THE ED MYLETT SHOW - The Mental Game: How a Fighter Uses Mind Games Before the Big Fight
Episode Date: November 2, 2024Unstoppable Mindset: Discovering the Edge That Sets Champions Apart In this special mashup episode, we’re peeling back the layers of what separates the good from the great, and the great from the u...nstoppable. You’re about to dive into the minds of legendary athletes, entrepreneurs, and influencers, all revealing the strategies they use to dominate in high-pressure situations and overcome relentless challenges. We kick off with a powerful conversation on mental toughness from boxing champion Andre Ward, who shares how he harnesses fear and channels it into fuel. "Fear is real," he admits, "but courage steps in anyway." We also hear from wrestler Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway, who lived his life in the ring as a relentless character, pushing the limits to not only win matches but leave an unforgettable legacy. These champions don’t just prepare physically—they build a mental fortress that lets them stay steady under pressure, even when the world is watching. Throughout, Tim Grover, the trainer behind icons like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, breaks down how a relentless commitment to winning means being brutally honest with yourself. He says, "Winning doesn’t care about your feelings; it cares about how bad you want it.” Grover’s insights into pushing past fear and failure give you a glimpse into the “winning mindset”—the mental resilience that keeps these athletes at the top of their game. We round out the episode with Trent Shelton and Ed discussing how to turn pain into purpose. Shelton’s story of overcoming personal tragedy is a reminder that your greatest trials can become your most powerful victories. He says, “Your perspective can be your prison or your power,” reminding us that every setback has the potential to set us up for a massive comeback. Key Takeaways: - How to channel fear into courage under pressure from champion Andre Ward - Tim Grover’s no-excuses approach to winning and the importance of a “made-up mind” - The mindset that drives relentless preparation from Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway - Why your hardest moments can lead to your greatest strengths, with Trent Shelton’s story of transformation If you’re ready to learn from the greats and step up your mental game, this episode is your blueprint for building an unbreakable mindset. Thank you for watching this video—Please Share it and get the word out! What part of this video resonated with you the most? Comment below! 👇 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👇 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIprGZAdzn3ZqgLmDuibYcw?sub_confirmation=1 ▶︎ WEBSITE | https://www.EdMylett.com #EdMylett #Motivation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This is the Ed Mylet Show.
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This is one of the greatest boxers of the last two decades.
And you might even argue in the history of the sport.
And so, Andre Ward, thank you for being here today.
Thanks for having me.
I'm curious, I'm a big boxing fan.
So, when you became on my radar
was during the Super Six tournament.
Okay, so that was, and they called that
the super middleweight division at the time, correct?
Yeah, super middleweight, 168 pounds.
But basically, I'm paraphrasing,
Showtime got together and said,
let's just find the best one in the world.
They put the sixth of you in this tournament.
It ended up being a seventh dude or something.
Wasn't Jermaine Taylor in it originally,
or what happened with that?
Well, there were guys that, like,
guys would get knocked out or get injured and then they replace it.
But the court was always six.
So again you had Kessler, you had Frock, your frock whatever they call them.
There's some dudes in this tournament right?
Yeah.
And you ended up winning that tournament.
I'm curious when it started at that level was that a new level for you? And like, did you have fear? Like,
did you wonder whether you were the man of those six? How did that work for you?
I had to drop everything. We went, we got in the car, got back to San Diego, flew to
the Bay Area, literally dropped my family off, packed a bag, double ear infection, got
on a red-eye, went to Germany, and was there the next morning to announce the second leg of the Super Six,
and was this close to not being a part of it.
That's crazy.
And the way they filmed it, everybody,
by the way, this was so powerful,
all this 24-7 stuff you see now,
this is kind of the original of that,
and it was so well done.
It really changed to some extent how boxing was promoted
on either Showtime or HBO2, the way they laid it out,
but I watched it closely, and you weren't the dude
they were sort of steering the cameras towards
in the beginning.
I mean, it was really interesting.
It was the other guys that I've mentioned before.
And I remember you won, then you won again.
I'm like, oh, this dude's got a chance
to win this whole tournament.
So, every one of these fights, just curious,
when you went into it, I just wanna know
how a world-class person thinks or doesn't think. You're there at that thing in
Germany, you see these other five dudes, are you like, I'm gonna win this
tournament? I've always had that belief, like my career was, my professional
career was guided very meticulously, you know, the powers that be, the networks, the
suits, the promoters, like they want bang for their buck.
They wanna make the most money as quickly as possible.
And I had opportunities to fight some of the guys
that were in the tournament maybe a year or two earlier.
And it was for more money than I'd ever seen
and great opportunity and I called Verz,
like man, they're gonna give us 600,000.
And we get to fight on HBO and this and that or Showtime.
And he said, no, no, we get to fight on you know HBO and this and that or Showtime and
He said no no he said hold on he said I understand that you know if we say no to this
Internally there's gonna be some blowback, but he said you know when we fight these guys I want you to be a full-grown man, and I want you to destroy him like I don't want you know
No, I don't want you to be barely winning or barely eking by. And we did that like two or three times before the Super Six happened.
And we get blowback and some of the blowback
spilled publicly.
Where fans are saying, oh, you know,
Ward's he's a gold medalist, but he's moving too slow.
And that's the heat you take.
That's the bulls eye you have on your back
coming in with a gold medal.
But in Germany,
I really saw what the intent was.
You had Mikkel Kessler who was Mikkel Kessler at the time,
he was like 42 and one or something like that,
but like I don't know how many knockouts.
He had more knockouts than I have fights.
You had Karl Fratsch who was from the UK,
and you had Arthur Abraham,
and then you had the three Americans.
Jermaine Taylor who was teetering,
he was still relevant,
but he was teetering on kind of being done.
You had the young guy Andre Durrell and then you had the other young guy and myself.
And I could tell that everybody that was there, they just looked at us like we were just a
token just to be there.
These guys will make it interesting.
Some namesake young guys coming up, but these guys, these are the guys that are supposed
to win.
And I took exception to that.
To the personal.
I took exception to that and I got on the phone,
I called Virgill, I said, man, they don't really
expect me to win this.
He said, oh yeah, I know.
He said, it's always been like that.
He said, but just watch.
Unwavering faith, he's always that pillar.
And again, that jumped off on me.
It's already confident, but now now was personal and now it's personal
Your physiology changes so dramatically you go into your virtual
And at that time Kessler and frotch were like rock stars in their various countries to like they were big names
I don't blame anybody for not picking us. I probably wouldn't have picked me. I was a
young guy. Yeah, I had the gold medal, but I hadn't done anything as a pro. My biggest win was a guy
named Edison Miranda who was a beast. He was a top contender, right? That was my biggest win as a
professional. So I don't blame anybody for not picking me, but I was also going to use that as
fuel in that mission as well. I was gonna use it.
So he goes on to win that like he wins everything else.
This is another thing you said through I Just Want To Hear Everybody, everyone just hear
things I hear that I think are important.
I do think that there are times in your life where if you don't jump on an opportunity
you will regret it the rest of your life.
That there is timing to when you win.
There are moments.
And you said this a few times where Virgil said this to you.
And for a lot of you that are chasing what you're chasing
You may get fatigued to that chase
But there's got to be this party that goes if I don't jump on this now this may never come again for me
So your timing is so critical on winning this super six tournament was a huge catalyst
Let's talk some boxing stuff just for me. I
I'm curious
When you I told you I was gonna ask you this
and you haven't told me the answer, so I'm curious.
Forget the training part just for a second,
we're gonna get to that.
You are getting wrapped, you're about to go out,
okay, for a big fight.
You're getting wrapped up, I'm sure Virgil's talking to you,
you're going through whatever your game plan was.
What goes through you?
Is there honest emotions here as a fighter?
See, the thing about boxing to me is that it's different than every other sport.
UFC has some of this as well, but the combat sports.
This is a man and a man.
I think people forget this.
Even when you bat as a baseball hitter, there's another dude coming up after you.
If you ground out, the other dude could get the hit, right?
This is a man and a man.
And I'm just curious, when you have that happening,
you're going to look at your physiology cage again, right? This is a man and a man. And I'm just curious, when you have that happening, you're gonna look at your physiology chains again, right? But I'm just curious, like, when you're
getting wrapped at that moment, what's going through you emotionally? What do you, what's
happening to you at that time?
That moment can break a lot of men. You can have a great training camp. Everything could
be clicking. You could have a great fight week leading up to that moment.
And that moment, as well as the walk to the ring,
you can lose it.
Like you can lose your confidence,
you can live fear overtake you,
and you can somehow convince yourself
that you're not worthy to be there in that moment.
It's almost like an out of body experience.
You hear people say, you know, a guy froze, or you know, he didn't perform, or it was a deer in the moment. It's almost like an out of body experience. You hear people say, you know, a guy froze,
or he didn't perform, or it was a deer in the headlights.
Like that's what they're talking about.
Like you have, it's almost like a surreal moment.
Like this moment that you've been prepping for,
talking about, building up to,
the world has been talking about.
Like it's here, and the fact that it's actually here,
like it hits you in a different kind of way.
Like you're getting wrapped, and you have the commission from whatever state you're fighting,
they're coming in, they're checking on you, they're giving you the countdown, we got 45
minutes, we got 30 minutes, we got 20, then they come back in after you get your gloves
back on and they say, we got five minutes, we're walking in two and a half minutes, and
they start to count you down,
like whether you train good or not.
That's running through your brain.
Thinking about my wife and my kids.
I'm thinking about the fact that the whole world
is literally gonna be watching me in just a few moments.
Thinking about my critics.
They got a front row seat.
They got a front row seat. They got a front row seat.
Thinking about my supporters and the people
that are riding with me, getting behind me.
They got a front row seat.
They're watching, they're pulling for me.
It's like this controlled chaos that's going on
and it's literally an arena.
With two gladiators getting ready to literally risk it all.
Like boxing is the only sport, professional sport
that I know of that one loss can change your pay scale.
Like it's in the contract.
If you lose a fight, your minimums can change.
We can renegotiate those minimums.
Like that's what's going through my head.
And fear is very real.
Really? Anxiety is very real. It's very present. And all the guys that say I
don't get nervous, I'm Iron Man, they're not being honest.
That's right. Like that's very very present but that's where my faith comes in and I start to believe beyond myself.
I start to believe beyond the way that I'm feeling.
We're called to walk by faith and not by sight.
We're called to walk by faith and not by feeling.
So fear is present, the courage is going in the midst of fear.
And I've had 32 fights before I retired
and I had to do that every single time.
It's not like, oh, this is the 25th time I've done this.
It's easy.
Because one punch can change your pay scale.
One punch can change your life.
And you're not guaranteed to walk out
the same way you walked in.
So all of that is going through your mind,
running through your body, and you gotta channel it.
You gotta process it, and you gotta believe,
and you gotta be unwavering.
And one thing I would always do
was I would kinda just pace the locker room.
And even though my team's in there,
even though the commissioner's coming in and out,
and again, this like controlled chaos.
Television cameras are in your face,
producers are walking around,
you hear the crowd, you hear the announcer.
I would just talk to myself, it's my night.
It's my night, I'm not going home without my belts.
Like those types of things,
they may seem corny to some people,
but that stuff would really lift me up.
And because a made up mind is a hard thing to break.
And your mind has to be made up,
not walking to the ring,
or when you step through those ropes,
your mind has to be made up
before you leave that locker room
that I'm not gonna be broken.
I will not lose tonight.
Oh my gosh.
You ever get there where you're at the stair down
and look at a dude and know you got him?
Has that ever happened?
Or is it on a professional level you just don't know?
Has it ever happened the reverse
where you're in that state, you're in that faith state,
you're in that strong state, and you look,
you're like, oh, I got this fool.
Has that ever happened?
You don't have to tell me who.
Most times no.
Okay.
Because as fighters, we can lie.
Yeah, yeah.
We're good chameleons.
Because in a sport of boxing, if you show weakness,
the opponent's gonna pounce.
So we hide a lot of our emotions.
You know, you got some guys that are scared to death
and they'll put a mask on.
There's one time, one time in a 32 fight career
that I knew I had a guy at the way
Chad Dawson you knew and you even told me who it was and he by the way Chad Dawson was a great fighter
Yes, how do you know my wife you know?
He
So you get a lot of rumors and you hear a lot of hearsay in training camp
Yeah, this guy, you know
They'll call my coach and I stayed away from that stuff with my coach always had his ear to what was going on with my opponent and he
would decide on what he would what he wanted to share and what he wouldn't
want to share. The guy Edison Miranda that I just told you about, he was sparring
with Chad Dawson to help Chad Dawson get ready for our fight. Big fight, Chad
Dawson was the lineal light heavyweight champion and
had just beat the great legendary Bernard Hopkins.
Southpaw.
The fight before, yes. Tall, rangy. He beat Bernard Hopkins. He's on HBO. Max Kellerman
asked him, you know, Chad, what do you want next? I'm minding my own business. He calls
my name. I had just won the Super 6. He said, I want Andre Ward. He said, I'll fight him
in his hometown of Oakland, California. And I'll go down to his weight Super 6. He said, I won Andre Ward. He said, I'll fight him in his hometown of Oakland, California.
And I'll go down to his weight too.
I said, really?
And I liked Chad.
I supported Chad and didn't see that coming.
That was like the easiest fight
that we ever negotiated right there.
And I held him to every single word that he spoke.
Every word.
He come to my weight, my place.
So they get in the training camp,
and because he's losing so much weight,
his punch resistance isn't there.
Edison Miranda can crack.
Edison Miranda knocks him out and sparring.
He hit him and sparring.
Stuff starts to circulate.
Virg comes to me and he said,
listen, babe, he's calling me babe.
Listen, babe, I'm not saying this to get you off track,
we gotta stay focused, we were probably about two and a half,
maybe three weeks away from the fight,
maybe about two and a half.
He said, I'm hearing some things, man,
I'm hearing that Edison Miranda, he knocked Chad out,
I said, knock them out.
He said, knock them out.
Like they had to stop the sparring, help him up,
and that was it for the day.
Now, if you're a fighter,
like that's like the
worst-case scenario. It's one thing if you get knocked out in a fight. Got
small gloves on, no headgear, it happens. That's acceptable in some respects.
In sparring? Nah. Not if you're the top dude. There may be a sparring partner
getting knocked out but not the top guy, not the champion. That was a no-no.
We started hearing rumors, some kind of process, like,
man, he got knocked down. Man, that's crazy. But in my mind, I'm always very much in my head,
especially in training camps, I'm like, ah, maybe they're just floating out out there to get in my
head or trying to get me off track. And that's what Verz, he said, but don't, don't, you know,
don't, don't worry about it too much. Just, you know, stay focused. We kept hearing stuff,
kept hearing stuff. Nothing ever went on the airwaves. Nothing, nothing on the internet, nothing.
Press conference came, the week of the fight.
I'm thinking, man, I wonder if they're gonna say something.
So rumor gonna come out if I'm gonna be asked about it.
It's never asked about it.
The weigh-in comes Friday, the fight Saturday.
I said, now I'm gonna drop it on them.
Now I'm gonna drop it on them.
We go face to face, and his team,
they're over there woofing.
My team's kinda woofing a little bit.
And I leaned in his ear and I said,
hey man, I heard what happened in the gym.
I said, you better tighten it up tomorrow night.
And you just see his shoulders just go.
He's got this look on his face like, how did you know?
I won the fight with Chad Dawson right there.
Oh my gosh.
We turn and look at the cameras,
turn back and look at him before I walk off the stage.
I broke him.
You just knew.
Broke him.
That is an awesome story.
He thought he got away with it.
He thought we didn't know it.
It's too late, you can't get out of the fight now.
That is awesome, man.
That was the only time I ever felt like I want to fight when I didn't face him.
Thank you for all of that insight of that and what it's like getting wrapped.
I don't know if I've ever told that story before.
It's awesome. We're keeping it in whether you want to or not.
I'm keeping that one in there. No, we do too much.
So you said that one punch. Couple more things on boxing, then we'll shift,
cause we're gonna run out of time.
But like I could go three hours of this,
but you said that one punch,
who's hardest you ever been hit by who?
Hey, hey, hey.
I would say,
it's tough to say one guy,
but I would probably say,
the guy with the,
the strongest power, the two guys with the strongest power are Arthur Abraham and I heard rumors about him. The analogy people always gave was he feels like
he's got bricks in his gloves and if you watched my first fight with him, the only fight that
we had in the first round, he hit me with a jab. A jab.
And for those that don't know, that's a basic punch in boxing, just a straight punch.
Bow, he hit me and I kind of buckled a little bit.
I said, oh boy, it's real.
Everything they said was real.
And that kept me on my toes and kept me on my game the whole night.
And then Edison Miranda, he hit like a mule.
His money punch was the right hand.
That's pretty much all
he had. He'd paw with the jab. He had these long arms. And if he landed that right hand
flush, a lot of guys went to sleep. And that was my first time facing a big puncher like
that. And that's probably the worst I've ever felt after a fight, was fighting Edison Miranda.
Those two guys probably had the most devastating power.
So I thought you were going to say, and we'll grab up the boxing piece here
I thought you were gonna tell me Kovalov so I love your face when I said that so
For those of you don't know so I'm a huge fan of yours. You know this but I'm now that we're friends. I need to tell you
That before you fought him you little worried. I was worried for you. So I thought this is the crusher. This dude supposedly can really hit right and so y'all don't know this he beat
him twice and but so just because those are the last couple fights right so just what
would you just tell me about fighting him prepping for him getting hit by him those
fights anything you would tell me about those experiences. The first fight was like, hey, people thought
it could have gone either way.
The second fight, there was obviously no question.
Yeah, no, I mean, Kovalev was like, he's a real deal.
He's a real deal.
Anytime you got a nickname like The Crusher,
you better be able to hit hard.
And he has good power, he has good power.
It's not what I thought it was.
But he hits hard.
And I think one thing that's always been overlooked
in my career, you hear about, you know, people saying,
oh, he's a good boxer, you know, Dre, you know,
he can do this, he can do that,
but they never talk about my chin.
And that's not really something I wanna be known for.
Because you don't wanna get hit all the time.
Hey, that's not really my thing, but like,
I fought the best punchers in the game,
and I've been down twice in a 32 fight career,
and I fought the best.
And one of those times was against Sergey Kovalev.
I can't get into too much,
because we're gonna be putting out the documentary soon,
and we're gonna detail a lot of what happened
in the pre-fight for Kovalev 1,
but just went through a lot of different things
physically for that fight.
I was moving up in weight from 168 pounds to 175 pounds,
but again, like you just mentioned, I'm not going up there just to fight some Rudy-poo.
I'm fighting the best guy. This guy was the real deal. Russian fighter. He was known for
going into other people's hometowns and home countries and taking their belts.
And nobody really wanted to fight him. And here I am, a guy that's in a lower weight class,
who's not really considered a big puncher,
but has a lot of skill,
and I've pretty much won everything
at the lower weight class.
And people are saying, man, he's going up in weight?
Like, the overall consensus was,
the critics were saying, he bit off too much.
This is the guy that's finally gonna get him.
And my supporters were saying, Drain's going out boxing.
We get into the fight,
and the first thing I noticed about him
was just how accurate he was.
Like it wasn't necessarily that he hit hard,
it was just, he was just very accurate.
Like I was thinking, and he was punching.
And the first round was just like,
man, it was just like a blur.
I remember sitting down and Verge getting on me right away,
said, man, stop posing.
Meaning stop standing still, like move your legs.
Like warm up, get moving.
And I was just kind of like, man, I just, I don't know.
I just kind of felt like I was in quicksand.
Second round, he and I exchange
and I'm getting ready to throw a right hand.
He's getting ready to throw a right hand.
His right hand gets there first.
And I just see a flash, bam.
I look up, oh man, I'm on the canvas.
I hear the crowd going crazy.
I look up, the referee's in my face,
six, seven, eight, and I stand up.
In those moments, we talked about pre-fight,
but in that moment, that's for sure
a fight or flight type moment.
Like, whatever you got on the inside, it's gonna come out. If you got turn in
you, it's gonna come out. If you got any kind of coward in you, it's gonna come out. If you got
the dog in you, that's gonna come out too. And I thank my dad for these types of moments because
my dad had that dog in him. He's the type of guy that would never start anything, but if you hit
him, he's gonna hit you back. And that was probably the best thing
that could have happened to me in that first fight
with Kovalev was for me to get knocked down
because now I'm mad.
Now I wanna get that back.
And I'm no longer overthinking, trying to be perfect.
Like I was too busy.
I was incensed with trying to get that moment back from him.
And I found somehow some way, man, by the grace of God,
I clawed my way back into that fight
and I really felt like from the seventh round on um I broke him and when I say broke him it doesn't mean that he quit it doesn't mean that he threw in the towel it means that he wasn't himself
I stopped him from being who he wanted to be that night. And I eked out a win.
And I won the fight by the 12th round.
From not mistaken, two judges gave it to me.
One judge gave it to him.
And some people were not happy about it.
And some people were happy about it.
And after the fight,
I thought I was done. I thought I was done.
I thought I was done.
I think it was a combination of just my career,
like the physical toil that it took to get ready for fights
and then the actual fights.
And then you see the reaction from the people
and it's like, man, I just gave my all.
I just beat the boogie man.
I beat the monster and it's still not enough.
And I didn't do anything for three months
after that fight and that's a no-no for me.
Like I always do something.
I'll take maybe three, four weeks off,
let my body heal and then I'll start to do some run-ins,
some light shadow boxing, I'll get back in the gym
little by little.
I like had no desire.
Like literally for three months straight.
And I remember going to see my pastor,
Napoleon Kaufman, former Raider running back.
Really, he's your pastor?
Yes, my pastor.
Did he go to Notre Dame or Navy?
No, he went to UW, University of Washington.
That's right, okay, that's right.
Yeah, yeah.
From Lumpolt.
I remember him, yep, yep.
Yeah, I remember going to him,
and you know, he abruptly retired after six years
in the league, and started at the church,
and he's been doing great.
I said, man, pastor, I don't know, man.
I said, I think I'm done, man.
He said, man, why do you say that?
I said, I haven't done anything in three months.
I said, that's not like me.
I have no desire to do this.
And I thought he was gonna co-sign with me.
And he kind of sat there like he did.
He said, you know, Dre,
he said, I think you'll be fine if you stop right now.
He said, but I can see you doing one more.
And I remember like, I was thankful for what he told me,
but at the same time I was disappointed. I'm like, like what?
Wait a second, you're supposed to give me that extra little oomph to like give me
the courage to walk away. And he challenged me some out there.
I can see you doing one more. I said, really? I said, but yeah,
but I just told you I have no desire to do it. I haven't been to the gym.
He said, I know, I know. He said,
but once you make up your mind that you want to do the second fight
He said the fire be rekindled. Hmm
And he just sat there
And I got up and I walked out and again, I had mixed emotions. I was like man
I appreciate him and it wasn't what I thought he was gonna say
Hmm, he challenged me just to go a little bit longer
go a little bit further and
challenged me just to go a little bit longer, go a little bit further.
And I was content, even though I knew I was gonna get
some heat and people were gonna say,
you're running from Kovalev, you lost the first fight,
you're scared to fight the second fight.
I knew I was gonna get that, but I was over it.
Drove home and talked to my wife
and mulled over her for about another week.
I picked up the phone, I told my team, I said, man, get the money right. I said, we'll do the second fight.
And just like that, the desire kicked back. It did come back. You trained just as
rigorously for that fight as any other time. I had the best training camp for that fight
than I probably ever had in my whole career. I was the happiest.
I just enjoyed it again. The first fight, physical issues,
it was just a lot of pressure.
It just didn't feel right.
But once I got through that and got to this other side,
man, I had a great camp and I was happy.
I had the bounce back in my legs, my body felt good.
I just mentally, like me and Verz had planned
to knock him out. That was the first thing Verz said when I went back to the gym. He body felt good. I just mentally, like me and Verz had planned to knock him out.
That was the first thing Verz said
when I went back to the gym.
He said, we're gonna stop him.
And in my mind I'm like, all right, how?
Like, give me the how.
That's the what, what's the how?
He said, we're gonna hit him to the body.
He said, you broke him that second half of that fight.
He was exhausted.
He said, we're gonna pick up where we left off.
And the camp was just amazing.
It was amazing. Amazing. Like we had bumps pick up where we left off. And the camp was just amazing. It was amazing. Amazing.
And we had bumps and bruises,
but that was the best camp emotionally
that I've had in a long time.
So that leads to the big question.
Like, you retired, by the way,
if you wanna see something, it's unbelievable.
So this was a dominant win, okay?
I think your best fight, myself,
because of who it was against too, but.
So, you wanna see an emotional clip,
go to his Instagram, which we're gonna promote at the very end we're gonna
promote some things here in a minute that I want you all to see that are
awesome that he's doing but let me just be clear with you you need to go watch
this video it's it's emotional watch I told him I got teary-eyed watching it
alone right but so you lost a little you juice after the first fight you found it
then he retired after this fight okay Okay, but like, still the
dominant fighter that you are, like why not fight again? Do you know you're not
gonna fight again? Or is there the chance that something like that happens again
and that fire gets rekindled and we see you back in the ring again? Because he
walked into it, I'm like this dude is fit, I mean ready to go. It's been a year Friday
that he decided to retire, but like really, you know how boxers are,
like really, now he's saved some money,
he's not your normal boxer, but be real,
like is there a door open?
I know you can't, like is it cracked open,
is it possible the right dude came along,
called you out, whatever.
Like don't do the TV answer, do the real answer.
Like is there a chance that you would fight again?
Listen,
it's not something I'm planning.
It's not something I'm planning.
It's not something that's being mapped out.
But I'm also smart enough to know that
you don't know how things are gonna unfold.
You just don't know.
So I'm always gonna keep myself in some kind of shape.
Yeah, you're smirking.
I'm always keep my eye on the game
and just see who's who and what's going on.
But I'm not planning on it.
Like, the why is what we're gonna address
in my upcoming documentary, Unguarded.
Let's talk about that.
And I named it Unguarded because my harshest
critic will say that Andre's guarded, he doesn't give you anything. And some of
that is true, but a lot of them haven't taken the time to ask why. Like we just
met. I followed you, I know your body will work, but I feel like I can talk to you.
It's kind of like a kindred spirit there.
So you want to open up to a person like that.
And sometimes the media, they come off abrasive
and they kind of want the story for the wrong reason.
And based on my upbringing and everything that I've had to go through,
I'm sensitive with my story, man.
I'm sensitive with my whys and I'm sensitive with all those things.
This is one of the first times
that I'm gonna really open up,
and not just open up, but show people
why the best fighter at that time a year ago
walked away from tens of millions of dollars.
Without giving too much away,
of course, there's a lot of factors.
There's wanting to preserve my long-term health.
I'm dealing with physical issues.
I've had multiple surgeries.
And to use your line, I've maxed out.
I've poured myself out.
I've literally given everything
that I was supposed to give.
When I jumped rope, I gave it everything I had.
When I shot a box, I gave it everything I had.
And literally to the point where my coaches
had to pull me back and say, man, don't leave it all in here.
Like that's all I know is to give it everything I have
because like I've had 20 year win streak
since I've been a baby, 14 years old.
And that doesn't come easy.
And yes, I can have the faith in God
and yes, I can have all that stuff,
but faith without works is dead.
And I put in that work.
So I got to a point where I said, there's only a handful of guys that have walked away
like this, a handful.
And there's even a smaller percentage of guys that left undefeated.
And I didn't just pad my record and then say I'm undefeated. Like I fought the best, the best available competition.
And I just woke up one day
and I had tens of millions of dollars on the table.
And I told my wife, I was like,
I don't wanna do this no more.
You know, I don't wanna do this no more. I don't wanna do this no more.
And I said, and even me saying it like it's taboo.
I'm not supposed to say that as a professional athlete
and more importantly, a fighter.
Because when you start using the R word,
the writing's on the wall.
It's time to go.
And she said, babe, if you're saying that,
I feel like the decision is already made.
And you know you got my full support.
And the video that you just mentioned,
for some reason that video was in my head.
Like I had it, I said, man, I want my,
and those boys that were in the video were my sons.
Oh wow.
I said, I wanna show people like my career at each stage.
As a young kid, and then, you know, young teenager, and then kid, and then young teenager, and then older teenager,
and then I wanna let them know that I accomplished
everything that I set out to accomplish.
I got people that love me, I got critics,
but I've done it all that I wanted to do.
I've made enough money, I'm ready to go.
There's a piece of this decision that was for me,
but then there's also a piece that was for
the sport that I love.
A sport that I've given up a childhood for
and given my life to.
You know, fighters are not always revered.
When you say certain fighters names,
you get a certain reaction.
When you bring up the name boxing,
and you don't love the sport like you, most people's
reactions are, you know, and they have something negative to say after that.
And one thing that they always say is, you know, those fighters, man, you know, they
hang on too long.
And I went to Canastota, New York about three years ago to the International Boxing Hall
of Fame.
And it was such a, it was a rewarding moment.
It was an awesome moment.
I'm seeing fighters that I grew up watching
and I'm talking to them and we're getting at each other.
Like, man, I ought to beat you, man, you're too small.
We just had a great two or three days.
But then I also saw the ones that neurologically weren't good
or maybe didn't have the money, tangible, you know,
proof of what they did all these years.
And it bothered me.
And Ed, I didn't wanna be another one of those guys.
Like when is enough enough?
Like you can always say there's more money out there.
But the question that me and my wife kept asking ourselves
is what do we do with what we had?
With what was already in our hands?
And since I retired, don't get me wrong.
Like, I missed the boxing checks.
Cause they were plentiful.
They were large.
But they come with a price.
And I just wasn't willing to put my body through that anymore.
And again, I'm a person that gave it all I had
or I don't want to do it at all.
And if I can't give it all I have,
and if I don't think my body's gonna respond like I needed to I don't want to wait until some young guy has to show
Me that I don't have it anymore
I'd rather leave on top and try to set an example for the next generation and say man
You know what? I'm gonna do the Andre Ward. Oh wow you just have this overabundance of character
Thank you, so that's what overflows from you right and I do believe in life
There's these chapters
of our lives, and I think, you know,
and I wanna make sure that everyone knows
about this documentary too, is like,
that's one of these chapters, just the preview alone,
it's just gripping.
It's like unbelievable, I can't wait for this
to get out into the world.
And you've turned the page, and one of the things about you,
because your character's so, by the way,
selfishly I hope as you keep turning these pages,
that sometime over the next two or three years again,
the chapter turns where you feel the desire to do that or should do it
but I admire and respect you for not doing it too because
there is so much to be said to be finishing the way that you have and
Because of your character because of your composure your elegance the way you communicate you have a lot of other opportunities outside of boxing
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Very short intermission here folks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far. Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes.
Now on to our next guest. Trent Shelton, welcome back to the show my brother.
Hey man, I appreciate you man. Thanks for having me back.
You've had an injury that ended a career like we both had, right? Or whatever.
That is not changeable. It's it, it, that is a,
that's a fact of life it happened or there was a divorce or you had a
bankruptcy or a business failed or someone did you wrong.
So you talk often about being able to not change the situation,
but change potentially the way that you want. So go ahead. I'll let you,
I'll let you answer that.
That's so powerful because I get that question all the time. It's like, I can't change or even
teenagers are saying, I can't, I'm in my parents household, I can't get out this household, I can't
do this. And if that's the truth, if you can't change the situation, you must change your mindset
in the situation, you must change your mindset towards a situation, you must change who you are in the
situation. And that's called perspective. Some might talk
about all the time, your perspective can be your prison,
or it can be your power. And so any situation that I know that I
can't undo, I mean, even with my mother's passing, I can't change
that. That's a situation I have forever. I can allow that pain to control
me. Or I can say, you know what, I can do something with this pain and, and manipulate it to make it
my power. And so I'm always thinking now, okay, how can I find power in this situation? You talk
about the word for the year, right? One of my words always say is this are monstrous is this
is power. When I can't change situations, this is power.
Because at some point I know I'm gonna look back and say,
man, that situation I was supposed to break me
that I couldn't change at the moment.
Maybe God was allowing me to stay in that situation,
not to break me, but to build me.
And I can look back plenty of times in my life and say,
man, I'm glad I stayed in that or I'm glad that happened
because now it created something inside of me
that if I would have moved from that situation, I didn't have that situation.
I wouldn't have the experience.
I wouldn't have the knowledge and I wouldn't have the strength from it.
Yeah.
Now I want to stay on that because most people know your story, but maybe they need to be
right.
Many may not, you know, people that are new to my show or or new to you.
But this whole thing that you are, this man you've become, was really born out of a situation
you couldn't change with your friend, right?
Like the beginning of this version of Trent Shelton.
And I think it's probably a great time in the show
for you to tell that story,
because I think there's a lot of people,
they're in situations they can't change right now,
combined with the fact that they're not sure
what their purpose is, or what their passion passion is or what to do about it.
And you've become one of the biggest influencers in the world through what most people would view and was a tragedy with a friend of yours.
So take everyone through that part of your story.
It's the perfect time in the show because I think they can see themselves in your story, even though the situations are different.
Absolutely. I was a college teammate, college roommate,
even more than that, one of my closest friends in college.
His career got cut short, football player,
and what I mean got cut short.
He went through some trials, some relationship things.
He left a football team, and he joined the military,
and nothing wrong with that.
But I just know that for him, in the conversations
he was set on, he was unhappy just being around him.
I could just tell something was different.
2011, I got a call one night.
I was actually on my way to our other best friend's house
and it's ironic, because me and my best friend
were just talking about him.
It's like, man, we need to link up with Ant.
Got a call from a girl who actually knew us at Baylor,
but she was in the corner,
she worked at the coroner's office.
She said, hey Trent, Ann is here.
And I didn't put two and two together.
I was like, okay, like where?
Like, is he, you know, I don't, where is he at?
He's like, he's here.
And I was like, what are you talking about?
It's like, I work at the coroner's office, he's here.
And it still didn't register.
Make a long story short, Ann had committed suicide.
They found him three days later
with all the memories in front of him, pictures of people,
you know, it's football things and, you know, he shot himself in the head.
And in that moment, it hurt because, you know, when you lose somebody, the first thing you
go to is guilt.
The first thing you go to is regret and ask yourself, man, I wish I would have, I wish
I would have done more.
And in that moment, I knew that there was nothing I could have done more,
since the situation had happened.
I remember going to the service, man.
And I'm glad that you said this because being a speaker,
being whatever people wanna call me, titles, author,
all the stuff that people give me,
this wasn't something that I wanted to do.
This wasn't something that I sought out to say,
oh, this is a great business idea, let me do this.
No, it wasn't.
It was my promise to him at his funeral.
My promise, and I love what you say, man,
keeping that promise to yourself is so, so important.
My promise to him was like,
aunt, I'm gonna live the rest of my life
to help people with their self-worth.
So when people see my videos and they say,
Trent, man, like you talk about
releasing things from your life or getting rid of toxic things from your life.
This is why, because he had toxic things in his life that he felt like he had no
life anymore and he felt like there was no reason to go on.
And so with my promise to him, and from that day, I started picking up my cell
phone, didn't have a following,
started making these videos with just this.
Didn't have some camera that you're seeing now,
didn't have no microphone, just my cell phone.
And I committed myself for the rest of my life.
And I wanna be clear about that, Ed,
because I just feel like we live in a generation now
where I don't wanna step on any,
I don't mind stepping on people's toes,
but I don't wanna make people feel a, I don't mind stepping on people's toes, but I don't want to, you know,
make people feel a certain type of way by saying this.
And, you know, hopefully I have, you know,
you have your insecurities to the side,
but a lot of people, you know,
when they sign up for certain things,
it's for external reasons.
It's because they see Ed Malette with, you know,
this following, they see Trent Sheldon with this,
but they don't know what we have endured
and what we still endure while we're going through it.
That's right.
And they don't have a deep rooted reason of why they want to do what they do.
And every time opportunity to quit opportunity, throwing a towel opportunity
to detour to something else, to change, you know, there's people that's on there.
And I, I want to be clear.
It's okay to, you know, change different things, but if you're just changing
because it's hard because things ain't
adding up because you're not getting the likes and the views
and the money, all that stuff. I see a lot of that. And for me,
I said, there's no negotiation with this. Yes, like I'm burning
the boats, burning the bridge, and I'm signing up for this
forever. So every time I want to quit, man, I picture his face.
Yeah, and it makes me go even harder.
I hope everybody just hears what he just said.
I mean, it's easy to hear it in hindsight.
This guy's a football player, right?
And kind of then trying to find where, what am I going to do with my life?
Imagine this, that because of this tragedy in his life, a situation as we said in the previous,
you know, conversation wasn't controllable and he ends up becoming
through grabbing his cell phone and just starting to talk about this stuff one of the biggest
influences on the planet hundreds of millions of views probably over a billion if you added up all
your content now you know all of it combined right one of the most sought-after speakers on the
planet podcaster author guy i've had i've had i think three people on my show only two times he's
one of them and that gives you an idea of how highly I regard Trent.
And a lot of you that are listening to this,
you're thinking, I don't know what my passion is.
Here's a place to look and it's not always there.
Look for a real pain point for you.
It's a really, it's not always there,
but you go, what's a real pain point?
Like for me, my dad was an alcoholic, my low self-esteem.
That's the pain point of my life has
become my work that's that think trench is used deep rooted reason to keep going when you're not
successful originally that's why this pain it always says has turned it into a purpose that's
usually where your purpose is coming from is a place of pain from you that's why you see some
of these influences that are super fit that used to be super heavy. It was a pain point.
My guest today is The Undertaker, aka Mark Calloway.
So Mark, thanks for being here, brother.
No, thanks for having me, man.
I'm excited.
One of the things that I noticed about you, brother, on that 30-year arc was how hard
you are on yourself, how self-aware you are, particularly as it
opens, I won't give the whole thing away, but it opens up with your match with
Roman Reigns and you were injured at the time and you know maybe not at the
top of your game and to watch you watch you back in that video, it made me
emotional. I was out on my balcony alone, It was like 11 o'clock last night and I literally got tears in my eyes because I so admired your self-reflection,
your awareness and your desire. Even at that time, you're probably 52 probably in your
50s already, right? He's 55 years old guys and if you're watching YouTube, look at this
man's physique, right? But talk about that, like setting that standard for yourself,
being aware, you setting the highest standard for yourself,
not Vince, not someone else, but you.
Yeah, I'm my toughest critic and I always have been.
You got everybody telling you through the course of your career,
especially when you're coming up, oh man, you're great,
you're this, you're that.
And I mean, yeah, that's fine. And, but you have to,
you've got to take that and you have to put it aside. And it's like when I, when I watched my
back when I was coming up and I watched my mat, my matches back, um, good, bad, indifferent,
I always had to watch them alone because I didn't want any feedback from anybody else saying, oh
man, that was, that was great.
That was, oh man, how did you do that?
That was so cool.
I wanted to watch, even on the good stuff,
I wanted to watch and see what I did wrong.
I wanted to know what, okay, in that situation,
what could I have done better to make that match better?
And that's, like I said, that's how you continue to grow.
The Roman match at WrestleMania, that was tough. And what was so good about the doc was that was the
actual first time that I watched it back. Being later in my career, at that point when
I watched it back, I was pretty much done. I was like, I can't, my bodies give out on me. I can't, and I have to start thinking long-term
after 30 plus years.
And so that was really raw and real because I knew,
I knew it was gonna be tough to watch.
And then having to do it in that environment
with cameras on me. And it was...
And out of character too, right?
I mean...
Completely out of character, right?
So what you got is Mark thinking in his head like,
you know, there's a lot of things that I wanted to say,
obviously that would have been bleeped and edited
because I was so disappointed.
And not just disappointed for me,
I was disappointed for Roman in that sense.
I saw that.
Because it was my opportunity to give him something
that was gonna push him to a higher level.
And I didn't deliver on that.
And I can't make excuses, yes, I was banged up and beat up, but I was
there. So, you know, I have a response in my mind, I have a
responsibility. If my name is on is on the page, then you got to
go. And I was just I got, I knew when I knew in January, that I
was physically, I was physically not going to be at my best, but it was too late
at that point.
Like, I'd already committed, it's already down, this is what's going to happen.
And I was scrambling trying to figure out how to, you know, how I was going to make
this work.
And it just, I was, yeah, I was thoroughly disappointed.
And then there we go.
Then the documentary kind of gets, gets rolling because initially, you know, initially it
was just, I had those guys there to cover that weekend.
Oh, is that right?
That's all it was going to be?
It was all it was going to be because I said, cause I thought that was going to be it.
Yeah.
Oh, the stuff with the hat and the coat, everything in the ring, all that was,
that was just raw and real.
And, um, you know, so I just,
I'm not going to get another chance to catch this stuff backstage and my
interactions with my peers and Vince.
And I just wanted that and not knowing what we were
gonna have but I knew that I wasn't gonna have no chance to get it.
Yeah, guys, I gotta tell you Mark, Mark's being humble.
I don't care if you're WWE fan or not.
If you're a fan of achievement, of redemption, of comebacks, which a lot of people need right
now, learning about a beautiful marriage and how it can make a man stronger. You should go watch this.
I gotta tell you, the last ride is I watched the entire thing and
the thing that the reason that the show is called Max Out and Mark persona,
you talk about maxing out a career.
That's the definition of Mark's life in the WWE as the Undertaker.
He's maxed out that career.
And I have a funny feeling he's not done which we'll talk about at the end.
But I gotta tell you all something, what he's describinged out that career. And I have a funny feeling he's not done, which we'll talk about at the end, but, um, but I gotta tell y'all something.
What he's describing here, guys, this not believing your press clippings thing,
not buying into all the rah rah and hype and accolades you get.
I talk a lot about is your will to win for sale. And yeah,
people can lose their will to win when they lose,
but you can lose your will to win when you win. In other words,
enough accolades, enough money, enough success, it buys your will to still
want to get better.
It buys your will to want to improve.
The thing that I love about Mark and watching him was you can't buy this man's will to
win.
And I think that's linked to the 30-year plus career.
The other guys, the accolades, the success, the access to different things at some point
stole their will to prepare.
I'm not doubtful that you didn't get off track a couple times, but you kept getting back
on track.
And I got to ask you, because even as you're talking, it's a little odd for me to talk
to you as Mark, because I think unlike, this is why the last ride is so interesting too.
You've done very few interviews ever, Nye, as the character.
Did you take that to the extreme?
Like, I'm just, I ran into you in an airport when I was very young.
I'll tell you about that in a minute.
But, like you were in character at the airport when I was there.
We were at a baggage claim, guys, and I don't know how old I was, and Mark and I aren't
even that far apart in age, but I was on like one of my first business trips.
I was at a baggage claim.
I never came, I didn't say anything to you,
but I watched you interact with the fans first.
You had your bag with you for about 40 minutes, brother,
and you've probably done this hundreds of times,
and I watched you talk to every single fan,
take every single picture, shake every single hand,
and I watched him look them in the eye too,
and I said, I like this dude,
but you look like the Undertaker.
Not with the eye makeup on,
but it seemed like you were kind of halfway in character.
Am I crazy or did you do that in real life
when you went out?
I don't know, I live this thing.
I really did, when I started and this character
was so unique, especially for the time period,
Vince had all these over the top,
these all over the top characters and he gave me this, the original likeness,
the name was all Vince's brainchild and he gave it to me and he said this is your opportunity.
And so I took it from there.
So when we developed, when I started developing the character, I was like, there's only one
way that this is going to work.
And it was a lot simpler back then because there wasn't cell phones and people recording
everything that you do.
But I said, I've got to be this for this to work.
I can't be that on TV and then be at the airport
in a Hawaiian shirt, slapping high fives
because it was too big to me, it was too big a disconnect.
And there was a lot of opportunities
that I was presented with early on that I passed on.
Like people thought I was absolutely nuts, but you'd have to realize that I was presented with early on that I passed on.
Like people thought I was absolutely nuts, but you'd have to realize that this was my
passion like being a professional wrestler, being with the WWE, that was me, right?
That's what my focus was.
And yes, I had opportunities to go and do a lot of different things, but in my head,
like, okay, this is my passion.
Now, how am I gonna go off and do this
and be this completely different character
and then come back and expect people
to buy into what I was doing?
There's just all the elements of being the greatest.
So he's being humble, but he's the greatest of all time.
He's the most respected guy in the locker room,
most longevity, by the way, he's not gonna tell you this,
kind of known as being involved in maybe three
of the top three matches of all time,
also has one guy in common, him.
And you guys, forget what you do.
You're an engineer, listen to this.
You're a school teacher, listen to this.
You're an entrepreneur.
There are elements that he's giving you
that are the pieces to being great.
And one of them, I'll help him say this
because he's got so much humility, is his loyalty.
It's his loyalty.
When he's saying he passed on things,
let me be specific, he passed on movie roles
and things like that that he could have done
out of character.
There were times where he was offered more money
to leave the organization like other guys did that were hot. And he stayed and was loyal. And I think loyalty
is a very undervalued commodity in becoming a leader. And you're sort of a leader in the
locker room for that organization. I got to think that, and I like you to talk about both
these things, Mark. One is being a leader and the way you do it,
because I get the feeling you're not a rah-rah dude,
jump up and down and all that,
but you are a leader in the organization.
And then since we're on that topic,
talk about the very unique relationship you have
with the overall leader of the organization in Vince McMahon.
It seems that that's become a special friendship
forged through loyalty, probably more than
anything. And I got to think that friendship's been both good to his career and your career as
well. So speak to those couple things. Yeah, absolutely. So as far as the, you know,
being the leader, it was never really, it was never really something like I tried to pursue.
It just, it just kind of happened through the years. And I fell into this unique position
where the boys, the wrestlers, you know, they saw what the business meant to me and that
the business always came first. No matter what, the business came first. When we're
out on the road, obviously, you know, your
family comes first, but in a business sense, when I'm, when I don't care how late we stayed
out, how, whatever we did nightlife wise, it did not affect the next day's performance.
If it did, then you knew you were going to get, you know, you get pulled aside and say,
look, if you can't handle this,
then maybe you shouldn't be doing this.
Because at the end of the day,
it depends on what we do for our audience the next day.
Guys appreciated that.
But they knew like, okay, hey, you know, takes one of us,
he goes out and he has a good time just like everybody else.
But at bell time, all that goes out the window
until after it's all over with.
And so, yeah, so there was this, and then I had the also, I had the trust of what we call the
office, you know, there's the office, and then there's the boys. Somehow or another, I kind of
landed in the middle. Like, I was always accepted as one of the boys, but the office knew that they
could they could trust me. And there were a lot of times like whoever our our talent
relations VP was, there was a lot of times they would come to me and say, hey, this is,
you know, we're having this this issue. And I could go to the guys or a guy or a person,
pull them aside and say, look, man, you know,
I understand and they appreciate that
because they know that I've been through
everything possible to go through.
So, you know, it wasn't like, oh, well, you know,
Undertaker's a stooge for the office and he's trying to,
you know, they trusted me. Soooge for the office and he's trying to, you know, they
trusted me. So I had that trust on each side, but I could, many times I could talk to somebody
and say, Hey, look, this is, this is their perspective. Okay. I understand your perspective
because I'm, you know, I'm talent, right? I'm talent, I'm with you. So a lot of times that happened
and I could divert bigger issues with guys if they could kind of get over, you know,
if they could get over the ego and then they knew and they trusted me enough like, well,
you know, Taker's not going to screw me over. So it worked out, it worked out really nice. And then with Vince and the loyalty and everything else, I was
told by WCW, I was told I went out, I'd been there for about a year, my contract was coming
up and I went in to renegotiate my contract. And I wasn't looking for a huge bump, but
I was looking for, you know, I had a pretty good year And I wasn't looking for a huge bump, but I was looking for, you know,
I'd been, I had a pretty good year and I was just looking for a slight, just a slight bump.
And I was told by, you know, Jim Heard, who was running the company at the time,
Ole Anderson and Jim Barnett, they looked me square in my eyes.
And they said, you're a great athlete, but no one's ever gonna pay money to watch you wrestle.
Seriously, okay.
That's all I needed to hear.
So Vince, so I get a meeting with Vince,
and he eventually gives me that opportunity.
And that's all he ever promised me was an opportunity.
He never told me hey
you're gonna be you're gonna be this guy here for 30 years and do all these things. He said
I'm gonna give you an opportunity and and then but that's all I always remembered. When
I did become a commodity when WCW wanted me back you know they wanted to pay me big bucks
because they were paying everybody big bucks. Yeah.
You know, it's like, no, I can't do that.
You know, they're offering me a lot more money, but this is the man who made me and that's
just the way it is.
And then obviously we just are, we've been through so much together professionally, personally,
that you know, most times now I don't even deal
with Vince hardly when it comes to business. Our relationship 90% of the time is more of
that of friends than it is of business unless there's a special ask that nobody else wants
to ask me to do then they say you're the only one that's going to be able to get him to
do it so.
Yeah well I think what comes to you second nature which is loyalty isn't second nature me to do then they say you're the only one that's going to be able to get him to do it. So yeah.
Well I think what comes to you second nature which is loyalty isn't second nature for most people
and I think that's one of the other elements. I see Michelle sitting back there.
Come on in. So there's Michelle everybody and when y'all get the chance to watch this
docu-series you'll get it okay but I'm glad you joined at the perfect time. Thank you for doing
that. Thank you. Because what I want to shift to involves both of you and I want you both to
comment on it. Let's be real. We just had COVID, right? The economy's in the tank, you know,
things aren't going good. There's millions of people that have had a job and lost it right now.
There's entrepreneurs that had a business that are losing it. There's people that got really
fit the last couple of years. I've never even go to a gym in three, four months. They've
lost a little of their fitness. Bottom line is there's millions of people around the world
right now that need to make a comeback. And as I was prepping for this and then I watched
the last ride, I'm like, oh man, all right, this is perfect. Because what really happened
was guys, when you watch this, it's really becomes a part of how these two people in
love with each other
Unified and create a comeback in his career because Michelle is it is and was a WWE superstar in her own right everybody
And we'll talk a little bit about that in a minute too
But talk a little bit about the comeback because it's pretty cool
You watch it like I was a broken down see do repair place or whatever that thing was if you were training in
broken down CEDU repair place or whatever that thing was that you were training in. Yeah, it was, uh, yeah, that place, that place hadn't been touched. It was not sanitary. I can
tell you that I don't think anybody had even walked in that place in over 15 years. Oh, it was bad.
That just blew my mind because I'm like the greatest WWE superstar of all time ends up
making his comeback in a place that's like no
one's been in for like, it looked like they're in the middle of nowhere, like an abandoned whatever
they were in, you know, and that's where the comeback started. But let's talk about that for
a minute. I want to set the stage for everybody for whatever your career is. This is a man who's
climbed to the top of his industry, right? And Michelle's also been at the top of that industry.
He ends up for his last, he's gonna have his last match
and doesn't go the way he wants it to.
And over time, it gnaws at him a little bit.
Like anybody, he wants to make a comeback.
It's like many of you right now listening to this,
driving in your car or you're finally back on a treadmill
at the gym listening to this.
And imagine after 30 years, his body's beaten up,
he's already been to the top, he doesn't need to's beaten up he's already been to
the top he doesn't need to do it he's already the most admired dude in the
sport yet he makes come back what were some of the things mentally that you
both had to do in order to create the mindset where you're willing to go do
that work again like you changed your body that the Roman Reigns match to the
comeback Matt Mike make you just physically look like a different
person, right?
So, talk a little bit mentally what you had to do to do that.
What were some of the elements?
And both of you can comment on it.
I think one thing that's key for both of us as a blessing and a curse is we're both completely
stubborn.
So, sometimes though that helps out like in situations like this.
We both have the mentality of you're going to, you're gonna get it done and do it right and go after it, you
know, and just give it your all.
And I think, you know, being stubborn helped.
Yeah, definitely wasn't gonna let that be the last memory that people had of me.
So I knew, you know, as you get older, you have to accept the fact
that you're going to have to put in twice the work and get half the results. You have
to accept that fact. So I had to make the, we had to make the mental decision like, okay,
if I'm going to do this, I mean, we got to go. And she's like, all
right, if that's what you want to do, then we're going to do it. So on her end, she,
you know, she drops everything that she's got to do to make sure that I've got meal
prep and I've got, you know, all my appointments lined up like for rehab, stretching, all these different things that normally, she took all
that worry off the table. And then, so then it's just the training aspect. And then the
training was obviously getting my hip fixed, which was covered pretty well in the dock. That allowed me to train at a much different level.
And then that was kind of a, that alone
was a breath of fresh air.
Although that's one little part of my body
that I have issues with, that was the main one.
Was there a doubt mark like, hey, I'm
going to come back and have a second match I'm not proud of
and I'm going to embarrass myself or something like that?
Because I think a lot of people right now that
are thinking about making a comeback, they're like,
if I fall on my face again, I don't know if I
can handle doing that again.
Did you have any of that?
Michelle, were you worried about that?
No, but I know how he operates.
And I was worried that he was, I mean, knowing him,
I think safe to say you're probably thinking that it was in the back of your head, which is the
reason you're going back in the first place because you weren't happy of, you
know, from the last and just kind of out there to prove something.
So, um, I knew he wanted to do it, but I think in the same regard, we're both the
type of people you can't fear failure.
If you're going to do it, go out there, you know, learn from the past mistakes.
And like he just said, train the best way possible for his body to get into the fear failure. If you're going to do it, go out there, you know, learn from the past mistakes.
And like he just said, train the best way possible for his body to get into the ring
and you know, see what happens. Just can't fear that failure.
It looked to me like, I think there's a huge lesson in this guys. I'm seeing, I want you
all to watch this thing. I'm not pumping the documentary. I'm just telling you, it will
make an impact on you. And I'm a WWE fan. Of course it would, but the millions of you listening to me right now that aren't, it'll make an impact on you and I WWE fan of course it would but the millions of you listening to me right now that aren't it'll make an impact on you where
You are in your life. You're gonna see you're gonna see what machine they're both really humble people
You're gonna see what Michelle did. I think what made the comeback work guys
I don't think you can dabble in your comeback like they threw the kitchen sink
It was like shock and awe at this thing. All hands on deck. The whole
family rallied. They get this place set up. Even the little details mark with like the banners of
the other dudes and you up in there like you're looking at one point you said those guys are
watching me. Right? Like to me, man, like that was it was like almost like a real life Rocky movie
for real. And then everybody and I'll warn you this, then he comes back
and he does great but it's not even really what he wished for. It wasn't like it was a five minute
match. He trained for 30-40 minutes and so even when you get your comeback the first time you come
back it may not even be exactly what you wanted and then he went past that moment. True, Mark? It wasn't what you were looking for.
Yeah, I trained for a 45-minute all-out back and forth war and was so ready for that.
And then I got there the day of and that's going to be five minutes and you're going
to be a romp and stomp and dragon.
And that's what we sell.
I mean, we sell entertainment, we don't
sell time.
But we were just talking the other day about how life and wrestling matches are so parallel,
right? Like you know what your ultimate finish is going to be or what you would like it to
be but you're going to get knocked down, you're going to get beat up, you're going to have
like a little hope spot where there's this ray of light like oh I can do this, you're
going to get knocked back down again.
Then you have this comeback and it can be this great comeback
and you can finish on top or it can be a great comeback
and then you just get knocked back down.
And what do you do from there?
You know, it's your choice.
What happens there, if you decide to stay down,
then that's kind of going to dictate
the rest of your life, really.
If you accept it, if you accept where you're at, I couldn't accept after
watching that match back, I couldn't accept leaving on those terms.
And then I knew where I wanted to be.
And I knew like, okay, this is what we got to do to get to the point where I want to be.
That's powerful, man. Like Malcolm X has this great quote, it says, that which you do not hate, you will eventually tolerate.
You almost have to hate where you're at and that's not a negative thing to want to move out of it.
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That was a great conversation. And if you want to hear the full interview, be sure to
follow the Ed Milett show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. Tim Grover, welcome back to the show
brother. Thank you so much. At the beginning of the book, guys, there's this unbelievable
story about your last conversation with Kobe Bryant. Just your relationship with him because
I think a winner I do think of Kobe and MJ, 11 championships between them. Tell everybody
a little bit about that conversation. You know, Kobe and I, we text often.
He was no longer playing, he was no longer playing basketball.
He had moved into the business world.
Already won an Oscar, wrote an amazing children's book.
And we text back and forth.
We tried to see each other.
He was busy, I was busy.
And say, how you doing?
He'd be, I'm good, how you doing?
And we, I'm chasing the next win.
He's chasing the next win.
And we were going to get together.
The All-Star game was gonna be in Chicago.
And our plan was he was gonna come in town,
to support and some business stuff and so forth.
So we had planned to get together.
And he said he'll text me when I'm in town.
I said, hey, I'm not going anywhere and
Sorry brother
I'm the only guy who gets Tim Grover to cry on the show
You're good it never happened. Yeah
Never happened
He said something to you at the end of that conversation too, right?
Something about winning or I'm going to keep winning or something like that.
It actually came out.
Chasing the next win?
Chasing the next win.
Chasing the next win?
What was it like for you, Tim?
Because obviously the emotion on your face is, this is not Tim.
You're not a crier.
No.
I'm curious, when you heard the news originally,, by the way I was with him the week before.
Is that crazy? I'll have to tell you that in a minute.
But did you just not believe it? Or was it just like the breath left your body?
So what happened was, you know, I get some information, somebody shoots me a text, I was like,
oh fake news, this is not true, this is not true, and then more media comes in,
more people come, then people that were like,
really close to him, like out in the LA area and so forth,
said, hey, I just wanna let you know that this is,
and I was like, it can't be, it can't be.
It didn't hit me until like three days later.
Really? Three days. I was just like literally sleeping.
And I got up in the middle of the night,
and I was just like,
he's gone?
Because you just didn't want to believe it.
You just didn't want to believe it.
Do you think, because obviously you being
such a close confidant of his, and I get what
you mean, like time happens in life, you're not texting every single day, you're both
busy guys, but you don't have to when you're great friends.
You and I, we text a lot, but even we don't for a month or two, it's like right back.
It's not personal.
It's never personal.
Like you're busy, hey, your success comes in, send your thumbs up, everybody.
You don't have to text anybody when they know
that you're actually excited for every win they get
and every win that you get.
You're like, they already know you're there for now.
When they do something exceptional, you're like,
hey, I just saw what you did or something funny.
But yeah, exactly.
I think something with him, like,
because it grips so many people,
they're not even basketball fans.
I think it's when someone lives so full out that when they're no longer living,
the impact of that passing is greater for some reason.
I mean, he was so alive.
So to make the transition from winning on the basketball court
to winning in the business environment, and then you got a chance to see,
you know, when he was no longer that basketball player, how close he was with his family.
How he supported everyone,
his daughter's basketball games
and the volleyball games and everything.
And he was just like, he was a much approachable person.
Everybody used to see this rigid individual on the court
and he was so much, he was smiling
and he was talking to other players and so forth.
I always say that his next move, his next win was,
he had two things he wanted to do.
And I have no proof of this, but just knowing his mentality,
one was he wanted his daughter to be the first female
to play in the NBA. No kidding.
Not the WNBA, the NBA.
That's what he was getting her ready for.
And the second one was like, he was like, I already own LA from a basketball standpoint.
I want to race the basketball thing. I want to own LA.
No kidding. He was that driven to continue to win. Yes. Which is the theme in the book. See,
I'm going to tell you, you'd be proud of him, by the way, because I know you were, there's
Interment and I did not know Kobe well. But our daughters played in the same volleyball league.
So the week before he passed, we were in the same gym. I remember you telling this story. Yeah.
Three, and ends up these two volleyball tournaments are long as you know
being a volleyball. Yes, they are. But anyway long story short
There's three dads left. It's almost 10 o'clock at night left in this gym
Me him and another dude who's a good friend of mine and it was just striking for me
I watched this it's the black mom a man to do is a killer, right?
But I watched him and I have no idea why it like really struck me. I'm always evaluating him. You and I talk about it. Am I a good dad? How's your
daughter? You know, like we're always evaluating these things and I
watched him, other end of the gym, I watched him with his daughter and he's carrying
the baby in his one arm and just the game was over and he was like kind of
just caressing his other daughter's back just watching him. I remember literally
going, I don't hug Bella enough.
Like I don't hug her enough, you know?
And he was such, I mean, because he's a man,
he's a flawed man.
He's a guy who had, he really changed, you know?
That's something to be so proud of.
Anyway, long story short, because to me that's winning.
Winning is improvement, winning is growing,
winning is ultimately, he was a better man
on his last day than he was in the middle of his career.
Right.
And when you said flawed, everybody thinks of flawed as a negative.
We're all flawed.
Right.
We are all flawed.
Accept it, use it, learn from it, and be like, okay, this is who I am.
This is who I am.
I'm not trying to be somebody else.
What's your flaws that makes you exceptional? That will make you different. who I am, this is who I am, I'm not trying to be somebody else.
What's your flaws, what makes you exceptional, what makes you different, that's what allows
you to win what other people don't want to win, is the people that can say, hey, we're
flawed, we've both wrote bestseller books, and people won't know this about, they know
this about me, but you shared this when we were at Arate Cinec at one time.
You can't spell.
That's totally true.
And I can't either.
That's such a great point.
Those are our flaws, and what do we do? We just laugh at them.
And we write best selling books.
Yes, we laugh at them.
I never even thought of that.
I got knocked out in a spelling bee, which is in the book, and the word they asked me
to spell was ham.
That's so awesome, dude.
It was ham.
That's so awesome.
I'm crying.
So you cried on sad stuff, I cry on funny stuff.
I just, yeah, I think about it, man.
Like, you say something in the book,
there's all these lessons, and they're all listed
like as number one, which I like too.
He's like, hey, there's not 21, there's not 28.
There's like, there's just an unlimited list of things
compiled on this book and winning.
And it made me think of Kobe because, you know,
when he walked out of the gym that day,
I've said this to you too, but he had six days left to live.
And I just, what if the world would have,
if he could just have a whisper when he got into that car
with his family that night,
Kobe, six days left to live.
Yeah.
Three days later, Kobe, three more days.
Three more days.
That's Saturday prior.
Kobe, one day left.
And the one thing I do feel like about people that win
is in the book, because Kobe was doing this to the very end,
you talk about the sprint versus marathon thing on winning.
Just talk about that.
Because I think Kobe did that till right in the last moment.
Right at the end.
Kobe had this great line that he used to use all the time.
He goes, rest at the end, not in the middle.
Rest at the end, not in the middle. Rest at the end, not in the middle.
So to me, life and winning is a bunch of sprints within a marathon.
It's a fact.
Yeah, a bunch of sprints within a marathon.
And you can't see the end line.
Like in a marathon, you know where the end line is. In winning, that win, that race may have an end line,
but there's another start line right after it.
For people that are really driven,
and this is not about money, and this isn't about fame.
This is about, you could be winning as a school teacher.
You could be winning as an entrepreneur.
You could be winning in business.
You could be winning as an athlete, as a waiter winning in business, you can be winning as an athlete,
as a waiter, whatever it is, a waitress, whatever it is,
it's that every single time you sprint to that finish line,
there's another start line that's coming.
And that's why it never ends.
It's a marathon that just keeps going, going, and going.
And I try to tell people, listen, I'm not an avid runner.
I used to be, in my much younger days, not avid.
I used to enjoy it.
You see the times of the best marathons, they're running.
Insane.
Insane.
Insane.
They're basically sprinting.
They're basically, they're sprinting.
They are, they are sprinting. They are sprinting.
I think that's one of the things, Tim,
that you say in the book that I think is like super profound
is that I think a lot of people think there's some pacing
to winning, but the truth is there's not really pacing,
is there?
The best are full speed, knowing it's a long race,
but there's only really one gear for them.
Or am I wrong about that?
No, no, you're absolutely right.
But everyone looks at the physical condition.
Are you mentally prepared to sprint every single day?
Are you mentally prepared to sprint every single day?
And for how long?
Because somebody else is sprinting.
You don't want them to get what should be your win
ends up being somebody else's win.
And everyone that says hard work
now will get you closer to that win.
How many individuals have you known
that you've outworked and they got that win?
Yeah, right.
Winning has no loyalty to you, it has no loyalty to me,
it has no loyalty to anybody.
You can outwork somebody, you can outstudy them
All right, you can do all these different things. Yeah
You can apply for a job and somebody who's less qualified ends up getting that job
So winning has no loyalty to you. This is this is where
The book is so I call it like hardcore, because that's your style too.
It's like, look, there's so many things in the book
where you talk like that about, you know,
hey listen, winning doesn't care about you.
Winning will lift you up and then slap you back down again.
Right, there's all of these unbelievable,
and I think as somebody who wants to win more,
I've done some winning, who wants to win more,
when you read it, if you've had any wins in your life, confirmation of truth, when you read something that you know is true, it just
instantly sits on you as a fact, right?
And so, here's one of the things you say in the book, you say, all over the book, I'm
highlighting it, right, stuff down, for people I know, for myself, I read this to Max last
night, about 1 a.m., he goes, dad, wake up, I'm reading Grover's book, he's like, bring it back with you tonight, which I'm going to Max last night, about 1 a.m. He goes, dad, he's the way I say, wake up,
I'm reading Grover's book.
He's like, bring it back with you tonight,
which I'm gonna do, but.
You give him this one.
Okay, I will, give him the clean one.
Yeah, give him that.
Thank you.
Winning requires you to be different,
and different scares people.
So if you're worried about what others will say,
the long-term effects, the sacrifices you make,
the sleep you lose, your family being angry,
I can't help you with that.
There's nothing quote typical about
lifestyle and choices you have to make. Winning is an inside, winning is inside all of us, but for
most that's where it will stay. Trapped under a lifetime of fear and worry and doubt. The race,
to speak of the sprint, to greatness has no rules to protect you. Nothing says you're going to lose,
you're going to get, you're not going to get, nothing says you're not going to lose, nothing
says you're not going to get hurt, you're not gonna lose. Nothing says you're not gonna get hurt.
You're not gonna do all this work for nothing. There's no guarantee it'll be
fair. Most likely it will not be fair. You'll lose at the buzzer. You lose to
someone who didn't work as hard as you did. You lose on a bad call or a bad
place. Someone else will get the job. A pandemic will wipe out your season, your
bank account, your career. Yet, the prize at the end of that race
remains so compelling, so addictive, so gorgeous,
we keep running and stumbling and sacrificing
and competing to catch it.
That's exactly what you're talking about, right?
It's exactly what I'm talking about.
I couldn't describe it any other way.
You just look at it.
Everybody, how many times you've heard it,
it's not fair, it's not supposed to be fair. It's not everybody said how many times you've heard it. It's not fair. It's not supposed to be fair
It's not it's not supposed to be fair winning is not supposed to be fair life is not fair
There's nothing that's going to guarantee you that win
It's but the only thing that's gonna guarantee that loss is if you don't get in this race
How many people and you talk about this all the time about about the fears and the emotions and like, you know,
just getting, just going for it, just like here it is.
Look at yourself.
You've moved three different times
in probably the last six months
for whatever reasons you've had, all right?
And you've literally packed up and moved,
like here I'm going, here I'm going, here I'm going.
You got people that will move themselves out of a chair,
and you've literally moved families, lives,
and there's literally a fear behind every single one of those,
but there was no doubt.
Right, that's really well said.
There was no doubt.
That's really well said.
Everything that you've done,
and everything that I've done,
there's always been a little fear.
And the fear is what allows us to be like,
you know what, I'm gonna throw myself over the ledge.
I'm going to do this, but I have no doubt
of what the end result is going to be.
That's so amazing you say that.
I was with a group of guys, influencers,
one of them you were with this morning,
about four weeks ago, and kinda went around the table like, what moves you?
And one guy's like, hey, my dreams, you know, my confidence, my this.
And so it got to me, and I think probably at that, well, anyway, I'll just say that
at that table, I kind of, I just said, hey, I'll be honest with you, I'm still afraid.
I'm still afraid.
They're like, you're afraid?
You got this, you got that?
I said, no, man, I'm still afraid.
And it's a real afraid. It's not something I'm trying to conjure up. It's like, you're afraid? You got this? You got that? I said, no, man. I'm still afraid. And it's a real afraid.
It's not something I'm trying to conjure up.
It's like a real afraid that I have.
However, I actually think successful people
have this really unique nuance of tons of self-confidence
combined with enough humility to want to keep working and
learning.
It's a really unique look.
We both know people that are super confident but don't have
that dose of humility where they want to work hard and want to be coached, right? And then you also
have the people with all the humility in the world but they don't have the confidence and
they're not going to win either, right?
You have, you coach people at all different levels. Your most successful people are your
most coachable.
A fact.
Fact.
What about when you were training Kobe, you say something in the book, like when you first
met him, the first workouts or whatever, like he didn't want you to make
it easy on him. He had no expectation.
No, I mean just like, hey listen, and the thing that he said was unique about this,
when we were starting to work out, one of the reporters asked him, said, oh you hired
Tim Grover, Michael's training. He goes, well what have you, how do you feel about that,
Kobe and I'm going to use a little language here. He goes I
Don't know he ain't done shit for me
He goes I'm not gonna judge him by what he did
Last time I want to know what he's done what he's done for me
We relish that yeah, you do relish what Jordan told him about you. Oh, yeah, it's okay
So the language would never what Jordan said about you to him? Yeah so he just said. Kobe asked him
what about this guy? What about? He goes he really knows his stuff but he goes he's the
biggest asshole you'll ever meet. It's a great compliment right? It's a great compliment.
It's a great compliment because how many people when they're when they meet winners, fold.
They become yes men, yes people.
Yes, exactly.
And then you have to be the person
that holds them accountable.
And it's funny, I just, as you said earlier,
I call people out, I want people to call me out
on my bullshit, I call them out on their bullshit.
You've done it with me before.
Yeah, I have, I do it with everyone. And I do it not out of a bullshit, I call them out on their bullshit. Yep, you've done it with me before. Yeah, I have.
I do it with everyone.
And I do it not out of a place, out of hate, not jealous or anything like that.
Listen, the one thing that you've offered me that no one's ever offered me is access
to your jet.
Mm-hmm.
All right. Now, if I would have came when I put you in check, if that was coming out of hate, that
offer wouldn't be there.
You know it's coming out of love.
100%.
By the way, you also have helped my son unselfishly.
And by the way, never told me that you were doing it.
Only through him do I find these things out that Tim does.
That's what I meant by a real man.
I think the winners have this thing.
By the way, you should use it. You're the type of person that will never take me up on it
and you should, but I have to tell you guys that I think one of the things that the winners have is
they lose this expectation that's going to be easy. They lose the expectation that they're going to
be liked. They lose the expectation that it's going to be perfect. Like once you've sort of given up,
you've actually surrendered to the fact this is not going to be easy, people aren't going to like
me, I am going to be judged. I am going to be disliked
It's not all that bad when it starts happening to you
And that's what winning is about that in order to win you have those are all the things that are in the unforgiving race
So you already know they're there
You know they're there and then people are still distracted by it
You know everything that you just mentioned is in this race.
So if you already know it's there, you know what your opponents are, deal with it.
You also though, like there's a level even past that. Like every time I'm reading the book,
I'm like, okay, oh, there's another level, another level, another level, and you articulate it.
You've been up close and you're including yourself, to the biggest winners in sports.
There's layers to this that only someone in that type of proximity to it would know too.
So many people are governed, like what we're really describing right now is they're governed
by their emotions.
Yes.
Their emotions rule their lives, right?
You talk in the book about mindset and thoughts being bigger and more important than that.
So this is so huge what he's about to share
with you right now because right now some of you,
you're driving right now or you're on a treadmill somewhere
or you're watching this on YouTube
and you're being governed by your emotions.
It's literally dictating the direction of your life,
your effort, your belief level, your confidence, all of it.
But the highest level winners do what?
Your mind has to be stronger than your feelings.
Your mind has to be stronger than your feelings.
Think about every poor decision you've made in your life.
Gosh.
There was more emotion that was involved in it
than there was mind.
Every single one of them.
Think about it. Really wise.
Your feelings keep you in bed
Your mind tells you get up. Hmm
Hmm think about it every single day your mind is one that tells you get up and your feelings like an extra 30 minutes
Just roll this don't worry about it. Hmm
Well, I could tell you this every bad decision decision I made has been ruled by emotion.
Guess what?
You just said that.
You and I have both.
You and I both.
You're making me think.
Every single one.
Your mind has to be stronger than your feelings.
Listen, it's not the popular decision.
You are going to hurt, you are going gonna piss a lot of people off. Yep
All right, are you gonna piss them off for the short term? Are you gonna piss them off for the long term?
I've had so many individuals athletes that I used to train back in the day and I used to tell them
You're not good enough to go to the NBA
You would evaluate I'm gonna be willing to tell you're not good enough to but you can make a ton of money overseas
Hmm. I said, what do not good enough to, but you can make a ton of money overseas.
I said, what do you wanna do?
I said, overseas you can make,
I said, you can literally,
you could have a very long career,
be extremely popular over there,
live a nice lifestyle,
and be successful for numerous years.
Go over, you don't know what you're talking about.
Okay, I'm telling you.
10 years come by, they're chasing the NBA dream, they don't know what you're talking about. Dad, okay, I'm telling you. 10 years come by, they're chasing the NBA dream,
they don't make it.
I run into them and they come up to me and says,
you're the only one that told me.
You're the only one that told me.
Do you think the fact that they deny
this interesting thought, like you are candid with me, right?
Like I actually look at, my dad was candid with me.
So I, maybe it's because I played sports, I don't know,
but like I look at people who are really candid
and frank with me as like,
that's actually real belief in love.
100%.
But don't you think most people that don't win,
and I'm not calling myself a winner,
but I think most people that don't win,
don't view candor and direct feedback that way.
They view it as hate or criticism
or you're rooting against me.
Don't you agree?
I actually have very few people who are candid with me.
And those are some of my most cherished people in my life.
Well, here's the thing.
So when's the best time for the truth?
All the time.
It's the best time for the truth.
All the time.
The truth should lead to more action
But what does it usually do it leads to more emotions?
Wow, that's really true. So when you tell somebody the truth, so what's the first thing anybody in a relationship?
You go in a relationship with business
Personal whatever it is. The first thing they always ask me
with business, personal, whatever it is. The first thing they always ask me,
honesty, honesty is the most important,
until you're honest.
Until you're honest, yeah.
Then the emotions get in,
and then everything goes haywire.
Then your mind has to be stronger than your feelings.
That's awesome.
I have one of the great fitness icons
of all time right here, Mike O'Hern.
So Mike, thanks for being here, man. Thank you, thank you, man. So good to have you, here. Mike O'Hern. Thanks, brother.
Thanks for being here, man.
Thank you, man.
So good to have you, man.
Thank you.
Someone said to you, because I think, like, it's rare that you put someone who's the best
on the planet at something in front of you.
Like, on the earth spinning right now.
And we said, who in the last 25 years, let's say, take that window of time, just that basic
window of time, which is a fair window, who's probably the healthiest, fittest person, the icon that sustained it, grown it, and got more
fit, and also helped more people get there too that he trains with? It would be this
human, right, sitting next to me. So what does that, I know we've talked a lot about
it, but like it's hard to describe yourself. I have a hard time doing it. It's
like I'm not even sure how I am, you know, I'm just that way, right? But let me ask
you something, seriously. What's that mindset like? Like, don't sugarcoat it. No BS. Don't be humble. Is it just like you want to
crush everybody? Is it you're trying to chase the best you? Is it just like this stacking of
disciplines that's built you into this thing? Like, what is it that's like this world-class
mindset you hold? Do you know? I would say it's it's I want to be the very the
number one guy. I want people to be able to say hey I want to do a Mike O'Hern. I
want to be like Mike O'Hern when I'm that. And whatever it is. It's just that
long period of time. Yeah. And it's not just I don't want you guys to sit there
and I guess I want people to live what I've lived and stop giving the excuses and stop saying,
I'm 30 now, it's downhill from here.
That's pretty good.
College, I peaked.
And then it's like, there's a thing called science.
And science will show you what's possible,
what's not possible.
There is something that's called heart that can break that
and something that can set it apart. And I'm just saying that the one heart that can break that and something that
can set it apart and I'm just saying that the one thing that we're doing now
and I'm lucky enough to be around is that be around doctors and science and
actually doing tests now going why is why is it that I got to be able to do
this for such a long period of time and not just as a average Joe because
everybody's like as long as I can be healthy,
fuck healthy, I'm sorry.
It's all right, it's okay.
Leave that out, but be a freaking superhero
for your whole life.
Yes.
So I guess for me, consistency is me describing myself,
but the hunger to be the very number one.
Yes, yes.
What's the next five or 10 years look like for you,
do you think?
We know what the past looks like,
we know what the present looks like. we know what the present looks like,
we're going to do more of these, but I'm going to have you back here in five years.
What do you think?
I love the purchasing properties and commercial real estate, and I love this,
and it's something that, again, I think you agree with this.
You can be around your friends, but you need some elite people that are raising you up,
and I've got that, and I've got that.
And I've had that, in the last 10 years,
my life has completely changed to the point of where
I'm doing all charity, and I'm around guys
that are better than me in other facets.
And they make you stand up and go,
listen, this is great, whatcha doing?
But I need you here, this is what you need to do.
Now you need to man up.
You all need these people in your life.
Yeah.
And so I, I, I.
You gonna buy more property?
You think we're seeing movies?
More properties, leads in movies,
and continue to travel the world and talk.
Yeah.
Do you think you'll be even more fit?
I do.
Listen, I'm, as much as I got crazy this year,
I already told my girl,
and I said I wanna even be better than I was for New Year's. I love this brother. I love you inspire me. Thanks man. No you
inspire me you do. You're inspiring to me. That's a fun that's a fun
love oh is this your ride? Yeah this is how you get home. Helicopters coming in guys. Right over the ocean.
Yeah we're gonna do more of this. This went too fast but I just something that
when you can push somebody
that's already at a pinnacle level, that's badass.
It is badass, and that's why I try to surround myself
with guys like you, and like you just said,
that's part of the formula everybody,
is that you surround yourself with people
who do make you better, whatever the industry is,
it doesn't even matter, they just make you wanna be better
by their example, not their yelling and screaming, right?
Their example does.
Thank you for saying that though.
It's a fact.
The other thing I want to tell everybody that when you're listening to Mike, there's a
uniqueness to him that I want to point out.
It's that not only can he do these things, but he can articulate them.
That's rare for an athlete.
It's rare for a business person to be able to articulate it.
The reason I point that out to you is you can get Mike to come speak to your organization.
You can have him come talk to your group.
He can do inspirational talks, fitness talks.
This is someone that you want to bring into your company to have speak to you and
he also somebody just by following him on social media will alter your life. You
you will have no excuses, you will be inspired, right? You will see one of the
great lives being lived but there's also all this fitness stuff, all this
information out there.