participate they could.

0:24:44 - Speaker 1 Yeah, you are Programming here for lack of a better word, or maybe that's the best word the mindset component, so that someone can still act from the workout without the physical aspect. Yeah, yeah, there was also.

0:24:55 - Speaker 2 I mean I have like athletes that train with me and through them, their family hears.

0:25:01 - Speaker 1 I'm coach.

0:25:01 - Speaker 2 Yeah, there was one story this is athlete of mine, gabby, her brother during COVID. They were trained she was training with me, but her brother had lost his job. He went back home with his parents like all these things were going Wrong and he was listening to a practice she was taking online and and it made him jumpstart his Writing career and he decided, from what he heard me say that day Now, to write a script and then he sold it to Warner brothers and and made like two million dollars from overhearing over here a workout video exactly, holy shit, dude, that's incredible.

And we were like there's I mean, there's other things, like I work with this company called melt water and and we do like custom programs for them, like filmed and and they have, I guess, teammates all around the world so they train together and they do army, uh, curated for them, and and we do it based off of a little bit off of, like, where they are Company-wise or mindset-wise, where they want to go, what they should be thinking about, about leadership and and all that stuff. So they came back to me and they were like hey, I can, we love it. The first one was awesome. We do have some people that want to also Be a part of this but they can't, like they physically can't do the workouts.

0:26:26 - Speaker 1 Um, we are. I'm smiling because I'm just imagining the million one places this is going yeah so I was like okay, what can I do?

0:26:32 - Speaker 2 So I, I, I decided to do like journaling Incorporated into the workout, you know, and then and then specific mindset coaching.

0:26:43 - Speaker 1 This handle? You take the personal development world and just inject, mainlining it, into a workout.

0:26:48 - Speaker 2 Well, it's because I, I think, like I've always learned through movement, like.

0:26:52 - Speaker 1 I said right in tennis.

0:26:54 - Speaker 2 Your entire game plan is drilled into you through consistent repetition of the movement, and then it's an autopilot so you can free yourself. Somebody knows what to do, but you can free yourself to see what your opponent's doing, and then you can respond accordingly. Yeah, um, and, and I think, like sitting in a room and listening to it doesn't always do the job Uh, why not get you on autopilot?

0:27:19 - Speaker 1 thinking this way. I mean, I can just imagine you know you're going through something Physically demanding, like one of your workouts, or you know any workout really but if you have that same kind of Programming, self-talk or actual coming in, like you're in a moment where it's like you're like literally dying, yeah, and you have a choice to make.

0:27:38 - Speaker 2 You can either keep holding on either one rep or whatever, or you can give up where most people give up. That's the default.

0:27:44 - Speaker 1 So, if you like, feed the.

0:27:47 - Speaker 2 You know the courage to keep going and that's your daily practice. It's on autopilot, so like whenever you're faced with it anywhere. Like you, it also is like sometimes, when you listen to something, it goes in one ear, out the other. Yep, yeah, this way, it's like you are literally like torn open.

0:28:03 - Speaker 1 And you have to hear it smile with that. But you have to hear it.

0:28:07 - Speaker 2 You know you like, you like that's when it like, it's like, clicks.

0:28:11 - Speaker 1 And then it's yours. It's your mindset. No one can take that away from you.

0:28:14 - Speaker 2 No, that's the most important part, and you did it like you made it through it, like you thought you couldn't, and you did it, and and you're gonna do it again, and then again and again.

0:28:23 - Speaker 1 Um, well, man, I definitely would love to have you back on for kind of like a full story. But you know, this has been incredible connect with you, so many little nuggets here and what you're doing, love what you guys are up to at army. The last question I gotta ask you and I you kind of just were hitting on a little bit to move forward in life, to keep moving, ever forward, as I say, how do you do that? What does that mean to you? How do you live a life ever forward?

0:28:42 - Speaker 2 um, I mean, you know I've been talking about this lately. I heard um danza washington's speech on falling forward.

0:28:51 - Speaker 1 Have you heard that? I think I, literally I think I just saw the same clip that you're about to see.

0:28:55 - Speaker 2 Yeah, so it's like you gotta fall forward, like why are you gonna fall back?

0:29:00 - Speaker 1 Like what is this like, like this backup plan.

0:29:02 - Speaker 2 There's no backup plan. Um, what's great about Um, what I get or what we get to do, is I can do it anywhere. Like we had cove it, I went on instagram, we can go on youtube, you can go on Tiktok, like there's all these platforms when you can still do what you do, and you can do it from your home if you wanted to. So there's no fear of failing, um, at this venture of mine. So it's just like it's and and things are gonna come up, but it's all lessons, and then it makes you a better coach, it makes you a better human, it makes you more empathetic, it makes you more understanding, like there's so many things you get from just moving forward.

0:29:42 - Speaker 1 There's never a right or wrong answer, and there's always yours, answer.