#635 - Kolton and Amanda Rackham - Couple Walked Across America While Pregnant

In this episode of The Jimmy Rex Show, Jimmy sits down with Kolton and Amanda to share their unbelievable story of walking across America—while Amanda was pregnant. They talk about the moment they decided to take on this challenge, what it meant to step away from comfort and routine, and the lessons learned mile after mile as they crossed the country on foot.

Kolton and Amanda open up about the physical and emotional demands of the journey, navigating everything from unpredictable weather to the unique challenges of pregnancy on the road. They share how the experience pushed their limits, deepened their relationship, and taught them to trust themselves and each other in a way they never had before.

Their story is one of courage, commitment, and connection. This conversation will inspire anyone chasing a big dream or facing a major life transition to embrace the unknown and step into the adventure. Kolton and Amanda prove that with enough determination—and love—you can take on even the most extraordinary journeys.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Jimmy Rex Show.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the podcast, we have some special guests. I
actually have a couple. Don't do this very often, but
Colon and Amanda Rackham. They have an incredible story to share.
They actually walked across America the whole thing, like Forrest
Gum style. So we're gonna sit down, we're and talk
to them and find out what their inspiration for that was,
how that went, and just really dive into their story.

(00:25):
So before we get to that, let me just introduce
you to the new Bucked Up Protein supplement drink. It
is so unbelievable. It's one hundred calories, twenty five grands
of protein. Literally, just got another case myself today delivered
to my house. I'm throwing a party this weekend and
I have probably two hundred these now that we're going
to be feeding tall the guests.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
So they are the best. Go check them out.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
They're at Harmon's or anywhere Bucked Up. So let's get
to the show. Colton, Amanda, good to be here with
you guys.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Thank you all right, So let's just start with this.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I think people are going to be curious what inspired
walking across them. And by the way, you walked from
one end, literally from one coast to the next. Yes,
all right, So what inspired this whole journey?

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Oh my turn? Okay, So Colton and I met at
some classes hosted by three Key Elements in Salt Lake
City and we were in another one of their classes
when the presenter, Kirk Duncan, said, twenty seventeen is the
year to be bold, and apparently I felt the call
to be bold. So I turned to Colton. I said, Hey, Colton,

(01:34):
we're going to walk across the United States this summer.
I had meant to invite him. I just sort of
told him what we were going to do, and his
response was perfect. He just said okay, and he kept
taking notes and I kind of ran with it and
was like, he said, yes, it.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Was just a thought you had, just like this is
the thing we're going to do.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
It hit the moment the presenter said it, it kind
of landed and I was like, I'm going to do this.
I got to do this now. And three months later
we took off.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
So did you guys have jobs you had to leave
or whatever, or how did you guys manage with you know,
just your data I think a lot of people have
this dream right or they want to just take off
and go do something, or I've got you know, I
have this there. I want to I've been to one
hundred and fourteen countries, and I want to do a
trip that's just like for a year, just go from
one country to the next, all the ones I haven't
hit yet, so I can get as class as I
can to all of them.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
But you know, one day I'll come.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
But it's the logistics of what do I do with
my life, putting it on hold and all that. I
think that's what mostly slows people down on these kind
of thoughts.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
But so, how'd that work out for you guys?

Speaker 4 (02:34):
I think we were pretty lucky at the time we
were at, you know, in the position we were at.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
I had actually just got fired from my job like three.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
Weeks before then, so it kind of set us up
to not really have as many obligations. We didn't have
kids yet, and so there is a whole other side
of discovery of how to navigate those things and stuff.
But for us, it was like we just it was
landed for us, and it was the timing, the positioning everything,
and so and I think that kind of differs for
everybody's adventure that they want to take. There's going to

(03:01):
be different nuances and things of course that they have
to work through and figure out what it was.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
You know, I think it's a cool part of life,
though it's you know, you get fired. I'm sure that
was a really scary or hard day. And sometimes, you know,
when bad things happened to us, we immediately go to
why me or this victim or whatever, And if you
can ask yourself a better question of like, hey, where's
the gift in this? And all of a sudden, for
you guys, it freed up this opportunity that you never
would have had space for otherwise.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, well it's incredible because I'm getting fired. Actually led
to us both working for this company as like volunteers
getting crew cast cash, which put us in the class
where the presenter actually said that so had he not
gotten fired, we probably wouldn't have been there.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
It would have been just me, And I can tell
you I probably wouldn't have had the same thought, but
I was just so game. I had just kind of
had my own set of inspiration I think earlier that
day where it was like I want to be in
this world of development and mentorship, and and when she
said that, I immediately knew this is an expedited route to that,

(04:06):
and so I was game for it.

Speaker 5 (04:07):
And here we are.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
So what rout did you get? Say? Because I mean
there's different advantages to different ones.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Where you go south, it's a little hotter, but it's
not as totally with the mountains and.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Things like that, really hotter.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yes, where'd you guys start out? And then let's I
want to hear about it? Like I want to. I
want to tell you actually, let's start with this. What
was your worst day of the whole thing?

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Possibly the first day, the first day I would I
would start at one of the worst days was in Nebraska.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh yeah, it's a long walk through Nebraska.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
That was just Cornfield.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
After Cornfield, I've made that y, Yeah, because she's walking
on the freeway the whole time.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
We can't Actually some states you can, in some states
you can't. Yeah, So when we could, there's only one.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
Or through Nebraska.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Basically, Yeah, there's only one or two times we went
just like full wilderness, but it was only because we
knew exactly where we were going, and it'd be.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
Like that day and that's it, and that they was
particularly hard because we had found out recently that we
were expecting and so so it's two days before.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
We walked into Nebraska.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
Told anybody it was like this, So yeah, we're.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Like, how many weeks? Months?

Speaker 3 (05:13):
I oh, man, Okay, we left in May, so May, June, July,
augustn't I think it was about five months. I think
it was like six.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Okay, so you've been going for a minute.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
We thought we'd be done, but at this point we're
just aska. Man, We're like, okay, well, let's so the
weight of that was setting in and winter was kind
of like you know, in the foresight.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, because we'd started in May. At that point, it
was around October.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
So you're starting to get starting to get cold. You
guys are in trouble.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, that night, I mean I was sick to my
stomach that day we had.

Speaker 5 (05:50):
It was just things were just.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
Stacking right, and so we ended up I knocked on
a door, asked if we could maybe be pointed to
a barn or somewhere we could stay inside because it
was cold, and this gentleman said, no, my god, bathroom
you can use if you needed that before you go,
and so we did, and we just talked him for
a couple of minutes and left, and within I don't know,
five ten minutes, someone pulled up and it was practically

(06:12):
the first thing he said, and he's like, hey, where
y'all stay.

Speaker 5 (06:14):
In a night?

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Like I think he asked what we were doing, and
then right after it, we're where are you staying? And
we're like, we don't really know. He said, well, I
got a barn you can stay in if you want.
So I wondered if they were friends, you know, the
farmers that were miles apart. But so we hopped in
the back of his truck and with all his tools
and equipment from work, and he.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
Pulls up to the barn and he goes, all.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
Right, you know, just make yourself a home there, and
then just drove off to his house, you know, a
couple of hundred yards away or so. So we hop
out and we're looking around like, all right, I guess
we just find a spot. And so we went in
and there's just like a horse to the right and
just a pile of hay to the or exchoose me
to the left, and then pile of hay to the
right and then there's like basically like a wall missing

(06:55):
on one side, and thankfully there was three walls that
were pretty well intact. But there was just me running
out really my stomach for hours and knowing like we
didn't get any dinner that night and we were eating snacks,
and then we didn't have equipment, proper gear.

Speaker 5 (07:10):
At that point, we let go of a lot of it.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
It's going to have so like, I mean, just the
logistics side of it is, I'm very curious, So are
you normally sleeping in hotels?

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Are you mostly sleeping on the side of the road,
do you have tents?

Speaker 5 (07:20):
Like?

Speaker 1 (07:20):
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (07:21):
It was absolutely everything you can think of. We so
we started trampoline. That was the one place we offered.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Did that's fun?

Speaker 2 (07:29):
When we were like, yes, sweet, I just got slept,
I just got a new house and has a tramp
I'm like, oh, I'm totally going to sleepovers on the
trunk And.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Then they invited us inside in our couch and.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
I wish we'd taken the trau. I would been able
to stretch out better back way anyway, But we slept
everywhere we came with the intention of like, cool, we're
going to camp we got a little like hikers tent
that we both kind of schoos into, and that was
sort of how it started. But then really really early on,
you know, first couple of weeks, we started getting put

(07:59):
up in hotel by you know, wonderful strangers, or we'd
get invited in their home or invited in their like
guest space or whatever. And I mean we slept everywhere.
We slept in an airplane hangar, we slept like on
a park bench.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
So was what was your financial situation? Did you guys
have a pretty good amount of money or were you
kind of scraping by.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
Or so this was actually in our book here there's
a discussion where it kind of clarifies this point. When
we were talking with this gentleman and Chad nugat this
homeless and sharing our stories, and he actually said, y'all
are just a couple of the rich kids slumming across country.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
How we're like, oh, actually no.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
We left with one hundred and forty five dollars, two
backpacks full of stuff and each other, and you know.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
The whole ambition.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
And we also had just done I did my first
mentoring program, and so we had this whole kind of
stack of tools if you will. It's for yeah, mindset management,
emotional management, you.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Know, manifesture food.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
But we're like, yeah, that's kind of the intention was
like how do we align with this? And I mean
it scared me every day, man like until for probably
a couple of months at least, And I remember the.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Basically, so it was basically just stranger taking care of
you guys. Is that essentially what it was?

Speaker 2 (09:13):
And my guess is I've had only one experience where
it gave me so much faith in the human spirit,
and it was I ran the New York Marathon a
few years back, and for basically the whole twenty six
point two miles, there's every single block, there's a different
ethnicity and a different group.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Of people, and they're all just cheering you on.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
It's right after things or howway, so they give you
all their candy and they're like yeah, and it's just
this moment where you're like, holy cow, people are so good.
And so I'm guessing and I'd love to hear, but
this is probably the gift that you got from this
was just seeing the goodness and so many different random people.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Oh, it was evidence that people are good. You know,
there's a lot of stuff on the news and a
lot like they're highlighting the stuff that's a struggle because
they want to keep people aware, correct, But the reality
that is when you're actually out in the world experiencing people,
they're wonderful, they want to connect their kind, they're supportive,
they're encouraging. Like I often don't give myself enough credit

(10:13):
for all of the work we put into the walk,
but man, I was very moved by the way that
people showed up for us.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, how long total did it go?

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Fourteen months? Twenty three days.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
And so you guys, for fourteen months, you literally don't
know every day where you're going to sleep, how you're
going to eat.

Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah, So there were there were some days months into
the trek that we kind of had you know, we
had a host that would drive us to and from
where we left off, and so we'd be like, oh, cool,
we know where we're going. And those days were light
and nice, and I'd say eighty percent or ninety percent.

Speaker 5 (10:45):
At least was yeah Dane recent.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
Now it'd be a dusk and someone pull up, what
are you guys doing? Really tell them and they're like, wow,
that's really cool, Like where you're staying, we don't know,
and then we just would go with them because we
trusted them and they trusted us, and it worked out.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Did you have there's a back when the social media
that was first starting, there was a company called, not
a company, a website called like couchsurf.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Dot com or CouchSurfing or something like that.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
I think I tried to use that at one point
while we were out there and it was too hard
to navigate because we didn't have a car.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, it seemed like a good way to get yourself killed.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I'm like you guys, I'm pretty adventurous. I used to
thumb a ride every day for months, you know, I
would hitch hike and stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
I just whatever.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
There was a couple of times I want to get
in the back of a truck and this one time particular,
I was screaming and hitting the thing to get out.
The guy was just peeling out and he's clearly drunk
and scared the shit out of me, if I'm being honest.
But other than that, it was like, you know, I
just meet the nicest people that are trying to help
you out, but but no, I have this fear I
don't know if you guys have ever seen the joke meme.

(11:46):
It's like this guy, he's like, he's like, my wife
just put our address online so that somebody can give
us twelve dollars for our sofa or whatever. A lot
of days like I'm gonna get killed over this twelve dollars. Now,
everybody knows getting random strangers, you know, showing up or whatever.
But did you guys ever have any scary moments or
close calls?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Not so much of key people.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
There was one, no, you said, the guy drunk driving you.
Someone did pick us up when we presume he was
drunk because he's kind of slurring. He drove fine, but
he drove us forward and dropped us off at a
convenience stop, and he said I'll be back. I'll come
back and get you guys, and.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
We're okay, cool. We waited for hold on.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
Context.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
The reason why is because we wanted to have a
continuous line across the United States of US walking, of
us carrying ourselves all the way across the continent. Right,
so we would get rides, but only if they'd put
us back where they found us so that we could
continue that.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
It makes sense experience.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
So he said, I'll come get you guys who were
there for like almost two hours.

Speaker 5 (12:45):
We're like, this guy's not coming back.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
So we walked back. He's the one stretcher. We walked
backwards for our line.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
But how long would you walk every day? I mean
I walk every day.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
I go for a walk for thirty to forty five
minutes or whatever, and you know you walk a mile
and a half two hours, two miles usually in that time.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
How long were you guys walking every day?

Speaker 3 (13:03):
As long as we could.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
Our shortest day was an hour. Our slowest day was
four miles and four hours. That was walking up to
Lincoln Monument. She was like five months pregnant. It's winter,
sixty mine hour gusts up hill in Wyoming, so it
was a lot of different variables for us to be
that pace. Yeah, we walked up to I think fourteen
maybe fifteen hours.

Speaker 5 (13:25):
Was the biggest day. Our biggest day miles wise was
about twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, which destroyed my body.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
So you start on the east coast, yeah, ords that
in Georgia.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, and you went up then I guess I like
the arc.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
So if you look at the twenty seventeen. It's basically
that same.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Arc, and you ended up in Oregon, Oregon, Newport Organ
Don Davis Park.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Once it got cold and stuff, What did you guys do?
Did you guys still sleep in your tent?

Speaker 1 (13:55):
And then we.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Actually got rid of our tent in Illinois.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
Sleep bags went first. And then we're in Illinois staying
with somebody. She's like, we've been carrying this, we haven't
used it for a while, and we let it go.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
And I'm like, are you kidding me?

Speaker 3 (14:08):
I'm the rebel that constantly says how much more can
we go extreme? Here? And so I was the one
always going, let's go on the walk, let's get rid
of our gear. See what happened?

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Wow? And so how pregnant were you when you finished?

Speaker 3 (14:22):
We had given birth to our son on the path.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
Yeah, that's why he's on the he's three months old.

Speaker 5 (14:29):
So we it's funny.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
We we thought we're going to be the fastest, like
the whole way. We're like, it'll be it'll be cruisill
blaze through it, it will be all acclimated. Well, we
had a baby in Parma, Idaho. We were trying to finish,
but he decided he was ready to come.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Pretty good place to have a baby, though, but there
are a lot of people were, oh, it was incredible.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, And it sounds like you probably haven't heard this
part of the story, but we give a little bit
more context. When we were in Wyoming at a motel
on New Year's I went to the family dollar got
some stuff to do vision boards, and she drew up
have a safe and easy delivery with a midwife. And
so two weeks out on the trip we were she
was without insurance, health insurance, and here we are in Wyoming, pregnant,

(15:12):
We're going to have a delivery with a midwife. We're like,
we don't know how, we just that's our vision and
so lo and behold. The night that shooting the labor,
we were actually staying with a retired midwife and his family,
and so we did the first portion four hours or
so by ourself, and then invited him for the last
couple of hours to help us. And so he was
He was born in Idaho, Onyx And we carried him

(15:36):
for three months across organ So it was not the
easiest state.

Speaker 5 (15:38):
It was the hardest state by far.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
And it's probably easier for you, harder for him because
you were no longer carrying your health.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, he was carrying more weight, but I was recovering
from giving birth.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Road that's true.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Yeah, dealing with all those new mom hormones.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
So did you guys have a day where you almost
called it?

Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yeah, two or three times.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, the one with the barn where we had a
really rough night. That was like the extremity of that
night was that it got down to thirty degrees and
we didn't have all the like sleeping bags and stuff.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
I found like a horse saddle blanket to put on
top of it.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Was with that's not warm. I think that's a bad night.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
I think together collectively we got like two and a
half hours of sleep or something. Anyway, so that that night,
for sure, we were like next.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Day, we're just no. We actually set some really clear boundaries.
That was where we started implementing more rules and boundaries
for ourselves as far as like, hey, we run into
this high stress, this is how we address it and
decide if we continue or not, or if it's just
too much. And so we call that our forty eight
hour rule that we integrated in there, and it's been
really helpful in the path of entrepreneurial.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, well there's a really good quote or whatever. It's
like it you can quit, but it has to be tomorrow. Yeah,
you have to.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
You know, hey, if I'm still filling this tomorrow, like, so,
is that what the forty eight hour role is?

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Essentially? Like, when you feel like quitting, you got to
give it forty eight hours. I'm sure you still feel like.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
Quick were staying open two things.

Speaker 4 (17:03):
So it's essentially, if I were going to succeed I
knew I was, I keep stepping as if I knew
I was, and for those forty eight hours. And if
at the end of that forty eight hours I still
feel like quitting, then I will. But every time, with
every experience growing, you know, our business stuff or this
this trek, by forty eight hours, if it.

Speaker 5 (17:24):
Seems like life just shows up.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, I've had buddies sailed their managers by abiding to
that role.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
They were ready to end it, and it was like,
you know, you're in that heightened emotional state and you're
you know, and it feels so good in that moment too.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Just end like it feels so good and just throwing
the towel or scream or whatever. You got to do.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
But if you can just get yourself to like chill
for forty eight hours or even usually through the night,
you're usually make the right decision.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Well you can just see it more clearly, you know.
For us, we were we were weighing the life of
this new little one, going, hey, are we actually being
safe or right safe?

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Danger in this child? And so probably were, but.

Speaker 4 (18:02):
In the best way, wild man, I'd tell you yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
And so for us, you know, a lot of it
was like cool, we really want to make sure we're
being super cautious and aware of that. But outside of
like safety, we're like if we're actually safe, you know,
we're not wounded, there's not We're not like goetna get
frostbied or something. Let's give it some time and see
if things shift. Life changes so quickly.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
So do you guys attach any like cause or meaning
to this or was it just we want to do
something crazy? Or what was Because in those moments when
you know you're sleeping with a horse saddle, you've got
to dig a little deeper, and if you don't have
some pretty good whys, it can get pretty tough.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
Yeah, absolutely, So three main for us, and it's it's
evol This is interesting what you said about the first piece,
which is a journey of self discovery. We wanted to
know who we were because we grew up with you know,
really religions and you know, being in the school systems
and all sorts of different you know, things that we
took on, and so we wanted to kind of peel
that back and go, Okay, who are we really?

Speaker 5 (19:05):
And before we left, we I.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Think you had actually said this is this is going
to be way bigger than us. Let's let's look at
some foundations. And so we started researching and really connected
to a couple. So make a Wish is a big
one that people know, we raised awareness for and had
really several really cool connections with people out there because
of that. And then the other one was the American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention. That one spoke to us especially hear.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
I had struggled with suicide and so for me, that
was the first foundation we picked because I was like, cool,
I can share with whoever wants to hear or whoever
needs to hear it my experience to help them move forward.
And so that one was just easy.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
It felt for me.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
I can't the whole way I'd say hope for little ones,
big ones, all the ones. We just wanted people to
feel like they can hope, you know, well in life,
and it was really incredible.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Did you guys know of anybody that had done that
before you? Did you have something to go off of
to kind of use as a blueprint at all for
the walk?

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (19:59):
Nope.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
You know, people tell many times you got to read
this book about this cross country track, and I was like,
I'm just going to wait until i'm done, really, and
I didn't read any I still haven't, actually, but I'm like,
I want to be totally unbiased and just let it
be what it's going to. Because we thought, oh, we'll
just build our business. She had started doing energy work
and I just knew to coaching, and so like, oh,
we can just do this remotely and work at mom

(20:21):
Pai restaurants and whatever you do. You kind of work
our way across country even if it takes longer. Life
had other plans and we are just sponsorships and connections
and I've just found, like you've probably found this too.
Maybe when you're clear on your vision and your mission
and you just start moving, people will join. People want
to contribute.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I've always said, like when you really show the universe
that you're serious, like whether that's quitting your job or
you start walking or what what, whatever it might be,
I say, the universe will conspire in your favor, like
when you really throw your hat over the fence and go,
you know what, I'm doing this, I'm going the path.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
You know, it.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Presents itself as you take steps, and so is the way,
you know. I believe that very firmly, and that's the
way to get almost anything done.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, I mean trying to plan out anything, especially of
the magnitude or yeah, plan it's like ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Do you ever get caught up in some like shady
areas or neighborhoods or anything like that.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
No, I mean we walked through Chattanooga and at the
time it was top ten most dangerous city in the US,
and we had a bit of a thing that you know,
for a second with the homeless gentleman I mentioned.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
He was to connect you guys, probably like Aulmless yourself.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
He was trying to like take our like Burly Jogger
where I'm like we were just leaving the restaurant, the
Staco bell and or I'm like no, no, no, that's ours.
And it ended up going from tents and he was
drunk into like tears and connections and hugs. And right
after that walking through the rest of Chattanooga and people
were like, you just walked through like the hood and
we're like, we're just smiling and waving everybody, and people

(21:52):
were like tilling their heads or they like smile bag Like,
you guys look crazy.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
But one of the advantages of looking crazy just and
so you.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Can kind of see it on the cover. So I
was little read the whole way across.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
You guys wore those outfits the entire place and you
were that Wolve's hap.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
So that's fun story.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
True story that actually I think helped us a whole bunch.

Speaker 5 (22:17):
Yu.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
You had open conversations or what that for sure, because
people want to know why are there fair Tale characters
walking across whatever wherever we were at the time. We
had a guy help us set up a website at
the beginning when we were getting into like all the
donations and stuff. And he was from Ireland and he
knew this guy in Ireland you might know what I'm
talking about. I still don't know about it, but a

(22:40):
guy with like a mini fridge that would just bring
it everywhere in Ireland and it was the weirdest thing.
But he's got he was like super famous because he
had it on a surfboard out in the ocean and
he had it like just everywhere. And so this guy
is like, you guys need a gimmick. You need something
so people can tell you're doing something. And I was like,
all right, all right, I don't want to gimmicky, but

(23:01):
like whatever, I'm so glad I listened to him because
I think that was a huge reason why people would stop,
because you know, we weren't just like covered in our
stuff strapped all over to us. You know, we had
these characters going and so people were like connecting to
that good shake cover too.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
You know.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah at some point you got sick of wear in
that hat during the summer that.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
Oh man, oh very very yeah, you can tell.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well, there's I heard a story once.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
There was a guy that he snuck into basically every
major concert event, backstage on all these things, every sporting event,
and his secret was he would just carry a ladder
and nobody would ever bother him or say anything because
he just looked like he belong you know, a little
bit different but kind of the same.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Oh absolutely, it's yeah, it's doing something to kind of
make it's making you look on purpose.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah yeah, and then people like.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
They're doing something or they're crazy literally maloney the way,
So what are the takeaways?

Speaker 1 (23:53):
I want to hear the lessons that you learned.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I mean, doing such an incredible you know, adventure man
one of them lately.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
So when we said journey of self discovery wanting to
know who we were, that's our interpretation then. And she
said this the other day because we've been working. I
mean we've been doing inner work the whole time. I
haven't stopped. You know, what's the limitation, what's the belief
that's holding me back?

Speaker 5 (24:15):
What? You know? What are these emotions are coming up?

Speaker 4 (24:18):
And we've been working really closely with a really good
close friend of ours who's a presence coach. He's amazing,
and so we've been going even deeper with it.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
And she said this yesterday.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
So if I script your quote, correct me. But basically
she's like, I think a journey of self discovery was
kind of code for I don't accept all parts of myself.
I don't love all parts of me.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Parts work.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
Yeah, I was like, if I need to discover all
these parts, then I'm not willing to face the ones.
And we actually I stopped reading at a portion in
our book. I actually set it down because we had
read through it, you know, writing it, but I had
been suggested by my presence coach and great friend, you
got to read through this a to Z now and
I found I actually adopted this portion where it was

(25:02):
kind of along these lines of what are we avoiding
in ourselves? Because when we would be hosted, for example,
we just feel so much bliss and gratitude and just
noticing the grace that was there it was as amazing
and at the same time, at least I didn't feel worthy,

(25:22):
as I can't speak for you when I say at
least I didn't feel like worthy all the time to
be just like given that, And it was really hard
to accept help like that, and.

Speaker 5 (25:31):
I think it is for a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
And so we'd put our focus on mindset and all
the mindset training, we're like, I are to focus on
the gratitude, focus on the grace, focus on the goodness,
but didn't realize that we were avoiding the part of
ourself that felt worthy, and so now lately that's been
some of the messages that we've extracted from that journey
and writing the book and keep on going with it
is kind. I love every part of myself, you know,

(25:54):
the part of me that succeeds and wins. If I'm
like deriving my value from that, then I'm going to
to accidentally unknowingly derive my value from when I don't
win and I lose and I make a mistake. And
so I've been really deciphering that and going, Okay, I've
got this good emotion like cool, I can sit with
it and be with it, and the same thing with
the negative ones, like if I feel really guilty that

(26:17):
I you know, raise my voice to my boy or
anything like cool, slow down, make it right, tell him
I'm sorry, sincerely, and then pause and seriously look at
that part of myself and go, can I love that
part of myself that acted? We had to turn And
it's freaking hard, man, It's hard to do sometimes, but

(26:37):
it's some of the most beautiful work you can do.
Because if you can love yourself when you're down, it's like,
when you're up, what's.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Your process for fine?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Because I think a lot of people hear that and go, yeah,
I'd love to be able to do that. What is
your process for being able to find love for yourself
in those parts?

Speaker 4 (26:51):
For me, lately, it's it might look a little different.
Someone may be brand new to it. I use a
lot of different like somatic practices and things that are
like mind body practice are like journaling, different things. Essentially,
I'm trying to gain awareness the whole time of like
different tools and exercises that we'd use for mindset.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
But lately it's it's the best way I describe it is.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
Just slowing down as much as you can is instead
of it's essentially when you notice you've got you know,
say guilt or shame is you stop and you ask,
can I love this part of myself? And you just
literally just I mean closurize if you must, and just
like love that part and say and evocally I say,

(27:32):
like either in my head or I'll say say vocally
out loud, and go this part of me that feels
guilty for you know, yelling at my kids.

Speaker 5 (27:41):
I love you.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
I don't love that you yelled, but I love you.
And then there's another layer to that though, and this is.
This is where it kind of gets a little bit deeper.
Is is most of the time when people do something
that they feel is a big mistake or out of
turn or whatever, they'll feel guilty or shame or whatever.
But then they'll wrap it in judgment too, So there's
another separate piece to be addressed. And so it's like,

(28:06):
I love that part of me and then going a
little bit deeper, going and that part of me that
judges me for feeling guilty or judges me for feeling mad,
you laboring.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
My feelings flawless all the time.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
I love you too.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
I can hold space for you too.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
It's like Eckhartstally says, it's just been landing lately. Allow
it to be, because if you're giving it space and
you're distinguishing yourself from that action, you're allowing that part
of your past to just be. There's space for it
to exist. When it's it gets caught and stuck in
our bodies and we project it unknowingly like throughout our
day in our life when we resist it being there.

(28:42):
And so the more that we can.

Speaker 5 (28:43):
Just catch it.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
Oh, I feel guilty, I feel a shame, I feel
mad at whatever, I feel sad, cool, stop just stop
love that part of you. Accept it, say something, I mean,
put your hand on your chest. I love this part
of me. You know it's okay. And if you don't,
if you just I just can't because I just the
other day I'm like, I just I can't love this
part of me.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
Guess what love the part of you that resists that
you can't love you?

Speaker 4 (29:08):
Well, that part first, and then you'll get to it.
But yeah, there's so many different actions.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
I think a part of it you said that's really
important is the part where you just have to slow down.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
You have to actually be conscious of it.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
You have to put awareness towards it, you have to
put intention towards trying to love it, because I think
what most people do is they just distract themselves and
I don't want to even look at I don't want
to feel it, whatever that might be. I mean, every
vice that we have, from overeating to smoking, the porn
and everything in between, is usually us avoiding a feeling
that's coming up that we don't want to, you know, experience.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
And that's like the biggest addiction on the planet is
we're addicted to our old stories and our old feelings,
our body, our nervous system is just like, yeah, this
is this is what I'm used to, even if it sucks,
just wants what's familiar, what's familia. So when you start to, like,
for me, feeling like in the book, when I was mentioning,
oh my gosh, I caught in that line where I

(30:00):
could sense where we didn't.

Speaker 5 (30:02):
Feel worthy of it.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
We felt grateful to receive, but we didn't feel worthy
of it. It's like, oh my gosh, Like that's so
cool to notice that slow down, give some appreciation and
just know it's all a part of the path, and
it's it's totally fine, it's good. But yeah, you're right,
it's that slow down. Without that slowdown, you'll miss it
and you'll stay addicted to your old feelings and essentially
keep doing the same stuff and getting the same thing.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
So how about you, what is one of your biggest
takeaways from the whole thing?

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Magic is in the slowdown. You guys definitely teed that
up for me, think yeah, but I mean I remember
starting the walk with the intention of like, cool, we're
gonna walk thirty miles a day. We're gonna make it
in like five months. This is gonna be a cool
summer adventure and then we're gonna move on with our lives. Right, Well,

(30:49):
we didn't really do that. Instead, we started a whole
new life out there.

Speaker 4 (30:52):
Like literally, yeah, I end up king parents and whatnot.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, became a family before we finished. And I feel
like a lot of it can't Like a lot of
the beauty of the walk and the things that we've
tried to bring into our lives now has been that slowdown.
You know, I personally can say that I've seen all
the teeny it'sybitsy super tiny flowers all the way along

(31:15):
the highway in Wyoming, and I don't know that that
many other people can say that because who's stopping on
an eighty mile an hour road.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
I didn't even notice when I was right by him.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
So, you know, it's those little, like tender things like
that are like, you know, the times we would stop
and talk to somebody for five hours instead of making progress.
You know, that's you know, probably the real story of
why we didn't make it faster is all the time
that we took with people, and that was the best

(31:45):
part of it all.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Well, sometimes we're just we're in such a hurry to
get somewhere right that we miss that there's nowhere to
get to. Yeah, the whole thing is just it's not
even about And people say, you know, it's not the destination,
it was the journey. No, it's who you're with on
the journey. It's who you get to expels on the journey.
It's being with yourself on that journey and being able
to recognize that while you're there on the journey, not

(32:08):
once you had to this. I used to be the
guy was just get it done as quick as I can,
you know. And I in fact, last year I did
a Spartan race just barely this last Sunday, and it's
a ten k straight up the mountain, up snow snowbird
or not snow snow snowbasin. Yeah, and I mean it's
a it's a real bitch. I mean it's it's Yeah.
One of the guys in my group dead and took
him seven hours. I mean to give you an idea,

(32:29):
but average person, you're probably between three and four hours
if you're just walking a normal pace. And uh, the
first time I did it, I was just held bent
on getting the fastest I could and it was painful
and I was just flying this.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
Time covery properly.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yes, I was hurting for a couple of days.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
This time, I just said, I'm just gonna keep walking.
And but even the downhill, I didn't want to run.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
I want to walk it.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
And I just was enjoying just being in nature, just
being out there. It was like a Sunday stroll, and
it was honestly super easy. It felt like a walk
in the park because that was my intention, was just
to be there as long as I needed to be
to experience the whole thing.

Speaker 5 (33:03):
Absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
I think that was the beauty of So we tried
at the beginning to plan it. We were like, cool,
we're going to figure out where we're sleeping. We were
trying to reach out to restaurants for like food sponsors
along the way. We're going to make it to them.
They're going to feed us, and we're going to keep
going to this place to sleep. We had all these
ideas about how it was supposed to be done, and
we had an experience early on that's in the book

(33:25):
that made us basically debunk all of that and go, Okay,
this is a way that we're going to be living
for the next little while. We can't plan that out.
We just need to trust it. And so our plan
when we left Utah was to figure it out, which
freaked everybody out, including ourselves, But it was the best
thing that we could have done because I think with

(33:46):
that mindset of figuring it out, we trusted. I mean,
there's a part in the book where we actually took
an extra day with a family to stay and celebrate
their birthday because we're like, it's your b they were
like your new best friends. We have to stay and
it was amazing and I wouldn't trade it for anything
in those memories. I mean, what is life if not

(34:08):
a bunch of memories?

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Right?

Speaker 2 (34:09):
I mean you got to experience more random people or
you know, interesting different types of people in one year,
a fifteen months, then most people get in a lifetime.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Do you stay in touch with any of the people.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
From the journey as best as we can?

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (34:23):
What about along the way were you guys, were you
guys charting? Were you guys doing social media with this?
Was there?

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah, we had a Facebook page. We'd kind of share
things after we were for sure out of the woods. Yeah,
we didn't want moms freaking out and trying to rush
out and rescue us.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
Share it after the bag instead of live And yeah,
there is there is stuff I was looking at and
we wrote in the book, and I look on social
I'm like, we didn't share this at all in Wyoming
when we anyway.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
You're still not sharing. Give us a free view to
the book.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Yeah, imagine a lady who is like six months pregnant
walking in Wayoming. It's like Janu almost January.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
It's like real Mormon pioneer stuff.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I gave that a whole
new I bet did you get a new appreciation for all?
Oh yes I did. I did a little Mormon trek
thing when I was a teenager, and.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
That anybody just got a walk to go anywhere, like
got it?

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Anyway, We walked twenty two miles into the night, Nyoming,
with no idea where we were going to stay.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
No host, and we got to a tiny town called
Walcott right before Sinclair.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
And is actually just a bunch of mostly empty trailers.

Speaker 5 (35:41):
Yeah, like mobile homes that are vacant.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
There's like two or three that looked like there could
be life, and then a gas station and we're like, shit,
this is not what we thought it might be yeah,
So we actually crunched through the snots like two thirty
in the morning.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
It was like three by that point, it.

Speaker 5 (35:58):
Was late early.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
I look at it and I just remember, like, just
the snow is crispy, the air is cold.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
Wyoming winter.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
It was I had to have been record warm for
Wyoming winter.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
I don't even I think it was like twenty nine degrees.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
Or something, which which shouldn't be at.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Night in Wyoming in winter it's normally negative.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
So we actually walked up to we saw one of
the mobile homes had some lights kind of flashing, looked
like TV was on, and I'm like, maybe we should knock.

Speaker 5 (36:28):
I'm like, it's weird.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
It's two, three, three in the morning, and so we
both kind of just sat with it, looked at each other,
and intuition set in and just said, nope, not here, okay.
So we walked around and we found this little like
it's a little shed called It looked like a little shack.
So we're like, let's let's.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
Check this thing out.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
And we go and it's locked, and then again intuition said,
walk around the other side, and it's okay, I want
to check out the other side this building, and I
just knew before I touched the handle, you know all
those times and you're just like, I know, like right
as you're doing it or whatever. You just I grabbed
it and I said, this is going to open. And
it turned and it clicked. I just I could hear
the sound of this little space heater just buzzing, I mean,

(37:06):
just running, and there was it might have been the
laundromat for the four people that lived in that town
or something, because there was you know, four or five
washers and dryers, so it was keeping them from freezing.
And so it must have been you know, forty forty
five degrees in there or something. And we're like, hey,
we can sleep in this. And so we we actually
just laid back on our backpacks.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
And still didn't have like sleep bags or blankets or anything.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
We ended up both up by that point we'd gotten
rid of all those things.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Yeah, right, We woke up in a lot of pain
and really cold, and so I was like, I don't
know why I didn't get these out.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
Before we exhaustion, But we pulled out.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
I pulled out space blankets and crunched in them and
slept slept for I don't know six hours that night,
and we woke up and I remember, you know, when
you shift in the space blankets, they're really crunching a
loud and first thing I remember we shuffling and I'm awake.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
I sent she's awake, and she goes rely It's like,
you're right.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
And I remember just laying there on the cement floor
in this cool room, you know, not eating dinner, haven't
had breakfast in the middle of January, and my whole
body aches, and just feeling so grateful that I was alive,
and so like that's like kind of the beauty of it.
Like when you're talking about your walk and your high

(38:18):
can slowing down, like those are the things. Just doing
those little practices retrain your mind and your body to
slow down and check in notice and get to that
point where you can just feel grateful to be.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, when I think one of the gifts again of
your journey is that it automatically puts you in those situations.
What do you guys do now since you've been back
to create similar type situations where you can make sure
that you're you know, in that gratitude and focus on
just being present.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
Contrast, gratitude is one thing that helps if I'm ever
feeling kind of bitter or whatever, I just kind of
look at some harder parts or harder situations that people in.
So that's really simple thing. I'll just go, Okay, there's
some contrast there. There's a little bit of perspective for
me to realize it. It's not as bad as my
mind's making it out to be.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
A good name.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
I don't know how many different exercises that we do
to kind of retrainer.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
I'd love to hear a few more. Yeah, no, I
think this is really hoodful type stuff.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
I mean, look, you guys clearly have a mental fortitude
that very few people do. I mean, you purposely put
yourself in these uncomfortable situations. People don't even like to
do it for a couple of minutes a day, you know,
put themselves in and sort of put yourself there for
fifteen months straight. I mean, personally, I'm curious to hear
a few more things, you know.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
That's it just made me chuckle when you said that
a second ago, because one of the things we heard
a lot, and I think it was mostly just Georgia.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
I don't know after that, especially.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yo walk across the country.

Speaker 5 (39:42):
I can't even get me to walk to walk to
my mailbox.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
And there a lot of them. When I actually drive
there four mile side, there's there line mowerswers.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
My mailbox right now is about two hundred feet away
from my house and I love it. I have to go,
you know, walk every day. I just try to do
it barefoot, get ground and every.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
So that's that's one way. It's just grounding. Just step
on the grass. Remember you know, we're human and we're
part of the earth, and put your feet on the
grass and then the dirt.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
That's really simple. I actually have started creating.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
It's a regenerative safe so regenerative lifestyles to or you know,
practices to help ground you, to center you, to remember
your vision, to sharpen all those different types of things.
So one of the one of the tools we use
a lot on the track is called the write and burn.
So we learned this originally as a emotional release technique
where you could write, you know, I'm feeling I feel

(40:31):
mad because and you just you'd be surprised what comes
up after you just write that one phrase. Even if
you're like I can't even name it. You start writing it,
and it's a slowdown process where it just it does
something that your brand or slows down. It just you're
trying to keep up with you know. It's like giving
you the words just fast enough where you know you're
trying to write them down, but slow enough to where
you can actually notice what's there and just write out.

(40:54):
And I like to set, you know, either a timer
or a limit like a page or two pages, and
then I rip it up or burn it when I'm done.
And I've started doing this a little bit more too,
where I kind of take the highlights of like what
was I believing? What story was I telling myself? These
things that I'm mad at? What am I telling myself?
That like means about me? Because I'm making all that

(41:15):
up unknowingly. And then once I, you know, get rid
of that paper, I'll get you a new one, or
just do a visualization for a second, or some decorations
or something to kind of reinstate the new belief that
I want to take on, or or just giving myself love,
so it might just be placing my hand on my
heart after or doing some tapping meditations like ef T

(41:36):
tapping or something to help.

Speaker 5 (41:38):
Really solidify cool. I've released that part.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
Of myself and send it, you know, send it away,
give it some love, and now I'm bringing in this
new part to really kind of anchor in. That's that's
that's how I want to live. That's how I want
to shape myself to be. So that's that's a good
one and one that I've really liked more so lately. Again,
I've done it as much, but I did it on

(42:01):
our track and I did a little bit after. Is
for when those times that you're just so upset. It's
just things are just boiled and you just got that
edge and I'm like, why am I so grumpy today?
And so I used to do it on the track
where I'd go out into like the woods somewhere I
just break sticks and hit things, throw rocks, you know, safely,
and scream and yell and it's just getting it out.

(42:22):
It's literally just getting it out. It's really cool stuff.
And science now where they're showing like this is helping
this get out of your body because it's trapped and yeah,
there's trying you.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Need to release well.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
And I think that we like because of this society
that assuming that all of us kind of grew up
in we were taught to kind of be a good girl,
be a good boy, okay, okay, yeah, don't don't show it,
be mad, kind of like stick it away for later,
but then we don't do anything with it later and.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
The body keeps the score.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yeah, So yeah, getting it out is really important.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
So now that I don't have the woods, you know,
to my five feet to my left here, I just
use the bed. And so it's it's about intentionalizing it.
And so especially even with my kids when they're having
a fit, I don't always do this, but I do
try to ask myself, are they purging like what's stored
in their body, maybe even ancestral stuff they got, or

(43:18):
are they projecting and feeding that? And if you can
and say so, the same thing for myself, like in
this experience, you know, if I'm especially anger where it
tries to take over, like okay, do I want to
purge this and get it out of my body? Or
do I want to feed it? And when you're so
close and you're in the emotion and you're acting it
out without intentionalizing what you're doing to get it out,

(43:39):
you're usually feeding it, And so with that, like particularly
anger at you know, go just pound on the bed, scream,
you know, yell into the pillow, just be physical about it,
hit it. And when those don't work, that is the
time to like love that part of yourself that you're like,
because that's what it is for me when I'm usually

(44:00):
when I'm just so upset about life and different things,
it's usually I'm just mad at myself or whatever, and
I've just got to slow down and love each part
of that. And it might be writing, it might be tapping,
it might just be like closing my eyes and touch
my heart and like loving all my part of that
part of myself or whatever. It might be just kind
of just ebbs and flows with what different exercises we do.

(44:21):
And ultimately it's all to come back to that, like
how can we be present? Because when you're in the present,
like it's not saying you're not planning a future or
creating vision, it's that you're taking each step with more grace,
with more clarity, with more love, and more of like
really who you are in that moment, rather than carrying
and dragging the past with you.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
And we all do unknowingly little bits and stuff.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
But for me, it's just about like peeling each layer
away each each time it comes up. You know, I
don't always go digging for him anymore, but just when
it comes up, whatever emotion it is, like, figure out
how to address it, figure a tool out for it,
apply it, get it out of the I love it.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
Yeah, if you were walking across the United States and
you had to like get your mindset right to keep going,
what do you think you would do? Because you've got
lots of experience with mindset and management.

Speaker 5 (45:15):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
At first, I kind of remind myself the promise I
made to myself, and I'd be like, am I the
kind of person that keeps my word? And so I'd
start talking myself into I think we usually we look
for evidence of the identity we carry about ourselves, and
so I'd remind myself, Okay, no, you're a person that
does what they say they're going to do, said you're
going to do this. And then I also one that
I like to say to myself anytime, like in cold

(45:37):
plunges or the sauna or just anything that's like uncomfortable,
I'll say it's not good.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
It's not bad. It's just a feeling. I keep saying
that to myself and then just kind.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Of work through it, and then I'd probably call somebody
if I was you know, I mean, you guys had
phones and stuff.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
I'm guessing right, and so.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
I'd probably try to distract myself or just try to
call somebody that motivates me and have a good conversation
and have you know. I'd have people lined up ahead
of time that I'd be like, Hey, if I'm having
a day, you're going to be one of my lifelines
or whatever you want to call it, and I'm going
to call you, and I need you to not let
me back out of this.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
You know I need you. So I'll give you an example.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
I just I haven't really talked about this much yet,
but I just decided last week. I was in Spain
with a group. We were running with the Bulls, the
group of the guys I coach, and while I was
out there, I just had this huge motivation to do
a fitness show this year. And I've put this off.
I made it my goal at the beginning of the year.
But I'll be honest. Up in Tail Spain, I just
kept looking at it.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
Like, why did I say that? I don't want to
do that, Like, this is the dumbest thing ever. And
when I was there it just hit me. I was like, no,
I definitely want to do this.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
And so I one of the guys that was there
with us, he actually trains people for shows. He's ginormous,
my buddy Dustin, and so I said, hey, I'm hiring you.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
What do I need?

Speaker 2 (46:47):
What's And so before we had gone to our place
we were staying, he had found a show for me
the dates I wanted to do it. I signed up, committed,
and I'm on day like four today, and so it's
but my point is is like I've set myself up
to succeed. So I've told everybody.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
That's one. So before I ever left, I would tell
everybody what I was doing.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
Right.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
That was such a huge totally.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Because it's a lot of pressure to like, oh, I
can't back out of this now.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Well if I do, I have to live with that.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Right Yeah, And people that way scary. Yeah, So that's
what I'm doing with this because it's scared.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
We call it an oh shitgull you guys, the okit
of me out Like the second you sign up, you
get that confirmation email and it says you're in You're like,
oh shit, and so that's why we call it an
oh shitgull. And so for me doing this, that was
like my big o' shit goal for the year. And
so it's but telling people about it and getting the
right support, making sure I'm doing it the right way.
But you know, and then that's what I would do,

(47:37):
and then i'd try to make it more fun. If
I wasn't enjoying it, I'd have to really ask myself,
like when I The only things.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
I've ever like backed out of that I really.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Were committed to is if I knew the long term
was going to be worse than stopping totally, so if
I kept going.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
So if I was doing this one.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Event one time and I was like, I'm going to
hurt myself, like this is I'm actually going to get injured,
and so I had to stop.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
It's worth it.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
And even that one bugged me for like two years.
I ended up doing another version of it a few
years later and I.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Passed it easily, and so I was like, Okay, I'm
good again.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
But you know, the idea of quitting I just I
hate that, you know, And so I would probably just
set it up ahead of time and then do what
I always do with those kinds of things.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
Yeah, the idea of quitting is really like, it's a lot.
So when after our son was born, I mean I
actually have a friend who read the book pretty quickly
after it was released, and she called me and she
was just like, I was cold.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
When you were cold.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
I was crying when you were crying.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
It was all the things and I.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Don't know what to do it.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
And I was like, girl, it's fine, we're safe. That
was years ago, and she's like and when I got
to Orgon, I was like, great, they're done. And then
you kept walking with your new baby, and I was like,
you knew that, Like you we met you after a walk,
you knew that. And that point would have been the
point I think most people would have been like, cool, yeah,

(48:56):
I just had bit.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
You have the excuse to quit, right. I think most
humans look for a reason not to do something. In said,
a reason to do something.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Literally, we saw that with COVID.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Everybody was looking for excuses not to go to work,
excuses really not to have to I don't have to
like do things, and it's like no, like you kind
of found out who your people were. There was about
I feel like twenty percent of us that were like, no, no, no,
this is even more than ever. I've got to double
down now. But everyone else was pretty content sitting home
watching Netflix all day and not having to leave the house.
You know, they were the ones trying to shame the
rest of us that we're out doing shit.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
So I know we're making things happen, but you know
that moment, I totally relate to that whole thing of
like do I quit do I not? Because that was
probably our biggest point of like debate, and we actually
decided to like keep going while we figured it out,
because we're like, we're not. You can't just sit here,
you know, we don't have anywhere to sit to just
like figure this out. We have to keep going. And

(49:45):
you know, for me, ultimately, so I was adopted when
I was younger, and I came from kind of that
background where you know, I've had to work on the
beliefs that I picked up from that little little little
stages of like, oh, I'm a problem. I was like
a burden. I wasn't expected, I wasn't planned, and in
a lot of ways, our cute little guy wasn't. I mean,

(50:07):
he wasn't on purpose. I'm gonna like cute, that was
not a plan that we started with. Yeah, yeah, I
got I had a plan we didn't. But yeah, once
he got here, I really had to say it with
myself and go, Okay, what story am I going to
be able to tell him? Because either way, he was
born and conceived on a walk across the United States.
And then for me, it was do I get to

(50:28):
tell him that we finished because of him? Or do
I get to tell him that we had to.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Quit because of him?

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Yeah? That's good, And I couldn't for the start that
I had. I felt like I couldn't risk what he
might take on if he thought we were the reason
we quit. And so I was like, I got it.
I got to do this for him so that when
he you know, he's just now he's seven, he's just
now starting to realize, Oh, I have a kind of

(50:57):
weird story. None of my friends were born walking across
the United States. And so he's just barely touching the
tip of the iceberg. And I am so grateful that
we finished because now he gets to know he's that reason.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
Yeah, that's a much better story. Oh, much better the
Origin story. Yeah, I'm trying to found No.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
No, definitely Origin story. We're all superhero fans here.

Speaker 5 (51:22):
Yeah, I remember too.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
I had told a lot of people in the way,
like they said, oh, I can never do this, I
got kids, or I could never do something like that.
I got kids, And I don't say, well, okay, I think.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
People need coaching. I think people sell their kids out.
I think they throw their kids under the bus so
they don't have to do shit.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
I say that all the time.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
I'm like, your kids need you to be passionate, they
need you to be living your life, right, but they
don't need you at every single thing they ever do.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
And I'll die on this. I don't have kids, so
maybe I just don't know.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
But at the end of the day, your kids need
to see you live in your life and doing cool stuff.
And too many parents play down in life because they
put it on their kids.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
I can't I have these kids and I don't know.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
And then what does that mean to the kid?

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Right? Yeah? And all of a sudden they're telling their
kids what to you?

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Yeah, I doesn't want to follow our dreams because I'm
here all.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
The reasons and what are they going to take on
into their adult life about that, you know what I mean,
whether it's the way that they say that they can't
do stuff because of their kids, or whether it's they
just are like, oh no, I get in the way
of people doing stuff. What if it's that and yeah,
we don't want that?

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Well, I love it.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
I can tell there's a million lessons to take away
from this for people that want to grab the book
and follow you guys, where's the best place for them
to go?

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Amazon? Yeah, walk to Life on Amazon. That's probably the
best thing.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Yeah, awesome.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
I'm excited to read it. And thanks again for being
on the show. Looking forward to learning more about the adventure.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Thank you for having us appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Thank you again for listening to The Jimmy Rex Show.
And if you liked what you heard, please like and subscribe.
It really helps me to get better guests, to be
able to get the type of people on this podcast.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
It's going to make it the most interesting.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Also, want to tell everybody about my podcast studio, The
Rookery Studios, now available in Salt Lake's City and or
in Utah. If you live in Utah and want to
produce your own podcast, we take all of the guests,
work out of it for you, and make it so simple.
All you do is you come in, you sit down,
you talk and leave. We record it, edit it, even

(53:14):
post it for you. If interested in doing your own podcast,
visit our Instagram and send us a DM Rookery Studios,
or go to our website, The Rookery Studios dot com.