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Brad Singletary (00:00:10):
Welcome back to the Alpha Quorum Show. Brad Singletary here, I’m your host, the producer and the founder of the Alpha Quorum. I’m so excited about what we’re doing tonight. Listen, this is, I know it’s been a month or two since we released an episode, but this is a first for us on many levels. First of all, we have a huge panel here tonight from people who live here in Las Vegas, all the way to other West coast places. And on the other side of the world, we got the thunder from down under we’ll introduce everyone here a little bit later, but our purpose tonight is to talk about the Alpha 360, which was a first time, I kind of a wellness fitness challenge for men, the idea was to compete and to strengthen ourselves in many areas. Some of you are familiar with things like the,u75 hard Andy Frisella, lots of different challenges out there.

Brad Singletary (00:01:30):
30 day, 60 day, 90 day challenges. Many of those have to do with fitness or diet. And so we wanted this to be more of a well, 360 degree type of challenge that has to do with, you know, mental health, emotional health, just wellness awareness of yourself and your struggles and how to get through those things. We’ll talk about those steps here a little bit later, but first I want to introduce my guests here. I’ll just start with those on the top of my screen. Jeremy, introduce yourself. Give us a little bit of an introduction about yourself and why you wanted to do this.

Jeremy (00:02:07):
My name’s Jeremy I’m a father of two and a near five-year old and a near six month old baby here. And I’m married to my wife. I am an engineer at Intel. I’m a process engineer helping manufacture and develop the process of manufacturing chips for the company. I stay very busy with work. I stay very busy with family. So I wanted to do this challenge to kind of spend more time on myself, not just on my work and my family.

Brad Singletary (00:02:43):
What part of the world you live in Jeremy?

Jeremy (00:02:45):
I’m up in Oregon on the Northwest coast,

Brad Singletary (00:02:48):
Right on. And I’m just curious, what was your connection to the Alpha Quorum? Like did someone invite, you know, someone else who’s involved or how did you get connected with us in the first place?

Jeremy (00:03:00):
One of my primary hobbies is riding dirt bikes, riding adventure, bikes, or bikers. There’s a lot of guys coming over from the dirt bike ribs from the riding groups. So I know quite a few people have joined the, a car on Facebook group.

Brad Singletary (00:03:14):
Well, it’s good to finally have a face and a voice to so many of our, of our fans and followers and friends on on this Facebook page or dirt biker. So thanks for representing them. You’ve done well in this challenge, Jeremy, we’re going to hear more from you later about how you did all right. How about you, Paul?

Paul Charette (00:03:31):
Uh my name is Paul Charrette. I am a a therapist mental health here in Las Vegas. I’ve been a therapist for 15 years and in the last two years, I’ve also dip my toes into life coaching as well.

Paul Charette (00:03:48):
I joined the challenge at your invitation brag. We belong to a Facebook group together for a therapist and we’ve struck up a friendship and you invited me into the group and yeah, it was great. It was, it was, it was great to have that camaraderie and, and sort of a fellowship to make some changes and better myself. So thanks for having me on this to Paul. We’ve talked on the phone before about some different things, but first time I’ve seen you and I’ve got to say you’re rocking that beard, man. I am. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. It’s, it’s a skill, a skill. It gets hidden with the pandemic, but you know, all right, Jared, how about you, sir?

Jared Brown (00:04:31):
Hey guys. Great to be with you. So I guess you could probably tell where I’m from. I’m from Australia. I guess I’m a proud and proud Aussie father of six children ranging from ages 21 through to six. So between, between that and work and family life, I, I can be busy. I currently am in the earth moving industry at the moment. Just trying something a bit different, I guess, living out a childhood dream of when I used to play in the sand pit

Brad Singletary (00:05:08):
Earth moving, he moved, he moves the whole earth.

Jared Brown (00:05:11):
Yeah, that’s correct. That’s how it rolls

Brad Singletary (00:05:13):
Excavation type stuff or [inaudible]

Jared Brown (00:05:15):
Well, all the above. So I don’t just, I, I have a number of tickets and I operate a lot of machines, so it was something that presented itself. And I just went from one machine to another going up they’re all the same. They all just look different, but they’re all the same. So it was all, it was all a challenge. And I, I took a challenge. I like a challenge. And when I’m not, when I’m not doing stuff with the family, I’m doing stuff by myself. I like to go and chase pigs for, for a hobby. And I usually take my older boys with me as well.

Brad Singletary (00:05:50):
Yeah. I saw you posted a picture about that big hog. You shot here. I didn’t even know you could shoot guns in Australia. I didn’t know. You could do that, I guess can do so or.

Jared Brown (00:05:58):
We can, you know, we’ve got access to some, a big property, about three hours from my place and, and yeah, that’s our recreational hobby right on.

Brad Singletary (00:06:09):
All right. Thank you for joining us here, man. So it’s like six o’clock on a Saturday night here, or maybe almost six 30, but it’s what noon, noon, 1230 over there. And are you in Brisbane, Brisbane? Yep. Is that Queensland Queensland?

Mike in Vegas (00:06:26):
Ah.

Brad Singletary (00:06:29):
All right, Michael, how about you, sir?

Michael (00:06:31):
Okay. I’m Michael, I’m a husband. I’m a father of five kids. All five of them are adopted all different all different races and creeds and colors. We consider ourselves the United nations in Henderson, Nevada, because we got them all here. I’m a drama teacher I’ve taught in the school district here for 21 years. None of those years, I was a school administrator after those nine I repented of my sins and went back to teaching theater because you have to. Yeah, anyways, so, and I joined because of Brad, interestingly enough, Brad actually helped us with the adoption, the final part of the adoption of our youngest child. And that was 16 years ago, I believe crazy. Yeah. And we did that brat. So anyway. Yep.

Brad Singletary (00:07:28):
Thank you for joining us, Michael, how about you Mike and Vegas?

Mike in Vegas (00:07:33):
So I am, let’s see, live in Las Vegas. I own a catering company. I’ve got five KIS there from 26 to 12, and then we also have kind of three kids that we’ve kind of adopted along the way. Our girls best friends. So they’ve lived with us at the task. I don’t know. I, I got induced the program, Brad told me about it. I work with him with her group and and he was doing this challenge and I said, yeah, let’s go for it. I no, I like to do a lot of different things outside of my family. And this was just an opportunity to continue to improve myself so I can give more to my family

Brad Singletary (00:08:25):
Right on. Thank you for introducing yourselves over. I’m curious if you don’t mind sharing how old you all are. Jeremy. I don’t know if you said that. How old are you? 32 32 Paul 47, 47, Jared

Michael (00:08:41):
44 before Michael 56

Brad Singletary (00:08:46):
56. And Mike

Mike in Vegas (00:08:50):
52.

Brad Singletary (00:08:52):
It looks like the fittest one here is maybe the one here. Michael. I think you you’re probably the fittest. And by the way we have we, we used, we had a little we’ve got a discord server. I think that’s what it’s called. And Michael on the discord server shared a couple of shirtless pics flexing in the mirror, the old mirror selfie. And unbelievable how, how fit you are, sir, for your age? I I’ve got like 12 years to catch up to you. So maybe I’ll get there.

Michael (00:09:18):
Oh, I was young, foolish and naive when I took those pictures. That was like three months ago. What are you talking about? Well, I was younger and more foolish and not either or

Brad Singletary (00:09:32):
So just tell me, I want to just, just have me, have you share with me some of your thoughts about this whole thing in general? So what we had here is a challenge that consisted of things. We try to pull things in from the red nine and the red nine. Those are just things that I believe make us stronger men and allow us to be more just well-rounded and strengthen ourselves in different areas. So we had, here are a few other things. So we’ve talked about attitude, actions and attributes, and in the attitudes section, this has to do with reverence responsibility and resourcefulness. So the requirement was to do so. The requirements were to not complain and admit when you’re wrong, read fiction at least 20 minutes, a day, 30 words of written gratitude, meditation, or vocal prayer, or some other kind of spiritual practice, or some kind of a, like a worship service and the action category.

Brad Singletary (00:10:36):
We have engaged in meaningful connection, serious household investment track, or record all the foods that you eat, drink only water, or at least one gallon of water, strenuous physical activity, share your progress on social media, under the attributes we have. So discipline, discernment, and distinction. So abstain from an addictive habit give service to an individual organization, engage with a tribe for real talk or process your emotions by journaling. What did you think of this list of requirements? Maybe this was too complicated, too long, too much to do. All of you did very well to track this stuff every single day for 60 days. So impressive. What’d you think when you first saw this

Jeremy (00:11:25):
I’ll start. I you know, I’ve shared with us with friends before, but I usually tell people if you want to get something done, keep it simple and, and make a list. And I do this in my personal life with little house projects, projects on the vehicles, things like that. I make a list and I usually make it something I can get done in a day. And if I can knock out one thing in a day, every day for a week, my will dwindle, it’ll get smaller. Life gets more complicated when you let your list get too big and you’re not keeping track of it. So when you have a list of things you can focus on every day to improve yourself, I think it makes it a lot easier. Yeah,

Jared Brown (00:12:10):
No, I was just going to say, I just thought it was a, I guess, a good kick in the pants for some of it was to, for me to realize that for some of it, I was doing it without actually acknowledging that always doing it, you know, and, and I guess you know, a chance to probably a better myself and better my habits that I’d already formed that just, you know, needed a bit of fine tuning.

Brad Singletary (00:12:34):
I love that. I love that perspective. All you were going to see something.

Paul Charette (00:12:38):
Yeah. I liked how inclusive and all encompassing. It was all the different categories. There was something in there that I think everybody could gravitate towards that they were good at and something that they might need to strive for or work harder at. So I thought that was a good balance between working on something that your, your strength is in and maybe something that, that need to maybe improve in your life and the accountability piece where, whether it’s just knocking down, writing down your points every day or, or posting it is also something that I find it improves your likelihood that you’re gonna do those things. Cause you’re not just accountable to yourself, you’re actually accountable to, to other people. So I think that’s a really hard for me as well was, was being able to do that.

Brad Singletary (00:13:22):
So yeah, I wanted it to be flexible. So like on the, on the 75 hard challenge, for example, they want you to work out twice a day for 45 minutes, two workouts a day to 45 minute workouts a day. And one of them have to be outside. That’s difficult to do. I’ve actually started that challenge twice and didn’t finish. And I wanted to, I wanted to, I wanted some credit if I, if I’m like hanging out with my family or hanging Christmas lights, I wanted to, I wanted to, I wanted to get some credit for that. So we tried to weight each thing. So a strenuous, strenuous physical activity, for example, I think it was worth three points, you know, right. Writing some gratitude down in a journal, maybe that’s one point. And so obviously some may be easier or, or, you know, more difficult than others.

Brad Singletary (00:14:04):
And I think if we look at those points, like Jared ended up being the, the, the grand prize winner there. And I think it’s because of some of the key things that he hit. There were some things that you didn’t do every day. But the ones that kind of had the most weight, that’s what elevated your score. And I won’t even, I’m gonna, I’m not going to talk about myself as a, as a competitor. I’m on the list there somewhere. I’m not in the top five, that’s you, that’s you, you guys here, so, all right. Michael and Mike, what are your thoughts on when you first kind of look at this?

Michael (00:14:39):
Some of those things I was already doing um, I had just started working out. And so that was, it was nice. I had trainer for a while, but my money ran out, so I had to do it on my own. And so what was really nice is that I knew that I was reporting to somebody and so I report to the group. And so there were some things I went, dang. I, I, I don’t do that. I, you know, I but some things I, I did and I figured, okay, I can do these things. Like I used to be a journal keeper. I stopped. So it was a great time for me to pick up that habit. And it was, it was nice to do that. And talking about gratitude, that just my silly little things that I was grateful for. You talked about the journal writing and that’s, I put my, my, my gratitude and process journal together. And I I really liked that because I found that I was happier once I recognized everything that I was grateful for, or just one thing I was grateful for for a particular day. And that, that really helped.

Brad Singletary (00:15:49):
How about you, Mike overall impressions? When you see the list of like requirements, all the things you done, by the way Mike did a challenge, we did the 75 hearts together. And he, he actually won that challenge, got at an Alpha Quorum T-shirt for that a while back. And it was from that first experience that we, we wanted to build some more, you know, some different, I guess, dimensions to this thing. So, Mike, what’d you think when you saw this?

Mike in Vegas (00:16:17):
You know, I liked it because it seemed to me like I was doing a lot of that stuff, but there was some days some days I’m up at five o’clock and I’m running all day long. It’s 10 o’clock at night. And you know, I was like, Oh, I haven’t had the meaningful workout, or I haven’t done this. And it just, rather than going home and watching TV for an hour before I crashed again, you know, it was like, you know, I’m gonna go work out. So it was me just being honest and realizing that, you know, I can either trade personal time doing something positive, or I can trade personal time vegging in front of a computer screen or from an of a TV. And I’m sorry, it keeps me honest like that. And just really focusing on me rather than on strictly entertainment.

Mike in Vegas (00:17:04):
And also, I also do a lot of work with men and you know, I go to meetings most days, so it was great. You know, one of the aspects in there was working with a group of men or, and kind of doing self-help self-development. So I was grateful that that was in there because it made me realize the benefit of that. And probably the biggest thing is I’m, you know, I’m a chef, so you follow a recipe and at the end, hopefully you get a good result. And whenever I do challenges like that, if I follow the recipe at the end, I look and see if it’s a worthwhile result. And sometimes I don’t want, I question what’s the recipe, but if I follow it, then either I find out if it’s good or not, and as I followed this program, I realized, you know, there was a lot of really good things about it. And I saw myself stretching and I saw myself keeping it on task a little bit more than I would be otherwise. And that in itself was a rewarding process.

Brad Singletary (00:18:06):
So in this challenge, what did you begin to do that you weren’t, didn’t, weren’t in the habit of doing before, but you found a lot of fulfillment from that. For me, it was journaling actually. So I’m a, I like to write, I’m a, I’m, I’m an introvert actually. And so writing comes easier for me than speaking and sharing my feelings and so forth. And one of my problems in the past, I’ve gotten in a lot of trouble with text messages or things I post on social media and I need to do that. I need to write, but it’s not always something that I should share publicly. And I guess I’m an open book and I’ve, and I’ve, and I’ve done a lot of that. And I, and I think it’s good to do some but I needed a place where I could really just kind of dump my feelings. And this may be a paragraph. I use the app, I think it’s called journey. I just found it for this challenge, and that was really meaningful for me. The journaling part, that was one that I wasn’t really doing ever that I found most fulfilling. How about you guys? Jeremy?

Jeremy (00:19:10):
One of the aspects was a meditation, I think was an option on there. Mindfulness is another way to say it. I they can ask my wife she’ll agree. I’m pretty active. I never want to sit still in life. Like I’m always doing something. So taking some time to just unwind, think about the day, think about the progress I’m making on the challenge. That was good for me. And just taking a moment to breathe. I think it’s good to be active and, you know, be productive on a daily basis, but I think subconsciously it takes a toll on you. It’s a bit stressful. So it’s just good to take some, take a moment for yourself. I think

Brad Singletary (00:19:51):
Describe that a little bit. Like I’m guessing a lot of these dudes never, they don’t even know what meditation is and never tried that. So for you as this, like, you know, you’re sitting Indian style on a bamboo rug. I mean, what, what are you, you know, listening to like spa music or w how do you do, what did, what was your method for that?

Jeremy (00:20:10):
Personally, I’ve got a couple of yoga mats they’re just comfortable to sit on or kneel on or whatever. You know, just take a moment to sit down, relax, close my eyes, focus on my breathing. Think about the day, think about my goals for tomorrow. Thinking about things I might’ve done wrong today, you know, did I make a mistake? Did I overreact to someone? Did I get upset with somebody when I shouldn’t have those kinds of things? Just thoughtful process,

Brad Singletary (00:20:43):
Right on how about you, Paul? What’s something that you found most fulfilling. You weren’t really doing at all before?

Paul Charette (00:20:51):
I think it’s easy to come home and complain and, and think of all the things that went, went wrong in your day, and what’s going wrong in your life, in the world and so on, so forth, but to take the time to be grateful and write down that gratitude and what you’re thankful for each day, and take a moment out to think of what that is, whether it’s personally or professionally, and then sing it down on paper and actually reflecting on it and kind of reviewing the patterns and whatnot and saying, wow, these are there’s a lot for me to be grateful about has been really rewarding. And it’s something that I plan on doing moving forward, kind of keeping a running journal every day or running tally every day. At least one thing that I’m grateful for in my life, especially in these times where things are just so chaotic, that’s been really helpful for me to kind of get through the day, the week, the months and kind of just see some light at the end of each tunnel every day. So that’s been great.

Brad Singletary (00:21:45):
Right on how about you, Jared?

Jared Brown (00:21:47):
Yeah, look for me, it was probably to be honest, engaging more with the family, you know? Yes. I was engaged in, in, in what the family was doing, but was I really engaged or was I just merely a presence? And for, for me, I guess it was I guess having a look at where I was and being actively involved, being actively engaged. Yes, I was there. Yes. I was doing things, but I’d always probably be thinking to myself, I’d rather be in other places and doing other things. Yeah, that’s it.

Jared Brown (00:22:21):
But you know, it was, it was a chance to reevaluate well and truly, and, and, you know, get my priorities right. And be able to set them back to where they needed to be.

Brad Singletary (00:22:33):
Did they notice, did your family notice well first I guess, let me ask, did they know you’re doing the challenge and did they say like, wow, dad’s, you know, he hangs out with us a lot more, he’s more involved. Did they notice it?

Jared Brown (00:22:47):
They, they, they did. And especially, especially my wife, you know, cause I’d always come home from work. And first thing I do is put my feet up and sit on the chair and, and you know, I, yes, I’d been at work all day and my wife stays at home and she’s a housewife and she’s, she’s very good at what she does, but I guess I took that for granted expecting her to do, I guess, labor my part of the load that, that I probably should have shared. And for, for me to physically realize and engage in that was, was just a I guess for myself, a relief of, of where I was heading

Brad Singletary (00:23:23):
Right on. Man. How about you, Michael, something that you started to do the hadn’t really been doing before that meant the most?

Michael (00:23:32):
Oh jeez this isn’t, this isn’t really going to answer the question. I’m a grumpy man, you know I really am, and so trying to, and, and I can be grumpy about anything. It doesn’t matter. And so it was it was I think it was Paul who said the writing gratitude. Cause I don’t, I don’t do that a lot or I, I mean, there are times I say thanks or I, you know, I stop and go, Oh, but just know I mentioned, I’m a teacher and I teach theater and not just acting, but I also teach how to build sets. And how do you teach kids how to build a set for the stage? How, how do you do that online? The kids need to get their hands dirty. They need to bang their finger with a hammer. They need to see what it’s like to actually pick up and move things, how to run the light board or a soundboard. And so, as I was writing things that I’m grateful for, I went, okay, this is silly. I’m going to start crying. And I don’t want to it’s, I was so grateful for this challenge because not necessarily the 360, but it was the 360 that allowed me to do this. So, yes. But I I’m grateful for the challenge that I’ve had this year and 360 made me aware of it that I now have to teach it this way. And so I got to learn more. I got to learn my craft a little more. And so that’s one of the things that I, I really appreciated was looking at the gratitude. And I found, my family found too that as I was nice, really, my wife was the one that she saw that I wasn’t as grumpy wasn’t as and I really think it was because I was writing every day, recognizing every day what I was grateful for, even, even the things that are challenged is like stupid COVID, you know, there you go.

Brad Singletary (00:26:05):
It’s amazing to me, how many of you’re talking about family stuff and how this, you know, even though this is you focusing on yourself and on your own emotions and coping with that stuff better, the outcome affects so much more than just yourself and it’s affecting family members or household. And it’s impressive. I’m really glad to hear this stuff from you guys. How about you, Mike?

Mike (00:26:27):
You know what, as I was listening to everybody else, and those are all really good take backs from the whole thing for me, it was really just, I generally don’t complain, but if I don’t think about not complaining, then it’s out of my mouth before I actually realized that I’m complaining. So it, it was one of those things where I had to think to myself, okay, if I’m truly not complaining, then I went into every interaction, looking for my part in it and kind of what I might might’ve done wrong or, or being, I guess, open-minded to objective and every interaction. And as a result, I find myself, I found myself catching myself mentally complaining before it came out of my mouth. And for me, that’s the, that’s the hardest thing, because once it’s done, I can’t take it back. And then there’s, I’m in the doghouse or there’s, I’m making a man’s or I’m sorry, or I didn’t mean that where this was a great challenge for me, because in most interactions, especially with my family, I really was step out, okay, let’s not complain about this.

Mike (00:27:36):
Let’s talk about this objectively because and that really made a big difference was just going into it with the mindset. I’m not going to complain, let’s get the facts and then let’s figure out how to solve the problem rather than solving the problem and nagging them at the same time. So for me, that was probably the biggest then. It was great, especially in the holiday season, my kids were coming back from college. There was a lot of things going on. And there was, there wasn’t really any fights at all this holiday season when there usually is a couple of just when you get a bunch of people together, you’re going to have disagreements. And, and usually that comes from complaining. And at some point,

Brad Singletary (00:28:17):
I don’t know if this is the same question, but when I’m having another, another curiosity, I guess, and it has to do with experiments that you did with this, like something that you just, you, you only did it because it was in this list. Never really attempted this before. So you, weren’t a big fan of it at all. You felt silly doing it, but you just kind of made an attempt to do, to take one of these actions. What, anything come to mind that you, you just really stretched yourself to do it, even if you didn’t continue it through the 60 days, if you just made some heroic effort.

Jared Brown (00:28:54):
Oh, look proud. I don’t think it’s so much, you know, making, making the effort. I I’ve always been taught, you know, if you stretch yourself and stretch yourself far enough, that it hurts that that’s when you begin to grow. And for myself, it’s always, it’s always been that philosophy. And it’s not so much that, you know, all these things were new to me, you know, sometime in life, I have seen pretty much majority of what was on that list. I guess it just purely gave me a focus to be able to exactly assess where I’m at in life and, and, and gain some refocus to, I guess, stretch myself to do the things that I probably wouldn’t normally do.

Brad Singletary (00:29:40):
Okay. Anybody else? Something that you really had to reach in order to attempt?

Jeremy (00:29:47):
I would say similar to what Jared said each individual item, you know, we’ve all thought about at one point probably, but the challenge was doing all of them at Watts every day. So what was very unique about this challenge is it, wasn’t just a fitness challenge. You’re not just saying, Hey, I’m going to work out every day for 30 minutes. It’s you got to pick from each of the three categories and you gotta hit them all. And doing that every day for 60 days is challenging for sure.

Brad Singletary (00:30:20):
Wow. I love it. So just being intentional about how you’re going to spend your time, what you’re going to focus on, kind of choosing the thing that you’re going to let being well-rounded I guess that’s the best way to say it. Okay. How about you, Paul, Michael, Mike?

Michael (00:30:35):
Yeah, I think focusing on things deliberately and with purpose, rather than kind of just maybe going through the motions with certain things knowing that you’re, you’re, you’re tracking things or you’re, you’re accountable for them, or you’re reporting them rather than just kind of maybe doing some of those things, but packaging the whole thing together. Like other people have said not just one or two things here or there, but that whole package together. I think it’s like the, a, the whole was equal then more than the sum of the parts that, that sort of effect where you put it all together. And it has a cumulative effect that you don’t even recognize necessarily by just doing one of those things or two of those things. I think getting that benefit out of it that you didn’t necessarily, or I didn’t necessarily see coming when you just look at the individual things versus the whole package, if that makes any sense.

Brad Singletary (00:31:27):
Okay. Appreciate that.

Michael (00:31:28):
I was just, I was thinking about the reading non-fiction I mentioned before I’m a teacher, I’m a teacher, but I’m a drama teacher, you know, so we tell stories, we show stories. So I’m used to reading a lot of scripts or things pertaining towards a high school level age kids. And so I started because part of it was fitness the challenge and my wife, heaven forbid is plant-based vegan and Lord have mercy on us all. And, and I she she’s been trying to hit me to read one of these books and one of the books is how not to die. And so I’ve found out all sorts of ways, how not to die of certain things. Like I know heart and diabetes and all those other kind of fun things, fun things. And and I, and I, I learned some things I didn’t, didn’t say, Oh, honey, I’m going to be a vegan incidentally, just so you guys know Oreo cookies are vegan.

Michael (00:32:49):
No animals are harmed in the making of an Oreo cookie. It makes me feel really happy for I don’t know, the, the vegan people, I guess, for them. But I, I learned some stuff and I go, Oh, you know, that’s, and, and so I read a lot of health kind of related books, but I, I read my uncle’s personal history. I, I found out that I actually had family that came over on the Mayflower. And so, and it wasn’t my uncle who came over on the Mayflower, but he had, he had his journals and stuff like that, but he also went into the family history. And so there was family pride sense the kind of hit me. So that was, I don’t know if that answered your question, you said my name. So it’s like, Oh, okay. I’m an actor. I’ll take stage. So

Brad Singletary (00:33:53):
How about you, Mike, something that you, what was the question? Something that you attempted that you hadn’t really done?

Mike in Vegas (00:34:00):
Well, I’ve been doing a lot of that stuff off and on, but I think that I was doing it sometimes grudgingly because I wanted the results. And I think somewhere in the challenge that switched from having to do something, to getting to do something because I was trying to be a better person. So for me, the whole challenge was really about a total mental shift positive that, Hey, you know what I get to do these things. I’m in a place, you know, in my family and in my career. And, and a lot of the tour, I can take the time to do these things. I’m am in invested deeply in my faith, but I also have my own life out of it to where I have activities that I do that are aren’t with the family. And there’ve been times in my life where, you know, years would go by and I, I looked up and didn’t realize I hadn’t really done anything for me.

Mike in Vegas (00:35:01):
It’s just been running and kids from one, one practice to one lesson back and forth, back and forth, and then trying to get a little work done. And then when the honeydew list, and then trying to get into bed and start the rat race all over again. So for me, it was just an opportunity to get, to do all these things. So it was a kind of total mental shift of gratitude, get to do these things and grateful that I have the physical health. I can do these things and the wherewithal to be able to figure out how to multitask all those different things together. So really it was just being grateful for the challenge, not looking at it as, wow. All right. I got to do this again. Oh, I gotta do this because I’m a competitive person and I want to be competitive, but it was more out of a sense of gratitude and an opportunity to do it rather than trying to win. It was more, Hey, this is going to be good for me. So let’s, let’s do this in a positive way. And I think that’s really, what would, the big takeaway for me was, is doing the task in a very of, Oh, I get to do this. I get to do this. And and benefit from the results.

Brad Singletary (00:36:15):
Cool, appreciate that. So I’m curious about the physical aspect the, the diet, the water and the strenuous physical activity. That’s something that I, while I did well with the water I didn’t do quite as well with the, with writing down my writing down my foods. I’ve, I’ve struggled with weight throughout my life. I actually had weight loss surgery. What was it? Three or four years ago and was on weight Watchers and things at different times. And one of the things I found most helpful was just to write it down. If I can track it and record what I’m doing. That’s, that’s where that kind of came from. That’s the magic of something like weight Watchers, whatever you eat, just write it down, increases your awareness, and you’re in your you’re tuned in to what you’re putting in your body. So let’s talk about food water the strenuous physical activity. And what kind of what’d you do? What kind of things do you do? We’ll, we’ll wrap this up here in 10 or 15 minutes, but I’m just curious on the physical part, because there was a lot of, it was kind of weighted heavily toward the physical activity and in that, in that section. So go ahead.

Jared Brown (00:37:20):
Okay. Just, I was just going to say probably the water challenge was, was probably the hardest one for me. It’s never, I guess water’s never been part of my strict diet before, but I guess my background of being a tradesman used to, I guess, start the day with, can have coconut upon a sausage roll. That was, that was breakfast. And for me, it kind of, you know, kicked the habit where I had to have some sort of sugar stimulation during the day, or, you know, as soon as I got home. But for, for me, this has probably been the really, really best part of the challenges I have comfortably, you know, towards probably about the middle of the challenge, being able to consume the, the the gallon of water. So

Brad Singletary (00:38:07):
Did they talk about gallons or do you go by litters or what

Jared Brown (00:38:10):
We go by, we go by litters over here. Cause my understanding is a gallon for you guys is about four liters.

Brad Singletary (00:38:16):
Well, yeah, around there, four liters. Yeah.

Jared Brown (00:38:20):
So yeah, for, for me it was yeah, four liters of water a day. And to start with it was, it was quite I guess, hard to stomach, but now that’s, that’s all that, that, that my diet consists of is now water. Oh, nice.

Brad Singletary (00:38:36):
Yeah. Anybody else do only water? Like so not just the gallon day, but you only drank water. I didn’t, I wasn’t able to do that. Most days I got the gallon of water in, but it didn’t want only drink water.

Michael (00:38:47):
I, I would say because of working out I was, I was told to take a lot of protein and so I drank a lot of protein kind of things. Cause it, I found it was easiest. I don’t live plant-based, but obviously it’s a big part of my life because of that. So I did supplement with like protein shakes, but but I also, I put so much into the protein. I felt like I was, I was eating more than, you know, I throw in stuff, but I still did like the gallon of water. My house during the summer, we, we forced our kids to drink water. They don’t ever want to drink water. And so we had the glass, we have glass glasses or glass mugs, and we found that you could use a Sharpie on the glasses and just take tallies or hash marks on those glasses.

Michael (00:39:44):
And so we knew, Oh, okay. We’ve, we’ve had that much water today. And so that that’s helped us in the past. And so but I, yeah, I, I think I addressed that issue of the water. I did more than a gallon. We also there was a phlebotomist that I was that I spoke with you know, the vampires who take your blood for medical reasons or for donation reasons. And if you donate blood or, or platelets, it helps with the helps with the the draining of your blood, I guess. And and it goes a lot faster, especially if you do platelets, platelets can last couple hours donating those. So that was something that I really had to get mindset again, to do that.

Brad Singletary (00:40:52):
Other guys, physical stuff, the diet recording, monitoring your food, a gallon of water a day or strenuous physical activity.

Paul (00:41:02):
Yeah, for me the, the drinking of the water and the kicking, the bad habit kind of went hand in hand. It’s, it’s difficult. I find it challenging to drink the water. And unlike Jared, I haven’t actually kicked my Coke habit yet. So drinking the Coke every day was something that I found throughout the challenge was something where I would fall off. And it was, it was that challenge of giving up the Coke and drinking the water. Instead. It was, it was probably my most consistent challenge throughout the throughout the challenge. So it gives me something to continue to aim for. Cause I know it helps decrease weight and all those other things. As I, as I see my weight expanding it gives me something to aim as this challenge is over, but it was something that I struggled with throughout the throughout the challenge. Okay. Jeremy?

Jeremy (00:41:53):
Yes. So the the fitness aspect, there were primarily three items, water, food, and you’re working out the water thing. I sort of had a head start on when I was younger, I drink a lot more Coke. Everybody likes Coke, boop Pepsi. Right. But you know, in the last five or six years, I started realizing it’s wasteful to be drinking calories, right. We all have a waistline. We can improve on why drink calories when you can not drink calories. Right. So I started drinking diet soda. It’s a step in the right direction. It’s not ideal. Then a three to four years back, you know, I’m realizing before COVID working onsite at work, we have access to free soda. All we want, I’m still drinking diet, but I’m starting to say to myself you know, for every cup of soda, I should at least be drinking a cup of water to try to take another step in the right direction, try to get more water intake. And you know, trying to get more and more water per unit volume of soda, essentially. That’s what, that’s the direction I was heading. So going into this challenge, I definitely was taking in more water already. But I wasn’t tracking it. And so with this challenge, I started to realize what a gallon means of a cup in my kitchen. Roughly six of these cups is equal to a gallon. So actually here you go.

Jeremy (00:43:26):
I simplified it. I got a drink at least six of these every day to meet my, my goal there. I don’t think there was a single day in the entire 60 days where I only drank water. I do need a little bit of caffeine. Cause like I said earlier, I’m always on the move and yeah, I’m addicted to caffeine and most people or everybody drinks something.

Brad Singletary (00:43:45):
Yes, me too. That’s that’s, that’s my new year a challenge that’s going to be that’s my next thing is the only water that’s, that’s what I’m really pushing for. Now. How about you, Mike?

Mike in Vegas (00:43:54):
You know, I found that as I well, about 18 months ago, I was probably 70 pounds heavier. So I’ve lost a ton of weight and part of that was exercising and drinking water. And so water was kind of a habit that I’d formed into, but as I increased my exercise to more strenuous, it seemed like I was craving the water and all the other things, I didn’t see it all. So those weren’t that difficult of the challenge, watching what I eat kind of a, that’s a tough one because I cook for probably, I, I cook for a bunch of vegan vegetarians, regular people everyday, probably anywhere from 60 to 90 meals a day. And so I cook all this really good food, but then I find myself grabbing a thing of donuts and eaten it on the way as I’m delivering it.

Mike in Vegas (00:44:51):
So I didn’t really good at good job at tracking my food. I don’t really track it that much because I’m constantly working with food tracking. It’s just a little bit onerous, but I figured that I’d done a few days and when I did that, I felt good about myself. That’s probably the hardest part of this challenge is just, I think I just I’m food so much. So it’d be like somebody who works with IT to limit the number of hours they spend on the computer each day. It’s or to track it because it’s, I don’t think about it because I’m around food so much and constantly tasting. And, and honestly the hard part is that I don’t eat all day long because once I’m cooking it, I feel, I, my body says, are you already eating it because you’re smelling it.

Mike in Vegas (00:45:40):
And then I realize it’s, you know, 10 o’clock at night and I haven’t eaten anything all day long and then age isn’t good for my waistline. So that was probably the hardest part of this challenge is just the tracking of the food. The water in the seniors exercise. I really enjoy because for me, that’s my downtime for the day. I wouldn’t say that’s my meditation time, but in some respects it is because I get plugged on w plugged in with a book, you know, mostly it’s nonfiction and I’m, you know, multitasking, I’m exercising, I’m reading a beat in a book or listening to a book online or talking to friends or catching up when something social. So for me, the excising was just really if I don’t exercise each day, then I’m just not a happy person because I incorporate so many things and just getting out and exercising.

Brad Singletary (00:46:32):
What about the physical activity strenuous? So in the like 75 hard, they talk about two workouts a day. One has to be outside 45 to 45 minute workout today. That’s that’s of course I would love to get to that point where I could do that, but I’m just wondering what kinds of things you did to improvise or to make it work. You’ve got families, you’ve got children, you have jobs and you have, you know, whatever limitations you may have. How did you adapt your, you know, how did you get some of that done given ordinary dude life where you’ve got, you’ve got responsibilities. You can’t just be a gym rat all day long, maybe. How did you handle the time that it takes to, to, to be physical and just curious, what kinds of things you did on the physical activity?

Mike in Vegas (00:47:17):
Ready for me? You know what it’s I, I walk and I usually try to get a four to five minute mile. We’re not four to five, four to four to five miles per and sometimes I traded sleep for walking, but it’s funny, but I, the next day, what I didn’t wasn’t as vigorous and I didn’t have as good a day. I didn’t sleep up. So I was perfect in the exercise for the challenge, just because I’ve through past experience. If I don’t go out and do something vigorous, then I just don’t feel as good the next day. So for me, it really was walking and I always do that outside. I don’t like the treadmill and a guy. I just think outside the weather, the vitamins from the sun or just the weather, it’s a, it’s just a great place for me to just get away. But it was just the vigorous exercise was, you know, visually walk probably. I probably averaged anywhere from a 10 to 15 miles a day, just with my normal activities. And then walking on top of that,

Brad Singletary (00:48:27):
Goodness gracious. Okay. I’d say that’s pretty strenuous, 15 miles a day. You do it pretty good

Jared Brown (00:48:34):
For me. I had to, I had to make it fit in during the day, while I was, while I was at work. So for me, I’d actually physically get myself out of the machine and I would jump on a shovel. I would jump on the manual labor side of things and I would, I would exert myself that that, that was probably the best opportunity that I knew I would have. So that’s what I had to do.

Jeremy (00:48:57):
Moving the earth manually. There you go.

Jared Brown (00:49:00):
Yeah. That’s it exactly

Brad Singletary (00:49:03):
Taking advantage of the opportunity that was already there? Yes, I did more.

Jeremy (00:49:10):
Push-ups in these 60 days than I’ve ever done before. Often times I’d find myself doing it after 10 or 11 o’clock at night where I’m saying, you know, I’ve been busy all day, but I haven’t checked that item off the list yet. And unlike Mike here in the Pacific Northwest, we don’t get a lot of sun, especially this time of year. So fortunate for you. You have some sunlight, but it’s wet here. It rains a lot. So I have a treadmill. This is a very multi-purpose room. I’m in here, got my office, got my wife’s office and a treadmill and the other side of the room. So this is where it happened. Pushups and bicep, curls, stretching, and hitting that treadmill running and walking.

Brad Singletary (00:49:54):
Dude, if you do that, you’re going to have a healthy life. I mean, that’s, we sometimes I know I try, I try to over-complicate things like that. I’m like, okay, I’ve got to join CrossFit, but I haven’t, you know, haven’t done any exercise in 15 years, but I need to start CrossFit or I need to do some crazy, crazy things. And sometimes you just walk, you, you put your hands on a shovel, you know, you, you, you put, pick up some dumbbells or do some pushups and it just doesn’t have to be that you don’t have to overthink it. So

Jared Brown (00:50:24):
Mindset, sometimes Brad, I think, you know, and, and, and I guess the sense of security we get ourselves into, you know, we really have to go to the gym or can we just change our lifestyle and, and, and do things that are, you know, right in front of us that needed to be done.

Michael (00:50:42):
And, and I’m going to say I don’t sit down in my job when students are there. Cause I’m in the theater, I’m in the classroom, I’m on the stage, I’m in the shop behind. And so I’m constantly moving. And I, I probably last school year before the shutdown, I was getting easily 25 kilometers cause that’s what my little thing was set to on my phone, easily 25 kilometers in a, in a week’s time just going around and around on the school. So now I’m sitting down and and my wife has said, you know, honey, you need to work out. We like you better. And so

Brad Singletary (00:51:33):
Not so grumpy when you’re working out, is that what

Michael (00:51:36):
So grumpy, you know, and I don’t chew out the kids as much. And, and so really I, I needed a gym and and gratefully, they’re, they’re really inexpensive ones here. And and I knew that I wasn’t gonna do it right if I didn’t have somebody accountable. So just really, it was just a few weeks before the three 60 challenge is when I, when I started and I wanted to make sure if I was going to work out that I wanted to do it right. That I didn’t, I didn’t want to strain anything. 56 isn’t old, but the fact is my, my body, when your doctor says to you, you’re not young anymore. Thank you very darn much. And so I, for me I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t screw it up. So luckily I was able to afford 15 sessions with, with somebody and now, now I’m doing it.

Michael (00:52:37):
And it also helps any physical thing. You know, having, having accountability the three 60, but now I have a buddy that I go, go work out three days a week at the gym. And he just, he just wants to, you know, he doesn’t want to turn into Arnold Schwartzenegger, he, he just wants to be fit. And one thing that he discovered when he, when I told him I was tracking things, he didn’t change his diet. He just started tracking and he lost 10 pounds just from a couple of months of tracking his diet because he became aware of what he was eating, but he didn’t, he didn’t change it. I mean, he didn’t stop eating this and start eating that he just, Oh, crap, I don’t need, you know, seven donuts. Quinn’s six and a half. We’ll do.

Brad Singletary (00:53:31):
And Paul, how about you on the physical thing? Physical stuff. Strange physical activity.

Paul Charette (00:53:37):
Yeah. So for me things have changed over the last couple of years regarding physical activity, exercise, things like that. Prior to 2018, I was walking probably two, two and a half miles every day at work, going from building to building and seeing different clients. And at, in 2018, at the beginning of the year, I had a spine surgery to correct an issue that I’ve had since birth. And so ever since then walking and physical activities been more difficult. So even in fact at work, I now have a motorized cart to get from place to place, which on the one hand, you know, saves me on one hand and it kind of increases my durability and whatnot. On the other hand, I’m much less active physically. So I have to find myself walking in between groups. Stretching has become a huge part of something.

Paul Charette (00:54:37):
That’s very, very important to me. And, and vital to, to trying to to be healthy. I walk with a forearm crutches. I’ve walked with forearm crutches since I was seven. So it’s those metal crutches. And so it’s, it’s basically lifting your body weight as many times as many steps as you take. So that’s a form of physical exercise as well. So it’s something that I constantly have to be aware of and be flexible with as my, my physical condition develops over time. And as I get older, as, as other people have said I found once I hit 30 and you know, now I’m 47, but once I hit 30 things became a lot more difficult and it’s becoming increasingly difficult over the years. And then while the surgery in 2018 helped correct things and it reduced a lot of pain.

Paul Charette (00:55:26):
It’s also slowed me down to a certain degree as well. So it’s kind of a mixed bag sort of thing, but I’ve always had to make those adjustments throughout my life. 2018 was my 27th surgery. So it’s always been that idea of recovery and, and, and physical therapy, those sorts of things. And it’s basically just put your head down and go go until you drop. That’s kind of what my, my mental philosophy has been my entire life. I’m going to go on until I drop and then I’m done. So I don’t know when that’s going to be. So I constantly have to reevaluate those things. And this challenge kind of challenged me to do that, that unfortunately in my own head, it’s, it’s unfortunate that for me, it’s mostly about stretching and whatnot, but I’ve also had to remind myself the importance of that, that it’s not about lifting weights and doing those types of things for me, it could be, but I haven’t quite found that right balance of how to do that well with some of the limitations that I’ve, that I’ve had over the year.

Brad Singletary (00:56:22):
That’s some alpha $#i+ right there. He’s been on crutches for 40 years. He’s doing a, he’s doing a fitness challenge. That’s pretty, that’s pretty cool, man. Just even like you talking about lifting your body weight, that’s strenuous physical activity, lifting your own body weight everywhere you go with your, with your arms, I suppose. I mean, you’re just taking a lot of adjustment to ordinary and you’ve been dealing with this since birth and you make me feel like such a slacker. Thank you for sharing.

Paul (00:56:58):
We all got our thing, you know, everybody’s, everybody’s got their challenge.

Brad Singletary (00:57:02):
So I want to wrap up here in a few minutes. I don’t wanna keep you guys too long. I want to just talk about the last part of it. Actually, I guess, two more questions, you know, the discipline or the, you know, abstaining from something, if you care to share anything about what that was, and then what would you change in the future?

Brad Singletary (00:57:18):
Because I think this can, I think this is going to catch on, I think we can maybe trim this down and, you know, clean it up a little bit, fix the process. I don’t know if we want to have a start date and end date or just people pick it up when they want to, but suggestions about what we can do in the future. But first the part about discipline and, you know, engaging with a tribe, talking real, talk with other men. I want to share something, I guess this is, this is pretty personal for me. And I guess as the leader of this thing, it’s a little bit embarrassing, but this is I think what the kind of thing that men need to do. So I have a history of addiction to many different things, processes, substances, and so forth.

Brad Singletary (00:58:04):
During the COVID thing, I relapsed on a, on a, on a couple of my primary addictions. And it was during this, during this 60 day challenge that I had to admit some powerlessness over that. Someone asked me about was I powerless, which is one of the first step in the, in the addiction recovery, the 12 step programs. And I was pretty pissed off because it was like, no, I’m not powerless. I had long periods of sobriety from this. And I, it took me several days to answer this guy’s text message who was kind of calling me out and asking if I was powerless. So I eventually it admitted that I was got back into my my AA program and started sharing some real talk with my people, my wife, even my kids, my parents, my best friends and people that I trust, you know, faith leaders and so forth. And so abstaining from the addictive stuff. That was a huge one for me. And it’s made probably the most difference of everything that I’ve done here. How about you guys tough things on the discipline of avoiding a habit, some of you mentioned soda and some of that. Yeah.

Jared Brown (00:59:17):
Well look, I guess, guess Brad, it’s not just soda, you know, for, for a while there, I was pretty reliant on energy drinks as well. That was a big staple in my diet. I guess, you know, I, I thought I was invincible there. I didn’t need much sleep. I would work constantly. And, and, you know, if, if the job came in yet, I’d go do it. And, and, and for, for me, I guess I had, I had support my, my father is a biochemist and Yeah, I certainly didn’t get any genes of, of that whatsoever. But for, for me, he’d always sit me down and he’d talk to me and he’d, he pulled me aside and he’d go, you know, what’s really in this stuff that you can share me? And I went, no, I don’t. And you know what, dad, I probably don’t need to know what’s in it.

Jared Brown (01:00:11):
In, in the end I did, I did listen to what, to what my, my father had to say, because I, I guess he’s been probably one of the most influential people on, on my life thus far, and nine times out of 10, when your dad says that, you know, it’s going to do something, it will do something. And I actually had a friend of mine two years ago, who couldn’t kick that.

Jared Brown (01:00:40):
And in the end it ruined his heart and it killed him. It killed him. He was consuming copious amounts of energy drinks every day. And in the end, he lost the battle to it and his body gave in. So it is real that the struggles in life are real. I’m not going to show you that for one minute, but you know, when, when I’ve got people like my dad on my side, who said, look, I’d really strongly suggest that, you know, you have staying firm that you don’t do it. And I went well, you know, that’s enough for me. And, and even, even more recently, I I’ve been struggling myself to weight-wise. And just before the challenge kicked off, I actually was down visiting with my doctor. And I’ve known my doctor for probably 25 years now. And he just looked at me square in the eye.

Jared Brown (01:01:40):
And he said, Jared, because you’re who you are, I can look at you. And I can tell you you’re fat was not, his, his words were not obese. You are fat. And I kind of, you know, I kind of found that a bit hard to swallow and, and I left the room, came home and I said to my wife, I said, well, I’ve worked out what I’m going to be in life. And that’s a fat slob because that’s what the doctors told me I’m going to be. And for me, that was, that was the kick I needed was for someone else to tell me and, and, and see where my shortfalls were. And I guess since the start of the challenge so far today, I’ve managed to lose nearly 32 pounds. And it’s awesome. That is that, that is diet based. That’s, that’s changing what I’m eating, not eating every five seconds because, you know, I was bored or I think I need to, you know, I’ve been able to, to cut a lot of things from my diet, such as candy, or as you guys call it candy here, we call it lollies you know, soft drinks, energy drinks, all those things that, that, that, you know, are really not good for you. And, you know, I’ve, I’ve still got a goal. I’ve still got a goal to lose at least another 24, 25 pounds. So hopefully, hopefully next time you see me, I’ll be half the man that I, that I am today. Yeah. And it is, it is a struggle. It’s real. I don’t, I don’t care what anyone says. It was real. And it was a struggle.

Brad Singletary (01:03:08):
Yeah. And I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight. I I’m still, I’m still drinking these monster energy drinks, four of them a day, I think on the can it says no more than three a day. And okay.

Jared Brown (01:03:18):
I think to your point, it has to actually,

Brad Singletary (01:03:23):
Yeah, I’ve got a, I’ve got a family of heart disease and it’s just that, that, that is that’s my next thing. Some of the other things I had to stop or even more critical. But that’s, that’s definitely, I mean, I’m looking to do that maybe by the first of the year, before the first of the year. So thanks for sharing that. Jared, anybody else

Jared Brown (01:03:43):
Don’t, don’t wait to start it, Brad, start it tomorrow. Don’t don’t wait as, you know, that’s, that’s what I’ve always been taught, you know, when we’re not here to wait. I’ve always taught to grab the bull by the horns and run with the ball and eventually that ball will stop and then you can do what you want to the bull don’t, don’t wait for it to come to you. You’ll have to go to it.

Mike in Vegas (01:04:05):
I, to I’m in AA my sobriety date is 91515. And for that I’m grateful. But because of that, I’ve got kind of an addictive personality and there’s some things that are going to kill me a lot quicker than others. So there’s some addictive habits that I just haven’t given up. And I’ve tried everything to stop everything all at once and it just wasn’t sustainable. So during the challenge, I really didn’t drink any energy drinks and it’s not so much about energy drinks. I just like drinking. I just, a gallon of water is no big deal because I could, I drink two gallons of water. I just liked to drink a lot. I have a huge cup and I’m always got something in it. So really it’s just changing my mindset to, Hey, you know what? I’m not going to do soda anymore.

Mike in Vegas (01:04:52):
I’m just gonna drink nothing but water. Hey, you know, I don’t need that second donut. I don’t need the first donut to begin with, but it’s just doing things in a way that I’m not these things aren’t good for me, but somewhere inside of me, it’s like, yeah, but you’ve already denied yourself of this and this and this. And are you going to keep on denying yourself? And and for me, it’s getting out of that mindset of, of denying, but just doing the right thing. So I didn’t check that box once the whole 75 days, because there was always something that was addictive that I was partaking of, but they’re a lot less than they used to be. And and at 52, I’ve still got a few years to keep on kicking off those few things and not do things in excess and working toward that goal. But my first and primary focus is just to remain sober.

Brad Singletary (01:05:50):
You talked about going to meetings. So one of the, one of the things was engaged with the tribe of men. And I just think, you know, if you’re going to an AA meeting several times a week or some type of a recovery meeting group therapy, any, any type of work like that, that is, that’s a man who’s leveling up. That’s a man who’s trying to be his best. And if it’s a Sunday school class or an AA meeting or a men’s therapy group support group of any kind, I just, I think that is as valuable as trying to work on your six pack. Abs. So you said you, you were doing that quite a bit. You got a lot of points from attending meetings often through the week. That’s pretty impressive

Mike in Vegas (01:06:31):
Since the COVID, there’s a lot of people who dropped out and weren’t able to do that kind of thing. So there’s a, a club that I go to. And usually, and after I get off this call, I’ll go to night, but at eight 30, there’s a meeting that I chair that I’m in charge of. And I’ve been doing that for the last really since the beginning of February. Because if I wasn’t there, then maybe somebody wouldn’t be there and somebody wouldn’t get in a meeting and then somebody would go out and drink and who knows? That might be the last time they do that because it’s they could end up dying or killing somebody or doing something else. So I have to focus on those good parts and give myself credit for that and not beat myself up for the fact that you know, what, I had a couple of Cokes today. And eventually I’ll beat myself up for the Cokes, but right now I’m just not, I’m not at that point.

Jared Brown (01:07:27):
Yeah. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll give you credit there, Mike, where credit’s due because you know, sometimes half the problem is you’ve got to own the problem before you can address it. And you know, for, for me, it was exactly that I had to own it before I could, you know, address it off and you’ll sit there and go, Oh yes, one or two, that’s not going to hurt. Or, you know, you sneak your donuts in, on your way home from work because you know, you’re hungry and you can’t wait till you get home. And, you know, it’s just, it’s just a small things. And I think once, once you own it, and once you find the support and, and look, you know, for, for me, the support has been, obviously this group’s been fantastic and, and watching everybody progress and follow through with it, I think was outstanding, but you know that to have family and, you know, my, my wife support me. She’ll often tell me that I don’t need stuff anymore as well. And, you know, that’s, that’s kind of, I guess, where it’s at for me is, you know, once you’ve own the problem, then, then you can deal with it.

Brad Singletary (01:08:29):
That’s great. Anybody else on, on that question or we’ll go to, what, how should we adjust this adjust this challenge in the future.

Jared Brown (01:08:43):
Look, I don’t think there’s too much to adjust Brad. I think, you know, as long as there’s, I guess, portions to it where you can extend yourself, stretch yourself that’s, that’s where you, that’s where the growth comes from.

Brad Singletary (01:08:59):
Anything we should take completely out of there. One of the things we’ll share on social media. And I think that was a little bit confusing for some the, and part of that was, that was another part of accountability. It’s a way to get an easy point, but it was also about Hey, I’m doing this thing. I know Michael did that a few times. Like, Hey, I’m in a challenge. I’m doing I’m journaling, I’m working out, you know, I’m drinking water, I’m trying to, you know, meditate, pray whatever the things that he was doing. And, and, and it was an, and I would notice his friends kind of give him a little bit of a props on there, on Facebook about good job man, way to go. And, and honestly, part of that was hoping to kind of promote the Alpha Quorum stuff too, but anything we should take off if I look at this, if I look at some of the statistics, which I’ll post later in the show notes and stuff here

Jared Brown (01:09:50):
Look, if, if, if you, if you like Brown, I’ll be honest. I never, I never once, you know, obviously take the social media box because I, I’m never one to talk about myself. I I really struggle in that area. And by posting things on Facebook, I, I, I rarely do it. I, you know, it’s just, I guess, an Avenue for me to, to keep in touch with, with what’s going on outside of where I live.

Paul Charette (01:10:18):
Yeah. And for me, that ended up being the one piece that ended up having a little bit of a negative twinge for me. I was posting consistently in our group and I was, I was sharing it with the guys in the Alpha Quorum and I felt good about that. And I felt like everybody was really supportive and whatnot. And that was one of the reasons that I joined the group. And then based on a conversation that you and I had Brad about maybe sharing it outside of the group and on my Facebook page and what it was something that I didn’t feel like I really wanted to do. I didn’t really want to promote or self-promote kind of like, like Jared said, I’m not one to kind of put myself out there like that, but I felt like this, this group that we’re in is sort of like a brotherhood and we’re all sort of on this struggle together.

Paul Charette (01:11:01):
So I felt good about sharing it with you guys, but then put it on my page. It felt a little bit, I don’t know, it felt a little awkward or disingenuous. So about halfway through the challenge, I stopped giving myself that point because I stopped sharing that stuff. So it wasn’t anything wrong. It was just how it made me feel. And I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. And maybe that was maybe I wasn’t maybe getting the intent of it. And so that may be my loss, but that was just something that, that just didn’t sit right with me. And I felt better about sharing it just with the group. So once that was kind of presented, I was like, Oh, okay, I’m not going to do that.

Brad Singletary (01:11:36):
Okay. That’s good feedback. And I remember that conversation and, um, yeah, I think to talk about there’s also, we had the discord app. I don’t know some of you were on there, but to talk about, to talk about your progress with other guys, I think that is valuable and that is valid and this whole thing, man, I’m just I’m just I’m just white trash with a master’s degree. I’m just trying to figure out how this stuff works. I’ve never done a podcast, never done a men’s group ever done any of this stuff. And so if I’ve been clumsy with that, I apologize with any, with anything I’m trying to figure out the right way to the right way to do all this stuff. So that’s good feedback. That’s why I’m asking for it.

Jared Brown (01:12:16):
I don’t think it’s so much feedback Brad. It’s just, you know, I guess what, what one person is comfortable with, you know, you, you yourself might be comfortable in doing that on myself and not personally comfortable. So therefore I won’t do it. You know, it was, it was nothing, there was no offense taken by that at all. It just, you know, there was nothing personal in it. It was just something I personally chose not to do.

Jeremy (01:12:41):
Yeah. That’s such a subjective thing. I actually have, the statistics pulled up 107 yeses on shared progress on social media, 510 nos. So clearly most participants weren’t doing that, but the irony is if this challenge wasn’t being shared on social media, I wouldn’t have been part of it. And that’s how I found it. Right. So it definitely has value.

Michael (01:13:11):
And, and I actually took no a lot. I on the, on the Alpha Quorum and I talked to Brad about this and he finds it interesting. I say this. But to me, I see I was raised by a single mom and I have worked perspective of what it means to be a man in that, you know, I don’t do dirt bikes and I, I appreciate people who do scares the hell out of me. I know how to bake a pie. I know how to sew on a button. That’s what my mom taught me how to do. But those things that in my, my perspective I, I sometimes I’ll make comments or I I forced myself to, to make stuff put stuff on Alpha Quorum, but I know that my friends know me as a, as a drama geek as you know a guy who doesn’t have a lot of calluses on my hands.

Michael (01:14:18):
And so my friends know me that, and so know me by that. So on my personal count, but I, you know, it, I also had a problem with it. I but then I just had to, as an actor, you’re constantly judged and yeah, I can put myself out there on the stage and show people things, but what you’re showing people, they tend to buy what you, what you show when you’re on the stage. And so that’s what Facebook is. It’s, it’s a stage. And so but I also knew that with my friends and like the people that I don’t really know on the Alpha Quorum Facebook page, my friends would say, Hey, Michael, that’s cool. Cause they know I don’t do those things typically. And but I also, I had a hard time and I, I spoke with Brad about this a few times.

Michael (01:15:17):
I didn’t want it to be a contest. That was my concern about it, about the challenge. It would become a contest. And so but then, you know, like, like Brad said early in the show, you know I did my, my Nudie pics and but I, you know, I worked hard for that and I still haven’t gotten to where I want to be, but I’m a lot farther and I, I appreciate that. And you know, but yeah, I agree with the, with making posts and stuff, but I, Brad talked to me about becoming vulnerable and I think that that’s part of it is making yourself vulnerable you know, being naked to the world physically metaphorically virtually all those other idiots out there. And so when, when Brad said to him, you know, that this is showing that you can be vulnerable. That’s one of the reasons why, why I did well. I think others did too, is, you know, you got to suck, suck it up, especially somebody who’s already thinking, okay, I’m not a manly man. And whatever, whatever that means it was uncomfortable, but it was, it was a good thing for me, for Michael. It was a good thing for me to do.

Brad Singletary (01:16:49):
It’s good feedback, man.

Mike in Vegas (01:16:53):
The only tape to me is that my is around muscle idiots for the discord is all they, my business. So I typically don’t mix business my personal life. Right. Not too. Because sometimes I say things in my personal life that aren’t going to do well for my business. So as a result of just studying or did give myself credit for any of those I didn’t even think about discord. I mean, I probably was on there at least, you know, probably 15, 20 times, I guess, like myself fine, but I didn’t really think about it that way, how we can more Facebook, Instagram all the other different media things that I could promote my business and myself through my bit, my with, through them.

Brad Singletary (01:17:44):
Yeah. There may be a couple of tweaks, you know, and I’ll be open to any suggestions that you have any of you listeners or any of you competitors here, you winners, you alphas listen to about 25 people. I think signed up for this challenge. The first, our first winner here, Jared Brown from Brisbane, Australia, second place Michael from right here in Las Vegas, third place Mike in Vegas. And then I’d have to look, I can’t remember which was next. I think Jeremy was next. And then Paul, I can’t remember the numbers. Exactly. And I, I can’t because I’m recording this zoom call. I can’t go to my other screen to see, see what those were, but top five dudes right here, we’re talking about reporting pretty much every single day or catching it up the next day. I know Michael was I could tell he was really invested in this because he, I had to delete, he, there was 60 days, I got about a hundred scores from which means he kind of wanted to go back and tweak it and change it.

Brad Singletary (01:18:41):
And it was like, maybe he initially admitted when he was wrong or didn’t didn’t complaint. And then maybe later in the day he complained. And so he went to change it. And so I did, we had to go back and do a little cleanup there, but just appreciate your effort in this, just by doing it, you become a better man. You become better for your family, your community and whatever it is that you’re doing. You’re a stronger dude because of this. You’re also building something. This is the first video hope. Hopefully this is gonna, maybe this’ll be on YouTube because this is the first time we’ve really ever done a video podcast out of, I don’t know, 70 episodes or wherever we are. Over two years time, first, one video, first one with an international guest. First time, this is a competition, by the way, I’ve got these hats.

Brad Singletary (01:19:28):
Some of you, you gave me your sizes and I got your addresses and everything. I’m going to send these to you. I got something a little bit special there for you. Jared, Michael and Mike has been in the top three in addition to the hat. So anyway I appreciate your involvement for being engaged for trying to live this and your personal life. Hope to be friends with all of you and learn more from you, appreciate what you’ve done for this whole thing. And hope you guys have a great holiday season and a good new year. And I’m guessing this is not the end of our conversation, and we’re going to continue to to be friends and help each other level up. So thank you for being here. You guys have a great night.

Guests (01:20:08):
Thank you Brad. Thanks, Brad. Thank you, Brad. See you later. Thanks guys. Thanks boys. Appreciate it. I appreciate the challenge.

Mike (01:20:19):
Excellent. Have a steak and kidney pie for me, okay, Jared?

Jared Brown (01:20:24):
Steak and kidney? No way. Steak and mushrooms.

Mike in Vegas (01:20:27):
Yeah. There’s a New Zealand for a few years. So I miss my steak and kidney pies.

Jared Brown (01:20:34):
Kidneys that for the animals I’m afraid. That’s for the dog food.

Michael (01:20:47):
All right. Nice to meet you, fellas. You too.

Speaker (01:20:51):
Gentlemen you are the alpha and this is the Alpha Quorum.