SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Are you ready to break free from hesitation, self-doubt, and isolation? Do you want to lead with confidence, build powerful connections, and live boldly? I'm Corey Baum, and I'm here to share the most impactful strategies and mindsets that I've learned through coaching, leadership, and real-world experience. Together, we'll forge unshakable confidence, master social dynamics, and create a life rooted in purpose, brotherhood, and bold action. Inside, you'll get the tools and insights to become the strongest, most connected version of yourself. Let's dive in. Welcome back to the Evolve Men podcast. I'm your host, Corey Baum. And today we're talking about one of the most overlooked leverage points in a man's life, and that's his health. Because here, the truth is when your body and your energy are dialed in, everything else shifts. Your leadership, your relationships, your just just everything else in your life, right? It expands, your presence. And no one else knows better than today's guest, Brian Perana. He's a health and lifestyle coach with over 23 years of experience. He's coached thousands of entrepreneurs, high-performing professionals, and even Olympians and CrossFit champions. But what sets Brian apart is how he blends science-backed strategies with relentless support to help men simplify their routines and build lasting confidence and actually live the balance that they're they're chasing. So not just at work, but at home. So Brian is also a husband of nearly two decades and a father of four, and someone who's traveled to all 50 states with his family. He's lived the balance that he teaches. Yeah, so I'm excited to have him on the show today. Brian, welcome.

SPEAKER_01: 1:56

Well, thanks for having me, Corey. Appreciate the time, the energy, effort. I really look forward to our conversation.

SPEAKER_00: 2:03

Yeah, man. So from what I understand, you've been coaching for 20 years or so, right? And worked with thousands of high-performing men and entrepreneurs. What was it that first drew you into this work?

SPEAKER_01: 2:17

Well, I grew up playing baseball and basketball. I can't tell you how many shots I shot in my backyard by myself, just shooting hoops and stuff, because I wanted to be a basketball player and I just wasn't good at ball sports. That that transitioned into my buddy, one of my best friends, Dan. He actually we worked out together in my barn gym right where I'm standing today, even what 25-ish years later from high school. But he invited me out to track and cross country. And so I ran with him. And that was the start. And I always love bringing up Rocky. Who doesn't love Rocky Balboa? Right? The fighting montages, the right? You just get instantly excited. And that those are some of the say the beginnings of this love of and passion of training and exercising, which then has just completely evolved into my whole life.

SPEAKER_00: 3:13

Okay. Yeah. Well, I can see that it sounds like you're obviously super passionate about it. What what do you feel like has kept you into it? You know, with anything I've found in my life, like with careers and and whatnot, that there gets to be a certain time where you've gotten into it, you've kind of like absorbed everything you can, but some what is it about it that keeps you passed that has kept you passionate about it for so long?

SPEAKER_01: 3:39

Every single person that I work with is someone new to make them help, encourage them to be better, right? The opportunities, the experiences, the what can become of them after they have their why moment of oh my gosh, I need to change my health because ultimately, guys, you're gonna die sooner rather than later if you don't take care of yourself. Brass tacks, right? Chronic disease, she's gonna get hurt, what whatever. But life isn't gonna be sunshine and rainbows in the back nine, so to speak. And to get people to transform their physical bodies, their energy, which then translates into the competence that they need to go do bigger, bolder things in their life. That's the underlying reason why I do it is because I can leave this person in a better position than when I found them. And they can say they blossom and they bloom and they grow into something even better because of it. I've I've had better relationships, people have gotten out of relationships because they realize that that wasn't the person for them. People making a lot more money because they shifted from you know, Drake, he was making$250,000 a year in his career, but he was gonna die. He is super high blood pressure, 270 pounds at age of 29. And he's the doctor was gonna put him on blood pressure medication because he was a walking heart attack. And he said, no, no, no, no, no. Can I do this naturally and through taking better care of myself? The guy lost 80, 90 pounds in the next year and change, and he still calls me up randomly. If I texted him today, he would answer back. And he quit his job, he sold off his Mustang GT, Shelby GT, because he realized he was an F-150 guy. And oh my gosh, he did that within the week. And that was a conversation that we had. And and the the magic, he's making more money, he's happier, he's married in a really productive related way. He actually called me before he was getting married, and that's why I was able to just tell this guy to knock it off, eat healthier, give him some simple strategies to implement in the busyness of his life. And then there's this evolution that happened because he got out of his own way, especially with the poor health.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

Yeah, that's crazy. You know, it's to your point, it's so foundational, I think, in so many areas of our life that this it's it's like one of the cornerstones of everything else that, right? That that we can go out and we can chase the the money and the career and the cool car and all of these sort of things, but it'll be you know, that your legs will get cut out from underneath you, you know, having a heart attack or something like that.

SPEAKER_01: 6:33

So real quick, we all have lots of problems, tons of problems, right? Every day, right? So many problems, but we have one problem as soon as we have a health problem, right? That was Drake, right? He had all around him, kept him busy, distracted, occupied, whatever. And then the doctor's gonna put some medicine on him, and he's like, No, not doing this. And that was the wake-up call for him.

SPEAKER_00: 7:00

Yeah, so true. Well, you know, one of the things that really caught me as we were talking is that is that you're, you know, with uh a man and a husband that you've been married for almost 20 years now and a family of four. And not only that, but you know, it sounds like the you're really active in your family's life, right? You guys have been to all 50 states, working on all seven continents, and that that this is something it's not just like you know, fitness for you isn't just a a business. It sounds like that it's it's really more of a way of life, like something that you've you've enter intertwined into everything. So, how do you think that that your own journey has has shaped the way that you coach men today?

SPEAKER_01: 7:48

Well, a lot of men and a lot of people, period, come in with the all-or-nothing attitude and energy, right? That's just what we're taught. Don't eat carbs fast, don't just don't eat and to lose weight. And yeah, people do that, but then they gain the weight back. And it's just that's not a solution. That's a a in a quote tool to help with managing calories, but that might not be the best way for someone to go about it. And we need to find middle gear mentality, not all or nothing, but middle gear mentality to find that balance, that flexibility, that moderation that has to be built into every single day and understand the choices that you have to make. And once we can understand that and then process it and then have solutions that fit into your life to keep you in a healthy position, then you are actually living and you don't have to spend so much time, effort, energy on food. I do this literally every day. My self-employed, my wife is self-employed. We have four kids, and it's crazy busy with clients, with taking kids. So tomorrow we've got two soccer games, a cross country meet, a kid going to swimming practice, and that's all happening between 730-ish and 11 to 12-ish. That's a lot. Now, my wife and I is that's a working relationship too, right? It's just not a static thing because that's ever evolving and changing, and and she is a different person than when I originally met her, right? Because she was 11 when I met her, and we're gonna evolve in age and and have different preferences and and abilities and all this, and so am I. I'm gonna change over time as well. And we have to have this constant magnetic pull in a sense of making sure that we are connected to help make sure our our kill children are connected and that we are a whole family as much as we can be. We've life is upside down sometimes, just like anyone else, but we keep coming back to the core undertone of we we're gonna make this work, we're going to be successful however we define success with love, with happiness, with adventure, and trying to create a thriving environment for our children.

SPEAKER_00: 10:12

I love that. So, you know, one of the things that I think a lot of the men listening, right? We know that that they're super ambitious, you know, as we talked a little bit about, that in their career and their family life, like you talked about. I mean, you guys are like you're doing a lot of things and you're checking a lot of these boxes. Why why do you believe that why do you believe that the that them neglecting their their body and their energy holds them back, right? From the from the influence and the the presence and whatnot that they actually want in life?

SPEAKER_01: 10:50

Yeah, well, let's just go with a really simple example. They wake up probably earlier than they want to, they go to work to hopefully do something that they do enjoy on some level. A lot of people don't. That mentally wears on them and they're tired because you get just mental strain from having to work all day in a very demanding, fast-paced world. And then we come home and you're tired because you didn't eat anything all day. You you you thought you had to fast and not eat till lunch, but then lunch got scheduled over for a meeting, and next thing you know, it's three o'clock and you still haven't eaten. And then you get home, and then your kids are wanting your attention, your time, and you just want to go crawl into the bed and fall asleep for the rest of the night. But you can't. So you end up sitting on the couch, half paying attention to your family, half paying attention to whatever's probably on the TV, and the other half you're staring at a phone, and you're not really living, you're just existing in a sense in the evening. And the core principle of if you would have eaten healthier, at least you would have the physical and mental resilience or energy to be able to continue to have to output, in a sense, of showing up with energy around the career, around your family, around your your spouse, your partner, and then you get to the end of the night and not just be completely wiped out. And that's just that's honestly a storyline that a lot of men hold. And they don't have to.

SPEAKER_00: 12:23

Yeah. Yeah, I can't, you know, for myself and you know, other men that I talk to, just knowing that, like you mentioned, they they've got a career, they're bouncing back and forth, but you know, maybe they get off and they're they had really good intentions in how the day started off, but for one reason or another, things slipped, and you know, instead of maybe eating healthy or whatever it was that they had in mind, the lunch got pushed back. I'm just gonna go grab something, you know, down at the fast food. And then it just kind of cascades from then on, right? And every single thing. But to your point, like you were saying earlier, is is how foundational some of these easy sort of things are to the rest of your day, right? You know, whether it be good sleep or nutrition or or whatever whatever it is, what would you say to that that man that's kind of like living that life, you know, that I imagine part of the conversation that he's having with himself is that like it's really it's really hard, right? There's so many obstacles to overcome, you know, and the stories go on and on, but what what would you say that some of the biggest myths about fitness are or nutrition are that keep men stuck?

SPEAKER_01: 13:44

Well, remember first thing that comes to mind is are two words. Wake up, wake up, open your eyes, pull your head out of the sand. Life is being lived every single day. The the globe is spinning, and change is inevitable. You have to be constantly preparing yourself to manage your abilities, your strengths, your weaknesses, your evolution toward change. Because I always like to remind people, Corey, we you and I haven't moved this whole conversation, right? We've just been sat here talking to each other, but in the physical space of the globe, we're we've been spinning, right? We're not in the same place in space, and we've been moving. So change is inevitable even if you're sitting still. And if you're not going to approach life that way, then you will get passed up. You will get or the promotion will go somewhere else. You can't keep up with AI and understand how to use it and leverage it in your in your role, it's gonna replace you, right? That that is a fact, and and so at the very bare minimum, you not only can, but it's your responsibility to take care of yourself. If you don't, then all these things will happen and you'll be sad because you didn't keep the job, or you got looked over for promotion, or you didn't close the deal, or you just where did the last year go? And I really haven't spent any time with my children. We don't need to do that. So you can't take care of yourself. There's some basics. I always remind people it's simple, it's not easy. Everyone knows what they should be doing, but they don't do it. And when you have someone, just imagine you and your coaching practices you get someone to slow down, a self-assess, you ask them really good questions, and then you start working on a plan that they can actually manage to implement to better themselves because they have to do the work no matter what, right? We can't do the work for them. I'm not I'm not doing push-ups for someone over here. That's that's not how it works. To be honest, I do you know a thousand times better now talking to people rather than when I was telling people to do push-ups and squats because I have to get into their life and understand a lot of different pieces of who makes this person who make you know what are the factors of of this person here that we can manage and leverage and support and grow and change and all those things so that they can become better.

SPEAKER_00: 16:26

Yeah, that's that's a really good point. It's not necessarily about, you know, as we're talking about this, it's not just about push-ups, pull-ups, and squats, right? I think I think the idea of health and fitness is probably, you know, sure there's probably some specialty science that's changed over the years, but the basics are still the same, right?

SPEAKER_01: 16:45

Basics are the basics, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:47

It's eat less, eat less than you burn, sort of thing, you know, and and it's it's super simple, but it's it's the actual action that produces the results. And that's that's tough, right? Because it's to your point, it's not just about the action of you know your nutrition or your fitness that you know there's your recovery and your sleep and your water and your hydration and all of these other sort of things, but but all of that kind of that kind of hinges on you being able to one being able to navigate making saying yes, right, or taking that first kind of leap. So to your point, it kind of sounds like that maybe over time you've transitioned from, you know, hey, you know, 2115-9 push-ups, pull up and squats to to really kind of working, yeah, to to really kind of to really kind of working with somebody's with their relationship with themselves, right? How has that how has that changed for you over the years?

SPEAKER_01: 17:52

Well, the every single conversation, every single person gives me a a more uh a unique skill set. It sharpens my tools and my toolbox to be able to help understand. Maybe this person is super easy and crazy motivated, and they're really simple. Then the next person is say in the middle of this, in the middle, and then the other person's rather difficult, not because they want to be, but because of uh life experience or challenges that they have or whatever. I had literally had one person, this is in my one-to-one practice, but they're like, Yeah, only text me on Wednesday. I don't really want you to tell me a lot, and then we're gonna talk every three or four weeks instead of every week because I'm good. 227 down to 194. Blood pressure has been taking off blood pressure meds, is getting labs to ideally be taking off cholesterol and get the cholesterol numbers back in range, losing weight, understanding how to be in a better relationship with their partner and communicate about how what their needs are around food, around exercise, around just being healthy and finding that common ground with them because they have to live with them. And so literally they're telling me it's I don't need you anymore, which is the whole point of any of the coaching that we ever do is to make it make them self-reliant in a sense to be successful.

SPEAKER_00: 19:21

Yeah, I mean, that's those are those are good calls to to have, right? Or good things when somebody comes back to you and they're like, hey man, this has been a great experience, but I don't I don't need to catch it. Yeah, I'm doing really good.

SPEAKER_01: 19:33

Like that's definitely something and that experience was really easy. Okay, I just have to make sure that I respect their their what they communicated to me because if I over-message them or something, then not doing what they asked me to do. I didn't listen to them. But whereas someone else is Martin, he it was Super Bowl Sunday, this was multiple years ago, and he went with his buddies to San Diego to have a great time. He was a younger guy, and he's mid say 20 20s, and he was like, Man, it was hella good. His language, this is so funny how we talk. But he I realized this guy bumbles the ball, he carries it all the way down to the goal line, you know, you know, the last three yards, and he bumbles it all the time, especially in social situations. And now, so that's difficult because this guy is single and he's uh socially active and doing a lot of things with a lot of different people in a lot of different settings, and his work is variable and has food and has travel and has all that type of stuff, too. And now all of a sudden I have to coach this guy on understanding that hey, don't drop the ball. Like literally, I would send this guy football gifts of football people fumbling the ball because that was a a way to make him realize what he did or didn't need to do without it calling him out in a sense. I was calling him out, but doing it in a playful way. Hey, don't fumble the ball. And there's this guy literally diving into the football, the end zone, and the the ball spikes off the ground, and it's a no good, right? And so we'd get a chuckle out of it, but it was a simple way to coach him in that particular situation to because we already talked about it. I need to talk to him again. I just need to remind him don't fumble the ball. What is in your best interest right now for you to be successful on the other end of this experience? Because we don't want to wake up tomorrow with food regret, with sadness that the scale just jumped three pounds, and now you have two more days of work to get those three pounds off. And then we took a four-day time out, in a sense, because you fumbled the ball. Not helpful to him if he does that. So me sending the football gif, football fumble gif, is a way to just get him to stop and think about what his choices and decisions and and the consequences are of his choices.

SPEAKER_00: 22:08

Yeah, that's that's really interesting. So it wasn't just about like you tormenting him about his ball handling capabilities. It sounds like it was saying that that, hey man, like what you do in these other areas of life will impact you when you get down to you know the end zone getting ready to make a touchdown based on your your prior decisions. And that's tough, man. I mean, because there's a lot of those sort of components. And and I think that a lot of guys at times they don't even realize that those things they're they're so on autopilot that they don't even realize that they're making these decisions, right? That they're they're go-to, you know, they're what they're drinking, what they're eating. Yep. It's just on on autopilot.

SPEAKER_01: 22:52

Right. Uh let me uh input something here. They're breaking trust with themselves when they do that, subconsciously, right? They break trust. I'm not gonna do this, or I'm not gonna do that, or I'm gonna get up tomorrow and go work out, and then they don't. And and that's that it wears them down. That takes away from their manliness, from their confidence, from them. I'm standing because I always stand, but them being like this and standing tall and and as as high as they can with a big chest and broad shoulders to them walking around like this. Huge difference. But it's it's so nuanced, and you wouldn't even notice it per se. But if you walk into a room with a bunch of other people are doing this, they know they know immediately where you are at in the say the confidence pecking order, in a sense, and what you think about yourself just by the way you stand, or the way you you fill space, or the way you dress. And those are all subconscious cues. And we have to always remember in our humanness, we are very observant, right? We have a very quick snapshot judgment of who people are and who where we place them in our our our different roles or different places or categories uh in relation to our own experiences. And if you're trying to make a sale and you walk in, I heard this from a sales coach, but he's like, hey, when you get in the when you pull into the driveway, you're gonna park far away, not first thing. You're not gonna pick your nose, you're not gonna grab your button or your crotch and adjust on the way in. You're gonna walk in like they're peeking out through the window at you, and you're gonna walk with confidence so that you present yourself in the best possible way, so that their subconscious is soaking in that you're showing up, you're gonna deliver a service that they need and that they want, and they're gonna give you money on the back end and you're gonna make that deal. And for that sales coach, that's how he has to coach them to show up in that way to make the deal and not just feel sad that they wasted you know four hours of their day driving to the place, doing the pitch and leaving with nothing.

SPEAKER_00: 25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:11

And then they gotta go talk to their boss afterwards, like, well, why didn't you close the deal? I thought they were good. It sounded like they were good, and the our pre-sales call huddled.

SPEAKER_00: 25:20

It was really polished, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:22

Yeah, what what'd you do? Oh, I didn't I subconsciously you know scratched myself on the way in, and and that was the one thing that you know toppled the the Jenga pile.

SPEAKER_00: 25:34

Yeah, you know that that brings up a really good point, and that's something we talked about earlier, is how and and I found this just for myself as well, is how the the correlation between physical fitness, like a couple of different things, but physical fitness and making a decision to to do something, right? Maybe that's getting up for me. That's getting up. I'm I'm up every morning at 5 a.m. It's kind of an interesting routine. I I'm up at 5 a.m. I'm out of the cold plunge by 5 15, right? And then I'm starting, I'm starting my workout. But it's not for me, it's not so much necessarily, you know, getting up is good into the cold plunge, like yeah, you know, it's got its own benefits, the physical activity, all great. But on top of all of that, there's a certain sense of of you know self-trust and self-worth and and pride that comes from doing these sort of things. And I think at times that that's that's sort of lost in men, right? That that every time that we're we're not that we're choosing the soda or you know, eating poorly or sleeping poorly or whatever it is, that each one of those is is like kind of this silent vote, right? It's it's like there's multiple personalities, and every time, every time you do that, that guy or that kid is like, yeah, one more time, you know, one more time you didn't do it. And it and it's that's such a component. So it's not only, I think part of the challenge is is overcoming that sort of thing in the very beginning, right? Because you've got so much that's built up uh in order to break through in order to just get started, but but once that ball is rolling, like man, the the amount of to your point, everybody starts walking around with a new sense of like with a new outlook on life. Like, man, I can and each one of these, especially for me, like each one of these is an opportunity to show myself my worth and my value and and everything. It's so it's it's not I I love that with physical fitness, it's not so much about the push-up, pull-up sit-ups, right? It's it's how encompassing it is, and when we're doing that, right, when we are showing up for ourselves, right, and and we have a sense of self-trust and love and worth and all those sort of things, how we start showing up for everybody else in the world as well, right? How we start showing up at work, how we start showing up to our partners and our kids, right? Like, and that that sort of energy is it it oozes from us, right? And everybody, as your point, everybody picks up on that. Like, man, like that guy, he stands up straight, he's got a smile on his face, you know, and so yeah, it's it there, it's multifaceted. There's there's a lot to it.

SPEAKER_01: 28:30

One thing that that was in my mind there as you're saying all that stuff is do the right thing when no one's looking. And if you so we have that fork in the road, are you gonna go left or you're gonna go right? And you're making a thousand decisions of that all day, every day. And if your adherent subconscious is always telling you go to the not so good side, then yeah, you're gonna have a hard time, or it might be in quotations of rough road, or you might just decide, I'm done with this, I refuse to let this happen anymore. Uh I like to the people always ask, how long does it take for a habit to change? Right. And so these are some of the things that we're talking about here. Is I always tell people, they'll say, Oh, it takes 21 days, or I heard the research was 66. So it takes as long as you allow it to. I mean, ultimately, yeah, but a lot of people, yeah, they'll have a heart attack and then they will change. Uh hopefully. Uh literally have people that have had heart attacks change immediately.

SPEAKER_00: 29:39

Oh, yeah. Well, it's one of those things I I imagine that getting to that place in your life, right, is such a polarizing event that all of those other things or those roadblocks or those stories that they tell themselves along the way are leading up to that, like you realize in that moment. Moment that none of that other stuff matters, right? And just how how important I think that there can be this story, right, that you know, it's it's really hard, it's gonna be painful, I'm gonna have to give up so much stuff, right? That it's gonna hurt, you know, that they're not willing to step into that until they realize that like it can all be gone in a second, right? And so kind of along that line, I I think that sometimes men get this impression that like they almost overcomplicate health, right? And so yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:42

Oh, I love how you phrase that.

SPEAKER_00: 30:44

Yes, yes, yeah, that it's you know, they they make it way more complicated than it than it needs to be. What what would you say? Like, what are some sort of simple mindset shifts that that can really get them out of that that trap, right? Of like, I've you know, the the just that, like, hey, I've I've you know, I don't know how to do the movements, I don't know about the equipment, I don't know the food to eat, that all of these other sort of things. So, you know what? I'm not gonna even start.

SPEAKER_01: 31:14

Right, right. Uh speaking to men, guys, it's not the 1950s anymore. You're allowed to stop to ask for directions. It's okay. Yeah, it is okay to ask for help and seek it out and find experts, subject matter experts in these places. Uh, that's what I do for YouTube. My father really didn't hasn't played an active role in my life the last 20 years. I've sought out YouTube, and my wife says, Hey, I want to lay down new flooring, or hey, I want to change the configuration of the kitchen, and you need to learn how to move cabinets places and and refinish them and all this stuff. And and I inside the the kitchen with a a laser level, and I have it just positioned right to make sure that the the uh the cabinet tops are even perfectly when we get the marble into from the the marble place for the countertops that it lies flat perfectly the first time. I have no idea what I'm doing. And I had to go to YouTube to find out what are these things and find out. And if I didn't know how to do it, or if I didn't want to, or I didn't have the time, then I just hire someone to do it or find someone else to help me in a sense. And and uh so a lot of not everything I launched my podcast on last Tuesday. I've been wanting to do a podcast for a long time. I had one person that morning at eight uh 8 30, and I had the rest of the day open. I said, I probably need to do something with this time. Yeah, it'd be nice to just sit and watch a movie or a couple movies or you know, hang out with my wife and whatever, but I have four kids, so you know, hundred dollar bills falling in my pocket every day. It's expensive, right? Just feeding them now. My my oldest random marathon on Saturday. My my other one's running across the country.

SPEAKER_00: 33:09

It's like a$250 a day in food, right?

SPEAKER_01: 33:12

Exactly, right? I mean, this kid eats literally five or six potatoes a day, a day. So that used to be cooked for one meal for the whole family, and he's doing it for himself, and so we have to understand that you you can ask for help, that we can find guidance, that we can put ourselves out there to be in a better position. And and so going back to the podcast, I had been wanting to do it. I had a lot of time, and then I learned how to do it. And now from Tuesday, less than 10 days or whatever the math is, it's about 10 days. I am going to release my sixth episode. Whereas before a week and a half ago, I had no idea how to even do any of it. I just knew they were a thing, and I would been guesting on a lot of them in the last couple months, but I knew I needed to get to the next layer of this. It's like, okay, I need to evolve, I need to have my own podcast to then be able to open up doors and opportunities for myself in that way. And I have to speak my truth and my education and my experience because that's what I've been doing the last 20 years, and I'm finally sharing that with the world in the in 2025 and making big differences. And I've I learned how to do that. I didn't ask anyone, I just found the instruction on the internet, and then by the end of the night, so it started around 6, 7 a.m. And by the end of the night, I was publishing on Apple, and I had my first episode recorded, released, and the description and the artwork and all these things I did all by myself.

SPEAKER_00: 34:44

Nice, man. Well, congrats, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 34:47

Yeah, thanks. It's exciting. I'm like, oh, the podcasting is fun and it's easy, and I enjoy it, and I can speak, and people can hear me because they can't hear me in a written social post that disappears in you know 20 minutes or something. And it's my gosh, like this. I'm much rather play this long form game than the short form in a sense, and express myself so people can hear and experience and see how things could be different. Yeah, and at the very least, I'd hope that at least one person that's listening to us is motivated and inspired to do the thing, whether it's taking better care of themselves, having a better relationship, getting a better job, connecting with their children more, repairing a relationship that they let go from the past, or whatever. Like I hope that at least one person is motivated to take some action.

SPEAKER_00: 35:39

Well, and what I really hear from that is that it's not that that it's not about like getting started on day one and committing to like, okay, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna show up at five days at the gym, right? That I'm gonna go from not working out at all to Monday morning or January one or whatever they they decide, right? That I'm gonna completely change my my relationship with food and sleep and working out and whatnot, but that it's it's taking small consistent actions over time that that probably that probably yield the the greatest consistency and and results. Uh getting out taking action, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:25

A good example, especially since you wake up way earlier than I do, but not for someone listening in, not hitting the snooze button tomorrow. That literally could change your life. Because I think the snooze button just shouldn't be a thing for you. You decided the night before that it was important for you to wake up at this time on this day, but for these reasons, because so that you could be prepared for whatever was ahead. And the very first decision that you make goes against yourself, your own desires and wants and dreams and whatever it was why you woke up to just set yourself back. Literally, that's what you're doing when you're hitting the snooze. So tomorrow, don't hit the snooze button, and that can be the very first thing. Whether you worked out or not, it doesn't matter. Because if you can say, hey, I'm not gonna hit the snooze button tomorrow, and then it turns into the next day, and next day, next thing you know, maybe you end up joining the 5 a.m. club, and then you're up, and then you're doing the things because even that for you probably evolved at some point, but it wasn't what you were doing prior, and you had to make a decision and you had to stick to it and be consistent, and now it's just part of your day-to-day life and routine.

SPEAKER_00: 37:34

Yeah. So, with uh, what what are some sort of things or you know, you mentioned uh getting rid of the alarm clock, right? Which is great. And and I've done I've done interesting things over.

SPEAKER_01: 37:45

I mean, we'll use it to wake up, but let's not snooze it.

SPEAKER_00: 37:48

Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, I've I've even gone as far as uh you know setting multiple alarm clocks in other places, right? So I'll have one upstairs that kind of wakes me up, and I know that in seven minutes another one in the kitchen is gonna go off, right? So I need to be down there to turn that shit off.

SPEAKER_01: 38:07

Yeah, that's what I do. My watch wakes me up. Two minutes later, my phone in another room rather than the bedroom in the kitchen area is set two minutes, and it's called activation energy. It takes just as much energy to hit the snooze button as it does to get out of bed. And I know that if I don't get out of bed in two minutes, it's gonna go off and wake up the whole house. And it's the same with you, it's gonna go off in seven minutes, and it's gonna be really annoying coming from another room that's so far away.

SPEAKER_00: 38:37

It's gonna keep going off, it's not gonna hear me, you know. But those are the sort of things that I found, you know, and it's I say at times that it's like a chess game, you know, and there's and I I I believe that we've got multiple parts to ourselves, right? And we've got we've got the part that that wants to get up at 5 a.m., right? And we've got the other part of ourselves that wants to sleep in until seven or not do the workout or have coffee and in bed, right? And so it's and and and I personally believe it's not about necessarily killing that part of us. You know, some guys will be like, oh, you you know, you gotta like destroy that guy. No, and it like there's there's it's not necessarily wrong to just have a slow morning. Well, and and the thing is is that like that's a real part of us, that part that doesn't want to get up, right? And and for at some point in our life, some aspects that's keeping us alive and safe, right? And so this idea of like, well, let's just kill it, let's strangle it, right? Like, you gotta you gotta choke the the life out of that part of you that isn't man enough to get up, you know, the first time that your alarm clock gets off. But it's really about understanding like what is it, what is it afraid of? Like really understanding, like, you know, I don't, I'm afraid to get up and get in that cold ass water at 5 a.m. Okay, cool. I I get it, dude. Like I completely resonate with you, but let's talk a little bit about what the advantages of it are. Like, why is this that it's important to you? And so I think it's really to it's really awesome to have those conversations with people or with themselves, right? And especially in a in a supportive way. Yes. And I I can go on about this topic forever, but my point was was that what what are some other ways that that you you recommend to your clients about staying consistent, right? Without without feeling like health is is really taking away from their I don't know, kind of their I don't want to say quality of life, right? But just how I have found for myself, right, that like one percent changes over time that trying to go in there and and do anything like that where we're we're like let's change everything at once is never never works, all right. And so some ways to to help them integrate the these things into their their lives.

SPEAKER_01: 41:07

Yeah. One example comes to mind. Uh this gentleman named Roy. He had a problem with nighttime eating. Not just late night, 10 or 11, but two or three in the morning. He's this guy's eating a whole meal or something. That's a challenge when you start your day off with you know five, six, eight hundred calories, and you haven't moved or anything, right? It's uh doesn't bode well to weight loss, right? And what we found in that his particular situation, the one thing that he could agree on that was actually his idea, and I just further backed him up on it, was putting caution tape, the red-black caution tape, across the door frame before he went to bed. And that was a pattern interrupt that caused him to stop and think this is not caution. If I go through this, I go away from my goals.

SPEAKER_00: 42:07

Yeah, I'm physically making the choice. I've seen it, I have to remove the red tape in order to do this, and that's that's a good one because there that's and and I think that that's something that people don't always realize, like the impact of that, of having that physical, you know, and it could be a number of different things, but putting those sort of measures in place, and they sound ridiculous in the moment, right? They're like, Oh, I'm a grown man, like I don't have to, I don't have to put red tape in front of things, like, well, what you're doing's not working. Right, right. So let's try a different alarm. Let's try it up, yeah, just for a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 42:44

Well, uh, Muhammad Ali, they always said that he would put his shoes on the alarm clock. When he hit the alarm, he hit his shoes and he just grabbed them and up and off he went for some road work in the morning. And for him, that was the next best thing for him to do to say create that motivation or the desire or that engagement or whatever to get out and train.

SPEAKER_00: 43:08

Yeah. Yeah. I think the the thing that I really take away from this is that it's not it's not too menial. I think it's me menial a word, right? But it's not too small of a sort of thing to to put any of those safety measures or preventative sort of things in place, right? To and I and I consider them almost as like, you know, traps or catches along the way, like, oh, I know this is gonna be somewhere where I'm gonna, so I'm gonna just play with this a little bit. It's right, it's fun. So what would you with going?

SPEAKER_01: 43:45

I'll I'll expand on this. There's a thing that I call shoelace moments. And we're walking, say you and I are just hanging out, we're walking down the street talking, all of a sudden I noticed that your shoelaces come undone. Like, hey, Corey, your shoelaces come undone. Right? You can choose whatever you're gonna do with that, right? You could just like, yeah, okay, well, I'll get it later, or you'll stop and bend over and and tie it. You know, my second son, Everett, he's 6'3, he's always feels like his shoelace is undone. And I don't know if it's because he's so tall and it's such a long way down to tie his shoe that he doesn't want to or whatnot, but we have choices in that moment. We can not tie the shoe and just keep walking, and maybe something will or won't happen. Uh, we can not tie it and trip, stumble, fall, face plant because we chose to not stop and tie the shoe. As a coach, my job is to understand the moments at which the shoes start to come undone and say, Oh, right there, your shoes untied. What are we going to do about it? And even more importantly, as I start to understand that person, I can understand when the shoes are about to come undone and make sure that I'm teaching them how to double knot their shoes, give them solutions that allow them to double knot so that the shoes are less likely to come undone. Even if you double knot shoes, it's just still a chance that they might come undone, but it less, less frequently. Right. So those are shoelace moments.

SPEAKER_00: 45:20

Yeah. Well, so with that, I mean, so you you're you know, supporting a man that that is on his journey and you find that his you know his shoelace is untied. What what are some of those those first places, right? The the first things that that where you'd have him like to start to build momentum, right, in his journey with with health without without burning out, right? So as we talked about, like biting off too much too soon.

SPEAKER_01: 45:49

Yeah, everyone is bound by time. Yeah, that's the only thing that we actually do have in this whole life is the same amount of time, uh, 24 hours, right? And so we start to look there. We can see strategically where in the day can he be better at making better food choices, moving his body in a way that gives him energy because movement is energy, right? The blood's flowing, the endorphins start moving, that's a good thing. Everyone, pretty much everyone always says they feel better when they moved, first not. And we can be a lot more strategic, then understand how busy they are, the time demands, the stress, the their uh skill sets around managing those things as well, all come into play to allow for them to for me as the coach to empower them with different solutions strategies on how to make it better. Some people need an alarm to go off at noon to say, stop, go eat. Right? Some people need, hey, I'm passing the break room and there's a donut in there. Oh, yeah, that's right. Brian makes me take pictures and send it to him. I don't want to send him a picture of a donut that I ate. That's a pattern interrupt. That's a something in the way of them just blindly going in and grabbing the 300-plus calorie donut and forgetting about it five minutes later. And so simple things like that would be some of the first places I'd start. How can we get the minimum viable amount of movement in initially? It could just be walking. And then how do we start making better food choices so that you can naturally give yourself energy because you're eating healthier foods, you're fueling your body for the demands that you're placing on them?

SPEAKER_00: 47:39

All right. So, you know, one of the things with with the men listening, right? If what would you say to the man you right that's is feeling stretched thin with work and kids and marriage? You know, we kind of talked about it a little bit. Where but where's where's the first place that you'd have him to start building momentum with his health without burning out?

SPEAKER_01: 48:05

Yeah. Well, I feel you, man. 42 this year, more than most, has been felt with a lot more time, effort, energy, financial responsibilities. I feel you move. Drink water and move. Those would be the first easiest, best things that you can do. Take more walk breaks throughout work, drink more water throughout the day. Those two in and of itself could be really simple, easy things to do that give you more energy to be able to function and manage whatever else you do. Even also, say you had back-to-back-to-back meetings, grabbing a drink, going for a walk around the block, you're gonna come back more resourceful, more productive, more ready to be focused on whatever the next task at hand is, rather than just drowning and jumping into the next thing that's on your schedule. So strategically creating buffer time frames in your day to not work, to then come back and be more productive. It's that it's a Pomodoro timer, right? You work, say 25 minutes go and five minutes off.

SPEAKER_00: 49:26

Definitely. Yeah, it sounds like sounds like balance in there, right? And really kind of time management and and balancing probably the things because I all of this takes a certain amount of energy and effort, not just physically, right, but mentally and and and changing the way that that we do things and the way that we live our life and and such. So you you know, one of the things I thought was really fascinating, and we've talked about it a couple of times here, is you know, with your family, family of four, right? And good for you, dude. You're you were doing you were on a mission, but but this this adventure of yours of traveling to all 50 states and you know to a bunch of the continents. What do you feel like living with that sense of adventure and presence, right? Has taught you about health and life balance and things like that.

SPEAKER_01: 50:22

Every place I've been. We've the goal is to sleep all sleep one night in all 50 states. We've slept one night in 49, and Idaho is the one that got away from us. So at some point we need to go out to say Boise or Court d'Alane and spend the night there. It will happen. But and then we've been in multiple countries, continents. The one takeaway that I've had from every single place is that people just want to live a happy, healthy, joy-filled life. Doesn't matter how rich you are, how poor you are, whatever your social economic class is, whatever. The that's the undertone of the human experience on this earth. That's it. And through understanding those cultures and seeing different ways of life, and that my way of life is different than other people's life, and that's okay. And their way of life is different than mine, and that's okay. That that's that's been a huge takeaway for me to have sympathy, empathy, compassion create opportunities for other people to experience that for themselves, because oftentimes if someone's overweight, their body is a result of the life and lifestyle and the thoughts and feelings and energy that they are living. If someone's 50 pounds overweight, they're not a happy person. So, how do we get them happy again? And that there is in and of itself the maybe the main mission of what I'm doing with anyone. It just so happens that for me, I'm gonna start with nutrition and exercise. And for you, Corey, you're gonna start subtly different with maybe their their time or whatever mechanism you use to help get people to realign with what's important to them.

SPEAKER_00: 52:16

Definitely. Well, I think similarly, that there's a lot of crossover between our two our two things, but for me, it's a lot of mindset, right? And and you know, the the rules that we have for ourselves, the the beliefs around it, right? You know, that you know, I you know, rules that hey, you know, I can't work 40 hours a week or I can't be successful in my career and be healthy, right? That that in order to achieve one, that I have to sacrifice the other sort of thing. And so yeah, I mean, for me, uh a lot of it really begins around the the mindset and the approach and the stories that we tell ourselves and the the the rules and whatnot. So yeah, I can see how you your adventures, right, and with your family and and your dedication to it, how it sounds like it really comes back to a sense of like moderation and and balance, right? That when we're trying to take in too much, right, that we we reach for these other things to you know shorten the gap or whatever it might be, right? Like, well, hey, I you know, whether it's fast food or not working out or whatever it is, but if we were to slow down, we'd find that we would probably have a lot more time for you know find more time for the things that were that are really truly important to us.

SPEAKER_01: 53:42

And let's think about our modern existence, especially as a man. My my buddy Chris he said, Brian, you know Space Balls, the movie. Oh, of course, Chris. Totally know that. It's great. You know that scene when Barf and Han Solo guy and they're in their RV trying to get away from Dark Helmet and they're going light speed, and then Dark Helmet goes into ludicrous speed, and then they go past them and it's plaid. They're going in plaid speed. It's like Brian, you live life in plaid. And I said, Oh my gosh, that's the most realistic explanation that hits home with me for sure. Life is plaid these days. The invention of AI and its evolution into our existence is is hyper speed, and you have to be able to figure out a way to keep up. But I almost wonder sometimes what my life would look like if I was born a thousand years ago. How would it be different? How would I be able to enjoy some of those finer times and moments of connection and not having a phone in my hand most of the day or something, whether I'm working with a client or or just trying to do a social media post or answering a text or something like that? I just always wonder that maybe I should hang this up and just go work a labor job and put in a good nine to five and sweat and then I come home and I can just kick back and relax. But that's not our modern times that we live in. And we do just have to we have to adjust, we have to change. And those are some of the undertones that we've talked about is you have to be ready to change with the environment that you're in, or you will be left behind. It's just like as we age, you know, I feel bad for say someone that's in their 70s or 80s, in a sense, because technology is so much faster than maybe when our grandparents were alive, and it was like, oh, here's the TV, and then the the start of the internet was coming around, right? Or the last generation before that, where oh, the TV came. And so the the advances of technology, the advances of life, and and all these things we do have to be considerate of and how they are impacting our energy, our ability to function, pull us away from our own true north. So, as you're as you coach with mindset, it's like all these stories, like they're there it's like a magnet coming into your compass. So you were supposed to go this way, but that magnet is pulling it that way, and now you believe this is take, and as soon as you can unwind, pack some of those, that then we can get back to true north, and you can find happiness and the joy and that that pace of life that really works and resonates with you.

unknown: 56:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 56:39

Yeah, I feel that, man. I feel that. Well, hey, as we start to wrap up, if if you could leave the the listeners right with one belief to take away from this, from what they're they've been what you've been sharing today, you know, one one shift that that could really change the way that they see health forever, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01: 56:58

I'm gonna say a simple phrase, um, a question is what what's the next best step for me to better myself? That's a a really good mindset piece to stop and think about the decision you're about to make in the circumstance and situation that you're in, to realize if I go this way or I go that way or the other way, which one puts me in the best position to better myself, better those around me, and and actually move toward my goals rather than get distracted or pulled away from them.

SPEAKER_00: 57:38

Yeah, I think that's a great one. It's a good one. Well, hey, Brian Man, it's been great talking to you. Um if if guys want to connect with you to learn more about you and your work and what you do, what's what's the best place for people to get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01: 57:52

Yeah, uh coach Brian Piranha on the socials, Instagram is uh say the main feature that I hang out there. Thecalltorise.com is my men's 100-day fat loss challenge. The goal is to lose 20 plus pounds in 100 days through science-backed nutrition, fitness, lifestyle changes, all into creating a lifelong change in that 100 days of looking and feeling better, but also living better. And then Driven for Health, my podcast. You can check that out. It's gonna be all things health, nutrition, fitness, lifestyle, behavior change, all those things. Six episodes deep in 10 days. It's it's gonna be an adventure in its own right as I keep moving forward and getting better at that, too.

SPEAKER_00: 58:35

All right. Well, hey, it's been a pleasure, Brian, and I'm sure we'll chat chat again.

SPEAKER_01: 58:40

Oh, yes, we will. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00: 58:42

Yep. Thanks. Bye-bye. Hey, before you go, this podcast is just the surface. The real work happens inside the Evolve Men Brotherhood. This is our private community of men committed to leading themselves boldly, building confidence, and sharpening one another in the fire. Registration officially opens December 1st, and we kick off our Brotherhood calls together beginning in January 2026. But you can get on the list today and be the first to claim your spot. If you're tired of going to life alone and you're ready for true accountability, support, and connection with men who get it, head to Evolvmen Project.comslash brotherhood. Don't just listen, step into the Brotherhood. I'll see you inside.