173: Inside My Mind: Building The Future

In this April 2026 “Inside My Mind” episode, I share what I’m building, learning, loving, and honestly trying to loosen my grip on. I break down the future of BPN, including our carbonated energy drink, creatine chews, consumer research, retail strategy, and how we’re thinking long game. I also reflect on lessons from Lonesome Dove, The Culture Code, the GBRS team, and pacing my dad at the Pittsburgh Marathon. This episode is about building with patience, leading with service, watching others win, and remembering that routines should serve the mission and not become the master. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Intro 03:20 Energy Drink R&D 11:47 Retail Launch Plan 15:08 Creatine Chews Update 18:41 Brand Strategy Shift 26:32 Books and Culture Lessons 31:48 GBRS Visit and Service Mindset 42:35 Pittsburgh Marathon Homecoming 48:31 Week With Dad 54:35 Finish Line Scare 01:03:05 Garmin Flashlight Return 01:09:37 Routine Versus Freedom 01:13:31 Closing Thoughts ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠ https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition IG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠ YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Nick Bare?

  Welcome back to another episode, ladies and gentlemen. This is another episode of the Inside My Mind series. I did one in March and the feedback was was great. So we decided to continue it and this will be April of 2026. What has been on my mind? This is a compilation of what I'm working on or what I've been working on the last month, what I'm learning, what I'm loving, what I'm not loving, and just a wrap up of what has been on my mind in the last month. There was a lot this past month.

• 0:47Nick Bare?

  I mean, we just entered May 2026. This year is literally flying by. We put a lot on the calendar, on the schedule.

• 0:59Nick Bare?

  But like previous years, you plan out your year. And I'm talking mostly from a business perspective. You plan out the year, you put these new product launches and campaigns and initiatives and events on the calendar. And then you pivot, you adapt, things get added, things get deleted. But we created a pretty full schedule for at least the first half of 2026. And we've been cooking on a lot of different stuff. So let's dive in. What I'm currently working on?

• 1:41Nick Bare?

  I've had to learn the hard way.

• 1:44Nick Bare?

  You know, at this point, I've been operating BPN for 14 years. Started it in 2012 and 14 years later, here we are. And if you would have asked me five, six, seven years ago, Nick, what are you currently working on? I would list out probably 100 different things. And I would argue that I was at one point in my earlier entrepreneurial journey unfocused. I've talked about this a lot of different times in many different ways, but I used to view every opportunity as...

• 2:30Nick Bare?

  And ability to progress forward. And I've had to learn the hard way that many of these, we can call them opportunities, are actually distractions. And these distractions have an opportunity cost and that opportunity cost is time that we can dedicate and allocate to things that actually move the needle in your life, or in this case, my business. So there's a few things that I'm working on right now, very intensely.

• 3:02Nick Bare?

  I'll talk about brand and I'll talk about product. We'll talk about product first. I've been teasing this the last couple of weeks on my social media and the response has been very nice to see. I'm really excited.

• 3:20Nick Bare?

  We're working on an energy drink and I've shared this in, in the March of 2026 episode of Inside My Mind. But we're progressing that project forward. We probably won't launch this energy drink until 2027. Maybe the end of Q1, early Q2. Because we want to do this one right. Like really do it right. So when I shared the energy drink project last month, we were just getting started. We were looking for an R and D team to help us with flavor development and formulation.

• 4:06Nick Bare?

  And there's a lot to consider. You know, it's what do you want your carbonation to, to look and feel? And that experience to be like, you can have different levels of carbonation.

• 4:20Nick Bare?

  Within an energy drink, if you decide to add carbonation, you can, you can do still. But I've had non-carbonated energy drinks and it's just not, for me at least, a great experience. I like the carbonation, a cold, fizzy energy drink. And there's different levels of carbonation. You can have lightly carbonated, you can have very heavy carbonation. So part of this exploration was identifying what level and intensity of carbonation we want added to the energy drink. And in its formulation, we've locked in our formula. We're doing a 12 ounce slender, thin can. It's very popular in the market right now.

• 5:06Nick Bare?

  And we've landed on 150 milligrams of caffeine with theanine and some nootropics. Nootropics are mental alertness, mental energy, focus ingredients. They're not stimulants like caffeine that affect the central nervous system, but they help heighten the, the experience and the head feel from an energy drink. We have nootropics added to our pre-workout powder. We have nootropics added to GUM Sport Plus, which is our powder that is a, a pre-workout for endurance athletes.

• 5:50Nick Bare?

  But we've locked in the formula and it feels really good. You know, I personally, in, in our team, we don't enjoy energy drinks that feel like a pre-workout, where it's too much caffeine, it's too many stimulants, it's too many nootropics, where you feel like you're, you want to go into a workout, you have to go into a workout. This energy drink for us is more of a lifestyle branded and promoted product.

• 6:19Nick Bare?

  So we've done a bunch of different surveys and research and questionnaires on what level of intensity of stimulants or caffeine that you guys want to see. And majority of the population that we surveyed, including ourselves, 150mg was the sweet spot. So we've locked in carbonation, we've locked in formula. Again, I love the way that it feels. It's very clean, it's very smooth, it's a perfect amount of energy and focus and stimulation. And now we're on the fun part, or one of the fun parts of this research and development process, flavor.

• 7:04Nick Bare?

  We've been now sampling different flavors of our own energy drink. The last seven days. We started getting samples in about seven days ago. And what's different about sampling an energy drink versus, you know, we've been in this industry, in this business for 14 years now. Powders, capsules, soft gels, gels. We've done liquid with G1M Sport, G1M Sport Plus, RTDs, but those were not carbonated. This is a different experience.

• 7:45Nick Bare?

  Where when we get the samples, you know, when we get, when we get a sample of, say, protein powder, for example, it will be in this small tub, five to 10 servings. There's a scooper in there. We have to add it to either water, milk, or a milk substitute, and then sample it. The energy drink, though, it comes in a can. A can that looks like you would buy in a convenience or grocery store. There's no branding on it. Very subtle, you know, BPN energy drink, and then the date it was produced and the flavor. But it's bottled, it's carbonated with the appropriate amount of carbonation.

• 8:29Nick Bare?

  We let it sit in the fridge and it is just a different experience of testing and sampling and R and D. It's a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. I have sampled three flavors so far. And the team that we are working on has absolutely crushed it. And we knew they would, you know, they've been in this space, in this industry for a long time now. And they work on some of the major brands in the market.

• 9:03Nick Bare?

  But I was actually surprised, I'll be honest, how accurate they nailed the flavors first time go. So far, we have sampled a cherry limeade, a peach mango and a lemonade energy drink. There are 10 flavors that we have put in R and D. And chances are, we will launch with four to five out of the gates. So that's where we're at right now. We're in the flavor sampling stage. And like I said, it is, it is so much fun. You know, yesterday I took some home. I let Steph try some. I let Steph's mom, Kim, my mother-in-law, try some.

• 9:49Nick Bare?

  And, you know, watching people's reaction. I think people expect, because this is our first round, that we're allowing to, you know, try some of these samples we're receiving, that they're gonna have to provide all this feedback. Ah, this is a little too sweet. This is a little too flavor intense. This is a little syrupy, maybe. But you hand over a can to some of these people that we've been letting in, which have been very few.

• 10:20Nick Bare?

  And you watch the reaction on their face of how surprised they are of how good it tastes with it being the first round.

• 10:29Nick Bare?

  So we're taking every step by step. We're not getting ahead of ourselves. We're being very intentional and very deliberate with our go-to-market strategy.

• 10:40Nick Bare?

  This has the potential to be really big for BPN and our brand and the trajectory of our future if we get it right. And getting it right requires a lot of research, a lot of

• 10:57Nick Bare?

  preparation, a lot of due diligence, and then the right go-to-market strategy.

• 11:05Nick Bare?

  Now, I'm kind of bringing you into the process as they say the sausage is being made.

• 11:14Nick Bare?

  Because none of this is confirmed, flushed out, and confirmed yet at this point.

• 11:24Nick Bare?

  We are still in the process of building our go-to-market strategy, but I'm bringing you into the way that we're thinking about it and my mind's working.

• 11:36Nick Bare?

  I use the word intentionality, focus, and being deliberate.

• 11:41Nick Bare?

  Not lightly, but to be very clear with my communication. We want to identify a few key retail partners, and we've already identified some of these retail partners, and we've shared the energy drink concept and what we're working on with them, and we've gotten a lot of buy-in from a few so far.

• 12:06Nick Bare?

  But we want to launch strategically in Texas.

• 12:11Nick Bare?

  And there's a reason. We're based in Texas. We can move swiftly and strategically to those retail locations, whether that's convenience, gas stations, grocery, specialty.

• 12:33Nick Bare?

  In Texas, so we can activate those retail partners and that launch in a very meaningful way. Retail is high risk, high reward. The opposite of having a really focused geographic go-to-market strategy would be you onboard with a huge distributor or multiple distributors, you launch nationwide, you're in stores in Texas, in New York, in California, everywhere, everywhere, all at once.

• 13:12Nick Bare?

  That is very hard to manage, that is very hard to execute successfully, and that is very hard to scale. So our approach, our go-to-market strategy is launch in Texas with a few key retail partners, convenience, specialty, grocery. Succeed with them, learn, because this is new for us, learn how to execute, learn the beverage business, have very strong velocity, velocity being sell-through. So it's one thing for a retail partner to bring you on and sell your product in their

• 13:57Nick Bare?

  stores, it's a whole nother thing to succeed and move product. Velocity is how fast you are moving product that is in stores. And each different store has different expectations of velocity, your sell-through. So we want to make sure that these retail partners that we get in with here in Texas, we have a strong case study, we have strong velocities, we're succeeding before we scale outside of the Texas geographic location.

• 14:33Nick Bare?

  So there are a lot still that we have to do from now until then. But right now, early stages, we are locking in the five-ish flavors, four to five flavors, that we want to launch with come 2027. Another product, that's the, that's the big product we're working on right now in the background.

• 14:58Nick Bare?

  Because I see that as the future of how BPN is going to scale to get to this next level.

• 15:07Nick Bare?

  I'll come back to this in a second. Another product that I want to share that we're working on right now is creatine chews. We have locked in our creatine chews, our manufacturing partner, our formula and our flavors. We're launching with three flavors. That is a juicy watermelon, a peach and a pink lemonade. Three creatine chews we are launching in fall of 2026.

• 15:42Nick Bare?

  Now, creatine has become more and more popular over the years. I'm sure that is by no surprise to many of you. You see creatine everywhere now and our creatine sales have gone absolutely wild the last couple of years. We have always sold Creapure. Creapure is a very safe, effective and pure source of creatine monohydrate. It is made in Germany through a proprietary manufacturing process, which creates a very clean and pure product. We've had a trademark license agreement with Creapure.

• 16:24Nick Bare?

  For as long as I can remember. And I believe that's one of the reasons that our creatine sales have just skyrocketed over the years is because we exclusively use Creapure.

• 16:38Nick Bare?

  Now, we've also seen through through the reports, through data, that creatine gummies and creatine chews have become very popular. We buy a lot of data from our retail partners and you can see what SKUs, what products, what flavors, what delivery system is succeeding in retail. And we're seeing gummies as a whole exploding in the market.

• 17:07Nick Bare?

  But through our research, what we found is that creatine is not very stable in a gummy format. Meaning, you know, you create the gummy, you put creatine in a gummy, in less than a year, a lot of that creatine is no longer there. It just is not stable in that format. But we have found that creatine is highly stable in a chew. When I say a chew, imagine like a Starburst type texture and consistency.

• 17:42Nick Bare?

  So we've locked in our flavors, they're so good.

• 17:48Nick Bare?

  Like some of these things, some of these products that we're, we're working on right now. The, the sampling days, those are my favorite days.

• 17:57Nick Bare?

  You're telling me I get to come into this room and try different samples of a creatine chew, which tastes like I'm eating candy all day. And then you let me sip on carbonated energy drinks to lock in flavors. It's like a dream come true. It's so much fun. I love the sampling days of these new product and delivery systems that we're working on. But we will be launching a creatine chew in 2026, fall of 2026, that I'm really excited for. This will be on our Amazon store, it'll be on our website, the three flavors, as well as with some of our key retail partners. So that's where we're working product wise right now, where I'm spending a lot of my time.

• 18:41Nick Bare?

  To speak into brand, what I'm working on and what I'm about to share has been part of the energy drink exploration process.

• 18:57Nick Bare?

  Beverage, RTD, retail. It's a different approach to building a business. Eighty-five percent of our our revenue comes from online platforms. Amazon and our website. About fifteen percent of our revenue comes from retail or wholesale accounts. You know, we sell into retailers like HEB, Wegmans, Academy, Shields, Fresh Time.

• 19:37Nick Bare?

  And then we have wholesale accounts like mom and pop, specialty stores, gyms. There's college sports teams and professional sports teams that are buying our product. Because we are NSF certified for sport, all of our products are are NSF certified for sport. And that opens us up to the ability to sell to these college NCAA and professional sports teams because they know that our products are tested heavily and certified by NSF. So as we've started to explore retail being a more meaningful part of our business, it's just a different way to to build a brand.

• 20:22Nick Bare?

  And you have to approach it a little bit differently than you would building an online brand and selling direct consumer from your website or Amazon. It's a different way you communicate with the consumer. It's a different interaction. It might be a different persona or audience that you were selling to completely.

• 20:44Nick Bare?

  And as I shared, we want to be very intentional and deliberate with the way that we launch this energy drink. So we've reached out to, we've vetted, I've vetted a few different agencies. And these agencies specialize in consumer insights, consumer research, and ultimately, what we're looking to do, what I'm looking to do is work with an agency, work with a team that can help us identify our target audience, market, and opportunity for the energy drink to increase our chances of success when we launch.

• 21:24Nick Bare?

  I used to approach business differently when we were much smaller.

• 21:29Nick Bare?

  It's like, hey, this is a product that I want to use, and this is how I'm going to use it. I'm going to make the ignorant and naive assumption that there are millions of other people who think, behave, act, and want to live this lifestyle that I want to live. And that worked for a period of time. But, like I say, what got you here won't get you there.

• 22:00Nick Bare?

  In this next chapter of VPN's growth, we need to serve a larger audience for scale opportunity.

• 22:08Nick Bare?

  And with the energy drink, I want to make sure that we know exactly what persona, what audience we are serving, meet them exactly where they're at and their lifestyle. They resonate with the flavors, the packaging, the brand, the message, the look, the feel, where it's located, what stores, what geographic locations, everything.

• 22:35Nick Bare?

  And you can do this on your own. Like, we could have done this research.

• 22:39Nick Bare?

  But the data that we're going to get by working and partnering with an agency and another outsourced team is going to be on another level.

• 22:50Nick Bare?

  They're going to be able to go and survey consumers, interview consumers. And at the end of this process, we will have this report and all this data that guides how we design the energy drink label, how we market it, where we sell it, the message, the mission, everything behind it. So it's a little bit of what we want. It's a little bit of what the consumer were going after once. So we have, like I said, increased chances of success. And as we've explored that opportunity,

• 23:30Nick Bare?

  it then made me think about, well, no, maybe we should apply that same practice and exercise to the core business we have right now, being supplements, powders, capsules, soft gels, gels, bars. Because if we're trying to scale the core business and then incrementally build and scale an energy drink business, we want them to be complementary, not two separate distinct businesses. So when I say I'm working on brand, that's what I'm doing right now is I've vetted a bunch of different agencies and teams.

• 24:13Nick Bare?

  We've identified one, we're starting to work with them. We're going to do all of this consumer analysis and research and surveys and interviews to help us scale a mission-driven brand. And this will guide our packaging, our website, our content, both paid and organic, our marketing, our storytelling. It will diversify our audiences and our content. And it sets us up for this next chapter of BPN. So a lot of the work that I'm doing right now, whether that's brand or product, I will not see and you will not see for months.

• 25:00Nick Bare?

  And that's what I love about the entrepreneurial journey and being the CEO and being the founder. Is that I like to think three, six, nine, 12 plus months out. And the projects that I'm working on are out in front. To set the team up for success so they can then execute on the work that's being done for the future.

• 25:29Nick Bare?

  You know, there's this book that I've referenced many times before, Traction, and then Rocket Fuel by Gina Wickman. It's built off this system called EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System. And it talks about the two key members of a team, being a visionary and an integrator.

• 25:48Nick Bare?

  I, by definition, am a visionary. I am not the integrator. I am the person who is thinking very big picture, long-term.

• 26:00Nick Bare?

  The, the mechanics that work in my brain are not here and now. They are, like I said, three, six, nine, 12 plus months out of what we need to be thinking about and on. For the future of this business and organization.

• 26:20Nick Bare?

  And if you can get that right, which is really hard, you can scale a mission-driven brand.

• 26:29Nick Bare?

  So that's what I'm working on right now. What I'm learning.

• 26:34Nick Bare?

  So there's a few books that I'm reading right now.

• 26:40Nick Bare?

  Some for business, some for pleasure. I was gifted a book recently. It's called Lonesome Dove. And there's a movie created off of this book. I just got started. It's a thick one. It is.

• 27:00Nick Bare?

  From what I've read so far and what I've researched, an amazing novel. Someone gifted me this book.

• 27:09Nick Bare?

  It's something like 850 pages. It's gonna take me a hot minute to get through, but the way that it's written is so engaging and captivating and sophisticated. And I haven't read a fiction novel in forever. I've been saying for years that I've, I've wanted to, and I just haven't. Probably because I haven't found the right book to dive into.

• 27:38Nick Bare?

  But someone gifted me Lonesome Dove, or yeah, Lonesome Dove.

• 27:43Nick Bare?

  And I'm enjoying it a lot right now. It's funny because one of my favorite restaurants, when we first got to the Austin area, was called Lonesome Dove, is called Lonesome Dove. It's downtown and I've eaten this restaurant many, many times and it's incredible. A lot of wild game. One of the best beef tender loins I've ever had in my life. I've, I've taken many people to this restaurant.

• 28:12Nick Bare?

  Incredible place to eat.

• 28:15Nick Bare?

  But the, the novel, the book has been, it's been fun so far. It's been fun to read something that is not self-help or nonfiction or a, a resource and a tool to

• 28:33Nick Bare?

  learn a new skill or apply to

• 28:38Nick Bare?

  business and family. It's, it's just a fun read right now. So that's one book that I'm reading. Another book that I'm reading, not nonfiction, self-help, business-focused book, it's called Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. And

• 28:57Nick Bare?

  It's a good read. I have Sarah Gillespie, who is

• 29:04Nick Bare?

  our VP of People and Chief of Staff here at BPN. We're both reading it simultaneously because we're always looking for ways to improve and invest into the culture here at BPN. People, people make a really big difference. And the big idea around Culture Code, I recommend picking it up. I'm about halfway through right now and it is a, it's a really good read. It uses examples of different examples from highly successful athletes, coaches, business owners, world leaders, entrepreneurs. But the big idea around the book, there's three big ideas. One, start with safety.

• 29:51Nick Bare?

  And I'm pulling this from Daniel Coyle's website just to cite what he says about the big ideas from the book. Start with safety. Great group chemistry isn't luck. It's about sending super clear, continuous signals. We share a future. You have a voice. Make people feel safe in the workplace, on the team, within the culture. Number two, get vulnerable and stay vulnerable. Strong cultures don't hide their weaknesses. They make a habit of sharing them so they can improve together. I think this is really important.

• 30:34Nick Bare?

  Get vulnerable and stay vulnerable. And the third big idea, roadmap your story.

• 30:41Nick Bare?

  It's not about nice sounding value statements. It's about flooding the zone with vivid narratives that work like GPS signals, guiding your group towards its goal.

• 30:56Nick Bare?

  And I share that I've been reading Culture Code because there's a few things that have happened this past month that have reinforced these big ideas that I'm reading through Culture Code.

• 31:10Nick Bare?

  I've learned a lot in, in April of 2026.

• 31:19Nick Bare?

  And it's not from watching a video or reading a book necessarily. They've been reinforced by maybe watching videos or reading books.

• 31:31Nick Bare?

  Or maybe the seed has been planted by these books or videos.

• 31:37Nick Bare?

  But I've learned what I'm about to share

• 31:41Nick Bare?

  from in-person, real experiences. And I'll talk about two here.

• 31:48Nick Bare?

  The first, we had the opportunity a few weeks ago to spend a few days with the GBRS team.

• 31:59Nick Bare?

  So DJ Shipley and his team

• 32:02Nick Bare?

  came in from Virginia Beach to Austin, Texas to spend a few days. We recorded a podcast. They put me through their standards, performance, fitness test, which was a lot of fun. I scored pro. I maxed it out. We did a dinner with our team and their team.

• 32:24Nick Bare?

  DJ brought their, their head trainer and his coach Vernon Griffith, who put our team through a few different workouts, opened my eyes to a different style of training. It is more athletic, that is more core, that is more functional.

• 32:46Nick Bare?

  Definitely put me through a warm-up that I haven't experienced in a long time. Overall, it was an amazing time spent with some amazing people.

• 33:00Nick Bare?

  And I unfortunately can't say that happens

• 33:04Nick Bare?

  at this level very frequently.

• 33:09Nick Bare?

  There was something different about this, this group and this crew that left a

• 33:15Nick Bare?

  a big, meaningful impact on me and our team.

• 33:22Nick Bare?

  And I don't say that to discredit other groups or other people that we've spent time with in the past by any means.

• 33:33Nick Bare?

  But I think our entire staff, our entire team that spent any amount of time with DJ and the GBRS crew can say that this one just felt different.

• 33:50Nick Bare?

  And

• 33:54Nick Bare?

  some of the things that

• 33:57Nick Bare?

  I left those couple of days thinking of even after. I mean, GBRS, DJ, many of them, most of them, all of them, spent time in the military.

• 34:13Nick Bare?

  Some in tier one units, Navy SEALs, DevGru. The elite of the elite, the tip of the spear.

• 34:24Nick Bare?

  They are service minded, service driven, service guided people.

• 34:32Nick Bare?

  Their mission in life is to serve others.

• 34:36Nick Bare?

  Serve their country.

• 34:39Nick Bare?

  Serve their families. Serve the teams that they are working on and working with.

• 34:50Nick Bare?

  And their realization is that

• 34:53Nick Bare?

  in America,

• 34:57Nick Bare?

  service minded people, especially men, are a dying breed. It's very unfortunate.

• 35:07Nick Bare?

  It's very unfortunate. You have a lot of people today

• 35:12Nick Bare?

  whose mission in life is to excel and propel themselves forward. Make more money for themselves. Get a better job, a bigger promotion for themselves. Buy a bigger house for themselves. Get ahead of everyone else at the expense of other people at all costs.

• 35:39Nick Bare?

  And that's sad.

• 35:42Nick Bare?

  It is.

• 35:44Nick Bare?

  Service minded people, especially men, are a dying breed.

• 35:51Nick Bare?

  And there needs to be a revival of

• 35:55Nick Bare?

  service driven individuals.

• 36:00Nick Bare?

  And after spending a few days with GBRS and sitting down with DJ during the podcast, maybe thinking about my work, my mission, my children,

• 36:16Nick Bare?

  what I want my children or I hope my children pursue with their professional and personal lives. After I lead and teach them and show them the way.

• 36:31Nick Bare?

  You know, when I think about

• 36:35Nick Bare?

  service driven individuals, I instantly think of the military and probably because I come from a military background and experience. After college, I served in the army for four years. I was an active duty infantry officer and when I think of of service,

• 36:51Nick Bare?

  selfless service, I think of military just naturally. It's where it's where my mind is drawn towards.

• 37:00Nick Bare?

  But we have military, we have law enforcement, we have first responders, firefighters, nurses, EMS.

• 37:15Nick Bare?

  This nation cannot operate without those individuals. We need service minded, service driven people. And what makes these people so awesome and amazing is that they've chosen a profession that puts people, people's lives

• 37:39Nick Bare?

  above and before their own.

• 37:43Nick Bare?

  And one of the things that DJ was telling me, this might have been on the podcast or off the podcast, because GBRS, they train and work with military, law enforcement, first responders, elite units, the tip of the spear, helping the tip of the spear get a little bit better, a little bit stronger, a little bit faster.

• 38:10Nick Bare?

  You know, when we think about service-driven individuals, you have people who join the military and go overseas and fight wars and serve our country, but we have people on our own soil, within our own nation, who are fighting daily battles, but they have to go home at night. You know, one of the things he brought up was how some of these SWAT teams, they will go in and do some dangerous, dirty missions within their own cities.

• 38:46Nick Bare?

  They will see horrific things, and they will put the lives and the welfare of the people in their community above their own.

• 39:00Nick Bare?

  And once that stays over and the mission's complete, they go back home. I mean, they could be doing some really amazing, yet at the same time horrific things,

• 39:16Nick Bare?

  that is just part of the job at 3:00 PM, and by 4:30 PM, they're back home, giving their kids baths and getting dinner ready, to sit down and eat as a family unit.

• 39:30Nick Bare?

  And that's like, gotta be really tough, to be able to separate the two.

• 39:40Nick Bare?

  And do the job you have to do within your community, but then go home at night to your family and not carry the weight and heaviness from the daily job into the household.

• 39:53Nick Bare?

  There's a lot of people here in this country who are fighting wars on our own soil for us that I don't think we see or recognize or show enough support of on a daily basis.

• 40:09Nick Bare?

  Because without them, we'd be pretty lost.

• 40:13Nick Bare?

  So, sitting down with DJ and the GBR's team, I just had that realization that, man, we gotta be doing more for our service members. They need more love. They need more support. They need, they need more. They need more of us.

• 40:29Nick Bare?

  And I'm asking myself lately, how, what, where?

• 40:34Nick Bare?

  What does that look like?

• 40:37Nick Bare?

  And it's had my, my mind and my gears turning a lot.

• 40:45Nick Bare?

  Because we need those people. I don't want to see what this nation or this world would look like without those people, truthfully.

• 40:54Nick Bare?

  Another key takeaway from the GBR's team is,

• 40:59Nick Bare?

  you know, for me, being someone who's in the fitness industry, and I've been in the fitness industry for 14 years now.

• 41:08Nick Bare?

  At different parts of my life, so much of what fitness was for me was to be impressive. And I'll be honest, it was either to be impressive to myself, or to put myself in a position to be impressive to other people.

• 41:26Nick Bare?

  Pursuing a certain race, or a time, or a PR, to be considered impressive. And I, I valued a lot of my, a lot of my self-worth in being impressive.

• 41:45Nick Bare?

  But sitting down with DJ during the podcast and talking to the GPRS crew, they don't pursue fitness to be impressive. They don't pursue fitness to

• 41:56Nick Bare?

  get a certain time at a certain race or competition to post it online. Fitness for them is to be an asset to the people around them as opposed to a liability. How do they become stronger for their team? How do they become stronger for their family? How do they become stronger for their business and their community? How do they make themselves with fitness, health and fitness, an asset to the people around them to support, not to be impressive?

• 42:31Nick Bare?

  And I respected that tremendously.

• 42:35Nick Bare?

  Now that was a few weeks ago. A few days ago, we just wrapped up the Pittsburgh Marathon. This was our first year being

• 42:49Nick Bare?

  we as BPN, being a partner to the Pittsburgh Marathon.

• 42:55Nick Bare?

  We are the on-course nutrition partner. So our Go Gels and electrolytes were on course for the race. And this race for us was much more than just being a sponsor of another race. This was our homecoming, if you will. I grew up in Pennsylvania. I was born in Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania, the Hershey area. I went to school at IUP, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which is right down the road from Pittsburgh.

• 43:28Nick Bare?

  So going back home and being a partner to the Pittsburgh Marathon, it felt really good. It felt right.

• 43:40Nick Bare?

  It's back where all the

• 43:43Nick Bare?

  the roots began.

• 43:47Nick Bare?

  That's where everything started.

• 43:50Nick Bare?

  Literally everything. It's where I fell in love with fitness. It's where I

• 43:56Nick Bare?

  launched BPN out of a small college apartment. It all started in PA. So going back to be a partner of the Pittsburgh Marathon meant a lot to me and to the team and to the community, I believe.

• 44:15Nick Bare?

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

• 44:27Nick Bare?

  So Wednesday morning, I landed in Pittsburgh. Wednesday evening, we went to the Pittsburgh Pirates game. And the events organization called P3R that runs the Pittsburgh Marathon, they've been great to work with. They facilitated a lot of what I'm gonna share and talk about, so I have to give them credit.

• 44:51Nick Bare?

  But they invited us to the Pittsburgh Pirates game Wednesday evening. I got to throw out the first pitch

• 44:58Nick Bare?

  of that game. They played the Cardinals. I was so nervous. I haven't been that nervous or something in a long, long time, mainly because I played baseball growing up. I mean, it was my dream at one point to play college baseball. But I wasn't good enough. My brother, however, Preston, he played college baseball. He played D1 at Longwood University for a few years, and then he transferred to Bloomsburg University to be closer to home. Longwood University is in Virginia. And when I played baseball in high school, I had a case of what's called the yips. It's when you overthink the throw.

• 45:39Nick Bare?

  Baseball is such a mental game. I would overthink the throw to the point where I couldn't throw the ball from me to the camera that I'm recording into right now, which is five feet away. I would just overthink it. So I stopped playing baseball because I got a case of the yips. Then a few years later, when I was in the Army, we were doing our EIB training, Expert Infantryman Badge Training. And I passed all of the stations, and then I got to the hand grenade throw. And when I was testing on the hand grenade throw, I was thinking back to playing baseball and having the yips, and it got in my head again, and I could not throw the hand grenade in the small circle it had to go into.

• 46:24Nick Bare?

  Because overthinking it, in that case of the yips, came back. So then, fast forward a few days ago, I'm standing on the mound.

• 46:35Nick Bare?

  To throw out the first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game in front of all these people and all these players. I blacked out up there. And before I went out on the mound, my dad told me, hey, just remember, you're gonna throw this pitch to the catcher. After you throw the pitch, walk up to the catcher, take the ball, shake his hand. My dad is the biggest Pittsburgh sports fan ever. He loves the Steelers, he loves the Penguins, he loves the Pirates. So my dad was on the field with me absolutely jacked. And I think he was

• 47:15Nick Bare?

  more nervous than I was nervous. So I get on the mound, and all I'm thinking in my head is, get this pitch across home plate. After you throw it, walk up to the catcher, shake his hand, take the ball, walk off, you're good. The whole BPN team was watching this game from a suite above. And I get on the mound, there's no catcher. But all I see is the Pittsburgh Pirates parrot mascot, dressed up, holding a glove at home plate.

• 47:56Nick Bare?

  And for some reason, I just cannot connect all these dots. I'm like, where's the catcher? Why is there a parrot here? What's going on?

• 48:07Nick Bare?

  Long story short, I throw the ball. It lands right in his mitt. Successful throw, came to, all good. Me and my dad and the team went and joined the rest of the BPN staff in the suite.

• 48:27Nick Bare?

  And all my nerves went away. But it was such an amazing experience. And one of the reasons it was such an amazing experience was to be able to share that with my dad. To share the whole week with my dad was extremely rewarding. And as I get older and I realize that I don't spend much time with my, my dad anymore. I mean, he lives in Pennsylvania. I live in Texas and we see each other frequently, but now when we see each other, you know, he's playing with my kids, his grandkids and

• 49:07Nick Bare?

  life's busy and chaotic and there's not many moments that we get to just spend together and experience together. And I was in Pittsburgh with him from Wednesday to Sunday. And we got to spend a lot of time together. And that was very meaningful and valuable to both of us. The kids didn't come with, Steph didn't come with, they stayed back in Texas. Me and my dad shared an Airbnb and it was just really good. It was really fun to be able to do that. To be able to share that, that first pitch experience Wednesday night.

• 49:50Nick Bare?

  And then Friday, we had the shakeout run in the evening and me, him, the VPN team logged three miles downtown Pittsburgh together. And my dad was going for a big PR at the half marathon on Sunday. So I cooked all of his meals and prepared all of his nutrition Thursday and Friday for his carb up, bleeding up into the race. And he ate everything I put in front of him. Uh, it was just, it was just like something we haven't been able to do together before. Saturday, we had the expo and it was a huge turnout and big success.

• 50:35Nick Bare?

  And, you know, people were asking for my dad's photo and, and shaking his hand and talking to him. And then Sunday was race day.

• 50:45Nick Bare?

  So Sunday, the plan was, I had my dad on a, a training program the last couple of weeks, and he was going for a half marathon PR. His current PR in the half marathon is around 1 hour 49 minutes, and he did that at the Austin International Half Marathon two years ago. And that course is really fast. It's, I believe, net downhill. It's a big PR course, and that's where he set his PR, but he wants to, to break that PR at some point. So in preparation for the Pittsburgh Half, it's a half marathon and a full marathon. I put him on a training program.

• 51:25Nick Bare?

  Like I said, I controlled his diet the days leading up to, I carbured him up, and the plan was that I was gonna pace him to achieve that PR. Sunday comes, it's a perfect race day. It was 35 degrees in the morning, blue sky, no wind, cool temperature, just ideal race conditions. Energy was high in the city. And it ended up being me, my dad, BPN athletes, Joey, French, and then BPN employees Jake

• 52:09Nick Bare?

  and Simon, and me and my dad. And we all ran together this, uh, this half marathon. And we were all pacing in, and we were cheering him on and pushing, we pushed him really hard. We pushed him really, really hard. And I gotta say, it was one of the most beautiful scenic race courses I've ever been on in my life. It was stunning. You go through all these different small towns and pockets of Pittsburgh, you run over multiple bridges by the river. It was beautiful. I mean, it wasn't an easy course. There's some, there's some nice little climbs, you have some, some good downhills, you have some nice gradual climbs as well.

• 52:53Nick Bare?

  Nothing crazy, but some gradual climbs. And my dad was on pace up until mile 11, 10 and a half and 11. But I could tell he was pushing. I mean, he, he was, he was working for it, and we were pushing him hard. And we got to mile 11 and there was about a half mile gradual incline over this bridge. And he put in a big effort on that, that bridge and that definitely taxed him a little extra. And we got over the bridge, we had about a mile and a half left. And we continued to push him.

• 53:38Nick Bare?

  We knew we were going to be close to that PR. So we were pushing, we were pushing, we were pushing, we were yelling at him. And he was in it. He was in it. And I could see his body start to fade. Where he started stumbling a little bit, his form was breaking down. He, he was, the only way to describe it, he was digging and he was in a deep, dark place. And we got to a mile out and I could see his body started to sway and I knew that as soon as we, we crossed the finish line, he was probably going to collapse. Cause he was putting in such a big effort. It wasn't going to be one of these races where you finish, you walk it off. No, he was going to collapse. We keep pushing him.

• 54:22Nick Bare?

  We get to maybe 200, 300 meters out and he had nothing left. He spent it all. Where he couldn't even walk anymore. So we, we threw him over our shoulders. He's still running, but we're like, we're holding his arms up and we carried him across the finish line. And as soon as he got across the finish line, EMS came up. We put him in a wheelchair, they put him on a stretcher, his face was completely white. I mean, there was no life in, in my dad's body. And I was concerned. And they took him to the, the medical tent and he was in there for maybe 15 minutes and.

• 55:06Nick Bare?

  I was expecting to be there for literally days in the hospital with my dad, based off the way he looked when he went into the medical tent. And I'm filming with Landry and I'm talking about what happened and and what I think we're gonna have to do next. And I look over and next thing I see is my dad walking out of the medical tent. I don't know how this man bounced back so fast. I can't explain it because when he went in there on the stretcher, there was no life in this man's body. And he rose from the dead, walking out of that tent.

• 55:41Nick Bare?

  And he said they just gave him a Gatorade and let him go off his feet a little bit and he bounced back pretty quickly. I mean, he didn't feel great the rest of the day, but he walked out of the tent.

• 55:51Nick Bare?

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

• 56:15Nick Bare?

  But as I thought about it, sitting in the airport and on the plane, it was a two hour, 45 minute plane ride home. I was thinking about how proud I was and am of my dad's effort. I don't care about time. I don't care about PR. I don't care about place.

• 56:39Nick Bare?

  It was the effort that he put in.

• 56:44Nick Bare?

  I haven't seen many people empty the tank like my dad emptied the tank on that race. He gave it everything that he had, not for himself. Truthfully, not for himself. He wanted to represent BPN and me

• 57:01Nick Bare?

  in the most meaningful way. That's why he pushed so hard.

• 57:08Nick Bare?

  You know, growing up, my dad never talked about hard work, but he showed us in everything that he did.

• 57:16Nick Bare?

  He grew up on a dairy farm.

• 57:19Nick Bare?

  Hard work is not foreign to him. Growing up on dairy farm, you wake up every morning, you go milk the cows before you go to school, before you go to work. And every night when you get back from school or work, whatever you're doing, you're milking the cows again. My grandfather, Hershey Bear, very hardworking man. My dad and uncle who grew up on that farm, very hardworking men. My dad never had to talk to me about what hard work meant or looked like, but he showed me. And I remember every morning, eating breakfast in the kitchen with my brother, sitting at the table, and my dad just knocking out pushups on the kitchen floor.

• 58:05Nick Bare?

  And we never said anything, we didn't acknowledge it. He just, every morning, was knocking out pushups while we're eating breakfast on the kitchen floor.

• 58:14Nick Bare?

  This was another example of, now my dad will be 64 years old at the end of this month. Hard work wins. Effort is rewarded. Doesn't matter about the time, the PR, the place. It is the effort you put in. My dad emptied it at that race. He gave it everything he had, everything, to the point where his body collapsed.

• 58:45Nick Bare?

  Because he wanted to make his son proud. He wanted to represent BPN and the community in the most meaningful way. And it wasn't about himself.

• 59:01Nick Bare?

  I respect my dad a lot. I love him. And he showed up for that race and for the community and the mission and everything that we represent. I learned a lot this past weekend from watching my dad and I know that a lot of other people did too. Okay, so what I'm loving, a few quick hitters that I want to share.

• 59:29Nick Bare?

  I'm loving watching other people succeed and win much greater than succeeding and winning myself. And I say it very authentically and honestly and genuine.

• 59:48Nick Bare?

  I've talked about this before, but whenever I would see someone winning in the past,

• 59:56Nick Bare?

  I would become angry and somewhat resentful because I thought that their wins took away from my wins. And I've learned over the years that it doesn't work that way. There is opportunity and there is room for everyone to win. And I now enjoy watching other people win much greater than my own personal wins. Like being able to experience that half marathon with my dad, even though he didn't PR, that was a big win.

• 1:00:25Nick Bare?

  I got so much more joy and satisfaction watching and experiencing and being a part of that, being able to coach that than me going and training for and running a half marathon and setting a PR.

• 1:00:43Nick Bare?

  In early April, we hosted the second annual G1M Ultra Bear Ranch.

• 1:00:52Nick Bare?

  And it was an epic performance this year.

• 1:00:57Nick Bare?

  It made its way to two runners battling it out for the win. And those two runners were Mark Dowdell and Kendall Picado Fallas. Kendall also was one of the last two in the 2025 G1M Ultra. This year, Mark Dowdell ended up winning 306 miles, 73 laps, 73 hours total. And those guys ran through crazy rainstorms. The trail, once again, got absolutely flooded and wrecked and destroyed.

• 1:01:41Nick Bare?

  And being able to watch and witness that was awesome.

• 1:01:48Nick Bare?

  Like seeing Mark's

• 1:01:51Nick Bare?

  attitude and positivity and just like energy, even after pushing 306 miles, 73 hours,

• 1:02:01Nick Bare?

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

• 1:02:17Nick Bare?

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

• 1:02:42Nick Bare?

  Truthfully, I do, and I'm sure

• 1:02:47Nick Bare?

  that realization will guide some of these future projects and events and initiatives that we work on and that I invest time and money and energy and resources into.

• 1:03:05Nick Bare?

  Some tools that I'm loving in the moment.

• 1:03:09Nick Bare?

  So I don't know if you can tell, but I'm wearing my Garmin watch again.

• 1:03:15Nick Bare?

  And for about a month, I stopped wearing my Garmin watch and I was wearing the G-Shock watch. And I switched the G-Shock because I just don't want to be reliant on data any longer. And the G-Shock couldn't track my running, sleep, paces, heart rate, HRV, none of that stuff. The G-Shock couldn't. My Garmin does. And I had this hypothesis that by switching back to a G-Shock away from a Garmin, that it was going to unlock all this mental bandwidth and energy and reduce stress and

• 1:03:57Nick Bare?

  all of these things.

• 1:04:01Nick Bare?

  And I'll be honest, through that hypothesis and the experiment of the last 30 days, it really didn't change much. I didn't feel any different. I came to the, the obvious realization that I actually don't rely on that data very much. And I don't look at it very often. I never opened up my Garmin app. I never opened up my Strava app.

• 1:04:26Nick Bare?

  So I started wearing the Garmin watch again this past weekend because I had to pace my dad and I wanted to see my pace so we could help him PR. And I just haven't taken it off since for one main reason. The flashlight. The flashlight on the Garmin watch is so useful. For me, it's the most useful part of the watch.

• 1:04:52Nick Bare?

  Shortly after I stopped wearing my Garmin, I was wearing a G-Shock. I wake up typically in the middle of the night, one time between 2:00 and 3:00 AM to go to the bathroom. And before we go to sleep, we have all these pillows in our bed. Decorative pillows. So before we go to sleep every night, we throw all these decorative pillows on the floor. And the dogs sleep next to my side of the bed. So when I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I have to maneuver around all of these pillows and the dogs. And what I've been doing for years, I just turn the light on my Garmin watch to make sure I'm not stepping on a dog or tripping over a pillow. The first couple of days after transitioning from the Garmin to the G-Shock,

• 1:05:38Nick Bare?

  I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Navigating through the pillows and the dogs to get to the toilet was tough. But one night I'm walking back, I tripped over a dog. I fell face first into the frame of the bed, busted up my whole face. In that moment, I was like, you know what? I missed the flashlight.

• 1:06:02Nick Bare?

  Even this morning,

• 1:06:04Nick Bare?

  Charlie woke up extra early and I decided to take her on a walk outside. It was still dark. It was about 5:15 a.m. And we went for a 45 minute walk outside. I turned that light on my Garmin watch the entire time. And it was super useful. It was a great safety feature.

• 1:06:24Nick Bare?

  So I just haven't taken my Garmin off yet. Since getting back, I'm not sure if I'm gonna go back to my G-Shock. I might just keep wearing my Garmin again because like I said, it didn't make that much of a difference in my life. And I really missed the light.

• 1:06:43Nick Bare?

  I really missed the light and the light is such a game changer. So I'm gonna keep wearing it mainly because of the light on the Garmin watch. It's probably the best feature they've ever created of all the features they've ever launched within their technology.

• 1:06:59Nick Bare?

  Some other things I'm loving right now, belt squats. We got a few new pieces of equipment delivered from Play at the gym here. A belt squat is one of those.

• 1:07:11Nick Bare?

  I don't know why it's taken me so many years to realize how awesome a belt squat is. So I've been belt squatting every week. It is very little taxing on the lower back.

• 1:07:28Nick Bare?

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

• 1:08:11Nick Bare?

  And I gotta give a shout out to a food that I'm loving right now from a local bakery. So I get this at the farmer's market. It's Boone Family Bakery. I think one of the, the most slept on, underrated and best types of bread. Rosemary sourdough. Go to your local farmer's market or local bakery, sourdough bakery, if they have a rosemary or a rosemary garlic loaf, get it. At night, before going to bed, I get a slice of, of rosemary sourdough. I put some Kerrygold butter on that with some flaky sea salt. It is delightful.

• 1:08:53Nick Bare?

  And Boone Family Bakery here in Georgetown, Texas, there's his spot on. It sells out so fast at the farmer's market. I have to get there fast. But that's my go-to, my go-to sourdough right now.

• 1:09:07Nick Bare?

  In addition to what Steph makes, you know, Steph makes great, amazing homemade sourdough, but we don't do the rosemary at the house. So I gotta go get my rosemary sourdough from Boone Family Bakery and then Steph at home makes her amazing, just traditional, regular sourdough. Couple of weeks ago, she made a cinnamon raisin loaf, which was next level. But if you can find some rosemary or rosemary garlic sourdough, get it. And last but not least, what I'm not loving and what's been on my mind, they're kind of the same thing in this case today.

• 1:09:48Nick Bare?

  What I'm not loving is an overly disciplined and structured routine. And I want to be very careful with the way I explain this. I'm a huge proponent, and it's gotten to me at this point in my life, of discipline and structure and routine. I will always be disciplined, structured, and routine. But at what expense?

• 1:10:28Nick Bare?

  And I heard this quote that I've shared on the podcast a few weeks ago, but I'm gonna bring it back in today. "Routines make for great servants, but poor masters." And maybe this has happened to you, it's definitely happened to me before, many times, unfortunately, where my routine and my discipline and my structure becomes a master to my life. I become a slave to the routine, to the discipline and to the structure. And it actually holds me back from experiencing other parts of life because

• 1:11:10Nick Bare?

  I don't allow myself to break the discipline, break the routine, break the structure.

• 1:11:19Nick Bare?

  So the way that I've heard it explained is routine or habit is an excellent servant for structuring life, fostering productivity and achieving goals. But a poor master when it leads to rigidity, mindless repetition and a lack of conscious choice. To make routines work for you rather than against you, they must be intentionally designed, regularly reviewed for improvement and flexible enough to allow for adaptability. I have struggled with this for a long time where I have a hard time breaking my discipline,

• 1:12:04Nick Bare?

  my structure, my routine because it is a master to my life. To the extent where I can't break it. I can't be flexible. I can't adapt because I'm so married to the routine and structure. I don't love that about myself and it's something I'm trying to improve and work on. It is having discipline, having routine, having rigidity and structure, but also being able to be adaptable and flexible to where it is a great servant to what I'm trying to achieve.

• 1:12:46Nick Bare?

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

• 1:13:31Nick Bare?

  So that is Inside My Mind, April 2026. Hope you guys enjoyed it. We'll see you in the next one.

• 1:13:51Nick Bare?

  You