195: Q&A: Why I'm No Longer the CEO of BPN (Moving to Tennessee, Business Lessons & More)

I’m no longer the CEO of BPN. In this Q&A, I explain why I brought John Childs into the role, how my work as founder is changing, and why my family is moving back to Tennessee. I also answer questions about career transitions, business growth, books, training, wellness, and fatherhood. CHAPTERS: 00:00 What This Q&A Covers 03:06 Leaving the Army for BPN 09:31 Losing and Rebuilding Purpose 13:06 Change Is a Muscle 16:15 Own the Business, Don’t Let It Own You 24:32 Finding My Zone of Genius 27:07 Why We’re Moving to Tennessee 28:20 BPN’s New CEO 34:39 The Visionary–Integrator Model 39:15 Why This Move Is Different 45:05 Eight Books I Recommend 48:28 Business Decisions That Drive Growth 50:39 Five Wellness Purchases Worth It 54:50 Building a Minimal Home Gym 57:34 Why I Train Barefoot 1:00:43 Exhausted for a Good Cause JOIN THE APP AND GET READY FOR UPDATES ⁠https://www.nickbarefitness.app/⁠ ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210⁠ Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠⁠https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition⁠ FOLLOW: 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?

  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today is a question and answer that I opened up on Instagram a few days ago. And we're going to get into the meat and potatoes of it. We have some great questions that were submitted, but a lot of people have been asking about, one, my move, me and my family's move to Tennessee, how my role and position with BPN will evolve and just what's going on. So I'm going to address all of that in this Q and A.

• 0:45Nick Bare?

  Now, in preparation for this podcast, because even when it's just a Q and A, you know, I pull the questions that you guys submit and I take all the questions and I drop them into a document. And then I decide which ones I think have a lot of value that are interesting and that I want to touch on. And then I kind of refine the list. And then from there I start adding notes. And it's not me just like looking at the questions for the first time while I'm talking about it in this conversation in this podcast. I add context, I add notes because I want to be thorough.

• 1:29Nick Bare?

  I want to really be able to explain and break down the questions you guys are asking and submitting. And I want there to be a lot of value behind what I'm sharing in my answers.

• 1:48Nick Bare?

  So in preparation, I pulled a quote from one of my favorite books. It's called The One Thing by Gary Keller.

• 1:57Nick Bare?

  And he says, quoted, "You can become successful with less discipline than you think.

• 2:06Nick Bare?

  For one simple reason, success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right."

• 2:17Nick Bare?

  I found that very powerful.

• 2:20Nick Bare?

  You can become successful for one simple reason. Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.

• 2:30Nick Bare?

  A lot of times when I have a quote that I like, I will reread it multiple times. Because that's the way that I best consume and digest content. If I'm listening to an audio book, like I'm listening to an audio book right now that I'm going to get into here in a little bit. On my morning runs.

• 2:51Nick Bare?

  And if there's a chapter or a section that I loved, I will go repeat that section over and over and over again. Today on my morning run, I listened to the same chapter of a book four times. That's no exaggeration, four times, because I found that chapter very valuable, very interesting. And every time I listened to it, I pulled something different away from it.

• 3:22Nick Bare?

  Gary Keller, The One Thing, it's a book that I highly recommend reading. First question I'm going to get into.

• 3:30Nick Bare?

  What was the biggest challenge you faced when getting out of the military? How do you know it was the right time to get out of the army and go all in on BPN? I believe this question was asked because lately I've been pulling old footage from YouTube. And I've been sharing it on Instagram. And I've been documenting this journey for the last 12 years. And there's all this old archived footage and clips and I've documented all of it. And for those of you who've been following along for years or the entire journey, thank you. I appreciate you.

• 4:12Nick Bare?

  But if you haven't, I would highly recommend going back and watching some of my old content. And I have documented when I first landed in Texas.

• 4:26Nick Bare?

  And I got stationed at Fort Hood. And I was going to gyms and filming my workouts and it was awkward. It was uncomfortable. It was cringe worthy. And I documented the adventure of my nine-month training rotation in South Korea with the army. And transitioning out of the military and signing our first warehouse lease. And all of my races and fitness preps and competitions and getting married and having kids and building a family and growing this team. It's all been documented. Like all that footage is on YouTube and I personally like to go back and watch that old content.

• 5:08Nick Bare?

  Because it's a reminder of

• 5:12Nick Bare?

  the work, the effort

• 5:15Nick Bare?

  that has gone into building what we have built and why we are where we are today. So if you haven't watched any of that old footage, one, I would appreciate if you did. But also I think it's very valuable and can be very inspiring for a lot of people. To see where I started compared to where I am today. And how the camera presence has changed and evolved. How my fitness has changed and evolved, how my values have changed and evolved. You go back and watch videos from 2017, you're probably going to hear a lot of cursing in those videos.

• 5:56Nick Bare?

  Today, you won't find one curse word in any of my content, none. There hasn't been a curse word that has come out of my mouth

• 6:08Nick Bare?

  for the last 14 or 15 months. Hasn't come out of my mouth, not one. And I'm really proud of that.

• 6:21Nick Bare?

  But my old content was, was different. But that's the evolution, that is growth, and I documented all of that growth. So I believe me sharing some of that old content, specifically the content when I was transitioning out of the army and going all into building BPN, has sparked some of these questions because this question was asked by multiple people in a few different ways.

• 6:50Nick Bare?

  What was the biggest challenge you faced when getting out of the military? How do you know it was the right time to get out of the army and go all in on BPN?

• 6:59Nick Bare?

  It's rarely the right time. If you wait for the right time, it's probably not going to happen or show itself to you. But the best time is when you are ready to make the commitment.

• 7:20Nick Bare?

  You oftentimes have to make the commitment before you are ready. So if you wait for the right time, it's probably not going to happen. And you're never going to make that leap, that leap of faith. You can't just dip one toe in, you can't just dip one foot in. You have to full body leap into that commitment to give yourself a fighting chance for the next chapter that you are wanting and willing to pursue. So I knew when I was transitioning out of the army, my military contract was coming to an end.

• 8:01Nick Bare?

  It didn't feel like the right time, but it felt like the best time. And I knew that if I was going to do it, I had to do it the way that I do everything else in my life. It is not dipping a toe in and testing the waters. It is running 100 feet back, taking a dead on sprint and long jump

• 8:26Nick Bare?

  into the depths of the waters.

• 8:32Nick Bare?

  And that's the approach I took. To be honest, full transparency, the transition wasn't that hard for me. The actual transition, because I had a plan. The problem with most people transitioning out of the military or in any type of career shift, transition, it's challenging because there's no plan. You go from one thing that you're doing into the next and there's no plan and you just wing it. And that makes things very hard, very challenging. I had a plan and I was building that plan for years before the transition happened.

• 9:14Nick Bare?

  I was setting myself up for success, for this massive career shift that I knew was coming at some point.

• 9:23Nick Bare?

  And I was all in of what I was pursuing next, building BPN. All in. Like I said, it's not one toe being dipped in the water. It's not one foot. It is a full body submersion. I had no plan B. It had to work. I had no other option. So the transition itself wasn't hard for me. The challenge for me, though, however, was that when I left the military, I missed the military. I don't know if I've actually talked about this for quite some time.

• 10:03Nick Bare?

  And to be honest, I forgot that I went through this transitional experience until I started jotting some notes down in preparation for today. When I left the army, what I struggled with was this lack of purpose. You know, serving in the military, being an infantry platoon leader, being in charge of about 40 soldiers and non-commissioned officers, the selfless service that comes with being in the military, knowing that you are serving your country, you're serving a greater population.

• 10:48Nick Bare?

  There's a sacrifice that comes with that. That brought me a lot of honor and a lot of purpose. And I loved the way that made me feel, like true patriotism. There was so much reward in that feeling. And when I transitioned out of the army and I lost that sense of purpose, that was much harder for me than I thought it was going to be. And shortly after I got out of the army, I signed up for my first marathon. It was the Austin Marathon and I started training. And I remember vividly being on those training runs.

• 11:30Nick Bare?

  At the time, I was living at the Domain in an apartment within Austin, Texas. It's this shopping center that has restaurants and bars and retail stores and hotels and apartments and all of these things. It's a big hub in North Austin. And I was living there at the time, training for my first marathon. And I remember going on these training runs, highly considering the next morning going to a recruiting office and enlisting,

• 12:10Nick Bare?

  you know, not even going back in as an officer, but enlisting into the military because that loss of purpose was so deep. Now, I never did it because I ended up shifting or channeling that, that purpose, that focus into BPN and building a community, go one more, my training, motivating others to make these massive transformations in their life physically and mentally. And that provided me the purpose that I had while in the military.

• 12:51Nick Bare?

  But there was this period of time, this transitional period where that purpose was gone. And I highly considered going back in, very much so considered going back in. I think many of us know when it's time for a major life change. But the thought, the idea, the perception of the uncertainty that that life change will bring is extremely uncomfortable. So we avoid it and we never make the jump because the uncertainty scares us. It is so intimidating that we never make that leap of faith.

• 13:35Nick Bare?

  That change, that uncertainty, it disrupts the current, which may not be ideal, but for many, it's better than the unknown and the uncertainty of the future change. For many, even if the, the current is uncomfortable, it's painful. It's not bringing the level or type of success that you want. It's not bringing the satisfaction that you want. Many people are more willing to embrace that and live with that because the uncertainty of change is more intimidating.

• 14:16Nick Bare?

  It's more scary than the discomfort of the current state of their life. Leaning into uncertainty, leaning into, into change, it's a muscle that becomes stronger the more frequently we use it and flex it. My transition out of the military in 2017 taught me a lot. That transition, I mean, my career changed, my purpose changed, my whole routine changed overnight.

• 14:59Nick Bare?

  I learned a lot through that experience. But since that moment, over the last almost 10 years now, I've almost been out of the military for a decade, which is crazy to think. I've had opportunities to, to utilize and flex that muscle, which has adapted and has become stronger time and time again. Where now these, these massive life transitions, they don't affect me, they don't faze me, they don't challenge me nearly in the same way that they used to, which has made it easier for me to adopt change,

• 15:44Nick Bare?

  to pivot with change, to move and, and be fluid, be flexible with the changes that life brings, only because it's a muscle that I flexed time and time again. Now, I mentioned there was a book that I was listening to, an audiobook on my, my run this morning. And I think it's absolute gold. You guys know I'm a huge proponent of learning, of education, of reading. I've read so many books over the last couple of years,

• 16:27Nick Bare?

  physical books, audiobooks, podcasts, interviews, articles. And the book that I'm reading or listening to right now, it's by Cody Sanchez and it's titled Own or Be Owned? Build a Business So Good It Doesn't Need You. If you're an entrepreneur, if you are a business owner or a aspiring business owner, this is a book you have to add to your list. I'm telling you, this is a book that I wish I would have read years ago. If it was out years ago, it's a newer book.

• 17:10Nick Bare?

  But it is very applicable to a season of life that I'm experiencing right now, which we'll get into, but I want to give a synopsis of this book. I'm not through the entire book yet. I've completed the first couple of chapters, but the first couple of chapters are absolute gold. Cody talks about how the best businesses are built with effective, sustainable systems that don't rely on one individual person. This is the problem that many founders, many business owners, I'd say majority of founders, majority of business owners find themselves in.

• 17:53Nick Bare?

  That their business, it thrives, it survives and it dies off of them. They are owned by the business as opposed to being the business owner. As Cody states, build a business so good, it doesn't need you. She quotes Paul Graham, "Most companies die by suicide, not homicide." You see, most founders find themselves in a situation where they realize that they aren't running a business. They are the business.

• 18:38Nick Bare?

  You've probably heard people talk about before, you're either working on the business or in the business. If you're working in the business, you're in the day to day. You're grinding. You are essential for a lot of the systems and infrastructure and things to get done. You are packing the orders, you are making the sales, you are editing the website, you are creating the ads, you are placing the production orders. You are the bottleneck to scale and growth. The goal is that you are running a business, not that you are the business. That's where true growth and scale comes to play. Business owners and founders who don't adopt this and accept this.

• 19:27Nick Bare?

  We will never reach full success and potential guaranteed. We've seen it time and time again in many case studies in many businesses. I have felt it and experienced it myself, which we're going to get into. You see, in the beginning, as Cody talks about, when you start a business, you launch your company, you have to be the hero, you have to do everything. Being the hero isn't an option, it's a necessity in the beginning. And being the hero, she states, is heroin and it's addicting.

• 20:10Nick Bare?

  Our brains over time prefer being needed rather than being free. And being needed is safety. And this pattern, it pays off, it feels good. I can attest to this. In the beginning of starting a business, launching BPN for years, you have to be the hero, you have to do everything, and it feels really good to be needed. You are the cornerstone of the organization that holds everything together.

• 20:49Nick Bare?

  Systems, infrastructure, people, culture, everything relying on one person, which is a huge risk and it's unsustainable. Cody goes on to say, and talk about how to win in the game of business. To win in the game of business, the businesses that thrive and survive year over year, share the same thing. The owner is not the bottleneck. The owner owns the business, but is not owned by the business. Most business owners get in the way of their business and become the bottleneck.

• 21:34Nick Bare?

  To win in the game of business, businesses need documented systems, real management, and real processes. This is engineered so that a business is not reliant on one individual, one person. The goal? Your business continues to grow, scale, and succeed and win exponentially, even when you go on a vacation for one to two weeks. So stop being the hero and start building the thing. Hire people who are better than you, add certain things, and let them do those things.

• 22:16Nick Bare?

  Business owners, founders must make the switch at some point. And if they don't, they will fail, they will lose everything. They will erode and destruct. She says, "The goal isn't to end up rich on paper. It is to be free to work on only what you can uniquely do. The measure of success is whether the business runs better in the weeks you're not there. If it can't survive without you, you don't own a business, you own a job." Own or be owned, build a business so good it doesn't need you.

• 22:58Nick Bare?

  Cody Sanchez, that is the goal in business. But it's an intentional shift and change that founders and business owners have to make at some point if they want to continue to scale, grow, and be successful. And it's really hard. It's a really hard mindset shift. I will tell you from firsthand experience. When you start something and you're involved in every part of everything, every process, every approval, every system, all the people, the hiring, the firing, the day to day, all of it.

• 23:40Nick Bare?

  It is challenging to move into a different role because that pattern becomes rewarded after so much time. When you are the hero and things are going well, that pattern recognition says, "I want more of that, give me more of that." But it only works to a certain point. In order to scale and grow past a certain point, a certain threshold, things have to look different, be different, change is required.

• 24:17Nick Bare?

  And if, as a business owner, as a founder, you can accept that, that change, revolutionary, exponential growth and scale. So I share that because it speaks very directly to me. Where I would say for the first 12, 13 years of running the business, building BPN, I was owned by the business, I was an employee of the business.

• 24:59Nick Bare?

  And in this last year, I have shifted to be a business owner so that I can work on the business as opposed to in the business. Again, one of my favorite books, I've shared this before, The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. Commitment number eight is all about excelling in your zone of genius. And the commitment states, "I commit to expressing my full magnificence and to supporting and inspiring others to fully express their creativity and live in their zone of genius." There's four zones.

• 25:43Nick Bare?

  There is a zone of incompetence, competence, excellence, and genius. And when you are working out of your zone of genius, this is the ultimate zone. This zone is when you spend time doing what you love, what you are uniquely gifted to do. All sense of time disappears. Genius equals juice. The more we live and work in our genius, the more the juice of life is flowing through us into the world.

• 26:26Nick Bare?

  As many have said, "It is not our failure that we are most afraid of, but rather our magnificence." Conscious leaders face the fear of stepping fully into their magnificence. They embrace their magnificence, live and work in their genius, and give their gift to the world. Again, another book that I highly recommend for leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners, founders, The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim DeThmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaylee Warner Klemm. So I believe that sets us up well for what I'm going to talk about next.

• 27:07Nick Bare?

  And over the last couple of weeks, Steph and I have been sharing on Instagram some life updates. We've been building a house in Tennessee for the last year or so. So a lot of the questions that were submitted in this Q and A were around the move to Tennessee, my role in BPN, and the future, what that looks like. So there's three questions that all lumped together. Those were, "Why are you and your family moving back to Tennessee? How will your job as CEO change as you move back to Tennessee? And how will this move to Tennessee be different than the previous one?"

• 27:49Nick Bare?

  So some of you may know that in 2023, my family and I moved to Tennessee for about nine months. We set up an office in Nashville. At the time, I stepped down from the CEO role for a brief period of time, put a new CEO in place, that didn't end up working out. So me and my family and the team closed down the office in Nashville and made the move back to Texas as I moved back into the CEO role. And I was back in the CEO role for the last...

• 28:29Nick Bare?

  Two-ish years. But I am not in the CEO role right now. For the last couple of months, I have transitioned out of the CEO role. And we have hired a new CEO for BPN that I'm so excited about. His name is John Childs. He's our new CEO. As I said, he's been in the seat. He's occupied the role for the last couple of months.

• 29:01Nick Bare?

  And having John on board has taught me so much. So much.

• 29:09Nick Bare?

  A little bit background on John. Fellow Army Infantry Officer, West Point graduate. After serving in the military, a deployment to Afghanistan. Actually, served with Colonel Ed Arntson, who I've had on the podcast before.

• 29:33Nick Bare?

  In the Old Guard.

• 29:36Nick Bare?

  John worked under Colonel Arntson when they were in the Old Guard together. And then when John transitioned out of the military, he went and worked for the Honest Company. And then HelloFresh, Factor Meals, has been in the consumer CPG, health and wellness industry for quite some time now. And is a perfect fit for BPN in terms of interests and passions, culture.

• 30:09Nick Bare?

  A true partner to me as the founder. And then experience, competence, and ability to build and implement systems and infrastructure for growth and scale. I mean, a true operator.

• 30:30Nick Bare?

  And it took us a long time to find the right person. And when I met John and spent time with John and learned about his background, the way that he thought about the business and our alignment, I just knew he was the perfect person to be the operator, to be the integrator of BPN that I could partner with, take my vision and strategy and execute on that vision.

• 31:01Nick Bare?

  So I'm no longer in the CEO role of BPN. We have a new CEO that is John Childs. He is the right person for that role. It's now allowed me to be a business owner.

• 31:19Nick Bare?

  To own a business, not to be owned by the business. I can work on higher level strategy, initiatives, vision, content creation. I'm finally in a seat where I can excel and operate out of my zone of genius, which feels so good. And to know that I have the right operator in place to execute on that vision and strategy.

• 31:56Nick Bare?

  Man, it feels good. It feels good. This has been the goal for a long time now. And as a founder, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur. I'll be honest, part of you doesn't know if you can ever get to that point.

• 32:14Nick Bare?

  Because you have to find the right person. And finding the right person is very tough. It is sometimes like, you know, trying to find a needle in a haystack.

• 32:28Nick Bare?

  And in this case, we got, I don't want to say lucky, but extremely fortunate. I'm very grateful that we found the right person to lead this business, to execute on my vision, and to operate and implement systems and infrastructure to lead the team to growth and scale that I truly can say I couldn't get us to.

• 32:53Nick Bare?

  It's just, this is the truth.

• 32:58Nick Bare?

  So that has changed my role over the last couple of months. You may have noticed the amount of content that I've been creating and producing and uploading has increased significantly over the last couple of months. And that's only because I have a really strong operator and partner in place where I can spend my time and energy and resources in my zone of genius. And that's content creation, that's vision, that's product development, that's brand.

• 33:32Nick Bare?

  This hasn't changed my involvement in the business at all. It has just shifted what I can spend my time on. I truly feel like I am in a position now where I'm a business owner as opposed to being owned by the business. And I could go take a vacation with my family for two weeks and not look at my phone and come back and the business would have grown and scaled and probably become more effective and efficient. It's a dream come true.

• 34:03Nick Bare?

  And I'll say it again, you know, for years, you don't know if you'll ever get to that point. And when you finally do, it's like, gosh dang, now we're catching a stride.

• 34:14Nick Bare?

  Now, now we're like, let's go. Let's go build this thing to the true potential that we know it can become.

• 34:26Nick Bare?

  The right people in the right seats, myself included.

• 34:33Nick Bare?

  I'm operating out of my zone of genius.

• 34:39Nick Bare?

  There's another book that I highly recommend. It's called Rocket Fuel by Gina Wickman. And it's a supplementary book and read in connection with Traction, which is, I think, one of his most popular books, talking about the entrepreneurial operating system. And within EOS, or the Entrepreneurial Operating System and Rocket Fuel, it talks about the power of having a visionary and an integrator. In this case with BPN, I am the visionary, the business owner, the founder. John, he's the integrator, the operator. He executes on that vision and he executes very, very well.

• 35:25Nick Bare?

  Since John has started, just for the last couple of months, revenue has increased, profitability has increased, very effective and efficient systems and infrastructure have been built. Operationally, we've matured.

• 35:45Nick Bare?

  The tempo and speed and pace at which we are getting things done has improved significantly.

• 35:53Nick Bare?

  And I say this very humbly and transparently.

• 36:02Nick Bare?

  I was the bottleneck of growth and scale for a long period of time because I was trying to split my time between being CEO and being the face of the brand and a content creator. You know, prepping and planning and recording podcasts and YouTube videos and fitness preps. And then being in meetings and product development and leading the team and implementing systems. Like I was the bottleneck when I was trying to do too much and I couldn't operate out of a zone of genius. Now I can.

• 36:39Nick Bare?

  Again, this doesn't change my involvement of the business. It just changes my duties, responsibilities in my day to day.

• 36:49Nick Bare?

  Which allows me and my family to make the move back to Tennessee, which is where we've always wanted to end up.

• 37:00Nick Bare?

  Yeah, I'm from Pennsylvania originally. Steph is from Michigan. When Steph and I met, she was living in Nashville. We love Tennessee. We love the environment. We love the weather. We love the people. We love the opportunity. For us, it feels like the

• 37:21Nick Bare?

  the place, doesn't feel like it is, the place where we want to raise our family, lead our family, build community, send our kids to school. It's where we want to plant long-term roots and establish relationships and put our family first. And with my role changing, and my day-to-day changing, and having a very effective, strong leader and operator in place, it allows me and the family to make the move. So we've been building a house in Tennessee for the last year plus. It's not done yet. And we're in no rush. We're

• 38:05Nick Bare?

  taking our time with it. We're making sure that the business is set up appropriately, that everyone's comfortable with the move and the transition. But I will work from Tennessee. I will travel to Austin to HQ as needed. Again, I want to reinforce this. This does not change my involvement in the business whatsoever, but it allows me to be a business owner and not owned by the business as Cody Sanchez talks about. And that gets me really excited. You know, I've

• 38:45Nick Bare?

  seen just in the few, few months, John has been on board and we've been building a relationship and partnership. There's so much synergy and similarity between us and the way that we think about the brand and where the business needs to go and how we influence and impact, not just the supplement industry, but our community and the power of Go One More. And if I can operate in my zone of genius and John can operate in his zone of genius, that's a partnership that I would bet on, that I'd put money behind. It's a winning team. Right now, we have a winning team.

• 39:32Nick Bare?

  Now, how will this move to Tennessee be different than the previous one? This one's set up for success. The last one was not. The business is more mature and advanced and developed than it was three years ago. We have a more experienced team that is led and structured better. I mean, our team right now is packed with rock stars, like A-plus players. And the systems and infrastructure that are in place in the business are highly capable. When I, me and the family, moved to Tennessee in 2023, the business was

• 40:20Nick Bare?

  at a different phase, wasn't as mature, as developed, systems, infrastructure weren't as well established, didn't have the right people in place. And now we do. So I can't even compare 2023's move to Tennessee and this future move to Tennessee because they're incomparable, completely different. This one sets us up for success. The previous one did not.

• 40:58Nick Bare?

  But man, I'm just, I'm so grateful and so excited for this next chapter. I can prioritize my family, my wife, my kids. We can plant roots for

• 41:16Nick Bare?

  our forever, our long-term. And I can continue sinking my teeth into my passion, my work, my purpose, what I love doing, but in the way and in the things that I love about it. It's honestly for, for entrepreneur, for a business owner as a founder, it's a dream come true. And again, I'll say it, but like, it's almost a pinch me moment. It's a, it's a transition that's challenging because it's a Band-Aid that you have to rip off. And once you rip it off and jump fully in,

• 42:00Nick Bare?

  you realize the power at which it holds, the potential that exists, and you never think you're going to be able to get there. I think I'm talking to a lot of entrepreneurs right now that can probably relate, where you feel like you are owned by the business. And it's like, how do I, how do I ever

• 42:23Nick Bare?

  truly

• 42:26Nick Bare?

  commit time and be present for other life responsibilities, my family, my wife, my spouse, my, my children?

• 42:37Nick Bare?

  And I feel like I'm there and it feels so good. And again, it's like a pinch me moment. It's like, wow. You know, a lot of work has gone into 14 years of building BPN and getting it to this, this point. And I walk around the HQ in the office sometimes and I, I just watch the people that we have here, the team, the, the experience, the competency, the, the buy-in.

• 43:12Nick Bare?

  And I'm like, man, I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful. If you would have just gave me a glimpse of this when I was in my apartment in 2012, printing out packing slips and, and cutting them up and pasting them on boxes to drop off at USPS, I'd have been like, man, there's no way. But here we are, doing it. It feels really good. So that's the, the big life update. I'm no longer the CEO of BPN. We have a highly capable, amazing leader, operator, John Childs in place.

• 43:56Nick Bare?

  My involvement in the business is not changing. My duties, my responsibilities, my day-to-day, yes, they are changing. They have changed for the better. And my family and I are building a house in Tennessee and we'll eventually make that move there. That's where we'll send our kids to school and I'll travel to and from as needed, but I'll keep sinking my teeth into building this thing, baby. I can promise you that. I ain't going anywhere. We're building growth, scale,

• 44:32Nick Bare?

  effectively, sustainably. This is leverage for the next chapter.

• 44:41Nick Bare?

  This is setting us up for durability, for what is about to happen to this organization forever.

• 44:54Nick Bare?

  So hard shift, but we're going to answer some more of the, the Q and A's that were submitted.

• 45:05Nick Bare?

  Top five books that I've read and recommend. There have been so many over the years and it's really hard to name the five. It's, it's almost impossible. Because it's like, at what chapter of my life, for what reason? It's, it's like, this list probably changes every six months. And if you guys would like, I can eventually build out a, a large reading list of all the books that I've read and recommend over the years. But I have eight books listed here. I know it was top

• 45:45Nick Bare?

  five was the question that I've read and recommend, but I tried adding five. I was like, well, I gotta add at least a few more. I can make this list like a 30, if I'm being honest. But as of right now,

• 46:03Nick Bare?

  October 2026, top eight books that I've read and recommend, in no particular order. Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud. Here's a quote from Necessary Endings. "Getting to the next level always requires ending something, leaving it behind and moving on. Growth itself demands that we move on. Without the ability to end things, people stay stuck, never becoming who they are meant to be, never accomplishing all that their talent and abilities should afford them." I mean, it's applicable to what I just shared. "It was and is time for me to move on from the

• 46:47Nick Bare?

  CEO role of the business. Because I felt stuck. I was the bottleneck. Moving out of that role, putting someone else in facilitated the growth that we needed for this next chapter." Necessary Endings, Henry Cloud. Sometimes the necessary ending you need is the ego that you have, the pride around something, a title, a job, an identity. Book number two, Atomic Habits by James Clear. You guys know I'm a big fan of this book. Number three, which I just read out of a

• 47:28Nick Bare?

  little bit ago, The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim DeFmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaylee Klemm. Number four, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. This is a book that I reread every year. Number five, BE 2.0 by Jim Collins. Number six, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. Number seven, Playing to Win by A.G. Laffley. Amazing business book. And number eight, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. All of these books are books that I have read, read,

• 48:11Nick Bare?

  reread, read, read, reread multiple times, multiple times. And I believe are extremely valuable.

• 48:28Nick Bare?

  Top three important business decisions that I've made that have stimulated growth in scale.

• 48:37Nick Bare?

  Number one, identifying a niche that you have permission and passion,

• 48:45Nick Bare?

  authentic interest to own and double down on it. An example of this for us, the hybrid athlete.

• 48:53Nick Bare?

  That is a niche that we had permission, we have permission to own, that we're passionate about, authentically passionate about. We have doubled down on it and it has proved much success for our brand. It has stimulated growth and scale. Number two, hire the right people for culture fit, who are competent, who have experience, that you can trust and have integrity.

• 49:19Nick Bare?

  If you have the right people, put them in the right seats and have systems and infrastructure built around those people, those seats, and they are provided success metrics, KPIs, OKRs. That's how you win. People, systems, metrics.

• 49:40Nick Bare?

  Number three, you have to have a great product or service. This is a non-starter. Awareness won't and can't improve brand longevity without trust. And the way that you build trust, credibility is by having a great product or service. We would not be in business 14 years later if we didn't have a great, remarkable product. Our products are supplements, our apparel, they are remarkable. They are excellent. They are great. That's why we are still in business and that's why we continue to grow and scale year over year.

• 50:27Nick Bare?

  And here's a bonus.

• 50:30Nick Bare?

  Number four, put yourself in a position of owning the business, not being owned by the business, as we just talked about. But I believe that by me stepping out of the CEO role, removing myself as the bottleneck and being able to operate out of my zone of genius, will stimulate the most, most growth and scale we will experience in the history of BPN. I'm confident in saying that.

• 51:03Nick Bare?

  What are the top five wellness purchases you have made that have had the largest impact and return? This is a great question. Steph and I sat in bed last night and discussed this and she helped me curate this list.

• 51:19Nick Bare?

  Number one, sauna. We have the Sisu Lifestyle Sauna. I use it every single day at the house.

• 51:30Nick Bare?

  I mean, it's an expensive purchase. It's an investment, but I would say this is number one.

• 51:36Nick Bare?

  The, the best purchase, the best investment we have made as a family for our health and wellness that has had the largest impact and return.

• 51:47Nick Bare?

  Number two, Eight Sleep. This is a pad that goes over top of your bed that connects to a water tank next to your pad. And it's a product with software technology that cools your bed temperature to the optimal sleeping range. And there's an autopilot mode. It sounds like an ad, but it's not an ad. I bought this with my own money. I can promise you. There's an autopilot mode where it will measure your heart rate, your body temperature, your HRV throughout the night, and it will adjust the temperature of your bed

• 52:29Nick Bare?

  based off of your sleep metrics. So you have the most optimal sleep. For both Steph and I, this, again, one of the best investments we have made. We love it. It has improved our sleep quality significantly. When we travel, we miss it. When we're at home, there's nothing like getting into a bed that's already cooled down to your optimal sleeping temperature. Like just, I can't speak highly enough about the Eight Sleep.

• 52:59Nick Bare?

  Number three, a home gym. We've been on a home gym, which I'm going to talk about a little bit more in detail after this question. Number four, the Traeger grill. We use the Traeger multiple times a week, if not every day.

• 53:19Nick Bare?

  After you have a Traeger grill, I mean, going back to like a gas outdoor grill, it's impossible. I'll, I'll tell you that, like, it's impossible. And I love cooking on charcoal. I would prefer cooking on charcoal, like our, our, our green egg or a Weber, for example, charcoal grill.

• 53:41Nick Bare?

  But that requires a whole lot more prep and time. The Traeger, it heats up quick. We do chicken thighs, we do steak, we do so much on the Traeger.

• 53:52Nick Bare?

  It's been a, a game changer for our meat prep in our household.

• 53:58Nick Bare?

  And number five, Garmin watch. I have the Phoenix 8 Pro. I will tell you, my favorite part of, of having a Garmin watch, it's not just the data I get on my training and logging my running mileage and my workouts and sleep data. But it's a flashlight. Like the Phoenix 8 Pro has this built-in flashlight. I use that when morning runs. I use it when I'm walking around the house at 4:30 AM. So the, the family doesn't wake up. I use the flashlight on this watch so much. It is, in my opinion, the best part of the watch. So those are my, my top five wellness purchases that have had the largest impact return.

• 54:43Nick Bare?

  Sauna by Sisu, Eight Sleep, Home Gym, Traeger Grill, Garmin Watch. Now doubling down on the home gym conversation. A few questions were, because I, I show my home gym every once in a while. It's in a small part of our garage. It's not even a full one-car garage. So the way our garage is set up is we have a two-car garage and then there's this small side garage that you can't fit a car in. I think it was there for just like storage or a golf cart, for example. So it's smaller than a one-car garage.

• 55:24Nick Bare?

  But the question is, if you were to build out a minimal home gym, what would you purchase? And this is what I think is like a great setup for a minimal home gym. You can obviously add two, but you can get a whole lot done with this. And these are most of the things that we have in our home gym. So it starts with a squat rack. Squat rack you can do so much with, but just having your basic squat rack is like the main centerpiece of the home gym. And then having a bench, an adjustable bench. So you can do flat barbell press.

• 56:05Nick Bare?

  You can lean up against it for a single arm dumbbell row. You can do incline barbell or dumbbell press, some sort of adjustable bench. A barbell, free weights. Now, like in our gym, we have eight 45-pound plates, two 25s, two 10s, two 5s. So free weight plates. Dumbbells, adjustable dumbbells are great. So those are like, they sit on a rack. You have two dumbbells, you can twist them and it'll change the amount of weight that you set them to. So you need adjustable dumbbells, or in our case, we have a set of five to 50s.

• 56:48Nick Bare?

  And then we have a pair of 70s, hundreds and 120s. But adjustable dumbbells are, are great. And then some attachments for your, for your squat rack, a dip bar attachment, a landmine attachment, and then a weighted dip belt. And then optional add-on, if you have the room and the money to invest into, a cable stack. We bought a cable stack from Arsenal Strength. I can do chest flies on it. I can do lat pull downs on it, tricep extensions.

• 57:27Nick Bare?

  Just like so many different variations of exercises, but that I'd say is, is an add-on that's optional. Everything before that, I say if you can allocate funds to those pieces of equipment, you can get a great workout in. You can do just about everything. And that is like, for me, the perfect, minimal, home gym build-out.

• 57:54Nick Bare?

  Next question. Why don't you wear shoes while training in the gym? And what are the benefits of barefoot training? Great question. For many years, I would wear tennis shoes into the gym. And then I stopped and I'm never going back. Now, I train either in our home gym, as I just discussed and broke down, or I'm training in the BPN HQ gym or the gym at Bear Ranch. So they are all private gyms and I can walk around barefoot, whether that's in socks or no socks. For many of you, you might not have this option.

• 58:39Nick Bare?

  Walking around barefoot in a public gym might not be preferred, respected, or allowed. So in that case, they do create these minimal barefoot training shoes that work just as good. But the benefits of training barefoot or in a minimal shoe, everything other than like a tennis shoe, for example, that you would wear for running. There is improved balance and stability. You have improved foot and ankle strength. And you have better posture, movement patterns, and power position. When you are barefoot or in a minimal shoe,

• 59:23Nick Bare?

  you have direct ground contact feedback between the ground and your foot. The reasons I don't like training in most shoes, except for like these minimal barefoot shoes, a tennis shoe or running shoe, for example, I don't feel stable. I feel like I am risked injury, which you are. And they, in most cases, have been designed for walking or running and not functional training or operating and moving out of your most powerful position. So I would highly recommend either training barefoot if you can or in a minimal barefoot shoe.

• 1:00:06Nick Bare?

  And this is for your typical strength training. If I'm running, if I'm doing a high rocks workout, yeah, I'm wearing a training shoe that I can run and move in. I get some grip. But if I'm barbell squatting or deadlifting or doing a push, pull, lower body, static movement workout, exercise routine, I am always barefoot. And the last question I'm going to answer. I got a lot of great questions from parents,

• 1:00:46Nick Bare?

  specifically dads, and even more specific new dads. And the question is that as a dad and someone who has a lot of life responsibilities, aren't you exhausted at the end of each day? And the answer is yes. Vince Lombardi has a quote. He says, "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle. Victorious."

• 1:01:31Nick Bare?

  I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle. Victorious. Am I exhausted at the end of each day? 100%. You know, I'm building a business with an amazing team. I'm creating content. I'm training a lot. I am showing up as the best husband I can be, as the best father that I can be to two beautiful, amazing children

• 1:02:15Nick Bare?

  who are both toddlers and have a lot of energy. A lot of energy. When my head hits the pillow at night, I'm out. Like not minutes, seconds. I am out. It's an exhausting chapter of life, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Because I love the work that I'm doing. I think I am working my heart out for a good cause. I'm leading a family or building a family. We're building a life together. There's a lot of work that is required. There's a lot of effort that is required.

• 1:03:00Nick Bare?

  And if I'm not exhausted at the end of each day, what am I reserving that energy, that talent, that ability for? If you're tired, if you're exhausted, I've said this before, I did a whole podcast on this and it resonated with a lot of people. If you're tired, if you're exhausted, I see you. Keep going. Good, as Jaco would say, good, good on you. Be exhausted, keep working hard for a good cause, for your family, for a purpose, for the people, for work, for change, for your passions,

• 1:03:40Nick Bare?

  for what you love. When your head hits the pillow, you should have emptied that tank every day. Because if not, you're saving the talents and the abilities that God has gifted you with. Put them to work. Glorify Him. Now caffeine helps. And I'm consuming about 500 milligrams of caffeine a day on average. And this is in the form of one scoop of G and M Sport Plus before my morning run. So before every morning run, I have one scoop of G and M Sport,

• 1:04:24Nick Bare?

  one scoop of G and M Sport Plus. This provides me with 40 grams of carbohydrates, 700 milligrams of sodium, 150 milligrams of caffeine, and no tropics. So that's at 4:45 a.m., I'm slugging 150 milligrams of caffeine. And then get back from my run, make breakfast. As we're getting the kids up and ready, I'm drinking a coffee. So I do an Americano with a shot of espresso on top. Say it's about 150 milligrams of caffeine. And then before my workout in the afternoon, whether that's a high rocks circuit or a strength session, I do a scoop of pre, which is 200 milligrams of caffeine.

• 1:05:09Nick Bare?

  So that's 500 milligrams of caffeine per day on average. And that feels pretty optimal and effective for me. So I'm going to keep doing that. Would I benefit from a caffeine break? Absolutely. Am I going to do it? Absolutely not. It just ain't going to happen. But yeah. As Vince Lombardi says, "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle." Victorious. Guys, that's the question and answer that I wanted to dive into today. Thank you for submitting. As always, I love you guys.

• 1:05:54Nick Bare?

  I appreciate you. And go one more.