Turning Pain Into Progress: Coach Rob

Summary

In this conversation, Coach Rob shares his journey from law enforcement to personal development coaching, emphasizing the importance of mental health, emotional regulation, and self-love. He discusses the challenges faced by men, particularly those over 30, and how he helps them find purpose and resilience. The conversation also delves into the realities of entrepreneurship, the significance of support systems, and the transformative power of turning pain into progress.

Takeaways

• Coach Rob helps men over 30 get unstuck through fitness, mindset, and discipline.
• His journey includes overcoming the loss of his business during COVID.
• Men often struggle with feelings of inadequacy in their roles as providers and protectors.
• Mental health issues like depression and anxiety are common among first responders.
• Self-love is crucial for personal growth and healthy relationships.
• Entrepreneurship requires a deep passion and commitment to one's purpose.
• Criticism from loved ones can be constructive and necessary for growth.
• Pain can be transformed into progress and motivation.
• A clear purpose is essential for fulfillment in life.
• Emotional regulation is key to maintaining healthy relationships.

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Transcript

Christian Brim (00:01.788)
Welcome to another edition of the Chris Project. I am your host, Christian Brim. Joining me today, Coach Rob from Battle Fitted. Rob, welcome to the show.

Coach Rob (00:13.528)
Thanks for having me. I look forward to our conversation.

Christian Brim (00:16.636)
Yes, I am too, based on what we discussed in the green room. I'm intrigued. So tell the listeners who Rob is, what Rob does.

Coach Rob (00:28.59)
I think we have enough time for that. That's a loaded question. So I am a personal development coach. I help men 30 and over get unstuck, whether that's through fitness mindset or discipline. That's the three pillars of my coaching. I also own the Bala Fitted Clothing line, which goes in connection with mindset and then the Battle Harder podcast, which I have guests who have overcome struggle and adversity. And now they tell their stories of why they didn't give up.

and how they're living purposeful lives. And this all came from my own life as a 10-year Navy veteran, 17-year former federal police officer, former gym owner that I lost my business completely through COVID, has faced trauma, adversity in my entire life. And I'm still here pushing and trying to help as many people as I can.

Christian Brim (01:20.296)
I love that. Thank you for your service. post-employment, how did you get into owning a gym and or coaching? What was that entrepreneurial journey like?

Coach Rob (01:33.711)
So when most veterans get out of the military, typically we go do the job we did in the military. It's just an easy transition. It's not necessarily that we want to do that, but when you need a job. So for me being a military police officer, it just made sense to go into law enforcement. Well, my last duty station, I was at a Veterans Affairs Hospital for six years. During that time, it was just a big culture shock, right? When I first got there,

I wanted to save the vets. wanted to help the vets. That was my community. That's the place where I belonged. But the darker side of things as a police officer, you deal with the veterans that are always drunk or always on drugs or always having mental health issues. You're taking the same veterans to jail, the same veterans to the psych ward. You're fighting with the same people every day. And from a mental health perspective, that can start to really put some things on your heart and mind of why are you doing this? Should you be doing this? Do you want to continue to do this?

And in 2018, my mom had passed and I wanted to go bereaved for her, but being in the government, because I didn't have vacation time or sick leave, they wouldn't give me time off to go deal with the loss of my mom. So I took leave without pay, went to California where we laid her the rest and dealt with that whole situation. When I came back, I just, didn't have the heart from that point on, knowing that that place did not give a crap.

About me as far as getting a promotion as far as my mental health as far as how to be happy at work because everybody there was miserable I said there had to be a change and talking to my wife my goal my dream what I thought my passion or purpose was was to open a gym and I was going to Eventually try to build two three four locations and then maybe franchise that out Well, god universe, I guess other plans. I opened the gym

Christian Brim (03:03.814)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Rob (03:33.046)
was pretty good at what I did as a strength and conditioning coach, as a business owner. But COVID hit and like some small businesses, because I was a single owner that did literally everything myself, what I mean, everything, sales, coaching, cleaning, I did not qualify for any PPP loan or any kind of advancement. And now we find out that people have been bucking the system and getting all kinds of money illegally. I played the honest game and that cost me my business. So in 2021,

I closed it down and I liquidated everything.

Christian Brim (04:09.401)
And then you started coaching.

Coach Rob (04:11.424)
Yeah, so after that, needing income, my wife had the bright idea. She said, why don't you go back into law enforcement? And that wasn't a very solid plan, but Hey, happy wife, happy life. Want to provide. got state certified, state certified here in Florida. I went to work for another department, here in Florida. And the second day a young man took his life.

I had to process the scene, had to take the gun out of his hand, I had to look at his lifeless body, like... And after being at the police department for four months, that just wasn't gonna happen. I remember coming home, like, just... Breaking down, like, on my knees, crying. My wife's like, what's wrong? Did something happen? She thought, you know, maybe I got hurt at work fighting somebody or getting shot at or whatever. And I was just so mentally...

exhausted and had so much trauma from everything in my careers that I'm sitting here, I'm like, 46 going on 47. Do I really have the wherewithal to continue running these streets and to go for another five years without a promotion? And I kind of find myself in the same boat. And the one thing that's been constant in my life was that entrepreneur spirit. And from owning the gym, my gym members

were constant across the board. still see some of my members out in town today. I'm good friends with some of my members. eat lunch or whatever. And they always said, I never met a coach like you. I never had anyone give us a program like you did. I never had anyone lead us the way you did or speak to us the way you did. And right there I was like, well, I don't need a brick and mortar business to coach. I can literally coach anywhere around the world. And from a more aspect where fitness is the number one pillar and it's the priority of my life,

I knew I wanted to help people on a deeper level besides just being an online personal trainer and that's essentially where Battle Fitted, the coaching and everything was born.

Christian Brim (06:14.247)
I love that story. Yeah. there's so much there. I don't know where to go next. What you said that, that, you know, you primarily work with, men 30 and over, around fitness. give me the other two pillars. I was going to say mindset. I almost had it. Okay. So

Coach Rob (06:37.464)
fitness mindset and discipline.

Christian Brim (06:43.826)
What usually presents for you when people come to you say, I'm looking for a coach, what are their symptoms?

Coach Rob (06:54.318)
Um, usually what I see in men our age, uh, you know, I'm 47 this year and older men is just, they get stuck, right? Uh, a lot of times at our age, we're either already married, already divorced, already have a career. And it's just that feeling of, I belong in this job? Do I belong, you know, being married to this person? If I'm still having a bad relationship, am I a good enough father? Does my family respect me? Do my kids, you know, it's just that.

I have a, I guess, old fashioned or old school way of thinking as far as what a man should be in my definition or opinion. And it's just trying to build them back to that leadership role, that strength role where they're protecting, providing, and presiding over their families and doing what they need to do to be successful while taking care of their mental and emotional health.

Christian Brim (07:50.554)
Yes, I would I would agree with your traditional definition and it's probably not PC But yeah, I say a man's role is is provide and protect And there's there's a

there's a strong connection between a man's self-worth and whether they're productive, right? And that could be anything really, it doesn't matter. Just what they perceive to be productive. And, you know, it's when guys get together, their question is, what do you do? Like, it's not like, who are your people or...

How many kids do you have? Are you married? It's always what do you do? That's always the first question. It's the identity. And I can see where if that identity, that work was not fulfilling or in your case, like soul sucking, that translates right to you. Like personally, like my job isn't good, therefore I'm not good.

Coach Rob (08:41.197)
right.

Coach Rob (09:06.306)
Right.

Christian Brim (09:06.551)
And as an entrepreneur, it'd be the same thing. My business is not successful. My business is not doing well. Therefore, I'm not doing well. And how debilitating that can be.

Coach Rob (09:22.946)
Definitely, it's even when you have mental health issues, it's debilitating times like 50. So that makes it even better

Christian Brim (09:32.239)
Yeah, so do you mind sharing what those mental health issues are for you?

Coach Rob (09:38.22)
Yeah, so I have PTSD, I major depressive disorder, and I have anxiety and probably ADHD on the back end that kind of intermingles with everything. you know, for all the good military being a police officer gave me as far as making me who I am intrinsically and internally, it gave me all the bad shit too, so.

Christian Brim (09:42.343)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (09:49.629)
Throw that in for good measure.

Christian Brim (10:05.053)
Yeah, I mean, I've had some family members and some close friends that have been in law enforcement and like, I hear their stories and I'm like, I don't know how you do that. Like I just don't know how you go deal with that every day. It's, it's, you know, I think in our modern culture, law enforcement is vilified and and seen as part of the problem when

I don't think most people understand what sacrifices personally they have to make to do that job.

Coach Rob (10:44.034)
Yeah, definitely. mean, law enforcement has the highest divorce rate when it comes to service work, first responders, military. Because one of the things that I teach or I try to help with is that emotional regulation. used to be the guy that would come home from a tough day at work and I wouldn't know how to shut it off. I wouldn't stop at the door and pause and turn off cop mode. No, I'd go in the house and then my wife objectively would say,

Christian Brim (11:05.021)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Rob (11:11.906)
what's wrong and then you know as a man or trying to be strong and and not talk about that kid you saw die or things that you don't want to put on your family because we try to not involve them in that but we need to talk about things everything's fine leave me alone and then it's why didn't you cook dinner why didn't you do this and then the the partner on the other end is like wait why are you treating me like this and it's not because we're assholes or we're evil it's just we don't know how to regulate those emotions before we walk through that threshold back into our house

Christian Brim (11:43.762)
Yeah, and I recently wrote an article on Substack about this. For a long time, I was on SSRIs, so selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, for those that don't know, usually prescribed for depression and anxiety. Been on it for over a decade, and I stopped using them this year.

And I wrote this article kind of to reflect on the journey and then why did I make the choice that I did? And what I realized was that during the time that I was using those drugs, I had to have those drugs because I didn't know how to regulate my emotions. I did not know how to be irritated.

without becoming angry. I didn't know how to be angry without going into a rage. And it's not like every time I was irritated, I got angry or every time I was angry, I went into a rage, but I had no control over it. I didn't know what was going to happen. And, you know, then your wife and your kids are like walking on eggshells and like, you know, don't know what to say, what not to say, because they don't know what's going to come out of you.

Coach Rob (12:54.251)
Right, right.

Coach Rob (13:10.446)
Yeah, definitely. mean, I lost my I was married to 18 years to my first wife and I always tell people where it takes to and it was probably 60 40 I always take the 60 percent because I know it was because of my mental health issues my anger the The things that I didn't know how to control because I didn't understand Why I was upset or why I'm sad and to this day even when I have like a really bad I have lows occasionally It's luckily I have more good days than bad and that's what I always try to teach

But when I have lows, they're really low and sometimes I don't understand it, but I just try to go through the motions to get through it where I used to just flip out, yell, scream, throw things, break things and throw what I call an adult temper tantrum. So.

Christian Brim (13:52.926)
Yeah, no, it is. It is very much just like a child. And I think in a lot of ways, I was emotionally retarded. Like I was stuck at some level back at, you know, three and unable to process my emotions. And, you know, I think the thing that has been so empowering for me is

going off of these drugs, and this is the first, not the first time that I've been off these drugs over the last decade, but the thing that I can do now that I couldn't do before was separate myself from my emotions. that I can have a feeling, but I'm not that feeling. And I understand that if I don't feed that emotion,

it eventually will go away. Like it's transitory. goes, you know, all feelings just, you know, move on. And that I could actually change my emotion. Like that I can actually go by conscious choice from being irritated to being content or being peaceful or being happy. Like that is possible. Now I'm not saying that I can do that every time.

Coach Rob (14:58.478)
Right.

Christian Brim (15:22.973)
But I know that it's possible and that opens up a whole nother door rather than being controlled by your emotions, which I was. one of the things I struggled with was that I am very emotional. It's not just that I couldn't control my emotions, it was that I feel like I more emotions than most people.

Like if autism is a scale and I don't even know if this is accurate, but like I've perceived that like autism on one end, if you're autistic, like you have a emotional capacity, I feel like that's, I'm on the other. I'm like anti-autism. And as a man, I remember

vividly in my 30s like you there is something really wrong with you. Like why are you so emotional? I I Incorrectly ascribed it to feminine behavior. I was like you're you're just a you're just a woman like you're crying all the time Like what is that? But you know, I've so part of it is overcoming that stigma

Coach Rob (16:18.36)
did the video in my 30s, like, there is something really wrong with you. Like, why are you so emotional?

Coach Rob (16:35.118)
you

Coach Rob (16:43.374)
Definitely

Christian Brim (16:45.617)
that I had put on myself that having emotions was a negative thing, right?

Coach Rob (16:51.532)
Yeah, that's the one thing I guess I'm advocating for is being a tough man or a hard man. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to stuff your emotions down and not talk about them. It's being able to be vulnerable when you need to. So not only your family can understand you, but so you can heal and figure out who you are inside and, you know,

People see me, like I'm a pretty nice guy, I'm a big teddy bear by all means, but people see me, they think I'm this big, mean, get out of my way, don't touch me guy, because that's my outer shell and my persona. And you know, I do take working out seriously, I'm going back into jiu jitsu next month, because I just think that's a discipline that I need to help keep me fit and keep me dangerous in that hard to kill mentality that most veterans, police officers, fighters, people have.

But I cry and I cry a lot and if I can't figure something out, I get frustrated and I get frustrated to the point where I have a breakdown, I have a breakdown and that's okay. The one thing luckily and supports Eugene this, my wife's never said, why are you such a wuss or why are you so emotional or why do you cry all the time? No, she picks up on those triggers or those key points and are you okay, what's going on, why are you feeling this way?

That's a huge difference there is your support system because with my first wife, used to say, I don't know how to help you. And my second wife said, how can I help you? So just reframing those simple words right there made a huge, huge difference in my life.

Christian Brim (18:27.065)
Mm hmm. Yeah, and and it's not I mean, the support definitely makes a difference if nothing else in that it gives you the space to process your feelings like as opposed to being in a combative mode of like justifying that you're feeling this way like well, you know, who are you to tell me that I can't feel this way or I shouldn't feel this way, right? Yeah, I my wife and I

just celebrated our 32nd anniversary and we were in Jackson, Wyoming, a beautiful place if you haven't been, highly recommended. We were at this restaurant at the top of the ski mountain and the waitress brought over a couple of glasses of champagne because my wife had put that it was our anniversary in the reservation. And we started to do a toast.

Coach Rob (18:59.864)
nice.

Christian Brim (19:25.617)
And as I was telling her, giving her a toast, said, I am so thankful that I've been able to be married to you for 32 years. I started choking up, and it was completely unexpected. It just kind of snuck up on me and got teary eyed. And my wife just looked at me and smiled.

like look at me askance or like what's wrong with you? what, and I mean if she had I would have felt shame. I would been like why am I doing this? Like so I totally understand with what you're saying that the people we surround ourselves with, know, family or otherwise is critical.

Coach Rob (20:22.08)
Yeah, definitely. It just it makes things easier on the back end. Now, unfortunately, there is still people that don't have support. And that's where I also like to come in, because the main thing about healing in general and when I say healing, I want to preface this. I tell people all the time, my trauma didn't go away. OK, I'll probably have PTSD, depression, anxiety, whatever for the rest of my life till I'm dead and gone.

But being able to emotionally regulate, being able to take breaks if you have to breathe or breaks away from things that are maybe frustrating you or giving you issues. And most importantly more than anything else, loving yourself. If you don't love yourself, if you don't love internally who you are, you can never heal, you can never be better. And one thing that my current wife used to say to me,

Christian Brim (21:09.821)
Mmm.

Coach Rob (21:19.79)
She'd always say, love you, but I love myself more. And I would get mad. I used to get mad. I'm like, why would you say that? What, you don't love? I'm your husband. You're supposed to love me. And it took me a lot of self-reflection to realize, well, she's right. Like, I can't be a better husband to her if I don't love myself first. I can't be a better father to my kids if I don't love myself first. So that's like, I guess, the main step in overcoming anything, regardless of what you are, who you are, or where you're stuck at in life.

Christian Brim (21:24.007)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (21:50.374)
Yeah, I think it is interesting because at least the way I grew up and my expectation of marriage was sacrificial love, right? Like this idea that you're going to sacrifice yourself for the other and give up for the other, which is fine, except that, you know, speaking to self-love,

You you can't give somebody something you don't have yourself Right. So if you want to give your wife your best love You have to love yourself. It's not what I Somebody that was on the show earlier he defined it as the The economics of the intangible and and he said, you know

Love is one of those things that is limitless. If you have one child, you love that child. If you have a second child, you don't love the first child less, right? And that's the way it is with love. And if you love yourself more, that's not taking anything away from others. That just gives you more to give them.

Coach Rob (23:13.622)
Right. Yeah, definitely. That just gives you the extra power. And a lot of times, I like what you said about limitless. I always like to say you have to have a limitless belief system, not a limiting belief system. And if you don't do that, once again, everything what's kind of funny is when I coach people or talk to people, everything that I'm giving them, I mean, anybody honestly could figure out themselves that they just

took a deep dive into their own person or psyche. But sometimes they need that support system or that person to yell and scream at them to help them get it out, so to speak. But the simplest things I'm finding always work. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. It's even when you may see this on social media or in the gym, you see that person doing some crazy exercise. They're doing back flips while curling dumbbells, while jumping rope. And you look at them, you're like,

Christian Brim (24:12.626)
Right.

Coach Rob (24:12.834)
just go do a bench press or just go do a squat. It's simple. You don't have to make something up to figure out who you're gonna be or how you're gonna feel or how you're gonna look. Just stick to the simple principles.

Christian Brim (24:29.053)
100 % and to your point I I I haven't met anybody that did it themselves. Like I think we all need the guide the coach The Yoda if you will like we need we need someone to pull us along to reflect back to us You know, I think one of the things that

I say is like, you never really know how other people perceive you or experience you. You really don't because you can't see outside yourself. can't, you have this huge blind spot that is yourself and like how other people, even your most intimate relationships, how they actually perceive you, you don't really understand. You don't know. But it's so important to have

those people in your life because they reflect back to you what you can't perceive yourself. It's like, you know, if they love you and they care about you, they can say, hey, Rob, you're kind of being a dick here. like, or Rob, you know, I really love this about you. And it may be something that you can't see about yourself.

Coach Rob (25:46.22)
Yeah, I mean that comes hand in hand I think with business and entrepreneurs especially because it's a lonely road and when you have a business, regardless if you have a partner, partners, brick and mortar, online, you have to be obsessed and people look at you and they think obsessed means you're crazy and like you're not gonna stop that whole grind your face off mentality but no, obsession means that you feel it so deep down in your heart and soul that

You know that you have to see this through whether it's to completion or failure like you have to keep going no matter what And that kind of goes like what you were talking about earlier like Sometimes I don't intend to be working on my business while i'm sitting on the couch with my wife, but sometimes I have that I don't know what you want to call it tick that internal itch that something is like if I don't get this done This could be the difference between my podcast. Yes being the best episode ever or the worst or

me getting that one coaching client that I need to make my goals or closing down the business forever. exactly what you said, my wife sees that I'm working hard, but she doesn't internally, she doesn't know the struggle that's deep within my soul about, man, I have a duty to grow this and build this not only so I can help people, but so I can leave something decent to my kids so I can have that purposeful life to leave my mark on the world, so to speak.

And it does kind of suck at times when people just think you're some crazy dude that wants to grind his face off. And I'm like, no, I'm just, I'm just happy with what I do and I love what I do. And, and I owe a duty to myself and my, my family to see this through till the end, no matter what happens. And people get scared of that. And I think that's a lot of reasons why people get stuck in their jobs. And I don't want to take the risk of entrepreneurism because of that whole thinking that

They're not gonna make it because they don't have that, I guess, power within them to get obsessed. But it's more about loving what you do instead of just, there's nothing more I hate when someone says, I wanna start a business. What kind of business should I start? And you're like, that's like an open-ended question. You have to do it. I can't tell you, yeah, know, because I love fitness, maybe you love donuts. And so me telling you start a fitness business isn't going to work. Like you have to do what you, you can't get into entrepreneur.

Christian Brim (27:58.706)
How the fuck should I know?

Coach Rob (28:10.838)
Isn't because you think it's sexy or that you're going to be a millionaire instantly. No, you get into it because you found something that you love that helped you break the mold out of being stuck in the system or that rat race of being just having a normal job or normal career.

Christian Brim (28:30.855)
Yeah, and I will tell you that being an entrepreneur is...

probably the, the best way to, develop yourself, like to really deal with the things that you wouldn't otherwise deal with. because to your point, when, when you're an entrepreneur, it's you, you can't blame your boss.

or the customers or whatever else. mean, if it doesn't work, it's because of what you did or did not do. And I don't think a lot of people will raise their hands for that, right? I mean, like whether they're passionate about something, most people don't want that level of accountability.

Coach Rob (29:25.522)
It's a scary place to be, honestly. mean, when you have to be accountable for everything, your day to day, and you have to decide when you don't want to. that's, I always say, like, with everything, you have to have the consistency, consistency builds the discipline and discipline builds the progress. Without the discipline, you can't accomplish everything. And that means that sometimes when I don't want to send emails, if I have to send 50 emails, I have to sit there and send that 50 emails. If I have to take a coaching call.

console and maybe I don't want to talk to somebody today well I'm gonna have to put on coach Rob outfit and I'm gonna have to talk to them like that's that's the difference between winning and losing is living a life doing the things you don't want to do the hard things versus just always taking the easy route

Christian Brim (30:11.409)
Yes, yes, and it's.

Christian Brim (30:18.915)
Right. And it's not that employees don't do hard things. That's not the case. What the differences with an entrepreneur is they step in the line. They step in the line of fire. Like they choose to say, I'm going to put myself in this situation where I have to have discipline to make those decisions. Whereas most people, they want someone else to tell them what to do and they'll do it. But like they don't want to have to ultimately have the decision to decide.

Coach Rob (30:24.194)
Right, right.

Christian Brim (30:48.509)
whether they have a decision, if that makes sense. I don't know if that made sense.

Coach Rob (30:52.558)
No, it does. There's a fine line between all the jobs and it's different people, like how you feel. And there's nothing wrong. If you want to have a normal job and you're content and happy, do that normal job. That's fine. If you want to be a leader or a supervisor or a manager of a company and you just want to lead people, but you don't want the responsibility of the day-to-day of owning the company, that's fine. Do what works for you. But I know for me,

Every job that I was in from the time I was a kid to through the military to being a cop, I was just miserable because I'm like, man, I'm taking all these orders from people. They're yelling at me. They're screaming at me. They're telling me what to do. I could really do whatever I want if I put my mind to it. But that at first why I'd never went into business was that risk was that, you know, the risk of the unknown, the self doubt, the self worth. Like you said, am I going to fail? Am I going to be able to do this?

Christian Brim (31:44.925)
Hmm.

Coach Rob (31:51.714)
And then as you do research, you realize most successful business owners, failed a bunch. It wasn't just like, I made this business and boom, it was successful. No, they've lost businesses, they've lost marriages, they've... And all that pain, and this is everything I teach and why the mantra of my whole brand is turning pain into progress. All that pain, instead of letting it defeat them, they said, no, I'm gonna turn this into something more, I'm gonna turn it into something beautiful. And then that's where the magic, so to speak, starts to happen.

Christian Brim (31:57.937)
True.

Christian Brim (32:24.797)
Yes, and you you're a father, you understand this, that you don't learn anything really without pain. And I'm not talking about a lot of pain, but like, don't, and it could be just emotional pain, it's not necessarily physical pain, like you don't learn anything by succeeding.

Coach Rob (32:49.772)
Right.

Christian Brim (32:51.333)
Right? mean, and so if you approach your pain from a different standpoint, your failure quote unquote from a different standpoint of that's the price you have to pay. That's the cost of the ticket. And if you don't want to go to the show, fine. But like if you want to go to the show, this is what you have to do. There's no shortcut.

I was telling my leadership team last week, like I had 12 hours last week where I had a literal existential crisis and and it kind of caught me off guard after 28 years. like I was like, fuck it. Like I'm just selling this business and moving on. Like if we can't do any better than this, like why are we even here? And what why the hell am I here? Like what am I doing here? I processed it. It was fine. But like

You know, I don't, this idea that you reach some point and that goes away is also a myth. Like it doesn't.

Coach Rob (33:55.918)
Mmm.

Coach Rob (34:00.814)
That's why, I don't know, do you know who Andy Frisella is?

Christian Brim (34:05.501)
I do not.

Coach Rob (34:06.742)
So Andy Frisella, he basically started out with his own supplement store, which he was literally sleeping on a couch in his store. His family, his friends, they told him, you're crazy, you can't do this. And he just kept watching me, and he kept pushing and pushing and working and grinding. And he talks a lot about not being that smart, not having a good school education, but just that undeniable work ethic, that hustle.

Well, he is the CEO of First Form Supplements, which is a major million dollar company. hosts his own podcast. He's written books on mental toughness. He has what's called the 75 Hard Program, where it's supposedly the number one book on mental toughness. And he didn't quit. He didn't give up.

Christian Brim (34:53.258)
I've heard of that, okay.

Coach Rob (35:04.502)
It's just those times where it seems like you kind of just had one. There's those times where we just like as an entrepreneur, something happens. Maybe you're just having a bad day. Maybe you got an argument with your wife. Maybe you lost a big client or that huge podcast guest canceled on you. And that's where that doubt creeps in. You're like, can I really do this? What am I doing this for? Why am I doing this? And he says it. And the point to this is he says all the time that as an entrepreneur, he's not trying to

Stop, he doesn't have a stopping point. He's trying to grow ultimately as much as he can, as long as he can until he decides he doesn't want to be a business owner anymore. He doesn't want to do this. And he talks a lot about that's where most people fail because as an entrepreneur you say, well, if I can just make $500,000, I'll be good. And then you make that $500,000 and you're like, shit, I have to pay employees, I have overhead, I have stock inventory.

Christian Brim (35:57.115)
Right.

Coach Rob (36:03.572)
I'm not good. And then it's like, if I just get to the million. But you have to constantly set goals for yourself. You have to constantly try to grow. you know, especially for someone that has employees, if you want them to have purposeful lives, then you owe it to your employees to try to scale your business to make more money so they can make more money and have better lives because that's part of your community and your culture.

Christian Brim (36:27.079)
Yeah, and the reality is that if you build a successful business and you have the financial freedom you want and the time freedom that you want, you're going to get bored. And you're going to have to have something to scratch that itch, right? And it's not recreational. It's not hobbies.

You know, that's fine that has a place but as an entrepreneur you got to have a problem to solve and You know if you don't have a problem to solve you're not going to be content The trick is and this is what I've I figured out was to not create your own problems Just so you can fix them like that. That's a huge thing. Like, you know, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna go in here and

Tinker with this like no leave it the fuck alone like it's working. You know, yeah.

Coach Rob (37:25.358)
I think that goes a lot into also though and not just entrepreneurs but men like a man without a purpose is a very scary dangerous thing right like that's that's the the main thing the main intrinsic thing of Being a man is having that purpose whether that purpose is to take care of your family where that purpose is to make lots of money where that purpose is to travel and most entrepreneurs that I spoke to the successful ones you're right they

Christian Brim (37:35.069)
Mmm, yes.

Coach Rob (37:53.154)
take the fancy vacations, they drive the nice cars, they have the toys, but they're not out there using them every day. They're not out there freaking playing 18 holes of golf every day, months on, no, they're grinding and working and hustling and investing in more businesses and making more opportunities and making more moves and expanding their portfolio and doing things to continue to have that purpose. it's a beautiful thing and I hope you get there too.

you build a successful business or start to build the empire to branch out and say, okay, well now I want rental properties and how am I gonna do this? Now I wanna invest in this gym, how am I gonna do that? And try to build this portfolio of wealth while also giving you a purpose and solving problems at the same time.

Christian Brim (38:46.437)
Yeah, I think that what every entrepreneur will figure out at some point is like what they thought they wanted was not really what they wanted. Like, you know, whether that's the financial success or the time success, you know, at the end of the day, that's not what gives the entrepreneur the dopamine fix. What gives the entrepreneur the dopamine fix is creating shit. And

Coach Rob (39:14.158)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (39:16.079)
I think that's an innate God-given thing. Like you're made in the image of your creator who created. Like that's what he did. And therefore we are a reflection of that and we're made to create. And that doesn't just stop.

Coach Rob (39:37.356)
Yeah, I mean for like my clothing, I do all the designs myself. Starting out by myself, obviously I had to do everything, learn everything myself because I didn't want to hire out. So building my own website, doing my own social media, all that stuff. But like you said, there's something beautiful in the creation of someone wearing a shirt that you made from scratch. You made the design, you made the idea coming alive.

Someone's saying, you man this this website really spoke to me because everything's logically there It's clean. It tells me what you are who you do Or just you know comments or interactions on social media, know, thank you for what you said today or I appreciate you Creating all those things and then getting even a bad response. I hate your shirt like even bad responses are good because

Christian Brim (40:04.839)
Yeah.

Coach Rob (40:30.326)
you're getting people to think about this thing that you put out in the universe and it's your thing and no one can take that away from you

Christian Brim (40:44.465)
Yeah, you the expectation that you're going to put you're going to I mean, think about an artist, right? You know, they make a song or they they do a painting or a dance, whatever. Some people are going to like it. Some people are going to hate it. And like, you know, that's not why you did it. Like, I didn't do it for you to tell me you didn't like it or did like it. I did it for a purpose. And what you take away from it is yours. Like I'm I'm

I'm just doing what I was made to do, which is to do this thing.

Coach Rob (41:16.886)
I think that goes a lot into criticism too though, you know, when you think about life, most people, honestly, they don't give a crap about you, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but everybody's in their own little micro system of worrying about themselves that sometimes a lot of people are afraid to create because they think the public's going to just put everything in a negative light or a negative connotation.

And most people just don't give a crap. Like if they like what you do and they're vibing with what you do, they'll find you and they'll buy that song or they'll buy that shirt or they'll follow you on social media. And that's how you build your own community. And I think more people in today's society has to get back to stop worrying about what is people gonna think if I decide to do this? It's crazy to me how, I don't know about you, I'm very time.

conscious to the point where like I almost feel like I know the the minute of the time of the day of the age that I'm going to take my last breath and I'm like shit I got a lot more shit to do like time is running out let's go go go and I don't understand in this this world this one shot at life why people just don't give it their all and and put everything that they have available to them out there especially with today's technology and

Christian Brim (42:25.062)
Hmm.

Coach Rob (42:39.692)
YouTube and everything we can do to learn to be and do whatever it is we want to do.

Christian Brim (43:08.507)
I lost you on that. I, you have all this that you need to do in a limited amount of time. So I lost you after that.

Coach Rob (43:19.968)
Okay. So you have all this you need to do in a limited amount of time and I never understood that in today's society when we have, you know, one life, one shot, why would you not put everything you can out into the universe to become the best version of yourself?

Christian Brim (43:36.702)
Yeah. And, and I, you know, you talk about criticism and like, there, there are a lot of people that we let their criticism influences. And like, I learned like, there are very, very few people that have the right to speak into my life. Like, and I'll tell you who they are. The first cutoff is who's going to be at your funeral. Like if they're not going to be at your funeral, they absolutely have no right to be speaking into

your life and criticizing you because like who gives a shit what you think right? And you know the circle that's actually going to mourn you that's going to be sad you're gone you know that may be a dozen people I you know I mean the reality the reality is like you said is it's it's small you know those are the people that can speak into your life and say you know Rob I think you need to be doing something differently.

or, you know, and those people, you may not want to hear the criticism, but they're the people that you absolutely should listen to because they care about you.

Coach Rob (44:45.102)
Yeah, I mean, I agree with that 100 percent. My best friend that I met him in the military and we've been friends, God forever, over 20 years now. I always ask him, like, dude, help me with my business. And he'd always tell me no. And then one day he told me he's like, you're my best friend. Like, I'm not going to ruin our friendship because we have some argument over a business. And I had to respect him for that. And he's probably one the most brutal people to me. Like, well, you're not making money doing this. So what are you going to do?

to the point where it pisses me off, not because it angers me, but a lot of times he's right, he's that outside guy looking in. yeah, you hate it, and you're like, man, but at least I have someone that has my back. And even with my wife, with everything I've done, there's been points where I've been close to quitting this, and I guess I gotta go back and get a real job.

Christian Brim (45:21.329)
Yeah, yeah, I hate that. I hate it when they're right.

Coach Rob (45:40.078)
She'll be the deciding factor usually being like, no, I see what you do. A lot of people liked your last podcast episode, like you owe it to yourself. To keep going and as long as finances, the every day to day I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, car to drive, and happy, healthy, and my kids are happy and healthy, I'll keep doing this until I can't do it anymore or until the wife says, okay, time to stop.

Christian Brim (46:11.355)
Yeah, I remember vividly when my wife said, you know, you're and she said it just as calm as this. She goes, you're mad because you know, I'm right. And I'm like, yes, that is exactly why I'm mad. Rob, how can people find out more about working with you and buying battle fitted gear?

Coach Rob (46:34.668)
The best place is battlefittedbrand.com. Battlefittedbrand.com, that's my website. I am literally on every social media platform, I think, at Battle Fitted. My highest one being Instagram. That's where I usually connect most with people. So if you find me on Instagram at Battle Fitted, feel free to DM me. The coaching consultation is always free and whether you decide to work with me or not, I do small group.

and one-on-one 90 day sessions in total. And even if you're like, man, this isn't gonna work, I will always send you a free resource, whether it's my book on five tips on mental resilience, how to beat imposter syndrome, a seven day mindset reset guide to kind of get you back on track. All just for having a conversation with me.

Christian Brim (47:28.445)
I love that. listeners will have those links in the show notes. If you like what you heard, please rate the podcast, share the podcast, subscribe to the podcast, do all three. If you would rather hear somebody besides me and Rob, shoot us a message and we'll consider it. Until then, remember you are not alone.