Unlock Success Now: Why Taking the First Step Changes Everything!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, for me, one of the things that's the most
critical is that I need to haveaccountability, and for me,
accountability starts withcommitting to something.
Sign up, tell all your friends,put it out there, create this
power of accountability that nowyou know, you've told everybody
you're going to do this, you'vegot a date on the calendar, you
paid 200 bucks to sign up forthis thing, like you're in, and

(00:22):
now you've got to figure out howto get ready.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, uncommon Leaders , welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
I'm your host, john Gallagher,and today I've got a great guest
for you, sean Hoyt.
He's a beast, excuse me, and ifI had a chance to meet him
recently, I think the timing'sbeen incredible.
He's going to tell his storyabout his journey inside of
fitness in his 50s and talkabout a lot of things and how

(00:52):
that relates to his leadership,but I found out as I started to
do more homework that he's abeast in the Spartan world and I
just actually ran my first onejust a couple of days ago.
So we're brethren when it comesto Spartan, but he's got a lot
more that he's going to talkabout today.
He's a runner, a triathlete youcan see on his shirt there If
you're watching on YouTube andIronman as well and an obstacle

(01:12):
course beast.
I've seen some of his stuff onhis website and some of the
training that he goes throughand I can't wait to talk about
that in terms of some of thosedisciplines, and he keeps
getting stronger with age, so wehave that in common as well in
terms of being in our midfifties, but he's living proof.
Ultimately, that age is just anumber and he's here to share
his journey, not just on afitness, but his professional
journey as well, and how he'sweaved those two things together

(01:34):
to be successful in bothbusiness and in life.
Ultimately, we can do reallyhard things, and he's going to
talk about that today.
So a great Uncommon Leaderpodcast.
Welcome to Sean Hoyt.
Hope you're having a great dayand how you doing.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Love that lead in, john, you crystallize so many of
the things that have come tokind of be rallying cries for me
.
So I'm excited about ourconversation.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I think it's going to be a blast.
I can't wait to learn from you.
I feel like when I go in someof these podcasts, that I'm
trying to pull it out of folks,but this one, I'm going to be
learning a bunch on this journey.
So I'll jump in, though, withthe first question I always have
with for my first time guests,and that's to ask you to tell me
a story from your childhoodthat still impacts who you are
today as a person or as a leader.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
So this story, I think, really kind of defines
the trajectory I've been on eversince it happened and it really
was transformative to me.
I was in eighth grade, to setthe context.
I was growing up in Kansas City, on the Kansas side of Kansas
City, missouri, and I was a veryaverage, low-effort athlete.

(02:43):
At the time I played on thesoccer team and sat the bench
most of the time, playedbasketball, but I was either on
the B or the C team, never doneany running in my life.
And every year we would have tobe go through this regimen of
doing the presidential physicalfitness test at school.
We'd have to do sit-ups andpull-ups and run a mile and do

(03:05):
all these things and get gradedon it and I usually failed
miserably at almost all of themand just remember feeling
embarrassed, you know, at that.
And I was a little bitoverweight.
I wouldn't have called myselfobese, but I was a little chubby
, you know, kind of as I wascoming out of seventh and into
eighth grade and so certainly noone, not even myself, thought

(03:28):
of me as an athlete.
And over that summer betweenseventh and eighth grade, my
stepfather decided he was goingto run a 5k in the neighborhood
and kind of where we lived.
And he somehow just convincedme to train with him and so we
would start running around ourneighborhood and of course at

(03:49):
first I thought I was dying.
But we, you know, for thecourse of the summer, did it.
And then I ended up runningthis 5k and, like you know, much
better than I thought I wasgoing to do.
And so it kind of hatched thisidea in my head, this plot, that
I was going to continuetraining, but I wasn't going to
tell anybody, and my goal wasthat when it came to that

(04:11):
physical fitness test in eighthgrade, I was going to win the
mile, and of course nobody wouldbe expecting it because nobody
would think of me as an athlete,but it was my secret quest,
shall we say.
And so I trained really hardand I would train around the
neighborhood and I got in reallygood shape, lost all of that,

(04:33):
got a baby fat and then, sureenough, when it came time for
the actual race, it was fourloops around the school and
after the first lap I was rightup with all the soccer players
and basketball players and thejocks you know at my school and
I could hear them.
I was right in front of themand I could hear them all kind

(04:53):
of laughing behind me saying, oh, like he's going to fade, like
you know, just just give it a,give it a little bit of time.
And by the second lap I couldstill hear them, but they were
definitely farther behind me.
And by the third and fourth lap, I could still hear them, but
they were definitely fartherbehind me.
And by the third and fourth lapthey were nowhere to be found.
And I ended up setting theschool record oh wow, in the
mile, which stood for aboutanother 10, 15 years, and it

(05:14):
just it, was transformative tome because it showed me that I
was capable of transformingmyself if I believed in myself
and if I put in the work, andthat all of a sudden I felt like
a very different person.
And the next year I went to highschool and joined the

(05:37):
cross-country team and ended uprunning the Kansas City Marathon
at age 14.
I was the youngest person inthe race and, you know, never in
a million years would that everhave been occurred to me as
even possible If I hadn't havegone through that experience of
doing something really hard,surprising myself, forget about
everybody else, and realizingthat, whoa, I can.

(05:59):
I can do these.
I am an athlete Um as long as Iapply myself towards being one,
and I think you know I've hadphases over my life where
fitness ebbed and it flowed whenyou have young kids and you're
traveling early on in yourcareer.
But I've never really lost thatfeeling that I am an athlete

(06:19):
and that you know I am capableof doing hard things.
I've done seven marathons intotal, three ultras now and one
Ironman over the course of thatlong trajectory, but it all
started with that experience ineighth grade.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
I'll start with that 5K and then running that mile
and setting to you again andwhat I hear in there.
First of all hear theaffirmation right that I am I am
an athlete.
I love to kind of hear that andhow you had to set and how that
really that decision came aboutfor you.
Many times in my leadershipcoaching I talked to folks about
that.
So that moment is the why thatexists there, cause you can try

(06:56):
to say I'm just going to run themile or whatever that means,
and but I heard I heard that ataffirmation is very important.
I heard that mindset is veryimportant.
I heard discipline is veryimportant.
All those things are topics thatwe'll get a chance to talk
about today.
And one of the things you knowpeople will change right when
the displeasure of remaining thesame where they are in this

(07:18):
point in time you talked aboutthat as a kid is greater than
the discomfort of the changeitself, the actual hard work
that it's going to take toovercome that.
And I think that's so powerfulin terms of what you're saying
because, as you said, the firsttime you ran to get ready for
the 5K you probably thought youwere going to die.
When you're running that withyour stepfather.
That's a really cool story andyou stuck with it because there

(07:40):
was a why that existed.
You talk about in some of yourliterature and some of your
website, your what-if momentslike breaking that mile record
in eighth grade, thesub-three-hour marathon that you
ran in college.
How can leaders again takingthat and bringing that into your
professional career?
How do you cultivate thatwhat-if moment in your work as

(08:03):
well and what that mentalitymeans to live that out in your
work?

Speaker 1 (08:08):
One of the things that I've really tried to do and
I've gotten better at it, as mymindset has solidified, you
know, in my 50s is really to,you know, challenge the status
quo in your own mind, and theremay be a way your team is doing

(08:30):
their job.
There may be a way you're doingyour job.
Maybe there may be a way acompany is going about its
operations and I think so manytimes we take that as a given
and then we think about how canwe continually improve it?
And there's and I lovecontinuous improvement.
It's a.
You can get dramatic resultsfrom those slow, incremental, 1%
, 2% improvements, but it neverchanges the fundamental starting

(08:51):
point.
It just incrementally improvesit.
And so I've really tried tochallenge myself and my team to
think, okay, let's do thosethings, but let's also question
the underlying thing itself Isthat really still the way to be
going about it?
Are there radically differentways to do this?
And I'll just give a quickexample.

(09:13):
I'm a lawyer, I deal withcontracts and we've all seen
contracts right, they're smallprint and whole sections with
capital letters and pages andpages of dense text, and that's
the way everyone thinks acontract needs to look.
And we have our contracts uponline so that our prospects can
see them and hopefully acceptthem if they find them

(09:33):
reasonable, but they still lookvery unappealing and very
daunting even to a businessprofessional.
We're not selling to customers,we're selling to enterprises,
but still there's no reason ithas to look that way.
So I decided to engage in athought experiment with my team,
which is to be like how can wetake the same content and

(09:54):
present it not as a contract inthat format, but as a modern web
page that looks like reallygood web pages that are really
easy to follow.
That looks like really good webpages that are really easy to
follow.
And we ended up working withour web team to completely
redesign our contract.
And now, if you go to ourcompany's web page, a company

(10:15):
called OutSystems, and if youlook up our master subscription
agreement, you'll see a verydifferent looking contract than
you've ever seen before, andwe're very proud of that,
because we just thought outsidethe box and decided you know
what, if you know, we didn'tmake this look like a contract.
Is it, is it possible?
Is it legal?
We had to do the research andbut when you question those

(10:38):
fundamental beliefs and usuallythe ones that you're questioning
are the things you say aren'tpossible, like, well, we can't
do that, or we can't do this, orI'm not capable of that.
Well, why, what if you could?
And I stole that from DavidGoggins.
I'll be very transparent.
He mentions that in his bookcan't help me, which I can't
hurt me, which is right behindme, and that, frankly, that

(10:59):
thinking was what got me tofinally sign up for my first
Ironman.
Because I thinking was what gotme to finally sign up for my
first Ironman, because I hadalways thought that was
impossible.
And then I said, well, wait aminute.
Like what if I break it downand do the math on the
individual components?
You know how much time would ittake me if I, you know, did
each of these three componentsat a relatively moderate pace

(11:20):
and I realized, wait a minute,I'd have like two extra hours to
finish under the deadline.
Like, all of a sudden, I thinkthis is possible, where I always
thought it was impossible.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
I love that.
Sean and you all started rightoff with the discontent for the
status quo, not being satisfiedwith the way things are today.
And look, I'm a continuousimprovement guy, there's no
doubt about it, and I know thatthere are times when innovation
must occur.
You know your story reminded me.
You know, going all the wayback to the Henry Ford story
about.
You know they asked him to makea faster horse car and he came

(11:53):
out with a car.
If they would, if they wouldask him, you know, just to make
it go faster, imagine if hewould have only thought about
make the wheels smaller or afaster horse and training the
horse.
No, we're grateful that he tookthat approach of just kind of
blowing it up completely and, inessence, designing the
automobile and making thatpossible for us.
We have to have those thinkers.
We've got to have both insideof our organizations.

(12:15):
We've got to have thosethinkers as you relate it back
to being athletic again andbreaking it down into those
smaller goals to be able toachieve those things.
I love there's so much that wecould spend a time on right
there, put a pin in and stayright there with those.
I think you get enough pointsthere that, as I listened to you
in your mid fifties, I know yougot a lot more coming in terms

(12:37):
of what's happening.
You have that.
Keep that mindset of innovationinside of you.
Consistency, though, is a keytheme on your journey, as you
have.
Let's start with your trainingfirst.
What are some non-negotiablehabits that you've done?
So, if you got Goggins in yourmindset, you know you got.
I know you have habits that youdo on a daily or weekly basis
to ensure that you're continuingto get better.

(12:59):
What are some of thosenon-negotiables that help you to
stay in the shape that you'rein in your mid-50s?

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Well, I think for me, one of the things that's the
most critical is that I need tohave accountability, and for me,
accountability starts withcommitting to something, and I'm
a big believer in the entireSpartan ethic and kind of
mindset, big believer in theentire Spartan ethic, and you

(13:28):
know kind of mindset, Um, andthe founder of Spartan talks
about don't don't kind of takethe view of rain of you know aim
, ready fire, where you have toget ready first, Um, and then
you can start.
You know, just get started andthen you know aim.
You know, so I think it's fireready, aim, or something like
that, what he says.
And I tell all my friends, like, if you really want to make

(13:50):
change, you have to commit tosomething, like literally sign
up, tell all your friends, putit out there, create this, this
power of accountability, thatnow you know you've told
everybody you're going to dothis, You've got a date on the
calendar, you paid 200 bucks tosign up for this thing, Like
you're in, and now you've got tofigure out how to get ready.

(14:12):
And with the Ironman, the factthat I know I have a date on the
calendar by the way, I'mtraining for my second right now
.
So this is all very front ofmind because you know I wake up,
I have 11 weeks to go untilrace day, and so I wake up every
day and say, okay, like whatI'm, you know, what do I still
need to work on?
Where are my gaps?
What am I going to do every dayto kind of get to the point

(14:33):
where, over the next, you knownine weeks and then my taper,
like I'm ready to go on race day, and that is tremendous, has
tremendous power for mydiscipline.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
So you've got a plan that you're following.
I'm sure that's going to makesure that you get there.
A, you state the goal, you putyour money in on that habit to
make sure that discipline'sthere.
It's exactly how we got signedup the four guys that I was with
, or three other guys that I waswith on the Spartan that we did
.
We signed up for it first andthen we figured out how we were
going to get there and we eachdeveloped our own little

(15:09):
training plans to get there.
But ultimately we met up thatday and made something good
happen, where, if you kind oftalk about it and talk about it,
look and I'm guilty of that weneed to do one of those someday
and someday never kind ofhappened.
So I'm going to guess that youdon't really have that someday
kind of attitude as you're goingthrough it.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
I, you know, hey, I'm human, you know, I I used to uh
, I've gotten better at it there.
There probably are, you know,still some things where I kind
of like you know right now, forexample, like travel, um, you
know there are places that Iwant to go and I'm very eager to
get to and I keep saying oneday I'm going to get there.
And you know I sometimes Iquestion myself why don't I take
the same approach with gettingto that location that I do with,

(15:49):
you know, running this Ironman?
And you know it's a question ofpriorities.
You have to figure it out OK,for this year, you know, given
the constraints that we havearound time and money and
schedule, you know which ofthese are more important.
But there are areas of my lifewhere I don't, you know, apply
that same level of discipline.
And it's just, it is a matterof prioritization.
You can't do everything and soyou have to kind of make some

(16:11):
tough choices.
One thing about training for anIronman or any hard race,
marathon, is it really forcesyou to assess your priorities
because all of a sudden you havemuch less time, free time, than
you had before If you're goingto do your job and you're going
to spend time with your familyand you're going to train for an
Ironman, there's not much leftover, and so I have to cut out
things that I used to do, like Idon't watch TV like hardly ever

(16:33):
anymore, and there's otherthings that I would do before
that I've kind of like for now,anyway, until this race is over.
You know, those didn't make thecut.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
I appreciate that because that was one of the
questions I wanted to ask.
I mean, look, folks will say Idon't have time to do all this
exercise.
And when you start to thinkabout the time that it takes to
train for an Ironman, I mean Iknew a friend, adam, who did

(17:04):
several Ironmans and he ended upat one of the big events, kind
of qualified for one of the bigevents going forward, but that's
three or four hours a day, nodoubt about it.
In terms of getting ready forthat, the different training you
have to do swimming, biking,running to get ready.
How do you balance that outwith family and work
responsibilities as well?
How do you make that happen?
One of the ways you talkedabout was saying no to certain
things that you may like to do.
What else do you do?

Speaker 1 (17:24):
By the way, when I, when I find myself even saying,
oh, I don't have time for that,I always check myself because I
realize I do have time, I justhave chosen not to prioritize
that, and so usually, you know Iit's.
I think it's important toalways remember when you say you
don't have time for something,really what you're saying is I'm
not prioritizing that aboveother things.
Amen, to put this intense timeinto inward, towards my training

(18:00):
, I had to make sure the timethat I spent with others in my
life family, work, kids you knowthat that time was extremely
high quality.
And so when you know when I getdone with a ride and I'm and
I'm back home, you know I'llfind my wife and I'll check in
and say how's your day going.
You know what can I help with.

(18:25):
You know what do you want to.
You know.
You know what do you want toget do with your day, um, and
find out what she needs and makesure then that I'm on for her
If I come home.
And so the next three hourslying around, you know, like
watching TV and recovering,which is exactly what my body

(18:46):
wants to do, you know I justwant to take a nap and put some
TV on or a football game andjust sit there for the next
three hours.
But you know, I don't know.
If I do that, then I'mdeprioritizing something that's
extremely important to me, whichis the people in my life that
need me.
So I've realized that if I'mgoing to do this, the things
that I do, the trade-off or themight be the wrong word because
it's not a negative, but thecorollary to that is I have to
be extremely intentional withthe time that I spend with the

(19:09):
people in my life.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
There's that word intentional.
That is so important to beintentional with how you create
that so that they don't get theworst right, they don't get the
crumbs that's left over whenyou're done.
No, I mean that is veryinspiring, sean, and I
appreciate you kind of goingthrough that.
Look, you're not doing this onyour own.
You've got family that kind ofis supporting you.

(19:30):
That goes through that.
But in the fitness world, inthe leadership world, how
important do you see communityas part of that?
So tell me that type ofcommunity that it takes to
continuously run Ironman and Iknow the community inside of
Spartan World is pretty powerfulin the group that we had.
But how important is it forleaders to surround themselves

(19:51):
with great people in a community?

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Well, I'll give the work answer first, because I
figured that out a long time ago.
It took me a lot longer tofigure it out on the kind of
fitness side.
On the work side, I think Irealized very early on that
there was no way that I wasgoing to be successful in my
career unless I enabled othersto be successful.
You know, my success was goingto be a function of helping

(20:14):
others succeed.
And at one point in my career Istepped into a team that I was
hired as the leader of sixpeople and I was told during the
interview process that the teamhad the worst reputation of any
team in the company.
They'd done some kind ofsatisfaction survey or something
and that team the legal team atthe time scored worst.

(20:36):
So that's why they werereplacing the person that was
there before and hiring me.
And I got in and I figured, oh,this must be a team of poor
performers and that must be theproblem.
But after a few weeks ofworking with the people I
realized that wasn't the issue.
They had just been held backand constrained in their ability

(20:56):
to do their work by a managerwho was very controlling and
wanted every you know tomicromanage, kind of every piece
of it and to take credit forkind of every piece of it.
And so I said I'm just going toflip this on its head.
I'm going to tell these peopleyou know, go like you know.
Here's some core principleswe're going to follow as a team,

(21:17):
but as long as you're operatingin accordance with those
principles, like you, go out, doyour work, make the calls I'm
here, escalate to me when youneed to, but if you feel
comfortable that you know theanswer, just go, do your work
and be successful.
And within a year, when thatsurvey was done next, the legal
team went from worst to first.

(21:38):
It was amazing.
We now were the top ranked teamin terms of feedback, and I
didn't I might've changed oneteam member, but it really was
because I realized that that forthe team to succeed, I had to
empower and enable every singleone of them to succeed and be
supportive of them.
If and I told them if you sendme an email or a text or you

(22:02):
call me and I've got 40 otheremails, I'm going to put yours
first and I'm going to get yoursdone first because there are
six of you.
If I can enable all six of youto be maximum productivity.
That's six times more efficientthan me doing my work, and it's
I followed that maximum to thisday on the work.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Love that you got to have a great team around you.
No doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
You know even our buddy.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Being a Notre Dame fan.
Everybody Lou Holtz would saythat you can have a great coach
all you want to, but if youdon't have great players, it
doesn't matter.
Great players can make a goodcoach look really great.
In terms of making that happen,absolutely.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Absolutely On the personal front, though, when it
comes to my fitness, I think fora long time, you know, I was
pretty much doing it on my own.
Maybe I had one or two friendsI would do a race with, but I
didn't reach out to a community,I wasn't communicating really
with others, I was just, youknow, if I had a community, it
was one or two people that I wasdoing all this with, and it

(23:01):
wasn't until the last few years,partly because of social media
I really embraced social mediaas part of my fitness and also
because of a track group that Igot involved with here called
Belmont Track Club, in the areahere, which is just blessed with
some of the most phenomenalpeople I've ever met, and it's a

(23:21):
big group.
I mean, there's probably 20, 30of us that are regulars in this
team.
And when you and now I'm alsopart of a community with this
group called Marathon Sportshere, that is just an incredibly
inspiring group of ambassadors.
And now that I'm to me, nowI've realized that the power of
my fitness comes from connectingwith these communities.

(23:41):
What I learned from them, whatthey learned from me, how we
help each other train, how wepush each other along and the
power that comes from so manypeople supporting so many other
people, people, and nothingmakes me happier in this, in

(24:03):
this world, on the kind offitness front, than when
somebody tells me that you knowthey were struggling, they were
kind of giving up on theirfitness, but then they saw
something that I was doing andthen they got encouraged to,
like, sign up for a race or toget back to the gym.
Like I hear that, you know,pretty often and it just gives
me fuel to keep doing what I'mdoing.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share
something special with you.
Many of the topics anddiscussions we have on this
podcast are areas where Iprovide coaching and consulting
services for individuals andorganizations.
If you've been inspired by ourconversation and are seeking a
catalyst for change in your ownlife or within your team, I
invite you to visitcoachjohngallaghercom.

(24:41):
Forward slash free call to signup for a free coaching call
with me.
It's an opportunity for us toconnect, discuss your unique
challenges and explore howcoaching or consulting can
benefit you and your team.
Okay, let's get back to theshow.
I love that and I think aboutthat again.
Just going back to myexperience at the Spartan, I was

(25:03):
so amazed at the communityaspect that they create at the
race the volunteers that arethere at each of the obstacles
that are going on and along thecourse.
They're encouraging you,they're inspiring you, they're
really motivating you to keepgoing and to do that.
And the MCs that are there toget you all fired up, and the
music, all those things that arethere.

(25:24):
I think that community can beso powerful and the fact that
you again, now you have theopportunity, through social
media, to be an inspiration toothers.
Gosh, what else could youpossibly want in terms of
passing it on?
And making that happen is tohave an impact there, and I know
it's not easy.
You don't have all good dayswhen you're training You've
talked about this from a mindsetstandpoint as well and we have

(25:46):
troubles at work and we get intotough times when you're going
through training.
How do you overcome what mightbe those bumps and bruises and
pains and push through it tomake it happen?
What keeps you going?

Speaker 1 (25:59):
I read something on social media following someone
who was a lot more elite than Iam I think it was one of the
elite triathletes and they saidsomething that I'm sure it's
been written many times before,but it's the first time I had
seen it and it said that onaverage, for a serious athlete
who's training for a seriousgoal, about one-third of your

(26:23):
workouts are going to suck.
They're going to feel awkward,you're going to be slow, you're
going to just feel like you'remaking backward progress.
You're going to have about athird of them where you feel
solid and then you're going tohave about a third of them when
you feel like it's reallyclicking.
And you're going to have abouta third of them when you feel
like it's really clicking.
And you know to read that.
You know the elite athletes gothrough that.

(26:43):
That really helped to validate,because that's pretty much what
I feel.
I definitely have some workoutswhere I just feel off and I just
feel sluggish and you know,maybe I'll even have, you know,
a couple in a row, but I neverhave like 10 in a row.
You know, for every day likethat I'll have a day.
Like you know, this morning Igot up early and went for a swim

(27:04):
and it just felt amazing, likeI just felt.
You know, my form was good, myenergy was good and it was so
affirming.
But if I go out on Monday and Ihave a sluggish swim, I'm not
going to panic, I'm not going tosay, well, what's going wrong,
I'm just going to remember therule of thirds, you know.
Okay, for every one of the ones, like this morning, I'm going

(27:26):
to have one like next Monday.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
So any nutrition tips that keep you going as well.
That are habits and disciplinesI'm trying to learn here now.
That's a significant energydrain to get ready for an
Ironman, no matter how you'relooking at it.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
I'm going to answer your question a little more
broadly, if that's okay.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
When it comes to especially Ironman training,
which is in swim, bike run, I'vekind of decided that it's four
there's swim, bike run andrecovery.
I've kind of decided that thereit's four there's swim, bike
run and recovery.
And I intentionally put as mucheffort into and time into the
recovery component as I do theother three.
And that involves stretching,it involves PT, it involves

(28:04):
sleep.
You know I really prioritizegetting my sleep in.
On the nutrition side, you knowI'm very careful about the fuel
I put in my, put in my body.
I mean, hey, I'll have a pieceof chocolate cake, just like
everybody else.
But you know, most of my foodI'm trying to try to be
intentional about and eitherhave, like you know, my body
needs carbs at this level oftraining, so I have to

(28:25):
prioritize carbs and make surethey're complex carbs, you know,
with whole grains and seeds andthings like that, and then
protein, um, just making sureI'm getting um, a lot of protein
.
And then also, you know, fatty,fatty fish, spinach, you know,
things like that.
And um, you know, I I feel likeif I, you know, eat well and

(28:50):
hydrate well and sleep well,I'll have really good energy for
these workouts and be able tokind of keep up the intensity,
cause you're right, it's about20 hours a week for me right now
of workouts.
So that need that.
I need a lot of fuel.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
So I love that in terms of talking about that
recovery as well.
And again, as leaders, we don'tprioritize those things very
well, even even if and again, asleaders we don't prioritize
those things very well, even ifwe're not athletes, as leaders,
we're not prioritizing sleep or,in general, staying up late on
our computers trying to get workdone.
You know, can you talk aboutsome of those minor details blue
light that you look at and thestress you create and cortisol

(29:27):
and all those things that I'msure you've studied?
I mean leaders, you've got topay attention to this.
It doesn't matter if you run anIronman or you run a Spartan or
something else.
You've got to prioritize sleep,you've got to prioritize
nutrition so that you can showup to be the best leader you
need to be to the people thatyou work with on a daily basis.
Too often and it took me Ididn't learn at uh, in seventh

(29:50):
grade uh, that I could be anathlete while I played a lot of
sports.
You know I was, you know, latein my forties before I finally
made the decision that I neededto take care of myself a little
bit better.
So you should be commended forwhat you've done, sean, in terms
of the work that you've put inand the consistency that you've
put in over the years tocontinue to find that.

(30:11):
What consistency that you'veput in over the years to
continue to find that.
What if that continues to driveyou?
So you were training for theIronman.
Now have you had theopportunity to talk or think
about the next?
What if for you, whether it'scareer or life or fitness?

Speaker 1 (30:26):
The way I've been approaching it the last several
years is that there's a coupleof key principles that I know I
will follow, but then Itranslate that into specific
goals on an annual basis.
So I'm not yet thinking aboutwhat I'm going to do in 2026.
Maybe I've got a few ideaspercolating in my head, but I'm

(30:47):
not committing to anything untilI get all, you know, all my big
goals achieved for 2025.
Then I'll stop and I'll reflect.
But the principles thatunderlie it, which I think will
not change, is number one, isthat every year I want to push
myself outside of my comfortzone, and that can take a couple

(31:10):
of different ways.
Number one is going to saydoing something that I already
do, but doing the next hardestthing.
So Spartan, for example, I'vedone I had done prior to this
year I'd done three trifectaweekends where you do the beast,
super and the sprint in oneweekend.
I'd done that three times and Ihad done one ultra on its own,

(31:31):
but I had never combined anultra with a sprint and the
super in the same weekend.
I'd done that three times and Ihad done one ultra on its own,
but I had never combined anultra with a sprint and the
super in the same weekend.
And so this year in 25, I saidthat's how I'm going to step
outside my comfort zone.
I'm going to take the hardestthings I've done in Spartan and
combine them for the first time.
And so, and then even with theIronman, when I did my first
last year in arizona at 55, whenI was thinking about do I want

(31:55):
to do it again at 56, I I saidyes, but it needs to.
I need to take it, even if it'sa small step up, like I need a
harder course or I need a littlebit harder challenge.
So I picked lake placid, whichhas is notorious for its hilly
bike course, and it's going tobe a lot more of a challenge
than Arizona's relatively flatbike course.

(32:16):
But for me, that's the way Istep outside my comfort zone.
Or another way to do it is justtry something totally new that
you've never done before.
And I really would like to trya martial art.
Would like to try a martial artand once my Ironman is over
this year, I'm going to takesome introductory classes in a

(32:39):
few of the disciplines ofmartial arts and just, you know,
try it, see what I like, seewhat resonates with me.
But I want to try somethingcompletely new which, also from
a physiological perspective, isreally good for your brain.
You know, when you try newthings you've never done before,
it forces your brain neurons torewire in ways that kind of
help keep everything fresh andhealthy.

(33:00):
So not only is it good from aphysical and mental perspective,
but I think it really is goodin terms of you know, just your
overall health and longevity.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Man that's so cool.
Again, looking for that one inmy lead.
In his book the Power of OneMore, it talks about it being
one more Like what's that onething that I can take it just a
little bit further, and somefolks might think that's a
little bit crazy, but it reallyis.
Whether you define it aschoosing what your heart is,
David Goggins would talk aboutthat.
In terms of some of histraining, he I mean, he's pretty

(33:31):
brutal, to say the least, interms of how he communicates and
just lets you know that you'rea wimp if you don't want to get
this done, but just that youknow what's that.
One more that's going to takeyou to your point, outside your
comfort zone, maybe not to thepanic zone, but it's going to
force you to learn somethingdifferent.
And then I love, kind of toyour point, converting it to
something that you've reallynever done before as well, like

(33:54):
the martial arts.
What a fantastic idea, Spartans,because I'm getting ready for
my second.
Let's say, if I try to get thetrifecta in a year, that might
be the first.
Then next year we can talk.
It's funny, a couple of theguys are talking about the ultra
next year.
I'm like I'm not ready tocommit to that yet.
Let me get through the secondevent and we'll see how that
goes.
What's your least favoriteobstacle that you've experienced

(34:16):
at a Spartan?

Speaker 1 (34:19):
There's one that I struggle with and it's
frustrating because it's sosimple and it's called the eight
foot wall and that's all it is.
It's an eight foot wall thatyou have to jump up on and grab
over the top and flip yourselfover, um, but you know, I'm
roughly five, seven and Istruggle to get up and just like

(34:40):
come some.
You know I can do it some ofthe time, but my success rate is
much lower than than I wouldlike and it frustrates me
because, um, you know it's, it'sjust a question of technique
and I don't have it down.
I need to figure out a way topractice it.
But I'm good at the ones thatpeople struggle with, like the
you know the grip ones whereyou're going on, the twister,

(35:01):
where it's constantly shifting,or the beater, where the you
know the metal bars are going.
An egg beater, Like I've gottenpretty good at those, but why
can't I get it over this eightfoot wall?
It drives me nuts and I seepeople you know who are my
height or even shorter go upthere and find their way over.
So I'm like, I know it'spossible, I know I can do it.
I just need to, you know,really double down on my

(35:23):
technique and figure it out.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, I claim that you know the hanging stuff, the
rings, the, the beater, thetwister, whatever those are.
You know the first time through.
I'm blaming it on height.
I'm six, four, so my, my armsare a lot longer.
You know, they're not, they'renot quite made for that type of
least.
That's an excuse that I'mpretty good at anyway.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
So I'll train.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
I'll train it for the next time.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
When you're ready to train, let me know I've got some
great tips for grip strength.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
I would.
I would love that.
And if we talk about thatafterward, absolutely because
I'm starting the trainingtomorrow.
For the next, we got an Augustof 5k, so I'll be ready for
improving grip strength, nodoubt about it, because that was
definitely a weak point for me.
What's your favorite one?
Which one do you love the most?

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Um, that's a great question.
I really anyone that involvesringing the bell.
Um, you know, the, the, the,the, the um experience of going
through a tough obstacle andjust gritting through it and at
the end there's a cowbell andyou slap it and you hear the
ring and it's just, it's anelectric feeling.
I say probably the rope climb.

(36:29):
Um, you know, getting all theway up to that rope and then
just being able to slap thatbell as loud as you can.
I just love that feeling.
It keeps me coming back.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
You know, as you think.
If you say that I don't knowthat in my first one I rang the
bell on one obstacle, well, justbecause the bells are the
hanging the rope, I got towithin like six inches of the
rope and it was raining and Ilost my footing, where kind of
the j hook, yes, and I kind ofpanicked a little bit.
I couldn't get my, I couldn'tget my last set, like my last

(36:59):
hook on the feet, and I was sodisappointed.
But I will not let that happennext time.
I want to ring that, but.
But you're right, I mean those,the one where you climb along
the wall, uh, you know and gripthe two by fours or whatever
that are there.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, the Z wall, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
I didn't ring any bells.
I got to.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
I want to ring a bell next time, Absolutely Very
important and once, once, you do, you'll, you'll, you'll be back
again.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Guaranteed.
So I had.
I had a friend, dave who, whodid and he'll probably listen to
kind of the yell that he letout when he was done, when he
got done off of that rope.
That was really, really coolbecause it was his first Spartan
as well.
One last one, though, becauseyou probably don't do a whole

(37:41):
lot of these in terms of thepenalties I had penalty laps in
the race, but overrated orunderrated burpees.
What do you think of burpees?

Speaker 1 (37:51):
You know that the burpees are controversial in
Spartan racing, but Joe DeSena,the CEO, he's very clear as to
why they're there, which is thatthe penalty needs to be hard
enough that you really want tocomplete the obstacle.
You know, if the penalty lap istoo easy, you're going to be
like, all right, I try or youskip it.

(38:13):
I even see people skipping theobstacle altogether because they
don't even try Go right to thepenalty.
Because they think there's noway I can do this, so they don't
even give it a shot.
But if you're doing 30 burpees,you're going to really try as
hard as you can on that obstacle.
Now, 30 burpees is hard.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
I tell Joe hey, can we make a 20?
You know that that still wouldbe, I think, accomplish the
objective without taking so muchout of you physically.
But that's the thinking behindit and there's definitely a core
of truth to it.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Um, 30s a lot, but that's why it's there 30 is a
lot and they only had it in one.
They had it in the uh javelinthrow.
It was the only one that hadthe burpees.
Everything else was a run uh inthe, uh the spartan this past
weekend.
But I hit the javelin.
I couldn't was so great, I hitthe javelin, the first try.
I'm so happy I don't know if youcan really train for that one,

(39:05):
but that felt pretty good.
Um, I'm gonna assume, sinceyou're up in that boston area,
then you've run the one insideof Fenway Did they have one
inside of Fenway.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah, I bet that was fun too in terms of going
through it.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Awesome, Sean.
How do folks stay in touch withyou and learn I want to be
inspired by you as well and whatyou do in your mid-50s and how
you continue to grow and howyou're teaching others how to do
this also.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
I created a website.
It's called Sean Hoyt stayactivecom.
Sean is S H A W N and that'sone of the kind of clearing
house for everything that I'mdoing.
If you go there, you can get tokind of.
I've got an Instagram channelthat I'm very active on.
I've got Spotify content thatI've created.
I've got YouTube content Icreated, but you can get to all

(39:50):
of that from the website.
I do tell people that onInstagram, like you know, I love
following people's journey.
I follow as many people asfollow me intentionally and you
know, if I love to followpeople's journey and have it be
reciprocal, I try to be reallyactive in commenting on what
people are doing.
You know, every time I catchmyself just scrolling through

(40:13):
Instagram, I stop and say, okay,I'm not really engaging here.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Engaging sure.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
The point of this is this needs to be active and not
passive for it really to be acommunity.
I welcome people to connectwith me there.
It's just at Sean Hoyt, stayActive.
You can pretty much just do asimple web google search too.
It'll all come up okay, um, butI really, uh, I'm very much

(40:39):
enjoy the community aspect of italso.
You know, we you and I weretalking about this a little bit
at the beginning, before westarted recording, but I have
met so many people in real lifethat I first started engaging
with over Instagram or socialmedia.
It's amazing to me, as I travelaround to races or to cities,
I'll find people in the citiesthat I've been, you know,

(41:01):
following their journey foryears on Instagram, will connect
for a cup of coffee or a dinneror a drink, and I have all of
these like real life friends.
Now we're all started oversocial media.
So people think social media isfake, they think it's not real,
but these are real people andyou can meet them in person and
develop real friendships.
And you know, I've certainlydone that and it's meant a lot

(41:22):
to me and my community has grownsignificantly, in part because
I've been able to engage, youknow authentically with enough
people over social media thatthey turn from online
friendships to real friendships.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
John.
I love that.
That's how we got connected.
Another guest on the podcastconnected us and ultimately not
through social media, but that'show I'm following you as well,
and then I think those thingsare so powerful that community
in and of itself can be powerful, and the community of people
who inspire each other.
It's so important.
It's something that we don'tsee enough of.

(41:55):
Sean, I can tell, obviouslyyou're an inspiration to many,
those that you teach, if youwill, on your website and social
media channel, your family andyour workplace as well.
I can hear that in all threeareas.
I appreciate you adding valueto the listeners of the Uncommon
Leader podcast.
I'm going to give you the lastword here with the question I

(42:16):
always finish everybody else upwith.
I'm going to give you abillboard and you put it
anywhere you want to.
What's the message you're goingto put on that billboard and
why do you put that message onthere?

Speaker 1 (42:25):
By the way, I love this question.
I've been listening to yourpodcast and and and reflecting
on this ever since I heard youfirst ask it.
Um, I think it's reallyimportant for everyone to kind
of think about that.
Like, what is my message?
If I only had 10 words or so,you know what would they be, and
so, uh, you know, for me, Ithink it would say, um, and I
chose these words veryintentionally.

(42:47):
I think it would say you willsucceed when you start.
And I think there you know acouple of things.
To note is that you know, somany times I hear people talk in
in very equivocal language youknow, I want to do this, or I'd

(43:10):
like to do this, or if I can dothis, and I always try to tell
people, you know, turn peopletowards like, well, why can't
you know?
Why can't you know?
Why isn't it a will, like Iwill do this.
And then it's like, instead ofif you start, it's like when you
start, like you're going tolike just create this momentum
around it.
This is going to happen, butyou can't have the one without
the other to happen.

(43:32):
Um, but you can't have the onewithout the other.
You know you can't succeeduntil you get started, commit,
put in the work and you knowwith, with consistent discipline
, um.
But so I tried to combine there, you know, my focus on you know
, commit, you know, kind ofbelieving in yourself,
committing to something, puttingin the hard work, but also with
the very intentionality aroundthe language that we use with

(43:53):
ourselves, because I think thatthat language can be either so
important or so destructive.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
So so good, Sean, thank you so much.
I wish you the best, and thatwraps up another episode of the
Uncommon Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
could benefit from the insightsand inspiration we've shared.
Also, if you have a moment, I'dgreatly appreciate if you could

(44:23):
leave a rating and review onyour favorite podcast platform.
Your feedback not only helps usto improve, but it also helps
others discover the podcast andjoin our growing community of
uncommon leaders.
Until next time, go and growchampions.

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