In short
Identity collapse and rebuilding after losing a defining role (baseball), plus broader themes of community, boundaries, discomfort, and cultural shifts in sports; includes a recovery sponsor segment.
Guests (and backgrounds)
Main guest is Shawn French (former baseball catcher; identity crisis after college baseball). Co-hosts/participants include Pat Sickens and Crash Minotti (song shoutout). Alex Boylan is referenced as a prior guest (TED Talk/transition themes). Roman, Matt Dillon, and others appear as partners/dinner attendees. No formal “guest list” beyond Shawn French is clearly established in the transcript.
Key claims
- Identity collapse forces a choice: self-destructive coping (drinking/womanizing) or constructive rebuilding by dealing with feelings, avoiding substances/extrinsic fillers, and making a daily plan.
- “Stop fearing change.”
- Community (“get in the room”) improves relationships and conversations beyond social media networking.
- Boundaries matter: people can add weight to your “backpack,” so you decide what stays.
- Sports viewership declines due to “exhibition over competition” and contract-driven risk aversion.
Notable examples
- Shawn’s 2003 college world series loss; sitting in right field thinking “Who am I?” after baseball ended.
- Pete Rose’s all-star collision/truck-in-the-12th as a contrast to modern “play it safe” mentality.
- Shawn’s fashion week participation as an uncomfortable opportunity to create a core memory for his daughters.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOIdentity and Personal Crisis
0:00 to 1:04
Explore the challenges of losing one's identity and coping mechanisms.
“The only thing that I knew is like Shawn, the baseball player, the catcher.”
Building Community and Connection
1:30 to 2:55
Discussing the importance of community and personal connections post-COVID.
“Yeah, we should probably incorporate it somewhere.”
The Power of Relationships
2:55 to 5:59
The benefits of being in the right community for personal and professional growth.
“man, it just makes, it made the next day so much better, right?”
The Backpack Analogy
5:59 to 11:19
Understanding the significance of the metaphorical backpack we carry in life.
“So when you think about the backpack and the conversation you guys had, what I was talking about with Alex is it's not necessarily everything that you, I'm sorry, it's everything you guys talked about.”
Current Events and the Olympics
11:29 to 14:06
Discussion on the current Olympics and personal reflections on their significance.
“I didn't even know that they were on and I'm being fully transparent.”
The Shift from Competition to Individuality
14:06 to 15:40
Explore the changing dynamics of sports viewership and the focus on individualism over team competition.
“And I think part of the problem is, is this idea of exhibition over competition.”
The Shift from Competition to Individuality
15:43 to 21:45
Explore the changing dynamics of sports viewership and the focus on individualism over team competition.
“What an amazing technology that Therabody has.”
The Evolution of Sports Culture
21:54 to 28:05
Discuss the cultural shifts in sports regarding competition and exhibition, focusing on athlete branding.
“me know how you guys like it until then stay determined.”
Identity Crisis in Sports
28:05 to 29:19
Explore the challenges and transitions athletes face when their identity shifts post-career.
“And I think an interesting look at the fact that people still really want the competitive nature of sports.”
Navigating Life After Sports
29:20 to 32:44
Learn how to cope with identity loss and redefine self-worth beyond athletic achievements.
“And I know you and Derek talked a little bit about it.”
Show all 24 chapters
Choosing Discomfort for Growth
32:45 to 36:19
Understand the importance of embracing discomfort to foster personal growth and resilience.
“after you realized baseball was no longer an option.”
Stepping Out of Comfort Zones
36:20 to 42:01
Discover the value of taking risks and embracing challenges in unfamiliar situations.
“If I'm, I mean, you know, being comfortable is never going to the gym, never pushing my body, um, giving in to fleshly desires about eating whatever I want to eat whenever I want to eat.”
Valentine's Weekend Reflections
42:01 to 44:07
Shawn discusses the motivation behind his recent decisions related to his daughters' dreams.
“As we all know, starting something new isn't just hard.”
A Fashionable Family Connection
44:07 to 48:24
Shawn shares how he connected with his daughters through fashion week and the importance of seizing opportunities.
“And then when they graduate, they want to move to Paris together and start a clothing line called, what was it?”
Supporting Veterans and Causes
48:24 to 50:56
Discussion about the significance of supporting veterans and the impact of organizations like Grunt Style.
“We don't know how to live in this world.”
Embracing Opportunities and Rejections
50:56 to 54:44
Exploration of how missed opportunities can lead to better paths, referencing Taja's experiences.
“specifically at dinner and Matt just kept talking about Taja and how amazing she was going to be.”
The Power of Manifestation
54:44 to 56:00
Shawn elaborates on the concept of manifestation and the importance of internalizing success.
“I'm picking up where you're going and, you know, I believe in multiple time dimensions.”
The Impact of Mentorship in Sports
56:00 to 57:50
Learn how mentorship shapes success through shared experiences in sports.
“And so to tie into the manifestation of the feeling of it wasn't just the quote.”
Three Lifestyle Habits for Personal Growth
57:50 to 1:01:57
Discover three essential habits for improving physical health, relationships, and faith.
“You know, three lifestyle things that everybody should have on a daily basis, I think is, you know, take care of your body first and foremost, right?”
Overcoming Fear and Taking Action
1:01:57 to 1:08:50
Understand the importance of facing fears and taking action, regardless of limitations.
“You think everyone could benefit from not the ones that you've mastered.”
Celebrating Achievements of Friends and Influencers
1:08:50 to 1:10:04
A discussion on the accomplishments of friends and influential figures in adventure sports.
“the outcome, but knowing that you're as prepared as you can be.”
Celebrating Friends' Achievements
1:10:04 to 1:12:02
Discussion about the achievements of friends in the climbing community.
“And she has a great friend friendship with Alex Arnold, right?”
Community and Connection
1:12:02 to 1:13:18
Exploring the importance of community and connection in personal growth.
“or more like sitting in a chair in a studio talking?”
Upcoming Events and Personal Growth
1:15:40 to 1:17:49
Discussion about upcoming events and personal growth opportunities.
“Um, it's about being the theme is being a lifelong learner.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Oh, fuck. Who am I? I don't know who Shawn is. The only thing that I knew is like Shawn, the baseball player, the catcher. What happens when your identity collapse happens? How do you get out of that? One, you can make a bunch of stupid decisions, drink, womanize like I did. Or if you are a level-headed individual, do the things that are hard. Deal with your feelings. I loved baseball and it was everything to me. But if I loved that and it was everything to me, I always held onto this hope that I would find something else. I love that, man. Don't lean on substances or extrinsic things to fill that void.
0:39Really dive into who you are and who you want to be and then make a plan and then work on that plan every day, no matter what. Some people, they choose their environment. They choose their situation. They choose not to deal with whatever it is. They choose their discomfort. But either way, I think it teaches you something very, very important, and that is to stop fearing change.
1:03What up, everybody? Welcome back. Here it is again, The Pulse, the behind-the-scenes episode of The Determined Society. I have my boy, Pat Sickens, here. We're going to go over a lot of different things. He's got a lot of questions that people on socials have asked him. I'm going to answer them. We're going to shout you out, but we're just going to go deep of what's been happening in our world the last month and what we're looking forward to. So welcome to the show, man. Sean French, what up? I miss that song, man. I miss that song. Dude, man. I miss it so much, dude. We need to cut that in for this one.
1:38Yeah, we should probably incorporate it somewhere. Just for the folks, man. Crash Minotti, what's up, man? We got to give him a shout out for that song. Ah, Crash Minotti, man. What a great dude, man. It was so fun when he came. you know, him and Justin and everybody came to Jacksonville and to have him perform that song was just a special moment, but you know, you got to incorporate it somewhere. It was, it was great. So you're right, you know, to be back on the pulse and I was thinking, oh my gosh, we're going to start doing this monthly. What the heck are we, are we going to have enough to talk about?
2:10We've got too much to talk about today. Yeah, man, for sure, dude. You know, so I've, I've been thinking about being down in Fort Myers and, you know, having Alex Boylan on the show and just the time that we got to spend. And I wanted to open up today's with the idea of community, because we talked a lot about being in person and, you know, how the world shifted since COVID 2020 and all that. And what I'm not talking about here is community and the fact of followers, like in true community, being around people that have their own experience, their own strength, their own wisdom that they can, you know, basically bestow on you and it's just about being in the room with the right people and being inspired so i wanted to start with just that whole conversation we had with alex and matt um and roman at dinner and just the idea of community and what we're really building here within the society because we said it before but it just hit me so much harder that this is not a podcast it's not social media play it's truly a community that we're building and it's a movement dude i i could not agree more um that specific week to have you here roman here you know two of my partners and then have you know alex boylan fly in from california to be on the determined society and then get up to jacksonville to be on two types of people um it's a special thing just in itself right to just know that so many people are coming here to be a part of something like Like, you know, just a small part of something that we feel could be something very big.
3:43But what I realized in that dinner was how special it really is and how blessed that I am to have everybody here that has come to, and I mean, it's the most humbling way to see me, like to do stuff with me and the conversation and the deep dive into the relationship building, you know, with Matt Dillon being there, Alex being there, you and Roman. man, it just makes, it made the next day so much better, right? It made the next day when me and Alex were on the mic and on camera together, that conversation was next level because we built more community that the night before, right? And, and spending more time.
4:29So I guess the way I feel is, you know, people always say, get in the room, but they never tell you why they never tell you why, because I think the big thing is when people say, get in the room, man. So that way you can advance your network, you can advance your revenue stream. But to me, it's more about relationships and making the thing that you do so much better. And without a doubt, it made that conversation with Alex Boylan be at a level that I don't think it would have been had we not spent so much time personally one-on-one. I agree. And we talked a lot about just the digital age that we're in right now and everyone's connecting in groups and on social and all that stuff but there's just a lost art of being you know in community you know having a meal you know breaking bread with with a group of people that aren't necessarily the same but are like-minded are all trying to push forward yeah that's the thing that's special right it's like we had you know a table full of dudes that could not be further from the same.
5:35And it was all so, it was, it was also amazing and it flowed. And to me, it was like, man, this is what America is really about. That's what society should be about is everybody at this table has different, you know, personalities, different, you know, perceptions of the world, maybe even different beliefs, but everybody was there as one. And that's what I feel this community or this determined society truly is, man. there you go well i want to stick on his episode because i do want to hit the episodes that we've had since our last pulse um and it was one of the clips and it's on the back of his book the miles that make you but um there was the quote about the backpack you start with doesn't define you and you guys talked about that but i wanted to bring that back up because we talked a little bit about it on two types on my show and where i went with that is a little bit different than you guys went.
6:26So I want to get your take on this. So when you think about the backpack and the conversation you guys had, what I was talking about with Alex is it's not necessarily everything that you, I'm sorry, it's everything you guys talked about. But what I went with is it's what you allow people to put in that backpack, right? Because it's yours. So if you let people put additional weight into it or things that you're carrying around that you don't have to carry, you can take that stuff out so i i really love that backpack mentality i love the fact that you guys talked about that i just wanted your take on you know it's not just a solo mission and so sometimes people can put stuff in that backpack that's going to help you and sometimes they're going to put stuff that's really going to weigh you down so it's about i love the boundaries the protection of yourself um so your take on maybe that slightly different slant on his backpack technology.
7:17Honestly, I think it's genius the way you spun it in your own way and created your own narrative off of it, right? About, hey, we're doing life together. And sometimes people will put a little extra weight in your backpack. And I think that's natural. Anytime you're doing stuff with people that you know, love and trust, like I can put things in your backpack, you can put things in my backpack and it may not necessarily work. So we have to sit there and say like, okay, I'm going to either keep this in my backpack or I'm going to take it out because I can't shoulder it's too heavy. But man, like that, that's a great perspective, man.
7:49Cause I, I didn't think about it with the way I thought about it in that sense was, oh my God, like we all have heavy shit that happens, man. And we all have these struggles. And I even got a little choked up because I've been through a lot in my life and I'm not saying I've had a terrible childhood or a terrible adulthood or even adolescent life, but I have gone through some shit. And in those moments when you read something like that, it's all in how you perceive that quote and how it speaks to you. And it just ripped out these emotions to the forefront, dude. It's just like, all right, I'm like naked right now.
8:27And I'm remembering everything that's happened to me from the time that my grandma died, to my blood clot, to my injury, to my exit of baseball, to losing everything multiple times and rebuilding it back up and then walking away from corporate America doing this is like all of it came back you know and but but but your perspective dude like I didn't even think about that yeah I mean it's about it's about it's about boundaries right and it's about boundaries and it's support so you're saying you know I can put stuff in your backpack you can put stuff in mine sometimes it's very helpful it's a great tool and it's a resource but sometimes it's not and that's just our relationship it's a human relationship and it's a friendship and you know everyone's got their stuff and so yeah i loved what alex and you were talking about as far as the personal you know weight that you're carrying and you know it's not about the weight it's about what you do with it but it's also about protecting um what's in there and realizing that you may be carrying some stuff that you don't necessarily have to so i just think to your point like it's That whole analogy and that whole, you know, the whole story of what he goes through and how that works.
9:35I think to your point, it's very powerful because it can speak to you wherever you are. That's the great thing about quotes, right? Any quote that you, it depends on where you're at in your life. I could have read that in two years and it may not have hit me like it did that day. so like quotes are beautiful because it speaks to you of where you're at emotionally and mentally at that time oh we're gonna have a callback later because we're getting into some quotes later you're gonna love it yes i love it all right we're gonna move on for a second okay um i want to get your opinion on current events since we're a society and culture show um what are your feelings on the current olympics oh boy as we all know starting something new isn't just hard it's absolutely terrifying.
10:25So much work goes into the thing that you're not entirely sure will work out. And it can be hard to make that leap of faith. Trust me, I know this feeling. And you may be thinking like I did, what if no one buys my products? Don't worry, Shopify is on your side to help. Get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style. So you can get the word out like you have a full marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or even strolling.
10:58Best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world-class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping down to processing returns and beyond. It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash TDS. Go to shopify.com slash TDS. That's shopify.com slash TDS. I mean, I'm so embarrassed. You know, I do love America. I didn't even know that they were on and I'm being fully transparent. You know, like everybody's talking about the Olympics. Are you going to watch them? I'm like, yeah, when it's time, they're like, bro, we're like a weekend, two weeks in, two weeks in.
11:46And I'm just like, what a dipshit, you know, but, but again, you know, I feel like in life we're, you know, everybody has certain seasons where they're so focused and dialed in on what they're doing. And for me, the season I'm in right now is family first and foremost, right. Making sure that my children are good, that they're doing great in school and that we're, you know, there for them emotionally. You know, I want a great marriage. And then also I'm building this business, you know alongside you and our other partners and our in our contracted partners um so that's where my mind's been but dude yeah dude i i don't know anything i don't know anything i know they're in milan they are um i think you are in the majority this time they feel different this year and i don't you know and everyone i talk to it's like oh yeah they're happening but no one there's not that national pride in anyone i'm not just talking about americans i mean i've talked to people you with other national but no one's really of course they're paying attention they're doing a great job and there's different formats and all that but it just seems like a lot of people just kind of miss the fact that the olympics are happening um and i have some ideas why and so there's a lot of shit going on in the world right now dude so there's a lot going on is it a but are you more a winter olympic guy or a summer olympic guy summer summer why i don't know i just think you know growing up it was always the thing every four years you had the summer olympics it was just the thing that i was so caught up in and i could be wrong so you know for the viewers and the listeners if i'm wrong you know don't cancel me but this is totally a personal opinion yeah i don't remember the winter olympics when i was a child like i like i don't remember them you know like i remember you know seeing some ice skating but when you're so little you don't know that it's broken up into two separate you know a summer and a winter so i remember that stuff but you know when i was a kid i grew up watching you know the track and field i grew up watching mary lou retton you know gymnastics i mean she was dope like that's what i was used to so i'm a summer guy only for the reason of that's what i grew up on man that's what i remember i i think the summer olympics have the ability to be just sexier you know it's sweat it's it's you know harder sports maybe i'm not saying harder as far as physical ability but there's more of the competitive like team stuff going on with basketball we have hockey in the winter but it just seems like there's and maybe it's because I grew up and I'm in Florida native and I don't do winter sports as much, but yeah, it's just, everyone I've talked to is just like, eh, watch a little hockey and watch this little of that.
14:34And I think part of the problem is, is this idea of exhibition over competition. Cause what you're seeing right now is a lot of individuality and it's just, it's the world right now. Right. But it's so much more about the individuality of the athlete versus the national pride and the teams and stuff like that and i think that cascades to all the the issues that the nba the nfl mlb these all-star events and weekends right like the pro bowl the mlb all-star game the olympics like they're all kind of having this problem where the main the main viewership is down but they're having success in other formats right so streaming the social posts, you know, drone footage, stuff like that.
15:25And I think the problem really is, it's more about exhibition and, you know, the, the status of being Olympian versus the actual competition. Hey guys, we're gonna take a quick break and we're going to slide into our recovery segment brought to you by Therabody. What an amazing technology that Therabody has. And it was founded on a really cool story by Dr. Jason Wurzlin. It was founded on pain. He got into an accident and had this extreme pain in his arm and found that percussive therapy really helped. So he created the very first version of the Theragun with a Makita drill, just to pilot and test to see if his pain could be relieved by percussive therapy overall.
16:13And surely it was. So now Birth to the Theragun and now Therabody, who has a multitude of products to help you recover emotionally and physically. And some of the products even help with stress, meditation, and better sleep, and just overall better wellness. And when I had Dr. J on the show earlier in 2025, it really spoke to me because his platform was founded out of physical pain and the Determined Society was founded out of emotional pain. And so it felt natural for us to partner up. So here we are, an official partnership with Therabody. And I want to talk to you about some of the products today that I've been enjoying that I think you need to understand and know more about so you could potentially implement them into your life.
17:03And I'm not going to get into a big deep dive of the actual science and everything like that. I'm just going to give you some anecdotal information based on the products that I'm using and that my wife is actually using too that is helping us out a great deal at home. Because the great thing about these products, guys, is you can use them anywhere. You can use them in the gym. You can use them at home, in your bed, in your living room. Hell, you can even drive with a TheraGun Pro Plus in your car and use it on your quads, use it on your arms, whatever that is. The first thing I want to talk about is the TheraGun Pro Plus.
17:38I bring that in my gym bag every day to the gym. And when I'm warming up, I use it to warm up. I put it on my arms, whatever body part I'm using that day, I activate those muscles. And what I find is I'm able to move my body a lot quicker. And I'm a lot stronger on those days that I do actually bring it and utilize it. I just think it's a great way to understand your body and the connection between your strength and your muscles and being warm and being able to perform. Because it's one thing to go work out, but it's another thing to perform while you're doing it. And the Theragun Pro Plus helps me do that.
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19:00And let's face it, that's the most important thing when we're trying to move our bodies or we're trying to succeed in life is we want quick recovery emotionally and physically. And these products help me do that and they can help you do that as well. One of the other things that I really want to go into because it's helping my wife out a ton with headaches and being able to distract from the noise in her mind. And honestly, it helps me with that too, is a smart goggles. Whenever we feel a slight headache coming on or things are getting really heavy, just in our minds, just thinking about all the stressors, all the things out there that we can't control.
19:38we throw the goggles on, get in a quiet place, and there's different cycles on there and different intensities of vibrations and massaging that you can either turn it up or turn it down. And what I really enjoy is it allows me to focus on what's going on with just me and I think about things. And the massaging with the smart goggles relieves either headaches and it relaxes me and relaxes my wife to a point where we can fall asleep better. We are preparing to kind of downshift and shut down and slow down for the evening. So I heavily recommend them. The other thing it's really good for is just creating a peaceful time in your day.
20:24And what I found since using the smart goggles and then the other products is it works for me. It works for my family and I know it can work for you too. So I want you guys to think about things that you are struggling with. If it's lower back pain or you wake up in the morning, your neck is tight. I'm going to tell you the Theragun Pro Plus will help that out. They have cold therapy on it, hot therapy. I mean, think about that. When I opened that box and realized that I could have heat therapy and cold therapy and a Theragun changed everything for me and also really made the thing that I hate doing the most is warm-up.
21:05Made that very easy for me just by applying it to the muscle group that I'm going to use before I do it and in between sets, which promotes quicker recovery between sets. So if you're looking to go high volume or to lift heavy weights, I strongly consider that. All these products are there to help you move along in your day with less pain and recover quicker. So go check it out because now, like I said, the official partnership has begun. And from now until the end of March in your first order, you get 15 % off your first order, not every order. So if you're going to buy some stuff, load up there in that cart for that first time and you get 15 % off, go to therabody.com and at checkout, the code is determined.
21:53So let me know how you guys like it until then stay determined. Interesting. I never looked at it like that, you know, and, and you're right though. Like I, another funny thing I was in, you know, New York city this weekend, this past weekend, and my nephew was watching, you know, the three point contest you know and i'm like what is i go it's all-star weekend he goes yeah i don't really care it's just what's on i'm like have they done the slam dunk contest yet and then we started talking about how it's just more of a production now it's more about the individual and more about what individual can grow their brand based on socials and collaborations with espn and whatnot And it really used to be this community thing where you had Michael Jordan, you know, all these dudes.
22:46And I just, and I said to my nephew, who's 18, I said, bro, I don't think I've watched basketball consistently since Michael Jordan. You know, I mean, those were the days. And then of course, you know, when Kobe was around, I, you'd be a crazy bastard not to watch Kobe Bryant. Right. But I just, yeah, it's just so weird. And I think the world moves so fast now that everybody's caught up in their own thing. Like little things like that just kind of squeak by me, to be quite honest. I mean, the 04 Red Sox, I could probably still do it. But yeah, I knew the entire starting lineup and their depth chart with their pitchers and all that, because that's what I cared about.
23:27I didn't have kids. I wasn't doing nearly what I'm doing now. So I agree with that. But when I look at the competitive part, and I'm talking about why people don't care as much maybe at least perception wise it is you know i'll say about the major league the major league baseball all-star game right now this is before you and i were born but it was legendary pete rose trucking the catcher in the 12th inning of the all-star game to win it by one like that doesn't happen today because i might get hurt and i understand that i'm not saying we're soft or anything like that but they were 100 all in all the time they didn't care about tomorrow it was I'm going to win this game and I'm going to run through another all-star to win the all-star game.
24:11And I think it's a mentality thing, right? Because you can't, you know, it's the old practice like you play. If Pete Rose wasn't willing to crash into that guy in the 12th inning of the all-star game, what happens in the 12th inning of the world series in game seven? Like, can you flip that on? And so I think it's a big mentality shift of, well, my next contract's coming up. you know i may get canceled for trucking the guy instead of going this is my job this is my passion and my mentality is 100 in all the time well you hit the nail on the head you're talking about contract years free agency etc there's so much more money now involved in these professional sports that these athletes are forced to look at it a completely different way than pete rose dave henderson ricky henderson you know mark mcguire and all those cats it was like i'm gonna win at all cost i mean pete rose was that way i don't see what in a truck to catch her in a fucking all-star game bro i mean like i really think about that like it doesn't happen now now it's like watching fucking paint dry you know and they and they tried years ago to bring the interest back in the all-star game and make it mean something like the winner gets you know home field advantage and you know when you have to start doing things like that you know we're in trouble because you should want to win regardless i mean that's what i mean it's a game there's a winner and there's a loser and where we're at right now is a lot of people you know like we've got a little issue with this participation trophy thing and you know it's not really related to this but when you dive into the complexion of all all professional sports these people got to be very careful with their bodies because if they're not and something happens then their children's children's children are not taken care of.
25:52And I think a lot of people are looking at this like, if I can get a$200 million contract, no one else in my life is going to ever have to worry about anything. I just think it's a difference in where we're at. Oh boy. As we all know, starting something new isn't just hard. It's absolutely terrifying. So much work goes into the thing that you're not entirely sure will work out. And it can be hard to make that leap of faith. Trust me, I know this feeling. And you may be thinking, like I did, what if no one buys my products? Don't worry, Shopify is on your side to help. Get started with your own design studio.
26:30With hundreds of ready-to-use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand's style. So you can get the word out, like you have a full marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or even strolling. Best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world-class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping down to processing returns and beyond. It's time to turn those what-ifs into Shopify today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash TDS. Go to shopify.com slash TDS.
27:11That's shopify.com slash TDS. It is. And again, I think it's just where we are culturally and, you know, it's a big business now, but it's just, it is very different. You know, it's more about the exhibition and all that. And so I think what they're doing, and I think some of the major organizations are doing a better job than others, but, you know, they're trying to find ways to make it more interesting because it used to be the best dudes playing the best dudes and whoever wins, you know, that's it. and so now it's about how do you get more of the personalities out so like watching the pro bowl i actually enjoyed it i think the production wasn't great um and it was it was smaller than it probably could have been and certainly the way it used to be as a game but to see the guys faces to see their personalities to hear them joking around like that i think that's very important i love i don't i'm not saying i have the answer at all but it's just it's an interesting conversation of where we are.
28:06And I think an interesting look at the fact that people still really want the competitive nature of sports. Yeah, I agree, man. I do agree. That's a good one, man. So I want to stick on this for just a second, because as I'm thinking about the Olympics and, you know, all these all-stars, you know, all these things come to an end, right? You're, you know, Lindsey Vonn tried to give it a go and she blew out her ACL again. Like your peak is going to come to an end i'm not saying your peak overall but what you're doing now good or bad is going to come to an end and so as i was looking listening to um one of the episodes uh with uh derrick carlson right okay yeah yeah and so when we were talking you guys were talking about that and he talked about his transition you know going from basically rock bottom to transitioning.
28:58And whether it's voluntary, or it's something that you choose with that transition, I wanted to dive in a little bit to what actually happens because you have a TED Talk on it. And so what happens when that title, right, baseball player, entrepreneur, best salesperson, husband, whatever it is, what happens when your identity collapse happens? How do you get out of that. And I know you and Derek talked a little bit about it. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think not a lot of people, I mean, I wouldn't say everybody has that identity crisis or identity collapse. I think for me, and cause I can only speak on my own experiences, right.
29:35You know, when, when my identity crisis happened, it was in 2003 after the college world series, you know, I've talked about it publicly a lot, you know, South Carolina beat us 11, 10. We, we lost two games, our first two games in the college world series. And then we had to go home And I'm sitting there in right field and I'm looking around. I'm like, oh fuck, who am I? I don't know who Sean is. The only thing that I knew is like Sean, the baseball player, the catcher. That's who everybody knew. And so, you know, for me, like I, I equated my worth and who I was to a baseball with red stitching.
30:13and eventually that shit goes away like no matter what in life even if i would have played in the major leagues or went and got drafted and played in the minor leagues at some point that part of my life's going to be over and there's two ways you can handle that to your question one you can unravel at the seams no pun intended right and you can make a bunch of stupid decisions drink womanized like I did in burn relationships, or if you are a level-headed individual and go, okay, well, that was a point in my life. And now I get to find out what's next. I would have handled that a lot differently now than I would have back then.
30:50So I think a constructive way when people are going through an identity shift or a collapse or crisis, however you want to put it, it brings a lot of stress because all they are thinking now is I'm not good enough. And it's important to dive into yourself and really ask yourself, okay, this is how I'm feeling. Is it true? And honestly, it's not true. Yeah. Everybody's worth so much more than what they do. And so the people that come out better, like the, uh, you know, like look at the A-Rods, look at the Derek Jeters, look at everybody that has left a very illustrious career with some adversity, you know, A-Rod will never be in the hall of fame, which I, you know, you can talk about that later, but, um, they were also businessmen and they transitioned into something and they, they were constructive post sport.
31:46Um, I just think a lot of people panic and they don't handle it the right way. The best way to handle it again, to your quiet, to your, to your question is day by day and, and do the things that are hard to move forward. Meaning deal with your feelings. Don't project them. Don't lean on substances or, or women or men or extrinsic things to fill that void. Really dive into who you are and who you want to be, and then make a plan and then work on that plan every day, no matter what. Just with anything. No doubt. We actually, we just touched on one of our first AMAs. So for those who don't know, we are putting that out there and you have the ability to ask us questions every month.
32:34So that was actually pretty much answering Daniel Whittington's. He wanted to know, he said how much, he knew how much baseball meant to you. He wanted to know how did you motivate and refocus yourself after you realized baseball was no longer an option. I think we just answered that one. Yeah. You know, and Daniel Whittington, I love that dude so much. We played little league together. We've known each other. I mean, 90 % of each other's lives. And, you know, that specific question is a great one. And more targeted specifically is like, you know, Daniel, like I loved baseball and it was everything to me.
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33:06But if I loved that, it was everything to me. I always held onto this hope that I would find something else. And, you know, so I thought it was, you know, me being a top salesperson or a baseball coach or a father or a husband. And, you know, the father and the husband thing, that's a real thing, right? But for me, it was finding this, like this opportunity for me really spoke to me because I love this more than baseball. You know, I can't get physically hurt doing this. You know, I mean, it's been emotionally taxing at times. stressful. But man, if we allow space to love something else, then we can't lose.
33:50I love that, man. Good answer. And good question. Thank you, Daniel. Yeah. Very good question. So I want to talk a little, and we're still on this, but talking about getting uncomfortable. So we talked about that. You and Alex talked about that and he and I talked about on his show and it's something that he talks about a lot. And he was born into some discomfort, but he is one that chooses to be uncomfortable, especially when he feels like he's getting just a little bit stagnant. He'll go do a big hike or, you know, try some new project, whatever it is. And so I keep hearing that as, and maybe it's because I'm paying attention.
34:27You know, if you're looking to buy a truck, you look around and all you see is trucks. Same thing. So as I was listening to Zoe Carly's episode, she was talking about being a Navy brat, moving around which I have a lot of family members that have done the same thing. And she was talking about, you know, having a new identity, a new school, like basically every year, you know, that she moved a lot. And the point of all this and what I'm getting to is some people choose discomfort, right? Some people, they choose their environment. They choose their situation. They choose not to deal with whatever it is.
35:01They choose their discomfort. Some people are raised in it. but either way if you survive it i think it teaches you something very very important and that is to stop fearing change great point man great point and the reason i wanted to bring that up is you started talking about it in monday's episode and when you guys were talking about and it's something you and i've talked about several times but it's really running towards your problem and looking at the one thing. And so as I look at discomfort, I think people get in a victim mentality, right? Oh, this is all happening to me, this, that, and the other thing.
35:39And I think sometimes people are choosing it and they don't realize it. You know, again, going back to the backpack, they're carrying stuff around. And so I just thought it was a very good conversation that you guys had about her finding the comfort in being uncomfortable and Alex talking about it. You talk about it all the time. You know, Alex and I talked about it just in the little things. Like if you're at the gym and you say, I'm going to do a 20 minute sauna, are you going to do 20 minutes or are you going to do 10? You know, right. Because you said you were going to do 20, right. And it's about the discipline to do it.
36:12And it's the mentality of saying, this is what I have to do. And so I wanted to get your take just a little bit more on the idea of being uncomfortable because i think a lot of times people get comfortable being uncomfortable but not in a good way meaning they're uncomfortable all the time they're just not willing to do what they need to do to get past whatever it is they need to get past yeah i just think in my own experience like when i lean on comfort i'm retreating for something from something I'm hiding, right? If I'm, I mean, you know, being comfortable is never going to the gym, never pushing my body, um, giving in to fleshly desires about eating whatever I want to eat whenever I want to eat.
36:58Right. And, and to me, like, that's just so easy to do. And what I've realized is, is that the cliche of like, you know, choose the easy way, have a hard life, choose the hard way, have an easy life. I think about that often in decision-making every single day, right? Like, do I, you know, I really don't want to do this. Like for instance, like last week, I haven't squatted in forever. I always do hack squats. I always do like belt squats. I'm like, I walked in the gym like, you know, I should probably squat today. I'm like, fuck. Now I have to, you know, I went over there and I, you know, it was like my third exercise I did.
37:37It was very uncomfortable. But what I realized is it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I didn't hurt my back. Okay. My body isn't the same as it was a year ago. And it's, you know, it's, it's stronger now than it was in the past. So like, can I be open to the fact that it's probably going to be good for me? It's going to feel good. And so I did it and I'm like, wow, that wasn't so bad. And now like, I literally can't wait to go later and do those again. So when we fight through something that we think is going to be an issue, instead of running from the problem, we realize like, wow, what an opportunity to grow.
38:13And like, hey, the worst thing that I thought was going to happen did not happen. And now we go attack that. And then what you do is you build this muscle for resilience. You build this muscle so that way, anytime that you think of something like, oh, I should probably implement this. It could be in business. It could be in your marriage. doesn't matter, a hard conversation or admitting that you're wrong and you're not doing or being your best. It is very simple at that point and easy to execute that hard conversation or try something else because you did something scary over here.
38:51You just hit on it because I want to make sure that this part of the conversation was clear. You know, yes, it's about pushing through at the gym and things like that and doing the things that don't want to do but it's about being uncomfortable and taking chances and putting yourself in a position that is is scary sometimes right and that can be scary can mean whatever to whoever but you know what's coming to mind right now is fashion week for you okay okay here we go here we go Derek Zoolander Derek Blue Steel Derek Zoolander um that is not a comfortable place for you because you are not a model by profession today and so you and Daria actually talked about that on Monday's episode and talking about doing the things that are uncomfortable because you just never know what's going to happen right so she was doing things on Sundays after bartending to work in wrestling and it ended up she was doing all these things and then one meeting met to maria menounos but we you know so it's just on and on and on yeah and so as i was thinking through the number one question i have gotten not on ama just in general is why is sean in fashion week and so i know why and i know i'm leading us there but i want to just a i want you to talk about fashion week because it's a big deal um yeah talk about the billboards and all that and then specifically why because i think it is a very good topic well you know i thought a little bit harder about my answer so you're you actually know maybe a quarter of it let's go okay i'm gonna get to that i'm gonna tell you why but it was you know listen i was up there for the billboard you know um you know we had a billboard up there you know matt and i went up in middle of January.
40:46And after we, you know, saw the billboard, took the pictures and got the videos, it was super surreal. Right. And then we walk into this, uh, Diana Marach or her, her designer clothing store, because he needed to be fitted because he was walking in fashion week. And I didn't even think anything of it. I'm like, all right, I'm going to go in there. No big deal. Um, I'm just, you know, all I'm worried about that point is like, Hey, can we hurry the hell up? Cause I'm starving. And anybody who knows me knows I eat five, six times a day. Don't fuck with my meal schedule. I need to eat. Daddy needs to eat.
41:21And so we go in there and we're there forever. And then finally she goes, I need another male model. I, Matt, he's walking. He's going to do fashion week. And, you know, pointing to me and Matt's like, yeah, it's a great opportunity for exposure. You need to do it. And I'm thinking, Hmm. No, that was my, honestly, I said to my guys, I'm not, I'm not, that's not my thing. I'm not a model. I don't claim to be not the world that I live in, but then I'm sitting there and she goes, no, you're going to, we're going to fit you for this suit. I'm like, shit, it's Valentine's day weekend. Can I pull this off?
42:04Like, and I thought deeper about this what and and this is I and I and if the people that asked you that question don't listen this episode I want you to personally go to them and tell them the real reason I did it I'll send them the link to the episode I have two beautiful daughters as you know and what people don't know is one of them's here um you know they're on ski week um the other one's with uh jackie but um with you uh alina alina's here she's over there doing doing her ipad just you know she can't even pay attention yeah paying attention to what she's doing it's fine it's locked in us obviously yeah totally yeah because what we do is so cool but um you know so you know i look at this situation i have two beautiful daughters and their dream is to go to fashion school.
42:56Oh boy. As we all know, starting something new isn't just hard. It's absolutely terrifying. So much work goes into the thing that you're not entirely sure will work out. And it can be hard to make that leap of faith. Trust me, I know this feeling. And you may be thinking like I did, what if no one buys my products? Don't worry, Shopify is on your side to help. Get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style. So you can get the word out like you have a full marketing team behind you.
43:29Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or even strolling. Best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world-class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping down to processing returns and beyond. It's time to turn those what-ifs into Shopify today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash TDS. Go to shopify.com slash TDS. That's shopify.com slash TDS. So they want to go to fashion school here in the States. And then when they graduate, they want to move to Paris together and start a clothing line called, what was it?
44:20I thought it was sisters clothing line, but they changed the name to something else. So the real reason I did it was because I saw it as an opportunity to bring my daughters to fashion week in New York city. So they can see their dad walking in fashion week and just to know that their dreams are literally fingertips away. that's it and when i came out that door when i when it was my turn my daughters were freaking out they're holding up hearts i love you i see my wife smiling she got the camera on me i'm like bro like this is it my daughters are getting to experience and have a core memory because i chose to get out of my own fucking way and do something weird and uncomfortable and by the way absolutely murdered it i was i was asked back for the fall the big one and i'm like what is this right so okay fine can we can we do a video with us at the gas station and our mocha frappuccinos and yeah yeah it'll be good no that's a fantastic answer yeah and and my knee-jerk reaction yesterday was when you said, Hey, heads up, this is coming was like, what do you mean?
45:40It's PR. It's getting your name in a different circle. It's having proof of concept that you are able to get uncomfortable and do something strange and weird to you, right. That you may not fit in. But as I was sitting there, you know, I went to the room where we're getting ready and, you know, my wife and my two girls, we were with Matt and he introduced me to this girl named Ashley, Ashley Barone oh my gosh why am I blanking on her last name? I'm sorry Ashley I'm sorry sweetie great girl, met her boyfriend and you know we were vibing, I was like hey what do you do? and she goes well I run a podcast I'm like huh I'm like where?
46:23and she goes Staten Island and I go hmm and she goes yeah me and my aunt do it I'm like who's your aunt? she goes Sean Barone. I'm like, Oh my God, the red podcast. I know you guys. I'm supposed to come on. She goes, wait, you're Sean. Yeah. You're going to come here. We're going to, we're going to do stuff. And then I think we're going to come to you. I'm like, yeah, that's cool. So I got to network with somebody else in the industry that's doing big things that I've interviewed, like names like Tom Arnold. Okay. And really cool things. So like, again, not judging an opportunity is, is super important because I got to inspire my children and I got to meet somebody that I'm going to do a show with here in the next few weeks.
47:04And now I have an actual relationship with her. I mean, that's a win. That's a win. Yeah. That's a win. Well, I'm excited for you. And speaking of fashion, man, I know you've gotten a lot of comments, but that jacket. Which one? The one you're wearing right now. Oh, dude. You know what, man? I'm sorry to the viewers. It's a very nice bomber jacket. it's from grunt style it's got all the patches dude i love this jacket and it means so much to me because you know janae sergio is a good friend of mine as you know and she's working with grunt style you know i've had the opportunity to to meet um virtually tim jensen which is a co-founder of grunt style and they sent me a bunch of stuff and i love what they're doing there man for the veterans you know my shirt says no more dead friends because veterans die way too often and a lot of times on the, in the VA lobby, because they're ending their life.
47:59These, these, these members of our country that gave their lives, you know, in a lot of forms, but these veterans gave up, you know, years of their life to fight for us and our family's freedom. They need to be treated better. They need to be healed mentally and emotionally, because as you know, even when we talked to, you know, Marcus and, you know, Marcus and Morgan Luttrell, it was like, our switch is broken when we come back. We don't know how to live in this world. We're used to ops. We're used to, you know, strategy, schedule, implementation, go, go, go. And then we get back here. You hand us a baby.
48:38We all know what to do. These, these veterans are heavily underserved. So I will forever support grunt style. And yeah, man, that's why I wear a lot of their stuff. Man, this jacket, man is my favorite jacket i got it's yeah i mean the jacket's great uh the fact that they're fans of the show and support is awesome um they're you know i looked more into them they're one of the most charitable veteran run organizations um in the country i guess or in the world um and i've got such strong ties i mean my most of my family is represented um in every branch of the military and i just i agree 100 with you because i've seen the sacrifices that my family members have had to make.
49:17And what I don't particularly like is when people are against the military, like, look, you can be against politicians, you could be against policy and all that. But these people volunteer for you to be able to say and think whatever it is you want. So I just, I wanted to, A, just talk about the jacket because it's awesome. But since we're here, you know, from a military perspective, any idea, uh, value, whatever it is that you have an opinion that you have, the way you look, the way you think it's represented in our military and they keep us safe at home. And so, you know, to have an organization that supports them, it's awesome.
49:57So I'm glad you wear it. Um, and I, can I go somewhere real quick? Sure. Go ahead. Absolutely. So I don't know if grunt style does it, but because they support military families, there's a ton of companies out there that do that. Right. So they do big charitable things. They give discounts. So what I would say is if you are listening or watching and you are a company that offers benefits to our military, DOW, first responders, drop it in. You know, I'd love for people that are in those communities to know like, Hey, grunt styles out there. Hey, home Depot gives 10%, whatever it is. So maybe we'll make a clip out of it.
50:38But either way, I would just love for organizations like, yeah, we support the military and see what's out there. I love that, man. Absolutely. Great idea. It's running. All right. All right. I want to get back a little bit on the topic of some of the conversations you've had in the last month. We talked a lot when I was in town, specifically at dinner and Matt just kept talking about Taja and how amazing she was going to be. and she was as advertised it was a great episode matt certainly talked her up appropriately and i just i loved the conversation and one of the things that i really enjoyed was and it was pretty early on in the episode it was talking about her failures of you know i wanted to be on the real housewives and it didn't happen you know and we hear that with so many people you know alex boylan talking about he missed being on survivor and then he's on amazing race like Like just the way things work out.
51:32And you and I have talked about this on air. We talk about this probably every time we talk of not pressing on things, pushing forward, but not pressing and just realizing that things might work out for you, even though you're just devastated in the moment, right? Like I'm sure, and she talked about it, Taja was not happy after how many attempts of trying to be on Real Housewives. And now she's got her spot. with members only. And so I just, I wanted to hit on that because it's something we talk about a lot, but she said it in her own experience. And so I just wanted to give you the opportunity to comment on that and just talk about the interview overall, but specifically about just where we get so tied up in the missed opportunities, the missed partnerships, the guests we couldn't get on.
52:23And then somehow it just kind of works out. Well, first of all, Taja is an unbelievable human being, entrepreneur, you know, her partner's very successful, you know, David Cohn. I mean, I've heard the name. Name drop there. Hi, Dave. You know, a true champion. Right. And Taja is such a fighter and such an amazing and accomplished entrepreneur. You know, she calls herself, I think she said the manifest, the manifesting generator. her she manifests like she generates the life that she wants to have and i think that's so important when you're dealing with certain i guess rejections or perceived failures like hey you know i wasn't i didn't get on the real housewives or or hey that you know network passed on us you know it's all for the betterment of us but what we don't understand is and for the viewers and the listeners is like you judge that no or that rejection or that failure at your current state because you know what it could do for you at that point but what if that comes through and it hamstrings you five years down the road or even a year down the road why don't we wait patiently but also work towards being the best that we can and manifesting the life that we want so that way that when that right opportunity comes along you're unencumbered Yes.
53:49And you guys went so deep on this and you hit on something that a lot of people tend to miss, at least in what I understand and what I see about manifestation, right? And this whole idea, it's the difference between wishing and manifesting. mm-hmm oh yeah which means i wish i wish our show was number one i wish i had a bigger house i wish i wish i wish yeah what you guys talked about is actually feeling it it's internalizing that idea and actually feeling it and you talked about that so i wanted you to just go into that for a second um and then point people back to the episode but you know just talk about the idea of actually feeling the success and knowing that maybe it's you know it's already happened depending on how you feel.
54:34Um, but just knowing that you're working towards something bigger and it's not, again, it's not the vision board or, you know, writing it down, but it's actually internalizing that thing. I'm picking up where you're going and, you know, I believe in multiple time dimensions. Like I, I believe in that, like, I believe what is already going to happen has already happened. We're just waiting for time to catch up. Like I truly believe that. Right. Um, but you know, specifically, I can't take credit for the feeling of the emotions of the attainment of the thing that I want to attain, right? I'm going to give all that credit to Skip Burtman.
55:11Okay. Legendary coach, LSU baseball, had the opportunity to, you know, play for him for a year. And unfortunately I was injured that year, but every single time you walked into the LSU squad room at the old Alex Bach Stadium, the biggest sign that it was in there, it was also in our locker room that said, anything that you could, and it's not his quote, okay? It's not his quote, but he made it famous because nobody knows who the other guy is. I'm sorry. I don't even know his name, but I know that Skip Urban did not create that quote, but here it is. Anything that, Anything you can vividly imagine, ardently desire, and enthusiastically act upon must, absolutely must come to pass.
55:58And as I say that quote, and as it drags on for the 20 seconds, I get a full body chill because I know what it means. And so to tie into the manifestation of the feeling of it wasn't just the quote. It was what he did to enhance the definition of that quote and its validity. Every single pre-practice, pre-game, whatever, we were in that squad room. And you know what we watched? highlight videos of the people that came before us winning national freaking championships and throwing shit up in the air armando rios throwing his helmet up in the air and then in 2000 when lsu won and ryan terrio scored the winning run against stanford and won six five in a hard-fought battle what did he do threw his helmet up in the air just like armando rios did because he's seen it a thousand times he already knew what it looked like he already knew how it felt and so my point is when you have mentorship and leadership like that, like we all had with Skip Burtman, we owe it all to him because he taught us how to do it.
57:12And so when we, when we think about where we want to go with the show, where we think about where we want to be, I'm not just looking at it. I'm feeling it because I know it's going to happen. It's a matter of time. And he gave me, skip burtman gave me that gift to be clear wow yeah yeah absolutely do you have a picture of that sign no i mean i'm sure it's on the internet somewhere but i don't i don't know you have a picture of that sign no man all right we need to find that yeah yeah we'll find a picture when we get our corporate office we'll throw it in there oh all right i like that all right um i have a few more things and i wanted to get into a few of the amas real quick because we did have some great ones um again we already hit one um so the next one is from joey house and i love this one he asked what are three lifestyle habits you think everyone could benefit from i love it man joey house man i used to coach him such a good kid man i love him so proud of him he is a firefighter now and he uh you know he had his first rescue the other day um rescued some animals i mean in a burning building.
58:22So shout out to you, buddy. I love you, man. Fucking so cool, man. You know, three lifestyle things that everybody should have on a daily basis, I think is, you know, take care of your body first and foremost, right? Because if you're not working out, if you're not eating right, then your mind is cloudy and, and you can't make great decisions and you can't be the best that you can be, man. So like for me, like that right there, that lifestyle of this is my standard. This is what I do. You know, I'm in the gym six days a week. And the day that I'm not, I'm moving my body somehow and I'm eating what's going to, you know, bring purpose and substance to my body.
59:05How's it going to help me? Right. So I'm going to execute that daily. The other thing is I think that we need to be very introspective, you know about just the self-reflection of where am I at emotionally how am I treating my people around me that needs to be a daily activity in someone's life because if you can do that the amount of relationships you can fix without even burdening that other party is astronomical comical because most relationships break down because of us. We have to own our own part of that relationship. And a lot of times when you fix you and when you fix everything that you're doing, it's, it's amazing how relationships start to mend themselves, but you can never mend a relationship by telling somebody what they're doing wrong and it's their fault.
59:55That's horseshit, never going to happen. So self-reflection to be the best you, right. And to, and to fix things for yourself. So I just think that is a giving thing. That is, so, you know, we're working on our body and we're working on our relationships. And then I think another really big thing, man, is faith. You know, whatever it is that you believe in, I think you really need to dive into that every single day and just understand that everything that happens, whether you're late, it's for a reason. If you're late and you don't get on the road and you're stuck in traffic because there's an accident involved, most people get really pissed off, but maybe you were supposed to be in that accident.
1:00:31So, Hey, maybe, maybe I'm not because I was late. Like have faith, understand that things that happen are truly on purpose. Like it's part of the design. So if you can accept that, then I think that you'll be a lot less frustrated. And trust me, I still need to work on that. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm a working. Oh boy. As we all know, starting something new isn't just hard. It's absolutely terrifying. So much work goes into the thing that you're not entirely sure will work out. And it can be hard to make that leap of faith. Trust me, I know this feeling. And you may be thinking, like I did, what if no one buys my products?
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1:01:47Sign up for your$1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash TDS. TDS go to shopify.com slash TDS. That's shopify.com slash TDS progress. But I think these are lifestyle habits. You think everyone could benefit from not the ones that you've mastered. So I'll give you a little, right. Exactly. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I just think that those three right there for me, like if you can, if you can start executing those and you'll start to benefit a lot from them And a lot of things that are, I guess, lackluster in your own personal life, I think they'll change. I think they truly will.
1:02:29we've mentioned it multiple times and you've said it as well just about your transformation from last year to i'm sorry from 24 to 25 um and you're right you know it's it's about focusing on yourself first because you know it's cliche as i'll get out but you can't help other people until you're you're working on yourself and you help yourself so um okay the next one i like this one is from Aaron Williams, a funding architect. And he said, what is the biggest challenge that you faced when you got started and how did you overcome it? I love Aaron. He's a great dude. He's in the Gold Coast in Australia.
1:03:10Great, great man. Love him. New friend, solid dude.
1:03:21I know for a fact that I hesitated in starting this because I didn't have everything that I needed right I I didn't have the microphone I didn't have the studio I didn't have production I didn't have the beautiful flashy video because when you look at the people that come before you like the Joe Rogans and all that kind of stuff even the Andy Frisellas it is amazing amazing platform all this influence and in the in the in the flashy stuff like the production like I didn't have that right um but but what happened Aaron is I got so upset and so uncomfortable and so mad that I was just wasting away in something else that I was doing and that wasn't giving me any real joy or purpose and I just said okay hopped on the phone how to start a podcast with no equipment.
1:04:10And it came up like, you know, I asked my friend Natalie as well. And she's like, go to anchor. And I'm like, Oh, well, I just started talking into my phone. And it was a way for me to execute something that I wanted to do and kind of release the fact that it wasn't where I wanted it to be. Because I think that everybody's waiting for that special time that, that, okay, that fission point where shit pops off and you have all these money, like resources and you can implement beautiful production like we have now. That's not how it works, man. You got to put in the time. You got to be willing to suck.
1:04:46You got to be willing to do it bare bones. Bootstrap that shit, man. And that's what helped me is I just bootstrapped it and worked my ass off and then there was nobody. And then all of a sudden there's a company full of partners and an amazing production, PR, agent, brand manager. That's all because I chose to move. i chose to just do it it's yeah the old analysis by or paralysis by analysis right it's never getting off the launch pad and i think you're right so many people get get scared and i'm you know i'm dealing with it right now with my show of getting season two out it's like i want all the things right because it's season two and we learn from season one and all that but it's realizing that it's not going to be perfect.
1:05:36And we talked about this last time, you know, if you're not looking back going, Oh, that was kind of cringe a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, then you're not moving forward. Um, so this actually plays right into the next question. Our final one, and this is from Tom Williams, which I assume is not any relation to Aaron Williams, but we just got a bunch of Williams asking questions. So, um, he said, what was one thing from the beginning when you were recording on your phone that you still consider fundamental, whether you knew it or not.
1:06:07I love Tom, man. Like this. Okay. Let me, let me edify Tom Williams real quickly. Okay. I met Tom in a community, you know, a little$49 a month community. And he's been around since ground zero with my show. He has listened to it every single year. He has never left my side. He's an OG. okay so thank you for always being loyal go tom and always giving great feedback too man he's a he's a friend like this guy has turned into a really good friend um what did i do then that i still one thing from the beginning when you were recording on your phone that you still consider fundamental do shit you're scared of i was mortified mortified to record my first episode man like who am i i was mortified dude and so you know do the things that scare you as long as i'm not saying go skydiving if you truly don't feel led to go skydiving because i'll never jump out of a plane that's just stupid to me never never never never never like there's very few things i will say never.
1:07:20I'm not jumping out of a perfectly good freaking airplane. That's just dumb. I know. I've tried. We've had that conversation. We've had the conversation. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of shit that you're not going to get me to do. You can try, but it's fun. No, man. I just think that, you know, doing things that really, really scare you is just going to build that thick skin and it's going to give you proof that you are unstoppable, that you are determined, that you are disciplined because too many people are backing off because they're scared and how many i mean would we have amazon bezos was scared would there be amazon i mean it started in his garage dude i mean he didn't start with everything so why why do we think that we have to so do it scared just do it man like really that's why nike's so genius just do it you know like why not why not um yes you know it's we've looked at over the last you know two years of the evolution of this show and 100 there have been times where we have stepped way outside of our comfort zone um you know done things that were very very scary very unknown but we stepped into them.
1:08:37You know, and having guests, I don't think we would have had the success that we've had if we hadn't done the things that we were unsure of and we didn't know going into it. You know, Marcus and Morgan Luttrell talked about it. You're running into the firefight, not knowing the outcome, but knowing that you're as prepared as you can be. And so being prepared to step in, you know, to an interview with Jay Leno or Emily Harrington, Bijou Bot, whoever it is, like, Like those are not easy things to do. No. The Jay Leno thing. It was funny because I was thinking Jay Leno.
1:09:15When, before you said it, like that was a very scary moment. You're sitting down in front of a legend, you know. There was so much wrapped around that. And we've talked about the trip. So we don't have to do that again today, but it was a big moment because you're sitting in his museum surrounded by you know american and world car culture with this legend that you've literally grown up watching yeah yeah and he also had a mini tank and a full-size tank too by the way just throwing that out there you know real quick though you mentioned her name emily harrington i was communicating with her last night i saw the post yeah and um i'm so proud of her you know and everything that she has done, her team, you know, Sarah, you know, over at Align, like they're all just crushing it.
1:10:05And she has a great friend friendship with Alex Arnold, right? Yeah. And he just climbed the top of that, the biggest building in Taipei. But I'm sitting there, you know, we were flying back from, you know, fashion week and I go to my seat back experience and I'm going to all the movies from A to Z and there it is, Girl Climber. And I just looked and I looked at, you know, I looked at Jackie. I said, look at this shit. And she goes, what? I go, Emily's got distribution on United. This is incredible. Like, you know, and so I just, I just want to say publicly, I'm so proud of her. You know, like everything that she's done is super uncomfortable.
1:10:46Her and Alex support the hell out of each other. And I told her, I was like, man, I want to do something with you and Alex like ASAP. She goes, let's set it up, you know? So, you know, uh, Sarah will be getting a call from me today, um, from a line and, uh, see if we can't do something in person. But, but I mean, like from the standpoint of like, there's so much community with them, friendship and support, like Alex and Emily embody what true friendship is. I'm here with you. I'm gonna be here while you do this and like dude she commentated on that thing that Alex is I was like holy shit she's on Netflix like what the hell like this is great I'm like I don't know how she's there I told her I was like I watched five to ten minutes of that thing and my anxiety was just way too high and I had to turn it off I couldn't do it dude because I'm afraid of heights so I was like yeah no no no I'm not watching this but what an incredible incredible job she has done, Alex has done, Align PR has done with Sarah.
1:11:53Like everything that they're doing with each other is just, it's inspirational, man. So what I was gonna ask is doing something with them, does that mean we're gonna be on the side of a cliff with them or more like sitting in a chair in a studio talking? No, man, I think, I mean, listen, man, I can't confirm that we ever will. Like I can only try, right? It's a much bigger decision above my pay grade. It has to fit, but no, I'll be on the ground. all i'm asking now all i'm asking is you yeah no i'm gonna be on the ground maybe on the ground um and hopefully they're sitting next to me um you know in a chair it's called b-roll we can yeah we'll pull that shit i'm not no man no no no no no no oh man all right i got one final thing that i wanted to talk about uh as we wrap this thing up today this has been fun man i i really like doing a monthly cadence on this um you know again we were kind of nervous at least i was nervous about do we have enough to call it to cover every single month and my goodness you know putting out two episodes a week if you guys aren't subscribed on apple spotify youtube please do um and i want to wrap this whole thing up with an idea we started with but it just you keep saying you said it again with friendship community it's about the society it's about community it's about finding people yeah you know you talked about a 49 online group and then boom your best buddies with Tom Williams, right?
1:13:18So it's about people finding community and we just happen to have one. So talk about the school community and what the heck we're doing there. Yeah. Thank you, man. You know, everybody can go to, you know, the determined society.com and automatically, if they subscribe to our newsletter, they'll be enrolled into our free school account. All right. This is going to be, there's a message board there. There's going to be a determination blueprint thing that we do. It's going to be a five to seven day thing at night, But then also they'll get to be in community with people, right? And they get to post their challenges.
1:13:51They get to ask us questions. They will get to see behind the scenes things that nobody else sees. See, there's a whole bunch of things that I've filmed that has never been put out that is going to go specifically for there. There's going to also be courses in there. There's going to be some of my keynotes in there. But most importantly, even with the free portion of the community, you don't have to ever pay. you can if you want there'll be multiple levels you can pay zero you can pay 97 a month you can you know be a part of the mastermind cool like whatever whatever blows your skirt up you can do all right but the point is even with the free community i'm gonna hop on every month for a coaching call with everybody there they'll get to interact with me and um they'll get to ask questions we get to dive into what they're going through but yeah it's very simple you know join for free like what you know come on like we haven't even launched this yet and we already got 40 people in it dude we haven't even it's been great i mean there's conversations going on there's people that i do not know from real life social whatever it is and so it's great um and like you said we have many more features we didn't want to roll out every feature obviously right off the bat So just giving people community, giving them a place where there are like-minded people within the society that can help you or just hear what's going on with other people.
1:15:14We do have the features like the AMA. So if you're in the school community, you do get preferential treatment and more guaranteed that we'll be talking about your question on the air as opposed to out on the general social. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's a good question. No, DeterminedSociety.com, TheDeterminedSociety.com. Sign up for the newsletter. and then you'll be entered into the school community so there you go buddy cool well it's been a good month uh good conversation today and anything big that you want to hit on before we wrap this thing up man as far as what's coming up any interviews or events i know we have some in the future uh some big ones that we're trying to get pulled off here uh but anything coming up in the short term you wanted to hit on shoot man i got ted talk coming up in uh march march 21st here in Naples.
1:16:02Um, it's about being the theme is being a lifelong learner. Um, I think both sessions are, are sold out. Um, really happy about it. I'm very excited about this, uh, conversation that I'm going to have or this talk. Um, but I mean, there's, there's so much going on in our world right now, man. And, but, but that one right there, you know, I, I really want to focus on and, and, you know, this is my second one. And I know there's a lot of people out there that, you know that's their dream is to be on a you know a tedx or something like that and this is something that i've had the opportunity to do a second one for like in the last two years and so like the version of sean four years ago would have just killed in maim to be where i'm at right now so i want everybody to understand that you know first things first start the brand start the thing and then grow into it and you get to do really cool shit um we're gonna be traveling up to new York again the next couple weeks there's some big big name that we're working on right now to interview and you know that works out it's going to open up a lot of different things in Hollywood for us so we're I'm excited but I'm also not getting too high not getting too low we're just taking this as it comes but a lot of great things on the horizon for the Determined Society show and then myself and all you guys and you know or hey man who knows who knows who knows somebody well always a pleasure sorry we had to do it virtual this time but you get you know a little jack speech yeah man it's okay it was good dude it was good it was really good man it's a great conversation they get better every time man you know appreciate that so you know um but no thank you bro and and uh it was a very good conversation and it was fun giving more of a peek behind the curtain and answering questions that people had.
1:17:51Um, I think there's massive value in that. And, um, you know, for the audience, thank you. Um, again, if this is your first time listening, um, I only ask one thing, subscribe to the show, engage in it, share it with somebody, you know, love and trust. And, uh, you know, like just tell us what you love about it. You know, like be here because what you'll find in every episode, we talk about real life stuff. We don't talk about bullshit. We, we don't give any, you know, inauthentic reactions. We're ourselves here. And we talk about the things that are hard that are going to make our lives better.
1:18:25So I want your life to be better. So I want you to be a listener of the show. It's not about me. It's about you, the viewer, the listener. So tell everybody about it. Leave a review, written review on Apple, please, you know, leave a star on Spotify, send a comment on YouTube and subscribe. but let me know you're here because we will respond. All right. We're not gonna not respond to you. So, um, thank you guys again. Um, and until next time, stay determined.
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What happens when the thing that defines you disappears?
In this behind-the-scenes Pulse episode, Shawn French opens up about losing his identity after baseball and how that collapse became the catalyst for purpose, growth, and reinvention.
This conversation dives deep into discomfort, community, and why embracing change is the key to building the life you truly want.
Key Takeaways
-Losing your purpose can lead to finding your true calling.
-Discomfort is necessary for real growth.
-Community and relationships accelerate success.
-Manifestation requires action and emotional belief.
-Failure often redirects you to better opportunities.
-Fear of change keeps most people stuck.
-Doing hard things daily strengthens your mindset.
Connect with me :
https://link.me/theshawnfrench?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaY2s9TipS1cPaEZZ9h692pnV-rlsO-lzvK6LSFGtkKZ53WvtCAYTKY7lmQ_aem_OY08g381oa759QqTr7iPGA
Pat Sitkins
https://www.instagram.com/patsitkins/
The Determined Society is hosted by Shawn French — a show for people who refuse to quit. Every episode goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the real stories behind resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of a life built on your own terms.
Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all others.. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave a review. It helps more than you know.
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