← All episodes

DUSTIN DIEFENDERFER | Cultivating an "Always Ready" Spirit, Mind, & Body (Ep. 743)

April 15, 2025 57m 55s Full transcript available
DUSTIN DIEFENDERFER | Cultivating an "Always Ready" Spirit, Mind, & Body (Ep. 743)
0:00 / 57m 55s
In this episode, Kyle Thompson sits down with Dustin Defenderfer, founder of the Mountain Tough Fitness App, to discuss cultivating an 'always ready' spirit, mind, and body. They dive into the importance of physical and mental resilience, the journey of building Mountain Tough, and how to prepare for life's challenges as men of faith.
Transcript
771 segments
0:00 Linkedin Hiring Pro can't predict the future, but it can help you feel confident about future hires.
0:06 Because Hiring Pro combines real-time insights and candidate data from the Linkedin network
0:11 with the criteria you've set for your role to deliver you a list of top-fit candidates.
0:16 Businesses who use Linkedin are 24% less likely to reopen a role in the next 12 months.
0:21 Hire right the first time with Linkedin Hiring Pro.
0:24 Post a free job today at Linkedin.com/quality.
0:50 This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast.
0:54 I'm your host Kyle Thompson, let's get into it.
0:57 All right guys, we've got a special guest on the podcast.
0:59 Today's name is Dustin Defenderfer.
1:01 Yes, that's actually his last name. It's an awesome last name.
1:03 It actually has a really cool meeting. I'm going to go to text message.
1:06 Actually, I'm doing this live because he texted me the other day
1:08 because I guess he looked up the meaning of his name.
1:10 Okay, the surname Defenderfer originated in Germany and means one who defends or protects.
1:15 All right, so guys, let's go out there and beat some Defenderfer's.
1:18 But this guy is the founder of the Mountain Tough Fitness App
1:22 and really the entire Mountain Tough ecosystem that we talk about.
1:25 But I actually recorded this in their studio in Montana.
1:29 Okay, so at the Mountain Tough facility, so if you're watching this on YouTube,
1:32 that's why it looks a little bit different than my studio here in Edmond, Oklahoma.
1:36 But they wanted me to come out there because they've started doing something with their show
1:39 where they're actually inviting guests to come out there
1:41 and kind of do the Mountain Tough thing for a couple of days.
1:43 And so they usually try to, and I don't want to ruin anything
1:45 because this will come out before their episode with me.
1:48 But they want to try to get you to do something that maybe you're not great at,
1:51 but then they also want to try to crush you with a workout and then doing the podcast
1:55 and basically just kind of living in their world for a little bit.
1:58 And then when we get into the actual podcast itself,
2:01 I don't know if my editor is going to edit it out.
2:03 But there was a wide shot and there was literally like a turtle box right there.
2:06 So if you're not familiar, that's like this wireless Bluetooth,
2:09 like waterproof speaker or whatever that he had just given me.
2:12 So excited, apparently I wanted to leave it right there next to me.
2:15 So you might see that in the shot if that's not edited out.
2:17 But when we get in there, we talk about the training that we've done.
2:22 I'm trying to remember because we recorded my podcast for his show
2:27 and then I recorded this podcast for our show and kind of what that would look like.
2:31 So some of this is going to be crossing over.
2:33 But ultimately we talked about, okay, where did Mountain Tough,
2:36 where did the idea come from?
2:37 How did his upbringing, growing up in the outdoors
2:40 and doing a lot outdoorsy stuff lead into this?
2:42 Because the guy spent a lot of time doing ministry work in Africa.
2:46 And he thought, you know, even whenever they were expanding their family
2:49 and adding children that they would continue doing that,
2:51 but then it became apparent that he needed to come home.
2:53 But then also, you know, we talked about, again, trying to remember
2:56 if it was my conversation on his show or the conversation on our show.
2:59 But, you know, he kind of had that good corporate job,
3:02 but he felt like God was calling him to something else.
3:05 And then we do talk about the development of the Mountain Tough app
3:07 because it started out with him training three guys in a park behind his house, right?
3:12 And now it's probably, it's for my money,
3:15 it is the best fitness app that I have ever seen.
3:18 And I've used some different fitness apps and I've suggested several for other people.
3:22 But Mountain Tough is just, it's just different because it takes you where you are
3:26 because originally it was like, okay, we want to get people ready for mountain cheap hunts
3:30 or elk hunts or bear hunts or something like that.
3:32 And then it just kind of expanded to like, okay, well, what if you're getting off the couch
3:36 for the first time in a few years, you know, is there a program that helps that person?
3:41 And so Mountain Tough has programs for that.
3:43 Okay, what if you're a little bit too stiff?
3:44 They've got stretching and prehab and rehab programs.
3:47 They've also got stuff, if you're off-season, you're wanting to get strong for off-season.
3:50 Oh, and they got stuff like, hey, if you do got a mountain hunt coming up
3:53 or some sort of a race, like a Tough Mudder or something like that,
3:56 they've got programs that kind of meet you where you're at.
3:59 And also it's like, okay, where do you work out?
4:01 Do you work out at a global gym where you have every machine
4:03 and every freeway thing available to you? Okay, there's programs for that.
4:06 Or do you just work out at home and you have nothing, right?
4:09 You just have your body weight.
4:10 Or if you just maybe just have like a step-up box or even a cooler
4:13 and maybe you've got a Go-Ruck Ruck or something like that.
4:16 They just got stuff for everybody.
4:17 And I did just want to remind you guys that just for a limited time,
4:20 because of my relationship with Dustin and the Mountain Tough team,
4:23 they are extending an offer to Mountain Tough or to Undaunted Lifers, right?
4:28 Where you can go to the Mountain Tough website.
4:30 So it's just M-T-N-Tough, MountainTough, so M-T-N-Tough.com.
4:35 And when you sign up for your monthly plan, just put in the promo code Kyle.
4:39 And essentially what that does is it takes your 14-day free trial
4:43 and turns it into a six-week free trial.
4:45 And so guys, I know I've talked about this on some ads and I've announced it before.
4:49 This is a game changer.
4:51 So if you've ever gotten to the gym or wherever you work out, even your home gym,
4:53 and you're like, I don't really know what to do, let them program for you.
4:56 I've had people be like, oh, I'm ready to cultivate physical resilience.
4:59 How do I do it?
5:00 And what they mean is like, hey, can I come work out with you?
5:02 Or can I do your program?
5:03 Or can you write a program for me?
5:04 And I always felt like I needed to do that.
5:06 Not anymore, right?
5:07 I've got the guys with Mountain Tough.
5:08 This is what they do all day, every day.
5:11 So guys, if you want six weeks of a trial to Mountain Tough, which just sign up.
5:15 Just sign up using that code.
5:17 It'll make them think I'm cooler, right?
5:18 You know, two thumbs up.
5:19 If you're an Undaunted Lifer, just go to the website.
5:21 Do me a favor and sign up.
5:22 But actually download the app.
5:23 You can put it on your phone.
5:24 You can put it on your iPad.
5:25 You can put it on your smart television or something like that.
5:27 Try these workouts, guys, because I went through one of their experimental workouts because
5:31 I worked out with their noon crew, and their noon crew is what they're doing for experimental
5:35 stuff.
5:36 Like, hey, we want to see if this programming works.
5:37 And they, you know, they tried to crush me and like, it was just, it was just a really,
5:40 really solid workout for wherever you're at.
5:42 But man, Dustin is just an aces dude.
5:44 He's unapologetically Christian and he weaves that into what he does with his programming,
5:48 but also with this company overall.
5:51 Everyone I met out there was just absolutely fantastic.
5:53 They're all kind of on the same wavelength and so I'm just thrilled that we were able
5:56 to bring you a conversation between me and Dustin.
5:58 So I'm not going to keep him from you any longer.
6:00 So without further ado, let's get into it.
6:02 Dustin, how's it feel to have someone else in the captain's chair?
6:05 It feels weird.
6:06 It should feel weird.
6:07 I've never sat on the side.
6:08 I have taken over your studio.
6:09 I feel about that.
6:10 Two days in Utah, we're in Utah, right?
6:12 You know what?
6:13 Okay.
6:14 So for those of you that don't know, because it's probably not going to make the YouTube
6:16 video.
6:17 So I had just gotten in Dustin's truck, like we're getting ready to go, like do a couple
6:20 of days with mountain tough and for whatever reason, my mind went to the last time when
6:25 I was at field craft in Utah and I'm like, oh, I can see mountains from my hotel.
6:29 And I just go, man, it's great being in Utah and you literally smack me and go, we're in
6:33 Montana.
6:34 I was like, Oh my gosh.
6:35 What a great first impression.
6:36 So yeah, they probably didn't make the actual final edit of your video because for those
6:40 of you that aren't paying attention to this because we're not doing a normal entrautro.
6:43 You flew me out here at a mountain tough to do some stuff with you guys because you all
6:45 do kind of your own version of this kind of YouTube show where, you know, you get guys
6:50 doing some stuff that maybe they're not great at or stuff they haven't done before.
6:54 And then, you know, workout and cold plunge and then podcasts and all that.
6:57 And so we're flipping sides of the table because I wanted to have you on my show and
7:00 it's like, okay, we could do it digitally later or we can do it like right now.
7:03 So we're going to squeeze one in before I got to get to the airport.
7:05 But like, and I want, I want to get back to all the stuff that you've done with mountain
7:09 tough and building out the app.
7:10 But like when you bring somebody into town, right, especially someone that's never been
7:13 to Montana or Utah, for that matter, like, and you're trying to figure out like what
7:17 to do with them.
7:18 Like, how do you all like figure out exactly like, okay, how are we going to make this
7:21 person uncomfortable and how do you gauge because some people come in and they're not
7:25 like in world-class shape.
7:26 Yeah.
7:27 Right.
7:28 And so if they try to do y'all's noon day workout, which is like the y'all's noon
7:30 day workout is like you're experimenting with programming to kind of see what you should
7:34 be doing.
7:35 So like, how do you kind of judge that?
7:36 It's been awesome, man.
7:37 We started the in person idea this year.
7:41 So we're still recording a lot of virtual podcasts, but one per month is in person.
7:45 So you're our in person guest for this month.
7:48 The month before was Nick Jones, he was a marine raider that got shot in the calf in
7:53 this big, famous battle, cave battle in Afghanistan, created a bunch of nerve damage, heard his
8:00 story.
8:01 The month before that, it was Remy Warren.
8:03 So for the new idea where every in person, we do a full Bozeman, a full lab, full mountain
8:10 tough experience on this new concept, year number three.
8:14 And so it's been incredible to brainstorm those ideas.
8:18 It's been so much fun like Remy Warren.
8:21 We knew that like the guy's phenomenal with a rifle, he's phenomenal with a bow.
8:27 We thought about taking him to jujitsu because we knew that would make him super uncomfortable.
8:33 It didn't pan out, but we heard rumors that he was pretty terrible at a handgun and our
8:40 idea with every person is to make them do something a little bit uncomfortable and just
8:48 walk through that process of adversity.
8:50 So with Remy, we had a tactical army guy teach him a bunch of handgun drills.
8:56 It was epic.
8:57 And then with Nick Jones, Nick Jones, I called his wife Hannah and I was like, what is Nick
9:04 suck at?
9:05 Because he's a special operator.
9:07 He just finished, even after getting shot in the calf with like seven different surgeries,
9:13 trying to repair his nerve damage after he did kind of sort that out.
9:17 He just did a half my iron man.
9:20 He's lifting every day.
9:21 He's training every day.
9:22 Yeah.
9:23 How do you hurt a guy like that?
9:24 Yeah.
9:25 He's great.
9:26 He's great at rolling.
9:27 He's great at handguns rifles.
9:29 He's great at shooting a bow.
9:31 And so I was like, Hannah, what does this guy really suck at?
9:34 And she's like, he sucks at ball sports, like terrible balls.
9:38 And I'm like, what?
9:39 Let's go.
9:40 I figured his hand I coordination would be superb.
9:43 Yeah.
9:44 Well, it turns out like ball sports are not his thing at all.
9:46 So we found a private racquetball court and we played a racquetball tournament, me against
9:52 him.
9:53 And it was probably like the most fun I've had in 20 years, like just playing racquetball.
9:58 Yeah.
9:59 It felt like it just being a kid again, just slamming that ball off the wall.
10:03 Well, like that I've seen so many guys that were like amazing athletes, like great football
10:08 player, super explosive, super fast and all that.
10:10 But you put a bat in their hand or a racquet.
10:12 Yeah.
10:13 It's like, I mean, they look like they've never done sports ever before.
10:16 So I mean, ball sports in like normal, just being in shape is not the same thing.
10:19 Not the same.
10:20 Yeah.
10:21 He was getting like big old whiffs where he'd like almost throw his back out because he
10:24 just wanted to smash that ball so hard.
10:27 So your story is awesome because the idea we had for you, it's going to probably happen
10:35 this year, but we couldn't line up the timing of your trip out here because we were like
10:39 Kyle Thompson.
10:40 What are we going to do with Kyle Thompson?
10:41 We're like, we got to think outside the box with this one.
10:45 And because we're like, he's, he's like Nick where he's going to be pretty good at everything.
10:50 You know, we're not going to freak him out with, with much his physical fitness is really
10:54 good.
10:55 Everything's we're going to crush him with.
10:58 And so our friend, um, Kim Green owns fallen dogs, fallen are Belgian Malinois.
11:05 Yeah.
11:06 That are, uh, some of the best protection dogs in the country.
11:10 Well, you, um, there are opportunities where you can be the bite suit guy.
11:15 You know, I've actually been the bite suit guy, but, uh, you have.
11:18 Okay.
11:19 So I'm glad to make him the bite suit.
11:20 Okay.
11:21 So Mike Ritalin, shout out to Mike Ritalin.
11:22 Yeah.
11:23 So, uh, retired Navy SEAL.
11:24 He was the dog training guy, right?
11:25 So he was basically killing people with meat missiles, right?
11:27 Yeah.
11:28 Meat missiles or his Malinois.
11:29 And so I'm going to do his podcast like five years ago or something like that.
11:33 And I say, Hey, can I get attacked by one of your dogs and his responses?
11:38 You want to do that?
11:39 I was like, yeah, because so I get there in the suit is like 40 pounds, right?
11:44 And it's this big suit.
11:45 And he set up the scenario where it's like, okay, we have the dog in the parking lot.
11:48 You're going to be in this room and we're going to bring the dog to the room and you're
11:52 going to be in the corner and you're going to immediately start acting aggressive.
11:55 And then he goes, I can remember like it was yesterday.
11:58 I've got the whole show you a video of it, but he goes, we trained them to bite right
12:02 here.
12:03 So guys, just listen to this.
12:04 I'm that it's like biting like the front of your armpits like the front of your deltoid,
12:07 you know, the, the very edge of your, your pet, right?
12:10 Yeah.
12:11 And he's like, it's going to look like he's the dog's trying to bite you in the face,
12:14 but he's probably not going to bite you in the face.
12:15 And I'm like, that word, you know, he's not a word in there.
12:19 It's probably is a little bit problematic. And so he's like, if you, if that freaks you
12:23 out, just give them your forearm. And I was like, no, I'm going to do it yells way. And
12:26 so that's what we do. Like he brings the dog to it. And this is even one of his really
12:30 good dogs. This is just an okay dog. And this dog lunges, grabs me on that. That's part
12:36 of my deltoid puts me in the wall behind me, right? This dog's 60 pounds or something,
12:40 right?
12:41 He puts me in the wall behind me. And then he starts, he's pulling the dog off and then
12:44 he's giving me different. He's like, okay, now give him your forearm. Okay. Now turn
12:47 away and I'm going to have him bite your tricep and all that. This dog broke my skin through
12:51 this suit. Like I had, I had teeth marks all over my forearm. I was bleeding. The back
12:56 of my tricep was just munched up for weeks and weeks and weeks. And so, but I was like,
13:01 how many people have like had the opportunity to get attacked by a dog like that? So like,
13:07 I think that's a perfect idea for somebody because you're, you're never going to be in
13:10 a scenario where you can raise your hand and do that. And you're just going to be forcing
13:13 people to do that, which is even better.
13:15 It's got to be the right person because not everyone's going to have fun with that experience.
13:19 Yeah.
13:20 Those things are the athleticism of those dogs is unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, when you see
13:24 them when they're getting a full sprint run at somebody and then they take, take an arm
13:27 and Mike showed me some video and some pictures of some guys because, you know, he trains these
13:31 dogs for, you know, sheriff's deputies and for different military things. And he, you
13:37 know, he's showing me these things of these dogs have just like sliced someone's bicep
13:40 completely open with one bite. And like, you know, guys get real tough when they're going
13:45 up against other humans holding tasers or batons or something like that. But the moment
13:49 they see the dog people freak out. Yeah. And as soon as they start getting bit, I mean,
13:53 they're, they lose it. Like very few people are going to fight through a dog to get to
13:58 a human. And so like, that's why those things are so like, they're great tools. You know,
14:01 I mean, incredible. And they're warriors. I mean, they're soldiers. It's, it's awesome.
14:05 Yeah. And so y'all ended up having me taking me out to a shooting range, but it wasn't
14:09 like kind of a normal long distance range. Like we were doing different setups where you
14:13 were on a timer and you had to change your dope, like in the middle of it. And you know,
14:17 you're using a rifle you're not used to. And you know, we got to the, this final, this
14:21 final thing where y'all put rounds in a bucket and you put it like 30 yards down the hill.
14:25 And so you had to get off eight rounds in five minutes was the goal. And so you had to run
14:29 down, grab one round and kind of load it into the magazine on the way in, you know, get
14:33 to the rifle and then you have to acquire the target. And man, like the heart rate is one
14:37 thing, but then trying to acquire the target. And then I had kind of a weird thing going
14:40 with the scope where like at one point for about 40, 45 seconds to a minute, I couldn't
14:45 see anything of a black and I'm trying to ship backwards, ship forwards like up and down.
14:49 And I could hear your lovely daughter, Ava in the background. She's like, yeah, that happened
14:52 to me yesterday. And I wanted to be like, that's not helping. Like, you tell me how
14:56 to fix it. But it was such a cool experience because like, what you've built with mountain
15:01 tough in the community here and like everyone I met, that's on your team, they're just aces,
15:07 dudes and gals, like, and they're just, they're all squared away. Like, they're all squared
15:12 away on their fitness, they're squared away on their professional life. I don't know most
15:17 of them personally, but I'm assuming it kind of bleeds over to that. Because you know how
15:20 it goes for people that are undisciplined with their diet and with their exercise regimen.
15:24 It's not very common that they're disciplined everywhere else. Like all their discipline
15:28 financially, their discipline and their relationships are disciplined in their marriage. And so
15:31 you're kind of creating this, you know, this ecosystem here, which, you know, you and I
15:35 talked about a bit to where it's like, all right, we got to get you squared away and
15:37 one of the hardest things to be squared away at. And then everything else will just seem
15:40 easy.
15:41 Yeah, we're so fortunate. I mean, the team here is incredible. And a lot of that has
15:46 just happened over the years of looking out around people that I know and thinking about
15:51 who I want to hire and who I want to have around me. And just taking that really slow
15:57 and strategically and making sure that, you know, the, the people that we're looking for,
16:03 we're looking for character first. And so it's always like, what is their character?
16:08 What is their heart? And we know that regardless of their skill set, if they have the right
16:13 character character, they're going to be the right fit for the team. And so that's like
16:16 almost every person you met, every person that's, you know, walking around the gym in
16:21 the lab that you've had the chance to interact with. It's all been, you know, based off that
16:25 philosophy since the beginning of really their skill set, they're going to find their sweet
16:31 spot. Everyone's going to have different gifts and talents. And we're going to be able to
16:34 most of the time build a position around that sweet spot. Yeah, but it's the, it's the character
16:40 that's number one. Hey guys, real quick, as you've heard me describe before, I am incredibly
16:45 conservative about the supplements that I take. I spent years being terrified of putting different
16:51 products in my body because I didn't know what they were made with or if it was going to be
16:54 kind of fly by night companies using all kinds of crazy ingredients. So I've always wanted
16:59 to partner with an American company that only uses the highest quality ingredients. And
17:04 that's why I want to remind you that we are partnered with Jocko Fuel. Jocko Fuel is
17:08 Jocko willing supplement company that is based here in the United States. So what are some
17:12 of my favorite products that they make? So they make whey protein powder and guys, they
17:16 just released a cookies and cream flavor not that long ago and it is ridiculously good.
17:20 Make sure you use it with milk and makes it even better. They also make clean energy drinks.
17:24 I finally decided what my favorite was and that's pink lemonade. That is my favorite
17:27 of all their flavors, but they also have the best tasting greens powder on the market.
17:32 I prefer the peach flavor myself. They also make pre workout and ready to drink protein.
17:36 So I actually mix the ready to drink protein in my boy's milk and they love it. They're
17:41 constantly like dad to have banana milk banana milk. So we got to hook that up in the Thompson
17:44 household, but I also use their krill oil, fish oil, creatine, vitamin D and their sleep
17:50 aids. And guys, they've got new stuff coming out all the time and a bunch of stuff I didn't
17:53 even have time to mention. Guys, if you take your health and wellness seriously, then you
17:57 simply can't afford to put cheap and inconsistent supplements inside of your body. Try origin
18:02 out today by going to www dot jockofield.com. That's jockofield.com. Use the promo code
18:08 undaunted to get 10% off your order. Again, that's jockofield.com promo code undaunted
18:14 to get 10% off your order. Well, so I want to kind of give a peek behind the curtain
18:19 to the people in the audience. Do you remember how we got connected? I've seen you're trying
18:23 to remember like how you and I first got connected.
18:25 The very first time that we got connected is because I heard I heard your episode on
18:31 Mike Glover's show. Okay, that's right. So that I'll reached out that one that went viral
18:34 that you were on with Glover caught my algorithm. I listened to it and I was like, holy smokes,
18:41 I got to talk to this guy. Dude, it was such a fun time. That's still his most downloaded
18:46 or most viewed interview. And I mean, he said, Chaco, he said, like he said so many like
18:50 serious dudes. And so shout out to Glover. But so, so this is where this is what I explained
18:55 to you. And I don't get to talk about this very much. And so you understand it. I'm trying
18:59 to create an ecosystem with the brands that I partner with and the people that I partner
19:02 with because I want to help create more types of guys. Okay. So, you know, we did this scenario
19:09 where okay, you wake up in the morning and you go to your home gym. Okay, well, are you
19:13 going to buy a bunch of Chinese crap or you're going to buy something serious that's bomb
19:16 proof? Okay, so sore neck. So I have relationship with sore necks. Okay, you're done working
19:20 out. Now you need to start getting your supplements and get some protein and all that. Okay, it's
19:23 got to be clean. Okay, Jocko fuel. Now we're getting ready for the day. So we're throwing
19:27 on our jeans, our boots. Okay, do origin. It's all made here in America. And then you go
19:31 to your workday. What are you eating for lunch or eating, you know, bull crap from the, you
19:35 know, fast food, place, Taco Bell or whatever, or you're going to have some, you know, good
19:39 clean beef. So we got primal beef. And then it's like, okay, where are you going after
19:43 work? Okay, you're going to train you just so you need a key. Okay, origin again. There
19:46 you've got your key. But there's always been a gap where guys will reach out and they'll
19:51 DM me and you get these all the time, but I'll get them to where it's like, okay, Kyle,
19:54 like, you know, I've started reading the Bible, you know, I've started, you know, dating
19:58 my wife again, I started doing all the stuff that I encourage on the show. But man, my
20:01 fitness is just I'm not where I used to be. And you know, I got asked to do this 5k and
20:05 I knew I couldn't do it. I'm getting winded going to the top of some stairs. And people
20:09 always wanted me to program for them. And they wanted to give them my workout routine.
20:14 And I'm like, dude, I, I, that would crush you. Like there's just no way in like, yeah,
20:19 and everyone's super different. And I knew of some other apps out there and like that
20:23 are pretty good that I would send people to. But the first time that I went to the mountain
20:28 tough app, I was like, Oh, this is completely different. And the biggest differentiator
20:32 for me is you're meeting people where they're at. Because if you take, you know, generic
20:37 fitness app, you know, you guys have some in mind, they're like, okay, they're telling
20:41 you exactly what you need to go by or what you need to do to kind of fit into their program.
20:46 But y'all are like, okay, so you work out on a global gym, but you don't have a trainer.
20:49 Okay, let us have the trainer. So you have full gym, you know, options inside the app.
20:54 Then you've also got, okay, so you've got a home setup. So more of like a barbell setup.
20:59 Okay, so you've got a thing like that. Okay, you're getting ready for a hunt, right? So
21:02 we need to increase that VO2 max a cardio. Okay, we got track. Okay, now you're in off
21:06 season. We need to build your strength. Okay, you got that. Hey, you've been a couch potato
21:09 for 10 years, and we're just getting you started. We're getting you initiated. Boom.
21:13 It's there rehab, rehab. You're coming off an injury, right? Something like that are really,
21:17 really, really tough, you know, backpacking, you know, mountain hunting season. Okay, now
21:21 you've got all that. And I'm just like, great, I can just send people to mountain tough and
21:26 say, okay, go on there, use this code, like use code Kyle, get six weeks to trial this
21:31 because, you know, two weeks doesn't really give you an idea of whether it's going to
21:34 be that good or not. Yeah, that's good. And so like, I guess I want to go all the way
21:38 back to the beginning because where y'all are at now is really unrivaled in terms of
21:43 my experience in this, in this whole field. But you were kind of telling me that's not
21:47 where mountains have started. I mean, so let's go back to like the initial, like idea how
21:51 to mount tough become a thing and then we'll work our way to today.
21:54 Yeah, I love that because we definitely are an ecosystem now, kind of like you were talking
21:59 about and that that was always the goal. And it just, it took a little while to get there.
22:05 We've always had glimpses of that and we definitely are a pretty robust ecosystem at this point,
22:11 but it all came from my life experience. And we're just barely getting to the conversation
22:19 in the truck around the founding story. Yeah. And the founding story, it created where we're
22:26 at now because of all the things that I learned in my life and the things that transpired
22:32 in my life led to the product you see now. So like mountain tough, just like everything
22:36 you mentioned in terms of beginner, intermediate, elite, home gym, no gym, bodyweight, heavy
22:42 pack, weight vest. There's mental toughness curriculum. There is spiritual curriculum,
22:49 be a better father, be a better husband. There's straight up like mindset courses from tier
22:58 one special operators like overcome pain, overcome adversity. There's daily prayer,
23:02 there's yoga, there's nutrition. And so everything that's required to start transforming a human
23:10 mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and nutritionally is in the app. So it's up to you to use as much
23:15 content as serves your lifestyle right now. Kind of like the kindling we talked about
23:21 yesterday, if you get into mountain tough, you're going to be surrounded by opportunities
23:26 to improve your life every day. But that came from my experience. And so kind of the short
23:32 version of that story was Montana kid, my dad came from a family of nine, seven of the
23:39 nine were boys. So I had all of these uncles, they lived in the mountains outside of Sheridan,
23:45 Wyoming, and the big horns. All we did was backpack flyfish, backpack trips on horses.
23:52 And then that started leading into deer hunting, elk hunting, elk hunting became my huge passion.
23:59 And so then we started archery elk hunting all over the Rocky Mountain West. So Montana,
24:04 Wyoming, Utah, Idaho. As I got older, my training started to focus around real world training
24:14 because you can't be good at everything. And we've seen this where like a guy will be in
24:20 phenomenal physical shape, he'll come to jujitsu and get completely crushed. Because you have
24:26 to pick your specialty and train to that specialty. And I wanted my special to be what works on
24:33 the mountain and what doesn't work on the mountain. And then how can we make human beings
24:37 always ready for anything. But really what was happening that created this ecosystem was
24:45 the deeper stuff of life. And so as I was on this elk hunting, archery elk hunting journey,
24:51 my wife and I were on this ultra marathon running journey. But the big catalyst for
24:59 mountain tough was this conflict that I think many, many listeners are probably facing right
25:05 now and have faced in their life is I think I would found myself doing what the world and
25:13 society and culture was telling me to do. Because I got a business degree because I wasn't
25:19 really sure what I wanted to major in. And then, you know, all of your friends and family
25:25 and society are telling you, you know, just get a college degree. Because it was business,
25:30 then I landed in a corporate job, corporate America job. It was it was phenomenal on paper.
25:37 So really high paying job and Bozeman at the time. But I was stuck eight hours a day on
25:44 conference calls in an office in a cubicle. And so what I found myself in is I did what
25:51 the world was telling me to do. I did what my family and friends were telling me to do.
25:56 And it was those society pressures around materialism that led me to everything that
26:03 I thought I desired, figuring out that it really wasn't what I desired at all. And you
26:10 and I were able to chat yesterday about John Eldridge and wild at heart. And I at that
26:16 moment in my life, I was really in the in the wild at heart crisis. And so a lot of mountain
26:22 tough foundation is all based on the wild at heart principles. But at that moment of my
26:28 life, like the wild at heart book was living out in my life story, because a man needs,
26:35 you know, a battle to fight a beauty to rescue an adventure to live. And for me with my wiring
26:42 of spending my whole first 28 years of my life outdoors, physically active, you're getting
26:50 a lot of vitamin D, you're getting a lot of adventure, you're getting a lot of adrenaline
26:54 from, you know, hunting trips, hiking in the mountains. And I walked away from all that
27:01 gifting and talents. Following what the world was telling me to do. Now I'm stuck in an
27:06 office, even though they're paying me a tremendous amount of money, I'm extremely unhappy, which
27:12 is a confusing moment. And I think a lot of people find themselves confused in that moment,
27:16 because you're like, wow, like, why am I unhappy? I have everything that everyone aspires to
27:22 have got the degree, you got the job, you got all the stuff, you also got the mortgage,
27:26 you also got the car payment and everything else. Yeah.
27:27 Yeah. So what that led to is I was unhappy in that experience. And my wife was in a very similar
27:36 journey, marketing degree, working at a great marketing agency. We decided to essentially
27:43 quit our jobs and try to pursue what we felt God was calling us to do. We both
27:50 found ourselves in Uganda. So we worked in Uganda together for a couple of years at a
27:56 campus that was saving kids from Joseph Coney's Civil War with the Lord's Resistance Army using
28:03 child soldiers. So all of a sudden, we had to do something where we were walking away from
28:09 now all our friends, family, close colleagues thought we were crazy. And so at first that we
28:17 were doing everything they wanted us to do, we were unhappy. Now we're doing what we feel God is
28:21 calling us to do. And they think we're crazy, but we're more happy than we've ever been before.
28:28 Like obviously it wasn't easy, but now you're living that adventure that you're supposed to live.
28:35 And so we're over there running the campus, 240 kids, you're outside every day, you're doing hard
28:42 physical farming labor. So we're building agricultural businesses so that the kids can learn how to
28:50 make income so that they're not stuck in the orphanage system for life. So we have like a
28:54 tilapia pond. We have a chicken laying egg operation, dairy cow, milk operation. So you're
29:01 outside, you're doing farm work, the beauty to rescue thing. I'm there with my wife. It's 24/7
29:08 adventure. You never know what's going to happen. And so that experience was the light bulb moment
29:16 for me of doing what the world wants you to do versus doing what God wants you to do with your
29:22 your gifts and talents and how he designed you. The funny thing about that story is when
29:27 I went from that crazy high paying corporate America job into that Africa experience. The two
29:34 years I worked in Africa on my household combined income statement to the IRS per year, we were
29:43 making 18,000 bucks a year. So I was more happy and rewarded than ever before off 18,000 bucks a
29:53 year. And so all these pieces started creating mountain tough because I had the outdoor experience,
30:01 I had the elk hunting experience, then we have the fitness experience and especially the fitness
30:07 experience of mission specific training. And then I saw the difference between doing what the world
30:15 wants you to do and what God wants you to do. So we thought we were going to do the Africa thing
30:20 for a long time. We couldn't be happier. We built a little guest house to live in full time at the
30:26 orphanage. And we didn't have any plan B because we assumed we'd be there for the next 10 years. My
30:34 wife got pregnant with my first daughter while we were there. And we were talking last night that
30:40 like I was so naive, we were so young and naive at that point that I was like, no problem. We'll fly
30:46 home to Bozeman. We didn't have a house or anything anymore because we'd sold everything for this
30:50 Africa journey. We'll stay with friends and family for six weeks. And then once the baby's
30:57 about six weeks old, we'll fly back over here to Uganda and go back to work. And when my daughter
31:03 came out as a real human, instead of just this idea in my imagination, pretty different, everything
31:09 changed. And so I was like, as like a protector and provider, just with the, you know, the security
31:17 threats and you got into the health threats, the sicknesses, the illnesses, the travel, there's like
31:23 no way I'm taking this like beautiful baby daughter over there right now. And it was a backwards burn
31:29 the ships moment because we didn't have any other jobs lined up. We didn't have any other housing
31:35 lined up. But I'd been brewing of this mountain tough idea for years because I saw, I saw what can
31:42 start happening to people when you train them mentally, physically, spiritually and nutritionally.
31:51 And so being stuck at home with nowhere to live, no job with this newborn baby, it was, it was like,
31:59 Hey, walk right back into corporate America, because then you can provide for this child and your wife.
32:04 Or it was like, Hey, you just kind of, you just kind of trained yourself to live off $18,000 a year
32:10 for the last two years. You know that it's possible. Now's the time to start something from nothing.
32:17 And so especially I did not want to go back to what the world was telling me to do. I knew it was
32:23 time to start something from nothing. And so we launched mountain tough about as bootstrapped as
32:29 you could get. I had a buddy design the logo. So the original mountain tough logo that you see
32:36 here today. And we, I hung it at our local bow shop. And it was like you tear off the bottom of the
32:43 poster poster. It's usually firewood or puppies. Yeah. So it's like mountain tough looking to train
32:51 back country hunters. And you just tore off my phone number off the bottom on those little slits.
32:56 And three guys called me. And I started training them behind my house in the park,
33:02 because I had no equipment, no gym. So we're doing lunges on the soccer field. And we're doing
33:07 pullups on the monkey bars. And then fast forward now, nine years, this is nine years from those
33:14 park days. And we're a global app with like the most amazing community in the world. And
33:21 all of that can be connected to two things. It's connected to doing what God wants you to do,
33:30 not what man wants you to do. And then the second thing is our success is definitely rooted in
33:38 training people mentally, physically, spiritually, and nutritionally. And I always define it as like
33:44 if you have a bar stool, your classic bar stool is going to have four legs. And then it's got the
33:49 seat on top. All four of those legs have to be equally strong for that bar stool to hold the
33:57 weight of a 250 pound man. You can't have one leg strong and three legs weak or two legs strong
34:03 and two legs weak. And that's how I think that it works is our legs are that mental leg,
34:11 that physical leg, that spiritual leg, and that nutritional leg. And many people have seen this,
34:16 where if you're extremely strong spiritually, but you're really weak mentally, oh yeah,
34:24 physically and nutritionally, and you put a 250 pound man on that bar stool and only one leg is
34:31 strong. It's that spiritual leg that bar stool is coming down. And so that's the guy that is just
34:37 buried into into scripture. He's buried into church, but he's not taking care of his body as a temple.
34:44 And so he's completely out of shape, even though he's very spiritually somewhat strong.
34:49 The same thing happens on all ends of that spectrum where you have the guy
34:53 that's spending way too much time in the gym. That's right. Physically, he's an absolute savage,
34:59 but he's super weak mentally. He's super weak nutritionally. And then he's super weak spiritually. So
35:05 mountain tough success is because of that four-legged bar stool analogy. We believe that humans
35:16 need to improve every day across those four categories, and you can't just focus on one.
35:22 And so that's what started creating the ecosystem is when you get in the mountain tough app,
35:27 you're certainly going to see a program for everyone regardless of fitness level.
35:31 The programs are building that always ready human. And so it's not going to be a body building
35:39 program. It's not going to be a weight loss program. We want someone who can protect their
35:45 wife if an intruder comes into the house tonight. We want someone who knows how to handle a 14 car
35:51 pile up on the interstate on the way home from work tonight. Do you have the strength to get
35:56 your family out of the car? And do you have the mental toughness to stay calm in that situation?
36:02 And so we're always looking like, how can we build an always ready human training them across
36:07 those four pillars? And so that's where the ecosystem you see now it all came from that.
36:13 I appreciate you getting into all that detail because for me, the other thing that attracted
36:17 me to what you guys are doing and me just kind of wanted to be, I kept raising my hand like, hey,
36:21 Dustin, I want to be a part of this. Like let me let me see what we can do is what y'all are doing
36:26 specifically because you're a Christian. The people here are Christians. This is an outwardly
36:32 Christian company and you don't see that connected with fitness apps or with nutrition programs or
36:36 stuff like that. You don't really see that kind of stuff, certainly not in the package that it's in.
36:41 But even as you were describing that guy that's really spiritually adept, right? So he reads the
36:44 scripture, you know, some theological words and he can kind of, you know, spend some dispersion quotes
36:48 or different things like that. But that scenario of car accident, 14 car pile up and he's not physically
36:55 capable, perhaps even of getting himself out of a vehicle that's upside down because he just
37:00 doesn't move his body ever. But wife and kids, there's no chance, right? And so the dad who's
37:07 supposed to be always ready to provide for and protect his family is completely incapable.
37:12 But we live in this society right now where everybody assumes that the problem can be taken
37:17 care of by somebody else, right? So I don't need to take care of my body and I don't need to be
37:22 fit because I'll just take Ozempic. Or hey, I don't really need to, you know, square myself away
37:27 here because I'll just take whatever pill, whatever the next pill is that's going to help me. But
37:31 the other thing is like about the being ready part is everyone always defaults to hey, if something
37:35 goes wrong, I'll just call the police. I was like, okay, so let's extrapolate that out just a little
37:39 bit. Okay, so you're outsourcing your violence to the government. Okay, now if you live in Edmond
37:46 Oklahoma or Bozeman, Montana, the government is probably for you. And so you call the police
37:51 call the fire department, they're going to be on their way. But what do you think about the
37:54 Christians in Syria right now? Or people like what you experience in Uganda? So you're going to
37:59 outsource your violence to the government because that's essentially what you're doing. And intruder
38:03 comes into your home. You are not capable of violence. You don't want to do violence for whatever
38:07 reason. And so you call the police, so they'll do it for you. Right. So a government agent in the
38:12 average response times like seven minutes for 911 here in the United States of America. And if you
38:17 live in a bigger city, it's even longer if they even answer, right? Hear about people that just stay
38:21 on hold with 911 while they have a family member like bleeding out or while someone's in the house
38:26 with a knife or a gun. And you just ask these people like, so is that is that the optimal plan?
38:31 So when when a threat is seconds away, but help is minutes away, you think two thumbs up. This
38:37 is a good plan. But most people doesn't like their entire life is eyes closed, ears closed.
38:43 This is never going to happen to me. Like, that's why I tell people to train jujitsu all the time.
38:47 So I tell people can still carry and also shoot, right? You can't just cancel carry and not shoot.
38:51 But it's like, what's the plan? Someone has put hands on you or hands on your spouse.
38:57 And people just assume, Oh, well, I'm just going to see red bodies are going to start to drop.
39:00 And it's like, yeah, you'll see red and then you'll see nothing because your body is going to be the
39:03 one that drops. Because if that person gets the jump on you and you're not prepared to even the
39:08 score or, you know, bend it in your favor, like I just don't really understand. And you and I are
39:12 very, very similar in terms of our mindsets. But like, like we talked about on my interview that
39:17 I did on your show that's coming out out there around the same time as this, you can't make somebody
39:22 want it. You can give them the opportunities. You can say here is something if you want to be
39:27 ready. Here's something that I provided for you. Here's this fitness app. Here's this, you know,
39:33 program. Here's this podcast. Here's this, whatever. But the most frustrating thing,
39:37 I think for guys like you and me and the people that work here is the person that you just can't
39:41 convince that they're just, they've never been able to hear an argument, good enough for why they
39:46 shouldn't be a slob. Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a huge topic and it is mind blowing at
39:53 times when you see that, that, that someone isn't starting to take steps forward, you know,
39:59 mentally, physically, spiritually, nutritionally, even though they, they know that they need to,
40:05 and they, they have plenty of information that they need to. So there's, there's not any more
40:09 articles that that they need to read. Yeah, there's no studies. You can show them.
40:13 Yeah. But I think that, I think that we did get close to the root of it yesterday. I think there,
40:20 there is a game changer if you can start getting people to settle in that identity world. And
40:27 the identity doesn't, you know, doesn't fix everything for getting someone disciplined in their life
40:34 journey of making improvements, but it is close to probably the biggest needle mover that I've ever
40:40 seen. And I think if people can really settle in to that identity work, they can start to see
40:48 some life changes. I think especially as a Christian, when you start understanding that life is so
40:59 short, we're here just for like that tiny little glimmer of time, like the, you know,
41:04 the Bible talks about it as man is like due on the grass in the morning and gone in the afternoon.
41:12 That is, that is like our lifetime in the big picture of the kingdom. And so do on the grass
41:19 this morning, gone in the afternoon is going to be the 50, 60, 70 years we have the opportunity
41:25 to be here on this earth. And so it is so short and so precious. And there are works that God
41:33 set out before us that he, that he plans for us to do good works set out before us. And so
41:39 we're here for a really short amount of time. And there's really important things that were put on
41:45 this earth to do in, you know, such such as time is this. And so starting to like connect that to
41:51 your identity, if you're, if you're out of shape and you're just watching Netflix all day and you're
41:57 sitting in a job that you hate, then you're wasting this precious time that you have here on this
42:04 planet. And it has generational impacts. And so the generational impacts that your kids are going
42:11 to face and your kids, kids are going to face because you didn't take advantage of the time that the
42:17 limited amount of time that you have here, people starting to settle into that identity. I think we
42:24 can start seeing some changes, even though we can't make people do what we want them to do.
42:30 If we can at least start shifting that identity, because in the more like specific examples of
42:38 that, I've seen that work where if someone's, if someone's having a difficult time hitting their
42:44 fitness journey, the things that I have seen work are, well, you know, you love back country hunting.
42:51 I know that you love it. Do you want to be able to go on these elk hunts with your boy when he's 14?
42:58 Yes, I do. Well, you're not going to be able to do that on the fitness track. You're currently
43:02 tracking. You're like, you won't even be close. Well, let's work on that identity. Start identifying
43:07 yourself as a mountain hunter and that mountain hunting identity means that you're going to pass
43:13 down this mountain hunting lifestyle to your kids and hopefully your grandkids. Hopefully,
43:18 you can take your grandkid hunting when he's 12 and it's his first year. Like, do you want to be
43:23 on that trip? Do you want to be able to hike in those mountains? Most people do. They want that
43:28 identity. And if they can start filtering their life decisions through that identity,
43:33 we can start seeing some changes. And so let's, let's, you know, pull on that threat a little bit
43:37 more. So the identity always ready. That's y'all's thing or stay dangerous with us. It's, you know,
43:44 pushback darkness, those types of things. This is always what I put to guys. It's about as effective
43:49 as you would think. Because again, you know, guys can't be moved. They have to move themselves,
43:52 right? But I'll say like, let's say it's great because, you know, you actually did this type of
43:57 work in Africa. Let's say God's calling on your life, at least for right now, the new direction
44:03 he's giving you is towards helping, you know, so helping a group in orphanage or whatever in Africa.
44:09 Okay. And so where you station every morning, you know, you get in your highlucks or whatever and
44:15 you take all your materials and you drive down the road a couple of miles and you get to the village
44:18 and then you start digging the water well or building the orphanage or blah, blah, doing all that kind
44:21 of stuff. Okay. So God's called you to do this, right? So you're over there. Not only are you on the
44:26 front lines of ministry now. So the spiritual attacks that you're going to be under are going to be
44:30 substantial. But let's say the highlucks don't work. Let's say they're broken down. Do you just not
44:37 work today? Do you just not protect the kids today? Or do you start putting some materials on your
44:41 back and start walking your way to the job site, right? And I use that as an example, because if
44:47 you're just a tub of a human being that couldn't walk two miles without any weight on your back,
44:53 it's like you have not done your part to do what God is calling you to do, right? So your part is
45:00 you have to be on in our parlance is spiritually, mentally and physically resilient, right? Because
45:06 you can't do the work that God has for you if you are only crushing it in one of those areas. So
45:10 right, you got the Jimbo guy, right? So we can deadlift the whole planet and gosh, he's throwing
45:14 extra weight on his back to walk those two miles, but he's a mental midget, right? He can't. He hasn't
45:19 read a book since high school. Like he doesn't know where Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are located
45:23 if you gave him the Bible and the whole afternoon to find it, right? And it's like, again, it's that
45:28 stool. I love the stool thing. So for us, I guess it's a three legged stool, which is even worse,
45:32 because if one of those legs is bad, you're toppling over and everybody gets to laugh. Yeah, but like,
45:36 again, for guys listening to this, like if you're waiting for that sign that you need to fix it,
45:43 whatever it is, like this is it, like this is that sign because you can't be prepared when the
45:48 moment has arrived to you if you haven't prepared for that moment, right? Because you will fall to
45:54 the level of your training, you will fall to the level of your preparedness, you will fall to the
45:57 level of what you're able to do. And then the super spiritual people will be like, well,
46:01 you know, we just got let go and let God, it's like, you don't get that from the Bible. You just
46:06 don't and you want to know why? Because the people in the Bible that were relying on God, God still
46:11 needed them to do their part. Again, I'm not saying God is limited. Like he can't, you know,
46:15 move the chess pieces however he wants. He's obviously omniscient, omnipresent and he has
46:19 sovereignty over all these things. But he's, he's working through you. You are the conduit
46:26 through which the triune God can get his will done. And that's asking your server if you can
46:33 pray for them, which might lead to a gospel conversation. That's taking care of the one
46:38 temple that God gave you to steward well. That's providing a household and income and protection
46:44 for your children. It's loving your wife is Christ love the church is raising up your children and
46:48 the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It's all that stuff. But again, guys just kind of get lost
46:52 in the minutia of what it would seem like and what it would be like if they were to do it. They do
46:56 all this research about getting in shape. They do all this research about what it would be like
46:59 if they were spiritually adept, but they don't spend any time pounding the payment and they certainly
47:02 don't spend any time reading the Bible. And so it's just like, guys, like this is your big blinking
47:08 neon sign. Like it's time to fix it. Yeah. Yeah, you said something yesterday that definitely caught
47:13 my attention around like just having a bias for action. And I've seen that come into effect so
47:20 many times for for a long time. It was I saw a lot of guys that had read every single field and stream
47:27 article on backcountry hunts. They'd watched every single YouTube on backcountry hunts. But they'd
47:33 never been out in the backcountry. It was like they needed to watch one more video before they went.
47:39 They needed one more article getting ready to get ready. And they would even come up to you. They'd
47:43 be like, Hey, have you seen that latest YouTube on so and so elk hunt? And I was like, no, I haven't
47:48 watched a hunting film really in like 20 years. And they've seen every single one read every
47:55 single article, but they won't take that step and go. And so from the hunting analogy, I'm always like,
48:00 just pack your bag and go on a trip. Like the things that I know about hunting like everything
48:08 in life, it took at least 10 years to be like proficient at this stuff. So it took 10 years of
48:15 learn fail, learn fail, learn fail, learn fail before you can even call yourself somewhat decent.
48:22 It's the 10 year principle that's going to apply to if you try a guitar, if you tried your jitsu,
48:27 anything that you try, think about that 10 year rule. And so that is the same thing with fitness,
48:35 mental toughness, and your spiritual walk is like, yeah, quit thinking about getting ready and just
48:42 start taking some action. Do any sort of fitness? Like, I think we talk a lot about
48:49 sitting people down in, I think the, you know, the biggest hack once they start, we just talked
48:55 about like, you got to think about your identity. Hopefully that makes you want to start. I think
49:00 the biggest hack to fitness and starting and the connection to mental toughness is just do
49:07 some sort of training every single day. Yeah, take some ground. Yeah. And so I always would
49:11 love people to pick mountain tough as their option. But if they don't pick mountain tough as their
49:16 option, just do something every day. Like if you're swimming every day, if you're
49:22 riding a spinning bike every day, if you're doing some sort of training every single day,
49:27 you're so far ahead of the general population. And then, you know, the physical fitness is what
49:33 starts building that mental toughness. And so I, I do believe mental toughness trumps physical
49:39 fitness. And so mental toughness at the hardest moments of your life is going to trump your
49:46 physical fitness, like on a mountain or like in a financial crisis, mental toughness will trump
49:52 your physical toughness. But the nice thing about physical training is you're building some
49:58 mental resilience every single day. And that's what's going to really help you in those big adversity
50:04 situations that are coming. They're coming for all of us. Like we're all going to get hit with
50:10 some major adversity and how you react in that adversity and how you get back up is the real
50:17 game changer. And how is anyone going to react well if they've done no adversity training at all?
50:24 So the one of the huge benefits of physical is obviously like you're getting in shape,
50:30 you're feeling good, you're getting in great shape for whatever your sport or your activity is.
50:35 But every time you do, every time you make yourself work out and do a challenging workout,
50:40 you're just kind of adding some, that's right, some cubes on that mental toughness.
50:45 What I, what I tell guys is I try to use words that are kind of sticky or phrases are sticky.
50:49 It's like, I've seen me do that before. So what does that mean? So you wake up,
50:52 it's cold outside, but it's warm in your bed. You hit snooze. Well, you've seen you do that
50:59 before. And so the next day and the next day or a month from now, you've seen you do that before.
51:04 So how easy is it to just repeat that behavior? Yeah, boop. And then you just go back to sleep and
51:08 you don't end up working out that day. But if your alarm goes off and you peel yourself out of your
51:14 bed and you put on your shoes and you go to your home gym or you drive to the normal gym or do
51:18 whatever it is that you do, you've seen you do that before too. And the same thing is true,
51:22 because I lift alone, right? I lift in my garage gym. I run sprints alone. Like everything I do is
51:26 basically alone, like working out with you and your team. Like I never get to do something like
51:29 that. So it was a ton of fun for me. But like I run these sprints and I have a pretty hard
51:33 sprint workout that I do. But the last sprint I do, because I run like 10 hundreds as my workout
51:37 with only 30 seconds resting between, I do a final sprint, but it's, it's more like 300 yards,
51:42 probably because I like go down and around a Colesack and then I run past my normal ending spot and
51:46 all that type of stuff. I could very easily just run another hundred, right? But I would have seen
51:52 me do that before where Hey, but you ran 10 100s. That's crazy Kyle. Yeah, but man, I skipped out
51:58 on the very end because I'm normally doing the sprint workout after squatting or deadlifting or
52:03 working out for an hour, hour and a half. And then I do the sprint workout. But every time I finish,
52:08 I've seen me do that, right? And so I can, if I ever am feeling like, you know, in my feels that
52:14 day and I'm not really feeling that great. I'm a little bit under recovered or something like that.
52:18 I've seen me overcome that feeling over and over and over again. And so that's just me doing it,
52:24 you know, by myself, because I'm a lunatic, but that is something that you and your company do. But
52:27 we got to get out of here. We got to get to the airport. But as I end every show, even though I'm
52:31 in your captain's share, because I'm the captain now, is there anything else you want to get off your
52:34 chest? I just, I think you're spot on with that. You know, I think all the guys we admire,
52:40 all the guys we aspire to be like the guys that we that we really respect. I would assume 99% of the
52:48 time they're one more rep guys. And so that's what you're doing with those sprints. And that is
52:54 who we all want to be. And it is a really big game changer. And so like the same sprint analogy
53:01 that you just use, how you're doing your sprints, like you, you could finish that last one or
53:07 just like on your bench press, if if your program or your coach is calling for 10 reps,
53:13 the one, the one more rep guys will do 11. Yeah. And if they're asking for eight dead lifts,
53:19 they'll do nine. And they're just building that mentality. Like I can always do one more,
53:24 because the guys that are going one less, then it becomes one less in everything they do.
53:31 Right. So if you cut that last sprint, you only run nine instead of 10, because no one's watching,
53:37 then you're going to do that in your professional life. You're going to do that in your family life.
53:41 And so these guys that we all look up to 99% of the time, they're one more rep guys. And what
53:49 that starts to do is it does start to turn ceilings into floors. And so the ceilings to floors story
53:57 is so spot on for my life. What happens is if if you're listening right now and you're like a half
54:04 marathon, for sure is my ceiling, there's no way with where I'm at right now in life, I could run
54:10 a half marathon. If we train you, you know, to start running around your block, that's one mile,
54:17 now we're going to train you from your block to five miles. Now we're going to get you ready for
54:20 your half marathon, which used to be your ceiling. You train and you run that half marathon
54:27 that ceiling that used to almost look impossible. Now is your floor. Yeah.
54:32 Now all of a sudden you're like, dude, I just ran a half marathon. I wonder what a full marathon
54:38 feels like. That's right. Now you're just ceilings to floors ceilings to floors ceilings to floor.
54:42 And that's how this journey works. And it all starts with that, that bias for action.
54:47 Absolutely, man. Well, thanks for having me out. Utah is a beautiful state, even though I've
54:51 been in Montana this entire time, but can't wait to do it again. Thanks, brother.
54:55 There you go, guys. I hope you enjoyed my time with Dustin Defenderfer. But before I let you go,
54:59 we are going to do a quick resilience boost. Adam Donson life remission is equipping men to push
55:02 back darkness with content that forges spiritual mental and physical resilience. So again,
55:06 the mountain tough app guys, try it out for six weeks. Go to MTN tough. That's mountain tough,
55:11 MTN tough.com use the promo code Kyle, right? All that's there in the show notes. If you can't
55:17 remember that use the promo code Kyle when you sign up for your monthly plan. It takes your 14
55:21 day free trial and it adds another month on top of that. So you get six weeks to try out
55:26 literally the best fitness app that I've ever seen in my entire life. Guys, you know, I'm not
55:30 just pulling your leg whenever I find stuff that's awesome. I share it with you. Okay,
55:34 I don't try to keep it a secret. And this is fantastic. So go there, check it out.
55:51 Life follows on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else,
55:55 including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way. Just go to www dot
55:59 undaunted. Life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us to use their
56:03 music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua, which is off their self-titled
56:08 debut album on face down records. The links are in the description. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
56:13 Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual mental and physical resilience.
56:20 Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
56:50 You focus on your physical and mental health, but when's the last time you checked in on your
56:59 financial health? Many Americans feel financially anxious, yet many are doing better than they think.
57:05 At Fairwind's Credit Union, we give you a clear snapshot of your finances and a plan to move
57:10 forward with confidence. With high yield savings and free checking, we help your money work harder.
57:16 Visit fairwinds.org for more information federally insured by NCUA.
57:22 Struggling with weight loss? Prolon's five-day fasting mimicking diet is a clinically developed
57:27 nutrition program designed to promote fat loss while protecting lean body mass. Developed at USC's
57:33 Longevity Institute, it assists the body in entering a fasting like state that helps reset metabolism
57:38 and target visceral fat. In just five days, Prolon offers a science-backed approach to weight loss
57:43 without extreme restriction or guesswork. Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at
57:49 prolonlife.com/now.
Key quotes
2
Kyle Thompson
You can't be prepared when the moment has arrived to you if you haven't prepared for that moment.
Dustin Defenderfer
The guys that we all look up to 99% of the time, they're one more rep guys.
Free Resource
31-Day Resilience Reset
If this episode hit, the next 31 days will be the reset. Free PDF, instant download.
START FREE →
Brotherhood
Apply to Dominion
Six pillars. Application only. The men's program Kyle built around the show.
APPLY NOW →
Dig Deeper
Ask the Archive
"Which episodes cover this topic?" Get answers grounded in all 940+ episodes.
START A CHAT →