Transcript of 934. #75HARD vs Lexi Johnson

What is up, guys? It's Andy Purcell, and this is The Show for the Realists. Say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness, and delusions of modern society, and welcome to motherfucking Reality. Guys, today, as promised, we have We have 75 hard verses. But before we get into that, I want to give you guys a rundown on how the show works, all right? Normally, on Mondays, we have Q&A. That's where you submit the questions and We give you the answers. To submit your questions a couple of different ways, you can email them in to... What's the email address? Askandy@andyforcello. Com, or you can go to YouTube, click the link underneath the videos of Q&A. F, and write in to be on the show live with us. Other times, we're going to have CTI. Cti stands for Cruise the Internet. That's where we put topics on the screen. We speculate on what's going on in the world. It's our social, comedy, politics, current event show. Then we have Real Talk. Real Talk is 5 to 20 minutes of me giving you some real talk. Then we have 75 Hard Verses, which is what we're going to get into in just a minute.

If you're unfamiliar with 75 Hard, just keep listening because you're going to find all out all about it. It is available for free at episode 208. It is the world's most popular mental transformation program ever, and it's free. There's also a book at andyfercela. Com. You don't have to buy it, but it is very popular. It covers the entire Live Hard program, plus a ton of information on mental toughness, why it's important, how to cultivate it and use it in your life. With all that being said, we do have a fee for the show. The fee for the show is very simple. If it makes you think, if it makes you laugh, it gives you a new perspective. If it helps you learn some new shit, do us a favor and don't be a hoe and share the show. Did you want to do that part? Did you want to do it there? Yeah? All right, cool. Dj is still on leave, I guess. Paternity leave. I can't even say that with a straight face. But we do have 75 Hard Verses today with a very special guest, my great friend, Lexie Johnson. What is going on?

I'm excited to be here. You have a beautiful facility.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. You He's been here once or twice.

First time in the studio, though, for real.

Oh, really?

I mean, since the new digs, I think the first time I ever saw it, you just had the logo.

I think we're getting ready to redo it again, aren't we? Aren't we making it way bigger? Yeah, we're expanding. So business is good. You need it.

Good. Yeah.

So what's going on, dude?

I'm excited to be here. We're going to talk 75 Hard. I was talking to him on my way up to the podcast room, and I finished 75 Hard the sixth time this year. Yeah. I started 2020, and when a friend approached me about it, it was funny because I was in decent shape. I had good habits, and I was like, I don't need to do that. And I took it and I started like, schemeing. I'm like, I'll do a It's a point system. I'll do some of the things. That was when I started to look at myself and I'm like, If you're compromising on what your standards are and hand-selecting what you think you should do out of this, if you're doing that, you're going to pick the shit that you want to do, the stuff that comes easy. I like working out. So I'm like, Yeah, I'll do that. I didn't want to follow a diet. I didn't want to read a self-help book because in my mind, I'm like, Self-development? Losers need self-help books. Yeah, it's corny. You only get them if you're in the trenches. And I'm like, I'm doing all right.

I didn't think I needed it. And when I had that come to Jesus moment, I'm like, All right, we're in. I did it the first time in 2020, started it right before COVID hit. My life is completely different than it was five and a half years ago. Well, talk about that. Largely, doing 75 hard. Yeah, so at that point, I'm trying to think, in 2020, I was a dental hygienist, and right before that, I was actually a substitute teacher, and I don't talk about that. What did you teach? Anything. I didn't even know that. No, I graduated with a degree. Essentially, you needed to get another degree. It's health science, so you need to go... Unless you want to sell medical sales, and I wasn't about that. I just wanted to be able to contribute to the house. I just felt like a burden. I substitute taught for a little bit while I was trying to figure that out, went back to dental hygiene school. I remember I just had no fulfillment. I would come home from substitute teaching or dental hygiene school or my dental hygiene job, and I would wait for my husband to come home and just sit.

I It's not fair to him either. My fulfillment shouldn't be coming from someone else. I dove in on 75 hard, and we did it together. Thank God, we grew in the same direction at the same time, and we doubled down on all of our standards. It changed the game because when shit hit the fan with the pandemic and everyone else was spiraling, I felt so in control. It was just such a black and white parallel from the people that had no standards, no routine, no solid habits, that they were just like, there was no consistency in the world, no consistency in their own life. I was doing so well.

Yeah, we saw so many people, I remember that, who during that time just let themselves completely go to shit. I remember seeing people four or five months later after they first started shutting everything down, and dude, they were up like 40, 50 pounds. I was like, What the fuck have you been doing?

Yeah, you're working four steps from your kitchen in your pantry. Yeah. Yeah.

When you started... Let's talk about this, okay? Now, 75 Hard, as you know, is a mental toughness program. A lot of people mistake it for a, quote, unquote, transformation, physical transformation or fitness program. When you first started this, what did you expect? Did that change throughout the process? I want to get... If you can remember your first... Now you do it, you've done it six times. But that first time, what was that like?

I had never touched a self-development book. I went to Goodwill because everybody gives away Bible goals and self-help books. So I found a book there. And that was my first really implementation of any self-development, personal development. I became obsessed with the reading portion. That was one of the things that I was dreading so much. I love that. I am such an ambitious person now, but I don't think I would describe myself as that way. I feel like those that describe it as that physical transformation, it is such a recalibration of your habits and your standards and your priorities and your time management. You just happen to see physical benefits as well. That's just a cherry on top. At the end of it, you do see that progress, but more than anything, and it's so consistent, if you look at the 75 Hard hashtag, you read all the comments, almost always people are like, I wish that I could show physically. I wish that you could visually see how much transformation has happened under the surface. Because I feel like at that point, like I said, I had no fulfillment. I didn't really have a drive.

I knew that I was capable of more, but I didn't have any direction. Doing that and proving to myself that I can do that amidst chaos in the world and non-normal circumstances, it gave me the belief and the confidence in myself It was tough that I could start my business. I started my business right after 75 Hard. Took so many-The first time? Yeah. So 2020, I think I finished 75 Hard probably in March or April, and I started my business in May. It was scary as hell. But you can reflect on those 75 days of being also scared and also wanting to compromise. You're like, You just keep moving forward. I survived that. I lived to tell the tale, and I can do this. You can just figure it out along the way.

Yeah, dude, I remember. I I think for a lot of people who go down the journey of 75 hard and live hard, it is the first time is exceptionally special because a lot of the limitations that you think you have become eliminated. Like, I don't have the time. No, you learn right away that you do have the time. In fact, you learn exactly how much time you've been wasting. A lot of people will talk about how they feel like they have extra time because they're so productive and so on top of their shit. Other things like, for example, most people have never gone more than three or four days on a fucking diet without cheating. You know what I mean? That sounds crazy. You're going to go 75 days without it. A lot of people will say, Oh, that's not healthy. That's extreme. That's this. Dude, what's not healthy is eating the shit that you're eating every three days and giving up on yourself on all your goals every three or four days throughout the course of your entire life. The confidence that comes from completing that program the first time, not that it gets any easier the second time, but for some reason that first time, fuck, I just got a lot out of it, dude.

Yeah, it is like an awakening. It's Pandora's box because once you do it, if you do it with integrity and you do it the right way, and you can tell when you do and you don't, there's no going back. No. Those that push back on, damn, 75 days of regimen don't have the long-term vision of… You You can spend decades and decades at a higher quality of life if you just dedicate the next 75 days to actually opening your horizons to what you're capable of. Because once you do it with integrity, I remember being scared on day I'm like, What do I do tomorrow? I don't want to go back to where I was 75 days ago.

That is how people should feel. That's really how you could tell if someone did it. Because, dude, there's two groups of people, right? There's the people that get to 75 days and they're like, Fuck, dude, I want to keep going because I'm doing so well. I feel so good. I'm getting so many positives out of this program. If you're doing it right, that's how you're going to feel. Then you have the second group. The second group is they do the same thing they've always done. They half-ass the program, they get to the end, they want to clap and cheer like they accomplish something, and then they celebrate with all of the shit that was controlling their lives before they ever started on the program. They celebrate by taking a day off or three days off. They eat a cake, or they celebrate, have a party, or they go right back to alcohol. These things are the things that cost you everything, that put you in a position to even feel like you needed to do this program, and then you're going to go right back to them on day 76. That doesn't make any sense.

Why would you give yourself and reward yourself with the things that have been causing you the most pain after you just did all this work? People who have done the work, they recognize that. They recognize that very clearly. Like, Fuck, dude, I've been able to eliminate most of these things from my life, and I feel so much better. I look better. I'm doing better. Someone who's in that situation is not going to jump right back into this old shit. You're just not going to do it.

That's the differentiator between those that call it a challenge and those that treat it like a program, because if you're treating it with a deadline in mind and you're like, All right, I just got to get through these 75 days, and then we'll go back. That is the reason that you keep going back to where you were. That's the reason that that yo-yo cycle continues. As a coach and a trainer, there are those two distinct groups, the ones that do it with integrity and the ones that just want to say they did it. I have... Anytime someone comes to me and they're like, I failed, I'm going to start tomorrow. I'm like, I have an immense amount of respect for you for saying that because you owned your shit. You're going to start it again tomorrow rather than the ones that are like, Well, I mean, it was just a picture. It was just... I read eight pages and I fell asleep. When you compromise on one standard, just the cracks start to form everywhere. It's not just your personal development. Then you start, it's in your relationships, it's in your professional life. If you consistently make those compromises with yourself, it's in every realm of your life.

It's just a matter of time before you find yourself back where you were. How many times do we see this with people in life, but especially in fitness? You see it a lot in business, too. They put in this exceptional amount of effort. They lose weight. They might lose 50, 60, 70, 80, 100 pounds. They look amazing. Then they think that they're just there. Then we see them six months later or a year later, and they are back to where they were or past where they were even worse off than when they started the first time. I think that comes from people's misunderstanding of the fact that your body doesn't just acclimate to this new shape and this new amount of calories and these new amount of protein and training and change. Then you get to go back to your old habits and keep those. I think that's very confusing for people. I think a lot of people have trouble leaving their old life because they feel like, well, fuck, dude, if I'm eating healthy and I'm training and I'm not drinking, what am I going to do? Because they built their identity so much in the social culture that they feel like they're going to be completely bored or abandoned or they can't picture their life outside of that.

I think when people really... I know this, I don't think it, but I just saw this yesterday. This guy posted how he's been sober for three years straight because of 75 hard. So awesome. Yeah, dude. Your life is immensely improved. Just because you can't see it outside of the alcohol and the food and the culture that you've built, you have to trust that you're going to be in a better spot. I think that fear of moving away from everybody else really hurt. It's like a tractor beam, dude. It sucks people back in whenever they just get on the outside of it. I think the one thing that's really good about Live Hard and 75 Hard is that the time frame is long enough to where you actually get used to being away from the bad influences.

Yeah. I think a huge part is that abandonment piece where you only know what you know, and you only know the life that you've lived. Typically, if you're contemplating starting something like this, or you're contemplating a life change, you need it. There's a reason for it. People say, I can't say motivated, but if you're unhappy enough with where you are, that is the motivation. That's where you get. But you're surrounded by people that are just feeding those horrible habits, and that's their life. You're worried about your friends judging you because you're not drinking, or you have to get an outdoor workout, or you have to manage your time better. You don't have the awareness that within those 75 days and moving beyond, it sucks to lose friends and to have those hard conversations and realize that the people that you thought were in your corner weren't really in your corner. But on the other side of it, there are going to be people that support you and that support that growth and are pouring back into you and building you up as you go. I think it's just that piece where it sucks that people have just shitty surroundings, shitty environment, shitty people around them where they're not supporting it, but you have to have the awareness that on any The other side of it, life is about to get so much better.

The people you're surrounding yourself with are going to level you up. You're going to level up by their environment. It's just one of those things where it's fear out of the unknown. Right.

Yeah, dude. I also It's interesting, too, after doing this, running this program for six years, which is people say, Oh, it's a fad. Well, it keeps getting bigger, and it's six years old.

Fads usually last about a decade.

Yeah, that sounds like a fad to me. But I think one of the most beneficial things that I've seen out of this time is the The transformation in how people view certain character qualities that other people have. When I was growing up, I always struggled with my weight. I always had a hard time sticking to the diet. My training, I always like to train, but I didn't like to eat right. I would look at people who were disciplined with their food, and I would always like, it was confusing to me. I would be like, How can this person go to a baseball game with all of us who are drinking, and then they go somehow find healthy food to eat, and they have a good time, and they hang out. How does this person have all this discipline? I wish I was born with that amount of discipline. I think that's how most people see these things. They see these things like grit, determination, perseverance, discipline, confidence, especially as something that people people are born with that they just didn't get the lucky ticket to receive at birth. I know for me, I viewed it that way for most of my life.

It wasn't until I figured out that these things are actually built skill sets and not born with traits that really opened my eyes to my own ability to become what it is I wanted to become. I think over the next The last six years, the most important thing that has happened because of 75 Hard and live hard is that it has squashed this mentality amongst a large group of people that all of these things are magical, that all of these things are born traits or God-given traits. When in reality, dude, the reason that I didn't have discipline to eat the food was because I didn't practice discipline. The reason I wasn't confident was because I never kept my word to myself. I never followed hold through on anything. If you had a fucking friend who told you they were going to do something over and over and over and over and over is going to be gone. You're not going to have any. That's the situation that most people find themselves in. With that comes low self-esteem, low worth, low belief, and then eventually, acceptance that, you know what? I just didn't get the best card in life.

It's interesting how we grow up because no one ever fucking taught me that. No one ever said, Hey, these are things you can develop, not things that you just happen to be born with. In fact, I feel like most people believe these things are truly traits that people are born with. I think that's the thing that we've done a good job over the last six, seven years of really opening people's eyes to because now it's a conversation. When 75 Hard first started, bro, nobody was talking about fucking discipline. Nobody. Now, all of these talking heads, everybody out here is talking about, You don't need motivation, you need discipline. Nobody was saying that shit. Now, everybody's talking about it. It's the truth. We don't have companies out here telling people like, Hey, you could take this product, and it'll just help you lose 100 pounds without any effort. I think the overall compounding effect of this program has been very positive, whether people have finished it or not, in regards to at least their awareness of what it takes to become the person that they want to become.

Yeah, it's got the conversation started. Have you ever read Grit by Angela Duckworth? Yeah. That was a '75 hard book. What you were talking about, my biggest takeaway from that book, she talks about naturals versus strivers. She said, Everybody wants to believe in naturals. They want to see naturals. You want to believe that Michael Jordan had that ability from birth, and that was just a lottery ticket. But when you see someone that you grew up with that had the same circumstances, that came from the same environment you did, and then they go on to do something better, it just reflects a lack in you. We don't like strivers. Because it just it-Yeah. Why I like them? Society doesn't like strivers because then it just shines back that lack in yourself.

Yeah, you're not doing shit, bro.

If you got the genetic lottery and Elon Musk was built to do that. They did all these different examples of these incredibly successful people actually came from nothing, and they just kept going.

Well, dude, I think that's way more true than the other lie. Oh, 100%. Dude, most successful people, and I'm sorry to interrupt, but this is an important point to make. Most successful people come from shit, okay? They don't just make up these stories of these hardship situations once they've made it. The narrative in society is anybody who's built success had to have had an easy path. They had to have had smooth sailing. They had an advantage, a circumstance, an inheritance, parents, luck, All these things, right? But when we really talk about the way it is, it's not that way at all. Most of the people who have built tremendous shit come from situations situations that were so fucking hard that most of them don't even talk about it because that's where they learn to fight. That's where they learn to go to battle. That's where they learned all their grit and their drive and their perseverance. They were lucky to have a hard upbringing because it taught those people those skillsets. It's interesting how the social narrative is one way, but then the reality is mostly another way. I'm not talking about people who inherit their life.

I'm talking about people who build it. Yeah, I agree, dude. People get pissed off and they say, Oh, well, fucking that guy had it easier. Bro, the fact that you come from a challenge and you come from hardship is a massive advantage to becoming successful long term if you appreciate it the proper way.

If you're in the trenches and you have those aspirations, wouldn't you want to see those stories and hear those stories of the people that went through to hell and got there? To me, that's belief. If I can do it, I can do it, rather than they were just born with it. But you have to have the self-awareness to be able to look in the mirror and say, This is the hand I'm dealt with. You can either have that story and keep preaching your own limitations Or you can say, I have that, too, but I'm going to do it anyway. Then you get to tell that story, and then you're the person. Yeah.

Well, let's talk more about the first round, and then we'll start moving into what you're doing now and how this has continued to be something that you've gone back to for calibration over and over again. What were the physical results that you had the first time through? Do you remember?

This was 2020. I wanted so bad just to be super, super skinny. The years prior to that, I was always an athlete, and I was always muscular growing up. For whatever reason, I was like, freaked out that I weighed more than my friends because I was super muscular. I'm like, I don't care. I just want to be skinny. I'll I run, force myself to run. I hated running, and I got really skinny. Then I was just depressed, had no fulfillment, and got soft. I went through that, saw incredible transformation. I wasn't in a bad spot by any means, but I started tracking with an advisor in the first warm-up. An in-house advisor. They helped me out. I was under eating protein like crazy. By the end of it, the muscle growth, the definition, I had the body that I wanted so badly.

It didn't weigh what you wanted, though, did it?

No. That's why I have a largely female demographic. I'm like, I weigh like 170 pounds. If you would have told me in high school that I was going to weigh 170 pounds, I would have shit my pants. I'm like, No way. I didn't grow up with anyone in magazines or anyone who I wanted to look like that was open about their weight. I thought that I had to weigh 130. So the fact that I was stepping on the scale heavier than that, I'm like, Okay, it doesn't matter what the mirror looks like. That number needs to validate me. I lost a bunch of weight, got down to 130. I remember stepping on the scale and thinking for so long. I'm like, When that says 130, I'm going to feel so much better. Problems will disappear. And my immediate thought was, it would probably be better if it said 125. That was just a realization. I'm like, It's not going to stop. I have no energy. My quality of life is low because I'm just starving myself. So throughout 75 Hard, and just honestly, the help of... That was my real introduction to macro tracking and learning all of that.

I completely transformed how I fueled my body, just my knowledge in that, which was such a game changer. You wouldn't drive down the highway without your speedometer. You're not going to intuitively eat without measuring what you're doing. You have no awareness.

Especially in the beginning.

Yeah. When you don't know. Yeah, and the way that our food is manufactured. You have brilliant scientists up against you that are wanting you, manufacturing food to keep you coming back. The way that we eat, the odds are stacked against us. If you're not taking an audit and you actually want to make a change, you have to measure that. My progress was crazy. I went from soft just to like, I was chiseled. I was able to maintain that. I'm pretty well for the last six years and just continue to build on those habits over time and just take what I gained each time and get better. It's one of those things you said, the first time is such a transformative process. It's like the first time you ever see the best movie. I wish I could watch Shawshank Redemption again for the first time to experience it again. I wish that I could go back and just have that transformative period and bottle that because it was just such a mental awakening of, holy shit, I am capable of so much more. Yeah. And just opened everything. I wouldn't have started my business if it weren't for 75 hard.

Let's talk about that.

Yeah.

Let's talk about you were a dental hygienist and a substitute teacher. You decided to go through this program, you got done with the program, and you found something else in yourself.

Yeah. Let's talk about that. Leading up, I always think it's important when we talk about my story, and you're talking about you being overweight and you dealing with food and struggling with that, I think about my dad so much. My dad is a huge part of what gave me the confidence to believe that I could help someone or just the push that people out there needed help. My dad was overweight my whole life. He's a firefighter. It's crazy that he works such a manual job and was so overweight. But I remember just being worried for him. He had his first heart attack when he was 36. I was in elementary school, and I just walked into that hospital room and saw the toughest guy I know connected to machines in a hospital gown and realizing that he was breakable. He kept the bad habits. He had a second heart attack when I was in junior high, third heart attack when I was in high school, fourth heart attack when I was a freshman in college. Jesus. Yeah. I'm like, Maybe he is Superman. He survived four heart attacks. What is he doing?

Are they fucking fried chicken every day or what?

Yeah. We had these conversations, and I remember him being like- He's fucking eating straight Crisco, huh? Well, after, spoiler, he lived tell the tale. It's a happy ending. But he would say, I would lay in bed and I'm going to be like, I'm going to start tomorrow. Then I would go through McDonald's Driveway on the way to work, and I would get McDonald's. It's just like, he was like, I'll start again tomorrow, and just never having that capability of actually stopping those actions. But I was in college, and I'm like, Eventually, the other shoe is going to drop. He's going to have the fifth heart attack. Nobody survives five heart attacks. So I wrote a letter just because I didn't have the confidence to come to him and say what I wanted to say. I didn't have the tools to be like, This is the plan that we're going to do, and I will help you. I was just a scared daughter. I didn't want to lose my dad.

Well, it's weird. I mean, it's a hard thing to do. That's a hard... I get it.

Yeah. So I wrote him this letter. I was on Thanksgiving break, I basically just said, I'm like, selfishly, I want you to walk me down the aisle one day. I want to see another World series, and this feels like suicide by lifestyle. I'm like, If this is the lifestyle of someone that is okay with 50 years of life, but that's unacceptable to me. I'm like, We need to make a change. I totally get that eating healthier and exercising sounds unappealing. It would suck, especially just pivoting from the life you live right now. But I'm like, It would suck exponentially worse to walk down the aisle without your dad, and left the note on his night stand. I went back to school, and he called me. It was one of those things where we had never had that conversation of I wanted to hit my head against the wall. Why don't you care enough to do this? You care about us so much, but why won't you take care of yourself? Eventually, he said, I'm scared to try and fail and then embarrass myself. You guys see that I was trying and I didn't make it.

He lost 120 pounds. He gave me that letter back when he lost 100. Again, the mental... The physical is so cool. To be able to see him and see him playing basketball with my nieces and nephews and stuff, that's awesome. But he got a promotion at work. His relationship with my mom is awesome. I have an active parent in my life. He is at every sporting event of his grandkids, and he's riding bikes with them, and he is present in their lives. They don't remember him as that guy. It's funny. When you see pictures of him all blown up, my niece's nephews are like, Who What the hell is that? But I remember just seeing that transformation happen, and I got a front row seat. I got a better dad out of the deal. My mom got a better husband, and I'm from a teeny tiny town. Everybody grows up to do what your parents did, and you don't usually leave that small community. I love that small town, but it didn't seem possible that I could actually make a difference. In watching that, and I'm like, The firefighter's got a better captain, and I got a better dad, and all these people are just better because he took care of himself.

So I'm like- No, no, no.

They're better because you took care of yourself.

I was just like, If I could help one mom or dad out there, it just doesn't stop with them. Their kids are going to be better off. Their spouse is going to be better off. I'm like, I'm going to send it. I was so scared posting on social media. I had 2,000 or 3,000 followers, and I would post something and I would delete it. I'm like, That would be so embarrassing if anybody saw that I actually cared or I felt like I could help. Then eventually, I just continued coming back to that, and I'm like, He's here. I have such a better life because of that. I know that there's kids out there that could have a better life because their parents took care of themselves. I just started posting bolder, with more conviction, because I'm like, I am a recipient of this, and I know that I can help somebody else. It just rippled from there. We started getting some people. The pandemic shut the gym down. Actually, a small business closed down for good in our community, just the gym that I worked out at. I got some Facebook marketplace dumbbells.

I got to give you credit. During this time, Lexie was standing up vocally for everything that was going on. Yeah. Respect.

Yeah. I was actually the only dental hygienist in my... The only staff person in my office that didn't get the vaccine. It just... Yeah, beside the point. So the pandemic shut my gym down. I started working out from home, and everybody is in the shit storm. You're schooling your kids from home. Working from home for the first time. It also opened the door because so many people that are in the trenches and they don't know what to do, they're scared to go to the gym. You don't want to look like a fool in the gym. You go in there thinking that everyone else knows what they're doing and you are the only one. That's such as life. Everybody else is in the gym with a group chat and you're like, Did you see the check in the black tank top? She doesn't know. In your head, that's what you're thinking, going in there for the first time. I'm like, It's okay to look stupid in your living room. It's all right to look dumb in your garage. You don't have to know what you're doing.

Bro, I look dumb It's 24 hours.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm like, If- To make it a brand. I started full-length workouts. I press play, and you're doing the workout with me the whole time. It's basically like a podcast and a workout Because I'm talking the entire time, and no one was socializing with anyone outside of your four walls. So more than anything, because I had seen such mental benefits from exercise and from 75 hard, I'm like, You need to feel like you have a friend in You need to feel like you need an outlet outside of all the craziness that's happening. If you can carve out 30 minutes with me, I will take your mind off of all the uncertainty right now, and you don't have to think about a thing. I'll show you exactly what to do. I'll talk to you like we're in person. We're working out together. And I did that. Looking back, I'm like, I don't know how I had the balls to get in front of the camera because I was terrified. Put it out there. And it's exposing.

Now, you were starting... Guys, because you're going to go look and see what she's doing now. She started this in her basement with a fucking vinyl banner tape to the wall. Yeah. Okay? So just want to be clear. It's not like she had some amazing facility and all these equipment. No.

Yeah, I always made fun. I started calling it the Dungeon because I'm like, if I make fun of the fact that it looks like a scene from Saw, it's going to hurt a lot less when someone on the internet inevitably does. So I just leaned into it. I had a whiteboard leaned up against a paint can for a long time, and it worked. I think more than anything, the feeling of you having a friend in this has hit home. I'm in their ear for 28 minutes a day. Their kids know my voice. They're listening to me. And we just continued building from there. Like I said, I had no following at all. I had no business experience, no marketing experience. I'm just learning as I go. And they're not edited, which I think in a world of AI and everything is polished. And a lot of people see, if you scroll two scrolls on Instagram or any social media platform, you're going to see some fitness content. And there is a huge difference between perfectly curating a 20-second reel and being in front of the camera for 30 minutes and you're talking to that person, you're doing the workout yourself, because that's my workout.

People always ask if I'm doing something else. I'm like, It's exhausting. This is my workout. This is it. I think just the The authenticity of that hit home with people because I'm like, I'm going to meet you where you're at. We're going to do this together. Just in sharing my story and the benefits of me being a recipient of someone changing their life, because I haven't gone through a huge weight loss. I've been relatively fit my whole life, but I'm talking to men and women that they've got kids at home, they've got ones at home that I'm like, I can't imagine how much different my life and how much better that would be if I had a parent that was just leading the the whole time. I have great parents. I have a great family. But if they were taking care of themselves from day one, it would be a complete game changer. I'm like, You have the opportunity right now to lead by example. Your kids don't have to unlearnt it like you are right now. If you're an Parents, especially, have that martyr mentality where they're like, I will run myself into the ground for my kids.

But they don't include the fact of taking care of themselves. That's the biggest component. You're setting them up for a lifetime of good habits. If you just start right now, if you just lead by example, make fitness and taking care of yourself a normal component of your home rather than what most of us grew up with, honestly. It's so cool to be able to see. I love it. I always share people will be doing the workouts. They'll take a picture of and you see the screen, and they've got a baby monitor right beside them. I'm like, That kid is going to grow up. And fitness is just normal. They just know that their mom does that every morning. That's just part of the deal. I think that's so cool, just the shift in society right now, and I hope that it continues.

Well, I think it will. That's how it happens. It happens one person at a time. You're the perfect example of what we talk about on the show all the time, which is personal excellence being the ultimate rebellion, and then having it flow from you to others in a ripple effect that ends up making massive amounts of impact. I want to prove that point as we go through and talk about how your business has grown. You start doing these workouts in your basement, you have less than, what would you say, a couple of thousand followers?

Yeah, I think I had 2,000 to 3,000. Yeah.

Where does it go from there?

I was still a dental hygianist because dental offices stayed open through the pandemic. I had an hour commute. I would wake up at 4: 00, record a workout, go to my dental hygiene job. I was essentially working two full-time jobs. Then in between patients, I'm getting back to clients. I'm sending assessments over my lunch break. I would go home and do the same thing, respond to emails, respond to messages, and just rinse and repeat. I did that for about a year. I quit my dental hygiene job. Leading up to that, I remember thinking, there's going to be so much... Same with 75 Hard. I was like, I'm going to have so much time on my plate now because I was already doing it. Now, if I take out my 8: 00 to 5: 00, I'll just be kicking back. Then if you're an ambitious person, you're going to fill that time. I had so many more ideas, and I just continued capitalizing on that. But I remember putting in my two weeks notice and thinking that when I left that dental office, that I was going to feel so much better. I woke up the day, my last day at the office, and I recorded my workout, and I had a panic attack.

Oh, yeah. Because I'm like, If this doesn't work out, I'm going to come to walk back with my tail between my legs and be like, Hey, that thing I was really excited about, it didn't work. I was so scared, but I went for it. I record six workouts a week, and I've done that for five and a half years. It's like my digital diary that I talk to them, we get the workout in, and to the point of, they're all in my basement. My setup has improved leaps and bounds. But I always talk about your intention matters there's so much more than your access. I know people that have access to every resource, every million-dollar facility, and because they feel like that's going to get the job done for them, they don't see anything. But I have proof of women that do these workouts or men that do these workouts with a baby monitor beside them in their unfinished basement or in their garage, and they're down 80 pounds, 100 pounds. It's a matter of if you're committed to this and you make it a priority and you actually make this lifestyle, it will change your life without fail.

I have 100% guarantee, and I have thousands of examples.

Yeah, so thousands of examples. Now, let's fast forward to where you're at now. Now, you're doing multiple events a month. Big events, how often?

Every couple of months? I have one big event at least once a month. Yeah. Then I have smaller events around those. But yeah, we've done close to 60 events in the last For four years.

Okay. How many people usually come to these events?

Two to 300, somewhere bigger. We've got a big one coming up. On 9/11?

Yeah. Talk about that for just a second.

We have a huge event on 9/11 I mentioned my dad and my brother are both firefighters. My dad has been a firefighter for over 30 years. My brother has been a firefighter for 12 years. I grew up in the fitness, or I'm in the fitness space, so I felt like this was a really cool cross-section. But there's It's a really cool organization, and they cover 12 different counties in Missouri and Kansas. It's called SAFE. It's the Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment. If a first responder dies in the line of duty, and that's police, EMS, fire, full or part-time, they cover them all. If they die in the line of duty, that organization is at the family's house within 48 hours with a check for $40,000. They cover the funeral expenses. They have Christmas benefits to help with kids in the gifts for years and years to come. Last year, we rented out Arrowhead. If you're unfamiliar, that's where the chiefs play. We did the equivalent of a 110-story climb in the Lower Bowl. About 500 people came out. We raised $22,000. We got an event this September 11th. My goal was $60,000 because Kansas City has actually been hit hard with line-of-duty deaths.

We've lost two police officers in the last 40 days, and that's $80,000 that they have to pay out. Because they have that promise, the only way they can deliver is if they've got money in the bank. So $22,000 was awesome. I was really proud of that, but that's barely half of the endowment.

Right. Just before we get back to the ripple effect here, what are the details of that event? Just because people are going to want to participate. It's September 11th. What time?

September 11th at Arrowhead Stadium. We have a Form Energy tailgate kicking off at 2: 30. You're welcome to come hang out for that. We'll have opening remarks at 5: 00 PM, and then we'll head inside. Average finisher is about an hour. If you're coming out of town, you still have time to get home. We've got people coming from all over, But if you're not physically able to climb, you can spectate. We've got spectator tickets. You can donate, you could buy a T-shirt. All of the proceeds go to SAFE.

Where do they go to donate?

I have a link. It's on lexijwellness. Com and under my events, it's Stair Climb.

Can we throw that in the description on the bio? Okay, so underneath the video here on YouTube as well, you'll be able to click this link. I don't make many ask, guys. As you guys know, I turn down almost every, I mean, fucking every business opportunity advertising thing that comes my way because I don't like to ask, and I don't want to make this a commercial thing. But this is something that I would appreciate if you guys would give some support to, even if it's small, even if it's fucking five bucks. It matters, and it's something that matters to Lexie, her family. But it's also very important to the core of First Form and what we believe and care about here. I would just appreciate if you guys would either show up or if you could afford it, give us a few bucks.

Not us, but- No, I appreciate it so much. It's huge. Coming from that first responder, just firefighter family, it's not something that the The husbands and wives of those first responders don't sign up for that line of work, but they're affected greatly. My dad was gone every third day. Sometimes the most. Yeah, absolutely. If the worst happens, they are the ones that are receiving that endowment. It's the coolest thing for me last year was seeing the civilians come out and be able to put a face to that, because if you don't have a direct tie to it, it's outside of mind. You don't realize what a dangerous job these men and women clock into every day. It's not your average desk job. Two weeks ago, a 26-year-old police officer in Kansas City died in a line of duty. He was hit in a car chase, putting speed strips out. He clocked into his normal job, did not get to go home. If you don't have that direct tie, you don't really think about it. Yeah, it's a headline. Yeah. To have civilians come out, there's a lot of different, and they're all really cool, just the 9/11 events.

But to have civilians come out with the first responders. We 50 US marshals coming out. We've got all of these guys that are putting their life on the line every day. Then we've got women climbing with kids on their back. To be able to have two of those worlds collide and just the community aspect of... I'm a huge community person, and to have all of those worlds collide and for them to be able to just shake their hand. We went to 51 different fire stations about a month ago just to talk about the event, invite them out, and again, just thank them for their service. That was the biggest thing is it's an underappreciated job.

Absolutely.

It's a hard job, and it affects you physically, mentally, emotionally. It affects your family. If you're able to contribute to this in any way, I would appreciate it so much just because it is like, these are the ones running into the burning buildings that you think about as heroes. They're also the ones that are at your PTA meetings. They're the ones that you're running. They are average people that are signing up for a not average job.

Yeah, because they fucking care about people. You know what I'm saying? We need to be doing what we can to support them back. Absolutely. That's the bottom line. I got lots to say about that, but we'll keep it-Same.

Part two.

Yeah, for sure, dude. Quit spending our money to everybody else and pay our people the right way. Anyway. Getting back to the ripple effect. You started out, your dad lost That was probably your first person that was very… You were like, Holy shit. My work is influencing people. Now you have thousands of, mainly women, who you have helped transform, who probably started off in a very negative place. No belief that they could do it. A lot of them have probably always had struggles like this. Let's talk a little bit about how this ripple effect has happened, because it's right in line with what we talk about on the show all the time, as you know. We have to set the example ourselves if we want people to improve and we want society to get better. I would be interested to hear some of the ripple effect stories and experience that you've had starting from there to your dad, to all of these amazing women and men that you help. Then maybe Maybe how it's some of their stories of how it has gone and fanned out in society.

Yeah. How much time do you have?

Well, I think the important point is that people understand that it's on us. A hundred %. I want them to understand that, bro, what you do and how you live matters a lot.

I have like, chills getting ready to say it, but I had a woman reach out to me recently, and she sent me a photo of a letter that she had written. I want to say it was about a year ago, and it was a suicide note. She said, I was in the worst spot in my life. I had no hope. I thought that that was the best route. She was like, I honestly don't know why I kept another day because I was prepared. I had this written. It was dated and everything. Her friend at work was doing J Wellness, and she started talking about it, and she was like, What the hell? Why not? I'll try it. Fine. She started it. She has not missed a workout in close to a year. She sent me a picture of her family. She was like, I got a promotion at work. I have a group of friends now that we go for walks. We always text our post-workout photos. She was like, This didn't just change my life. It saved my life. She's like, I wouldn't be here. It's incredible. The transformation, the physical, it's so cool.

Yeah, you're down on the scale. You got to buy new jeans. But the fact that you get to show up as a better human for your kids, for your friends, for your spouse, it is life-changing. It's just the start. I have people that are off all the medications. They're no longer on the high blood pressure. They're no longer on the anxiety of the medicine.

It's hard to be anxious when you know you're doing everything you can.

Yeah. For real.

I mean, that's what anxiety is all about, right? It's a fucking signal that comes from us on the inside that says, Hey, you're not doing what you should be doing, and you need to do that. People think it's like an affliction, chronic anxiety. Yeah, because you're suffering from chronic do nothingness. You know what I mean?

Yeah, you're paralyzing yourself.

Yeah, no purpose, no discipline, no gratitude for where you are. You're not living. It's natural that you're going to feel that.

Exercise is the most underutilized form of antidepressant and anti-anxiety. That's not just me. There's so much research to back that also. Huberman talks about it a lot. Yeah. If you're struggling mentally and you're sedentary, you're not giving yourself a fighting chance.

Well, I think it's important for people to understand that it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter where you start, it doesn't matter who you are. When you get your shit together, other people do as well. We all have an obligation to hold that standard for the people around us if we truly care the way that we claim to care. A lot of people are upset about the way things look in the world, or they're frustrated with how their life is turning out. It's like, Look, dude, it starts with you, and no one can do those things for you. Once you do it, your family is going to see it. When your family sees it, maybe one of them is going to lose 100 pounds. When someone sees that, maybe they're going to be affected. This ripple effect of belief and hope and understanding what can be done, I think it's transformative in culture. I think that's the answer to a lot of the problems that we have going on in the world. You're living it every day. I mean, you're out there every single day now. I mean, I don't even know how many people you have in your program, and it's irrelevant, but I know I've seen you transform thousands of lives firsthand, all because you decided that you were going to sharpen yourself.

If we all took that responsibility upon ourselves, I think the world will look completely different. I commend you for taking that responsibility because that shit's not easy. When you care about people at scale, it's a burden that is very awkward to carry because you care about these motherfuckers, but some of them don't care as much about themselves as you care about them, or they don't see the potential in themselves that you understand they have. That could be very frustrating.

It's exhausting. Sorry to interrupt. I know. It's exhausting to get people to care about something they really should care about. I know. Logically, everybody knows that eating well and moving your body is going to benefit you. But for whatever reason, there's just a disconnect there. It's like ramming my head into a wall every single day of trying to bribe and convince people to give a shit about something they really should. But once they do, they're like, Man, why didn't I start this a decade ago?

Yeah, that's one of the biggest frustrations that I think people have. There's nothing we could do about it. You can't cry over spilled milk. You can learn the lessons of your mediocrity and your apathetic nature towards life. But once you're awake and once you figure out what you're capable of, one of the hardest things to deal with is all the time that you wasted. That's something that I hear from a lot of people. Dude, let's talk about some of these mental transformations, not just losing 100 pounds, but like, you know, Specifically, the confidence aspect. When you were talking about how you started posting and you were super scared, that's something that I have a hard time believing because I've seen you. I see you now.

Yeah.

You've done 75 hard six times. From personal experience, for me, every time I've done it, I've escalated past the point of where I was before. It's almost like a compounding result. I learn more, I get more out of it, I get better than I was at my best before. Let's talk about... Let's talk about that for a minute. So many people, especially the people who struggle with their weight, they think that if they lose weight, they're going to feel better, which they do. But what really creates the better is the confidence that is earned through the action.

I think if people understand, they think of confidence as this figmented thing. But if you break down confidence, it is a really simple equation. Confidence comes from evidence of what you've provided. I I didn't have any confidence in posting or changing lives because I didn't really have anything in the memory bank to rely on. But if you consistently show up over 75 days, or if you're in business and you just consistently show up, when you hit that hard spot and you have other hard things to reflect back on and say, Well, I got through that. I remember feeling it was going to break me then, and I'm here to tell the tale. But if consistently, every time you bump up against a challenge or you have something that is an obstacle or it feels really hard and you just always back down, you always cave, you always give in, that is the memory bank. That's the memory file that you're providing yourself. So then the next time you come up against a challenge, or the next time you do something hard, your brain only has evidence to pull from All right, when we hit this spot, we give up, we quit.

And then over 75 hard in 75 days, if you always, and you have so many of those mental just inner conversations with yourself where you're like, I made it to day I could call it. I did pretty good. Yeah. This is way better. I get it. Yeah. I got the gist of it. But if you always have that, the only evidence you're providing yourself is that you quit when it gets hard, then every single time you get to the hard point, that's the only thing you've provided yourself. You have to first do the thing. You have to get past that point. Then from there, you're building blocks. I always tell my girls, I'm like, This is going to be the last time that you feel this part, because from here we're building. But from all of everything else that you provided yourself, you've only given yourself evidence that you quit when it gets hard. That's the reason that you don't feel that belief in yourself. You haven't given yourself anything to reflect on. Every time you show up when it gets hard and every time you push through, you're continually filling that evidence box.

You're making a deposit as opposed to a withdrawal.

People don't realize that. That is how confidence is built. If you were pulled out of a crowd and given a mic in front of 500 people, you would be peeing down your leg. But the second time, you would feel a little bit better because you could do it again. You've done it. It's just a matter of reps and anything, whether it's fitness or professional life or literally anything. If you're doubting yourself, it's because you have a lack of confidence. People have confidence because they have built undeniable proof to themselves, not to anybody else. I know that I can show up and change somebody's lives because I have so much evidence in myself. But to start, I was scared to put myself out there because I knew didn't have that resume to back it up, and I felt like everybody else knew that, too. And you just have to continue pushing forward because that is the only way that you can actually build confidence. But when you break it down like that, it's not like this figment of your imagination, or it's not just like fairy dust that somebody's built with, that they just walk into a room differently.

You build the evidence and the proof over time, and then you have that to reflect on, and it emboldons you. You know what you're capable of.

Yeah, I think it's interesting how people Dude, this isn't a judgment because I used to think this, too. But I think it's interesting how when people see someone who walks in a room and owns the room and has that confidence, they're usually in really good shape. People usually associate their confidence with the shape they're in, when in reality, the confidence was developed and the shape is a byproduct of the decisions that they made which created the confidence. I think a lot of people really, really, really don't understand understand that their biggest... They're not aware that their biggest problem in life is that they try to alter and change every single detail to be comfortable for them. And we see this in 75 five hard, right? Like you said, the very first few minutes. I'm going to do this, but not this. I'm going to create this version of that. And people are unaware that, Bro, the whole reason that you're fucking unhappy with where you are, unhappy with who you are, and haven't had any results in life is because you take every single thing that you don't like, every single situation that's even mildly uncomfortable, and you rearrange it to try and be comfortable.

This is the problem. It's weird how many people can't identify that from lack of awareness, that when you try to make things that are supposed to be this way and you adjust them for you, this is what's creating this situation of no results, no confidence, no No belief, nothing. Because like you said, you've never done anything or seen anything through or finished anything that you didn't highly modify to make comfortable for you. I think it's something that I wish more people were aware of that. I wish more people could see that the reason that your life looks the way that it looks is because every single time you don't something, you try to curtail it or customize it or make it easier for you. This idea of convenience and comfort and ease and all of these things fly in the face of what it actually takes to be a successful, productive, fulfilled human being in life. Great stories, great lives, lives that people write books about or that matter or even talk about after you're gone. They don't come from convenience. They don't come from comfort. You're never going to be fulfilled or feel good sitting on the couch doing nothing with your life.

So many people feel hopeless for one reason or another. They either feel that it's normal because society accepts it, which they do. Not only do they accept it, they propagate it. They don't propagate true mental health. They want to put you on pills. They want to have you in endless amounts of therapy for years, revisiting these dark places that fucking everybody has and making it their identity as opposed to saying, Hey, I need to fucking overcome this. I need to get past this. This is a tremendous opportunity for me to grow and become stronger and become more resilient so that I can be a better human being. I think we're going to see a big divide moving forward in society, especially with the AI thing and everything, all the conveniences that are happening. I think we're going to see a lot of people just completely give up and become like tubs of consuming goo on their couch. Then you're going to have people that go the other way, and they're going to say, No, I don't want to fucking be one of those people. I don't want to be a fat, lazy, sick, uneducated, sad, unfulfilled, depressed, depressed human being that's dependent on everything that the government provides me.

I'm going to be the best that I possibly can because I want to be fulfilled and feel good and be confident for once in my life. I feel like this separation we're already starting to see in society. We're seeing people either go totally self-destructive or totally the other way, which is great. But I think at the At the end of the day, I just think it's important for people to understand that you are in control. When you could control the fucking basic controllables, your life will look completely different. We have this tendency to get frustrated or say, Oh, we weren't born with the ideal circumstances, or it wasn't fair, or this person has more, or that person has more of this, instead of just acknowledging that we have the opportunity every single day to get better and doing the work to get I think it's really cool when we have so many people, you're one of them, who are out here living that standard and then seeing the ripple effect happen in their household, in their family, in their neighborhood, in their community. This is the way the world changes. Everybody thinks that it's a law or a politician or fucking whatever.

It's not. It's us. It's how we live. No, it's how we live. Yeah, it does start with us. Yeah, man, I just hope that people can fucking start to understand what it is they're responsible for because that responsibility can't be deferred to somebody else.

No. It's not unique to want to quit. That is not a unique feeling to you. When you're in that moment and you're like, This is so hard. I am the only person experiencing this hardship. No one has ever felt the struggle that I have right now. That's ego. That's such a thing that we like, excite to ourselves. But like, that is not a unique feeling. Anyone that has ever done anything worthwhile has wanted to quit. That is part of the deal.

Well, everybody hangs their hat on who had the worst fucking upbringing or who has the worst circumstances. There's no fucking award for having it the hardest, bro. There's no award for having the saddest story. There's no award for having the the most difficult adversarial life, and then that being the reason that your life looks like shit. People only care about those stories if you overcome them. I think for the last 10 years, especially on social media, we've had people figure out that they can create an identity in being a victim and get attention. It's not like they don't get anything from doing this. Every time they cry, every time they bitch, every time they complain, they get a slew of people in their DMs or in their comments saying, Oh, dude, you just need a break and you need to take some space for yourself. No, you've been taking a break your whole fucking life, dude. That is why it looks like the way it does.

Typically, the people that are pouring back in and feeding that is because if you're already in a bad spot and you take that break, then it lets the gas off you. You're like, They're doing worse than I am. Yeah, let off. You deserve a day off. Lean into it. You've had a hard go. Every single person that has done anything has that story also. I don't know a single person that doesn't want to be happy, healthy, fit, and confident. No one would say, I wish I had less confidence. I wish I was less healthy. I wish I was less fit. But there is a huge There's a huge division in the ones that say that they want that and the ones that are able and willing to deliver on those demands every day. There's a difference between being capable and being willing. More often than not, most people are capable of changing their in life and seeing that best version of themselves, far less are willing.

Yeah. It's easy to tell yourself a fucking story about why you shouldn't, can't, won't, don't. That's the whole point of the program. The whole point of the program is to calibrate your inner mental voice to direct you to do the correct things that are going to get you to where you actually want to go and not just talk you out of doing all the things that you know you're supposed to do. We talk about in the program, as you know, in the book, if you guys are unfamiliar, we talk extensively about the bitch voice and the boss voice. For most people, the bitch voice runs the show. It runs your entire life. It's the voice that tells you to hit snooze. It's the voice that tells you to skip your workout and you'll pick it up tomorrow. It's the voice like your dad saying, I'm going to start tomorrow. I'm going to start after the wedding. I'm going to start after summer. I'm going to start after the holidays. When you keep telling yourself, I'm going to start every Monday, then from whatever day you tell yourself, on that. Let's say I made it Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I fucking quit.

I'm going to start again on next Monday. You go the next four days eating total shit because you're like, I'm starting Monday. Then the weight starts to compound up. It compound up and becomes a snowball in the opposite direction of where you want it to go. What we're talking about here is squashing that voice that creates these scenarios to the point where it's literally irrelevant. You don't even I can't fucking hear it. If you do hear it, it's a non-factor in your decision-making. The fundamental difference between my decision-making now versus my decision making in 2019, when we first started doing this, is fucking immensely different. I do not even think anymore about, Man, I should really I'll skip this, or I'll get back to it. I can't remember the last time I said, I'm going to start again on Monday, when that was my internal dialog for fucking 20 years.

Yeah, I always primarily talk to women, but I'm like, Imagine you were dating a guy and he said he was going to pick you up tomorrow, take you on a date, and he didn't show. And he was like, Well, I'll do it Monday. We're going out. And then Monday comes, he doesn't show up. I'm like, If that happened repeatedly, he would be a flake. You wouldn't waste your time with him. Why do you keep treating your, quote unquote, priorities this way? And it's a reflection. If it's important to you, you're going to make it a priority. And it comes back to that habit and that confidence development. The way that your brain is wired is the first time you're doing something challenging. I always say it's like you're walking through a forest with a bushwhacker. It's heavy terrain. It's hard to get through. Then when you come back and you track that same path, it gets a little easier because you're worn down. Then eventually, if you take enough laps, it starts to become routine. It is smooth sailing. But you can't expect to do the hard thing the first time and pick it up.

You have to suck at something first.

If 75 hard works so well, how come you did it six times?

Because it's a program. You don't buy it.

Well, explain it. I know you know.

I'm asking you to explain it. Your happiness, healthy, Health and confidence is not a one-time payment. It comes rented. It's a recalibration, like you said. At a microscopic level, I always say it's a recalibration of your priorities of your time management. I I've been able to maintain really great habits between 75 hard and between going through those, but I always come back to it. I've done it once a year since 2020, and I'll continue doing it once a year, probably for the rest of my life, just because I've seen it time and time again, and every time I've done it, I've gained something more. I've taken what I learned the previous time and build from it. Seventy-five days later, I've never been like, damn, I wish I would have spent the last 75 days doing something else. Without fail. I've never regretted it.

One of the criticisms that you see online of the program is people say, Well, if it works so well, why do people have to go back to it? Well, I don't know. Why the fuck do you have to take a shower every day?

Yeah, why do you brush your teeth every morning?

Why do you practice playing guitar? Why is anything that you're good at take practice over and over and over again? Why do you work out every day? You know what I'm saying? Discipline is a fucking skill set. When people say that, it shows their ignorance to how discipline and confidence and self-belief and fortitude and self-esteem and grit and perseverance and all of this shit works. None of it is permanent. That's the thing people have to understand. There is no permanent solution. The only permanent solution is to recognize when it starts to get rounded off and then sharpen it back up again. This is something that I think is really interesting because there's a lot of fitness experts that to talk shit on the program who don't even understand that it's not even a fucking fitness program, bro.

I think it shows a lack of respect for yourself and a lack of respect for the people that you say are super important to you because you'll spend so much time doing shit that does not matter, and you're dedicated to it, and you're unwilling to carve out that time to genuinely change your own life and change the people that you care about so much. But because you don't want to do the hard stuff, you want to compromise on the things, you want to cherry-pick the pieces of the program that you've already established.

All that does is reinforce the fucking shit that has already been messing your life up.

Yeah, you suffer more by avoiding the hard work than by doing it.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. Then the other thing is the other criticism that you get is like, Oh, it's too extreme. It's not a fucking diet, bro.

It's open protocol.

If you're a trainer, you can plug your programming into the structure. By the way, I think you'd be silly not to because they're going to get 10 times better results than they're going to get without it.

If you're listening to this and you're stumbled upon it, you're unfamiliar with 75 Hard, you have to do a 45-minute workout, indoor and outdoor. You have to follow a diet. But it doesn't say you have to follow keto. It doesn't say this is what your calories are. It doesn't say you have to do strength training or Pilates or you have to run for 45 minutes. The open protocol aspect of it makes it tailored to the person. You can select the diet that works for you.

It's a diet with the goal of physique change. That is what it is. People say, Oh, well, I'll fucking just eat normal. That's a diet. All right, asshole.

Yeah. If you're working with someone that is helping you, they are going to be aware enough to tailor that to yourself. But I've had people that need, like you said, it's tailored to your specific physique. I've had people, more often than not, it's a fat loss goal. But I also have had people in a surplus that are trying to put on muscle. It's just a matter of customizing your needs. But that criticism that it's too extreme or it's unsustainable for that, it is ignorant.

What about all these things that we talk about? Then we'll wrap this up. But the things like grit, fortitude, your ability to persevere, do hard things, how has that changed for you since that first round in 2020?

It's been so cool to see because I have so much confidence. I look back at when I was starting and when I was posting, and I could see... I am a completely different person than when I did. It's a matter of putting in countless and countless reps and having that review in your head of, Have I done this before? Have I had that hard time? Have I seen it through before? Each and every time, it's just like, you build that resilience. But if you've never done the hard thing and seen it through, then you just keep reflecting on all the times you've quit, and you're like, Well, this is what I do. That's the habit I've built. Quitting is just as much of a habit as the perseverance is. If you're continually replicating that action, that's what you're reinforcing, that's what your brain is going to default to. Over the past six years, I have built so much resilience. I've built so much belief in myself.

I mean, dude, you've gone from not really From being that into fitness at the time to competing at high rocks, doing all kinds of hard events, building a business. I mean, these are massive things that you've done.

Yeah. I owe so much to 75 Hard into first form, honestly. I'm a first form athlete. If you're listening to this, you didn't know that. I actually wanted to be a part of first form so bad. I love the products, but At the core, I remember following people that are in this building right now and feeling like for the first time, I was like, I would fit in there. Those are the people that I would want to be around. I feel like I'm a black sheep with the people I'm around right now. I remember just craving that community and feeling like I would fit in. I wouldn't be the outsider. I wanted to be a part of First Form so bad. I applied to be a legionnaire, and I got rejected three times, guys. I wanted to be here. I remember getting rejected that third time and having a conversation with my husband, and I was like, I just have to be better. In the past, it is because of 75 Hard and because of that resilience and my draw to the values that are in this building and in this culture that I haven't gone anywhere.

I wanted to be here so bad. I felt like this was home, that this aligned so well with my beliefs and what my mission is, and I wanted to be able to contribute to this mission. It all happens for a reason, and I was able to become to have a first-form legionnaire and grow within the brand and be able to cross our missions together to do this. We're changing millions of people's lives. I have to give credit where it's due because the first-form products are incredible. Protein is great. I didn't have to plug my nose for the first time drinking protein. But that's not what made me want to be here so much. It's you leading the charge and you painting the vision that normal people like me could actually make a difference, and that's why we're here.

That's the only way differences are made. That's the fucking common misunderstanding in the world. People think you got to have an audience, or you got to be famous, or you got to be rich, or you got to be special, or this or that, when in reality, dude, the only way that change happens is when everybody understands they have a role in it. I have a tremendous amount of respect, and I feel very honored to have watched you do this from all the way back then to what you're doing now. It's super exciting to think about where you're going with it because I might know- Where we're going. Yeah. I'm just trying to give you the flowers. You know what I'm saying? I appreciate it, though. But I know the plan, and I'm just really proud of you, dude, because it takes a lot to do this. It takes a lot to do what you do. I don't know anybody that works harder than you. Out of all the athletes that we've had, and this might make some people upset, but it's just the truth, you've earned it more than anybody by the amount of change that you've affected with the people that you come in contact with.

That's what our mission is here. Our mission is to change lives. Our mission is to help people discover their own true potential and have the courage and the help and the assistance to pursue it and then give them the tools to get where they want to go. You've done that and you do that as good as anybody, if not better than anybody that I've had come in contact with the brand. It's probably a good thing that you got rejected three times because it put that fire in your ass to fucking go out and really fucking make some shit happen.

I'm so glad it happened that way because I have so much more perspective and appreciation for being in the position I'm in now. Because if you would have told Lexie six years ago that I got to be in this room speaking to you on this podcast, she would have shit her pants, first off. But it wouldn't have been conceivable. Because I built that perseverance and I had the mindset of it wasn't a, Oh, screw those guys. I'll go somewhere else. I wanted to prove myself. I wanted to prove that I could contribute, prove that I could bring value to this, that I belonged there. It worked out so much better than if I would have been accepted on day one and been handed that. Just like a fitness journey, just like changing your life. If you woke up tomorrow, 100 pounds down, you would have no way to maintain it. You would have no perspective of every time you wanted to quit and all of the hard shit you've been through and every sacrifice you made, and you would have no idea where to go from there. But if you have the story and the journey of getting turned down and going through those obstacles, I am so grateful to have my name in a locker, to be a part of something bigger than myself in this capacity.

I have all those stories. It's the way that you want it to work out in your head of skipping all the hard stuff and getting it handed to you is not the way that when you actually do it, you're going to be so glad that you had that story and that you had that struggle.

That is such a true statement. I was actually thinking about this literally last night. When I started in business, and if you guys don't know the story, we started with $12,000 that we got painting the stripes of parking lots. Me and Chris Klein, my business partner, we started Supplements Superstores, a retail sports nutrition store when we were 19 years old, 25 years ago. That $12,000 We built out the shelves in our first store. We slept in the first store on and off for the first three years. We had to finance all the inventory on credit cards. Dude, it took us eight months to have a day over $200 in sales. It took us five and a half years to open up our second store. In the first 10 years that I was in business, I made $58,380 cumulatively. I could have made a lot more money working at McDonald's. I didn't make that every year. I made that over 10 years. Dude, at the time, I was so fucking angry and bitter and frustrated that nobody fucking helped, that I didn't have someone give me money, that I didn't have someone fucking finance my shit, that I was competing against people whose parents had put them into business and shit like that and funded their amazing stores and just all kinds of shit.

I was so fucking angry about it. I was sitting on my porch last night and I have a nice house. I was sitting there and I was looking around. I'm looking around at this fucking amazing place that I'm at now, which is far beyond where I ever actually thought I was going to be. I was like, Fuck, dude. I'm so fucking glad no one helped. I am so glad that I had to do that because, dude, it taught me everything that's valuable about myself now. It taught me how to be resourceful. It taught me how to depend on It taught me how to understand that I got to put the whole motherfucking thing on my back and carry it down the fucking road. That's what you got to do. Then when I think about all the lives that have been impacted over the years from my story and watching me do this, because, dude, when I started this podcast, first four and one and all that. You know what I'm saying? Everybody who's been watching for 10 years, 12 years, they fucking, or whatever it is now, it's 10 years now, They got to see it.

They got to see me go from fat dude to fucking in shape.

Yeah, it's your digital diary.

Yeah. When I think of the reason I was able to do that and the reason we're able to do that is because we never had anybody really helping us. Now, with all the lessons, not just the business lessons, but the personal lessons, I'm so They're fucking glad that that's the way it had to go. You know what I mean? But you cannot identify that in the moment because it's so hard and it's so frustrating. If you're in that position, whether it be with your fitness or whether it be with your business, and you are bitter and frustrated because no one cares. Listen, no one does care. I don't know what to tell you. They don't fucking care. They're so busy. They care about their own shit that's going on. You can't blame them for that. That doesn't mean anything bad. I said. But you have to understand that one day, you're going to be so thankful that you had to go through this because it's going to be the reason for the rest of all the good shit in your life.

You know what I'm saying? And fitness is the perfect example of-Perfectly parallel. No one can take that from you. It cannot be bought. So when you arrive, you have all of the evidence, like we talked about with confidence, that you can look back on, and then it goes everywhere. If you start taking care of yourself physically and mentally. Your relationships will improve, your finances will improve, your professional life will improve because you have so much respect and so much resilience built in that area that it flows out to everything else. You see what you're capable of there. I argue, if you're on any endeavor as far as professional life, if you're not prioritizing your physical and your mental health, you're not operating in a capacity that you could be because you're just leaving so much on the table.

Oh, everything. Everything. I used to be the person who thought, Oh, no, dude, I'm good. I'm good, bro. I got this figured out. There was evidence of that. I was financially fucking successful. I had built a business. I built multiple businesses that were doing very well. I'm like, Well, what the fuck do I need that for? But then once I took care of that, everything started to explode to a level that I couldn't really even sometimes keep my fucking hands on because it went so big. I don't think people really understand that the epicenter of their entire life is how they treat themselves, dude. I don't mean how you treat yourself like self-love, take a fucking bubble bath, get a foot rub, be pampered, eat fucking No, I'm talking about how you treat yourself. Great food, enough water, out in the world doing exercise, resistance training, putting good information in your brain, associating with the right people. When you control the things that you're in control of, most of your life is in control, most of the things that matter. Yes, there is chance. Yes, there is things that happen. Yes, there are unanticipated hardships that come.

That's called being a human being. It's interesting how people, they see the world in this way that everything is up to chance. Just because some things are. When in reality, most things that are going to affect your day-to-day life are absolutely in your control. Once you figure that out, dude, it's hard to be fucked with by anything because you realize that every single thing that you do could have been handled if you were handling what you can handle. You know what I mean?

I think that one of the biggest components that doesn't get talked about enough is that the inevitable stress that is out of your control that gets inserted into your life, the difference of the resilience that you handle that and you respond to that is a direct relation to the amount of intentional stress you put yourself under. I always think about, it's like an experiment. You are controlling this stress. You're putting yourself yourself in the environment, you're pushing yourself, you're stretching your capacity in a workout, or you're doing the thing that you don't want to do. Then when the inevitable happens and shit hits the fan at work, or your kids are not sleeping, or you're just under fire.

Or there's an accident or someone gets sick. Yeah.

Your resilience to that everyday stress is so much stronger. It's no surprise that if you build this cushy little lifestyle and you avoid all of the hard shit, that when you're stuck in traffic, that you spiral, or when your boss says something to you that's in a tone that you're not good with, that you go back into the bathroom and cry. You are so much more resilient to everyday stress if you just allow yourself that discomfort. Choose temporary discomfort for an hour a day and see what the other 23 look like rather than just being under fire and feeling like the world is picking on you 24 hours a day.

We're going to wrap up here, and I would like you to speak to people who Maybe they've never heard a 75 hard. Maybe they've thought about it but didn't do it. Maybe they've had whatever reason to not go down this path. I would like you to speak to them based on your experience.

Yeah. I think if you're in a spot right now, imagine 75 days from right now, 75 days from tomorrow. You wake up and you are the best that you have ever been. In that morning, you're waking up, you are fitter than you've ever been, you're more productive than you've ever been, your finances are stronger than you've ever been. And what you think about in your head is that you'll just wake up and that happened overnight. But between here and there, you're building all of the things. Logically, if you think you need to be healthier, you know what you need to do. If you need to be more successful, you know what you need to do. 75 Hard puts the actions in place. It's the game plan. And you can follow that for the next 75 and genuinely wake up 76 days from now, and you are the best that you have ever been. If you do it with integrity, like I said earlier, there are two separate people, and I have a lot more respect for you if you go and you fail and you try again and you continue getting back up than if you compromise 75 days and then you just want to make an Instagram post.

It's interesting because people know.

Yeah. It's so obvious. 75 Hard completely changed my life, genuinely. It changed the trajectory of my life. It changed the way I viewed myself. It changed my relationship with my husband. It put me in rooms that I would have never even imagined. It wasn't like 75 Hard did that, it was the fact that I was willing to do 75 Hard, and I built that.

Yeah, you did build that, and you unlocked all of these things that have allowed those things to happen. Like I said, what What do you really think would happen? Let's just say we were able to get 5% of the population of the United States to do 75 Hard. What do you think would actually happen to the culture?

That would be incredible. Yeah. From every aspect. Yeah.

It would make for a completely different fucking world, for real.

Genuinely. Yeah.

Well, listen, it's been nice having you on the show. You're kicking ass. I think we're having a lot of fun. Yeah. Guys, again, please support the Lexie J Wellness 911 Stair Climb. It is on September 11th, 2: 00 PM to 6: 30 or so at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. If you can't be there in person, please make a donation, big or small. It's all appreciated.

Yeah, every dollar goes to safe.

It's something that we all care a lot about here, and you guys should, too. Final thoughts?

I'm ready to start 75 hard again.

You already did it once this year. You killed it.

Yeah, that was awesome. That was also the hardest mentally that I was in bad spots in those 75 days, and there were so many days I wanted to quit. As I was doing it and when I was contemplating quitting, I was like, I would spiral if I quit, though. This is keeping my head afloat, and it's keeping me on track because of that resilience and that intentional stress I'm putting myself under. I got done with 75 hard, and I honestly just kept it going. That was probably my biggest physical transformation also. I got a little unintentional bulk over the winter.

Yeah, I think I would say when I'm in between phases or not on the program, I pretty much still do all this shit.

I was going to say that's one of the things that people don't realize. I still drink a gallon.

That's why when people are like, Oh, it's unsustainable. No, you dumbass. It's a fucking repeatable program. Your diet is not sustainable either. We have to understand. We are building skills. Skills get strong, skills get weak, just like our body, just like we go in the gym, we get in better shape, we get muscle, we get strong, we get lean, we go out for a fucking month and fuck off. And guess what? You don't look the same. It's not permanent. The same thing is with your mental discipline and fortitude and grit and confidence. We have to continue to make investments in these things over and over and over again to make sure that they're sharp and that we're operating at our highest level. That's something that once you figure out, it really is life-changing. The awareness Honest, I think, is really the most important part because before that, I would just feel bad for long points of time. I would be like, Man, I just don't feel right.

You don't realize how good it feels to feel good consistently.

And be proud of your fucking self on a daily basis. Dude, when you wake up in the morning and you're on 75 hard and you crushed the day before, my first thoughts naturally are like, doom and gloom when I wake up because I always have so much shit to handle right away. But my first win of the day is always, Well, I fucking won yesterday. That's my win of the day.

In a bad day on 75 hard, your confidence is still higher off of it.

That's right. Anyway, guys, look, Lexie, thank you so Thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me. Yeah, this is awesome. I would love to have you come on and talk some more about this sometime. Maybe we do an episode with you and Will, and we all just talk about it.

Sweatiest humans alive. The sweatiest humans alive episode.

Yeah. Well, dude, I think people need to hear that these people, like Will and you who are out here doing these crazy things, they didn't start that way. Will started like a fat little turd. You know what I'm saying? Now everybody looks at him and they're like, Bro, he's one of the best athletes in the world. Well, yeah, because he fucking for day after day after day for years at a time, he worked at it. Anyway, it's just I'm babbling. But thank you for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me. It's been awesome.

All right, guys, that is the show, 75 Hard versus Lexie Johnson. If you are interested in 75 Hard, you can get the entire program for free at episode 208 on the audio feed. It's not on YouTube, or you can go to my website, andyfercela. Com, and buy the book on mental toughness. It is not required. It does include the entire 75 Hard and Live Hard program, plus a whole bunch of extra information that you will enjoy. All right, so that's the show. We will see you next time. Don't forget, don't be a hoe. Share the show. All right, there you go. We're from sleepin' on the floor. Now my jury box froze. Fuck a bowl, fuck a store. Counted millions in a cold. Bad bitch, booted swole. Got her on bankroll, can't fold. Just a no. Headshot, case closed.