90 The Art of Inflicting Pain for Pleasure (and Mastering Obstacle Courses) with Hunter McIntyre

"My brain was so saturated with drugs and dumb ideas from us being in that bro mansion that I just didn't have the focus." - Hunter McIntyre To learn more and get all the show notes, head on over to lewishowes.com/90 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 90 with Hunter McIntyre.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  What is up everyone? Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and joining us on the School of Greatness podcast. My name is Lewis Howes and I'm excited about this interview with the one and only Hunter McIntyre. Now, back in episode number 68, I had an interview with Mr. Joe DeSena, who was the creator of Spartan Race. And we talked about the powerful business that he's built with Spartan Race. Now, I'm bringing on one of the top Spartan Race competitors and really one of the top obstacle racing competitors, Hunter McIntyre. He's been on the cover of magazines about this. Everyone's talking about him right now. Because he is this young kid who's literally taken a lot of obstacles in his life to try to figure out what he was doing.

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  Basically not doing anything in his life, making some major mistakes and dealing with all these obstacles without having direction. And what he did is something interesting. He actually took those obstacles and literally made it his profession. He makes a full-time living, dealing with obstacles every day. It's kind of funny actually how it's all played out. But he is one of the top Spartan Race competitors and I think he took a third in Worlds last year. And so he's gonna, he's gonna go for the gold this year. And I'm very excited to dive into his, his brain and his heart. And tap into what he does to be so successful and how he's actually translated his obstacles in his life, which we're going to talk about.

• 1:54Lewis Howes?

  And use them as something to be embracing these obstacles and actually make it a part of his life. Dealing with obstacles every day to be successful. And I think you're really gonna love this guy's energy. I've had a great time connecting with him and I'm very excited to introduce you to him right now. So let's go ahead and let the class begin with the one and only Hunter McIntyre.

• 2:26Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. My name is Lewis Howes. Thank you guys so much for coming on. We've got a new guest on the show. His name is Hunter McIntyre. What's up, man?

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Rock and roll and happy to be back in LA, my friends.

• 2:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'm glad we got to connect. We've been chatting for the last hour or so and I could, I feel like we could talk for like the whole day and never get to do it again.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 2:49Lewis Howes?

  So we're finally doing the interview. We've been trying to do this for a while. Who is the guy who introduced us?

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Scott Caneley.

• 2:55Lewis Howes?

  Scott, yes. And he's a writer. He wrote an interview, a cover story on Men's Fitness or?

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Men's Journal.

• 3:01Lewis Howes?

  Men's Journal. But you're on the cover of Men's Fitness as well, right? Or no?

• 3:04Speaker 01

  Not yet. Not yet.

• 3:06Lewis Howes?

  But you're on the cover of Men's Journal?

• 3:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:08Lewis Howes?

  Couple of months ago or this month or last?

• 3:10Speaker 01

  It was in July.

• 3:11Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've got some other cool work coming out.

• 3:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Spread it out about.

• 3:14Lewis Howes?

  And you're basically like the bad boy of the Spartan world.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  You know what? Don't start out with that.

• 3:20Lewis Howes?

  But you're actually a really nice guy.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  I am a nice guy. Come on, let's start from there and then we can get some nitty gritty.

• 3:24Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, yeah. And I'm, you know, I'm fascinated by this world because I've been doing CrossFit for a while, as you know, and I'm a big athlete. I love sports. I love obstacle races, but like small ones, you know? And so I've never done a long distance training thing before.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:40Lewis Howes?

  But I did an interview with Joe, obviously, who's the founder of the Spartan Race. And I'll figure out the link to that. I'll put that in the show notes, which episode. But it's been fascinating to learn about this world and the culture of Spartan Race and why people are just so in love with it, almost more so than you say, the CrossFit world.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  I mean, it's, it's an experience that is unique to this old school mentality of just brutal work and just like kind of just being such an animal out there. And I think people just like, you know, Scott's got this project he's working on called The Rise of the Suffer Fest. And it's just about how the world kind of really wants to be taken away from these nice desks, these nice headphones and things like that.

• 4:21Lewis Howes?

  Comfort.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Tortured.

• 4:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 4:24Speaker 01

  And they lie.

• 4:24Lewis Howes?

  Why? Why do people lie if they're tortured? And that's what this Spartan Race is like.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  Sick in the head. You know, when I go out there, I'm, I've got like, you know, protectors on my knees and stuff like, I'm playing it safe. But you know, it's, it's incredibly raw feeling that I think people want to experience and that's what initially attracted me to the sport. You're out there and like, you know, you go from being a kid when you're in the backyard and you're climbing up trees and you're lifting up rocks and you're flipping over all this weird stuff.

• 4:47Lewis Howes?

  Getting muddy, dirty.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  Exactly, and you feel so alive.

• 4:50Lewis Howes?

  Scraped, yeah.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  And the next thing you know, as you get older, you kind of, you have to start showering more often to impress girls and things like that. You kind of lose that, that passion for being a wild child. And now you can just go right back to it. Like, you're seeing pictures all over Facebook of people covered in mud, looking horrible, like blood and scrapes on them.

• 5:07Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  And they've never felt so alive.

• 5:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  So, um, yeah, that's, that's it. Like, you know, I think people have found their calling again of just like, you know, just having that, that, that appeal of like fitness, but at the same time, like really living.

• 5:21Lewis Howes?

  Sure. Now, were you an athlete before you got into the Spartan Race?

• 5:24Speaker 01

  I would say that I was a, a jock, not necessarily, like a party jock.

• 5:30Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  Yeah. So the idea was like, you know, you go in there, like you get out there on the wrestling mat, you, you know, tear somebody up and they get back off and you chug some beers with your buddies. You know, like it was a party jock.

• 5:40Lewis Howes?

  So you were never like on a, like a sports team or you didn't do any like, um, traditional sports?

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Wrestling, um, and cross country. But it was the type of thing where my dad said, you know, get a job or get on the cross country field.

• 5:54Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:55Lewis Howes?

  And run cross country?

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Yes, I did.

• 5:57Lewis Howes?

  So running like 3.1 mile, it was like those races?

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 6:00Lewis Howes?

  Like a high school, you mean?

• 6:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, very basic, you know, get out there, like, you know, the coach wasn't giving us anything too crazy.

• 6:05Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  You go to a meet and you're in your little short shorts and a tank top, you run around, there's cute girls on the team and like, you know, you're done, once the weekend's over, yeah.

• 6:12Lewis Howes?

  Were you an exceptional cross country runner? Were you like one of the top?

• 6:15Speaker 01

  I had a lot of raw talent, um, type of thing. You know, my dad actually did start to press me in my senior year where he would chase me with a car. And set it on cruise control. He was a madman, still is. And, uh,

• 6:25Lewis Howes?

  Keep going.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I had a little raw talent, but I don't think, you know, I think it really takes a necessary mental, like, you know, you have to channel yourself to really have that kind of success. And like, you know, I've heard a lot about it in your podcasts, you know, to take yourself to that next level. And I never really wanted to be there.

• 6:40Lewis Howes?

  You weren't passionate enough about just running by itself?

• 6:43Speaker 01

  No, no, by no means.

• 6:44Lewis Howes?

  Right, okay. So this was in high school, then did you go to college?

• 6:48Speaker 01

  I did go to like, Three different colleges and it was

• 6:52Lewis Howes?

  I went to four, so we're right there.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  I'm one short of you. Um, first like, you know, I actually got in a lot of trouble in high school, so um, we can get to that later. But I got pushed out to University of Montana and I was going like part time. Then I came back to Rhode Island. My family was like, you need to be near the family and kind of calm down for a bit. And then I was just like, I did a year there and obviously I got forced into classes I couldn't even understand.

• 7:15Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  And um, just wanted to kind of have a good time, party a little bit now that I was free from what I was doing out in Montana. And then I did a community college and from there I was just like, you know, guys, give me a break. And um, I pulled out and started to adventure the world.

• 7:29Lewis Howes?

  What's that mean? Drugs and alcohol and sex?

• 7:33Speaker 01

  You know what? That was all part of college and it continued afterwards, but I think, you know, um, you know, when you ask people, what is greatness? That was my, that's what I was searching for, you know? And it wasn't in my books. It wasn't at random universities. It wasn't

• 7:48Lewis Howes?

  Classes.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Exactly. It wasn't from professors that I could barely understand or have, hold a conversation with, you know?

• 7:53Lewis Howes?

  It was experiencing the world.

• 7:55Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 7:55Lewis Howes?

  Experiencing what your body wanted to feel and

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:58Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  And uh, I really got out there. I've been all over the place. Um, really well traveled and I think it took that kind of experience to kind of ground me and find where I am now.

• 8:08Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. So during, so you dropped out of college. You never went back and finished?

• 8:12Speaker 01

  No, my mom would love me to.

• 8:14Lewis Howes?

  That's right, yeah. It took me seven years to finish, just so. I went back to just complete the final five credits, just to say I got it done, but doesn't mean anything.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  Very proud of you.

• 8:22Lewis Howes?

  Thanks, man. Um, so how long were you experiencing the world? Uh, and what were you doing on these experiences? Were you working? Did you find jobs here and there? Were you traveling and?

• 8:33Speaker 01

  Um, I kind of, um, as most young men will, will uh, pick up like a bodybuilding book. And you know, my first hero being Arnold Schwarzenegger, um, you know, I was like, oh my God, this is so incredible and fascinating. I watched Pumping Iron. So I was like, I'm going to become super ripped, maybe that's

• 8:51Lewis Howes?

  That documentary?

• 8:52Speaker 01

  But Pumping Iron?

• 8:53Lewis Howes?

  Is that the documentary?

• 8:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:54Lewis Howes?

  Is it good? I still want to

• 8:55Speaker 01

  What?

• 8:55Lewis Howes?

  I want to see that. I still want to see that. Is it that good?

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Oh my god, like, let's stop this now and watch it. It is so good.

• 9:02Lewis Howes?

  I saw him actually promoting it that it was on Netflix right now.

• 9:05Speaker 01

  Oh my god, it's the best.

• 9:06Lewis Howes?

  So I'm gonna have to watch it tonight.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  It truly is. Like, you feel like, you haven't really come into manhood until you've watched that.

• 9:11Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:12Lewis Howes?

  I'm just a boy still.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 9:13Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  So I watched that and I said to myself, like, look, maybe I should just focus on my body and just get like super ripped. And that sounds kind of cheesy, but I think that's the most basic way of improving yourself.

• 9:24Lewis Howes?

  Mastering your body is where it's at. If you can master your body, I think you can master anything.

• 9:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, and that really gave me a lot of focus into other things. So I said to myself, I would put so much research into like, what's the best workout? What's the best diet? So I started to get infatuated with personal training and then I got certification. I have eight of them now, I think.

• 9:41Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  And so I started to follow that and also like, you know, you start to look really good and you're like, maybe I could take some pictures or this stuff, so.

• 9:49Lewis Howes?

  Some modeling.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  Exactly. So I did a little bit of modeling and, you know, um, the modeling world's a lot of fun, but it's a lot of smoke and mirrors at the same time. I'm not going to tell stories that are gonna hurt anybody's feelings, but, you know, you can get used and abused in that industry and, um, it was a great time, you know, I had a lot of cocktails, met a lot of fun people and took some pretty pictures of my underwear, but, um, you know what? It just didn't last and it wasn't playing out to be what I wanted it to be.

• 10:15Lewis Howes?

  I've got two good buddies who after college, they were like Abercrombie models.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 10:20Lewis Howes?

  And after college, they went to New York.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:22Lewis Howes?

  And to pursue modeling full-time. And I read the article that you're about, your whole stories with the modeling stuff. And they pretty much got into very similar situations.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  I was not talking about that.

• 10:35Lewis Howes?

  Where you think you're gonna be modeling doing one thing, but then really,

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:40Lewis Howes?

  the photographer or someone has a different agenda and they want you to do things that you're not comfortable with.

• 10:44Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 10:45Lewis Howes?

  And just like.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  You know what? I met a lot of great people and I think the industry as a whole is a beautiful thing, you know? It really does like, you know, shine light on the beauty of people and like, you know, what's going on in all different kind of places of the world and clothes and blah, blah, blah. But, you know, it wasn't that for me.

• 11:01Lewis Howes?

  Very slimy people as well. That want to take advantage of young guys or girls.

• 11:06Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. You're good looking, you're excited and.

• 11:10Lewis Howes?

  You want to get photographed, you want to get the big placements and what are you willing to do to do that?

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Exactly. And it took, I'll admit, it took me a few years of just kind of chasing that dream to figure out, look, let's pull back.

• 11:21Lewis Howes?

  It's not for you.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 11:23Lewis Howes?

  And this was in New York?

• 11:24Speaker 01

  New York. I went to Barcelona, I went to Miami. It was a really cool experience.

• 11:29Lewis Howes?

  Are you living in a house with other moms as well?

• 11:31Speaker 01

  Oh my God. I'll tell you something right now. I hope this isn't appropriate, but um, so the, one of the first nights I was in Barcelona in this model apartment, I'm getting there and like these gorgeous girls and amazing looking guys. I'm like, I'm fricking so intimidated. There's, there's one girl is getting ready for a photo shoot and I just came home from doing work at a shoot or casting or something and the girl's on the ground convulsing and throwing up.

• 11:52Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 11:53Speaker 01

  And she's got stains all over her pants. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? And they're like, she took a bunch of laxatives because she wanted to get ready for a photo shoot tomorrow.

• 12:02Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  And I was like, are you guys kidding me? Call the ambulance. Like this is crazy. And I just realized how like, we're all so naive. Like these, these were 16 year old girls and they didn't understand what proper diet or what it was like to look in a bikini. So they ate laxatives.

• 12:18Lewis Howes?

  Jesus.

• 12:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. So it was, it was mind blowing.

• 12:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Yeah. How old were you at the time?

• 12:23Speaker 01

  Uh, I think I was 20.

• 12:25Lewis Howes?

  20, wow.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  20. So I mean.

• 12:27Lewis Howes?

  After college you left, you got to do this.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. I didn't have much of a head on my shoulders either, but I knew enough to call, call the ambulance.

• 12:32Lewis Howes?

  Now, these Americans, are they speaking English or?

• 12:35Speaker 01

  Um, a lot of them were Americans, but I mean, like, you know, everyone could speak English, but I think that that's just kind of like the Trump language in most businesses. But um, it, you know, girls from London, um, all over the place, Europe, like, you know, a lot of kids from the United States. Yeah.

• 12:50Lewis Howes?

  How long were you in Barcelona for doing that?

• 12:51Speaker 01

  Uh, two months, two months. Uh, I could have stayed, exactly. I could have stayed out there longer, but I just realized like, you know, I was getting the, I was getting screwed over.

• 13:00Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 13:02Speaker 01

  The the fees for my model apartment were like $2,000 a month or something. And I was like, I'm like, I live in a bunk bed like.

• 13:11Lewis Howes?

  With like six other people in the same room.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  In the nastiest part of Barcelona. Exactly. I had a great time. Like, you know, we'd play soccer with the locals. They hated us. You know, it was a cool experience. Like, that was my semester abroad because I didn't do the college thing.

• 13:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  So, um, it was a little bit different. I didn't have any books, just, uh, you know, some cervezas and, um, some dancing in my underwear.

• 13:32Lewis Howes?

  Amazing, dude. Okay, so after the modeling thing finished.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:36Lewis Howes?

  You got up to like 220, right? 227.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  I got huge.

• 13:40Lewis Howes?

  Before modeling?

• 13:41Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no. After modeling. I said to myself, because you you really do get infatuated with starving yourself, you know? So you could just like, you know, size 29 jeans, dumb, gonna fit in them. Yeah, like.

• 13:52Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my God.

• 13:53Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  I think I was 12 the last time I fit those.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. So, um, yeah, and then I just said, I'm gonna get as big as possible. And I did all the research. And, um, as most guys want to do, they want to get as strong as fast.

• 14:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  So I did that. And, um, that's when the, uh, Spartan Race came about. Um, you know, you start to go online. Maybe I should see what these six pack abs can do.

• 14:17Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  And, uh, yeah, so from there, I basically went on active.com and I was looking at things. Then all of a sudden, like one of my.

• 14:25Lewis Howes?

  See these events coming up, yeah, yeah.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  One of my buddies charges into my room, starts screaming about Spartan Race. And we lived in like a bro mansion in Malibu at this point. And like, we didn't have much going on in our lives.

• 14:34Lewis Howes?

  So tell me what, tell me before you get into Spartan Race, what's the bro mansion? And how'd you get into that?

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. So, um, this incredible experience, the one year that I did have in college, um, this kid named Mohammed was a very, you know, bizarre kid, a lot of fun, um, not, you know, girls weren't very interested in him, but like, we all had a blast with Mo. And we'd just keep him like around. And he was like, really smart, but like, you never really know what Mo was up to. Like, we'd go into another room and he'd be on his laptop and stuff. So like, Mo was.

• 15:04Lewis Howes?

  Built like a multimillion dollar business in the background.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  Exactly. I guess he was just like making money on the stock market like crazy. Like, he built like an algorithm when he was 10 years old that could predict certain kind of things in the stock market.

• 15:16Lewis Howes?

  Crazy.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, we didn't really know that, though. Mo just was Mo. So um I'm living and I just had finished my last semester at community college and I get a phone call and Mo says I want you to come out to California. I got a first class ticket for you and I've got a brilliant idea. I was like, whatever, Mo. And I checked my inbox and I have a first class ticket. My mom and my dad flip out. Don't, don't you go out to California. You are supposed to be in school.

• 15:39Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 15:40Speaker 01

  So I go out there and um.

• 15:42Lewis Howes?

  Sorry, mom and dad.

• 15:43Speaker 01

  Exactly. You had to try.

• 15:45Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 15:45Speaker 01

  So he pitches this idea to me about this social media company called Sling Jot and um it's still being developed. I'm, I mean, we got an opportunity to be part of it. I'm not going to say anything bad. But he flew me out there and then all of a sudden he flies out Andre, then he flies out Matt, then Andrew, then Mingo. Ends up becoming eight guys and then we start traveling all over Los Angeles and San Francisco and stuff.

• 16:08Lewis Howes?

  Like the Facebook, like where they lived in a house for the summer and built it or whatever.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  We were like an entourage type thing. Like we were trying to party really hard, but at the same time, like come up with a successful story and like we didn't know what the heck we were doing. He, he was the only one with this like brilliant idea. So he buys this house in Malibu out there and.

• 16:24Lewis Howes?

  How old is he?

• 16:25Speaker 01

  He's at the time like less than 25, I think. It was 25.

• 16:28Lewis Howes?

  And how old were you?

• 16:29Speaker 01

  Uh, 22, turning 23.

• 16:31Lewis Howes?

  Geez.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:32Lewis Howes?

  25 buys a huge house. That's got a lot of money already.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  Huge. I mean, he goes up for a year and I think he ended up somehow pulling out of it. I don't know what his financial situation was, but we had it for a year and it was like a five story.

• 16:42Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 16:43Speaker 01

  Multi-bedroom mansion with a trampoline in back and we were just going buck wild.

• 16:47Lewis Howes?

  On the beach?

• 16:48Speaker 01

  I mean, it was, it was like, you know, Malibu is like type of thing where you live on the.

• 16:51Lewis Howes?

  The hills.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, this side of PCH or on the ocean. And it was just overlooking the ocean, like 180 degree view of all the place. And you know, we were just living this rock star lifestyle and you know, I didn't do anything to deserve this. I had a bunk bed in this house.

• 17:05Lewis Howes?

  My gosh.

• 17:05Speaker 01

  We would rent hotel rooms for like weeks at a time at the Roosevelt Hotel.

• 17:10Lewis Howes?

  Shut up.

• 17:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, and just destroy it.

• 17:12Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  Amazing reputation there and um it just, nothing ended up getting done. So um I started focusing more on me. That's how this partner race came about.

• 17:20Lewis Howes?

  For a year.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 17:21Lewis Howes?

  Nothing, because you were just like playing, partying and that was it.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  Like we thought, we thought this was what it was like because you'd start to hear all these success stories about startups. We were like, all right, we're doing it. Like it's gonna happen. But let's drink a lot in the process.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  We were just getting buck wild and you know, I, I wasn't holding back by any means. You know, I partook in any kind of opportunity, whether it be drinking, drugs, driving really fast on the highway, renting a hotel room at the Roosevelt, partying our asses off. You know, I lost kind of the concept of what it was. Yeah, exactly. What it was to be like a kid. Like all my friends were still going through college and stuff, yet I was like telling these elaborate stories about being out there. Exactly. And my parents were freaking furious. They were going nuts. They couldn't, they couldn't stand what I was doing, you know, obviously I was having the time of my life and didn't, I, I'm happy that I pulled out. But um, then I found Spartan Race and.

• 18:17Lewis Howes?

  The guy comes in the room and he's like Spartan Race.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes, yes.

• 18:21Lewis Howes?

  At the Bro Mansion.

• 18:22Speaker 01

  At the Bro Mansion. At the Bro Mansion. Like, let me tell you a typical day at the Bro Mansion. We wake up. We would like, I would go lift some weights, then all of a sudden I'd find like a hummingbird jammed in the window. We'd all capture it and like celebrate capturing it.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  Start chugging a bunch of beer and um, then we get on our laptops for a bit and try to get some of the agenda done for the day. And then um, you know, that'd pretty much be it. Then we go to the bars.

• 18:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, so um.

• 18:48Lewis Howes?

  In LA or Malibu or?

• 18:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, anywhere we can get our, yeah, exactly. We pile on the cars and start driving.

• 18:53Lewis Howes?

  Jeez.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Exactly. So um, this was just another day, except for this day, we didn't find a hummingbird. My buddy had found something online. Yeah.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  We had BB guns and stuff. We were just kids, dude.

• 19:05Speaker 01

  So he runs in the room and he's like Spartan Race. And we're going buck wild, start dancing around.

• 19:09Lewis Howes?

  This is Sparta.

• 19:11Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. It was one of those scenes. Like it looked just like a frat movie and uh, we signed up and everyone kind of.

• 19:19Lewis Howes?

  Right there, you signed up.

• 19:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:21Lewis Howes?

  Everyone.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  And I was like, I'm gonna win this thing. We're like, yeah. Yeah, we didn't know what we were doing, man. And um, when it comes to race day though, no one ended up showing up except for my one buddy Andre, who ended up um, being like, you know, showing me off to this thing. So basically.

• 19:38Lewis Howes?

  He's the one that told you about it.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And.

• 19:40Lewis Howes?

  So he's like, I gotta see what he could do.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I show up and I'm in my underwear and I'm in tube socks and wearing a bandana and.

• 19:46Lewis Howes?

  Just underwear.

• 19:46Speaker 01

  Exactly. And I ran my heart out. And uh

• 19:50Lewis Howes?

  Hard.

• 19:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:51Lewis Howes?

  Training for it? You started running miles or distance or?

• 19:54Speaker 01

  No, it was more so just like kinda like still the bro fitness like you know bench squad deadlift. Yeah, but like exactly, but you know, I was in Malibu, so you know, I was doing hiking and stuff. Yeah, I was an active dude in good shape in general. I actually think I remember being on um while I was training for it, I got on the treadmill. I was like, I'm gonna try to run a six minute mile. And I pulled it off and I was like, wow.

• 20:14Lewis Howes?

  That's pretty good.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel good about myself, but um obviously I'm a totally different athlete now. You know, if I look back on those days, I was proud of what I accomplished, but uh now it's just full time. I'm in the thick of it.

• 20:25Lewis Howes?

  Right, so the first race, what happened?

• 20:27Speaker 01

  Um, I ended up going out, yeah, it didn't go out in like the elite wave that everyone talks about like that I I competing um now. But um I went into open heat and I just started tearing through these like mountains of just like mud.

• 20:39Lewis Howes?

  Throwing people behind you like getting their head, get out of my way.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  Exactly, people are like, oh my god, who's this big naked man? And I'm just running and I'm digging into the ground. I'm like, I'm alive.

• 20:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:51Speaker 01

  So yeah, it was really just like that moment. I was like, oh my gosh, what have I been doing?

• 20:57Lewis Howes?

  Missing out on?

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. And um it it all came down, I think I came like sixth or ninth overall. I can't, it's one of those two numbers.

• 21:04Lewis Howes?

  You know, the whole thing or that?

• 21:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then Malibu is one of the most popular ones, so like thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people.

• 21:10Lewis Howes?

  So top 10?

• 21:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:11Lewis Howes?

  How many, so five or 10,000 people?

• 21:13Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, I bet you it was more so above 10,000.

• 21:15Lewis Howes?

  Wow, you got top 10?

• 21:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:16Lewis Howes?

  Of everyone?

• 21:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I saw that and I was like, oh wow, but then I didn't really you know, put too much thought to it. I was like, maybe I could be a really good athlete, but then I just like, you know, I pulled back and um I didn't allow myself to get too excited about that fact, so yeah. And um just went back to like personal training and drinking beer and doing the bro stuff. And uh for some reason, like around March next year of my birthday, I just like had this like big calling, like you know, and something came up inside of me and saying like, you need to go back to it.

• 21:49Lewis Howes?

  So you spent a year off?

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:51Lewis Howes?

  You did one race and then took a year where you didn't go again?

• 21:53Speaker 01

  Um, it went from like November until March.

• 21:56Lewis Howes?

  So eight months or something.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:58Lewis Howes?

  So why did you wait? That long, why did

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Because

• 22:00Lewis Howes?

  Loved it, why didn't you go back and do another one a few months later?

• 22:03Speaker 01

  I think I was just, my brain was so saturated with like drugs and dumb ideas from us being in that bromance and thing.

• 22:09Lewis Howes?

  You weren't focused.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 22:10Lewis Howes?

  You didn't have a calling still.

• 22:11Speaker 01

  No, no, no. And I think, you know, that's the same thing that happened with me in high school. Like I could have had that, I had that raw talent. I could have done something great with it. You know, my coaches like, you know, would always give me that most potential award like, Hunter, you should really put some focus into this, but it just.

• 22:23Lewis Howes?

  You didn't care.

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Exactly. So, um, you know, around that time in March, it just came back to me. I said, I gotta go back out. Like I'd moved back to New York City because I had to pull out of this crazy madhouse and, um, and I was in, in New York City and I was like, I gotta go back to LA and I gotta start being the man.

• 22:40Lewis Howes?

  Being the man?

• 22:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:42Lewis Howes?

  So you're in New York. Where were you living?

• 22:44Speaker 01

  Um, I was living on my brother's couch in New York City.

• 22:46Lewis Howes?

  Nice.

• 22:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:47Lewis Howes?

  Manhattan?

• 22:48Speaker 01

  You gotta, you gotta love the couch.

• 22:50Lewis Howes?

  I lived in the couch for, in Ohio for a year.

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Isn't that great?

• 22:53Lewis Howes?

  A lot of good ideas coming in there.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  Right. Yeah. You always wake up so inspired. You're like, I need to get off this couch.

• 22:59Lewis Howes?

  Literally get off the couch. Yeah. Uh, were you working in New York or no?

• 23:04Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, I was doing the personal training thing, you know, it was, um, this is when I realized that I needed to become something.

• 23:10Lewis Howes?

  Something bigger.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, something bigger because not to put down personal training or anybody's job, but like, nobody needs necessarily another personal trainer to influence the world or change the world. And I was going around making crazy good money, walking around Central Park with these wealthier women and getting them in shape. And I'd be like,

• 23:29Lewis Howes?

  Hundred bucks an hour.

• 23:30Speaker 01

  Exactly. I was like, run for 60 seconds, walk for 60 seconds, run for 60 seconds. And I was like, what am I doing? You know, and look, I could have a great job right now. I could have a, you know, um, be all set up and save money for my family, put them through college, blah, blah, blah, you know, going that path. But, um, I had that calling, as I said, and, um, I'm sure a lot of people have that, you know, that, that's that moment in their life where they want to change things.

• 23:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 23:54Speaker 01

  And it happened to me, like, you know, it didn't happen during college and happened during high school. It just happened this random moment. I don't know why.

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  In New York?

• 24:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, my family's, I've got a lot of success stories in my family and you know, it sucked sitting at the table and not ever having money.

• 24:10Lewis Howes?

  And you're like, I'm just a bro.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:12Lewis Howes?

  Drinking and partying.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  The youngest of them all, like, you know, chugging beer on the subways and blah, blah, blah. Nothing was going for me.

• 24:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  So I came back here and decided I would establish myself, get a little bit of personal training out here and start to take like, you know, take the charge to orange, being the best.

• 24:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:30Lewis Howes?

  In personal training or back into the Spartan?

• 24:31Speaker 01

  Spartan race.

• 24:32Lewis Howes?

  So you're going to be working as a personal trainer and you started doing spin?

• 24:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, spin instructing in a place called Yaz in Venice Beach. And then I moved out to Malibu and taught at Malibu Fitness, sorry about that.

• 24:45Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  And, um, yeah, just I started like.

• 24:49Lewis Howes?

  So that's how you're making money, but then you're like.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Making a few bucks on the side.

• 24:51Lewis Howes?

  But then you were like, I'm really training for Spartan Race. Did you know you could make any money with Spartan Race at the time or you're kind of like, I just want to be the best at this?

• 24:59Speaker 01

  I just want to be the best, you know? Um, and the feeling was, is like, you know, I have, embarrassing enough, I have a tattoo of Macho Man Randy Savage on my ribs right now.

• 25:07Lewis Howes?

  Let me see.

• 25:08Speaker 01

  I'll show you. I don't want to knock up your microphone, but he's got this finger up in the air. You see him doing that?

• 25:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  So, you know, I just had that mentality, like, you know, it doesn't matter. Like, I'm walking in every time and I'm like, I'm throwing down. Yeah.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  So, exactly.

• 25:27Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  So I just like, you know what? It wasn't, it is, it was so back in the stone ages when I started getting into it and like, you know, nobody cared if you were the best mud runner type guy. And I didn't care, like, I was like, I'm gonna make it happen. I'm gonna make it happen.

• 25:45Lewis Howes?

  But it wasn't big then?

• 25:45Speaker 01

  No. So I just started getting out there and started running around all these venues and like, you know, calling out the big guys and like, you know, there was this one guy named Hobie Call and he and I would just duke it out. We duked it out for like a whole year until I beat him. Like, I'd be like a minute behind him.

• 26:01Lewis Howes?

  Shut up.

• 26:01Speaker 01

  Sixteen seconds behind him.

• 26:03Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 26:03Speaker 01

  It was just like, we.

• 26:04Lewis Howes?

  Was that so frustrating?

• 26:05Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 26:06Lewis Howes?

  Just like twenty yards ahead of you?

• 26:07Speaker 01

  I went nuts and I did everything I could and, you know, eventually I got him and, um.

• 26:13Lewis Howes?

  How'd that feel when you finally got him?

• 26:15Speaker 01

  It was incredible. It was incredible.

• 26:17Lewis Howes?

  Like, that's right, I'm the best there ever was.

• 26:20Speaker 01

  Exactly, but you know, you know, I also.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  I I wanted more and I dug deeper and more people came in and um

• 26:30Lewis Howes?

  Started to get bigger and bigger.

• 26:31Speaker 01

  It started to get bigger and bigger.

• 26:32Lewis Howes?

  More competition.

• 26:33Speaker 01

  Exactly, and I'm the type of person who cannot do anything just a little bit. It has to be like a billion, a billion percent.

• 26:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  Exactly, and like I won't eat, I won't sleep, I will just work.

• 26:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you and Greenfield are very similar.

• 26:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:46Lewis Howes?

  He's like all in to the hundredth degree.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:49Lewis Howes?

  Ridiculousness.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  Only with paleo though.

• 26:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  Raw, crazy foods. Oh, you got gross me out.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  So.

• 26:57Lewis Howes?

  So you beat your nemesis.

• 26:59Speaker 01

  I did, but now, um.

• 27:01Lewis Howes?

  And these were different, this wasn't Spartan Race, this was every obstacle course.

• 27:04Speaker 01

  Every obstacle course race, anything I could get my hands on.

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  Tough Mudder.

• 27:07Speaker 01

  Yes, I mean, I haven't done a Tough Mudder yet. I'm sorry, no, but I'm going to World's Toughest Mudder in November.

• 27:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  It's gonna be pretty, pretty awesome.

• 27:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow, okay.

• 27:15Speaker 01

  More on that later.

• 27:16Lewis Howes?

  So how many different races are out there that you've done or that, what are the main ones?

• 27:19Speaker 01

  There are five main ones, like, you know, Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, um Warrior Dash, you know, and Savage Race, uh, there used to be a one that was going really well called, um, Superhero Scramble, you know, all a bunch of goofy names, but they have cash on the line, so it draws in like, you know, D1 athletes who are just like, you know, didn't have anything going for them, so they just run for gold now. Exactly.

• 27:44Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's just, it's, it's this new world and then like, you know, this.

• 27:48Lewis Howes?

  How much cash can you win if you win a Spartan Race?

• 27:50Speaker 01

  Um, the biggest ones I think are like, you know, world championships, I think this year, sixty thousand dollars, um, average one's like, uh, five hundred, just because, you know, get some people out there, and then there's some like, you know, two thousand, five thousand dollars, so nothing incredibly major just yet, but, you know, that's the thing, it's this new sport and it just keeps on growing and sponsors keep on coming on and it's very exciting to be like, you know, riding that tidal wave, but um, you know, I, I don't know where I am at this point, you know, I'm about to be in world championships, I got four weeks coming out and um, you know, it's this pinnacle moment in my life, but like.

• 28:27Lewis Howes?

  How'd you do at the last world championships?

• 28:28Speaker 01

  I took third, and the same exact thing happened to me, which happened this last weekend, I rolled my ankle and it just like, you know, it's funny to like, call yourself the king of the mud, but like, you know, I just, I'm at that weird position in my life right now where I'm like. What am I doing? You know?

• 28:46Lewis Howes?

  Being back in New York again. What am I doing?

• 28:49Speaker 01

  Exactly. I'm sitting here in LA right now and like I'm sitting in front of you and it's so exciting to be part of this opportunity, but um, you know, I've been listening to all these incredible inspiring people on your podcast and it's just, you know, they, a lot of them come back to the same moment of like, you know, what is this moment of greatness and uh, am I there with this world championship event? You know, um, it took me a long time to get where I am right now and uh, now I'm kinda at that next point in my life where I'm kinda soul searching.

• 29:17Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 29:17Speaker 01

  Oh yeah.

• 29:18Lewis Howes?

  You might be done with the Spartan race.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  No, not necessarily, but I definitely wanna just expand upon what I'm doing. It's crazy because like, you know, you put so much time into something like, let's say if you go into the gym and you wanna bench 225 pounds and you work at it for months and you slave over the idea of it.

• 29:32Lewis Howes?

  Then you get it.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:34Lewis Howes?

  Then what?

• 29:34Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 29:35Lewis Howes?

  It's interesting. I don't know if you heard the episode with AJ Roberts, but uh, did you hear that one? It was the, he became, it took him 10 years to become the world's strongest man. He broke a world record for three combined lifts.

• 29:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:49Lewis Howes?

  Which is the bench press, the deadlifts and the squat. And I think he did like, something like 2,500 pounds or some, like with all three or 3,000 pounds combined or something like, it was an 850 pound bench press. It's like-

• 30:02Speaker 01

  Holy crap.

• 30:02Lewis Howes?

  It's ridiculous weight. Yeah. Like insane. And it took him 10 years to do this journey. He started as like a 150 pound dude when he started and then he finished at 320 or something.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  He weighed 320?

• 30:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, when he broke the record.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  No.

• 30:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. It might've been 330 or something. I mean, to push that much mass, you gotta have some mass. Um, and it took him 10 years of every day training at the world's greatest gym in Columbus, Ohio, actually, uh, with all the, the top bodybuilders train and um,

• 30:32Lewis Howes?

  he said like, he broke the record and then he realized it was time to retire. He was like, what's next? He's like, I'm at the peak. I could keep doing this for a while, but it's like, I've been doing it for 10 years and now what's next?

• 30:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:42Lewis Howes?

  Over the last two years, he's lost over a hundred pounds to try to become the fittest man in the world.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  CrossFit?

• 30:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:48Speaker 01

  Oh, God, is he that big blonde guy? I think I read about that a while ago. Yeah.

• 30:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 30:53Speaker 01

  That's awesome.

• 30:53Lewis Howes?

  So he's, he's, he's kind of like giving up that. He's more like teaching CrossFit is how to do powerlifting now. Like the right way. Um, but he's still like shredded and like 250 or 240 and just like a machine. So he's kind of transitioned as well.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:09Lewis Howes?

  But it sounds like, what's the, the soul searching for you?

• 31:13Speaker 01

  You know.

• 31:13Lewis Howes?

  Leading to? What do you think you want to do?

• 31:15Speaker 01

  I think, you know, I just, um, at a point in my life right now where like, this is very exciting. Like, you know, I didn't mean to throw a curve ball at you when I made that comment. Um, where I'm at, I'm so appreciative to be here. So the idea is, is how do I take, you know, the mentality of what I put in to get where I am right now and share it kind of just like the way you are on these podcasts? And, uh, yeah, I'm just kind of going to try to translate that to the people, you know, this macho man tattoo means much more than just an outline of a crazy wrestler. You know, it's, you know, being able to walk into almost any situation and understand that if you want to command it, you can. And a lot of people allow themselves to be crippled by the situation they're in, you know, like, you know, a woman says it's New Year's and she's like, I really need to lose 30 pounds. These jeans look horrible on me.

• 32:00Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  So like, you know, if you own your jeans and you tell your jeans, like, you know, I'm, I'm fitting in these things. I'm look fabulous in like 30 days. You can do it.

• 32:09Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 32:09Speaker 01

  So, um, I'm at that point right now where I kind of just had this little injury and like, you know, I have to recreate the moment that I'm living right now because I can't do it on the same path I just was on.

• 32:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 32:20Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  So, um.

• 32:22Lewis Howes?

  What do you think you want?

• 32:23Speaker 01

  I don't know. You know, it's, it's going to be pretty exciting. These days have completely, I just got flipped over on me. Like, and everything just kind of just like, it was the wave crashed over and now I'm in the whitewash. I gotta get my head up and do all of the thinking.

• 32:37Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. I mean, the waves are pretty big right now.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  Exactly, dude. That's what, that's what. Exactly. That's what made me think about that. But, um, you know, really, uh.

• 32:44Lewis Howes?

  I mean, what's the, what's the ultimate goal for you in the Spartan race world? Like is it to win the world championships? It's like, you have this goal, this vision to be the best for how many more years?

• 32:53Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 32:53Lewis Howes?

  Is it, will you not stop until you win a world championship? Until you get a certain amount of sponsorships? What's the goal for this at least?

• 32:59Speaker 01

  I will admit, I had that selfish feeling of I wanted to have all the sponsorships. I wanted to have all the money. And I think a lot of people walk in like, you know, with that kind of feeling and, um, that has faded.

• 33:09Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Why?

• 33:11Speaker 01

  Why? Well, you, you have to understand, um. Money can only do so much, you know, at the end of the day, you know, when, you know, I, I try to think as I was coming here, like, what is my definition of greatness? And I won't give it just yet, but um, you know, if you allow money to define you and the T-shirt you're wearing and the kind of company you're wearing to define you, I don't think that really makes you.

• 33:32Lewis Howes?

  Girlfriend you're with.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. And that, I think that is just like the, the momentary feeling of satisfaction. And I'm not there right now. So what, what I really, really liked to accomplish is being able to accomplish winning an event like that and being able to tell the story of what it took.

• 33:50Lewis Howes?

  To get there.

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Um, and not necessarily just for myself now. Like, I've been really thinking a lot in the past, uh, year or so about writing a book. You know, um, I'm gonna give away the title and don't steal it. Live hard, train hard, die happy. And, um, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think it would be a fun experience for people to understand, you know, that's applicable to anything.

• 34:12Lewis Howes?

  That's gonna be my next blog post.

• 34:15Speaker 01

  No, I gotta call the copyright man.

• 34:19Lewis Howes?

  That's really cool, man. Okay. Now let me ask you a question. What if you never win the world championship? Then what?

• 34:26Speaker 01

  I think it'd be even better book. You know, there's, um.

• 34:29Lewis Howes?

  How would you feel about it if you didn't win?

• 34:31Speaker 01

  Uh, you know, I think I would have, um, just think that I wasted some of my days, maybe not necessarily that I was doing the wrong thing, um, like doing the wrong sport or, you know, being in the wrong industry. Uh, it was more so like me, could I have like not done squats on Tuesday, but focused on running? Like, you know, that would probably be the thing that would hurt me the most. I would try to dissect my life.

• 34:55Lewis Howes?

  You think you're, you think you'd regret it if you don't win?

• 34:58Speaker 01

  No, no, I, I think, um, you know, I'm gonna give myself many years at this and, uh.

• 35:03Lewis Howes?

  So you're not done after the next couple of years?

• 35:05Speaker 01

  No, no, no, I'm gonna have a blast.

• 35:06Lewis Howes?

  How old are you right now?

• 35:07Speaker 01

  Twenty-five.

• 35:07Lewis Howes?

  So you got a lot of, you're not even hit your prime yet.

• 35:10Speaker 01

  I mean, I just got beat.

• 35:11Lewis Howes?

  Twenty-eight, twenty-nine.

• 35:11Speaker 01

  I just got beat by a guy who was forty this weekend.

• 35:13Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:15Lewis Howes?

  And how long was the race?

• 35:16Speaker 01

  Hour and forty-eight minutes and he finished an hour and forty-seven.

• 35:21Lewis Howes?

  How many miles is that?

• 35:22Speaker 01

  It was just, I think about eight.

• 35:24Lewis Howes?

  He's forty?

• 35:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, but like that's, you know, Meb who just won the Boston Marathon, these guys are like thirty eight years old.

• 35:30Lewis Howes?

  They've been putting in this, the years of training and the experience, they know exactly what to do, when to do it. They've got like.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  It's like playing chess.

• 35:38Lewis Howes?

  It is.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:40Lewis Howes?

  And your body is not even fully developed.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  No.

• 35:42Lewis Howes?

  Like when you're twenty nine, thirty, that's like really the peak, I think. Maybe for these obstacle races, maybe it's thirty five, forty, it sounds like, I don't know.

• 35:50Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, the guy I was just telling you I was chasing before, Hobie Call, um, you know, he's thirty six right now.

• 35:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 35:55Speaker 01

  And these guys are all just rock stars. I think they're, you know, their, their bodies just have just been, they're suffer soldiers. They've just experienced so much of just going, exactly. And they know it. They can read almost everything, like they can read me, they can read the course.

• 36:10Lewis Howes?

  And they know them.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  For themselves.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  And they know how to push through when their mind is telling them not to. They can be like, I'm gonna live.

• 36:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:17Lewis Howes?

  And it's just a matter of feeling the pain, just like.

• 36:19Speaker 01

  It's because they've been there so many times.

• 36:21Lewis Howes?

  They know how to do it.

• 36:21Speaker 01

  It's a, you know, last year of world championships, I had never done anything over, uh, two hours in my entire life.

• 36:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  And the race took me three hours and forty five minutes. I was.

• 36:30Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 36:31Speaker 01

  Blindsided by like that two oh one minute, like I just was like, oh my gosh, what have I done?

• 36:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:38Lewis Howes?

  So it's just the experience of doing ten of those where you're a three hour races and you get the experience.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's incredible.

• 36:44Lewis Howes?

  Geez, man.

• 36:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I'm looking forward to downtime. That's the main thing I'm really excited about. You said, you know, what's up next? Uh, November and December, steak and beer.

• 36:55Lewis Howes?

  Steak and beer.

• 36:56Speaker 01

  Steak and beer.

• 36:57Lewis Howes?

  Now, so what'd you get at last world championships, you said?

• 37:00Speaker 01

  Third.

• 37:01Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  Third.

• 37:01Lewis Howes?

  And do you win any money or?

• 37:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, you do win money. Um, I think it was.

• 37:04Lewis Howes?

  A thousand bucks.

• 37:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, five thousand dollars last year, but, uh, you know, that's, um, obviously turns over into sponsorship money and things like that. You know, I had a pretty cool, um. Fall like, you know, I was on three magazine covers. Everything kind of came so quickly.

• 37:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, after the world championship.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, everything kind of develops like, you know, months down the line, but like, you know, the fame from that and all that stuff just kind of pushed up and over.

• 37:28Lewis Howes?

  And the fame of Spartan Race blowing up, like who are the the main people in it and what are they doing?

• 37:33Speaker 01

  Exactly. And NBC is all over this thing right now. We have, uh, seven episodes and, you know, that.

• 37:39Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 37:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 37:40Lewis Howes?

  Doing what? Featuring individuals?

• 37:41Speaker 01

  Featuring individuals and, um, races, like the race that I was just at in Virginia was just featured, um.

• 37:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  New York, uh, a couple of months back, Virginia, like all these crazy places. Vermont's going to be featured and.

• 37:54Lewis Howes?

  Are you interviewing you a lot of them or?

• 37:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So they'll sit me down just like this and, uh, we'll talk about it. Like, what have you been doing out in Colorado, Hunter? We haven't seen you in two months. Like, tell me the nitty gritty. And, uh, yeah, so it's fun. Uh, you know, it's like, kind of like a docu drama.

• 38:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  They fill you in about the, the athletes, the lifestyle, you know, they kind of film like mom and pop gym.

• 38:16Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 38:16Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 38:17Lewis Howes?

  Interesting, man.

• 38:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:18Lewis Howes?

  Now, Reebok's your main sponsor, is that right?

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:21Lewis Howes?

  And they're the main sponsor for Spartan Race as well?

• 38:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm very spoiled to be working with them.

• 38:24Lewis Howes?

  Really? They treat you pretty well?

• 38:25Speaker 01

  They treat me really well. And I think the thing about, uh, Reebok is, is they don't want to go after, um, the Lance Armstrongs and the, you know, Peyton Mannings. They want to come back to the kind of homestyle fitness, you know, things that everyone can kind of get into. And they respect more so of an athlete like me and, um, they really will bring me around, they'll fly me out and have me look at gear and stuff. So, yeah.

• 38:51Lewis Howes?

  See what works.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  Exactly. We've been on the development stage and it's incredible. I mean, Reebok has really changed their brand.

• 38:58Lewis Howes?

  They have done a great job.

• 38:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:00Lewis Howes?

  Especially what started with CrossFit. I mean, they really capitalized on getting in on that early.

• 39:06Speaker 01

  But it's crazy. I mean, they've taken over an entire population.

• 39:09Lewis Howes?

  With like these extreme kind of like workout type athletes, right?

• 39:14Speaker 01

  But you gotta love it. I mean, it's also, you know, they look good.

• 39:17Lewis Howes?

  They look good.

• 39:18Speaker 01

  They look good. You know, Reebok, not to knock my sponsor by any means, but they, I feel like they just kinda got hit by a truck and fell apart for a couple of years.

• 39:26Lewis Howes?

  Oh, of course it did.

• 39:27Speaker 01

  That was, that truck being Nike.

• 39:29Lewis Howes?

  Like ten, twenty years.

• 39:30Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yeah. And these major brands came in and you know, you just never heard about them.

• 39:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 39:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. So.

• 39:35Lewis Howes?

  And now they're like back on the scene.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  And I'm pumped, you know, to be the face of something like that.

• 39:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's really cool.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:41Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 39:42Speaker 01

  And there's, you know, a couple of interesting sponsors that I work with. And, you know, that's also a very unique experience. Being able to market brands and kinda grow as like, you know, as you have your sponsors and things like that. They develop products around you and your sport. And because our sport is so new and unique, you know, I get to really have a lot of input on their products as well.

• 40:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, very cool.

• 40:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:05Lewis Howes?

  Now you can make full time, you have full time pay from these sponsors?

• 40:08Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 40:09Lewis Howes?

  You don't have to work, you can just train?

• 40:10Speaker 01

  Um, yeah. I mean, I do like, you know, I work with SoulCycle. I really do. I have a lot of passion for being on the bike. It's just an incredible experience. But yes, I have a full time job with this sport and a great sport. Yeah.

• 40:22Lewis Howes?

  It's got a, how many people can have a full time pay as a?

• 40:25Speaker 01

  I'd say there's probably like two or three at this point. You know, if people, it's growing enough that people, you know, you'll see a dozen by the next two years of just like rock stars.

• 40:35Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 40:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:36Lewis Howes?

  You're pretty close with all the other top athletes?

• 40:38Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. You know, that's, that's the cool thing about our sport as well. I call my enemies every day.

• 40:43Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 40:44Speaker 01

  They're not my enemies. Like, you know, the guy who just beat me, I talked to him. He's like, dude, you wanna come out and stay with me in Alaska for a couple of weeks?

• 40:49Lewis Howes?

  Cause he got to train and hang out, yeah.

• 40:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're just bros. And, you know, that's, that's the cool thing. And also the people of the sport, I get contacted by random people all the time.

• 40:58Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 40:59Speaker 01

  And I can talk to them about random part of the course, like, you know, they experienced, then I experienced.

• 41:03Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. Definitely like

• 41:05Lewis Howes?

  I'm gonna have to do this now, I'm gonna have to try one.

• 41:07Speaker 01

  You know

• 41:07Lewis Howes?

  A short one.

• 41:08Speaker 01

  Stadium race, stadium race. I tell everybody stadium race, you're not gonna get too dirty and uh you're gonna experience like you know all the crazy monkey bars, ropes, things like that and it's not too long. Yeah, and if, that's just a little taste.

• 41:20Lewis Howes?

  And then I can go do like the mountains or the woods or something.

• 41:23Speaker 01

  And then you gotta come to world championships and get really

• 41:26Lewis Howes?

  That's in Vermont, right? How long is that gonna take to finish?

• 41:28Speaker 01

  Um, we have this crazy race director named Norm Kosch and he is so dangerous. I mean, he will take anything and turn it into just like, you know, the pits of hell. And he'll take a mountain that is uh Mount Killington.

• 41:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:44Speaker 01

  And uh

• 41:45Lewis Howes?

  Which I snowboarded on.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, and yeah, beautiful place to snowboard, but not to go up and down with a sandbag on your back. And it'll probably be about almost five hours this time.

• 41:53Lewis Howes?

  Oh my god.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  Exactly. He wants to make it longer. He can't add more miles, but he can make it harder with the obstacles.

• 41:58Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  I know.

• 42:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'll stick to like a five miler.

• 42:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, you know, I'm just gonna bring like a bag of bacon with me. Last year, I think my biggest, my biggest problem was nutrition.

• 42:07Lewis Howes?

  Not enough food, you're exhausted.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  Exactly. I wanna have that kinda crunchy, nice feeling of bacon with me this time. Yeah.

• 42:13Lewis Howes?

  It'll be cold though, right?

• 42:16Speaker 01

  I'm gonna make it work.

• 42:17Lewis Howes?

  Okay, so you got the world championships coming up, that's in Vermont, right? It's September

• 42:22Speaker 01

  September 20th.

• 42:23Lewis Howes?

  September 20th.

• 42:24Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 42:25Lewis Howes?

  Uh, is it gonna be streamed live online? Is there a place we can watch it? Is it?

• 42:28Speaker 01

  You'll be able to see it uh delayed on NBC about two weeks afterwards and I think there will be some version of live streaming.

• 42:38Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  I don't know the media source though.

• 42:39Lewis Howes?

  Where should, are you gonna be posting your training and stuff on Instagram and Twitter and what's your main social media?

• 42:45Speaker 01

  Um, you can follow me, my athlete page is Hunter McIntyre, um

• 42:49Lewis Howes?

  On Facebook?

• 42:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, Facebook, um Hunt the Sheriff on Tw- uh what am I saying? Hunt the Sheriff on Instagram. And we have a really cool podcast uh called Obstacle Dominator and we have

• 42:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you and Ben, right?

• 43:00Speaker 01

  Feels macho.

• 43:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 43:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. So uh Ben's a great guy, really fun.

• 43:04Lewis Howes?

  Ben Greenfield, yeah, who's got uh another show, podcast that's part of the Integrity Network, that's the podcast network that I have. I think it's just called the Brent Greenfield Show.

• 43:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, the guy's brilliant.

• 43:15Lewis Howes?

  He's really good.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm lucky to have someone like that on my side.

• 43:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's nice. And he reach out to you about doing a show or?

• 43:21Speaker 01

  We ended up bumping into each other in Temecula.

• 43:23Lewis Howes?

  At a Spartan race?

• 43:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I was just like, dude, I, you know, I really respect what you do and I, um, I really wanna, you know, do a couple of projects coming up. And he's like, dude, funny thing is I wanna do some projects. And I was like, we kinda.

• 43:35Lewis Howes?

  Hi, bro.

• 43:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, let's do this. So, um, from there, we kinda just kicked it off and that was about six months ago. And we've got, it'll be a ninth episode on Sunday coming out.

• 43:47Lewis Howes?

  Nice, man.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, and, uh, it's getting a lot of traction. I think we got like, I don't know how many thousand subscribers, but it's like, it's just a stupid number, but it's, it's big.

• 43:55Lewis Howes?

  It's great.

• 43:55Speaker 01

  It's exciting for me. I like to think that all these people, I get hit up by random people like, you know, it's so funny to meet you in person. Like, I listen to you all the time.

• 44:02Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a really fun feeling. I mean, the same exact feeling I had when I met you. I was like, no way. This guy.

• 44:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, yeah, I think, um, that's something that has been really fun developing in the sport and having that, um, that opinion on the sport and being able to share with the people because otherwise it's just me in a garage gym, just pumping iron all day long. But now I get to talk about all the fun parts about it.

• 44:25Lewis Howes?

  Are there any other obstacle race show podcasts?

• 44:28Speaker 01

  Um, there's obstacle racing media, but it's like, eh, yeah, it doesn't have that much.

• 44:33Lewis Howes?

  Wah wah.

• 44:34Speaker 01

  It's not, not too exciting.

• 44:35Lewis Howes?

  It's not like the two guys who are doing it in the trenches.

• 44:38Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 44:39Lewis Howes?

  And has Ben any good at them? I know he's like a fitness freak, but.

• 44:42Speaker 01

  Ben fires down, you know, he's a tough dude. He'll get like a couple of top tens. Um, yeah.

• 44:47Lewis Howes?

  A Spartan race?

• 44:47Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yeah, he's a very fit person.

• 44:49Lewis Howes?

  He's a triathlete, like hardcore triathlete, right?

• 44:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's always doing crazy workouts. He was just down here in San Diego, um, at the Seal Fit Training Camp.

• 44:57Lewis Howes?

  I think I saw something like that.

• 44:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. He's just getting the crap beaten at him. I did it, uh, last March.

• 45:03Lewis Howes?

  You did?

• 45:03Speaker 01

  Too much ago.

• 45:04Lewis Howes?

  Crazy, huh?

• 45:05Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh.

• 45:05Lewis Howes?

  You actually went to the, you actually qualified for the Navy, Navy or something?

• 45:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I did. I mean, like, I was supposed to go into the Navy. You know, as I said, I had that really rough past. Um, I've been arrested a bunch of times and like my recruiter was like, just lie about everything.

• 45:20Lewis Howes?

  Shut up. We'll take you.

• 45:22Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 45:23Lewis Howes?

  So you got accepted and then what happened? You didn't get

• 45:25Speaker 01

  I sworn in for two days and then I got called and I got rolled out and I was on the way to be in a Navy SEAL. But um, you know, I had to obviously go through BUDs and all that stuff, but um, yeah, they just booted me out of the Navy. They didn't want, they didn't want me.

• 45:37Lewis Howes?

  Booted you out because they found out about your past?

• 45:39Speaker 01

  All my arrest records and things like that. So it was sad. It was a sad story.

• 45:43Lewis Howes?

  Were you bummed or were you kind of like relieved?

• 45:44Speaker 01

  I know I was incredibly bummed. Like I think, you know, honestly, to be part of such an elite tribe.

• 45:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 45:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, just it's a very awesome feeling.

• 45:52Lewis Howes?

  It's an honor, right?

• 45:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 45:54Lewis Howes?

  Well, it sounds like you're doing that in your own way.

• 45:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:57Lewis Howes?

  Without having to give up your life.

• 45:58Speaker 01

  Well, you know, I think um, something that I have really enjoyed the most is just like that kind of men, bro, life. And it's that kind of tribe life of just being with all your, your buddies and progressing as a pack.

• 46:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Doing crazy stuff, conquering the world.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, you know, that's, that's my little life in a nutshell.

• 46:22Lewis Howes?

  That's cool, man. Well, I want to have you come back on sometime, maybe after the world championships. Or maybe like mid next year when you're on the next adventure.

• 46:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:30Lewis Howes?

  Something like that.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  I'll fill you in.

• 46:31Lewis Howes?

  And um, where's the good website? Is there a website for you specifically? Hunter McIntyre?

• 46:37Speaker 01

  Um, my website's actually being developed right now, so I can't.

• 46:40Lewis Howes?

  Go to Facebook and Instagram and Twitter.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  Anywhere. If anybody wants to chat, dude, I'm a big Facebook guy. If you just want to hang out, have a good time. Yeah, exactly.

• 46:48Lewis Howes?

  Bro chat.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  Exactly. So just hit me up. I mean, this has been an incredible experience and I know we're both in LA, so.

• 46:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we'll hang.

• 46:55Speaker 01

  Best of friends.

• 46:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we'll hang, bro.

• 46:56Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 46:57Lewis Howes?

  Bro. Last two questions then. What are you most grateful for recently?

• 47:03Speaker 01

  What I'm most grateful for is um, an understanding of

• 47:10Speaker 01

  the people who surround me. Um, being an athlete, uh, you either have to be incredibly selfish or just incredibly dumb. Um, not, not to say like, you know, and dumb meaning that you can't, you can't even see people outside of yourself. The selfish side is meaning that people who want to be the best and most elite people in the world, really kind of just cast out everything else around them. And the dumb thing meaning is like, if you just can't even see those people, because I've had to step on a lot of toes and make a lot of people cry to get where I am right now. And I don't mean that in the wrong way, but like, you know, I, I don't get, I don't ever go home and see my family. You know what I mean?

• 47:52Speaker 01

  I, you know, I've had girlfriends that just are like, just curse me out. They're like, what is wrong with you?

• 47:56Lewis Howes?

  So focused.

• 47:57Speaker 01

  Exactly. So, you know, I've really started to soak up the, the, the phone calls with the family, spending time with my friends, things like that. And, um, you know, it's just, it's a great feeling to have those people at the end of the day.

• 48:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. Because at the end of the day, why are we doing everything?

• 48:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:13Lewis Howes?

  What are we so driven for?

• 48:15Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 48:15Lewis Howes?

  If we're not sharing it with people we care about.

• 48:17Speaker 01

  Exactly. 365 days, I mean, how many days in a year, like 364 days in a year, I am spending it with my friends, my family, everything like that. And then I put it all on one day, like for the Olympics or this race, things like that. It's silly.

• 48:30Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 48:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:31Lewis Howes?

  Right, yeah.

• 48:32Speaker 01

  You're wasting your time.

• 48:33Lewis Howes?

  Now, if you were, because Joe, I think, mentioned on the podcast that trying to make the Spartan race an Olympic sport, is that right?

• 48:39Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 48:41Lewis Howes?

  What would that be like? If it becomes an Olympic sport, would you?

• 48:46Speaker 01

  I think I would be want, be more on the more administrative side.

• 48:49Lewis Howes?

  You wouldn't want to be an athlete?

• 48:51Speaker 01

  I think it just could come like, I, I don't know.

• 48:53Lewis Howes?

  You wouldn't want to be on the American team and?

• 48:55Speaker 01

  I think I really want to, but that, that, that sounds pretty crazy. I think it just would be get, uh, just be so much pressure.

• 49:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, but to go to the Olympics, man.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  All right, fine, I'm going.

• 49:07Speaker 01

  I would definitely go, what am I saying?

• 49:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right.

• 49:09Speaker 01

  I definitely would like to help anyone. Exactly. Yeah, but I mean, that's probably decades away.

• 49:14Lewis Howes?

  You think so?

• 49:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:15Lewis Howes?

  10 years at least, yeah, so who knows?

• 49:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:16Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Okay, final question. Uh, what's your definition of greatness?

• 49:21Speaker 01

  Uh, definition of greatness would probably have to be just being, um, satisfied with silence and what you have at the end of the day. Because if I was like Napoleon and trying to conquer all the time for greatness, I think I would be swallowed up by it. And I've, I've been that person for a long time. And feeling great and about what you just have in the moment.

• 49:43Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 49:44Speaker 01

  That's a pretty satisfying feeling.

• 49:45Lewis Howes?

  It is.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  Right?

• 49:46Lewis Howes?

  It is, for sure.

• 49:47Speaker 01

  Exactly. Put away all the cell phones, everything like that, and just like, have what you have.

• 49:52Lewis Howes?

  I like it.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:54Lewis Howes?

  Hunter McIntyre, thanks, brother. Uh, check him out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I'll have all the links in the show notes, but I appreciate you for coming on there and being so real.

• 50:01Speaker 01

  I appreciate you, man. This is awesome.

• 50:03Lewis Howes?

  It's been a blast.

• 50:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course.

• 50:15Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please go ahead over to show notes at lewishouse.com/90 and share this with your friends over on Twitter and Facebook. And if you've got some other friends that you think would be up for the Spartan Race or the obstacle race challenges, then have them take a look at this episode and see what it's all about. I think they would enjoy it. Also, if you have not left a review yet over on iTunes, please go ahead and leave one of those right now. If you're on your phone, you can just click on the Podcast School of Greatness and then click on the reviews and let me know what you think. Leave some feedback, would love to hear your feedback on the show. And by reviewing, that's also going to help promote the show and support the rankings on iTunes.

• 50:59Lewis Howes?

  So that would be a big help if you do like the show. With that guys, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.