August 26, 2025 • 56 mins
What happens when you reclaim the identity you've been running from your entire life? Siegfried Jay Tiegs aka "Sig" takes us on a raw, unfiltered journey from childhood trauma to profound self-discovery in this deeply personal conversation.
Born to a German father carrying the weight of post-WWII trauma and a Dutch mother struggling with mental illness, Siegfried's early years were marked by abuse, poverty, and relentless bullying. Hating his unusual name and battling a severe stutter, he rejected "Siegfried" for "JJ" – a small act of self-preservation that would take decades to understand and ultimately reverse.
Through intensive personal development work and deep shadow exploration, Siegfried made a stunning discovery – his birth name, which he had rejected in shame, means "peaceful warrior" in German. The very identity he had been running from was precisely what he had been seeking to become. This epiphany led to a powerful ceremony at Machu Picchu where he reclaimed not just his name, but his authentic self.
Siegfried “Sig” Jay Tiegs, founder of Do Hard Things Nation, Army veteran, endurance athlete, and certified running coach.
A retired Major with 27 years of service in the U.S. Army, a certified trauma coach, high-performance life coach, breathwork facilitator, speaker, and co-author of Life on Offense: A Tactical Guide to Dominate Life and End Mediocrity. His story is one of resilience, from a difficult childhood to combat deployments, from military injuries to ultramarathons and adventure races.
Today, he combines his experience as a soldier, athlete, and trauma-informed healer to help people push past limitations and create lasting transformation. Inside Do Hard Things Wellness Academy, he leads dynamic coaching sessions that focus on:
Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us.
The Do Hard Things Wellness Academy officially kicks off September 2nd, 2025. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a founding member here:
👉 skool.com/dohardthings/about
Our book,
Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place. On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.
Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us.
Want more support? Join the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a member here:
👉 skool.com/dohardthings/about
Our book, Life on Offense, is now an Amazon Best Seller! Grab a copy and leave a review.
👉 Get the book on Amazon
Grab Your Do Hard Things Gear and Apparel. Show the world you Do Hard Things with high-quality apparel!
And don’t forget—the Do Hard Things 5K, 9.11 Mile Run, and 9.11 Mile Ruck is happening in September. There’s even a virtual option—so no excuses. Sign up here:
👉 dohardthingsnation.com/events
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
All right, welcome back everybody to another
episode of the do our thingspodcast.
I am Siegfried J Teagues and Ihave with me my brother from
another mother, brian Larson.
How you doing, brother?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good man, how are?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
you Doing great man.
It's Friday and life is good,can't complain.
Great All right.
What are we getting into today,man?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We're getting into an interview of you.
That's what we're getting into.
We're going to go deep, mandeep, All right.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, I don't have.
You sent me a copy of thequestions in a full transparency
.
I browsed through them like aweek or two ago and I completely
forgot what's on there.
So we're doing it live.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, if you can't answer them, we might have some
problems.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
We might have problems.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
All good man that problem.
So, yeah, yeah, all good man,all right, hey, before we get
started, though, I want to sharesome just awesome news, just
just a couple things.
First and foremost, the thelife on offense book is has been
released.
It is an amazon bestseller, sowe've got the cool.
When you order it now, there'sgonna be a cool little
bestseller sticker.
The uh, the hardback is out inthe, the audio version, which I
(01:44):
think is going to be even better.
And the the bar is.
Well, let's be frank, the baris pretty low on audio, in my
personal perspective.
I download an audio book andmost of them are so monotone.
I don't know how many times Ihave like almost fallen asleep
hitting a tree.
Myself and my partner James, weboth read it ourself.
Our publisher even advised usto go like hey, why don't you?
(02:06):
Everyone's doing AI.
Now They'll take a voice clipof your voice and it'll sound
just like you, and I'm like no,no man, this is like a.
This is like a work of art.
We put a lot of blood, sweatand tears into this.
We're going to read it, and soyou guys did and it sounds good.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You guys did a good job and the different sounds in
it it's, it's good I got, I gotthe audio and the hard copy
showed up yesterday yeah, coolthing is my buddy, james.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
He lives down in argentina and so when I went to
machu picchu after that trip,that trek, I went down there to
uh record.
We recorded it in a boat in theharbor in buenos aires, which
was super cool.
So we'll uh, just a little backstory about the audio book
that's coming out, but justtruly tremendously appreciative
of those that have purchased it,I mean, it means so much that
(02:54):
someone would take the time andit's very we think about this a
lot.
We were talking about fearrecently, right, the different
types of fear the fear ofrejection and the fear of
ridicule are really, reallypowerful for people, and I am
feeling that, as I'm waiting forthe reviews and ridicule are
really really powerful forpeople, and I am feeling that,
as I'm waiting for the reviewsand what people are thinking
about it.
So I hope you enjoy it andthat's all I can say about it.
(03:15):
I just appreciate the support.
If you want to, you want to gograb it.
It's life on offense.
The do hard things logo is onit, but there are already some
of the books called do hardthings, so if you search for it,
look up Life on Offense atactical guide to end mediocrity
.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
That's it.
That's all I got.
Is there another update youwant to give?
You said a couple.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh yeah, one more thing.
Yeah, we're launching the DoHard Things Wellness Academy and
at the time of this speaking,we're going to be kicking off.
We're going to do monthlychallenges.
So September 2nd, which is justafter Labor Day, we're going to
kick off the Fast and Focus72-hour fast with the 28-day Do
Hard Things Challenge fivescalable things that you can do
to boost your energy.
(03:54):
And that's how we're going tokick off the Wellness Academy.
The Wellness Academy itselfweekly coaching calls with
myself and you.
Mindset movement.
There's going to be breathworksessions, meditation sessions, q
a's experts I think we gotanother couple coaches, uh,
pending that might be lining upto join forces with that bring a
lot of expertise.
So I'm super excited about that.
(04:15):
And it's just going to be anonline platform to connect with
like-minded people.
So that's uh, that'sannouncement number two.
So go to do our things.
Nationcom if you want to learnmore about that, you can try it
free for seven days.
And, yeah, we're excited to seeyou on there.
Cool, that's it.
That's all I got.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
All right, we ready to go then.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Let's do this, man.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Okay, all right.
So on that last episode, youintroduced yourself as SIGFREED.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And you're like, oh, there's a whole story behind
that of the listeners.
Know you, as jay, talk to usabout sigfried?
Yeah, so I was born sigfriedteagues.
No, no, middle name.
I was born in southerncalifornia, orange county,
california, 1978, 1960.
You know that when you, whenyou sign up for things online
now, like apps and stuff likethat, you gotta put your date of
birth in there.
I feel like I gotta scroll notto get back to you.
It's like it's like it was bobbarker with the big wheels, yeah
(05:16):
, so anyway, 1978, april 6,sigfried teagues was born, and
immediately after my birth myparents moved back to Germany.
Now, so just a quick backstory.
My father's full-blooded German, my mother full-blood Dutch.
My father grew up during thereconstruction of Berlin, tail
(05:40):
end of World War II, and just togive some background on him, I
don't know a lot, but I do knowdude had a lot of trauma.
If you could just imagine allthe men in the family, uncles,
cousins.
There was one, well, there wasone that I the only one
surviving male I had met in newyork city.
(06:02):
The rest of them had hadperished in the war in some way,
shape or form.
They just never returned.
All the women had perished inthe war in some way, shape or
form.
They just never returned.
All the women were gathered inthe village.
It was his sisters.
I don't know how many sistersthere were, but there were quite
a few, and I don't think therewere any other brothers.
If there were, they were olderand went off.
I just don't know.
But it was basically him andthe women cousins, aunts,
(06:32):
grandmother.
And when the when, from myunderstanding, when the berlin
was liberated from the sovietarmy, they were all placed on a
truck to evacuate the city.
They were in and somethinghappened.
Either the truck hit a landmineor it came under attack.
My grandmother was at the veryend of the truck holding my
father and they fell out and therest of the family had perished
.
So I don't know if you canimagine as a young child all the
men, all the women, everyonethat you know just perish and
(06:56):
then you're surviving.
Your childhood is thereconstruction of berlin
post-world war ii.
Dude had some demons, had sometrauma.
He in when he turned 19,.
He came to the United States,joined the army.
This is a cool fact that therewas no connection.
I didn't know what he did inthe army until later he joined
(07:16):
as a combat engineer.
Well, I joined as a combatengineer and I didn't know that
was there.
I had no idea that was not inmy ear.
Yeah.
So anyway, he only served forthree years, did not in my yeah.
So anyway, he only served forthree years, did a lot of.
He was mainly he always said hewas a truck driver, so that's
probably what he did as a drivermost of that time found his
pathway to citizenship to becomea us citizen, but he had a lot
(07:38):
of, like I said, a lot of trauma, a lot of demons.
My mother was his fourthmarriage.
I have, from my understanding,nine siblings, all half.
I share one sibling with mymother.
The rest of them were from myfather.
I'm assuming there's more.
I need to do that, 23 and me.
But I'm almost scared to do itbecause who knows how many other
(07:59):
people.
And I've never.
I've only met three of the ninesiblings.
The other, the five boys, I'venever met.
The other the five boys I'venever met man.
Long story short, he had somedemons.
He met my mother.
My mother immigrated over herewith her family after World War
II.
My grandparents had survivedand then they came here to make
a better life.
They were entrepreneurs.
(08:20):
They came to, they moved toSouthern California.
My grandfather was a butcher,my grandmother was like a house
cleaner and that's just kind ofwhat they did.
They just did their best tomake a better life.
They had five children.
My mother was the oldest.
She was kind of responsible fortaking care of the others, from
my understanding, while theyworked.
But my mother had some mentalhealth issues herself.
(08:41):
She was diagnosed with bipolarand schizophrenia.
Beautiful young woman oh mygosh pictures of her like she
could have been a model.
I don't know I I didn't get anyof those looks but, but.
But it was exasperated by myfather's abuse physical and
(09:01):
emotional, and so my childhood.
I remember just a lot ofphysical, emotional abuse.
I was born in the us.
We immediately moved to Germanyand then when we they my father
was a mechanic they were tryingto make ends meet and they were
just struggling and so theymoved back.
When I was five Now I wasdealing with my father
(09:22):
physically and emotionallyabusing my mother and myself,
and I had a really bad stutter.
That could have been from whoknows what the trauma my father
was putting us through, I don'tknow Stuttered really bad.
My name was Siegfried reallyunusual name and my parents
dressed me in lederhosen andsent me off to elementary school
and so my home life was hell.
(09:44):
I would go to school and waslike teased relentlessly for my
name, stuttering all these sillynames that they had sigfried
and roy, or do you want acigarette?
Or ziggy zaggy, you know justall this silly shit.
And I just hated my name.
I hated my life like I was justI, just I.
I was just tormented as a kidlike I.
(10:05):
That was it so bottom line.
I was just tormented as a kidLike I.
That was it so bottom line.
After living in SouthernCalifornia, I think, until
second grade or so, patternrepeated itself.
My father finds another woman,runs off with her and my mother
wasn't able to care for me andhe took me with him to run off
(10:25):
with this woman.
We moved to South Dakota, ofall places.
I remember living in thislittle trailer at the end of
Rapid City I think it'sEllsworth Air Force Base, if I'm
not mistaken.
Being in this little trailer inthe first night.
I remember being in this thingsleeping on the couch in the
living room.
The trailer was just shakingfrom this loud noise of these
(10:50):
jets flying.
We're like at the end of therunway.
It's crazy.
And so I just remember.
And I would go to school.
It was like freezing cold.
I remember my, my, my fatherwas really into plants and he
had a big plant collection.
He had a room full of plants.
I slept on the couch in theliving room.
Come to find out later he, hesold marijuana.
So he, I didn't have a bedroombecause my father was selling
(11:13):
marijuana.
Long story short, he left that.
That like all his otherrelationships.
Guess what happened?
He, that one didn't work outeither.
He didn't have you have to go,is it me?
Is it me?
I'm the common denominator?
Everything's falling apart?
It's always me.
He did have two children withher and they were my younger
(11:35):
sister and my brotherhalf-brother.
But like all the otherrelationships, it didn't go well
and he left her.
She was originally from Missouri, so that's how I ultimately
ended up in Missouri.
I moved to Clarksville,missouri.
So that's how I ultimatelyended up in Missouri.
I moved back to.
I moved to Clarksville,missouri.
She remarried one of herprevious husbands who was in the
Navy, and so I had a tremendousinfluence of of the Navy, just
(11:58):
the military from him and thenjust fascination with, with my
family history, you know, beingWorld War II.
Long story short, I guess.
There I grew up in Missouri,bouncing around from town to
town.
If you're familiar withNorthern St Louis, there's a
bunch of little towns.
I graduated high school fromEllsbury.
It's one of those like onestoplight towns.
I lived in Clarksville, whichwas like the next town up above
(12:21):
it.
I lived in Silex, I lived inTroy, all those little towns,
and my upbringing was just wewere.
We were dirt poor, like justabsolutely poor, and I allude to
that in the book like how poorwe were, like literally living
in a single wide trailer.
We made it a double wide bygetting another single wide
trailer and cutting a hole inthe side of it and relying on,
(12:44):
like wood cut heat and it wasjust scarcity.
We're talking about scarcitylike we were impoverished, like
we didn't had nothing.
I remember like we would.
We would deer hunt and fishbecause we needed the food.
Not not it would offset the, soscarcity, just just rough
childhood.
I'm like I knew this wasn'tnormal.
(13:05):
I had to get out of here and Iyou asked me where sigfried came
from.
I'm giving you like the wholelight, like it's good man,
people will know you I, I hadrun a paper.
So clarksville.
Clarksville is the tallestpoint on the mississippi river.
It's a really cool town.
(13:26):
They used to have like a skylift there that you could like
tourists could go and take youall the way to the top.
There's a lock and dam there.
It's a cute little town and Iwas looking for a way to make
money.
It got me out of the house andI was able to buy Nintendo games
, bought some of my schoolclothes, so I'd mow yards, I'd
shovel snow, kids to actuallyrun a paper route before they
(13:51):
were taken taken over by by carsand however, they deliver
papers, the mail, but I wouldliterally ride my bicycle six
days a week, all year round.
You know Missouri, the uh, theweather can be pretty brutal in
the wintertime and thesummertime summer too.
I developed a really good workethic because I would do that
after school every day and thenSaturday mornings, and I also
(14:13):
developed a really good cardiobase, which is going to be
important here in a moment,cause I would ride my bike up
this big ass Hill in Clarksvillelike six days a week and the
paper route was like it justtook me over an hour.
So, and then when I wasn'tdoing the paper route, I was
riding my bike running around.
You know, we didn't.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Nintendo started to come around later, but it was
like before nintendo and westill went outside at our ages.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, we knew what outside was.
Yeah, we go outside and thenyou come home when the lights
came on, you know and come hometo eat.
Then we'll go back right backout again.
It was awesome.
I wish, I wish my kids couldexperience that.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But kids these days it's a joke of it's 1030 and the
news comes on it's 1030.
Do you know where your kids are?
That was a reminder to ourparents that they had kids.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, where are your kids at?
Oh my gosh.
Now it's like well, anyway,that's a whole other topic for
the day.
So, yeah, that was kind of likemy childhood.
Now I had a cross country coachhe was.
His name is Mr Danner.
I need to connect with thatdude.
I have so much appreciation forhim.
(15:19):
Stephen Danner was his name.
He was just graduated collegeto become a teacher, so this was
his first high school gig andhe was my social studies teacher
and history teacher and I wason his paper route and so I kind
of like developed a littlerelationship with him because I,
you know, I talked to him andhe invited me to run cross
country.
He was putting a cross countryteam together.
(15:40):
I'm like I don't, I don't evenknow what cross country is and
he said something to the effectof like, well, we run races out
in these fields.
I'm like it sounds crazy, butmy mom and dad, like our, the
way our school was set up islike we were in the middle of
these.
I was in a small town and therewas a collection of towns in
this area and the school was inthe middle of this cornfield, in
(16:00):
the middle of all these, solike a 20 minute drive to get to
school.
Like my parents aren't going tobring me to and from practice.
Like, if you can get me topractice I'll go.
He's like I got you covered soI went.
I tried out.
I I think my first couple ofruns I had my big Reebok pumps
that I worked so hard for.
I remember the pump it up bigheavy shoes, basketball shorts,
(16:21):
but I was a really good runner.
Because of that, the bike routeevery day, like riding my bike
every day.
For the first time in my life Ifelt a sense of someone cared
for me.
I was a part of a team andthere's some of the cooler kids
that I didn't.
I was a dork Like.
I was just just just not coolat all.
(16:41):
But some of the cooler kidswere on the team and I was like
for the first time in my life Ifeel like I'm part of something.
And this was hard, like runningwas hard.
We actually had a pretty goodteam and so I just got into
running cross country and it wasjust great and I loved it and
it was hard and it motivated meto keep my grades up and stay
(17:01):
out of trouble.
And so I ran for uh Clarksville, which was a Clopton school in
1993, we got flooded, losteverything and I moved back to
Ellsbury and I finished up my uh.
I joined the team there andthey actually had a good team
too.
So I ran track and crosscountry and that motivated me to
to keep my grades up.
And then I saw an opportunitywhen I turned 17 to join the
(17:23):
Missouri army national guard.
I needed, I need to join themilitary and so I joined the
military.
Back to my name, siegfried.
I need to back up just a littlebit.
I hated my name growing up somuch that I needed to change it,
but I didn't know how.
There on on my dutch side ofthe family almost all of the men
(17:44):
were named yawn, like j-o-n,but they still yawn.
And I'm like I don't want to beanother yawn, but I like jay.
And so I came up with a JJ.
So, just, just, I just toldpeople to start calling me JJ.
Just, I liked it.
I think I don't know where Iheard JJ from, but I just liked
that.
So people that know me from along time ago like they'll call
me JJ.
(18:04):
And it's man, it's so cool.
And then ultimately I wasadopted.
My last name changed because ofmy my I don't know my step
family had adopted me.
My mother couldn't take care ofme, so they decided to adopt me
and my stepfather's last namewas Emmert.
So I became I was SiegfriedTeagues at birth.
(18:25):
I became Siegfried J Emmert andI joined the military as Emmert
, which is interesting.
You see, like in my I've gotsome stuff here that says Emmert
from a long time ago.
Then the newer stuff saysTeagues, because I reclaimed my
name Teagues later in life.
I'm trying to think of how todescribe because there's so many
(18:46):
things that happened.
Bottom line is I joined themilitary, I started the National
Guard.
I was working in a factory,decided to go active duty and
then just kind of leave mychildhood behind, because even
the family that adopted me Ihave tremendous love for them.
They did what they could, butit just wasn't me and there were
some additional abuse andchallenges and things that I
(19:09):
just couldn't.
I just needed to wipe the slateclean and the military allowed
me to do that.
I ultimately wanted to become astate trooper, but I couldn't
go to the academy until I was 21.
So I just I joined the MissouriArmy National Guard.
I liked that.
I went on active duty and Ijust kind of never looked back.
I just I just stayed, juststayed on active duty, I just
(19:30):
stayed.
I just stayed on active duty.
I was a combat engineer andthen fast forward.
Well, I did 27,.
I guess we'll fast forward 27years active duty.
I retire a year and a half agoand I guess I'll share this part
of my story In 2015, havingrecently commissioned, I was a
(19:54):
young officer, but I'd been longin the tooth as an NCO.
At that time.
It was over like 22 years ofservice.
I was just burnt out.
I had a lot of tough jobs, butI just didn't deal with life
well.
I was a really good soldier,but I didn't deal with life well
.
It was childhood trauma,military-issued trauma, and I
(20:16):
just was not pinging on allcylinders.
It ultimately led to a divorceand it led to just some other
behaviors that just were notcongruent or healthy, behaviors
(20:37):
that just were not congruent orhealthy alcohol, video games,
just just a bunch of stuff thatjust were, you know, just just
not good.
And when you've been aroundsuicide like the, the, your,
your the propensity for you tocommit suicide is much greater.
And I've had a lot of fellowsoldiers take their life, and so
that thought was there, like Iwas just, I was in so much pain
(20:57):
and I, when my, I just didn'thandle it.
Well, I just I had that, thatpath, I was just the suicide
ideation was pretty powerful.
And I'm like I got to rewire mybrain because I got triplet
daughters.
I can't leave them without afather.
So I began this relentlesspursuit of just self mastery and
that led me to joining, youknow, mastermind groups.
(21:19):
I inventoried all the people inlife that were just crushing it
.
I felt crushing it in theirlife and and I started reading
books, I started changing someof those bad behaviors for pop
more positive behaviors.
And it was, it was messy, itwasn't, it wasn't like it wasn't
like an overnight thing.
It took years, but I juststarted to feel better.
I would escape, with, you know,these endurance events, which
(21:42):
was better than, you know,drinking and doing other poor
behavior and I don't know.
I just had a passion for, forpersonal growth and development.
My marriage ended and I I hadthis other like dark night of
the soul experience where, youknow, trying to find myself
(22:03):
after being divorced, and thenhad another dark period when I
left the military.
This is when I I learned a lotof tools but I lost my identity.
I I had escaped my darkchildhood to join the military
(22:23):
and overall I thrived careerwise, not so much my personal
life always, but my career waspretty good.
But then it was like I had somuch of my identity wrapped up
in my uniform and my name, likeyou know, retired as a major, as
major Teagues, and had all thisresponsibility, and at that
time I was already performancecoaching.
But I'm like I feel like acharlatan, like I'm preaching a
(22:46):
lot but I'm not doing everythingthat I teach and I'm like I
can't.
I teach and I'm like I can'tcontinue to do this.
Something doesn't feel right inmy values and so that's when I
paused the podcast, I kind of Ireally scaled back my coaching.
I had some clients but I waslike I gotta, I gotta do some
deep work on myself.
(23:06):
Like who, who am I at my core?
Like what, what, what am I hereto do in life beyond all of
this?
Because and I think this iswhere a lot, of, a lot of people
go, go sideways they have thesebig life transitions, right,
the divorce, relationship endsor career ends, and the military
(23:27):
was a much bigger part of myidentity than I realized, and so
I got involved in some othercoaching programs, start doing
some deep shadow work, likereally deep work, really digging
in to figure out you know what,what are my traumas, what are
my?
You know, the shadows are thethings like in your in, in, in
your background that you don'treally want other people to see
(23:49):
right and then guilt and shameand all these other things and
being able to like, be okay withthat and share that story.
And in my journey ofself-discovery, I discovered
that I am a peaceful warriorLike I want to be.
(24:10):
I want to live in peace.
I'm a warrior at heart.
I always will be, even thoughthat's I'm not in the U S army
anymore, I still consider myselflike a warrior Like I like that
disciplined mindset.
I want to be a protector ofother people, especially those I
can't stand up for themselves.
And when I look back at my name,my name was given to me, but my
(24:33):
parents it was a mixed.
They were deciding betweenSiegfried or Eric and they chose
Siegfried of all things.
I'm like why did you choosethat stupid name?
I hated that name.
Well, one of my coaches that Iwas on this coaching journey
with is German and this is partof that Machu Picchu trek.
She's like do you know theepidemiology of your name?
(24:55):
And I'm like I don't really.
And bottom line is it meansvictory and peace and it's
ultimately the peaceful warrior.
And if you look back at thestory of like in German lore
Siegfried, was this greatwarrior Like in our American
lore like Superman, right, he'slike the ultimate.
Well, in German lore, siegfriedthe Dragon Slayer, who saved
(25:17):
Brunhilde from the dragon that'sin old folklore.
He was like the Superman ofthat realm and that's what
Siegfried was.
So people that are German knowthe name Siegfried.
They respect it there.
It's an old name but it's stillrespected here.
It's just ridiculous, right,they respect it there.
So it's an old name, but it'sstill respected here.
It's just ridiculous.
It's Las Vegas.
(25:38):
You know tigers and magicians.
It's the only secret peopleknow.
But but I'm like, oh my gosh, Ilook back.
I'm like I've been striving allmy life to find peace.
I'm a warrior.
The name means peaceful warrior.
I had so much shame around it,so, doing that shadow work of
shame and guilt, I'm like I needto embrace that.
My, my parents named me thatand looking back, it was like
(25:59):
one of the.
I just reclaimed the name that Irejected for so long and it
just signified like this newchapter of my life, like who am
I?
Like I am not major Teagues, IJay and JJ was a broken little
kid that ran and hid and didn'thandle things Well, didn't live
(26:24):
up honors, word, hurt peoplebecause he didn't have the tools
or the knowledge or know how.
He did the best that he couldwith what he had.
But he was a scared little boy.
And reclaiming sigfried, oh,I'm gonna get emotional.
(26:45):
Reclaiming that name was thisvery powerful chapter of my life
because it's it's signified Ino longer want to be that person
Like I.
I I'm, I'm stepping into thenext chapter of of life.
I want to be I.
It's signified like gettingreconnected with God,
(27:06):
reconnecting with my purpose andmy mission, which is to help
and serve people and and helpthem get out of their pain,
frequency and help them findclarity.
And embracing this, this notionof being a peaceful warrior and
part of my coaching journey.
I got to give it.
I went to this program calledmountains and marathons and my
(27:26):
coaches, jamin and Jen andJordan.
They helped me navigatereclaiming the name and when we
started the trek, I claimed itto my there's a team of us that
that climbed Machu Picchu forsix days together.
I claimed that I was going toreclaim the name Siegfried and
then we had to create, create,write this powerful like
(27:48):
manifesto of like who I am, like.
I did a lot of deep work on andwhen I got to Machu Picchu,
like I found a sacred place,deep work on, and when I got to
machu picchu, like I found asacred place, and I and I read
it to god and I like justembraced, I fully embraced the
name.
It was like it was a ritualceremony I find it so
interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
You were on this journey to find yourself and you
define yourself as peacefulwarrior, and it turns out that's
who you were all along by namewarrior, and it turns out that's
who you were all along by name,so I was all along by name.
I was searching.
I was searching.
Okay, there's several thingswe'll come back to at some point
but it made me think, like, asyou're telling your story, like
that family trauma, the conceptof like collective conscious and
(28:29):
trauma and you feeling the painof the entire world, and then
family morphic fields, likethese morphic fields of belief.
I know we'll cover that at somepoint, but I just find it
interesting.
It's a topic we'll cover atsome point.
And then I want to make thisstatement, because you said you
know that personal developmentjourney and it took years and it
(28:52):
does take years, but I feellike part of our mission is to
take what took us years and helppeople not take so long to do
it, put 100%, to take thoselearnings that we've had from
our difficulty and all of theknowledge we've accumulated
through.
I mean, I was like you I readand read, and read and read, and
just so much stuff that I cangive back to people, that you I
(29:13):
read and read and read and read,and just so much stuff that I
can give back to people, thatyou can give back to people and
we can condense that time.
And so I love that.
That the journey will help ushelp other people do it faster.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yes, In this journey and finding my purpose and my
reconnection spiritually likethat was one of my major
downloads is like I need.
This is the necessary path Ineeded to walk so I can help
other people and what I'velearned is you can read, you can
listen to podcasts.
That is good, but if you wantto accelerate the process, you
(29:52):
need to be in containers withother coaches that we have blind
spots we can't see, and justlike that coach that invited me
to cross country.
Why does the team have a coach?
Because the coach can see thestrengths and weaknesses of all
the runners and he orchestratesand gives guidance and puts
people in the right position.
(30:12):
Why do major league baseballteams have a coach?
These are the best players inthe world.
Why do they need a coach?
Cause we all have blind spotsand when you, someone knows the
way and they can put you.
They know your strengths andweaknesses and they call you out
when you're not performing welland and and help elevate you
and they they, when you're noton your a game.
They kind of you that willaccelerate your learning and
(30:36):
your healing and your claritywork and that's why I'm so
passionate about it, becauseit's just not common knowledge,
the things that we have learned,that that should be common
knowledge, aren't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, agreed.
And this goes back to my theoryof the matrix being a
documentary Like why isn't it?
Well, cause you can't becontrolled, right, right.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, okay, let's get back to some questions.
So Sure, take us back to thebeginning.
So Do Hard Things has been abrand that you've had active for
I don't know five years.
Oh, and I remember how we met.
Did we meet on the float tripwhen I tore my meniscus?
(31:20):
Was that the first time we?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
met.
That was one of the very firstmeetings I think we met.
But yeah, I was like man, who'sthis guy?
Brian's like ripped.
He looks like a Spartan Dude'sripped but he injures himself
getting in and out of a canoe.
I'm like I was like telling mywife like who, what?
Who is this guy like?
What is he?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
well, I injured myself, I finished it off and I
pulled the cooler out of thecanoe, but anyway, okay you need
a much better story for that.
I know, you know, I was chasingsomebody who stole I was in the
oarks I heard banjos tonight.
So, okay, back to back to thebrand.
So you've been working on thisfor a while.
What?
(31:57):
What inspired you to start it?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, so the mantra has been there for a long time.
I got into performance coaching.
I just had this.
I mean, I look back at mysocial media, I would just post,
hashtag, do hard things andjust kind of share my story.
I, back in 2015, when I hitrock bottom, one of my mentors
had had invited us to share ourstory online like do, like a
(32:25):
daily post, and I would start todo that and it was very
cathartic for me to just share anugget, share wisdom.
It wasn't to be pretentious, itwas basically like a note to
self, like I would write theseposts that were inspirational.
But it was like it was likeusing my.
I didn't like to journal andwrite, so I would just use my
(32:47):
Facebook page.
If I look back at my Facebook,like 15 years ago, I'm
embarrassed.
What I used to post?
Very political stuff, you know,dick and fart jokes, like just
well, I still share memes, Ilove that, but it was
predominantly like garbage.
But then I would start like Iwant to make, I want to use this
to be more useful, and it wasjust a way for me to journal and
I would just use the thehashtag do hard things.
(33:09):
And so years and years went byof doing that and then, as I
became a coach and I started tolike, you know what I can?
I can help others.
I you know, let's create a brandaround this.
Then my you know Lacey being agraphic designer, you know she
created this really cool logothat we trademarked.
I'm like man, this is reallypowerful.
I'm like man, this is reallypowerful.
And so we created some merch.
(33:29):
We've got the event.
You know, I started hostingsome online stuff, but it was
just always it was always like alike a hobby basement thing.
It wasn't like, it was justmore like a just a small
movement.
We never we never reallyexpanded or put a lot of energy
into it, but it was always abrand Like we've been able to
help some people, peoplegravitate toward it.
(33:51):
We ultimately trademarked thebranding.
I had the idea for a book but Ihad to go through.
It's taken a while to kind ofcome together.
And the hard framework, theH-A-R-D.
It stands for something I tryto make meaning from it, like
it's your, it's the four wallsof your life, it's your health,
(34:13):
it's your affluence, it's yourrelationships, your development,
and there there's a variety ofthat and other.
You know coaching groups andthings like that.
You know they have theirdifferent acronyms, but that's.
We developed the hard frameworkbased off learnings and trial
and error, and and my life hasimproved from focusing on those
(34:34):
four walls every day, like doingsomething to invest time or
energy in that, and so I thinkwe're at a point now where we've
talked about this like I, we'regoing to, I want to, I want,
want to make a community, agrander community, around this
(34:54):
and help other people live theirbest life, to find clarity, to
heal, to have a space forpersonal growth and development,
a space where you can focus onmindset and moving the body,
activating the nervous system,deactivating the nervous system.
So does that answer yourquestion?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
yeah, yeah, yeah but it leads to another one.
So that concept of hard thingsright, it has a, it has a
meaning, but it's also doinglegit hard things.
But people avoid discomfort.
Why is that so?
Why is that dangerous to avoiddiscomfort?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
well, there's a great , there's a great book called
the comfort crisis and I thinkthat our natural, our brains are
wired.
You know we, we're.
We have this hard wiring fromour caveman days.
We and we still.
That's probably our big one ofour biggest blessings and
challenges that we face thewe're designed to do hard things
(35:52):
, like we're the ultimateendurance animal, like we are
capable of so much hunting andgathering and building, and you
know we're warriors.
We just have such greatcapacity.
But then we also have this modein our brain that is wiring us
to make best use of thoseresources.
(36:13):
So we battle comfort becausethat's the part of your brain
that's saying okay, now thatyou've gathered all this food,
now it's time to just preserveyour energy and not doing hard
things.
In our society in this day andage, we have become so
incredibly comfortable with airconditioning, opulence.
(36:38):
You can use your cell phoneright now, before we're into
this podcast, you can have ameal delivered to you at your
door, whatever you wanted to.
We have Amazon that delivers toyou.
We've just really embraced thatpart of our brain that
naturally gravitates towardcomfort and we're missing out on
(36:59):
the opportunity.
I think when you grow, you gotto be challenged and there's a
variety of ways in which tochallenge the body and the mind.
And we are.
What's that movie?
Idiocracy?
Maybe that's anotherdocumentary.
It's where everyone's socomfortable like that no one
does anything.
I, I just think that we weredesigned to be challenged.
(37:19):
Yeah, and yeah, I I just thinkthat there's a.
The comfort crisis is real, andI'm not saying that we should
just live in pain all the time,like I'm not.
I'm not.
I love David Goggins verymotivational dude but I don't
think that we need to live likethat all the time.
But we do need to challengeourself and it's not just going
(37:42):
out and doing physical things,it's having tough conversations
with people.
Cause, I will tell you, I I'velearned things in my life
because of my inability to havethe tough conversation, to avoid
the pain of that.
That led to me hurting peopleand relationships, ending
friendships, intimaterelationships, avoiding
(38:04):
discomfort, you know, hurt me inmy career because I didn't
pursue college sooner, because Ididn't think I could do it
right.
I just it's just too hard to goto school and learn that thing.
It just yeah.
Just avoiding, avoiding thepain of things has not served me
well.
So by being comfortable withthe uncomfortable in my new
(38:26):
chapter of life.
It's like sitting in silence.
That is an uncomfortable thingfor me there's so many great
benefits Like doing nothing.
You don't even have to doanything physical.
You get great benefits yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Well, okay.
So then, if it's about doingthe balance of hard things and
resting and recovering, how doyou recommend people start
building resilience if they'velived in comfort too long?
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I think that the gym is a great training ground.
What did you say?
You said something recentlythat I really appreciated.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
I believe the gym is a training ground where it
teaches you how to do hardthings physically within those
walls so that you can do themoutside of those walls.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yes, yes, having a training ground in a controlled
environment.
That's why I like races and andand, just you know, getting
together with the run group orbeing in a gym.
It's a training ground to dosomething uncomfortable, because
that that carries over in everyother aspect of of your life
and I just recommend, first andforemost, moving the body, like
(39:33):
like dominating, dominating thebasics.
I had a commander that wouldsay dominate the basics, and one
of the basics is just basicmovement, like you don't have to
be a crossfitter, but but dosomething that moves the body
and eat something nutritious,nutritious every day, and I,
(39:53):
you're just gonna live a betterlife, you're going to have more
energy to and you're going to beless stressed, and you know you
can.
What is that that quote?
They say you can make make hardchoices now, or I'm going to it
was.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
It's the.
It's the pain, the pain ofsomething today or the pain of
regret later.
I mean it's the pain ofsomething today or the pain of
regret later.
I mean it's kind of thatconcept Hard life now or hard
life later.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Right, so hard life now, but you getting to choose
your own adventure.
Or you can live with diseaseand you can live in financial
ruin.
You can live with divorce andbroken relationships later
because you didn't do the basicsnow.
That's the crux of it, right?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
It's like being overweight is hard, being lean
and muscular is hard.
Yeah, pick one.
You're gonna have one or theother okay, so that the what for
you on a daily basis.
So okay, the hard things.
Do you have a daily practicethat you personally use to keep
(40:49):
your edge?
Like, are there a group ofthings I know I have and
everybody has theirs, and I tryto stick to mine as closely as I
can, but not so rigid that if Ican't do it it's not the end of
the world.
But what are your dailypractices for doing hard things?
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, I think, first and foremost, the morning
routine like having a solidfoundation to step off from like
fighter stance, you know, likehaving a morning routine is the
most powerful thing that you cando to really set the day off
Right.
And for me personally, whatit's been as of late has been
movement of some form.
So I'll go run rock, I'll liftweights, maybe some yoga, but
(41:29):
some type of like physicalmovements.
I've been doing breath work,which has been fascinating.
That's a very recent thing butthere's so many great benefits
to breath work.
I've been doing a daily coldplunge and then gratitude
journal and prayer, and that'sbeen pretty much my morning
routine.
I'll drink some water.
(41:50):
I'll get up and drink 32 ouncesof water, I'll put some salt in
a little bit of lemon, just tokind of you know, because you've
been dehydrated from sleepingall night and then bulletproof
coffee and that's, and then I in.
I don't do that, I don't dothat.
It's kind of whatever orderthat I would like to do them in.
So there's no regimen, but Ijust wake up and I'll kind of
cycle through those tasks andthat's my morning routine cold
(42:13):
plunge, breath movement,gratitude.
That's been recently.
It's been working really,really well.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
I've incorporated a similar one really the same for
my movement tends to be in thegym doing something, but one
that again and we've talkedabout earlier how, how
breathwork was not on the bingocard but it is and I had a
couple of days this week where Iwas just I've slept really
horrible and I was so likemoving slow in the morning and I
(42:41):
just didn't even feel like Ihad the lungs for breathwork and
I didn't do it.
And then I picked it back upand I was like, oh, I didn't do
it.
And then I picked it back upand I was like, oh, that's why I
do it.
I mean, I noticed a significantdifference with the breath work
in my routine.
I told you earlier today, man,my, my nervous system was
(43:01):
dysregulated.
I sat down, did 15 minutes ofbreath work.
I'm like, oh, there it is, Ifound ground again.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I used to think it was like some hippie dippy shit
and I still do, but I love it.
Yeah, I mean, but it's been solike doing it repetitively for
activation, deactivation and thesonic neural, like it's been an
absolute game changer and it'sjust amazing that you can do
that.
You can get high off your ownsupply.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I love like the, our coach, our breathwork coach,
that's teaching us some of this.
Ben ben says at some point youfind out the woo-woo, is true,
true I hadn't heard that one,but I like that.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It's absolutely.
It's absolutely true, and whatI've been telling people is like
, especially my military service, like the movie oh avatar, like
I'm becoming one of the bluepeople, yeah and they're like
peaceful warriors, right, theywere like incredible warriors,
people, yeah, that's funny manso powerful, yeah that so the
topic of like morning routines Iknow some people swear by them.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
I know there's other people who they will tell you,
oh, don't like, you can do it,but don't get too regimented.
I would agree with that.
I think it's good to have theintention of doing those things
but, like I said a couple ofdays this week, I just didn't
have it within me.
It didn't, it didn't, I didn'thave any.
I think it's important not tohold to it so tightly that you
(44:28):
can't shift it and change it andstill be okay.
There's those people they workout.
If they miss a workout man,they can't think about anything
else that day until they at somepoint come back around to
getting their workout in.
They hold it so tightly.
I think it's just important togo.
It's really a great thing, butanything in excess can become
too much if you hold to itrigidly.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, you need to have some level of flexibility
and adaptability, some margin.
You know, like I had a morningI have an insomnia night every
now and then and it was likeThursday morning like it was our
track workout morning.
So we get up at 445 and Ididn't go to bed till like one
o'clock.
I was just I just laid there.
I just couldn't go to sleep butI made like it was very
(45:11):
difficult.
But Lacey got up and she's likewe're going.
I'm like, okay, I'm going toroll over and put my shoes on.
I was the last one.
I walked a little bit, but I'mlike you know what, even though
I wasn't on my a game and I wasso exhausted, I kept the habit
by showing up.
I went through the rest of my.
No, actually, I came back.
I actually had to do a littlebit of work.
I went to sleep and took a napbecause I had a block of time.
(45:34):
I got up around 11.
I finished my morning routine,so I went through everything
else and then I finished out therest of the day and had work up
until the evening.
So it was kind of messy, but itwas really important to stick
to the routine and I thinkthat's.
I love the book atomic habitsbecause it talks about that.
Even I mean, even like on mybusiest days, what I've learned
(45:56):
is like so I can do like a fiveminute breath work, like breath
of fire, you know, with someinhale, exhale holds, and that's
good enough.
The movement might be just, youknow, 15 minutes around the
block, you know, but justkeeping the foundation of that
routine.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yes, it's the discipline.
I call a day, like you had, adiscipline day.
There are days I actually hadone this morning.
It's been two nights in a rowof not great sleep, but I it's
very important for me to movealmost every day, and so I knew
I would not be at my best at thegym, but I also knew I needed
to be there for and I call themdiscipline days I just show up
(46:31):
and do the best I can do thatday and that's good enough for
today, and once I get rested andrecovered, better it'll be
better.
It's not about performing at myabsolute best every day, it's
performing at the best I canthat day.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, and that's I think you bring a great point
and that's been the evolution ofmy own like training and is
that rest and recovery is justas important as the training
itself.
But people feel guilty abouttaking the rest day.
But that is where you rebuild.
Your body rebuilds itselfstronger in the rest days.
(47:05):
So if you're always breakingyourself down, always pushing
the limits, one, you're burningyourself out, you can't sustain
it.
And two, you're, you're, you'renot, you're not, you're, you're
not building your body, butyou're constantly breaking it
down, so you're not allowing,you're not getting the max
benefit.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
And you're activating more cortisol and stressing
your act that that nervoussystem.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Now you get into neurologic load because you
stress your body and now yourmind, and it perceives it all as
neurologic signals, and nowyou're way over-trained and it
brings your emotions down.
It's all kinds of things thatgo on in there.
Yeah, Okay.
So what role then?
(47:47):
So you know we're talking aboutbuilding community.
You mentioned it earlier.
What role does community playin helping people succeed in
their hard things?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Well, humans are tribal and we need to be
connected with like-mindedpeople.
And you're the average of thepeople you spend the most time
with, and I know this personalgrowth and development can feel
very, very lonely.
And having a community oflike-minded people that you can
do life with, that you can talkabout books, you can talk about
these hard topics I got friendsI can go drink with.
(48:20):
We have great time, you know,sharing memes and telling fart
jokes and talking about sportsor whatever.
But I can't, I can't ask themfor advice on on challenging
topics Like how do I, you know,how do I communicate with my
teenage daughter and some of thenuances of life?
You know, but I love them todeath, right, yeah.
And so you need a space whereyou can like if that, if that's
(48:43):
part of your wiring, which only,like I think, only one in 10
people do personal growth anddevelopment we're kind of few
and far between.
You just need that community oflike-minded people that you can
lean in on that.
I mean, I, you know where mycycling stuff and people like
laugh because I, you know youlook like Lance.
Aren't we trying to be Lance?
Like they just make theirstupid jokes, you know.
So you just need, you need tobe around like-minded people so
(49:04):
you realize you're not crazy.
Yeah, go ahead and to yourpoint, like we mentioned earlier
, like you can read and listento podcasts on your own, but
there's accelerated learningwhen you can have a conversation
with other like-minded people.
And I think in this day and age, especially with AI and just
all of the negative drumbeat ofthe world, like being around
(49:28):
other positive, like-mindedpeople is necessary for your own
sanity.
It is for me.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I agree.
Okay, what's what's one hardthing anyone listening could
commit to that could make a realdifference in their life.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Well, I think you mentioned this earlier.
I think you know moving thebody.
Number one, I think learningsomething like like reading and
applying things.
That may not be like atremendously difficult, but I
looked at reading for thelongest time Like I just just
(50:09):
bored with it.
I don't like doing it, but whenI started to do that
consistently it really startedto open up my mind.
So moving the mind, moving,moving the body and then doing
something where you'redownloading something positive
into your mind would be the twovery basic things, and doing
that consistently.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, okay, I got one final question.
Yeah, so you and I have talkedabout this, but I'd like the
audience to hear what's thelong-term vision for Do Hard
Things.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Oh yeah, this is so good, man.
The long-term vision is whatwe're building, first and
foremost, is an online community.
So we're starting that with theDo Hard Things Wellness.
Do hard things wellness Academy.
The wellness Academy is goingto include something like an
online dojo breath work, my highperformance mindset training.
You're going to be doingmovement training and a variety
(51:03):
of different like Q and A's.
We've got a couple of othercoaches that are that are going
to be coming on, so I'm thinkinglike a bench of coaches with,
like a schedule of events.
You pay a subscription andyou're a part of this community.
There'll be, like you know,monthly challenges.
So I want to scale this onlinecommunity and then, once we get
to a certain point and we getthat up and going, then I
(51:25):
envision a facility I want aworld-class facility where we
can incorporate these events andtrainings live, maybe like a
gym, you know, activate thenervous system with a gym and
training and events, you know,rucking and running from this
like location, and then, part ofthis facility, you know,
(51:45):
deregulating the nervous systemwith hot, cold, plunge,
performance coaching, breathwork.
The nervous system with hot,cold, plunge, performance
coaching, breath work.
And then, once we get that upand going.
Then these facilities pop uparound the country in different
locations.
There'll be an apparel brandbecause we want to spread the
word of what we're doing, aboutdoing hard things.
Probably some more books.
There's going to be retreats.
(52:06):
We're planning one for novemberand february already and then
bringing in other facilitatorsthat want to do the mission and
and just kind of it's not, it'snot.
You know, it's not my show,it's not.
It's, it's just its own entitywhere we're just helping people
live a better life.
That's that's it.
That's, that's the.
Uh, yeah, it's good, okay.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Well, yeah, it's good , okay.
Well, what's one final thoughtthat you can leave people with
as we close out this one Finalthought, final thought what am I
?
Speaker 1 (52:43):
what am I thinking about today?
I think here's one Life can.
Life can feel incredibly hard,and it is, but you can choose to
react to it or respond to it,and that's where the book comes
(53:04):
in, like it's living life onoffense versus life on defense,
and showing up and doing thework, getting up early, the
personal growth and development,your morning routine being that
that lighthouse for otherpeople by by leading by example,
is.
I just think it's so incrediblyimportant for us to do that,
(53:27):
especially in this day and agewhen there's just so much
comfort, there's so much justnegativity.
We just we just need to.
If you're listening to thispodcast, you're obviously
someone that cares about thosethings, so I just encourage you
to get plugged in withlike-minded people, continue to
do the hard thing to be thatlighthouse for other people,
(53:50):
because it is needed.
You have a purpose in life andif you feel that you're
disconnected from your purposein life, you just you just need
to get reconnected with that,with the tribe of like-minded
people that are going to supportyou.
Clap when you win.
I feel that god has a purposefor every single one of us and
(54:10):
we need to get in alignment withthat purpose, and we need to
generate the energy to commit tothat purpose, and that requires
doing hard things like takingcare of yourself in those four
walls of your life, and so good,yeah, oh, all right.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
So I guess next week we turn the tables and you grow
me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
I'm excited about learning more about Brian Larson
and helping everyone understandwho you are, because you have
so much knowledge and I look upto you in so many ways, man, and
it's just, it's going to becool to ask you a bunch of
questions.
Yeah, all right.
Well, you want to close thisout?
Yeah, if you.
If you like this podcast, makesure you subscribe by smashing
(54:52):
that, that subscribe button, andwe would just love to hear your
thoughts.
Leave us a review.
We're on all platforms and ifthis resonated with you in any
way, shape or form, you know,feel free to share it with
someone else.
And we just want to invite youto the other.
Do hard things.
Nation community, you can tryit out the join the wellness
academy from there, grab somemerch over there, and we would
(55:12):
just love to have you part ofthis mission, if you're, if
you're, compelled to be a partof it.
So grateful, grateful for thosethat bought the book and
excited about the future guestsand what we're building together
as this tribe continues to grow.
So that's it.
In the meantime, keep doinghard things and we will see you
in the next episode.
Thank you.
All right, welcome back everybody to another
episode of the do our thingspodcast.
I am Siegfried J Teagues and Ihave with me my brother from
another mother, brian Larson.
How you doing, brother?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good man, how are?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
you Doing great man.
It's Friday and life is good,can't complain.
Great All right.
What are we getting into today,man?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We're getting into an interview of you.
That's what we're getting into.
We're going to go deep, mandeep, All right.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, I don't have.
You sent me a copy of thequestions in a full transparency
.
I browsed through them like aweek or two ago and I completely
forgot what's on there.
So we're doing it live.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, if you can't answer them, we might have some
problems.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
We might have problems.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
All good man that problem.
So, yeah, yeah, all good man,all right, hey, before we get
started, though, I want to sharesome just awesome news, just
just a couple things.
First and foremost, the thelife on offense book is has been
released.
It is an amazon bestseller, sowe've got the cool.
When you order it now, there'sgonna be a cool little
bestseller sticker.
The uh, the hardback is out inthe, the audio version, which I
(01:44):
think is going to be even better.
And the the bar is.
Well, let's be frank, the baris pretty low on audio, in my
personal perspective.
I download an audio book andmost of them are so monotone.
I don't know how many times Ihave like almost fallen asleep
hitting a tree.
Myself and my partner James, weboth read it ourself.
Our publisher even advised usto go like hey, why don't you?
(02:06):
Everyone's doing AI.
Now They'll take a voice clipof your voice and it'll sound
just like you, and I'm like no,no man, this is like a.
This is like a work of art.
We put a lot of blood, sweatand tears into this.
We're going to read it, and soyou guys did and it sounds good.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You guys did a good job and the different sounds in
it it's, it's good I got, I gotthe audio and the hard copy
showed up yesterday yeah, coolthing is my buddy, james.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
He lives down in argentina and so when I went to
machu picchu after that trip,that trek, I went down there to
uh record.
We recorded it in a boat in theharbor in buenos aires, which
was super cool.
So we'll uh, just a little backstory about the audio book
that's coming out, but justtruly tremendously appreciative
of those that have purchased it,I mean, it means so much that
(02:54):
someone would take the time andit's very we think about this a
lot.
We were talking about fearrecently, right, the different
types of fear the fear ofrejection and the fear of
ridicule are really, reallypowerful for people, and I am
feeling that, as I'm waiting forthe reviews and ridicule are
really really powerful forpeople, and I am feeling that,
as I'm waiting for the reviewsand what people are thinking
about it.
So I hope you enjoy it andthat's all I can say about it.
(03:15):
I just appreciate the support.
If you want to, you want to gograb it.
It's life on offense.
The do hard things logo is onit, but there are already some
of the books called do hardthings, so if you search for it,
look up Life on Offense atactical guide to end mediocrity
.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
That's it.
That's all I got.
Is there another update youwant to give?
You said a couple.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh yeah, one more thing.
Yeah, we're launching the DoHard Things Wellness Academy and
at the time of this speaking,we're going to be kicking off.
We're going to do monthlychallenges.
So September 2nd, which is justafter Labor Day, we're going to
kick off the Fast and Focus72-hour fast with the 28-day Do
Hard Things Challenge fivescalable things that you can do
to boost your energy.
(03:54):
And that's how we're going tokick off the Wellness Academy.
The Wellness Academy itselfweekly coaching calls with
myself and you.
Mindset movement.
There's going to be breathworksessions, meditation sessions, q
a's experts I think we gotanother couple coaches, uh,
pending that might be lining upto join forces with that bring a
lot of expertise.
So I'm super excited about that.
(04:15):
And it's just going to be anonline platform to connect with
like-minded people.
So that's uh, that'sannouncement number two.
So go to do our things.
Nationcom if you want to learnmore about that, you can try it
free for seven days.
And, yeah, we're excited to seeyou on there.
Cool, that's it.
That's all I got.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
All right, we ready to go then.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Let's do this, man.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Okay, all right.
So on that last episode, youintroduced yourself as SIGFREED.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And you're like, oh, there's a whole story behind
that of the listeners.
Know you, as jay, talk to usabout sigfried?
Yeah, so I was born sigfriedteagues.
No, no, middle name.
I was born in southerncalifornia, orange county,
california, 1978, 1960.
You know that when you, whenyou sign up for things online
now, like apps and stuff likethat, you gotta put your date of
birth in there.
I feel like I gotta scroll notto get back to you.
It's like it's like it was bobbarker with the big wheels, yeah
(05:16):
, so anyway, 1978, april 6,sigfried teagues was born, and
immediately after my birth myparents moved back to Germany.
Now, so just a quick backstory.
My father's full-blooded German, my mother full-blood Dutch.
My father grew up during thereconstruction of Berlin, tail
(05:40):
end of World War II, and just togive some background on him, I
don't know a lot, but I do knowdude had a lot of trauma.
If you could just imagine allthe men in the family, uncles,
cousins.
There was one, well, there wasone that I the only one
surviving male I had met in newyork city.
(06:02):
The rest of them had hadperished in the war in some way,
shape or form.
They just never returned.
All the women had perished inthe war in some way, shape or
form.
They just never returned.
All the women were gathered inthe village.
It was his sisters.
I don't know how many sistersthere were, but there were quite
a few, and I don't think therewere any other brothers.
If there were, they were olderand went off.
I just don't know.
But it was basically him andthe women cousins, aunts,
(06:32):
grandmother.
And when the when, from myunderstanding, when the berlin
was liberated from the sovietarmy, they were all placed on a
truck to evacuate the city.
They were in and somethinghappened.
Either the truck hit a landmineor it came under attack.
My grandmother was at the veryend of the truck holding my
father and they fell out and therest of the family had perished
.
So I don't know if you canimagine as a young child all the
men, all the women, everyonethat you know just perish and
(06:56):
then you're surviving.
Your childhood is thereconstruction of berlin
post-world war ii.
Dude had some demons, had sometrauma.
He in when he turned 19,.
He came to the United States,joined the army.
This is a cool fact that therewas no connection.
I didn't know what he did inthe army until later he joined
(07:16):
as a combat engineer.
Well, I joined as a combatengineer and I didn't know that
was there.
I had no idea that was not inmy ear.
Yeah.
So anyway, he only served forthree years, did not in my yeah.
So anyway, he only served forthree years, did a lot of.
He was mainly he always said hewas a truck driver, so that's
probably what he did as a drivermost of that time found his
pathway to citizenship to becomea us citizen, but he had a lot
(07:38):
of, like I said, a lot of trauma, a lot of demons.
My mother was his fourthmarriage.
I have, from my understanding,nine siblings, all half.
I share one sibling with mymother.
The rest of them were from myfather.
I'm assuming there's more.
I need to do that, 23 and me.
But I'm almost scared to do itbecause who knows how many other
(07:59):
people.
And I've never.
I've only met three of the ninesiblings.
The other, the five boys, I'venever met.
The other the five boys I'venever met man.
Long story short, he had somedemons.
He met my mother.
My mother immigrated over herewith her family after World War
II.
My grandparents had survivedand then they came here to make
a better life.
They were entrepreneurs.
(08:20):
They came to, they moved toSouthern California.
My grandfather was a butcher,my grandmother was like a house
cleaner and that's just kind ofwhat they did.
They just did their best tomake a better life.
They had five children.
My mother was the oldest.
She was kind of responsible fortaking care of the others, from
my understanding, while theyworked.
But my mother had some mentalhealth issues herself.
(08:41):
She was diagnosed with bipolarand schizophrenia.
Beautiful young woman oh mygosh pictures of her like she
could have been a model.
I don't know I I didn't get anyof those looks but, but.
But it was exasperated by myfather's abuse physical and
(09:01):
emotional, and so my childhood.
I remember just a lot ofphysical, emotional abuse.
I was born in the us.
We immediately moved to Germanyand then when we they my father
was a mechanic they were tryingto make ends meet and they were
just struggling and so theymoved back.
When I was five Now I wasdealing with my father
(09:22):
physically and emotionallyabusing my mother and myself,
and I had a really bad stutter.
That could have been from whoknows what the trauma my father
was putting us through, I don'tknow Stuttered really bad.
My name was Siegfried reallyunusual name and my parents
dressed me in lederhosen andsent me off to elementary school
and so my home life was hell.
(09:44):
I would go to school and waslike teased relentlessly for my
name, stuttering all these sillynames that they had sigfried
and roy, or do you want acigarette?
Or ziggy zaggy, you know justall this silly shit.
And I just hated my name.
I hated my life like I was justI, just I.
I was just tormented as a kidlike I.
(10:05):
That was it so bottom line.
I was just tormented as a kidLike I.
That was it so bottom line.
After living in SouthernCalifornia, I think, until
second grade or so, patternrepeated itself.
My father finds another woman,runs off with her and my mother
wasn't able to care for me andhe took me with him to run off
(10:25):
with this woman.
We moved to South Dakota, ofall places.
I remember living in thislittle trailer at the end of
Rapid City I think it'sEllsworth Air Force Base, if I'm
not mistaken.
Being in this little trailer inthe first night.
I remember being in this thingsleeping on the couch in the
living room.
The trailer was just shakingfrom this loud noise of these
(10:50):
jets flying.
We're like at the end of therunway.
It's crazy.
And so I just remember.
And I would go to school.
It was like freezing cold.
I remember my, my, my fatherwas really into plants and he
had a big plant collection.
He had a room full of plants.
I slept on the couch in theliving room.
Come to find out later he, hesold marijuana.
So he, I didn't have a bedroombecause my father was selling
(11:13):
marijuana.
Long story short, he left that.
That like all his otherrelationships.
Guess what happened?
He, that one didn't work outeither.
He didn't have you have to go,is it me?
Is it me?
I'm the common denominator?
Everything's falling apart?
It's always me.
He did have two children withher and they were my younger
(11:35):
sister and my brotherhalf-brother.
But like all the otherrelationships, it didn't go well
and he left her.
She was originally from Missouri, so that's how I ultimately
ended up in Missouri.
I moved to Clarksville,missouri.
So that's how I ultimatelyended up in Missouri.
I moved back to.
I moved to Clarksville,missouri.
She remarried one of herprevious husbands who was in the
Navy, and so I had a tremendousinfluence of of the Navy, just
(11:58):
the military from him and thenjust fascination with, with my
family history, you know, beingWorld War II.
Long story short, I guess.
There I grew up in Missouri,bouncing around from town to
town.
If you're familiar withNorthern St Louis, there's a
bunch of little towns.
I graduated high school fromEllsbury.
It's one of those like onestoplight towns.
I lived in Clarksville, whichwas like the next town up above
(12:21):
it.
I lived in Silex, I lived inTroy, all those little towns,
and my upbringing was just wewere.
We were dirt poor, like justabsolutely poor, and I allude to
that in the book like how poorwe were, like literally living
in a single wide trailer.
We made it a double wide bygetting another single wide
trailer and cutting a hole inthe side of it and relying on,
(12:44):
like wood cut heat and it wasjust scarcity.
We're talking about scarcitylike we were impoverished, like
we didn't had nothing.
I remember like we would.
We would deer hunt and fishbecause we needed the food.
Not not it would offset the, soscarcity, just just rough
childhood.
I'm like I knew this wasn'tnormal.
(13:05):
I had to get out of here and Iyou asked me where sigfried came
from.
I'm giving you like the wholelight, like it's good man,
people will know you I, I hadrun a paper.
So clarksville.
Clarksville is the tallestpoint on the mississippi river.
It's a really cool town.
(13:26):
They used to have like a skylift there that you could like
tourists could go and take youall the way to the top.
There's a lock and dam there.
It's a cute little town and Iwas looking for a way to make
money.
It got me out of the house andI was able to buy Nintendo games
, bought some of my schoolclothes, so I'd mow yards, I'd
shovel snow, kids to actuallyrun a paper route before they
(13:51):
were taken taken over by by carsand however, they deliver
papers, the mail, but I wouldliterally ride my bicycle six
days a week, all year round.
You know Missouri, the uh, theweather can be pretty brutal in
the wintertime and thesummertime summer too.
I developed a really good workethic because I would do that
after school every day and thenSaturday mornings, and I also
(14:13):
developed a really good cardiobase, which is going to be
important here in a moment,cause I would ride my bike up
this big ass Hill in Clarksvillelike six days a week and the
paper route was like it justtook me over an hour.
So, and then when I wasn'tdoing the paper route, I was
riding my bike running around.
You know, we didn't.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Nintendo started to come around later, but it was
like before nintendo and westill went outside at our ages.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, we knew what outside was.
Yeah, we go outside and thenyou come home when the lights
came on, you know and come hometo eat.
Then we'll go back right backout again.
It was awesome.
I wish, I wish my kids couldexperience that.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But kids these days it's a joke of it's 1030 and the
news comes on it's 1030.
Do you know where your kids are?
That was a reminder to ourparents that they had kids.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, where are your kids at?
Oh my gosh.
Now it's like well, anyway,that's a whole other topic for
the day.
So, yeah, that was kind of likemy childhood.
Now I had a cross country coachhe was.
His name is Mr Danner.
I need to connect with thatdude.
I have so much appreciation forhim.
(15:19):
Stephen Danner was his name.
He was just graduated collegeto become a teacher, so this was
his first high school gig andhe was my social studies teacher
and history teacher and I wason his paper route and so I kind
of like developed a littlerelationship with him because I,
you know, I talked to him andhe invited me to run cross
country.
He was putting a cross countryteam together.
(15:40):
I'm like I don't, I don't evenknow what cross country is and
he said something to the effectof like, well, we run races out
in these fields.
I'm like it sounds crazy, butmy mom and dad, like our, the
way our school was set up islike we were in the middle of
these.
I was in a small town and therewas a collection of towns in
this area and the school was inthe middle of this cornfield, in
(16:00):
the middle of all these, solike a 20 minute drive to get to
school.
Like my parents aren't going tobring me to and from practice.
Like, if you can get me topractice I'll go.
He's like I got you covered soI went.
I tried out.
I I think my first couple ofruns I had my big Reebok pumps
that I worked so hard for.
I remember the pump it up bigheavy shoes, basketball shorts,
(16:21):
but I was a really good runner.
Because of that, the bike routeevery day, like riding my bike
every day.
For the first time in my life Ifelt a sense of someone cared
for me.
I was a part of a team andthere's some of the cooler kids
that I didn't.
I was a dork Like.
I was just just just not coolat all.
(16:41):
But some of the cooler kidswere on the team and I was like
for the first time in my life Ifeel like I'm part of something.
And this was hard, like runningwas hard.
We actually had a pretty goodteam and so I just got into
running cross country and it wasjust great and I loved it and
it was hard and it motivated meto keep my grades up and stay
(17:01):
out of trouble.
And so I ran for uh Clarksville, which was a Clopton school in
1993, we got flooded, losteverything and I moved back to
Ellsbury and I finished up my uh.
I joined the team there andthey actually had a good team
too.
So I ran track and crosscountry and that motivated me to
to keep my grades up.
And then I saw an opportunitywhen I turned 17 to join the
(17:23):
Missouri army national guard.
I needed, I need to join themilitary and so I joined the
military.
Back to my name, siegfried.
I need to back up just a littlebit.
I hated my name growing up somuch that I needed to change it,
but I didn't know how.
There on on my dutch side ofthe family almost all of the men
(17:44):
were named yawn, like j-o-n,but they still yawn.
And I'm like I don't want to beanother yawn, but I like jay.
And so I came up with a JJ.
So, just, just, I just toldpeople to start calling me JJ.
Just, I liked it.
I think I don't know where Iheard JJ from, but I just liked
that.
So people that know me from along time ago like they'll call
me JJ.
(18:04):
And it's man, it's so cool.
And then ultimately I wasadopted.
My last name changed because ofmy my I don't know my step
family had adopted me.
My mother couldn't take care ofme, so they decided to adopt me
and my stepfather's last namewas Emmert.
So I became I was SiegfriedTeagues at birth.
(18:25):
I became Siegfried J Emmert andI joined the military as Emmert
, which is interesting.
You see, like in my I've gotsome stuff here that says Emmert
from a long time ago.
Then the newer stuff saysTeagues, because I reclaimed my
name Teagues later in life.
I'm trying to think of how todescribe because there's so many
(18:46):
things that happened.
Bottom line is I joined themilitary, I started the National
Guard.
I was working in a factory,decided to go active duty and
then just kind of leave mychildhood behind, because even
the family that adopted me Ihave tremendous love for them.
They did what they could, butit just wasn't me and there were
some additional abuse andchallenges and things that I
(19:09):
just couldn't.
I just needed to wipe the slateclean and the military allowed
me to do that.
I ultimately wanted to become astate trooper, but I couldn't
go to the academy until I was 21.
So I just I joined the MissouriArmy National Guard.
I liked that.
I went on active duty and Ijust kind of never looked back.
I just I just stayed, juststayed on active duty, I just
(19:30):
stayed.
I just stayed on active duty.
I was a combat engineer andthen fast forward.
Well, I did 27,.
I guess we'll fast forward 27years active duty.
I retire a year and a half agoand I guess I'll share this part
of my story In 2015, havingrecently commissioned, I was a
(19:54):
young officer, but I'd been longin the tooth as an NCO.
At that time.
It was over like 22 years ofservice.
I was just burnt out.
I had a lot of tough jobs, butI just didn't deal with life
well.
I was a really good soldier,but I didn't deal with life well
.
It was childhood trauma,military-issued trauma, and I
(20:16):
just was not pinging on allcylinders.
It ultimately led to a divorceand it led to just some other
behaviors that just were notcongruent or healthy, behaviors
(20:37):
that just were not congruent orhealthy alcohol, video games,
just just a bunch of stuff thatjust were, you know, just just
not good.
And when you've been aroundsuicide like the, the, your,
your the propensity for you tocommit suicide is much greater.
And I've had a lot of fellowsoldiers take their life, and so
that thought was there, like Iwas just, I was in so much pain
(20:57):
and I, when my, I just didn'thandle it.
Well, I just I had that, thatpath, I was just the suicide
ideation was pretty powerful.
And I'm like I got to rewire mybrain because I got triplet
daughters.
I can't leave them without afather.
So I began this relentlesspursuit of just self mastery and
that led me to joining, youknow, mastermind groups.
(21:19):
I inventoried all the people inlife that were just crushing it
.
I felt crushing it in theirlife and and I started reading
books, I started changing someof those bad behaviors for pop
more positive behaviors.
And it was, it was messy, itwasn't, it wasn't like it wasn't
like an overnight thing.
It took years, but I juststarted to feel better.
I would escape, with, you know,these endurance events, which
(21:42):
was better than, you know,drinking and doing other poor
behavior and I don't know.
I just had a passion for, forpersonal growth and development.
My marriage ended and I I hadthis other like dark night of
the soul experience where, youknow, trying to find myself
(22:03):
after being divorced, and thenhad another dark period when I
left the military.
This is when I I learned a lotof tools but I lost my identity.
I I had escaped my darkchildhood to join the military
(22:23):
and overall I thrived careerwise, not so much my personal
life always, but my career waspretty good.
But then it was like I had somuch of my identity wrapped up
in my uniform and my name, likeyou know, retired as a major, as
major Teagues, and had all thisresponsibility, and at that
time I was already performancecoaching.
But I'm like I feel like acharlatan, like I'm preaching a
(22:46):
lot but I'm not doing everythingthat I teach and I'm like I
can't.
I teach and I'm like I can'tcontinue to do this.
Something doesn't feel right inmy values and so that's when I
paused the podcast, I kind of Ireally scaled back my coaching.
I had some clients but I waslike I gotta, I gotta do some
deep work on myself.
(23:06):
Like who, who am I at my core?
Like what, what, what am I hereto do in life beyond all of
this?
Because and I think this iswhere a lot, of, a lot of people
go, go sideways they have thesebig life transitions, right,
the divorce, relationship endsor career ends, and the military
(23:27):
was a much bigger part of myidentity than I realized, and so
I got involved in some othercoaching programs, start doing
some deep shadow work, likereally deep work, really digging
in to figure out you know what,what are my traumas, what are
my?
You know, the shadows are thethings like in your in, in, in
your background that you don'treally want other people to see
(23:49):
right and then guilt and shameand all these other things and
being able to like, be okay withthat and share that story.
And in my journey ofself-discovery, I discovered
that I am a peaceful warriorLike I want to be.
(24:10):
I want to live in peace.
I'm a warrior at heart.
I always will be, even thoughthat's I'm not in the U S army
anymore, I still consider myselflike a warrior Like I like that
disciplined mindset.
I want to be a protector ofother people, especially those I
can't stand up for themselves.
And when I look back at my name,my name was given to me, but my
(24:33):
parents it was a mixed.
They were deciding betweenSiegfried or Eric and they chose
Siegfried of all things.
I'm like why did you choosethat stupid name?
I hated that name.
Well, one of my coaches that Iwas on this coaching journey
with is German and this is partof that Machu Picchu trek.
She's like do you know theepidemiology of your name?
(24:55):
And I'm like I don't really.
And bottom line is it meansvictory and peace and it's
ultimately the peaceful warrior.
And if you look back at thestory of like in German lore
Siegfried, was this greatwarrior Like in our American
lore like Superman, right, he'slike the ultimate.
Well, in German lore, siegfriedthe Dragon Slayer, who saved
(25:17):
Brunhilde from the dragon that'sin old folklore.
He was like the Superman ofthat realm and that's what
Siegfried was.
So people that are German knowthe name Siegfried.
They respect it there.
It's an old name but it's stillrespected here.
It's just ridiculous, right,they respect it there.
So it's an old name, but it'sstill respected here.
It's just ridiculous.
It's Las Vegas.
(25:38):
You know tigers and magicians.
It's the only secret peopleknow.
But but I'm like, oh my gosh, Ilook back.
I'm like I've been striving allmy life to find peace.
I'm a warrior.
The name means peaceful warrior.
I had so much shame around it,so, doing that shadow work of
shame and guilt, I'm like I needto embrace that.
My, my parents named me thatand looking back, it was like
(25:59):
one of the.
I just reclaimed the name that Irejected for so long and it
just signified like this newchapter of my life, like who am
I?
Like I am not major Teagues, IJay and JJ was a broken little
kid that ran and hid and didn'thandle things Well, didn't live
(26:24):
up honors, word, hurt peoplebecause he didn't have the tools
or the knowledge or know how.
He did the best that he couldwith what he had.
But he was a scared little boy.
And reclaiming sigfried, oh,I'm gonna get emotional.
(26:45):
Reclaiming that name was thisvery powerful chapter of my life
because it's it's signified Ino longer want to be that person
Like I.
I I'm, I'm stepping into thenext chapter of of life.
I want to be I.
It's signified like gettingreconnected with God,
(27:06):
reconnecting with my purpose andmy mission, which is to help
and serve people and and helpthem get out of their pain,
frequency and help them findclarity.
And embracing this, this notionof being a peaceful warrior and
part of my coaching journey.
I got to give it.
I went to this program calledmountains and marathons and my
(27:26):
coaches, jamin and Jen andJordan.
They helped me navigatereclaiming the name and when we
started the trek, I claimed itto my there's a team of us that
that climbed Machu Picchu forsix days together.
I claimed that I was going toreclaim the name Siegfried and
then we had to create, create,write this powerful like
(27:48):
manifesto of like who I am, like.
I did a lot of deep work on andwhen I got to Machu Picchu,
like I found a sacred place,deep work on, and when I got to
machu picchu, like I found asacred place, and I and I read
it to god and I like justembraced, I fully embraced the
name.
It was like it was a ritualceremony I find it so
interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
You were on this journey to find yourself and you
define yourself as peacefulwarrior, and it turns out that's
who you were all along by namewarrior, and it turns out that's
who you were all along by name,so I was all along by name.
I was searching.
I was searching.
Okay, there's several thingswe'll come back to at some point
but it made me think, like, asyou're telling your story, like
that family trauma, the conceptof like collective conscious and
(28:29):
trauma and you feeling the painof the entire world, and then
family morphic fields, likethese morphic fields of belief.
I know we'll cover that at somepoint, but I just find it
interesting.
It's a topic we'll cover atsome point.
And then I want to make thisstatement, because you said you
know that personal developmentjourney and it took years and it
(28:52):
does take years, but I feellike part of our mission is to
take what took us years and helppeople not take so long to do
it, put 100%, to take thoselearnings that we've had from
our difficulty and all of theknowledge we've accumulated
through.
I mean, I was like you I readand read, and read and read, and
just so much stuff that I cangive back to people, that you I
(29:13):
read and read and read and read,and just so much stuff that I
can give back to people, thatyou can give back to people and
we can condense that time.
And so I love that.
That the journey will help ushelp other people do it faster.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yes, In this journey and finding my purpose and my
reconnection spiritually likethat was one of my major
downloads is like I need.
This is the necessary path Ineeded to walk so I can help
other people and what I'velearned is you can read, you can
listen to podcasts.
That is good, but if you wantto accelerate the process, you
(29:52):
need to be in containers withother coaches that we have blind
spots we can't see, and justlike that coach that invited me
to cross country.
Why does the team have a coach?
Because the coach can see thestrengths and weaknesses of all
the runners and he orchestratesand gives guidance and puts
people in the right position.
(30:12):
Why do major league baseballteams have a coach?
These are the best players inthe world.
Why do they need a coach?
Cause we all have blind spotsand when you, someone knows the
way and they can put you.
They know your strengths andweaknesses and they call you out
when you're not performing welland and and help elevate you
and they they, when you're noton your a game.
They kind of you that willaccelerate your learning and
(30:36):
your healing and your claritywork and that's why I'm so
passionate about it, becauseit's just not common knowledge,
the things that we have learned,that that should be common
knowledge, aren't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, agreed.
And this goes back to my theoryof the matrix being a
documentary Like why isn't it?
Well, cause you can't becontrolled, right, right.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, okay, let's get back to some questions.
So Sure, take us back to thebeginning.
So Do Hard Things has been abrand that you've had active for
I don't know five years.
Oh, and I remember how we met.
Did we meet on the float tripwhen I tore my meniscus?
(31:20):
Was that the first time we?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
met.
That was one of the very firstmeetings I think we met.
But yeah, I was like man, who'sthis guy?
Brian's like ripped.
He looks like a Spartan Dude'sripped but he injures himself
getting in and out of a canoe.
I'm like I was like telling mywife like who, what?
Who is this guy like?
What is he?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
well, I injured myself, I finished it off and I
pulled the cooler out of thecanoe, but anyway, okay you need
a much better story for that.
I know, you know, I was chasingsomebody who stole I was in the
oarks I heard banjos tonight.
So, okay, back to back to thebrand.
So you've been working on thisfor a while.
What?
(31:57):
What inspired you to start it?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, so the mantra has been there for a long time.
I got into performance coaching.
I just had this.
I mean, I look back at mysocial media, I would just post,
hashtag, do hard things andjust kind of share my story.
I, back in 2015, when I hitrock bottom, one of my mentors
had had invited us to share ourstory online like do, like a
(32:25):
daily post, and I would start todo that and it was very
cathartic for me to just share anugget, share wisdom.
It wasn't to be pretentious, itwas basically like a note to
self, like I would write theseposts that were inspirational.
But it was like it was likeusing my.
I didn't like to journal andwrite, so I would just use my
(32:47):
Facebook page.
If I look back at my Facebook,like 15 years ago, I'm
embarrassed.
What I used to post?
Very political stuff, you know,dick and fart jokes, like just
well, I still share memes, Ilove that, but it was
predominantly like garbage.
But then I would start like Iwant to make, I want to use this
to be more useful, and it wasjust a way for me to journal and
I would just use the thehashtag do hard things.
(33:09):
And so years and years went byof doing that and then, as I
became a coach and I started tolike, you know what I can?
I can help others.
I you know, let's create a brandaround this.
Then my you know Lacey being agraphic designer, you know she
created this really cool logothat we trademarked.
I'm like man, this is reallypowerful.
I'm like man, this is reallypowerful.
And so we created some merch.
(33:29):
We've got the event.
You know, I started hostingsome online stuff, but it was
just always it was always like alike a hobby basement thing.
It wasn't like, it was justmore like a just a small
movement.
We never we never reallyexpanded or put a lot of energy
into it, but it was always abrand Like we've been able to
help some people, peoplegravitate toward it.
(33:51):
We ultimately trademarked thebranding.
I had the idea for a book but Ihad to go through.
It's taken a while to kind ofcome together.
And the hard framework, theH-A-R-D.
It stands for something I tryto make meaning from it, like
it's your, it's the four wallsof your life, it's your health,
(34:13):
it's your affluence, it's yourrelationships, your development,
and there there's a variety ofthat and other.
You know coaching groups andthings like that.
You know they have theirdifferent acronyms, but that's.
We developed the hard frameworkbased off learnings and trial
and error, and and my life hasimproved from focusing on those
(34:34):
four walls every day, like doingsomething to invest time or
energy in that, and so I thinkwe're at a point now where we've
talked about this like I, we'regoing to, I want to, I want,
want to make a community, agrander community, around this
(34:54):
and help other people live theirbest life, to find clarity, to
heal, to have a space forpersonal growth and development,
a space where you can focus onmindset and moving the body,
activating the nervous system,deactivating the nervous system.
So does that answer yourquestion?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
yeah, yeah, yeah but it leads to another one.
So that concept of hard thingsright, it has a, it has a
meaning, but it's also doinglegit hard things.
But people avoid discomfort.
Why is that so?
Why is that dangerous to avoiddiscomfort?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
well, there's a great , there's a great book called
the comfort crisis and I thinkthat our natural, our brains are
wired.
You know we, we're.
We have this hard wiring fromour caveman days.
We and we still.
That's probably our big one ofour biggest blessings and
challenges that we face thewe're designed to do hard things
(35:52):
, like we're the ultimateendurance animal, like we are
capable of so much hunting andgathering and building, and you
know we're warriors.
We just have such greatcapacity.
But then we also have this modein our brain that is wiring us
to make best use of thoseresources.
(36:13):
So we battle comfort becausethat's the part of your brain
that's saying okay, now thatyou've gathered all this food,
now it's time to just preserveyour energy and not doing hard
things.
In our society in this day andage, we have become so
incredibly comfortable with airconditioning, opulence.
(36:38):
You can use your cell phoneright now, before we're into
this podcast, you can have ameal delivered to you at your
door, whatever you wanted to.
We have Amazon that delivers toyou.
We've just really embraced thatpart of our brain that
naturally gravitates towardcomfort and we're missing out on
(36:59):
the opportunity.
I think when you grow, you gotto be challenged and there's a
variety of ways in which tochallenge the body and the mind.
And we are.
What's that movie?
Idiocracy?
Maybe that's anotherdocumentary.
It's where everyone's socomfortable like that no one
does anything.
I, I just think that we weredesigned to be challenged.
(37:19):
Yeah, and yeah, I I just thinkthat there's a.
The comfort crisis is real, andI'm not saying that we should
just live in pain all the time,like I'm not.
I'm not.
I love David Goggins verymotivational dude but I don't
think that we need to live likethat all the time.
But we do need to challengeourself and it's not just going
(37:42):
out and doing physical things,it's having tough conversations
with people.
Cause, I will tell you, I I'velearned things in my life
because of my inability to havethe tough conversation, to avoid
the pain of that.
That led to me hurting peopleand relationships, ending
friendships, intimaterelationships, avoiding
(38:04):
discomfort, you know, hurt me inmy career because I didn't
pursue college sooner, because Ididn't think I could do it
right.
I just it's just too hard to goto school and learn that thing.
It just yeah.
Just avoiding, avoiding thepain of things has not served me
well.
So by being comfortable withthe uncomfortable in my new
(38:26):
chapter of life.
It's like sitting in silence.
That is an uncomfortable thingfor me there's so many great
benefits Like doing nothing.
You don't even have to doanything physical.
You get great benefits yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Well, okay.
So then, if it's about doingthe balance of hard things and
resting and recovering, how doyou recommend people start
building resilience if they'velived in comfort too long?
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I think that the gym is a great training ground.
What did you say?
You said something recentlythat I really appreciated.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
I believe the gym is a training ground where it
teaches you how to do hardthings physically within those
walls so that you can do themoutside of those walls.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yes, yes, having a training ground in a controlled
environment.
That's why I like races and andand, just you know, getting
together with the run group orbeing in a gym.
It's a training ground to dosomething uncomfortable, because
that that carries over in everyother aspect of of your life
and I just recommend, first andforemost, moving the body, like
(39:33):
like dominating, dominating thebasics.
I had a commander that wouldsay dominate the basics, and one
of the basics is just basicmovement, like you don't have to
be a crossfitter, but but dosomething that moves the body
and eat something nutritious,nutritious every day, and I,
(39:53):
you're just gonna live a betterlife, you're going to have more
energy to and you're going to beless stressed, and you know you
can.
What is that that quote?
They say you can make make hardchoices now, or I'm going to it
was.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
It's the.
It's the pain, the pain ofsomething today or the pain of
regret later.
I mean it's the pain ofsomething today or the pain of
regret later.
I mean it's kind of thatconcept Hard life now or hard
life later.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Right, so hard life now, but you getting to choose
your own adventure.
Or you can live with diseaseand you can live in financial
ruin.
You can live with divorce andbroken relationships later
because you didn't do the basicsnow.
That's the crux of it, right?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
It's like being overweight is hard, being lean
and muscular is hard.
Yeah, pick one.
You're gonna have one or theother okay, so that the what for
you on a daily basis.
So okay, the hard things.
Do you have a daily practicethat you personally use to keep
(40:49):
your edge?
Like, are there a group ofthings I know I have and
everybody has theirs, and I tryto stick to mine as closely as I
can, but not so rigid that if Ican't do it it's not the end of
the world.
But what are your dailypractices for doing hard things?
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, I think, first and foremost, the morning
routine like having a solidfoundation to step off from like
fighter stance, you know, likehaving a morning routine is the
most powerful thing that you cando to really set the day off
Right.
And for me personally, whatit's been as of late has been
movement of some form.
So I'll go run rock, I'll liftweights, maybe some yoga, but
(41:29):
some type of like physicalmovements.
I've been doing breath work,which has been fascinating.
That's a very recent thing butthere's so many great benefits
to breath work.
I've been doing a daily coldplunge and then gratitude
journal and prayer, and that'sbeen pretty much my morning
routine.
I'll drink some water.
(41:50):
I'll get up and drink 32 ouncesof water, I'll put some salt in
a little bit of lemon, just tokind of you know, because you've
been dehydrated from sleepingall night and then bulletproof
coffee and that's, and then I in.
I don't do that, I don't dothat.
It's kind of whatever orderthat I would like to do them in.
So there's no regimen, but Ijust wake up and I'll kind of
cycle through those tasks andthat's my morning routine cold
(42:13):
plunge, breath movement,gratitude.
That's been recently.
It's been working really,really well.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
I've incorporated a similar one really the same for
my movement tends to be in thegym doing something, but one
that again and we've talkedabout earlier how, how
breathwork was not on the bingocard but it is and I had a
couple of days this week where Iwas just I've slept really
horrible and I was so likemoving slow in the morning and I
(42:41):
just didn't even feel like Ihad the lungs for breathwork and
I didn't do it.
And then I picked it back upand I was like, oh, I didn't do
it.
And then I picked it back upand I was like, oh, that's why I
do it.
I mean, I noticed a significantdifference with the breath work
in my routine.
I told you earlier today, man,my, my nervous system was
(43:01):
dysregulated.
I sat down, did 15 minutes ofbreath work.
I'm like, oh, there it is, Ifound ground again.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I used to think it was like some hippie dippy shit
and I still do, but I love it.
Yeah, I mean, but it's been solike doing it repetitively for
activation, deactivation and thesonic neural, like it's been an
absolute game changer and it'sjust amazing that you can do
that.
You can get high off your ownsupply.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I love like the, our coach, our breathwork coach,
that's teaching us some of this.
Ben ben says at some point youfind out the woo-woo, is true,
true I hadn't heard that one,but I like that.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It's absolutely.
It's absolutely true, and whatI've been telling people is like
, especially my military service, like the movie oh avatar, like
I'm becoming one of the bluepeople, yeah and they're like
peaceful warriors, right, theywere like incredible warriors,
people, yeah, that's funny manso powerful, yeah that so the
topic of like morning routines Iknow some people swear by them.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
I know there's other people who they will tell you,
oh, don't like, you can do it,but don't get too regimented.
I would agree with that.
I think it's good to have theintention of doing those things
but, like I said a couple ofdays this week, I just didn't
have it within me.
It didn't, it didn't, I didn'thave any.
I think it's important not tohold to it so tightly that you
(44:28):
can't shift it and change it andstill be okay.
There's those people they workout.
If they miss a workout man,they can't think about anything
else that day until they at somepoint come back around to
getting their workout in.
They hold it so tightly.
I think it's just important togo.
It's really a great thing, butanything in excess can become
too much if you hold to itrigidly.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, you need to have some level of flexibility
and adaptability, some margin.
You know, like I had a morningI have an insomnia night every
now and then and it was likeThursday morning like it was our
track workout morning.
So we get up at 445 and Ididn't go to bed till like one
o'clock.
I was just I just laid there.
I just couldn't go to sleep butI made like it was very
(45:11):
difficult.
But Lacey got up and she's likewe're going.
I'm like, okay, I'm going toroll over and put my shoes on.
I was the last one.
I walked a little bit, but I'mlike you know what, even though
I wasn't on my a game and I wasso exhausted, I kept the habit
by showing up.
I went through the rest of my.
No, actually, I came back.
I actually had to do a littlebit of work.
I went to sleep and took a napbecause I had a block of time.
(45:34):
I got up around 11.
I finished my morning routine,so I went through everything
else and then I finished out therest of the day and had work up
until the evening.
So it was kind of messy, but itwas really important to stick
to the routine and I thinkthat's.
I love the book atomic habitsbecause it talks about that.
Even I mean, even like on mybusiest days, what I've learned
(45:56):
is like so I can do like a fiveminute breath work, like breath
of fire, you know, with someinhale, exhale holds, and that's
good enough.
The movement might be just, youknow, 15 minutes around the
block, you know, but justkeeping the foundation of that
routine.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Yes, it's the discipline.
I call a day, like you had, adiscipline day.
There are days I actually hadone this morning.
It's been two nights in a rowof not great sleep, but I it's
very important for me to movealmost every day, and so I knew
I would not be at my best at thegym, but I also knew I needed
to be there for and I call themdiscipline days I just show up
(46:31):
and do the best I can do thatday and that's good enough for
today, and once I get rested andrecovered, better it'll be
better.
It's not about performing at myabsolute best every day, it's
performing at the best I canthat day.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, and that's I think you bring a great point
and that's been the evolution ofmy own like training and is
that rest and recovery is justas important as the training
itself.
But people feel guilty abouttaking the rest day.
But that is where you rebuild.
Your body rebuilds itselfstronger in the rest days.
(47:05):
So if you're always breakingyourself down, always pushing
the limits, one, you're burningyourself out, you can't sustain
it.
And two, you're, you're, you'renot, you're not, you're, you're
not building your body, butyou're constantly breaking it
down, so you're not allowing,you're not getting the max
benefit.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
And you're activating more cortisol and stressing
your act that that nervoussystem.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Now you get into neurologic load because you
stress your body and now yourmind, and it perceives it all as
neurologic signals, and nowyou're way over-trained and it
brings your emotions down.
It's all kinds of things thatgo on in there.
Yeah, Okay.
So what role then?
(47:47):
So you know we're talking aboutbuilding community.
You mentioned it earlier.
What role does community playin helping people succeed in
their hard things?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Well, humans are tribal and we need to be
connected with like-mindedpeople.
And you're the average of thepeople you spend the most time
with, and I know this personalgrowth and development can feel
very, very lonely.
And having a community oflike-minded people that you can
do life with, that you can talkabout books, you can talk about
these hard topics I got friendsI can go drink with.
(48:20):
We have great time, you know,sharing memes and telling fart
jokes and talking about sportsor whatever.
But I can't, I can't ask themfor advice on on challenging
topics Like how do I, you know,how do I communicate with my
teenage daughter and some of thenuances of life?
You know, but I love them todeath, right, yeah.
And so you need a space whereyou can like if that, if that's
(48:43):
part of your wiring, which only,like I think, only one in 10
people do personal growth anddevelopment we're kind of few
and far between.
You just need that community oflike-minded people that you can
lean in on that.
I mean, I, you know where mycycling stuff and people like
laugh because I, you know youlook like Lance.
Aren't we trying to be Lance?
Like they just make theirstupid jokes, you know.
So you just need, you need tobe around like-minded people so
(49:04):
you realize you're not crazy.
Yeah, go ahead and to yourpoint, like we mentioned earlier
, like you can read and listento podcasts on your own, but
there's accelerated learningwhen you can have a conversation
with other like-minded people.
And I think in this day and age, especially with AI and just
all of the negative drumbeat ofthe world, like being around
(49:28):
other positive, like-mindedpeople is necessary for your own
sanity.
It is for me.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I agree.
Okay, what's what's one hardthing anyone listening could
commit to that could make a realdifference in their life.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Well, I think you mentioned this earlier.
I think you know moving thebody.
Number one, I think learningsomething like like reading and
applying things.
That may not be like atremendously difficult, but I
looked at reading for thelongest time Like I just just
(50:09):
bored with it.
I don't like doing it, but whenI started to do that
consistently it really startedto open up my mind.
So moving the mind, moving,moving the body and then doing
something where you'redownloading something positive
into your mind would be the twovery basic things, and doing
that consistently.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, okay, I got one final question.
Yeah, so you and I have talkedabout this, but I'd like the
audience to hear what's thelong-term vision for Do Hard
Things.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Oh yeah, this is so good, man.
The long-term vision is whatwe're building, first and
foremost, is an online community.
So we're starting that with theDo Hard Things Wellness.
Do hard things wellness Academy.
The wellness Academy is goingto include something like an
online dojo breath work, my highperformance mindset training.
You're going to be doingmovement training and a variety
(51:03):
of different like Q and A's.
We've got a couple of othercoaches that are that are going
to be coming on, so I'm thinkinglike a bench of coaches with,
like a schedule of events.
You pay a subscription andyou're a part of this community.
There'll be, like you know,monthly challenges.
So I want to scale this onlinecommunity and then, once we get
to a certain point and we getthat up and going, then I
(51:25):
envision a facility I want aworld-class facility where we
can incorporate these events andtrainings live, maybe like a
gym, you know, activate thenervous system with a gym and
training and events, you know,rucking and running from this
like location, and then, part ofthis facility, you know,
(51:45):
deregulating the nervous systemwith hot, cold, plunge,
performance coaching, breathwork.
The nervous system with hot,cold, plunge, performance
coaching, breath work.
And then, once we get that upand going.
Then these facilities pop uparound the country in different
locations.
There'll be an apparel brandbecause we want to spread the
word of what we're doing, aboutdoing hard things.
Probably some more books.
There's going to be retreats.
(52:06):
We're planning one for novemberand february already and then
bringing in other facilitatorsthat want to do the mission and
and just kind of it's not, it'snot.
You know, it's not my show,it's not.
It's, it's just its own entitywhere we're just helping people
live a better life.
That's that's it.
That's, that's the.
Uh, yeah, it's good, okay.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Well, yeah, it's good , okay.
Well, what's one final thoughtthat you can leave people with
as we close out this one Finalthought, final thought what am I
?
Speaker 1 (52:43):
what am I thinking about today?
I think here's one Life can.
Life can feel incredibly hard,and it is, but you can choose to
react to it or respond to it,and that's where the book comes
(53:04):
in, like it's living life onoffense versus life on defense,
and showing up and doing thework, getting up early, the
personal growth and development,your morning routine being that
that lighthouse for otherpeople by by leading by example,
is.
I just think it's so incrediblyimportant for us to do that,
(53:27):
especially in this day and agewhen there's just so much
comfort, there's so much justnegativity.
We just we just need to.
If you're listening to thispodcast, you're obviously
someone that cares about thosethings, so I just encourage you
to get plugged in withlike-minded people, continue to
do the hard thing to be thatlighthouse for other people,
(53:50):
because it is needed.
You have a purpose in life andif you feel that you're
disconnected from your purposein life, you just you just need
to get reconnected with that,with the tribe of like-minded
people that are going to supportyou.
Clap when you win.
I feel that god has a purposefor every single one of us and
(54:10):
we need to get in alignment withthat purpose, and we need to
generate the energy to commit tothat purpose, and that requires
doing hard things like takingcare of yourself in those four
walls of your life, and so good,yeah, oh, all right.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
So I guess next week we turn the tables and you grow
me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
I'm excited about learning more about Brian Larson
and helping everyone understandwho you are, because you have
so much knowledge and I look upto you in so many ways, man, and
it's just, it's going to becool to ask you a bunch of
questions.
Yeah, all right.
Well, you want to close thisout?
Yeah, if you.
If you like this podcast, makesure you subscribe by smashing
(54:52):
that, that subscribe button, andwe would just love to hear your
thoughts.
Leave us a review.
We're on all platforms and ifthis resonated with you in any
way, shape or form, you know,feel free to share it with
someone else.
And we just want to invite youto the other.
Do hard things.
Nation community, you can tryit out the join the wellness
academy from there, grab somemerch over there, and we would
(55:12):
just love to have you part ofthis mission, if you're, if
you're, compelled to be a partof it.
So grateful, grateful for thosethat bought the book and
excited about the future guestsand what we're building together
as this tribe continues to grow.
So that's it.
In the meantime, keep doinghard things and we will see you
in the next episode.
Thank you.
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