From Fatigue to Focus: Using Precision Data to Optimize Executive Performance

Stop running your health on assumptions. In this episode of No Hype, Just Standards, Zac Armstrong sits down with Beau, a high-level segment manager who mastered the corporate ladder but struggled to manage his own physiology. In a world where “average” is the failing standard, we discuss how to use precision bloodwork and real data to eliminate brain fog, fatigue, and the cumulative stress of executive travel.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

Optimize your performance. Restore your standards.

Ready to get your edge back?

Transcript

Auto-generated from the episode audio and lightly formatted. Each timestamp links to that moment in the video.

0:00 Yeah, it definitely wouldn’t be healthy, right? And I think you can measure health in a lot of different ways, but you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. So, if you if you choose not to take action and you’re not healthy, then you’re the sum of your choices. I’m Zach Armstrong and this is no hype, just standards. This show is for the guys who have figured it all out. How to perform at a high level everywhere except when it comes to their own health. We use precision blood work and real data to close that gap. not guesses, not annual checkups, actual numbers. Bo is a segment manager at a major industrial manufacturing company. He travels constantly. He has two young kids and he has a wife who runs marathons. He will be the first to tell you that his favorite part of any race is the finish line. Specifically, the part where he is done. What I want every guy listening to hear in this conversation is not the story of someone who fell apart. It is a story of someone who was doing everything right and still didn’t have what he needed to see the full picture. And that is what happens when a high performer runs on assumption

1:01 Instead of actual data. Hit subscribe if you’re new here. Bo, let’s go. Hey Bo, so how’s it going? Uh, you know, for everybody’s just meeting, you know, can you kind of like walk me through your career? You didn’t come up in what, you know, would perceived as a a traditional path. So can you kind of walk us through that? Sure. Yeah. So I started my career working in IT. So I graduated college in 2008. That was a tough time to be looking for careers. Yeah. For anything, any field. So I was fortunate uh I got into a role at a place where I interned, worked in IT for a while, quickly realized that I wanted to work in marketing. So, I kind of really had to to cut my chops, taking on special projects, extra work to get some uh the visibility of that team. Then, it was fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to transition into an inside sales marketing role. And I

2:01 Would say that’s really kind of where I began my career in marketing. Uh did that for a while. Uh worked mainly in I would say that inside sales role for two three years. Then I got into product marketing and that’s really where I fell in love in love with marketing. Um, and that’s really what I do today. So just transition different products, uh, different companies, but really my role is talking to customers, figuring out what keeps them up at night and then how to overcome those challenges and then hopefully provide value to both customers and the business. Uh, so the financials make sense, right? So basically finding their pain points. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Uh not not unfamiliar with that myself. Um as a you’re a fundamentals guy. What does that actually mean in practice? Um the way you approach your work as well as your decisions. Yeah. So I think the program that you have is interesting because there’s a lot of data to be had whether that’s on a Whoop or other resources on the app. But for me, what I find is if I’m not

3:02 Doing the fundamentals right, if I’m not eating right, I’m not sleeping right, the data is going to show that 100%. Quick. Exactly. Quick. And it you get a bit of a analysis paralysis. Some of those I think you can fix pretty fundamentally like did you sleep bad? Yeah. What time did you go to bed? Was it 11:30 and you woke up at 5:00? Well, yeah, that’s going to be bad sleep. So maybe really consider uh your plan for the day. What do you got to get done? When are you going to bed? When are you when are you going to get up? Fundamentals. Super basic. Or like I’m I’m really tired. Well, how much water did you drink? Well, I was super busy all day. You know, I had a little bit of water. Yeah, fundamentals. Like drink drink water and go to bed on time. That’s why we get along so well. Um what’s funny is we never met each other until this morning when you came over to work out. Um, but I felt like I knew you because we we’ve known each other now for a pretty good while. And I tell everybody even though we’re remotely, I get to know someone so well that I feel

4:03 Like I know like I’ve known them for probably closer to them than I’ve known some friends for years is because the amount of stuff we share. Um, but the fundamentals is funny the way you said that, you know, we didn’t even talk about it yet, but it’s like a 13minute window for me to go to bed at night. Like I have like I go to bed at this time or that and if I’m not in the 13-inute mark it ends like at you know I can tell you what time it is. It’s like 7:47. 7:47 I’m not in bed. Then I get up whatever I’m doing. I stop and I go to bed. That’s hard to do. Yeah. That’s amazing. My window is probably a little bit bigger. I’d say I’m an 8:30 to 9:30 guy. Yeah. Uh, and I felt like that was a pretty strict window, but I think it it’s really the discipline that% you got to you got to know that’s your window and whatever happens in that variable like you might be a little bit early, you might be a little bit late, but those are those are the boundaries. No, and that’s, you know, I bring it up all the time and especially with clients, like we all set an alarm to wake up and it’s a precise time, but we never hold

5:04 Ourselves on the other end to go to bed at a certain time. But that’s what affects the difference in the amount of sleep you get is what time you go to bed. And what people don’t understand is when you get that kind of rhythm, your body naturally, like, oh, I have trouble falling asleep. Well, if you go to bed every time, like in a pretty close window, that’ll improve over time. your body naturally goes into that rhythm and it’s very helpful and that’s what fundamentals that’s one of the staples of what my program is about is consistency to where you see results over time. It’s no fat diet. It’s no none of this and you get results like yours. We’ll have to show you know obviously I’ll talk to the producer and make sure that your photos are shown here to show like how you went uh in a matter of time. I was telling him this morning um telling you this morning that the results you got was so fast and so amazing like not it doesn’t happen as fast as yours was. So, let’s walk through your weeks right now. What does a real work week look like for you? Because you have a lot of travel, you have, you know, young kids. How does that look for you? Yeah, I would say for me, um, right now, a lot of it is driven by what what kind of projects we’re we’re running at work

6:05 And what we need from customers. So, there there’s usually customer visits. Maybe I look over the course of a month and say in the course of a month, I’m probably traveling at least two weeks in that month. And then but not as like local travel. Yeah, definitely not local travel. Uh local travel I guess I don’t even count like if I go to work at 8 and I’m home by five if I’m going somewhere in that day outside of the office like I don’t even count that. Yeah. But this is more overnights uh away from week long ones international. So absolutely. Yeah. So there’s a bulk of that but then there’s baseball p practice, gymnastics, uh scouts, Lego club, those kind of things. um I want to be around for the kids and be part of those too. So it’s balancing which which priority uh is important that week. And I guess that’s where work life balance to me is always kind of a bit of a it’s a fugazy if I could steal a line from uh Wolf of Wall

7:05 Street, right? It’s not real because you have this priority or that priority and there’s no 50-50 balance, right? No. Like if you’re gone for a week, you’re going to miss family things that are scheduled. And then if you’re back the next week, you might be maybe you’re cutting out of work a little bit early to go go see the kids play baseball. But it it’s not balanced. It’s not 50/50. It’s this priority or that priority. Yeah. And even if you’re gone and you come back, it’s like you’re putting yourself back in their life. But to talk about like something we talked about this morning and I knew before you were coming is you were coming here to do this and then you had to go start travel week next week uh for Monday you had to be somewhere but the type of person and priorities and how you set in life and this is kind of what human being you are you’re going to fly back just for a few hours to spend the day with your family to spend time with them and then leave from there to your work trip. So that that’s a kind of when you talk about consistency or putting priorities in

8:05 Place that that kind of like human being you are and like how that works in your life. That’s always something that’s very admirable especially in a days now uh day and age. Thank you. Um at what point did you did your own health start being stop being a you know a big part of your life or a picture in your life to where it fell off a little bit? I think once all those priorities got stacked up, it just didn’t make the list. And it’s it’s hard to say that out loud, right? Because I don’t think anybody would say they don’t want to be healthy and they don’t want to be active. It just you have so many hours in the day and you fill those up with the important priorities and there’s just not enough time left, right? How did you notice that that was affecting things in your life, not just your own health, but what you know that has a snowball effect, so to say? Sleep was a big one. Um, sleep wasn’t real great. I also didn’t mentally feel good about myself. Like, it’s not the person I normally would expect to see. Um, my wife’s a big runner, so I was always

9:06 I was impressed with her discipline. So, we live in Wisconsin. It’s no secret that it’s cold there. And she’ll go out and she’ll run 10 12 miles in the middle of winter. And to me, I’m I’m laying in bed and I’m under the sheets. It’s warm and I get up in the morning and I’m like, “Ah, it’s kind of chilly in the house.” As she’s coming back in and she’s got icicles hanging from her eyelids, you know? So, like that kind of commitment to something, especially from a fitness perspective, I think is hard. Yeah. Especially nobody’s looking, right? Like she doesn’t get any kudos because she did that. No. So, to me, you know, I’m I’m still impressed when she does that. I I I don’t think I could do that even today. But I think just kind of having that discipline uh that she does was something that I was lacking. Yeah. Um kind of way to ask that then is like for the person like you had your health at that time your health wasn’t a priority. How did that kind of come across her make you feel like watching her do that

10:07 And then knowing yourself we’re not holding the same what standard as I would say? Yeah, I definitely didn’t feel good about it. Um, I felt a little like I was underperforming and I c I knew I could do it. I just didn’t know how to do it right. Um, had you ever really like thought about making a priority or like looking at numbers or the data with yourself or is this something that was kind of foreign to you at the time? I think one number that’s always easy to get is weight, right? you can jump on a scale and you can see what see what it says, but I just didn’t know what to do with it. So, I had maybe access to a little bit of information, but I think the next piece for me was like, what do I do with this? If I gain weight, is that bad? If I lose weight, is that bad? Like, what is the right number this should be? So, I think getting some information was important, but more specifically, the right

11:07 Information. what’s the right information I have to get because there’s so much out there. We were talking about earlier this morning when we were on going for a walk. Like there’s so much information. It’s very accessible, but how do we know which one’s right or wrong exactly? Like I can go put information ask chat GPT something right now and I can ask it and it’ll give it to me like well that doesn’t sound right. And it’ll reply to me. You’re absolutely right. I didn’t think about that. Like even chat GBT you know can give you some wrong answers or guide you wrong. Um, you know, at some point all this kind of, you know, the way that you were feeling from maybe the wife or feeling about yourself, everything, it led you to a point to where, you know, you started like having a thought to reach out or to like look at things. What what what got you to that point? What did that look like for you? Yeah. So, crazy story. Um, I actually felt like I was doing really well maybe two or three years ago. So, I was working out in the gym. I was cycling quite a bit and I saw some good gains. Uh, but it was kind of a bit of a

12:09 Mystery as to why. Like I just had some rhythm and I was I was doing the right things, but then I broke my collar bone. I crashed my bike, broke my collar bone, and I just couldn’t get back into that swing. Mhm. So, I was struggling with like, how do I do this again? Um, and I was working a lot with my wife on it, too. She was a big driver for me. Like I think that’s when you know you have a good partnership when somebody is really there to to help you make good decisions and even kind of push you. Um so she she was kind of holding me accountable to like what what are you going to do? How you going to get in shape? So that’s when I that’s when I reached out. Um looking for a program, looking for some structure. And when you were looking, you know, what kind of level of detail or what were your expectations? Yeah. I don’t think I had any. It was like generally what everybody says. Yeah. It’s like this is bad and I would like it to be better. You know, just make me make it happen. Make it happen. Yeah. So, like talking about

13:09 Making it better. Make it happen. You know, you’ve went through, you know, 15 years of a career and like with performance metrics and stuff. Um and now where you see where you’re at now, like what is kind of going through your head like how you got from point where you were back in October till now? Yeah. So, I I definitely feel like there’s success. Uh I would say so and I’m proud of that. Like I think um those things are important but but for me I think some of the successes are my kids are now interested in working out. Oh that’s people don’t Oh man like we talked about it this morning too. I was like you know my kids are usually in the gym working out. They they were at somewhere this morning though. Um the example you set um I’d say it all the time with kids. Um, at some point in our childhood, we stop listening to our parents, but we sure as hell mimic them. Exactly. Yeah. So, it’s easy if you set the example, they’ll pay attention to it and they’ll mirror you. Yeah. And what was that like to, you know, hearing hearing that from your kids?

14:09 So, my oldest, he is an active runner at school and he gets that from his mom for sure. Like, I’m not a runner. Like, the best part about running for me is the end for sure. Uh, I just can’t do it. like I’m not strong enough. I don’t have that discipline. My head is constantly telling me like you should stop. End this. Um but so my oldest will will actively kind of like you said mimic his mom. So he runs, he likes it. But the other day I went in the basement and I was doing some weights and he wants to see how it works and he wants to do it. And I think to me it’s it’s kind of setting those fundamentals like, hey, this is what you should be doing. However you incorporate it in your life is up to you, but this is important. Like make it a priority. Um so I I feel like it’s a tool whether he um exercises it a lot or or a little. It’s up to him, but it’s something he should know how to do, when to do, and hopefully those those are things that he

15:11 Can copy uh when he sees his his mother and and me using those. Okay. Outside of just that, what was there any thing that kind of surprised you that you weren’t expecting? Uh food. So, nutrition. Yeah. I never really thought about what I was eating. It was really breakfast, lunch, dinner. Like, whatever’s around, whatever whatever you want to eat, just eat it. And that that’s it. I never really looked at a lot of macros or protein and I or labels. Exactly. Yeah. I guess I was surprised as to what I was actually eating. It’s amazing. It’s I think um one thing I tell everybody when they join is at some point you’re going to be the guy who turns the can around and go, I’m not eating that. It’s got like 20 grams of sugar in it and like it’s something that’s supposed to be natural organic, but when you turn around it’s got 20 ingredients in it. That’s not That’s not natural or Yeah. Um what was it like seeing this kind of level of detail of you paying attention to everything now? And how hard was it

16:12 With your travel? Oh, it’s extremely hard. I think if you don’t have a plan, so let’s rephrase that. I don’t think it’s hard in what you’re doing. I think it’s hard without your without a plan. Like when you were going and just shooting from the hip, you said it well this morning, actually. Um I’ll let you say it, but um do you remember how you phrased if you go in there without a plan? Do you remember how how you say it this morning? Maybe some like if you don’t have a plan, that’s the plan. No. Like if you’re trying if you’re going if you’re hungry and you’re you’re waiting to get to that restaurant and without a plan, what’s going to happen, right? We Yeah. You’re gonna fail. You’re gonna fail every time, right? Because you’re just going to go you’re not going to know. You’re not going to have a plan. Um when you before this, how hard was travel and just like what was it doing to your body? Yeah, it definitely wasn’t good. Like I think uh again I would go I put a lot of effort into setting up the travel. So understanding who we’re meeting with, why we’re meeting with that. Yep. Um, making sure everybody had all the information, lots of communication, but

17:13 Then when it came to just food in general is like whatever’s close, do that and then we should be out of here in 30, 45 minutes. Yep. Or when you go to a restaurant with a client, whatever’s on the menu, you order. Um, and then when you came in and now you have not just a plan, but you, hey, Zach, I’m going to this restaurant or I’m going to be staying here at this hotel. Can you help me out? And then everything’s given to you kind of suitcase. How how how easy was that to get, hey, here’s five restaurants, here’s five meals, these all your macros. How how easy and was that to do? It was great. Especially on the gym side, I think for me, uh it’s a little intimidating going into we’ll say like a full gym. So, I work out at Planet Fitness a lot. Um it’s a little intimidating going in there cuz I always felt like everybody knows I have no idea what I’m doing, you know? And and I would say for me it’s even a little more intimate in a hotel gym because then you take this huge this huge facility. You make it much smaller and you cram three or four other people in there that probably have been in

18:14 There before. Yeah. I always felt like that I’m a bit of a a poser in here like they know. But with a plan I could go in there. I was going to do this this this and then I was going to be out of there. Sure. And it helps. Like even funny is when you were came workout did me this morning you stuck to your plan. workout. You stuck to your plan. I thought that’s hilarious. Um, let’s talk about the those heavy weeks of travel because I know a lot of guys out there are and girls are traveling a lot. Let’s talk about it in two phases. The first phase like how did travel like what kind of toll did that have on your body? Um, pre doing any of the program. Yeah, I would say again not good, right? So, I was tired, especially if I’m doing travel where I’m going through multiple time zones, like I’m just not sleeping well. And I think that shows actually I was surprised one one week I was messaging her quite a bit. I was like, “Hey, I can’t do my apps.” Like it just Oh, I remember that. Yeah. The phone like and it was a surprise to me, but it really came down to like I traveled a bunch that week. I had some

19:14 Stuff coming up the next week. like I was just I wasn’t sleeping well and it had this toll on me and it was illuminating that hey again fundamentals like if you’re traveling a bunch and you are eating like crap and you’re sleeping really bad yeah you’re probably going to feel bad so I think that was me I traveled a bunch I had no plan I just felt bad felt bad and from what was were you noticing any toll with work or like um not just with work but when you did return home like how you were acting towards your family or short you know with people any of that did you started seeing a cumulative effect? Yeah, I’d say for me like I probably wasn’t as active as I should be like um sitting under those warm sheets. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like Yeah. Uh we have a limited number of warm days in Wisconsin. So like being outside like you leverage those and sometimes I you know it’s like ah the kids can go outside. I’ll sit on the couch or whatever. But now to me it’s like, “Hey, I gotta get 10,000 steps.” Like,

20:15 “Let’s do it.” Yeah. Let’s do something. Let’s walk. Let’s play baseball. Like, let’s get outside. And so, when what about is going back to that with that heavy travel? Like, did you notice maybe some mental, you know, fatigue when you were in meetings or not picking up or as sharp as you were before like um as a you know, as aum cumulative effect had on it? Definitely the afternoons. So, so now I actually I love the mornings. it. I feel a bit like an Oh, me too. I feel like an older I get it. Yeah. It’s like I have no problem waking up and just having a cup of coffee and just sitting there thinking about what my day is going to be, like having breakfast, getting some steps. Like to me, I love the morning. Me, too. But it it makes the afternoon, especially prior to having a system or a structure, like the afternoons are brutal. Yeah. And now you feel like you have that ability that that fatigue’s kind of gone. You’re still mentally sharp. Yeah. that that or like if I’m getting tired like I’m probably going to get up and get some steps. Like my body’s telling me something like Yeah. You

21:15 Can’t sit there for four hours in a row and expect nothing to happen like your body wants to move. Yeah. And so we’re talking about not just that. So when you came home, did you notice a shift with um after travel now that you’ve been doing this for a while and you you’ve gotten to that effect to where you’re more mentally sharp, your your body’s there. What kind of effect have you noticed that with your family? Have you heard from them that is you they notice a difference or have you kind of noticed yourself or a little bit of both? Yeah, probably probably a little bit of both. Um I think for me like again yeah that that mental focus in the afternoon had been a challenge but now when I’m coming home like I got to plan. Um, if I got to work out, kids know that. Like maybe they join me in the basement. Like there’s there’s a little more structure to my day. And structure isn’t a bad thing. No. Yeah. I think people, it kind of sets expectations. It does. And people are scared of it, but when they get into it in that

22:15 Routine, we’re habitual in nature already. You just pick your habits. Exactly. Right. You think, “Oh, I’m not structured.” Well, if you’re sitting there watching Netflix for an hour, you’re still structured. It’s just not the way you think it. Yeah. It’s just this is my TV time instead of me doing this time. Yeah. Um, how do you Did you have your kids said anything like, “Oh, dad, like you you you act different, you look different.” Um, yeah. I would say the easiest one is like they just see it. They see me doing these things. Um, and the crazy part for me is like they want to participate in it, which is awesome. Yeah. And that’s what kind of we’re talking about too, like you can optimize certain things in your life um and help things or go make money, but the one thing you can’t get back is time. Like that is to me as a human being, that is your most precious commodity. Um is just and then if you’re you’re not in good shape or you’re not like that that end of that that finite number gets closer because you’re taking away years from your life by living a certain way.

23:15 Um, and when you get to see yourself right now and knowing that the time that you’re getting to spend with your children, you’re more there is what it sounds like to me. That you’re more present. And you sit there and you think about the kind of dad you are and the example you’re setting. How does that make you feel? What is what is those things like, hey, I’m doing this. My kids want to work out. They’re noticing the difference. What What does that intake for you? Yeah, I’m proud. Like, I think it’s it’s creating that bond over something. I I saw a stat the other day and I’ll I’ll get this wrong, but it was something like you have a limited amount of time with your kids, but the most amount of time you have is when they’re born up until they’re like 18. That was me. I posted that. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that’s perfect. Yeah, it makes sense, right? Like they’re they’re in your life. Yeah. You know, like this is this is your opportunity to share something with them. Yeah. And it can be it can be anything you want it to be. Yeah. But you have you own that time. You’re going to do whatever

24:15 Good or bad in that time. No. And I I’ll bring it back to what it was. Um I can’t remember the exact number, but it’s the time you spend with you know your kid lives you live over how many years and you know your kid lives many years but the percentage of that you spend with your child from 0 to 13 is like 80% of what you’ll spend in the lifetime with your children is in that time frame. And it makes sense when you think about it because at 13 you think about yourself. You don’t want to hang out with mom and dad, right? It’s a friend time, man. It’s gone. Like mom and dad are lame, right? Especially now with technology, man. It’s so easy to get gone, right? And um and that’s because they still want to have something to do with you then. Yeah. But make no mistake that example you set like they will still mimic it after 13. They just probably won’t want to hear it from you, right? Yeah. For sure. You got other priorities. Yeah. It’s very humbling to know like that kind when you get to set that example for those people and then because it doesn’t just live in you, it’ll live in them the rest of their life, right? And what kind of way does that make you

25:15 Think like as um that’s off the cuff right now? Like what what do you think when you hear that kind of stuff and what you’re doing for your kids? Yeah. Again, like I’m proud, but but I also I learn a lot from them, too. Sure. you know, it’s like um they’re they’re inquisitive, so they ask questions like, “Why are you doing that?” or um you know, “Can I try that?” And half the time I’m like, “I don’t even know if I’m doing this right.” Every parent, man, every parent thinks that. Yeah. I was like, “Uh, I think this is how you do that.” Wing it like just try it. No instruction, man. Where’s the instruction? Ch can’t tell you that either, man. Like, exactly. We’ll do it together. We’ll figure it out. If it’s bad, we’ll we’ll make it better. All right. Let’s go to the next person. What has your wife noticed? Yeah. The miss icicle eyelids herself. Like what’s going on with her? Like what is she seeing? Yeah. So, she she definitely knows like uh that I’m we’ll say dropping like pants sizes and shirt sizes. And I think for me like it’s a good way to show progress, right? And it’s not all about that, but like she notices

26:17 That, but she also knows I’m happier. Yes. like um I think we were talking about weights and I was like, “Hey, I lost this many pounds or whatever.” And she’s like, “Yeah, it’s not all about that.” Like, “What else did you see?” I was like, “I’m putting on more weight. Like, I’m performing better.” Like, I can see across different lifting sets that all of those have gone up. All of them. Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s to me it’s like it’s a way to document progress, but I’m proud of that. She sees that I’m happier. Like it’s it depends on what you measure, but sure. Yeah, it’s it’s all good. People discount like almost all because men were like we think of it from a physical aspect, not the emotional or mental aspect. Women are very good at that. Men were we’re terrible at it. Um but I try to tell everybody when they come in like the way you feel will be what’s different and but the correlation like you’re going to look differently and you’re going to feel better because you look differently and they go hand in hand. But what you’ll notice is at the end you won’t talk about how much better

27:17 You look. You’ll just talk about how much better you feel. Yeah. And it always happens. Um, what else did she notice? Did she notice like, hey, like energywise or like anything else or energy? The other thing I would say is like I probably help out more cooking, you know? It’s like, hey, what are we having for dinner tonight? Um, we don’t have a plan. Like, let’s let’s try this. And for me, I I don’t know if I’m doing it right, but it’s like, hey, we’re going to have chicken or we’re going to, you know, we might have steaks tonight. And it’s another way where like I get involved in other parts of the family where maybe I wasn’t as involved. Okay. A good way to ask this is just like how has that improved your life and marriage by doing that? Yeah, it’s significantly better, right? Like I’m around, I’m invested more. Um, I I think she again, we kicked off this conversation earlier of like why why was this important to me? Um, it’s it’s really driving better habits and those

28:19 Result I think in a happier marriage. Like we’re both more aware of our health. Uh, she was at a much higher level than I was. And maybe I’m maybe I’m now on the scale. I don’t know if I’m at her level, but like I think we are both active doing something like it it helps our marriage quite a bit. Okay, that’s a amazing way to say it. And if you could Did you expect any of this when you like clicked on a damn link and said, “Let me see what this this guy on the internet’s about.” Yeah. No, I I think it was I had no idea what to expect. Um, naturally working in marketing, it’s like I’m sure the things that I’m seeing are all the good stuff, right? Right. What you don’t see is the waking up at 5:00 a.m. to get a bunch of steps in the day cuz you know you got a

29:20 Bunch of meetings. Yeah. Um but no, I had no idea what to expect. What do you feel like expectationwise like what you expected and where where you’re at now? Like how would you correlate that right now or say that meets or where you’re at or thought process? Yeah, it definitely exceeds expectations because I didn’t I didn’t know what to expect. Um, I I think I don’t know if you remember this, but so we we met. We had a Zoom call. We talked for a little bit and then I actually had asked you I was like, “Hey, can you hop in a Zoom call with my wife?” Yeah. Do you remember that? I do. Yeah. And you’re like, “Well, what what do I say or what do I do?” And I was like, “I don’t know. Just tell her the same thing you told me.” Um, and a lot of that was me trying to get a measure of expectations, right? And her takeaway was, “No, I like this guy. I think he’ll hold you accountable.” Yeah. Yeah. And I don’t think I have to hold you accountable anymore. Um, what did you bring to my house this morning to make mix in your yogurt? Yeah. Whey protein and peanut butter

30:20 Powder. Yeah. Yeah. You kind of You know how much protein I have in my house, man? That’s my That’s my bag. You brought a Ziploc bag to my house, man. That was my plan, right? I needed a good plan. I was in shock. I was like, what the hell? I was impressed, though. I’m not going to lie. I was like, “This has got to be the best client ever. He brings protein to my house not to take my own. Um if you speaking of that like talking about plan where you’re at and like who you are now if you could look back you know at Bo 5 years ago what would you tell that guy? Um I would probably say like you need structure like figure out where to get it. Do something. Um I think my dad gave me this advice once when I was when I was young. He’s like do something. Might not be right but take action. take do something. That’s uh I love that. Yeah. So, that’s probably what I’d say like do take action something. That’s me. I’m uh get a 80% solution, go and then figure out the the other 20% to make it perfect later. Um

31:21 and you know, just talking about both from 5 years ago to bow now. Like how much better shape are you now than you were 5 years ago? Yeah, much better. And from a mental and physical standpoint, what do you think? Well, this morning at when we were in the gym, like I did eight pull-ups, four sets of eight pull-ups, and that actually was my goal when I joined the I remember that now. Yeah. Oh, do some pull-ups. And I think pull-ups and push-ups are just like those fundamental exercises that are just brutally hard. Like if you’re in shape, you can do those, but if you’re not in shape, you can’t do those. Yeah. So, I think um those again are like the fundamentals like and that’s a good way to measure your fitness. So, I couldn’t do that five years ago. Yeah. And before we move on a little bit, um I just want to take the opportunity here and like let you kind of because you’re not a bodacious kind of guy, right? You’re not you’re not braggadocious at all. Um

32:21 How good do you feel about yourself now and where you’re at? Yeah, I feel great. Like I How proud of yourself are you? Like when you actually look in the mirror and like Yeah. And you can let it out and take some truths now. Nobody’s going to judge. No. I I feel at one point I wouldn’t I I would feel uncomfortable taking my shirt off at the beach. Let’s not have that problem anymore. Yeah. And with that sense of pride like it’s it’s amazing to see that and hear because I can hear it out of you. It’s hard to pull it out of you, but I can hear it out of you. That’s like the the Midwest nice thing. Like it’s just hard to it’s hard to get around it. Just eat some cheese curds and make it go away, right? Um, so if there’s a guy out there who’s like hearing this, you know, kind of exactly where you are, they’re smart, they’re capable, they’re busy, they’re traveling. What would you try to say to him? Like what what would you say to him to maybe get this Kickstarter to do something like this? I think I would probably tell him like, hey, again, take action and get a good plan,

33:22 right? You need good structure. Let me rephrase it. Let’s start it this way before we go there. What were the concerns you had that somebody might have right now? What concerns did you initially have? It’s like I don’t know this person. Sure. I saw this thing. Now I’m going to give them some money. Yeah. Am I going to get an ROI on my money? Okay. Anything else? Um there’s a lot of options. Yeah. So like you can do competitive analysis all day. You’ll have analysis paralysis. Yeah. you’re going to have to make some decisions and take some action. Um and and again like I think the thing that worked well for me in your program is I could talk to you. Yes. Okay. This isn’t working. Um I don’t think you get that with all programs. No. And just to go on that, like how would you describe our interactions? Uh I think you said it well. like I I feel like I’ve known you forever and I could just ask you questions that might

34:22 Uh it’s like hey this isn’t working or like should I do this or like I can’t do abs today what’s happening you know like or like I gained weight why right and it wasn’t a three paragraph sentence it was like right to the point I felt good about just our communications that way yeah you gave me solid answers like yeah I think it’s weird because I think another fear you may have like, hey, I don’t I’m not going to see this guy. Like, this is the first time we met was this morning. Yeah. But again, I’ve known you for it feels like years now. Um, what would you say like to get overcome that fear? What helped you overcome that fear that that the person out there is listening to right now? Exactly that. Like you were listening to me. I could send you a message and I get an answer back minutes later. Usually I have a two hour I have a two-hour rule. Two hours is not answered, then it’s a problem. Yeah. So, I I think at least for me, like I didn’t see you. And in some cases like I don’t I don’t need a Zoom call all the time. I just need to ask a

35:22 Question, get an answer, and then take some move on. Right. Um what else? So once you tell them, hey, these were my concerns. These are how I overcame them. This is what the program actually was. What else would you say, hey, this is why you need to start because I wouldn’t have this if I didn’t. What were those things that you would not have right now if you hadn’t? Yeah, it definitely wouldn’t be healthy, right? And I think you can measure health in a lot of different ways, but you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. Sure. So if you if you choose not to take action and you’re not healthy, then you’re the sum of your choices, but your choices and I’ll take it back to trying to nail this down. Your choices don’t affect you. Exactly. Yeah. Right. Are are you going to be around for your kids? Are you going to participate in their stuff? Yeah. So, like when we say what you would not be have, what you would not have, when we take it back to what you were saying earlier about the example for your kids, the proudness that you see, there’s a

36:24 Difference with like there’s not just you going, “Hey, I’m setting an example to see my kids.” Your kid coming to ask, “Dad, can I work out with you?” That does something different in here, right? Different in your heart than makes you feel like, “Oh, man. I’m really making a difference in my kids’ life.” Yeah. Those are the things that you’re missing, right? Yeah, absolutely. Those those things wouldn’t be there either, right? And they wouldn’t be. And if you didn’t have them right now, think of it like this. I told you five months ago if you didn’t do this, you could you would have this. If you had have these things in your life right now, how bad would that in your heart make you feel or in your head feel? Yeah. I think if I lost them because I know I had them. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It I would feel again like that’s time I can’t get back ever. Yeah. Never can you. Um, okay. All right. So, what we’re going to do now is we’re going to do a call, I think. Uh, well, let me finish up one more thing. But I just want to tell you like you’re one of my favorite clients. Um, I like know you so well cuz we communicate almost daily. I don’t

37:24 Communicate with every client daily, but you I definitely did for a long time. I still do for most days. Um, the example you set for your children, the person you are as a human being. Um, and we went on a long walk this morning. And I told I think people a lot they think I’m joking and I told you like like I if I had a choice between this five F-18s or doing this or this I said I told you this morning I said I would rather do this if you gave me the choice any day of the week because the effect that the human you guys that I get to have on you but it’s the inverse the effect that people like you who are setting example for their kids and making difference that changes lives not just their own way makes me feel as a human being makes a big difference in my life and I I appreciate thank you for that as well. Thank you. Okay. All right. Now, now we’ll move on to uh rapid fire. I’m ready. All right. So, this is how it works. Before we wrap up, we’re going to do rapid fire. No thinking, no explanations. First answer that comes to mind. All right. You ready? I’m ready. All right. Here we go. Airport or conference room? Where do you do your worst eating? Airport.

38:25 Every time. That’s easy one. Harder conversation. Telling a customer something is wrong or admitting something is wrong with yourself? Yourself. Yeah. What did most guys use as an excuse not to deal with this? Work. Yeah. Daughter time, right? Yeah. Uh travel week or desk week, which one is harder on your body? Travel. Yeah. Every day. Uh is your if your wife ran a marathon the same way most men? What would her finish time look like? She’s a sub three-hour marathon runner, so it would be more than that. That’s pretty impressive. I couldn’t Yeah, I couldn’t run sub four. Uh what is the thing uh guy tells himself uh what he’s telling everything’s fine when he’s traveling that’s actually not fine? Nothing’s fine. Yeah, nothing’s fine. Uh you came in before anything broke like you actually came in you didn’t have a lot of subset of problems. Um what made you do it at that point? I think I

39:27 Yeah, this one this wasn’t a rapid fire one. Um Yeah. I think for me, uh, I once was healthy and I wanted to be healthy again. Okay, that actually makes a lot of sense. Um, what do your kids need from you that has nothing to do with your job title? Time. If a guy’s listening right now has been putting this off, what is the one thing he’s afraid of? Failure. Oh, that’s that’s that’s the biggest thing. Yeah. We we don’t want to try because we don’t want to fail. Yeah. Right. And I and I think failures is what set us difference makes us a difference to human beings always makes us better. Failure is the best teacher every time. Success is everybody wants success. Yeah. But you don’t learn nearly as you don’t get to success or successful without that failure. You need that fuel. All right. Last one. Six months from now, same schedule, same demands. What’s different for you in life? I’m doing more pull-ups. That’s great. That was a perfect way to end it. Appreciate it, Bo. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Bo. I

40:27 Appreciate you coming on and being straight about this. You did not have to share any of this, but this is exactly the kind of conversation that changes something for the guy who’s listening and has been telling himself everything is fine. Here’s what I want you to take out of today. First, being fully committed to your work and your family does not leave much room for a third thing. And the system most men rely on was never built to give them the full picture anyway. Bo is about as selfdisciplined and self-aware as they come. He just never had the data that actually told him what was actually going on. That is not a character flaw. That is what happens when a high performer runs on assumptions instead of numbers. Second, the schedule is not the problem. Bo is on the road constantly raising two kids, running a leadership role that demands everything. And none of that stopped him from doing this. The guys who get results are not the ones with the easiest lives. They are the ones who stopped waiting for the right conditions and started acting. Third, the people at home are not going to tell you that they need more out of you. They

41:28 Are just going to keep getting the version that you give them. Your kids do not want your money. They just want to play with you. And the only thing that works for you is showing up. And today’s conversation stirred something in you do not just sit on it. The guys who feel it and do nothing are the ones having the same quiet conversation with themselves 5 years from now. If you want to know what your numbers actually say, reach out. The link is in the description. If this episode hit home, share with the one guy who needs to hear it. Rate and review the show wherever you’re listening. That’s how we grow and that’s how more men find this conversation. I’m Zach Armstrong and this is No Hype, Just Standards. We’ll see you next time.