173: Inside My Mind: Building The Future

30:10You have a voice. Make people feel safe in the workplace, on the team within the culture. Number two, get vulnerable and stay vulnerable.

30:22Nick Bare:Strong cultures don't hide their weaknesses. They make a habit of sharing them so they can improve together. I think this is really important. Get vulnerable and stay vulnerable. And the third big idea, roadmap your story. It's not about nice sounding value statements. It's about flooding the zone with vivid narratives that work like GPS signals guiding your group towards its goal.

30:56And I share that I've been reading culture code because there's a few things that have happened this past month that have reinforced these big ideas that I'm reading through culture code. I've learned a lot in April. of 2026.

31:19And it's not from watching a video or reading a book necessarily.

31:26Nick Bare:They've been reinforced by maybe watching videos or reading books. Or maybe the seed has been planted by these books or videos. But I've learned what I'm about to share from in-person real experiences. And I'll talk about two here. The first, we had the opportunity a few weeks ago to spend a few days with the GBRS team. So DJ Shipley and his team came in from Virginia Beach to Austin, Texas to spend a few days. We recorded a podcast. they put me through their standards performance fitness test, which was a lot of fun. I scored pro. I maxed it out. We did a dinner with our team and their team. DJ brought their head trainer and his coach, Vernon Griffith, who put our team through a few different workouts, opened my eyes to a different style of training that is more athletic, that is more core, that is more functional.

32:46Definitely put me through a warmup that I haven't experienced in a long time. Overall, it was an amazing time spent with some amazing people. And I unfortunately can't say that happens at this level very frequently. There was something different about this group and this crew that left a big meaningful impact on me and our team.

33:22And I don't say that to discredit other groups

33:26Nick Bare:or other people that we've spent time with in the past by any means. but I think our entire staff, our entire team that spent any amount of time with DJ and the GBRS crew can say that this one just felt different.

33:53And some of the things that I left those couple of days thinking of even after, I mean, GBRS, DJ, many of them, most of them, all of them spent time in the military. Some in tier one units, Navy SEALs, DevGrew, the elite of the elite, the tip of the spear. They are service-minded, service-driven, service guided people. Their mission in life is to serve others, serve their country, serve their families, serve the teams that they are working on and working with. And the realization is that in America, service-minded people, especially men, are a dying breed. It's very unfortunate. It's very unfortunate.

35:08You have a lot of people today whose mission in life is to excel and propel themselves forward, make more money for themselves, get a better job, a bigger promotion for themselves,

35:26Nick Bare:buy a bigger house for themselves, get ahead of everyone else at the expense of other people at all costs. And that's sad. It is. Service-minded people, especially men, are a dying breed. And there needs to be a revival of service-driven individuals.

36:00And after spending a few days with GBRS and sitting down with DJ during the podcast, maybe thinking about my work, my mission, my children, what I want my children or I hope my children pursue with their professional and personal lives after I lead and teach them and show them the way.

36:30You know, when I think about service-driven individuals, I instantly think of the military

36:39Nick Bare:and probably because I come from a military background and experience. After college, I served in the army for four years. I was an active duty infantry officer. And when I think of service, selfless service, I think of military, just naturally. That's where my mind is drawn towards. But we have military, we have law enforcement, We have first responders, firefighters, nurses, EMS. This nation cannot operate without those individuals. We need service-minded, service-driven people. And what makes these people so awesome and amazing is that they've chosen a profession that puts people, people's lives above and before their own.

37:43And one of the things that DJ was telling me,

37:46Nick Bare:this might've been on the podcast or off the podcast, because GBRS, they train and work with military, law enforcement, first responders, elite units, the tip of the spear, helping the tip of the spear get a little bit better, a little bit stronger, a little bit faster. You know, when we think about service driven individuals, you have people who join the military and go overseas and fight wars and serve our country. But we have people on our own soil, within our own nation who are fighting daily battles but they have to go home at night. One of the things he brought up was how some of these SWAT teams, they will go in and do some dangerous, dirty missions within their own cities.

38:45They will see horrific things and they will put the lives and the welfare of the people in their community above their own. and once that stays over and the mission's complete, they go back home. I mean, they could be doing some really amazing,

39:11Nick Bare:yet at the same time, horrific things that is just part of the job at 3 p.m., and by 4.30 p.m., they're back home giving their kids baths and getting dinner ready to sit down and eat as a family unit. and that's got to be really tough to be able to separate the two and do the job you have to do within your community, but then go home at night to your family and not carry the weight and heaviness from the daily job into the household. There's a lot of people here in this country who are fighting wars on our own soil for us that I don't think we see or recognize or show enough support of on a daily basis because without them, we'd be pretty lost.

40:13So sitting down with DJ and the GBRS team, I just had that realization that, man, we gotta be doing more for our service members. They need more love. They need more support. or they need more, they need more of us. And I'm asking myself lately, how, what, where? What does that look like? And it's had my mind and my gears turn in a lot

40:44because we need those people. I don't want to see what this nation or this world would look like without those people, truthfully. Another key takeaway from the GBRS team is, for me being someone who's in the fitness industry and I've been in the fitness industry for 14 years now,

41:08Nick Bare:at different parts of my life, so much of what fitness was for me was to be impressive. And I'll be honest, it was either to be impressive to myself or to put myself in a position to be impressive to other people. Pursuing a certain race or a time or a PR to be considered impressive. And I valued a lot of my self-worth in being impressive. But sitting down with DJ during the podcast and talking to the GBRS crew, they don't pursue fitness to be impressive. They don't pursue fitness to get a certain time at a certain race or competition to post it online. Fitness for them is to be an asset to the people around them as opposed to a liability.

42:09Nick Bare:How do they become stronger for their team? How do they become stronger for their family? how they become stronger for their business and their community. How do they make themselves with fitness, health and fitness, an asset to the people around them to support, not to be impressive. And I respected that tremendously. Now that was a few weeks ago. A few days ago, we just wrapped up the Pittsburgh Marathon. This was our first year being, we as BPN, being a partner to the Pittsburgh Marathon. We are the on-course nutrition partner. So our GoGels and electrolytes were on course for the race. And this race for us was much more than just being a sponsor of another race.

43:10This was our homecoming, if you will.

43:13Nick Bare:I grew up in Pennsylvania. I was born in Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania, the Hershey area. I went to school at IUP, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which is right down the road from Pittsburgh. So going back home and being a partner to the Pittsburgh Marathon, it felt really good. It felt right. it's back where all the the roots began that's where everything started literally everything that's where I fell in love with fitness it's where I launched BPN out of a small college apartment it all started in PA so going back to be a partner of the Pittsburgh Marathon meant a lot to me and to the team and to the community, I believe.

44:16And I will tell you, the couple of days we were in Pittsburgh did not disappoint.

44:27So Wednesday morning, I landed in Pittsburgh.

44:30Nick Bare:Wednesday evening, we went to the Pittsburgh Pirates game. and the events organization called P3R that runs the Pittsburgh Marathon, they've been great to work with. They facilitated a lot of what I'm going to share and talk about. So I have to give them credit. But they invited us to the Pittsburgh Pirates game Wednesday evening. I got to throw out the first pitch of that game. They played the Cardinals. I was so nervous. I haven't been that nervous or something in a long, long time, mainly because I played baseball growing up. I mean, it was my dream at one point to play college baseball, but I wasn't good enough.

45:16Nick Bare:My brother, however, Preston, he played college baseball. He played D1 at Longwood University for a few years and then he transferred to Bloomsburg University to be closer to home. Longwood University's in Virginia. And when I played baseball in high school, I had a case of what's called the yips. It's when you overthink the throw. Baseball is such a mental game. I would overthink the throw to the point where I couldn't throw the ball from me to the camera that I'm recording into right now, which is five feet away. I would just overthink it. So I stopped playing baseball because I got a case of the yips.

45:57Nick Bare:Then a few years later, when I was in the army, we were doing our EIB training. expert infantryman badge training. I passed all of the stations and then I got to the hand grenade throw. And when I was testing on the hand grenade throw, I was thinking back to playing baseball and having the yips and it got in my head again. And I could not throw the hand grenade in the small circle it had to go into because overthinking it in that case of the yips came back. So then fast forward a few days ago, I'm standing on the mound to throw out the first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game in front of all these people and all these players.

46:43I blacked out up there. And before I went out on the mound, my dad told me, hey, just remember,

46:52Nick Bare:you're going to throw this pitch to the catcher. After you throw the pitch, walk up to the catcher, take the ball, shake his hand. My dad is the biggest Pittsburgh sports fan ever. He loves the Steelers. He loves the Penguins. He loves the Pirates. So my dad was on the field with me, absolutely jacked. And I think he was more nervous than I was nervous. So I get on the mound and all I'm thinking in my head is, get this pitch across home plate. After you throw it, walk up to the catcher, shake his hand, take the ball, walk off, you're good. The whole BPN team was watching this game from a suite above.

47:38I get on the mound, there's no catcher. But all I see is the Pittsburgh

47:48Nick Bare:Pirates parrot mascot dressed up, holding a glove at home plate. And for some reason, I just cannot connect all these dots. I'm like, where's the catcher? Why is there a parrot here? What's going on? Long story short, I throw the ball. It lands right in his mitt. Successful throw. Came to. All good. Me and my dad and the team went and joined the rest of the BPN staff in the suite. and all my nerves went away. But it was such an amazing experience. And one of the reasons it was such an amazing experience was to be able to share that with my dad. To share the whole week with my dad was extremely rewarding.

48:44And as I get older, and I realized that I don't spend much time with my dad anymore.

48:54Nick Bare:I mean, he lives in Pennsylvania. I live in Texas. and we see each other frequently, but now when we see each other, he's playing with my kids, his grandkids and life's busy and chaotic. And there's not many moments that we get to just spend together and experience together. And I was in Pittsburgh with him from Wednesday to Sunday and we got to spend a lot of time together. and that was very meaningful and valuable to both of us. The kids didn't come with, Steph didn't come with, they stayed back in Texas. Me and my dad shared an Airbnb and it was just really good. It was really fun to be able to do that, to be able to share that first pitch experience Wednesday night and then Friday we had the shakeout run in the evening and me, him, the BPN team logged three miles downtown Pittsburgh together and my dad was going for a big PR at the half marathon on Sunday.

50:09Nick Bare:So I cooked all of his meals and prepared all of his nutrition Thursday and Friday for his carb up leading up into the race and he ate everything I put in front of him.

50:23It was just like something we haven't been able to do together before. Saturday, we had the expo

50:32Nick Bare:and it was a huge turnout and big success. And people were asking for my dad's photo and shaking his hand and talking to him. And Sunday was race day. So Sunday, the plan was, I had my dad on a training program the last couple of weeks and he was going for a half marathon PR. His current PR in the half marathon is around one hour, 49 minutes. And he did that at the Austin International half marathon two years ago. and that course is really fast. It's, I believe, net downhill. It's a big PR course and that's where he set his PR but he wants to break that PR at some point. So in preparation for the Pittsburgh half, it's a half marathon and a full marathon.

51:23Nick Bare:I put him on a training program. Like I said, I controlled his diet the days leading up to. I carved him up and the plan was that I was going to pace him to achieve that PR. Sunday comes, it's a perfect race day. It was 35 degrees in the morning, blue sky, no wind, cool temperature, just ideal race conditions. Energy was high in the city. and it ended up being me, my dad, BPN athletes, Joey, French, and then BPN employees, Jake and Simon, and me and my dad. And we all ran together this half marathon and we were all pacing in and we were cheering them on and we pushed them really hard. We pushed them really, really hard.

52:27And I got to say, it was one of the most beautiful scenic race courses I've ever been on in my life. It was stunning.

52:36Nick Bare:You go through all these different small towns and pockets of Pittsburgh. You run over multiple bridges by the river. It was beautiful. I mean, it wasn't an easy course. There's some nice little climbs. You have some good downhills, but you have some nice gradual climbs as well. Nothing crazy, but some gradual climbs. And my dad was on pace up until mile 11, 10 and a half and 11. But I could tell he was pushing. I mean, he was working for it and we were pushing him hard. and we got to mile 11 and there was about a half mile gradual incline over this bridge. And he put in a big effort on that bridge and that definitely taxed him a little extra.

53:31Nick Bare:And when we got over the bridge, we had about a mile and a half left and we continued to push him. We knew we were going to be close to that PR. So we were pushing, we were pushing, We were pushing, we were yelling at him and he was in it. He was in it. And I could see his body start to fade where he started stumbling a little bit. His form was breaking down. He was, the only way to describe it, he was digging and he was in a deep, dark place. And we got to a mile out and I could see his body started to sway. And I knew that as soon as we crossed the finish line, he was probably going to collapse because he was putting in such a big effort.

54:14Nick Bare:It wasn't going to be one of these races where you finish, you walk it off. No, he was going to collapse. We keep pushing him. We get to maybe two, 300 meters out and he had nothing left. He spent it all. We're like, he couldn't even walk anymore. So we threw him over our shoulders. he's still running but we're holding his arms up and we carried him across the finish line and as soon as he got across the finish line EMS came up we put him in a wheelchair they put him on a stretcher his face was completely white there was no life in my dad's body and I was concerned and they took him to the medical tent and he was in there for maybe 15 minutes and I was expecting to be there for literally days in the hospital with my dad based off the way he looked when he went into the medical tent.

55:15Nick Bare:I'm filming with Landry and I'm talking about what happened and what I think we're gonna have to do next. And I look over and next thing I see is my dad walking out of the medical tent. I don't know how this man bounced back so fast. I can't explain it because when he went in there on the stretcher, there was no life in this man's body. and he rose from the dead walking out of that tent. And he said they just gave him a Gatorade and let him get off his feet a little bit and he bounced back pretty quickly. I mean, he didn't feel great the rest of the day, but he walked down to the tent

55:52Nick Bare:and we gathered the team together. We went and grabbed some burgers, fries and beers afterwards. And then me and my dad went back to the Airbnb and I headed to the airport to fly back home to go back to the family. and my dad's doing great now. He fully recovered. He's already texting me this morning asking what race he should and can do next.

56:15Nick Bare:But as I thought about it, sitting in the airport and on the plane, it was a two hour, 45 minute plane ride home. I was thinking about how proud I was and am of my dad's effort. I don't care about time. I don't care about PR. I don't care about place. It was the effort that he put in. I haven't seen many people empty the tank like my dad emptied the tank on that race. He gave it everything that he had. Not for himself. Truthfully, not for himself. He wanted to represent BPN and me in the most meaningful way. That's why he pushed so hard.

57:08Growing up, my dad never talked about hard work, but he showed us in everything that he did. He grew up on a dairy farm. Hard work is not foreign to him.

57:23Nick Bare:Growing up on a dairy farm, you wake up every morning, you go milk the cows before you go to school, before you go to work. And every night when you get back from school or work, whatever you're doing, you're milking the cows again. My grandfather, Hershey Bear, very hardworking man. My dad and uncle who grew up on that farm, very hardworking men. My dad never had to talk to me about what hard work meant or looked like, but he showed me. And I remember every morning, eating breakfast in the kitchen with my brother, sitting at the table, and my dad just knocking out pushups on the kitchen floor.

58:05Nick Bare:And we never said anything. We didn't acknowledge it. He just every morning was knocking out pushups while we're eating breakfast on the kitchen floor. This was another example of, you know, my dad will be 64 years old at the end of this month. Hard work wins. Effort is rewarded. It doesn't matter about the time, the PR, the place. It is the effort you put in. My dad emptied it at that race. He gave it everything he had, everything, to the point where his body collapsed because he wanted to make his son proud. He wanted to represent BPN in the community in the most meaningful way. And it wasn't about himself.

59:00I respect my dad a lot. I love him. And he showed up for that race

59:09Nick Bare:and for the community and the mission and everything that we represent. I learned a lot this past weekend from watching my dad. And I know that a lot of other people did too. Okay, so what I'm loving, a few quick hitters that I want to share. I'm loving watching other people succeed and win much greater than succeeding and winning myself. And I say that very authentically and honestly and genuine. win. I've talked about this before, but whenever I would see someone winning in the past, I would become angry and somewhat resentful because I thought that their wins took away from my wins. And I've learned over the years that it doesn't work that way.

1:00:06Nick Bare:There is opportunity and there is room for everyone to win. And I now enjoy watching other people win much greater than my own personal wins. Like being able to experience that half marathon with my dad, even though he didn't PR, that was a big win. I got so much more joy and satisfaction watching and experiencing and being a part of that, being able to coach that than me going and training for and running a half marathon and setting a PR. in early April we hosted the second annual G1M Ultra at Bear Ranch and it was an epic performance this year it made its way to two runners battling it out for the win and those two runners were Mark Dowdle and Kendall Picado-Fallis Kendall also was one of the last two in the 2025 G1M Ultra.

1:01:17Nick Bare:This year, Mark Dowdle ended up winning 306 miles, 73 laps, 73 hours total. And those guys ran through crazy rainstorms. The trail once again got absolutely flooded and wrecked and destroyed. and being able to watch and witness that was awesome. Like seeing Mark's attitude and positivity and just like energy even after pushing 306 miles, 73 hours

1:02:02was really inspiring. Yeah, the physical feat was inspiring, but the positivity and the attitude that he carried the entire race was extremely inspiring.

1:02:17Nick Bare:Being able to watch and experience other people win, putting myself in a position to be a guide, truly a guide and not the hero, to be the one who facilitates the opportunity and experience for other people to come in and achieve and succeed and win. I enjoy that now much more than being the person in the spotlight.

1:02:43Truthfully, I do. And I'm sure that realization will guide some of these future projects

1:02:52Nick Bare:and events and initiatives that we work on. and I invest time and money and energy and resources into. Some tools that I'm loving in the moment. So I don't know if you can tell, but I'm wearing my Garmin watch again. And for about a month, I stopped wearing my Garmin watch and I was wearing the G-Shock watch. And I switched the G-Shock because I just don't want to be reliant on data any longer. And the G-Shock couldn't track my running, sleep, paces, heart rate, HRV, none of that stuff. The G-Shock couldn't. My Garmin does. And I had this hypothesis that by switching back to a G-Shock away from a Garmin, that it was going to unlock all of this mental bandwidth and energy and reduce stress and all of these things.

1:04:00And I'll be honest, through that hypothesis

1:04:03Nick Bare:and the experiment of the last 30 days, it really didn't change much. I didn't feel any different. I came to the obvious realization that I actually don't rely on that data very much. And I don't look at it very often. I never open up my Garmin app. I never open up my Strava app. So I started wearing the Garmin watch again this past weekend because I had to pace my dad and I wanted to see my pace so we could help him PR. And I just haven't taken it off since for one main reason, the flashlight. The flashlight on the Garmin watch is so useful. For me, it's the most useful part of the watch. Shortly after I stopped wearing my Garmin, I was wearing a G-Shock.

1:04:55Nick Bare:I wake up typically in the middle of night, one time between 2 and 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom. And before we go to sleep, we have all these pillows in our bed, decorative pillows. So before we go to sleep every night, We throw all these decorative pillows on the floor and the dogs sleep next to my side of the bed. So when I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I have to maneuver around all these pillows and the dogs. And what I've been doing for years is I just turn the light on my Garmin watch to make sure I'm not stepping on a dog or tripping over a pillow. The first couple of days after transitioning from the Garmin to the G-Shock, I woke up the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

1:05:42Nick Bare:Navigating through the pillows and the dogs to get to the toilet was tough. But one night I'm walking back, I tripped over a dog. I fell face first into the frame of the bed, busted up my whole face. And in that moment, I was like, you know what? I missed the flashlight. Even this morning, Charlie wake up extra early and I decided to take her on a walk outside. It was still dark. It was about 5.15 AM and we went for a 45 minute walk outside. I turned that light on my Garmin watch the entire time and it was super useful. It was a great safety feature. So I just haven't taken my Garmin off yet since getting back.

1:06:28Nick Bare:I'm not sure if I'm I'm going to go back to my G-Shock. I might just keep wearing my Garmin again because like I said, it didn't make that much of a difference in my life and I really missed the light. I really missed the light and the light is such a game changer. So I'm going to keep wearing it mainly because of the light on the Garmin watch. It's probably the best feature they've ever created of all the features they've ever launched within their technology. Some other things I'm loving right now, belt squats. We got a few new pieces of equipment delivered from play at the gym here. A belt squat is one of those.

1:07:10I don't know why it's taken me so many years to realize how awesome a belt squat is.

1:07:18Nick Bare:So I've been belt squatting every week. It is very little taxing on the lower back. I've hurt my back many times in the past, barbell squatting, leg pressing, and the belt squat is a great lower body strength training movement that has minimal impact on the lower back. So I love belt squats right now. Running shoes wise, I've been a huge Saucony fan for many years. I've actually been running in Puma running shoes lately. I think Puma has done a great job at bringing their running shoe game back. And I've loved all of their running shoes. So between the Garmin Lite, the belt squat, Puma running shoes, there's some of the tools that I love right now.

1:08:11Nick Bare:And I got to give a shout out to a food that I'm loving right now from a local bakery. So I get this at the farmer's market. It's Boone Family Bakery. I think one of the most slept on, underrated, and best types of bread. Rosemary sourdough. Go to your local farmer's market or local bakery, sourdough bakery. If they have a rosemary or a rosemary garlic loaf, get it. At night, before going to bed, I get a slice of rosemary sourdough. I put some Kerrygold butter on that with some flaky sea salt. It is delightful. and Boone Family Bakery here in Georgetown, Texas. There's his spot on. It sells out so fast at the farmer's market.

1:09:00Nick Bare:I have to get there fast, but that's my go-to sourdough right now. In addition to what Steph makes, Steph makes great, amazing homemade sourdough, but we don't do the rosemary at the house. So I got to go get my rosemary sourdough from Boone Family Bakery. and then Steph at home makes her amazing just traditional regular sourdough. A couple of weeks ago, she made a cinnamon raisin loaf, which was next level. But if you can find some rosemary or rosemary garlic sourdough, get it. And last but not least, what I'm not loving and what's been on my mind. They're kind of the same thing in this case today.

1:09:48What I'm not loving is an overly disciplined and structured routine.

1:10:02And I'm going to be very careful with the way I explain this. I'm a huge proponent and it's gotten to me at this point in my life of discipline and structure and routine I will always be disciplined structured and routine but at what expense and I heard this quote that I've shared on the podcast a few weeks ago but I'm going to bring it back in today

1:10:34Nick Bare:Okay, routines make for great servants, but poor masters. And maybe this has happened to you. It's definitely happened to me before, many times, unfortunately, where my routine and my discipline and my structure becomes a master to my life. I become a slave to the routine, to the discipline and to the structure. And it actually holds me back from experiencing other parts of life because I don't allow myself to break the discipline, break the routine, break the structure. So the way that I've heard it explained is routine or habit is an excellent servant for structuring life, fostering productivity and achieving goals.

1:11:32Nick Bare:but a poor master when it leads to rigidity, mindless repetition, and a lack of conscious choice. To make routines work for you rather than against you, they must be intentionally designed, regularly reviewed for improvement, and flexible enough to allow for adaptability. I have struggled with this for a long time where I have a hard time breaking my discipline, my structure, my routine because it is a master to my life to the extent where I can't break it. I can't be flexible. I can't adapt because I'm so married to the routine and structure. I don't love that about myself. and it's something I'm trying to improve and work on.

1:12:30Nick Bare:It is having discipline, having routine, having rigidity and structure, but also being able to be adaptable and flexible to where it is a great servant to what I'm trying to achieve. But it doesn't hold me back from experiencing the greater parts of life. Because we can be robots, we can be robotic, We can go through the motions and repetitions of life every day, day in and day out. But at what expense? I don't love that about myself. I'm trying to break some of that rigidity and grow through it. But it's also partly what has gotten me to where I am today. So it's finding that balance. Having the discipline, having the structure, having the rigidity, the routine.

1:13:25Nick Bare:but being able to be adaptable and flexible simultaneously. So that is Inside of My Mind, April, 2026. Hope you guys enjoyed it. We'll see you in the next one.