How has former D1 quarterback Alex Demczak gone "all-in" on a life of entrepreneurship?
Athletics teaches many lessons, some of them are quite hard. Athletes take emotional and physical risks that lead to disappointment and often injury. However, the beauty of being an athlete is that we learn how to endure unwanted results and grow from our failures. This is probably why so many prominent athletes ultimately become entrepreneurs. Athletes are willing to take calculated risks and take fate into their own hands.
My guest in this episode, Alex Demczak, a former Division 1 quarterback at the University of Missouri. As a walk-on, Alex developed resilience through hard work and humbling experiences. Alex’s goal was to leverage his on-field learning experience into a college football coaching career. However, Alex soon felt a pull toward the autonomous and creative life of an entrepreneur.
In Episode 40, Alex talks about how his experiences led him from the football field to the corporate world and then onto becoming a professional speaker, coach, and co-author of a successful book entitled “The Sale” with best-selling author and influencer Jon Gordon. Alex discusses how he coaches others and helps them grow through his various business ventures.
So, what was your biggest takeaway from my conversation with Alex Demczak (Dem-check)?
For me, it’s that we should define success for ourselves rather than doing so by comparing ourselves to others. Alex took significant risks in his life to design his ideal professional life.
Major investments in himself led to meeting renowned author Jon Gordon, writing the best-selling book The Sale, and spreading his message of integrity as a coach and speaker. Alex’s ability to deal with adversity in his athletic career helped him follow his heart to go all-in on entrepreneurship.
My suggestion to young athletes is to humble yourself when asked to do so. It may make you angry and uncomfortable at the moment. However, developing humility is likely to give you the tools to succeed when you are ready to pursue your desired path, whether in athletics or other facets of life.
I want to thank Alex for his generosity and the wisdom he shared with The Freshman Foundation Community.
You can learn more about Alex on his website at https://alexspeaking.com. You can follow Alex on Instagram @alexdemczak. And, you can find his book The Sale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Demczak/e/B01DSFHB8M%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share#:~:text=The%20power%20of%20integrity%2C%20trust%2C%20and%20consistency
To learn more about how mental performance coaching can help your mind work FOR you rather than AGAINST you, visit https://michaelvhuber.com.
Thank you for listening. We’ll see you back in two weeks ready to get better!
[00:00:00] Mike: Hey Alex, how are you?
[00:00:01] Alex Demczak: I’m absolutely fine.
[00:00:05] Mike: It’s my pleasure, thanks for coming on. It’s great to have you here. So can you make just to get started talk a little bit about yourself and some of your background?
[00:00:08] Alex Demczak: I was at a point in my day job where now this side hustle. So on my anxiety, with this so many things in my heart. So I actually went to a doctor. And they said, they did an EKG, they said, your heart's fine. They said, but what are you doing for work, and I listed off like the seven things I was trying to juggle. And the guy said, he's like, this is probably stress induced. And until you scale some of these things down, you're gonna continue to have this, so I did scale down. And eventually that was in September. A few months later, in December, I actually quit my full time job, because I didn't feel called to go all in on what I felt passionate about. And one other another thing I did was I met with and I talked with on the phone about 12 people, so people who are full time speakers, full time entrepreneurs, people who are in the mortgage industry, family members, my wife, obviously, John Gordon, I talked with 12 people, and I kind of gave them my numbers I gave them, I just spilled everything. I was like, Hey, this is where I'm at, here's what I want to do long term. And right now, I'm trying to do both, but I just can't be, you know, being a loan officer at a successful company. It's just a lot to handle and it's already more than a full time job in itself. And I was trying to do too, and at 12 out of 12.
[00:01:26] Mike: Appreciate it. I really enjoying and hearing people cared about me, you know, talk about for it like your decision.
[00:01:38] Alex Demczak: So I'd encourage you when did you have other how to make that decision around you? And what be vulnerable and ask them Hey, what do you what do you think of this, and you'll get some really good responses. So I this is about seven months, I've been all in as full time self-employed entrepreneur, like you said, you're not getting a paycheck every other Friday, like I was slinging mortgages, but it's unbelievable. The freedom that comes from it, yes, your days are gonna look different. But it's just so freeing. Yesterday, I was at my daughter's swim lessons on Monday and Tuesday, two days in a row, I would have never been able to do that in my past life, just with my work schedule. And so again, everyone sees, you know, the now of being entrepreneur, author, writer, all these things, but it's like, what are you doing? If that's a desire of yours, or whatever it is? What are you doing to build this foundation so that you can put yourself in a position to do those things?
[00:03:01] Mike: Yeah, so that's a pretty mature view of the world for an 18, 19 year old, so good for you in doing that, I know that, you know, in learning a little bit more about before the podcast, you know, you mentioned, you know, you talk about being cut from the team as a junior and then rejoining or working to rejoin as a senior. So if that was your mentality going in, like, Hey, I'm just going here to learn and be a coach. Like, why try to get back onto the team, your senior year at that point?
[00:03:38] Alex Demczak: Right. And people were honest with me too. I remember one of my friends, he said, I told him and he's like, Well, are you open to waiting tables and being a waiter if things don't work out? And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, I think if you only have that mentality, to where you're willing to do whatever it takes to provide for your family, because, look, I mean, from the world standards, I had a mortgage I had, we had our one year old daughter, my wife stays home stays at home. And so from the world's vantage point, they're going, this would not be the best time for you to jump. But I just felt like things have just been aligned. And, and to your point, yes, there are days that are stressful, because guess what? Flight delays. I'm sitting in the airport some days where I'm just like, Man, I'm in the airport literally all day, what am I doing? But the stress, at least for me is different. When I was in that corporate scene, it was a great job, but I'm not a numbers guy. And I was doing a job where it wasn't even a great fit for me. And so now the stress that I have, yes, are there stressful moments? Sure. But it's not the banging my head against the wall type stress. It's a different stress. And it's sometimes in a six. It's an exciting stress. It's like, Hey, I got to speak in the United States Space Force last Friday. It's like, that's a little stressful. You walk into a room you're like, Man, I never served in the military here. People who are giving their lives to serve but it's a stress of life and I'm stressed in a good way to share something that hopefully will land with these people. Columbia Missouri? Oh man, I find a Columbia or Kansas City or St. Louis. I'm two hours from each of them. But yeah, sometimes Columbia works great when because you can connect in Dallas or Chicago and it's, you know, pretty quick. But there's definitely those days where you're just like, man, like, you know what I signed up for that you can't. The thing is you can't have the big audience. You can't have the big stages if you're not willing to go through those other things. Like literally, literally, I was at an event recently, where I had to give it was an Iowa I had to give six talks. And over the course of two days, and the night actually that I found, I got a text that said, Alex, you're officially a Wall Street Journal, best seller congrats. Like I was I was actually working out in the gym was before my last talk that night. And I had already given four talks that day. And I was just like, looking at the picture on my phone. I was like, this is nuts, like, so unbelievable. And so I had a talk a few hours later, and I'm working out the gym feeling good. And I'm like, Man, these people tonight they probably they probably want to hear from the Wall Street Journal bestseller. I mean, these folks in Iowa, they're getting they're getting a great deal. And that's what I'm thinking right and, and, and so I walk into this room, and it was a parent meeting or required parent meeting for the school district. And I guess they didn't advertise very much. But I literally walk into this room. And there's one kid in the room. And one kid one kid and I'm like, I'm away from my family and I'm in Iowa all the way I came all the way here to do this. And in that moment, I felt like man, what am I doing here? But I just kind of heard and kind of felt like I was just being told like you're here for this one kid and what are you doing to make an impact on him and so I think in all of our lives it's like I hope we'd never get to the point where we look past that one person. Yeah, you said that perfectly it's redefining success and I think a lot of times we look at our culture we look at social media as athlete’s type.
[00:08:25] Mike: And there is so much what you describe a type and there's so much as we look around and say when that in turn not only not only should I need to have to ask him where we get into trouble as long as podcast comes up with the work I do with individuals. So we live beyond much of our identity to impress her right we don't even care about the beauty and passion about everything else so secondary I think that's when things don't go our way to redefine success for me maybe in the process of whether I get a result is white speakers do 100 years well guess what? I don't want to be gone I draw lines I just don't work and we'll talk about for sale that's just for me I wanted to 36 the word that comes to mind here that's my goal and I don't I need to have genuine a dream of doing 100 do for me. Why don't question without pity I'm not going to have ability my buddies control the rate that's across from my buddy versus my family setup and I don't want to be gone all the time. I want to that's sort of that's what you describe.
[00:09:50] Alex Demczak: Yeah, in some ways, I definitely did. You know, we wanted to write the main character as someone who everyone can relate to. And I think you know, you even showed earlier that in some ways you can relate and, and so, yes, I think back to last year when I would get a commission check from my mortgage job. And instead of being grateful for my commission check, I would say, how do I double it next month? And see, here's the thing, I didn't start out doing that when I first I think back at a time when you first ever got a paycheck. You get that paycheck, you're like, Oh, this is you're like, Wow, this is this is great. You know, they're paying, I can't believe it. And, and so, but then over time, that starts to wear off. And so that's where I got to the point where I was, so I guess into myself and success that I said, Okay, this paycheck that was, you know, larger than I'd ever received. Instead of being grateful for it, I had to say, how can I double it? And I think that's where I had to one other thing I noticed was, so speaking, and doing these types of things are a lot more passionate to me and more of a passion of mine than doing mortgages. But what I found is I was getting so busy, that and trying to pursue making as much money as possible, that when I would get a speaking request, like someone would come on to my personal website, and they would say, back to me for identity.
[00:11:04] Mike: I wouldn't be excited for it, I was so much of your identity. So much of your identity is wrapped into being an athlete, if we're gonna get it as an athlete, we’re gonna move on to the next thing I want to do for the rest, if we have, you know, speaking or writing, or values other than athletics identity, what are you sort of willing to take that? He's a guy, that you guys may be exactly what you want but he's tries to do the easiest thing.
[00:11:46] Alex Demczak: And so for him curious, you believe Kendra, you're back here. We're getting, we're getting ready to sign up to coach and so after Colorado make her football main character as someone who ever want to look at and be like, Man, I've seen myself in Matt before. I remember going on a run one day, and I was just thinking and, you know, praying, I just had a kind of a thought kind of come to me of the storyline. And I felt like God kind of placed on my heart. And so I just the word integrity kept coming back, you know, and I've had the chance to be around a lot of high capacity leaders in my life. And I've also seen, on the flip side, some leaders really just create a ripple effect of some negative things. And so I've had a front row seat to both and so the word integrity kept coming back. But I was like, man, like, do I write a book about integrity? Like, you know, that is not the easiest thing to do. Because for one, it puts a kind of a target on your back. As the author who writes about integrity, you're kind of insinuating, like, Oh, I'm a witch, that's not the case. Obviously, I'm not perfect in any way. And number two, it's just, it might be a little easier to talk about being positive or like integrity is, is a kind of a personal issue for a lot of people. And so I remember just thinking on this, this word integrity and thinking like, Man, this could be really impactful. And about a week after that, I get a phone call from an athlete a lot of different ways to skin that cat, right? And when you're when you're actually in or you want to speak on it was to kind of have to do what about the rewards?
[00:13:24] Mike: And really, we're gonna move on from it. And he was like, what do you say I was like that dynamic, like integrity. So how did you evolve or start working with John?
[00:13:42] Alex Demczak: And so that was my first ever speaking engagement and 2018. I remember, they gave me 500 bucks, and they paid for my flight. And I couldn't believe it. I was like, I couldn't at that time, I couldn't believe I'm like, wait, people get paid to do this. And so that's kind of what got me started just seeing that first paycheck being like, whoa. And kind of what I do now, but yeah, that was the first time that someone you know, Sam Ferguson believed and he's the athletic director of McMurray, a great university, and just an awesome school in Texas, and believed in me, and he loved it. I've been back there, I think four times since 2018. He's an awesome. I've actually had him on my podcast, just an incredible guy. And then I had the chance to give a very similar talk to eight CEOs at the CEO roundtable. And literally eight people. I didn't know what to expect. It's an Illinois I walk in, it's a family friend that hosted it, and he said, hey, come speak. And after this talk, I asked for feedback. And one of the CEOs of this massive organization. He said, Alex, what you just shared with us, is relevant to every single industry. I don't care what you go into. He's like we just had we just had a matt, he had a good car dealership. He said, we just had an integrity issue last week. We had to let some people go and he said, what he said, Alex, I hope that you continue to share this message and you never stop because it's applicable to any industry. And so it was those two events where I said whoa, this message matters. And this message is way bigger than me. And so that's when, when John and I started talking about it and seeing, you know, how could it because that was the thing, right? It's fitting into all of his other 25 books, because he has, he's, he's so talented. He's such a great writer. And it's like, how can we write the story collaboratively in a way that it also maintains the integrity of his old books? And it does. And, you know, but it also kind of has this new twist and this new look of, hey, you know, right now in the world, you know, the last few years integrity, even related to airplanes is an issue, you know, you've seen on the news, there's a documentary on Netflix right now called downfall and it's all about integrity in the little parts of an airplane. And so we really thought the theme of an airplane was relevant in the last few years, just because, you know, we've, we've seen it in the news, and a lot of people fly on planes. And it's a vulnerable thing, if you think about me, and I hope, I hope they had the integrity to put the right pieces together in the airplane and things like that. So that's kind of where it started. And John, obviously, just with his creativity, his kind of was able to kind of put his certain things on the book and just made it great to what it is today. I would say it took longer to get published going through the publisher, just because one COVID. And then to John had a few other books that he was releasing. And so I think it was stick together in the garden. So it was the book had been kind of done and flushed out was just kind of waiting on the right timing. And so it worked out great, because I had, you know, we had Kennedy, our first daughter during the pandemic, and so I wasn't really traveling as much for speaking. So, again, it was just all such cool timing that the book launched in April, three months after I went out as an entrepreneur, so I could literally take on any engagement. And, you know, when you're co-authoring a book to, you know, probably takes a little bit longer than if you just sat down and did it. But gosh, I don't even honestly know, the full timeframe. I just know, like, wow, we would have it done at certain points of energy waiting on the timing of it. So I would say probably a little over a year maybe. But you know, if someone's sitting there and saying, hey, I want to write a book, I want to do this, definitely be quicker than that. It was just the dynamics of his publisher, all the different things. And they were they're an awesome publisher, but just kind of working through all those dynamics.
[00:17:28] Mike: See, that really resonates with me, I mean, I love that because what I what I couldn't help but thinking is when you said that you just agreed to work for him. The word that came right into my mind as an equity. You’re building equity and relationship with this person but you’re saying I trust myself enough to add values what you do. And I’m gonna do it free as I believe in myself. And that person saying this person is doing this for free. I'm asking for anything bad. And so you know, fast forward right now you have clear relationship, whether it's a business, personnel, or both off with somebody that risk, and you invest it in the relationship for us, again, coming back to integrity, and trust that, hey, I’m willing to stick my neck out here and do whatever it takes, it’s a long way especially for entrepreneur. I can't open an item or say, Oh, look at me now. That grind helped me you having this commission job, even though we're in commission jobs, like you don't we kind of condense it, we have a team of right, you're gonna go out and sit down to, and it's like, profit and you're having trouble. We're saying, hey, dude, he's invested in the business for the friend, sudden, five years, this guy, but Alex went through to get where he will be published. And that's the beauty of it. And that's the beauty of it you earned, it seems like you've earned everything that come to this point, there's much more down.
[00:18:57] Alex Demczak: All kinds of people from people who just want a legacy piece for their family to a financial planner, for professional athletes who love it when it was in prison, but all these amazing stories that we're getting to steward. And so I would say it was around that time when I started having these thoughts of me and I really like I like publishing books and helping people write their story because I love writing my own books, but also love helping other people write their books. And for people who are saying, Man, I have this dream of, I would love to just write this legacy piece or something that would help me grow my business. We're bringing this team alongside them saying, hey, you can do it and we have a path and a plan to make it happen for you. So the cool backstory of the character Randy in the book. And for you guys that haven't read the book listening, Randy is kind of this wise sage who counsels Matt and he gives them you know, these principles and laws about integrity that change Matt's life and we can't tell you the ending of the book. We can't tell you how to ends but okay. Okay, exciting. But when you do get there, I'm not gonna ruin it for you either. But it's just cool to see the transformation in Matt's life, the main character when he learns these laws, but the cool backstory to answer your question about Randy is, Randy Sutherland is actually a mentor of mine who lives in Springfield, Illinois. And so it was someone growing up in youth group and high school middle school, I had this mentor named Randy who really invested in my life. And he's always done things the right way. And someone I highly respect and he actually owns a pizza place called Dylan's pizza in Springfield, Illinois. So if you're ever going through Springfield, you'll have to try it in Springfield, Illinois, were great. The best pizza I've ever had. And, and so that's why you'll see Dylan's pizza in the book. And so that was just a cool, shout out that I'm just like, Man, I have to honor Randy in this way. It just made sense. He's kind of this coach. He's been a coach for me kind of a mentor. And, and so it just fit perfectly in the book. And so that's kind of why we named him that. And, and yeah, to your point, it's, it is inspiring to kind of read his character in the book, because he's kind of like, he is kind of that grandpa to everybody. He's just this person who's there for you. He just met Matt in an airport. But here he is telling him all these life principles, and he's done it the right way. He has a crazy backstory as well. And, and so it's just really cool. Because I think we all need someone like that in our lives.
[00:22:57] Mike: Yeah, so it's interesting, because I've been in that same. I think that he has a maybe like, accumulation of all the things you're doing to do stuff. But I think the thing that I learned in my life from a therapy, we should describe it as just really solid. The anxiety really describes a person who you really are as a person? And when you described it as like, he has you were just not being true to yourself. I want to be here but I can’t be, because I have other responsibilities also here. And so once you've decided to get there on, there is stress that comes along for entrepreneurs who don't have to have a W two job. I almost wanted to quit same time.
[00:24:30] Alex Demczak: I don't allow myself to have long, he doesn't have to say because literally his saying work today what the tragedy I want to be at soccer I want to do. And so the difference, so you made that choice. And like, you're very fortunate to have people around you and like all get it they want to have you understand that, you know, one could fall prey to some of the world's trappings and say, you know what, make one bad decision that then just has a negative ripple effect the rest of your life. And so I really love being around or just learning from guys like that, who are guys or girls who kind of put these things in place not in a legal legalistic type way but truly a way of saying, hey, I want to I want to have a long foundation. I want to have a long enduring family. I want to have a shirt a life that is that I look back and I'm proud of and so that's you said it so well there. It's like awesome. None of us are above doing some of these things in life. But what are we doing to actually be proactive about harnessing some of those things in and being and setting yourself up for long term success?
[00:25:20] Mike: Wow. Yeah, it's incredible. I also couldn't help but think about an experience I had in the Columbia airport a number of years ago, Columbia, Missouri, the one time I flew out of Columbia, Missouri, the probably the smallest airport that I've ever been in my life. And there was weather. And we couldn't get out because it's just like two gates, basically. And I was like, Oh, my goodness. So we had to stay at this red roof and overnight. So I can't imagine trying to travel from Columbia like that. Like, you have to connect every single flight I mean different things in his life.
[00:26:10] Alex Demczak: And it's like he even he gets it. He's like, I need this accountability. And I think that's so true. It's like having that someone and having someone in your life whether it's family friend, for me, it's one of my friends. And we get coffee, we go workout together, we play pickle ball, whatever. And it's been able to share with him and just be open and because the thing is, if you try to just hide that person inside, it's like we've kind of hit on in the book, as you'll see in the next few chapters. It mean it really affects your performance and it affects your mental side of things and it affects the way you live you know. Oh Jesus, that's a great question. And I think that's the hardest part about being an entrepreneur. And then the six months that I've been a full time entrepreneur is you actually have to say, like, what's important right now and not and not get go down this rabbit hole of all these. And so that's what I think kind of really exciting about my role is obviously in my book that do the job for me personally, by John Ward and his company. And also with right my No, this year, my word was website or actual name is streamlined. But when I think about what enables people to come across and give something like Algoma versus Van Hoomin, super. One runner can serve that person and have them take something away together their life better. And honestly, it sounds like, we're kind of rolling the thing is like, oh, I need to have 1000 will. And I in order for it to convert, we'd love because you can have 1000 people in the writers and that we're like, we're done right now. And anything really, potential I feel special. There's a stat out there that says you're wondering something people want to write a book, but only 1% do each year. And so for us, we're saying there's this, there's this huge gap. And it's like, how do we narrow that and, and bring people into our ecosystem that we can help do that. And so honestly, if the long term play for me, is, you know, hopefully, I'll never have to go back to corporate world. Hopefully, I can stay as an entrepreneur, entrepreneur, but I'm not. You know what, whatever I have to do to provide I'll do but hopefully I'll never have to go back that route. But I've just continued to speak to companies. That's the cool thing about speaking is, you know, John Gordon told me that long time ago, he's like, you never have to retire from it. It's something that you can do less of when you're older. But he's like, you're never gonna retire. And he's like, I won't retire. And I think that's a good word. Because it's like, after sitting on the beach for a month, you're just like, Alright, what's my purpose? You know, and, and so yeah, yeah, I think just speaking and being able to work with organizations, but then also growing, streamline books and in what we're doing, they're super exciting. And so I hope 10 years from now, you know, streamline has a lot of a lot of employees and we're just serving people really well and, and even if, no matter how big we grow, I just hope that we're able to maintain that personal touch and continue to help people steward their stories well.
[00:29:51] Mike: Okay, so I'm gonna draw that connection to the book and I have a lot of questions that I want to ask but the main character in the book is Matt and what you just described is Matt was a character who wanted more to show success to other people. And there's a lot of ways I can submit that question I guess because we're kind of on that newer and kind of going for it this episode.
[00:30:18] Alex Demczak: I'll say this decide to go all in on something that that would be my advice decide to go all in on something because I was at a place definitely a year ago from now where I was kind of just scattered with all the different things I was trying to do and it's really hard to make progress in any type. But if you're listening and you're kind of comparing what you want to do, I think you need to first you need to think forward in the future be you know, start with the end in mind think about where do you see yourself 20 years from now that's what I had to do. Okay? Mortgages, but I do want to be speaking and coaching and leading so for me it's a no brainer, so figure that figure out what is that for you and then get the right people around you that will support you and going all in on what you want to do and for you maybe all in is corporate and that's great maybe it's maybe it's going to college maybe it's fill in the blank for you. When you make the decision to go all in though there's no turning back it's kind of like Alexander the Great when they go to attack the Persians. He gets there with all his people. And he burns the boats he literally burns the boat that they got there on and all his men look behind. They're like what the heck's going on? Why are you doing this? And he said, There's no turning back like we're conquering this land and so in the same way like I'll just get chills and I tell that story because it's like someone my boss and my corporate job when I told explain to him I was quitting he told me he said man, go burn go burn the boats. And I think that's so true. It's like you have to make the decision to go all in because no one will make it for you. Hey, I've heard great things about the show and this was awesome you ask awesome questions. So thanks so much looking forward to staying in touch and thank you thank you for doing it thanks.
[00:32:30] Mike: So when did you start the process of writing the book like when did you like start thinking about can you just talk me through how that went and the timeline and the process? It's pretty good deal, that's awesome. So how long did it take you from the first time you sort of put a word a pen to paper till when it was published? So, is that how you, I mean, writing the book yourself. Is that how you got into the side of helping other people write their books? Yeah that's awesome. I mean, we were talking before we start. We're recording and like, you're like, hey, you ever thought about writing a book? I was like, oh, yeah, sure enough I have and actually started writing some stuff. And he's like, oh yeah. And I was like, oh man, you know, but I think, you know, I think one of the things, you know, regardless of who you are and what you do, I think one of the things that I live by now is sort of this idea that it's never too late to do something. It's never too late to change your life and make a change, right. And so if I really look back to the book, right, there's this sort of Epiphany, or if you want to call it that, that that Matt has, like, where he really looks at himself in the mirror, and he says, like, I need to be different based upon what the character Randy's sort of forcing him to do. He's challenging him to look in the mirror and say, I need to do something differently. So like, can you tell us about the character Randy, that sort of coaching, that sort of authority figure that person who at first Matt doesn't think he's sort of anybody special or different and then he finds out actually who he is like, you just talked about how that dynamic came to be? What made you sort of gave you that inspiration for that character? I keep quiet. I actually haven't gotten there yet. I'm in midway through so I can't tell you the end. You know, and I certainly would agree with that. And I think listen to the world we live in, I think it's, I wouldn't say it's harder, but it definitely seems to be more of a challenge to sort of take advice to take guidance from people who know more than we do because I think a lot of people are very egotistical, self-centered, you know, and we live in a world where there's so much information whether they're good or bad swirling around us right to have that sort of anchor in your life someone who's going to shoot it to you straight and tell you okay, like you need to get your stuff together because otherwise it's easy to sort of you know, go off the rails because you're doing things by your of your own devices. Love that, I love that. And one of the things that's really helped me in my life, and I've learned this the hard way is, you know, one of the things that really serves me well is telling on myself, when I do something that I'm not happy about, and I make a bad choice, or I'm doing something that's not serving me, well, I try to tell somebody about it. Because then I'm holding myself to account like, hey, you know, you shouldn't be doing this, or you don't want to be doing this, but you're doing it anyway. Someone needs to know about it, so that you're like, okay, like, you need to get your act together. Because it'd be really easy to keep it to yourself because of your pride because your ego. I don't want people to know what's going on. And, you know, that takes a lot because most people get very defensive when you come at them. And I was that way for a very long time. And I think that story you just told us is such a, such an important one to say, Hey, I'm gonna drop my ego and be like, hey, this, I'm interested in the long run, I'm gonna hold myself accountable to other people so that I can succeed in the long run and not get sucked into short term gain definitely. Awesome. Well, so I'll tie that to what I do as a mental performance coach. That's exactly right. Like, the way you think affects the way you feel. And the way I put it to athletes very plainly is if you're not feeling good about yourself, because something that's going on, you're not going to perform at your best, right. So just having the ability to talk to somebody without judgment, about like, what you're feeling and what you're going through. Just like letting that load Go is a way to go out and be your best, it doesn't have to be anything fancy or complex, it just can be like, hey, get it off your chest, so you don't have to wear it. So you can go do your thing. And I think that's really, really important and it applies to all areas of life and all types of coaching. So a couple more questions before I let you go. So because of your age is the fact that you're relatively young how old are you? 2929 right you're a young guy and you've accomplished ton like and you're an entrepreneur so obviously you've always got ideas in your head is my guess. Like where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years like where do you want to go. Love it. I'm sure you will, couldn't agree more. Excellent. All right, so the last question I'll ask and I ask it to everybody, maybe it's from a little different perspective, depending on who you are. But like, what's the one piece of advice you'd give to a listener? Whether it's about entrepreneurship, being an athlete, whatever you want, but like pick one thing and what do you think is the most important thing they need to know? That's true. It's a great way to end. I appreciate that. Alex, thanks so much for coming out to the podcast. It was great to get to know more about you. You're such an interesting guy and you have such a bright future. So I really appreciate you joining me here. Thank you. Same here. Take care, Alex.