Unleash Your Inner Spartan w/ Joe De Sena

What does it take to build a Spartan legacy? We’ve created a culture that celebrates comfort and avoids pain at all costs! So many people are unhappy because of it. Our children are suffering because of it! Doing the hard things doesn’t FEEL GOOD while you’re doing them! They HURT. They’re PAINFUL and forces us to get UNCOMFORTABLE. But they’re also the things that turn you into the man or woman you’ve always wanted to become! That’s why I’m so excited to bring you my next guest on The Ed Mylett Show, Joe De Sena! Joe is is the CEO and founder of Spartan Race (the world’s leading obstacle race) and the Death Race. He is also a 3x New Your Times Bestselling author and entrepreneur. He’s already helped over 7 MILLION people get healthy and off the couch and now he’s here sharing his wisdom with the MaxOut community! Fitness is the one area of you life you have control over and is one of the greatest catalysts to transform every other area of your life! In this interview, Joe and I share the secrets to mental toughness and the skills we both use to embrace pain now for a greater payoff later. Whether you are 9 years old or 99, this is for you! Parents, Joe is revealing THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION you need to ask yourself if you don’t want to let comfort destroy your child’s future! It is time to do the hard work and learn from the master how to build mental and physical toughness. Transform you life. Do the hard things. Create lasting change. BUILD A SPARTAN LEGACY! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 P.M. And my third day, 6:00 P.M. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time, too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over $12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig. On October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me. Tom Cruise is.

• 1:12Speaker 02

  Digger got us into this mess.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and the Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 03

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 03

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:38Speaker 02

  This is the Ed Miler Show.

• 1:45Ed Mylett?

  All right, welcome back to Max Out, everybody. Excited to have this gentleman on my show here today. He's a very interesting guy. I follow him on social media. Been a fan of what he's created in his life and in the lives of other people for a long time. He has a real unique story and delivery. And you're gonna love today, guys. You're gonna love it. He does a lot of stuff. He's an entrepreneur. He's a podcaster. He's a, I don't know if you probably don't like this term, but he's kind of a life coach. You know, that term neither one of us love, but he's somebody that helps live a better life, help other people live better. And he's become a friend of mine, too. So I really like him and you're gonna enjoy this time today. So Joe DeSena, welcome to Max Out, brother.

• 2:26Speaker 04

  Thanks for having me. You know, since you and I met, you've changed so many lives in my orbit because you taught me this saying, one more rep.

• 2:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 2:36Speaker 04

  And so, um, every gym, every wrestling room, anywhere I am, it's one more rep.

• 2:42Ed Mylett?

  You look like it. I told you that before we got started.

• 2:45Speaker 04

  I've been shooting up, I've been doing.

• 2:51Speaker 04

  This guy, he's a monster.

• 2:53Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh, that's freaking awesome. One thing, one thing y'all might not know, if you don't, is if you ever heard of the Spartan Races, this is the founder and creator. And I've never asked you this before, speaking about getting fit, like, why'd you, how'd it start? And why'd you start it?

• 3:10Speaker 04

  So, so, um, years ago, 1970s, if you saw the movie Goodfellas, I grew up in that neighborhood, ground zero, uh, you couldn't get any closer to the family that's depicted in that movie. Um, my mom sees that it's going in the wrong direction, her life, her child, my life, my sister's life. She stumbles into probably the only health food store in 19, you know, 72, 73 on the East Coast. And randomly, there is like an 80-year-old yogi that just got in from, in Kennedy Airport from India, in that health food store, strikes

• 3:49Speaker 04

  up a conversation with this yogi, and she changes her life right there. She, um, she then, through, through this new interest, she divorces my dad, she meets another yogi who's got a race that he puts on in Queens, New York, not far from our house, that still exists today, since the 70s, called the Transcendence Run.

• 4:14Speaker 04

  And it is a thirty one hundred mile run around a one mile loop in Queens. About eight people do it every year, thirty one.

• 4:23Ed Mylett?

  Eight people do it every year.

• 4:26Speaker 04

  And it takes fifty to sixty days.

• 4:28Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 4:29Speaker 04

  And so as a young kid seeing this, seeing my mother meditate and fast for thirty days straight, seeing her give up sausage and peppers and, and, and pizza and cannolis and all the things we were, you know, and leave my, like, I don't know, there was some stoicism in there.

• 4:47Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 4:47Speaker 04

  My dad, on the other side of the spectrum, um, being somewhat of a tough guy with business, like, you know, he was in air freight and to be in air freight and trucking in that neighborhood at that time, you had to do things. And, and so, you know, seeing two ends of the spectrum, but both tough in their own ways, both hardworking, seeing this race, um, you pick things up as a kid. You know, it just, you'll absorb it. And, um, fast forward through my life, and so here I am putting on.

• 5:20Ed Mylett?

  How many, how many total people have participated in a race?

• 5:25Speaker 04

  Oh, my God, seven, seven plus million. So.

• 5:28Ed Mylett?

  Did you hear that, everyone? Seven million. I mean, and I guess I could say one thing to you as you go. I just want to jump in and tell you that one thing about Joe is like his content too, when he produces it is no BS, right to the point, just like what we're gonna do today. I like that. And it's great stuff and also backed by results. But I like when I'm, someone's reputation precedes them. And for years, man, I've heard about these races. Like, there's a lady in my CPA's office who used to be a little bit overweight, really shy, kind of insecure, um, from another country, you know, her English wasn't her first language. And then one day I come in and she's just completely different. I mean, her identity,

• 6:08Ed Mylett?

  the way she walked, her body, her clothes, her presentation of herself, the way she looked me in the eye. And I go, Andrea, what's going on with you? And she's like, oh, I'm so addicted to these Spartan races. And she starts telling me about the community and what it's done for her and the challenge. Like, it literally changed her life. And so, and I've had mult, I mean, so many people since I've known you tell me they participated. Guys, it's something, if you've not, if you don't know what it is. Once COVID is over, this is something you need to really take advantage of if you want to challenge in your life and be a part of a great community. I cut you off there, brother, but I just wanted to share that with you because I know it means something to you.

• 6:45Speaker 04

  No, no, listen, I mean, anybody who's watching us right now, they see that your house is clearly the house of a wealthy individual and they see my house in a garage. They know that's fighting for milk. The reason I bring that up is I get paid with stories like that. I don't get paid in cash right now.

• 7:06Speaker 04

  And just in the, Ed, just in the last few days, no bullshit, in the last two days, okay, forget about the 20 years of stories, one story I got yesterday, you're gonna, it's unbelievable, this guy somehow gets a brain eating virus in his body, okay, ends up in a coma, they get him out of the coma, he doesn't remember anything, no long-term memories, gone completely, doesn't recognize his wife, his kids, nothing, parents, they bring him home, stumbling around for a week, and he sees a photo of him at a Spartan race with his kid, and it triggers a bunch of emotions.

• 7:44Ed Mylett?

  No way.

• 7:45Speaker 04

  And he starts doing races again.

• 7:47Ed Mylett?

  No way.

• 7:47Speaker 04

  And he becomes a coach and he starts to get his life back.

• 7:50Ed Mylett?

  That's incredible.

• 7:51Speaker 04

  That's one, right, in the last two days. Another one, overweight, sick, dying, stumbles upon Spartan race, gives up diet soda, gives up the fast food, loses a bunch of weight, back with the wife. So like, I get these stories every day and that's, and that's how I get paid. I mean, that's how we get paid. Listen, our team, we got, pre-COVID, we had 501 people working for us across 45 countries, putting on 325 events. I'm ashamed to say we don't pay very much, we can't, it's, it's, it's not a high margin business. But the people do it because they're changing lives.

• 8:32Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, well, he's being humble, by the way. He's very financially successful, too. And he has not just done it with the Spartan races. We're gonna talk about the farm, too. It's, you're a remarkable dude, and I think one of the reasons is what you started to go down. It's like this makeup. You kind of have this like meditating granola mom. And then you're like surrounded by these mobsters. And it's interesting that one of the great influences in your life was actually this mob boss. And he taught you these lessons, like, I know you've shared this before, but not with my audience. And it's just, it's mind blowing to think you were this up close to someone like that, multiple dudes like that. But tell them this story about this guy and how he kind of made a difference in your life, which leads to, to some extent, what you're doing.

• 9:14Ed Mylett?

  I mean, the way you deliver a message, the farm, the races, everything. So tell them about it.

• 9:18Speaker 04

  So mom divorces dad, moves us up to Ithaca, New York, but I want to get back with dad. I want to be back with the tough guys, the nice cars, the suits, the rolls, a hundred dollar bills. And my neighbor, my father's neighbor is the head of the Banana Organized Crime Family at the time. And he's got three daughters. I kind of know what it is, you know, but you don't know all the details. You're a young kid, pre-teenager. I clean my pool, you know, Saturday morning, I'll pay you thirty five dollars. And I, it's a lot of money back then for a young kid. And I go over and I show up at eight AM. He told me to be there at eight. My father probably nudged me and says, make sure you're on time. And he says, all right, I'm gonna teach you a couple of lessons. First of all, you get here at seven forty five. On time is late, right?

• 10:03Speaker 04

  Second of all, when you get here, you clean the pool, which I'm paying you for. But you also clean the lawn furniture, the windows, whatever it takes, the shed. Even though I'm not paying you for that, you gotta make yourself invaluable. And then third, never ask for money. You provide value first, and don't worry about it. You'll get paid, or you won't. But you don't, you don't have your hand out asking for money. And, you know, as a young kid, listening to a guy that's a little scary, right? That you see everybody around you respects this, it really sunk in. My dad probably reinforced the message and.

• 10:35Speaker 04

  It really guided my life in business as well as a bunch of other things that I was able to secure out of those relationships because not only did I clean his pool, but then, but then he connected me with about 700 other people. By the time I graduated college, I had 700 people across all five families that were my customers. They trusted me in their house. They trusted me with their, with, you know, I, I, I could tell, like, somebody could say, hey, when you see this guy, make sure you mention this. When you see that, like, it was an interesting time.

• 11:08Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I didn't have the complete proximity to that world that you did, but I did have some. And one of the other things that that world teaches us is the keeping your word and loyalty. It's like a huge deal, right? And one of the things I've observed about you, it's like, you'll go to freaking extremes to deliver on something you've said. And you, last time you and I talked, Joe was gonna be on the show a while ago, we had a connection issue. And so it, we're doing it now. And one of the things that I was just dying to ask you about is, you've been like lugging around this kettlebell with you forever, right? Like, what is that? Like, why? And explain to, you said, you made a commitment to do it. So you did it? Or what? Like, you're dragging it around like airplanes and stuff

• 11:53Ed Mylett?

  too, even, right?

• 11:54Speaker 04

  Yeah. So basically, um, fast forward, I built that business. I ended up making some money. I bought a farm, met my wife, got married, had kids. While we were on the farm, where Spartan started in Vermont, I heard about a guy that had done one of our races. He was 696 pounds. I was blown away. I said, I gotta, I gotta talk to this guy. We found the phone number. I reached out. I said, congratulations. I heard you did a race. Um, could I get you to the farm? Could you, could you somehow take some time off? I, I will help you get to where you need to be. He took 18 months, came to the farm. I took his keys. I took his wallet and I helped him get down to 262 pounds.

• 12:38Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 12:39Speaker 04

  Okay. He cried when he left. He said, this is the first time ever I could fit in one seat of an airplane.

• 12:46Speaker 04

  Right, you said the two seats. Anyway, to help him lose weight, in addition to the protocol of, hey, we're only gonna eat fruits and vegetables, we're gonna walk 10 miles a day, which then turned to 20 miles a day, which then turned to, we're gonna walk 20 miles a day carrying a sandbag. I told him, as he lost weight, I'd carry weight to motivate him. I'd be shoulder to shoulder with him, right? I'd do this with him. Ultimately, it got to be 100 pounds I was carrying around.

• 13:10Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 13:11Speaker 04

  This is crazy. I can't do it, which led to the kettlebell. I wanted to keep my word, a 44-pound kettlebell. And it just became my shtick. It became my thing. Oh, that's the guy with the kettlebell. So here I am, walking through a casino with a kettlebell, getting on an airplane with a kettlebell, just became the thing.

• 13:29Ed Mylett?

  That's crazy to me, that you've kept your word like that, and you went right where I was hoping you would go, because I want to talk about the farm a little bit. I had this theory, the older I've gotten, too. One of my anchors, like for me, in getting myself together is physical. Because it's like an area you can keep the promise, right? Like, you can't really control external stuff. I'm gonna make this much money, or hire this many people. Those are things that are, for me, is like, my body, I can control, like, when I wake it up, what I put in it, how I move it, what I lift. And so, for me, a lot of the catalyst for me, no matter when, even at this stage in my life, like, I want to make a financial increase, it actually starts with my body, a physical challenge.

• 14:11Ed Mylett?

  And you're like, become probably the master of this. And at this farm, guys, I'll let you explain a little bit what you do there, but I'd like you to talk specifically a little bit about what you do with the kids specifically, and some of these, what we'll call underprivileged kids, although I don't know that those upbringings necessarily mean you're underprivileged. But talk about them. Tell them what you do there. And then a little bit about the kid part, because I think it's just fascinating study in what's possible, and the transformation, even at a young age.

• 14:39Speaker 04

  For those of you guys watching or listening, if you don't know Vermont, it's a pretty unbelievable place. I mean, some people would opt, if you talk to Ed, for the beach, other people, right, would go to these other more cushy places. I found an inexpensive farm in Vermont, but it's beautiful. And so, if you look at the bottle, the Poland Spring bottle of water, the water comes from up the street because it's that clean, right? There's no billboards. So we find this place, we buy this farm, and now I realize, hmm, there's only 400 people in town. How the hell am I gonna make this work? Well, I gotta make, I gotta bring people to me. Right, and that's how Spartan started. And I'm gonna help you lose weight, I'm gonna kick your ass, I'm gonna help get your kids straight.

• 15:23Speaker 04

  And it was a fight, it was a fight for 20 years to get people, it's hard to get people to come to Vermont. It's only one, it's only one gas tank away from New York. But it's hard to get them to come, they gotta commit. And they're gonna work hard, and sometimes, you know, they're only there for a few hours and they pack up and they leave and they give me some bullshit excuse, I forgot I have a family affair I was supposed to go to. Oh, really? Right? So, so, this summer with COVID, I really focused on the kids. And at first, I brought in friends and family, then we extended it a little bit beyond that. And then we brought in kids from inner city. And, and I like the kids because, once they get there, they can't leave. Yeah. They're committed, right?

• 16:05Speaker 04

  And, and what was great, was the inner city kids, who were less privileged, if we wanna use that word, like you, like, they were just smiling, it didn't matter if I said we're doing a thousand burpees, right? They didn't care, they were just happy to be on the farm. We're not eating today, they didn't care, they were just happy to be on, didn't matter what I threw at them, you could not break these kids. You know, the white, privileged kids, including my own, um, they're soft. Whereas the other kids, they just get after it, you know, and, and you and I talked about it a little bit.

• 16:41Speaker 04

  I just, I just wish, I wish all parents would realize what a powerful tool it is to, um, to have a little grit and resilience in your, I mean, I'm fighting with parents today, literally today, I'm texting my neighbors and I'm saying, my neighbor's gonna listen to this podcast, by the way, he's gonna laugh when he hears this. And he likes you, he likes you from when I had you on the podcast. I'm fighting with him and I'm saying, your kids need to come over my house and work out every, well, you need to make it fun.

• 17:14Speaker 04

  What the fuck are you talking about? Are you, like, no, it's mandatory, they don't get a phone if they don't do the work. It's like 40% plus obesity rates now in the United, it's like, fun? Stop! Yeah. Fun isn't working.

• 17:35Ed Mylett?

  You hit on something huge, man, huge. By the way, he's had people like plan way in advance, months in advance to come see him and they disappear in a week because it gets too hard.

• 17:45Speaker 04

  An hour.

• 17:46Ed Mylett?

  Seriously, an hour in, they're gone.

• 17:48Speaker 04

  Let me, let me, let me interrupt you. Keep that thought.

• 17:51Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 17:52Speaker 04

  I had a bunch of kids show up just a month ago, maybe around the time you and I talked last, and they were all, let's say, 14 years and younger. And they came in and they committed for seven days. And in those seven days, we were going to hike 50 miles, we were going to do 300 rope climbs, 1,400 pushups, 1,400 burpees, 1,400 leg lifts, and wrestle for 40 hours in seven days. Okay? And the kids 14 and under, they were crying, they were screaming, they were kicking, they didn't leave. Two adults showed up with them. Two. They didn't know each other. They just, they wanted an ass kicking. One from Texas, one from Connecticut. Hours, they packed up and left. Hours.

• 18:31Ed Mylett?

  Wow. I think it's, it's not mind blowing to me because I, I think we've developed a culture that doesn't enjoy doing hard things. And I gotta say to the parents listening to this, by the way, if you go to Joe's social media, follow him on Instagram, you're going to get great entrepreneurial lessons, life lessons, fitness, nutrition, everything else. I love his content and his podcast. But the other thing you'll see is there's some videos in there, even for me, as a dad who believes in that, it's hard to watch some of these videos with, I was watching that young guy pushing the deal in the, in the wet grass and you're like, can you, can you give me six more inches or whatever you asked him? You know, my heart's breaking for this kid, yet I know intuitively, this is turning him into something that he will be so grateful for when he's done doing it. The reason I

• 19:14Ed Mylett?

  point that out to everybody is, if you're a parent, ask yourself this question, how often am I getting my children to do hard things that are prepping them for a hard world and a hard life? My daughter right now, this is a small thing. It's not the same thing, but you know, she has grown up and she's, she's 16 and you know, she's, she's just got a job and some of our friends are like, well, your daughter got a job. She's also volleyball in school. I said, she's got to get, she's a, she's a hostess. People give her shit every night. She catches cry. I want people once in a while to be rude to her. I want people to be dismissive of her. I want her to deal with the conflict of working there and that pales in comparison to what you're having these kids do.

• 19:53Ed Mylett?

  So put your kids through some hard things. And by the way, if you want to be happier, this is why the Spartan Racers are so big or go to the farm or 75 hard or one of these programs. Do hard things. You will be proud of yourself. You will be better when you're done than if you do easy things. And so I want to, I want to say that because you're the king of this and the best at it. Let's talk a little bit about business because this is a side of you that you underplay, but I know business well enough. When I listen, I'm like, man, this is good stuff. Talk a little bit about the difference between, because I think every company should have them. Entrepreneur, intrapreneur. What's the difference?

• 20:32Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, your audience, I think knows this, like not everybody, my father used to say, and I didn't understand it as a young kid. Joe, not everybody has a stomach for entrepreneurship. What do you mean by that? As I got into it and started running my own business at a very young age, man, my stomach was in knots 24/7. Am I going to be able to make payroll? I can't believe I just pissed that customer off. This marketing message I just paid for didn't work. The truck broke down and I got 20 jobs to go do today. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong. You gotta have the stomach for it. I mean, your reputation is on the line.

• 21:10Speaker 04

  By the way, you get a girlfriend, she's leaving you in about seven minutes because you don't pay any attention to her because you're running your business, right? Your parents are like, this is ridiculous. You didn't show up for the funeral. You didn't show up for the wedding you were supposed to be at because you're running your business. So intrapreneurship allows you to do all that.

• 21:30Speaker 04

  Without as much frustration because the company you're working for is allowing you. They're providing a little bit of a safety net. They're giving you some of the tools. If things don't go so well, they wipe your ass a little bit. So if you don't have the stomach to go to war. And Ed, you've got to tell your audience if I'm not truthful. And you are going to war if you're in yourself. If you're not ready for war and you want like maybe a practice version. That's entrepreneurship. You could do it within the confines of the company you work for. And which is fine, by the way, that doesn't mean you're any less of a person. I, by the way, I love people that work for us that act like entrepreneurs within the company.

• 22:13Ed Mylett?

  Me too.

• 22:14Speaker 04

  Fantastic. As opposed to somebody that's just kind of moseying around and punching the clock. If anybody knows what a time clock is these days, right? Punching the clock at nine AM and fuck. I mean, sometimes in our office, I'll stand by the door. When we had an office pre-COVID, I'll stand by the door at 5:00 PM. And I want to stab people that are walking out at 4:59.

• 22:41Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 22:42Speaker 04

  It's not my kind of person.

• 22:43Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, me either. And the other thing that comes with it that you talk about really well. The thing about being an entrepreneur, man, is you have to have this kind of crazy dynamic. Where like you can take immediate monster action on a split second. And then combine that with like tremendous patience that almost nobody will have to wait for the result. Like 90% of people do 90% of what is required. But they don't stick around long enough for the other 10% to kick in. Or they won't do the extra 10%. And there's the old marshmallow story. But you had this story, I think it's your six-year-old with you with ice cream. Right? I did my research, man. You see this? You see how I do this? So tell them this because it goes to the point like you just said a minute ago,

• 23:28Ed Mylett?

  20 years to still keep trying to get people to come to the farm, right? So tell them, tell them this ice cream deal.

• 23:34Speaker 04

  Also, in 1972, Professor Walter Mitchell, probably the same moment my, my mom was walking into a

• 23:42Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 23:43Speaker 04

  health food store, Professor Walter Mitchell, Stanford University decides to test children, puts them in a cubicle, a bunch of kids in a cubicle, different cubicles, and says, here's a marshmallow. You could eat that marshmallow now, or if you wait, I'll give you two. And what the researchers were trying to figure out was like, is there anything interesting around people that could wait? And delay gratification and not eat the marshmallow right now? And another example in your own life would be like in the morning when the snoo, when, when the alarm goes on, do you hit snooze? Or do you get right up? Right? And they followed the kids for 30 years. Most of the kids, as you would imagine, ate the marshmallow right away.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  But a few of the kids were able to withstand the pain of looking at this marshmallow and not eating it. And what they found were those kids had better SAT scores. They had, they went to better colleges. They had better cars, better marriages, better how, everything in life was better. And so I wondered, when I found out about this, I said, gee, honey to my wife, I said, we, you know, we got our first kid. Look, we should find out, like, what kind of kid do we have? Right? Is this a kid like, because everything we stand for with Spartan is the, the ability to be stoic? And, and, and just, you know, not eat that marshmallow. So anyway, we give him a scoop of ice cream. It's about 10 o'clock at night. I'm already making excuses in my head that if he fails, it's because he, he should have been in bed already at eight.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  Hey, Jack, um, if you want, you could eat the scoop of ice cream now, or if you wait, I'll give you two. And we're about three and a half minutes in, no bullshit. He looks at me, I'm so proud to say, and he says, Dad. How long do I have to wait to get 15 scoops? And you would appreciate this, anybody listening that's an entrepreneur, we're playing for 15 scoops. We're not playing for one or two. And you gotta withstand pain to get 15 scoops.

• 25:35Ed Mylett?

  That is, okay rewind, everyone go back right now, rewind, go back about two minutes, play that again. Get your kids in the room, either watch it or listen to it again. That's why I wanted Joe on you guys. No one, you know what it is, I don't know if it's the, the combination how you grew up. You give analogies and stories in ways that I like, that like, that I relate to. Maybe a little bit better than like your traditional speaker dude, you know? And, but I want to ask you, and I, I'm just curious, is there something you believe?

• 26:04Ed Mylett?

  I was asking myself this this morning, so I thought I'd ask you. Is there something you believe, you really believed 10 years ago about life or business? That you believe almost the complete opposite in now? Like your perspectives just changed, you know, 20 years of the, you know, all, all the Spartan races, all the people coming to the farm. Just getting older too, by the way. There's something you used to kind of really believe that you don't believe anymore. That's replaced by almost the opposite belief. Isn't that interesting?

• 26:28Speaker 04

  That's a great question and I'm, and I'm quickly scanning my brain over so many years in business. And it's a little contrary, my answer is going to be a little contradictory to what we just spoke about, which is, when I was young, and I think this is the case with all of us, maybe not my son Jack. But like, I didn't necessarily have the patience. I wanted to make money. I wanted to have a nice house like those guys, you know, I was cleaning their pools. How, how did they get a nice car? I wanted to do it fast. And, and I, I just didn't understand that like, slow down young grass. Like it's just, like life is actually longer than you think, even though it's short. If that contradiction makes sense. So I think, I think today, I have no regrets. I wouldn't change anything, but.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  You know, if I was guiding somebody young, here's what the ancient Spartans, I'm gonna answer this way, the ancient Spartans back, you know, 2,500 years ago, everybody believed in legacy, right? They wanted to build the pyramids. The ancient Spartans said, "F*ck legacy. Let's focus on doing a perfect job at what we do." I mean, perfect. Legacy is just gonna come. Here we are 2,500 years later, talking about Spartans. It worked. If you go to Sparta, Greece, you don't see big monuments built, or scriptures, or books written. They like, they didn't keep track of any of that stuff. They just kicked ass at what they did. And it worked. And so, I guess that would be, that would be my message to my younger self, would be like, don't worry

• 27:57Speaker 04

  about like making much, like, just focus on the here and now. And I didn't really know that, um, at a young age, even though mobsters were telling me things like they were telling me, I, I just, I wanted it now.

• 28:09Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. Yeah, totally. I had two of them, but I'll ask you about one of them for me, how you respond to this. I used to think when I was younger, that I was really driven out of like chasing my dream. You know, like, I had this big dream, whatever it was, like living on the beach. You know, me and my wife did not live on the beach growing up. And the more I've gotten older, the more, and I did, I wanted to chase things. I kept that goal in mind, no question about it. But the bigger mover for me, as I've gotten older, was fear, pain avoidance. Like, for me, it was, even to this day, like, still, you kind of get me to do things almost operating out of the opposite, almost fear or pain.

• 28:50Ed Mylett?

  Like, I don't avoid fear. I don't avoid pain. Like, I've made lots of little decisions throughout my life, of the opposite of chasing my dream, which was running from not wanting to be broke, not wanting to be fat, not wanting to be irrelevant, not wanting to get old someday and regret my life. Do you, which do you think is the bigger mover for you?

• 29:12Speaker 04

  Well, a couple, a couple of things on that. Um, we, as human beings, are more motivated by the loss aversion, by, we don't want to lose more than we want to win. So that's normal, right? And then, then number two, I would say is, um, As a species, we want to avoid discomfort at all costs. So guys like you and me, we are more uncomfortable when we don't work out. We're more uncomfortable when we don't eat healthy, when we don't work hard, when we, you know what I mean? Whereas most people are more uncomfortable, working hard, working out.

• 29:50Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 29:51Speaker 04

  Healthy. And so we flipped, we flipped it on, on its head. So I don't think, I don't think it's uncommon for a high performer to be more motivated, to be more motivated by like, fuck, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be embarrassed by, you know what I mean? Like, that's not who I am. By the way, you probably do what I do, which is I carry my chest out. I talk about what I'm gonna do. I tell you I'm carrying a kettlebell. So I know subconscious, I'm on the hook. I gotta do this stuff. I gotta act this way. I gotta do some curls before Ed Mylett gets me on, because I gotta look good, you know?

• 30:27Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, right. But I know what you mean. I'm, I want, I want it out there because it holds me accountable to what I'm saying and what I'm doing. And I also just think drawing attention to some extent to your example can create change. I used to think you can't mo, also the thing I used to think is, you really can't motivate other people. They gotta be totally self motivated. That's true to an extent, but I have personally seen my presence or someone like your presence push people past a limit that maybe they wouldn't have had on their own, like you do at the farm with, with the kids or even with the adults. But I think a thing I respect about you the most, man, is it's, it's been longevity. It's one thing to like, you know, I know a bunch of NFL dudes that are friends of mine like won one Super Bowl.

• 31:08Ed Mylett?

  Hey, man, you go to like, I don't know, half his career Brady's been in the AFC Championship or the Super Bowl. There's something to be said for that. Like, I think this Mahomes kid's a great quarterback, but it's hilarious to me that three years in the league, we're even having this conversation, right? And I've seen flash in the pan entrepreneurs, one hit. Forty years old, broke again. I've seen people make a change and regress. They've gotten sober, now they're drinking again. I've seen people lose weight and gain it back. What do you think is one of the keys to sustaining lasting change in someone's life?

• 31:41Speaker 04

  I don't know why this, you and I might have spoken about this, but did we talk about the marathon monks in Japan?

• 31:48Ed Mylett?

  No.

• 31:49Speaker 04

  Oh, you're gonna love this.

• 31:50Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 31:51Speaker 04

  I'm gonna answer it with, we're gonna go back in history. So, I don't know, eight, nine hundred years ago, a bunch of monks in China load up a bunch of boats. They sail over to Japan. They find a mountain, Mount Hei. They rebuild their mountains and they set up their monastery and their program, all these monks have different programs. Their particular program is Ed and Joe wanna become monks. We wanna join their, you know, their temple, their worship. And they say, great, shave your heads, throw on these sandals, wear these robes, and go around this trail for a hundred days in a row. And the trail's 25 miles long in the mountains. So you and I look at each other, we don't know what we got ourselves into. Fuck it, we're

• 32:35Speaker 04

  doing it. We do a hundred days in a row, 2,500 miles. We come back and we're like, guys, we're in, we're committed. Longevity, like you said, right? Somebody could do a marathon one day. We just did a hundred days, we're in. And they say, okay, now we know you're serious. You got 800 more days to go. And now, and now, I want you to carry a rope and a sword. If you decide to quit, you hang yourself and disembowel yourself on the course. So, talk about longevity. But when I tell that story, I see your facial expressions. I know the people listening are like, wow, that's commitment. And I think that's what you're talking about.

• 33:16Speaker 04

  It's not just, you know, Brady doing well. It's that level of commitment to keep doing well, to stay in there, to work on his body, whatever it is, right? Like, that's hard to do. That's why it's exciting, when you see somebody that just sticks it out.

• 33:32Speaker 04

  Those monks, you can't help but like bow down to, you know, so I had to bring my family there. I walked.

• 33:38Ed Mylett?

  You did?

• 33:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, I had to bring my family. I walked the course of my family. And along the way, you see little tombstones of the guys that like over the years.

• 33:46Ed Mylett?

  No way.

• 33:47Speaker 04

  They quit. And then you see these giant tombstones of the guys like stuck it out. One guy did it twice, 1,800 days.

• 33:56Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my God.

• 33:57Speaker 04

  Because he had done, he had committed such atrocities in his mind in World War II that he wanted to just cleanse himself. So those are the stories, by the way, that like they just go on forever, right? They make their way around the world. So your point is like, hey, guys, that's cool that you're one hit wonder. Why don't you try doing it, you know, 900 times in a row?

• 34:19Ed Mylett?

  That is an amazing, that's one of my favorite things I've ever heard in my damn life. There's tombstones along the way of the, that's crazy to me.

• 34:28Speaker 04

  I'm pointing to my kids and I said, that's a quitter.

• 34:31Ed Mylett?

  What a like legit metaphor, like he's laying right there, dude. That's amazing to me. I think my experience too is like a part of lasting change is like it has to be your standard. Not just like some goal. And, you know, I just tell everybody, listen, it's like Joe makes me think. He did it when I was on a show when we were done, I'm like, ah, I wish you would have done better. You know, guys like you make me think and, you know, I think if you're going to really change your life, you can't fake it. It has to become who you are. Like if you're going to really change your damn life long term, it can't be just something you do. You have to start to change you and become that standard, become that excellence and decide that's who you are. And the more you do it over and over again, you begin to convince yourself that's who you are.

• 35:16Ed Mylett?

  And that's why you say terms like guys like you and me. Because over time, you became that kind of guy and you now believe that's who you are. And so you conduct your life in accordance and congruence with that, right?

• 35:30Speaker 04

  Yeah, and I think it starts, as you're saying that, I think for me, my, my 900 days that I put in, like the monks were in the neighborhood, you know, like, like I couldn't do a bad job. And whenever I did, whenever I cut a corner or I cheated or I rushed, I paid the price as we all do in business. And so I had to do it again and it cost me money and I had to do it again. And eventually you realize. You're just better off doing everything right, right? You feel better about it. It costs you less money. You get a reputation.

• 36:07Ed Mylett?

  So true. I think the other thing you gotta have too, you're good at this, is I, I, you know what bothers me, man, is when I have someone in my businesses and I give them feedback and then they wanna coach me on how I should be giving them the feedback. In other words, you know what I'm talking about? Like, it probably happens to you at the farm too. It's like, hey, man, it's not that I don't wanna improve, but like, the way you're saying this, really? And I'm like, so you wanna win so little that the way in which I'm saying something to you is gonna impact on whether or not you finish? And I want all of you thinking about this, that, listen, I wanna mentor, I wanna coach, but they have to say it the way I like it. Maybe part of being your mentor and your coach is we purposely say it the way you don't like

• 36:52Ed Mylett?

  it, so you don't want to feel like that anymore. That's the real winners, right? And what you do that's nuts, you literally have other people call people, cuz you've had me do it for people, to call them out on their crap, right? Tell them this. You do this like, basically, all the time.

• 37:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, I did it today. I did it to a 60-year-old guy. And, you know, I, if I see somebody eating Doritos, or soda, or whatever, that I don't know, I'll just grab it out of their hand. I'll just say, "What the fuck are you doing to yourself?" Not, a lot of people say, "I almost got in fistfights." But I'm like, they need a wake-up call. The people around them aren't doing it. So, I mean, that's my, I feel like that's my purpose on this planet, is to help people. And so, fuck you if you don't like, like, I mean, whatever your system is, isn't working. So, not you, Ed, right? But, listen, we're talking about, and so, I, you know, the kid that was 696 pounds, we got in a fight. He was, um, he was about 100 pounds away from goal, and he said to me, "I wanna go to the hospital. I wanna go to the doctor." And I said, "For what? Excuse me, you know, for what?"

• 37:54Speaker 04

  "I gotta get my liver levels checked. You're not a doctor, and you got me eating this way, and I'm concerned it's unhealthy for me." I said, "You were, you were eating eight Egg McMuffins every day, two 2-liter Sprites. Did you ever get your liver levels checked? And now on fruits and vegetables and walking up..." So, to your point... We don't like to be uncomfortable, whether it's the way somebody's speaking to us. And so we create this crazy response in our brain that sounds logical, but all it's doing is trying to get us away from being uncomfortable. That's all it is.

• 38:28Ed Mylett?

  It's 100%. And if you want to be people like Joe, you can't, you don't get to choose the way they say it. You don't, you don't get to filter that, right? So, speaking of that filtering, I'm everywhere today because I love your stuff. It's gonna sound totally contradictory, but here comes the, we're gonna, that was all the mob stuff, everybody, what we just covered. Now, we're gonna go over to the meditator mom's side of Joe. And I never heard this term. What's a phone fast?

• 38:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, so my mom got into this fasting at a very young age. I saw her do 30 days without food. And then I said, well, you could fast from other things, right? You could fast from things we're addicted to. A phone, get rid of a phone for 30 days. You're gonna love this. We took the kids on the farm this summer and they were starving. Could you imagine on a typical day, hiking the mountain, moving 1,000 pounds of rock up the mountain, hundreds of pushups, ice cold water, burpees, rope climbs? It's now finally time to eat. You've been out since 5:00 a.m. It's 7:00 p.m. We got a big thing of food. We're gonna give the kids some ice cream.

• 39:37Speaker 04

  As the food and the ice cream comes out, so do their phones. They're gonna be allowed to use their phones for a few minutes. Ed, where do you think the kids went? To the food or the phones?

• 39:48Ed Mylett?

  Went to the freaking phone, huh?

• 39:50Speaker 04

  Phones.

• 39:51Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 39:51Speaker 04

  They took phones over food. So, phones, whether you believe it or not, I've been on the phone with some experts, I've been on, doing interviews with some experts on this, are so addictive. So much dopamine is released in the brain, the dopamine pathways, the serotonin, using those phones that it's like heroin. You're getting those, I mean, by the way, Apple has like 300 billion in cash, whatever the number is, 272 billion. You think they got a few experts that figure out how to make the phone addictive? I don't know. And so try fasting, try taking that phone away. If you and I go to Japan, I wonder what would be harder, the 900 days on the trail? 900 days without the phone?

• 40:36Ed Mylett?

  So true, so true. It's a really good question, you guys. And you know, when you hear something you know is true? I uh, I know I'm due for a social media fast and I felt it in my. I can't say it like you say it. I love fast as the terminology because it's accepted fast on other things. But I, I feel it like I need a, I don't know if it's a week or a month. It's at least a day where like I'm just not involved and it's not that it's bad. It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's toxic to some extent. Do you have anybody in your life? I think I know the answer to this, but like anybody in your life? That's toxic around you and what would you say to people who do like these guys come to your farm? Or they go to a race?

• 41:20Ed Mylett?

  Do you have any concern that then they go back to their other environment? The other friends, the other way of, just give them any counsel about that?

• 41:28Speaker 04

  I mean, I had, I had one guy come up to the farm. He did 30 days, I, he lost 100 pounds in 30 days on the farm. I, I um, he showed up with a wheelie, a wheelie suitcase. And he said, where am I staying? And I pointed to the top of the mountain. He said, how am I getting up there? I said, you're walking. And it took about four hours with this wheelie suitcase going up over the rocks, right? Barely made it, got to the top. He didn't fit in the door of the cabin. He said, where's, where's a shower? I said, what shower? There's no shower up here. Anyway, he lost 100 pounds. 30 days, okay? On her, people would, would kiss my feet for that. His girlfriend shows up, clearly there's a psychological issue.

• 42:14Speaker 04

  They drive immediately from the farm as I, as I issue him, you know, he's out, right? He's done with it. He did his job, he did his tour of duty. They go right to Ben and Jerry's in Vermont, probably put on 15 pounds that day. So, so there's, you know, maybe the girlfriend, maybe the girlfriend wanted him fat. I don't know, right? Like, so that's what happens. You're around people. By the way, the ancient Spartans, they realized that the way they wanted to live was so hard that if they were not surrounded by similar minded people that would hold each other accountable, it would never work. You, so this is 2,500 years old, like. Yeah, this is not something new. If you're around toxic people, if you're around people

• 42:54Speaker 04

  that are not holding you to a standard, that are not calling you out, you're gonna fail.

• 43:00Ed Mylett?

  I totally believe that. By the way, going back, I just, I honestly think in my mind, 900 days without the phone would be harder. And that's just absolutely insane that I just said that out loud as a grown, almost 50-year-old man. But in my mind, I'm like, I think I'll take the physical challenge over having no phone for 900 days. And that is, that means I need a fast, for sure, right? Like, and I think most people honestly answering, if you're like, 900 days without a phone, I don't think they remember what you said earlier. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's just, that's really bad. It's, it's amazing how much we need to remove these things from our lives. I'm sure being outside at the farm and that has done that for you too. Okay, last thing. By the way, I love you. I think you're awesome. I want people following you. I want them on your stuff. What's the difference

• 43:45Ed Mylett?

  between the people that you know are, this is a broad question, but I know you're gonna give a great answer. What's the difference between the people you know that have some fulfillment in their life? And the ones that you now know over time don't have that? They live without fulfillment? And what's the people that have it? What do they have? I bet you've never been asked it that way.

• 44:08Speaker 04

  Well, somehow my family just threw my dog here.

• 44:11Ed Mylett?

  Awesome.

• 44:12Speaker 04

  Into the, into, I don't know if people watch this on YouTube, but this is, you're gonna love the name of this dog before I answer that question. This is a puppy, and I named this dog Sir Ernest Shackleton. So, he was a great explorer out of England that just kicked ass, was stuck in the ice for two years. This is a, this is a terrorist, this dog. Anyway.

• 44:32Ed Mylett?

  Sir Ernest, good to meet you.

• 44:33Speaker 04

  I'm in the middle of an important podcast. It took me five years to get on this podcast. My wife has a puppy in the fucking garage.

• 44:42Ed Mylett?

  Tell her we said hello.

• 44:43Speaker 04

  I'm now losing your phone for 900 days. Can you close?

• 44:49Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome.

• 44:50Speaker 04

  Look, I think fulfillment, I think fulfillment comes from, for me...

• 44:58Speaker 04

  From saying what you're, you know, from saying what you're gonna do and doing what you say. So, so if you're all over the place, um, and you're not sticking to some level of standard, whatever that is, because fulfillment, fulfillment just isn't about, you know, crossing the finish line, having ice cream, doing all that, for me, anyway, and I think for most people. I've been pushing my wife, she's gonna kill me if she listens, I've been pushing my wife, she made me get a friggin Peloton, okay? I said, "We own Spartan, you don't need a Peloton." "I got rings, I got, I need a Peloton." I get the Peloton, I had the only Peloton that was still in the box for like 60 days. What do we need the Peloton for? Just collecting stuff, right?

• 45:40Speaker 04

  Now, the last 15 days, every day I make her get, "Well, you're ruining it for me, you're not making it fun." I said, "Forget about it, like, just hold yourself to a standard." Every day, it's like, I don't care if you get on for 20 minutes, but whatever the thing is, you, you must wanna do it, otherwise you wouldn't have maybe get the damn thing. Right? So I think fulfillment comes from, from sticking to stuff, from doing stuff that you say you're gonna do, and then you're able to pat yourself on the back and say, "I did," whatever this is, doesn't, doesn't have to be climbing Mount Everest, it could be doing 20 minutes a day on the Peloton, it could be going for a run every day, it could be eating salads at lunch, whatever that thing is, I think people are not fulfilled when

• 46:21Speaker 04

  they're not able to look in the mirror at themselves and say they're sticking to the, the, the person they wanna be. Does that make sense?

• 46:30Ed Mylett?

  Brother, that's a great answer. I, I've never heard it answered that way, and like, it's true. That's a great answer, and I'll send a link to the podcast to your wife here, just so she can enjoy.

• 46:40Speaker 04

  You don't even know, I'll be dead.

• 46:42Ed Mylett?

  Guys, uh, Joe, this is awesome. You're so good, guy, you, listen, everyone, listen to me, your life will be better if you take a listen to Joe's podcast, and your life will be better if you're following him on Instagram, and for some of you, you need to really do some research on Spartan races, and the farm, and everything Joe does, cuz it's all to serve other people. This man has spent most of his life, he seems like a tough guy, you know, he delivers it no nonsense, this dude has a heart, he loves people, and he's dedicated his life to helping them, and he's great at it. And I'm honored you're my friend, man. Thank you for being here today, brother. For having me. I'm glad we got this done. Me too. Follow me on Instagram, everyone. Hey, two-minute drill every day on there. I make a post 7:30 Pacific time. You got two minutes. You make a comment. You're in a drawing.

• 47:26Ed Mylett?

  If you miss the first two minutes, make a comment on every post I make every day. At the end of the week, we add them all up, pick winners. They get all kinds of cool stuff. They meet my guests. They get coached by me, Max out gear, my book. They fly with me once in a while. It's really cool stuff we do. We pick them every Sunday. Just stay connected. Turn your notifications on Instagram. Follow Joe. Follow me. God bless you all. Max out.

• 47:52Speaker 02

  This is the Ed Miliband Show.