In this episode of the Building Great Sales Teams podcast, we start a new series called #BeTheExample. In the inaugural episode, Doug takes us through the wins, losses and lessons that came from his journey into running a marathon. Enjoy!
#BeTheExample! In order for people to want to follow you, you have to bring something attractive to the table. People prefer to learn from someone who has experienced the thing that they are pursuing and can add value to their journey.
Doug recently ran a marathon and in doing so he learned a lot about the work it takes to run a marathon and things about himself that he may not have otherwise discovered.
00:00:27:08 - 00:01:02:11
Speaker 1
Great experiences, build great leaders, great leaders, build great teams. This is building great sales teams. All right, guys. It is New Year's Eve Eve. So we're about to head into the New year. And one of your goals for the new year may be may or may not be running a marathon. Right. It's a pretty typical goal among entrepreneurs.
00:01:02:11 - 00:01:21:10
Speaker 1
It's something that we do to kind of push ourselves. You know, it's not like we want to be runners the rest of our lives. It's just like, Hey, there's this 1% thing out there that I want to do to say that, hey, I did it right. And so I want to start this new series. It's called the Example series, which is the this is the first episode of it.
00:01:21:20 - 00:01:48:15
Speaker 1
And the idea behind it is, okay, this podcast is about building great sales teams, but what do we know about building great sales teams that you have to be a great leader to build a great sales team, and in order to be a great leader, you've got to challenge yourself and push yourself to do things like marathons. So I wanted to basically walk you guys through what running a marathon taught me and what I learned about myself from it, basically.
00:01:48:15 - 00:02:15:19
Speaker 1
So I want to give you guys kind of a setup so first things first. When I decided to run this marathon, I was doing 75 hard quite successfully. Okay, I was in the middle of finishing it for the first time and out. No, I was actually doing phase 175, so I was in the middle of the live hard year and I was introduced around this time.
00:02:15:19 - 00:02:48:05
Speaker 1
It's about eight months ago to Zach Hawkins. So Zac Hawkins is an executive apex executive in my network. He's an ultra marathoner. He owns 49 Financial, which is an amazing financial services company that him and his friends built from the ground up. And so he does these ultra you know, he's an Ironman athlete. He's ran like something like 15 plus marathons, you know, And so we were talking about it one day and he inspired me to to finally say, hey, I'm going to do it.
00:02:48:05 - 00:03:08:12
Speaker 1
I'm going to run a marathon. And so I Googled it. Only 1% of Americans have ever ran a marathon. So I was like, okay, this is something that I wanted to do. 75 heart's going to be ending. You know? And now I need a new challenge, right? That's my mindset. And one of my other big influences about this was Trevor Kelley.
00:03:08:20 - 00:03:30:16
Speaker 1
So he's in the RPO mastermind. This is where he joined these things. You're constantly surrounded by these type of people, right? He had just ran 36 miles, I think, or 37 miles, 36 miles for his 36th birthday, and he turned 38 this year and he ended up running like 40 something miles for his 38th birthday. And then Daniel Blue, he's another one.
00:03:30:16 - 00:03:50:14
Speaker 1
He just completed 50 miles here recently, you know, So I'm surrounded by these people, right? And I'm like, hey, if they can do it, I can do it. They're skinnier and smaller, but whatever I'm going to I'm going to attack this thing. I got eight. I gave myself eight months to prepare for this right? I was like, There's no way that I'm not going to be ready in eight months.
00:03:50:14 - 00:04:13:08
Speaker 1
I'm going to be doing the live hard year. I've been on point as far as my diet. I've been on point as far as my training. You know, there's there's no way I'll be ready. If anything else, I will be 15, £20 less. So it'll be easier to run that distance, Right? I think to that point, I had ran maybe four or five miles.
00:04:13:24 - 00:04:47:29
Speaker 1
Right. And so that was my plan. My plan was the take, my time training, losing weight and be at a healthy weight whenever I ran this marathon. Okay. So I have plan didn't go quite as planned. I did not finish the live hard year. I did not train consistently for those eight months on and off I ran and the issue was I think it was in June when I was getting serious about training again, June or July, whenever the time changes.
00:04:48:14 - 00:05:10:25
Speaker 1
Remember the time change happened that really screwed me up because it wasn't even a matter that like, okay, so I have to get up at 430. So to work out to get to the gym and work out until six, right? Then I get home at six, get the kids up, make sure that they're getting ready for school, get myself ready, and we're out the door by seven.
00:05:11:21 - 00:05:34:23
Speaker 1
Whether I'm dropping them off at school or I'm going straight to work. And then hopefully I can get to work by eight, 830 at the latest. Right? And so in order to put in these miles, I would have to run in the dark and I bought the light for it. You know, I bought the headlamp. I had the the button just in case, because I live out in the country.
00:05:34:23 - 00:05:53:18
Speaker 1
So here's the problem. There's no lights, you know what I mean? And so what was happening, basically, I would have this plan. I would go out and it it is like it's scary as shit running in the dark. I mean, because you can only see like three or four feet in front of you when you're out in the country.
00:05:53:18 - 00:06:10:13
Speaker 1
And then you're running on these country roads. It's just unsettling and it's not a good environment to train in. So basically, if I wanted to run, I had to run in the evening. And we all know how that goes. You know, a few nights a week I was able to do that. But for the most part, all my running was in the weekend.
00:06:11:26 - 00:06:29:10
Speaker 1
So I got to the point where, okay, there's a block around my house and it's about six miles. It is six miles. It's like almost six miles to a T. And so I was like, okay, I'll just I'll run that block. And so I ran it. Once I completed six miles, I think I was at like 12 something per mile, right?
00:06:29:10 - 00:06:44:25
Speaker 1
And then a couple of weeks later, I ran it twice. And so that was a half marathon. Essentially. I had to run a little extra at the end of the second lap, but that was a half marathon, essentially. And so I was feeling pretty strong after that. I think I ran it like an 1148 pace or something like that.
00:06:45:16 - 00:07:07:29
Speaker 1
Oh, I ran it around 11 minutes per mile. And so I was running consistently at that point. And then I fell off again, ran a few times here and there, fell off again until I was eventually one month out, and I had to accept a the same weight I was when I started this plan because I haven't been eating right.
00:07:08:21 - 00:07:26:23
Speaker 1
You know, I didn't have my trainer anymore. I didn't have 75. Hard to challenge me. I just had this like, big goal, this big pie in the sky goal, right? So as a month out and I was like, okay, you know, droopy, droopy. Wilson threw down a challenge with me. And so I was like, Now I know I have to run.
00:07:26:23 - 00:07:49:26
Speaker 1
I can't back out of this thing. I wasn't going to anyways, but Drew was going to run it with me. He hadn't ran a marathon before either, and he's a six foot three big dude as well, right? And so obviously my motivation was own point to run it, but I had to accept that I wasn't ready. So I put together this training plan a month out and said that Drew said, Hey, this is what I'm going to do.
00:07:51:17 - 00:08:06:28
Speaker 1
And of course, I ran into the same issue. It was too dark in the morning. And then sometimes when I got home, it was dark. So I didn't I wasn't finding the time to run on the weekends when I would do all my running and I would run like 20 miles in a weekend some time between Friday and Sunday, you know.
00:08:08:00 - 00:08:27:09
Speaker 1
And so I was kind of just staying in the same spot in terms of my endurance, my weight, all that stuff. And so that was tough going into this race, knowing that, hey, I wasn't where I needed to be. You know what I'm saying? But that's the way it is in life sometimes. You know, we put together a plan.
00:08:27:26 - 00:08:45:11
Speaker 1
It doesn't go as it should, whether it's because you're disciplined, because of market factors or whatever the case is. And sometimes you just have to show up and know that you're going to finish, that you're going to do your thing. You may not break any records, you know what I mean? I definitely wasn't breaking any land speed records, that's for sure.
00:08:46:25 - 00:09:09:06
Speaker 1
But what I here's what I did, right. Okay. So I had my family support. Let's just say here's what they did. Right? So I had their support throughout this whole thing. Every time I would run, they were there to support me afterwards and give me water, or sometimes they would run with me. You know what I mean? At least the kids would for like half a mile, mile.
00:09:09:06 - 00:09:35:29
Speaker 1
Whatever the case is, no matter what I was doing, they were there for me. And then you guys, if you're following me on social media, you saw you know, they they made a sign for me. They were my pit crew, you know, So every time I took a lap, so what I did is I instead of running an official race, I did it around my house because there were no official races on the weekend that I had available to run it.
00:09:36:16 - 00:09:59:01
Speaker 1
So I was like, I'm not going to say, oh, I'm going to run a race in January and put it off. Now I'm getting this done this year. So that loop around my house was 6.2, five miles or something like that. So it worked out perfectly. I ran for those loops plus another two miles for the 26.2. And so they were my pit crew basically.
00:09:59:01 - 00:10:24:02
Speaker 1
So every time I passed them, they had peanut butter and jelly and banana sandwiches. They had pickle juice, they had my goo packs, they had electrolytes, water, Gatorade, all that good stuff for me so I could refuel each time it came around and refill my pockets and everything. And so that's what one of the things that went right, the fuel piece was huge.
00:10:24:16 - 00:10:44:21
Speaker 1
So that was one of the best pieces of coaching I got from Brant, not from Trevor Kelley, from Zach Hawkins was, Hey, the fuel is the game changer. If you don't fuel right, then you're going to fall apart on this thing. And so I had, you know, these little I came up with the call, but they're like these little goop packs.
00:10:45:06 - 00:11:05:28
Speaker 1
You can probably fit about three or four of them in your pockets along with, you know, I had these collapsible water containers that were in my pockets as well. So at any given time, I had anywhere from 8 to 16 ounces of water with me and two or three those packs. And then when I came in for the pit stop, they had sandwiches for me and everything else that I just described.
00:11:05:28 - 00:11:27:26
Speaker 1
So the fuel went really well and it it's crazy how like when you're running 26 miles and you eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich, you don't feel full for a second. It is literally like the epitome of what fuel means. They like, put it in your body and you run it off in one lap because every lap was roughly a thousand calories.
00:11:28:06 - 00:11:47:11
Speaker 1
So one of those sandwiches is probably only like 400 calories. So you've got to constantly be fueling your body with calories because it's burning them right off. Right. So another thing I did, right, obviously, I have an amazing support system in my network, in my friends. You know, my my friends are out running 50 miles, 40 miles, 30 miles.
00:11:47:27 - 00:12:07:24
Speaker 1
You know, my friends are doing these amazing things in business and these amazing things in in challenges and everything. So if I'm the average of the five people I spend my most time with, then that's a pretty damn good average, right? Another thing I, I did right is I made it incredibly public. You know, I posted about it at least once a month.
00:12:08:19 - 00:12:23:18
Speaker 1
And then when me and Drew, we did a challenge, we made that public and we we brought it on to the podcast, you know, and you guys knew all about it. So if I did not do what I said I was going to do, then y'all would have been following up with me saying, Hey, what happened with this marathon thing, you know, saying.
00:12:24:00 - 00:12:52:03
Speaker 1
And so I, I knew that in my mind. And then the other thing was the season that I ran it in. So weather matters. I mean, if you guys are runners or have done long distances, you know this, right? And because it was 30 something degrees that morning and for the most part, 50 degrees throughout the day, like I've benefited from that cold air sitting on a car, cold air intake, it runs better.
00:12:52:03 - 00:13:11:29
Speaker 1
Right? Same thing with your body, right. I've benefited from that cold air and it wasn't like, you know, high altitude or anything like that. It was sea level. And I think the fact that it was cold helped me so much versus if it was 80, 90 degrees in the morning, You know, when I was in that rainy of in the middle of the day, too.
00:13:12:14 - 00:13:31:10
Speaker 1
But if it if it had been hot and I would have had to change socks, I possibly would have had to change shirts, you know, I'm saying because I would have been just soaked from head to toe. So the season that I ran it in was incredibly important. I would recommend you always run it in October, November, December in Texas, at least.
00:13:31:10 - 00:13:59:03
Speaker 1
Right. Obviously up north, you want to run it in the fall months in February, March, April. Right. So that's what I did. Right. What I did wrong, the lack of training. You know, we went over that lot. My weight. I was at £233 when I started the marathon and 227 after. So I lost £6 during it, but I should have been at probably 215 to where I didn't put my knees through that.
00:13:59:04 - 00:14:17:21
Speaker 1
And, you know, the biggest thing was my ankles. My feet hurt so much afterwards. You know, it wasn't to the point where I couldn't walk. You know, I, I feel like I recovered really well from it because of the fuel that I had during and then the meals that I had afterwards. And I've been using this beet powder mix that helps with inflammation.
00:14:18:09 - 00:14:41:22
Speaker 1
I did a cold plunge immediately after the marathon, so that helped as well. My diet was another thing that I was not doing right when I should have been fueling my body for endurance. I was just fueling it for what was there and the holidays, Thanksgiving and Halloween and, you know, Christmas parties and everything else. And so I definitely did not do that.
00:14:41:22 - 00:15:06:01
Speaker 1
Right. And then probably the most impactful thing that I did not do right was I stopped my live hardware, right. I said to myself, Hey, I'm tired of doing evening workouts, taking away time for the family. Whereas if all I did was the live hard year and then I ran the marathon, at least would have been at 210, £215, and I would have been able to run at a lot less of a weight right?
00:15:06:01 - 00:15:39:02
Speaker 1
And so that's those are the things that mainly that I did wrong. Right. And so the first it's it's crazy because you always hear about the 21 mile wall or the wall when you're running a marathon. You know, and I had asked Ruby about, did you hit that wall? He's like, Dude, I hit a wall at 13. I hit a wall 18 and I hit a wall at 21, you know, And so I fully expected to hit the same walls that drew we hit in terms of, you know, what I was running and everything.
00:15:39:02 - 00:16:01:04
Speaker 1
But I think because I ran it by myself, I completely controlled my own pace. And so I didn't hit any of those walls except for the 21. And it's weird. It was a completely mental wall. I feel like I would not have hit it if not for this happening. So I'm running along and also and I hear that that dong that, you know, sound you hear when your AirPods disconnects.
00:16:02:02 - 00:16:25:14
Speaker 1
And I'm like, I just I had just put in a new pair of AirPods, so I wasn't really sure why they were disconnecting. And I looked down at my watch and my watch was dead. So the night before, my son had used my charging cord or my charging quartz in my charging setup for his PlayStation remote. And so all night I thought I was charging my phone and I wasn't.
00:16:25:14 - 00:16:48:17
Speaker 1
And I had like 70 or 80% on my watch in my watch. But that wasn't enough, you know, obviously using it the whole time, running a marathon, your watch isn't going to last very long. So it didn't have a full charge the next morning. And so in my head, I'm like, okay, now, now what's the point? You know, now I'm not going to have the screenshot.
00:16:48:17 - 00:17:05:22
Speaker 1
I'm not going to be able to show the 26.2 digitally. You know what I mean? If I had ran an official race, I would have had my official time. Drew We had a nice picture of him crossing the finish line with the 26.2 behind him. And in my head I was just like, Man, I'm not going to get that sucks, you know?
00:17:05:22 - 00:17:34:06
Speaker 1
So immediately, all of a sudden, my mental fortitude went from being way up here to being way down here. And this was I'm at mile 21. And so now I know that I'm not going to have this thing or whatever. So all of a sudden my quads lit on fire and started cramping, you know what I mean? So it just kind of shows you the connection between your mental fortitude and your physical condition.
00:17:34:06 - 00:17:53:00
Speaker 1
So all of a sudden my quads start cramping and I'm like, Crap, I've never really dealt with cramps during a run. How do I deal with this? So I started walking and they started cramping more, you know what I mean? And when I felt like I got into a good place where I could run again, I started running again and immediately I started feeling dizzy.
00:17:53:00 - 00:18:17:23
Speaker 1
You know, it's crazy because the whole time I felt strong, you know, like, yeah, my feet hurt, my ankles hurt, like my body was exhausted and I didn't want to run that last lap, but I was mentally there and ready to run it. And overcoming the aches and pains. Right. And as soon as my mental went down and I realized, hey, I'm not going to have this thing that I wanted so bad, which wasn't didn't really matter.
00:18:17:23 - 00:18:39:27
Speaker 1
What mattered is that I finished the marathon right? So once I realized that my mental went down, my body started screaming at me, you know what I mean? So I got dizzy. Start walking again, get my composure. I drank some more water, took another pack, you know, I'm saying. And I could have tracked another run if I had my phone.
00:18:39:27 - 00:19:00:19
Speaker 1
I had my phone for the whole run except the last lap. I left it at the table on the last lap so that I could have another eight ounces of water instead of my phone. And so which was a great choice because I used 16 ounces of water on that last lap plus four of my group packs. And that last lap was my obviously my slowest lap.
00:19:01:27 - 00:19:21:09
Speaker 1
You know, I probably did like 14 minute miles on that last one because I had to walk so much because I kept getting dizzy. I kept having to go through this cycle of, you know, get dizzy, start walking, breathe, feel normal again and start running again. And I would run for like a half mile, three quarters of a mile and then have to walk again.
00:19:21:24 - 00:19:40:26
Speaker 1
So basically the last lap was the most grueling and the longest. And I didn't I didn't have I wasn't able to text my wife or even more water, bring me food, whatever the case was, because my phone was dead. I didn't have I mean, my watch was dead. I didn't have my phone. So she didn't have my location.
00:19:40:26 - 00:20:05:12
Speaker 1
So that was probably the toughest part, part of the race. And then because by the time that I finished with them, because I had ran an extra two miles on my third lap, the time that I finished with them, I still had a quarter mile left. So I had to run past them, pass their their warm embrace and finishing.
00:20:05:12 - 00:20:22:25
Speaker 1
I had to run past them 4.1 to 5 miles and then back 4.1 to 5 miles. That was probably the most grueling part. My right leg would not lift high enough not to hit the street when it was when I was running. So I was dragging my right foot at that point. And if you see the video of me finishing, it doesn't look too bad.
00:20:22:25 - 00:20:46:28
Speaker 1
But it is like I am just I'm done, you know what I mean? And again, that's that mental, mental knowing that it's only a quarter mile away and your body just like shutting down, like, Hey, you are done. You were done ten miles ago and you're still going. And so I think some of the things that I learned about myself was my discipline is terrible with food and exercise.
00:20:47:07 - 00:21:08:20
Speaker 1
I have to have a specific organized challenge in order to do well with those things. I need a program to follow. I need a trainer. That's one of the things that I'm realizing now. You know, Marcus Elmendorf was my trainer before, and I had to cancel his services like six or eight months ago. And that's something that I know now that I need.
00:21:08:20 - 00:21:27:25
Speaker 1
I need someone holding me accountable. That's just who I am, right? I have strengths in some areas, and this is one of them that I'm not strong in. But if it's something that if I can create discipline out of it and I can control it, then I can change my life completely. And so another thing about me is I need a challenge to fill alive when it comes to this type of stuff, Right?
00:21:28:24 - 00:21:51:15
Speaker 1
Obviously, I have my family, I have a mission, I have my business. But when it comes to the physical aspects, I absolutely need a challenge. After doing Apex evolution and after doing the marathon and after climbing camelback and doing all these things this past year, what I noticed about myself, which is an amazing thing, is I'm mentally strong in the moment.
00:21:52:23 - 00:22:26:02
Speaker 1
It didn't matter if it was 26 miles or 40, I was going to finish it right. And now that I've said that now I probably have to enter into bigger races or do bigger distances, which I plan on. I just need to get my weight down in order to do that. So I'm mentally strong in the moment. And then one of the things I realize that's not necessarily a bad thing is I'm dependent on my friends and my family, that core circle of people that support me and that physically support me when I'm doing these challenges.
00:22:26:02 - 00:22:44:29
Speaker 1
But like, you know, and I feel like we are all this way to a degree, but I wasn't in my time, you know, I wasn't in high school and in my twenties, I was very much of the mindset to do it on my own. You know, if you're not with me, then then screw you. I'll I'll do it without you kind of thing.
00:22:44:29 - 00:23:04:03
Speaker 1
And even get into my late twenties. I had that mindset even though I had a wife and a family. You know, once I went through my divorce and everything, I had a very isolationist mindset. And now in my mid-thirties, I'm realizing that I don't want to do it without them. Could I? Sure. But it wouldn't be much of a life to live.
00:23:04:03 - 00:23:31:25
Speaker 1
So I'm dependent in that sense on my friends and my family. So that's kind of what I learned from running a marathon. And I wanted to share that with you guys. If you guys have any questions or you're going to do your own someday, let me know. Reach out to me a comment. Whatever the case is, I appreciate you all listening and I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve and celebrates New Year's the right way and you're safe.
00:23:32:16 - 00:23:45:22
Speaker 1
See some fireworks and some time with family and you really enjoy it. I appreciate you all listening, of course, As always, share the podcast, leave a review. Thank you guys so much. And let's get building.