[INTERVIEW]
Alex Murphy: Brad, welcome to Beyond the Trees. Incredibly excited to have you, man.
Brad Johnson: Glad to be here, Alex.
Alex Murphy: We’ll kick it off. You spent years around some of the top-performing advisors around the country. From your perspective, what are some common patterns that you’ve seen where people look successful on the outside, but internally they’re disconnected or exhausted from their work?
Brad Johnson: That’s such a… It’s a simple question with a big answer. So, I’ll do my best on that one. I think if I zoom out before I zoom in, it’s kind of, are you true to who you want to be? And one of the things we talk a lot about at Triad is having a vision for where you want to go. And I think not just independent financial advisors, but a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners as they build their business, the hard part is when you’re a founder, you kind of have this idea, and most people left where they were to build what they thought could be that was important to them. Here’s what I want to recreate, and here’s what I don’t want to recreate, myself included at Triad.
And so, you have a vision, but then as it takes a team and you build out a team to help deliver on that vision, what gets harder and harder is how do you get a bigger group of people to align with the vision that oftentimes is only in your head? And so, I think where I’ve seen advisors, founders accidentally go off track is they didn’t extract the vision. They didn’t put it on a piece of paper, or maybe it just evolved and changed as they learned and faced different challenges as a business owner, and they didn’t course-correct. And oftentimes, I think the entrepreneurial lie is, “Oh, I’m doing this for my family,” or, “I’m doing this because I believe in this.” But if you’re not real with yourself, sometimes you look up two, three, four years later, and you’re accidentally breaking out of the prison you left and building your own around you that you’re in control of.
So, I mean, that’s kind of the big… There’s a lot of different factors you can go down into, but I think one of the biggest challenges as any business owner is to make the hard decisions that stay true to who you want to be, including sometimes turning away revenue in the short term if it’s not aligned with who you want to be in the long term.
Alex Murphy: Yeah, that’s a great point. The intentionality of what you’re saying there is so key, and so many advisors start out just trying to make it, right?
Brad Johnson: That’s the hard part. You’re trying to pay the bills, right?
Alex Murphy: That’s right. Yeah. But then, I think as you break out, that clarity that you explained is so key, and then staying true to it is what I’m hearing is, is a big challenge for people.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. I mean, being an entrepreneur, I’ve officially been one now for coming up on six years. I was an entrepreneur in my prior role, where I was coaching a lot of advisors, kind of had a small book of business. We were mentioning some of the captive firms prior that a lot of advisors grew up in. It’s kind of like that. It’s like you’re building your own business, but somebody else’s name is over the door, right? That was kind of the situation I was in. And I think a lot of people in that situation, they’re looking at Instagram and being an entrepreneur looks glorious, right? I just do whatever I want, whenever I want. I’m on the yacht when I want.
And I had a friend tell me, as I was entering this journey, he said, exact quote that I found to be very true, “You will have more freedom than you’ve ever had, and you will never truly be able to go on vacation.” Because guess what? When stuff goes wrong, guess who gets the phone call? And I’ve found that to be very true. And so, I think as an entrepreneur, as an independent advisor out there, you just have to almost realize you’re playing a new game, and it’s kind of the entrepreneurial rollercoaster. It’s the highest highs, it’s the lowest lows, and I know you do a lot of work around mindset, and I’ve found that to be very helpful that if your mindset isn’t right, if you can’t be calm and confident through the ups and downs of the random stuff that gets thrown at you every day, there’s no way you can lead a team because teams don’t want to follow emotionally volatile leaders, you know?
So, I think it’s just almost like knowing if yesterday was great, tomorrow somebody might just walk in your office and resign that you didn’t see coming because people are people. Things change, seasons change, and so I almost feel like that’s been really helpful to me is just, try never to get too high or too low in any given day, you know?
Alex Murphy: Yeah, I think that’s a fantastic point. And it’s interesting you decided to build your own thing at one of the most volatile times in my lifetime, in 2020. How do you feel like that sculpted this whole journey for you? Because that’s a crazy time to, yeah, I’m going to start building my own thing. You know, I got to make a change.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Right in the year that COVID shut everything down. Good timing. No, in a weird sort of way, I think it helped me on my path. And what I mean by that is it was obviously a really tough year for a lot of people, health-wise. But what it did for me is it put a scratch in my record. Like, that year had things just played out as prior years would have, I had 150 independent offices I was coaching nationwide. It was insurance brokerage, wealth management, kind of my book of business. Billion dollars of annuity business flowing through that group annually, probably 2 billion to 3 billion. So, I’d spent 13 and a half years of my life building relationships, cold calling, doing the work to really earn that.
And when the world shut down in March, I was supposed to be on the road 70 to 80 nights that year, different trainings, flying out to see clients. And overnight, I got my spare bedroom upstairs. You know, I’ve got, like, a camera, I’ve got like a box that I’m setting my computer up on because it wasn’t in the plan. And I just started hammering Zooms all day long because every advisor I was working with was like, “My marketing plan for 2020 just got thrown out the window. What do I do?” Everybody was kind of in freak-out mode. And as I kind of settled into that, I remember one day my wife, she comes upstairs and knocks on the door about 5:00 p.m. I open it up, and there’s two glasses of red wine in her hand, and she’s like, “Are you off work yet?”
And I was like, “Yeah, actually, now I am, because that looks amazing.” And it was almost like unplugging. It gave me some clarity of like, wait, is success really making a ton of money every year and missing all the stuff that matters? I’ve got three kids. At the time, my oldest was probably a fifth grader. Yeah, fourth or fifth grader. Now, he’s a freshman in high school. He’s 16. And I would’ve missed ball games. I would’ve missed some of those family dinners. And I would’ve financially been succeeding. And it really made me reimagine the equation to success. And I think in our space, oftentimes that is the bank account. And I think everybody has a different definition of success, but that wasn’t mine.
And it was like more money, but missing, you know, you can’t buy back the time later. And so, that was really… It gave me the space to actually have time to really process that and figure out what do I want.
Alex Murphy: Yeah. It is crazy how those wild moments in time can reset us and adjust the way that we think about things. And honestly, your core of your message is Do Business, Do Life, as your podcast is named. And it sounds to me like that moment in time allowed you to really dive in and realize, “Yeah, I do want to be able to shut off and have some wine with my wife. I don’t want to be on the road.” And I think a lot of advisors/professionals have a really hard time with that. So, that is something I want to transition to. Something I really appreciate about your work is you’re willing to be open about conversations people in our industry aren’t. So, burnout, emotional health, identity, even therapy for entrepreneurs. Why do you think those are so rare in our industry, and just generally among high achievers in life?
Brad Johnson: I think it’s easier not to look in the mirror and see the truth. And I think it’s harder for guys because society has kind of wired us that if you cry or have a chink in the armor, then you’re weak. And it’s interesting because I’ve always tried to embrace coaching. And I mean, I grew up playing pretty much every sport but then ended up playing college football. And if you’re not coachable, if you don’t have somebody there kind of speaking into where you can improve and maybe your blind spots, you’re not going to be as good a player as you could be. And if I look at that in life, if I’m not willing to look in the mirror and see where I could level up, what my blind spots are, because we all have them, but if I’m not willing to do that work, then I’m not going to achieve the potential I could be as a husband, as a dad, as an entrepreneur, as a leader in my firm, as a leader in the community.
And so, maybe that was a gift to me. And by the way, I’ve been slow at times through that process over the years. My wife would tell you that. But I had a gift from a mentor named Michael Hyatt, and this was probably 2015. I joined a mastermind. And I’ll tell you, as a leader, a strength is to be vulnerable and to be honest and authentic. And this guy was New York Times bestseller. He had one of the largest blogs in the world at the time, had published Dave Ramsey’s books, John Maxwell’s books. So, I kind of went in that room, and I kind of had him on a pedestal a little bit. And I think that’s a dangerous place to put other people on, and it’s a dangerous place to put yourself on.
And he gave me a gift that day. He shared how, when he was CEO at Thomas Nelson, he’d show up at the office at 4 AM. It was, like, his goal to be the first guy there. Essentially, he said he was a workaholic. He was married to his wife, Gail, had five daughters. And basically, one day he brings home a really, like, the biggest bonus check he’s ever gotten because he was crushing it at the office. And basically, the bonus was the equivalent of more than his annual salary. So, he gets home, sits Gail down. He’s like, “Honey, look what I got. You know, I crushed it this year.” And she said, “Actually, we need to have a talk. I feel like I’m a single mom.” And so, he went from this super high moment to this super low moment, and he was honest enough and vulnerable enough to share that.
And he basically said, “Yeah.” And then she said, “I think we should go to therapy.” And I told her to go, and she could record it, and I’d listen to it on my way to the office. And I only share this because I know he shared it publicly. But he gave me a gift that day because he made it okay. It’s okay for a super successful, driven businessperson to not have it all together, to have to put in the work to figure out other areas of his life that mattered to him. And that’s not easy to do, to be vulnerable and authentic, especially in the public eye. And I think the reason that I have been willing to speak about it is it’s kind of the old saying, somebody sent the elevator down for you and helped you on the way up. Make sure, as you ride it up, you don’t forget to send it down for others.
I’m not saying like I’m above others. I’m just saying that was a gift given to me, and it would be a disservice if I didn’t share that with others that needed it. And so, I’ve always just tried to really lean in to just being real and talk about the stuff that I know happens because I’ve been in private rooms where super successful CEOs are crying because they don’t have any friends. It’s lonely at the top. They’re struggling with the balance of holding the business together without the family falling apart. Like, congratulations, you’re normal. That’s life. And if you can lean in and get the help there, then obviously that’s what it’s all about. So, that’s just always been my approach, Alex, and it seems to resonate.
Alex Murphy: Yeah, it’s beautiful. Anybody who’s listening has probably had a day where they had an awesome day at the office, and then they went home and kind of got struck back down to earth a little bit. And so, I think that’s such sage advice there. But another piece that I’ve heard you talk about that I’d love for you to share, and I think it perfectly aligns with this, is how you structure your calendar and your priorities at home versus business. And I would also be curious when you hit that point where you said, “I’m going to implement this,” and what the turning point to do that was.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, I just shared that last story, and it was about that same timeframe. It was 2015, and I’ll share something that’s kind of funny. Michael was talking about… Yeah, I shared some struggles keeping up on the inbox. As you know, the email never turns off. Could be a full-time job if you let it be. And also, I mean, wife, three kids, so now you’re trying to navigate all the work requirements and, oh, by the way, oh, shoot, I scheduled over my son’s T-ball game. You know, never intentionally, but just too much going on and stuff getting booked on a family calendar and a work calendar, and just the mistakes that happen. And of course, that would create conflict, right? Like, “Hey, aren’t you going to show up to the baseball game?”
And so, in that same mastermind, they had this concept where you’d sit on a hot seat. You’d say, “Here’s a problem I need help with.” And then the group would speak into some ideas and some solutions. And it was like, “Well, you need to get an EA.” And I was like, “What’s an EA?” I mean, I literally didn’t even know. And crazy, that’s a lot of finance. If you look at Fortune 500 companies, pretty much every CEO has an EA, executive assistant. And if you look at finance, almost no financial advisors have an EA. In fact, I did a YouTube video on this because I’m like the number one missing role in finance, an EA. And Brooke, my EA, and I did just kind of a conversation around that. And I couldn’t, and I wouldn’t want to run a business without an EA.
Brooke, my joke with her, and my wife, Sarah, she’ll say the same thing. We’re like, “You make our marriage better.” And it’s because here’s work, here’s family calendar. She’s like air traffic control at the top. So, if we’ve got a client flying in, dinner, she’s going to check with Sarah, “Hey, what’s the family?” She has access to the family calendar, but she’s going to double-check. “Are we good to book this, or is there a conflict that I don’t see?” “Nope. Open. Book.” So, now the whole concept of double-booking yourself accidentally, for the most part, has been solved. I don’t touch my calendar because every time I do, I break it, and Brooke and my wife just slap my hands.
And so, calendaring, inbox management, I’ve heard it said that an email is somebody else’s to-do list. So, if all you do is somebody else’s to-do list all day, then you never get yours done. So, Brooke and I have a system where she’s in my inbox. Oftentimes, she’ll respond on my behalf. “Hey, Brad’s tied up in a meeting,” so it’s more instantaneous for anybody trying to get a hold of me. Message read, “Here’s what’s up. Oh, can I schedule an appointment for you?” So, now instead of me waiting to read an email, it’s already being acted upon. And if there are things only I can respond to, she’s got folders that’s reply internal, reply external, reply personal. So, I can go at the end of the day, just pop into those calendars, and now instead of five hundred emails to sort through, I’ve got like five.
So, found that to be very useful. Also, we do an annual calendaring meeting with Brooke, usually, like, last quarter of the year, where we look out the year in advance and kind of put the big rocks on. So, the big rocks would be family birthdays, anniversaries, family trips, and then we work the business around that. And I’ve found oftentimes what happens, those are reversed for a lot of people, where all of the business stuff is on there first, and then they’re trying to work their life around the business. So, put the high-priority stuff in first, so it’s the number one priority, and then the other stuff can work around that.
Alex Murphy: Yeah, that’s awesome. And shout out to Brooke in scheduling this, which she was amazing. And, obviously, there’s a cost with that, right? And I want to touch on two things. One, you, in a podcast I listened to that you did, you mentioned your process for hiring her, and I thought that was genius and would love for you to share that. But also, for you, the dollar that you put on that role, how do you correlate that to what you get from it? Like, the value that it brings to your life, so that when advisors are looking at this and they’re saying, “Yeah, but do I really want to spend that money?” I want them to know, yeah, because it’s going to bring this to your life.
Brad Johnson: Okay, a couple of thoughts. It’s funny, and I’m not here to promote my show, but the episode that literally dropped this week, as we record it, I shared a story of how one advisor made their time worth $40,000 an hour. And how he did that was an exercise I share in that episode, where the biggest missing piece I’ve seen from a lot of advisors is they don’t know what an hour of their time is even worth, and they don’t value it that way. So, if you make a million dollars of top-line revenue, you take two weeks of vacation for the year. So, now you’ve worked, which by the way, most advisors I’ve found take substantially more, now that’s a million dollars, 50 weeks worked. If you just worked 40 hours a week, that’s 2,000 hours a year.
So, a million divided by 2,000. Now, an hour of your time at the enterprise level is worth $500 an hour. And obviously, if you have team members, more contribute to that. But if you start to use that as an exercise, then my time is worth $500 an hour, and now you spend two hours a day checking emails. You’re not going to hire somebody and pay them $500 an hour to do that work. But guess what? You’ve hired yourself to do that work. So, if you start to think about it that way, what’s an hour of my time worth? And then what is the stuff I do on the daily that I wouldn’t pay somebody else that rate to do that work, really quickly, the mindset, it’s not an expense anymore, it’s an investment.
If I start to invest in a team, number one, they can get to that stuff way quicker. So, you said it was a great experience with Brooke. Guess what? If you would’ve tried to book that with me, it would’ve been a horrible experience. We wouldn’t probably even be here. We’d be on two different riversides right now. So, what I’ve found is there’s this almost like fear of letting go oftentimes because you’ve always been doing it all yourself. But the moment it clicks a different way, where if I invest in a world-class team, my hourly rate actually goes up because now I can focus on things like, instead of checking emails for two hours, that’s another appointment.
And now if I have another appointment in that time, we all know what a successful appointment looks like and the ROI on that, that’s how the advisor made his time worth $40,000 an hour. When he’s in a room in front of an educational event with a room full of retirees, we backed into the math. That hour in front of them equates to $40,000 of revenue for his team because he’s feeding his advisors appointments on their calendar. So, he’s built his business in a way he doesn’t even do appointments anymore. He leads the marketing to fill the calendars for his team because that is exponentially the best value of his team’s time to the firm. So, that’s the high-level concept and just how I got Brooke to answer the front part of that question.
A company called Belay Solutions, which is a virtual assistant company. That’s what they do. It’s like match.com for entrepreneurs and assistants. And Brooke was essentially one of the first hires when we started Triad because I knew I needed to protect my time. That was the number one thing I wanted to do as we were building this. And she started out at ten hours a week because you could just kind of hire as a contractor. Really quickly, that went to 20, then it went to 40. And then the way Belay works is you actually have the ability, you can buy them out of their contract. So, I think it was a year that she worked with me as a contractor virtually. She’s in Atlanta. I’m in Lawrence, Kansas.
And then I was like, “Okay, Brooke, do you want to join Triad officially?” We bought her out of her contract, and she’s been here, I think, over five years now, going on six. So, it’s been awesome.
Alex Murphy: Cool. Yeah. Am I right, recollecting this correctly, that you actually tied your wife into that interview process with Brooke?
Brad Johnson: You have listened to some podcasts, my man.
Alex Murphy: I try. I’ve done some homework.
Brad Johnson: So, yeah. So, everybody, I think the biggest thing is what’s your vision for that role. My vision for that role, I don’t know if you can see it behind me, but do business, do life, as you referenced earlier. I want to build a business in a way that blesses my life, that doesn’t become my life. And I knew In order to do that, whoever was in that role, number one, Sarah had to approve of them because she was going to be interacting a ton with my wife. And I also wanted to make sure that person knew when they were stepping into that role, that was part of the requirement. So, I just brought Sarah into the interview when we interviewed Brooke, and when she gave the thumbs up, I gave a thumbs up. That’s when we moved forward.
So, if that’s the vision for whoever’s listening, absolutely bring your significant other into it. Some people might take more of a stance of like they’re just handling the business side of the equation. If that’s the case, then I don’t think it’s required.
Alex Murphy: Yeah, that makes sense. What I love about what you said there is we have X amount of energy in our lives, in our days, in our weeks, in our months. And if I spend two hours looking through emails, that’s some of my energy that’s gone, and I’m probably not even as good at my appointments. I’m probably not as good at everything else that I’m doing, that I really need to focus on because I feel burned out doing work that I don’t enjoy. Do I even consider it work? I mean, if I did emails all day. At the end of the day, I’d probably look back and think, “What did I do?” Where did my time go?
Brad Johnson: Exactly. Yeah.
Alex Murphy: I think that’s really key. I love that. So, I mean, I could talk to you all day, man. I really love your podcast and just generally what you’re doing in life, and I’ve seen a little bit about what Triad Partners is doing, and that as well. But I want to be diligent with your time. So, one last question for you. How do you personally balance staying ambitious but also being present in your life, being present with your family, and being content knowing that, yeah, I mean, if you put more hours towards business, you could do more, right? I mean, it’s a possibility, but you know that what you’re doing outside of business is worth giving that up.
Brad Johnson: That’s hard. I think that’s where a lot of advisors struggle because what I’ve found, being in this space for 20 years, part of what makes you good as an advisor, you have drive. I kind of joke it’s like grown-up athletics, you know? Like I said, I played college football, and what I love about sports is it teaches you if you want to be out on the field competing, you have to do the work, whether that’s in the weight room, whether that’s in the film room. Because if you don’t put forth the effort there, you’re not going to get the playing time. And I think in advisor world, it’s the same thing. Like I had three years of corporate life, thank God, before I got into this space because I figured out what I didn’t want to do.
And what I didn’t want to do was sit in a cubicle and code. I was actually an IT major, and I was like, “I suck at this, and I don’t enjoy it.” But I always loved people. I always had an interest in investments and how to do it in a strategic way. And so, as I started to go down that direction, I just realized, “Oh, this is interesting.” Instead of having 10 levels of corporate management stacked on top of me, where I’ve got to play politics and check the boxes, in this world, you get what you put in. If you invest into relationships when I was cold calling, if you add value every time you talk to that person where this Alex guy’s like, “Man, I don’t know who this Brad guy is that keeps calling me, but every time I talk to him, he remembers what I needed help with, and he adds value of how I can help fix that thing.”
What I found over time it’s just people feel guilty if they don’t work with you. They’re like, “This dude’s pouring more in than the people I actually do my business with,” right? And so, it was just a way to be in an environment that I related to, because it’s like you get what you put in. And unfortunately, when you’re in an environment like that, it’s like, okay, so if I do 20 hours a week, I can double if I do 40. If I do 40 hours a week, I could double my results if I did 80. So, it’s almost like this drug that can get a hold of you because you’re looking at the bank account, it’s going up and to the right. And I think that’s why it’s so important, what is your definition of success? Like for me, we say it’s not about success, it’s about significance.
Success is about me. Significance is about we. And whether that’s building a team and a company that you can make others’ lives better, you can empower them, you can better serve your clients because of that. Whether it’s about we at home, where it’s like, how do I want to show up as a dad, as a husband? Back to the calendaring exercise, it’s possible. If it doesn’t get calendared, it doesn’t get done. So, build the calendar in a way that reflects who you want to be. And I think that’s the easiest hack right there, Alex, for anybody watching or listening to this. Just go to your calendar, look at the last month, look at the next month, or two months coming up. What’s it say?
Does it say I work 60 hours a week and miss every ball game and family dinner, but I’m making a lot of money? Well, that’s your definition of where you want to be. I guess that’s okay. But if it’s not, then it’s time to do some calendar triage. And I think that’s the quickest way to the truth is just where is your time being allocated currently, and is that where you want it to be allocated? And guess what? Your kids don’t care how much money’s in the bank account. Like in the financial advisor world, if you have any level of success, you do okay for yourself. And so, now, do you want to be the multimillionaire that doesn’t have a relationship with your kids because you just grinded away the whole time they were in the house, and now they’re college kids with no relationship with you? Or do you want to be the one that looks back and says, “Dad was at every ball game”? And that’s the choice you have to make. Or mom.
Alex Murphy: Yeah. No, absolutely. And I think people often realize that too late. But let me just repeat this line because I think everyone needs to remember this. Build your calendar in a way that reflects who you want to be. I think that is incredible. If you take nothing else away, take that away. I got one last, last question for you, Brad.
Brad Johnson: All good, man. I got the time.
Alex Murphy: For anyone who hasn’t seen Brad, he’s a well-built guy. He’s obviously working hard at something to stay fit. Brad, what are you doing? Are you a community workout guy? You know, tell me a little bit about it.
Brad Johnson: It’s evolved. I mean, I’ll be forty-six this year. So, I had the gift of college football, which, guess what? You work out whether you want to or not because it’s like kind of being in boot camp. They tell you when to show up, and I’m actually glad this happened. I was so tired of working out after my senior year, and I had like six hours left in my last semester of college. I was a complete loser. You know, I basically stayed up until 2 AM playing video games with my buddies, eating McDonald’s, probably drinking too much beer. And I got into my first corporate gig, and there was this little afternoon pickup basketball game once a week. And they’re like, “Oh, Brad, you played college football. Come on out, play with us.”
And I was like 22, 23 at the time, and I had 40-year-old guys just running straight by me because I hadn’t touched the gym in like six or eight months.
Alex Murphy: Oh, good God.
Brad Johnson: And that really quickly taught me this is not who I want to be. And so, I had that little six-month hiatus from the gym, and I was like, “Okay, it’s time to get back after it.” And my hack has been this. I mean, I’ve done the kind of Globo Gym where you meet a buddy and do bench press. I got into CrossFit for probably four or five years, where I got pretty intense after it with kind of the community workouts. I’ve had random buddies be my workout partners at my house because I’ve got kind of a home gym set up. And then, actually, the last year and change, I had a trainer named Rain in Austin. So, if you catch this, Rain, thanks, buddy, for keeping me after it. We had a nice little session this morning.
But the nice thing with technology now, I’ve got a tripod, an iPhone, and AirPods. I just throw them on there. We FaceTime, and he runs me through a workout virtually. And so, the biggest lesson, though, I would say that stayed the same, I’ve kept an accountability partner, and I think that’s where a lot of people I see them fall off track. If it’s just up to you to not hit snooze on the alarm and go work out yourself, I’ve seen a lot of people fall off. It’s the old New Year’s resolution, I’m going to get in shape this year, and then by the end of January, it’s back to the same. And I’ve just found if I tell somebody I’m going to meet them at the gym at a certain time, I’m not going to ghost them. I’m going to be there, and we’re going to get some work in.
And so, as I’ve gotten older, that’s become a trainer because the buddies stopped showing up. So, I had to find a buddy to show up and pay him to be there. But that’s what’s worked for me.
Alex Murphy: That’s awesome. I love that. Yeah, my wife…
Brad Johnson: You look like you’re getting after it, man. Like, did you have some sports in your background?
Alex Murphy: Yeah, I played basketball, baseball, soccer, and track through high school and soccer through college. But really, my wife brought me into the HYROX world. And so, we did our first one two years ago, and I love to compete. And so, it really sucked me back in. You’ve had those moments, I’m sure, when you’re training for football, where you can lock into the moment, right? It’s like I know a moment where I’ve been gassed, and I’ve needed a little bit extra fuel, and I didn’t have it, and I never want to feel that again. And so, I used to be able to lock back into that with sports, and then I lost that a little bit. And so, I worked on getting bigger, and that was fun. And there’s only so much about looking better that motivates me.
But with HYROX, you compete with yourself and your time every time. And so, the thought of having a worse time, and we’ve done it actually as a couple, which is really neat. I’ve never been more proud than looking over…
Brad Johnson: My wife and I just did our first HYROX a couple of months ago in Houston.
Alex Murphy: Oh, awesome.
Brad Johnson: So, we flew down and met with one of my clients and his wife. So, we did the four-person, not the two-person. But you’ve done the two-person where you’re doing the full run and then swap out at the stations?
Alex Murphy: Yep. Yep.
Brad Johnson: Now, that’s getting after it. I only did two rounds. I did the lunges and the sled pull, and my legs didn’t work right for two days. So, I can only imagine if I did the whole thing.
Alex Murphy: Oh, man, actually, the relay, the sled pull in particular, you’re doing the full length, whereas if you have a partner, you get a little break on each one. So, I think there are pros and cons to each. I did one of those with four guys in Atlanta last year, and I think I did sled push and farmer’s carry. And I came out of that sled push and felt like I had Jell-O legs.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. I didn’t realize the… I thought the run was on front, and then you did the station and basically tagged the hand. I didn’t realize there was a little run on the back end, and my legs didn’t work after either of those two. I was doing the CrossFit shuffle. It was more like a walk than a jog.
Alex Murphy: Oh, man.
Brad Johnson: But I got through it. It was good. It was fun.
Alex Murphy: That’s awesome. Well, maybe we’ll bump into each other at one of those events at some point.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Hey, well, sounds like if I partner up with you and your wife, sounds like I’m going to have to put in some more training on the cardio side because soccer players versus football players, you guys do a little more cardio, where football, it’s like go run really hard for 15 seconds and take a break, so.
Alex Murphy: Yeah. I never liked to run, actually. All the way through college, I never ran more than three miles intentionally, and then I decided one day, after we did our first HYROX, I said, “You can make your own mind up whether you like running or not.” And so, from that day forward, I’ve decided I love to run. My brother-in-law and I are training to do a half-marathon in our neighborhood, and then eventually turn that into a full marathon, whether we do it in the neighborhood or whether we actually go to an event. But we’re going to have a two-person half, maybe three-person if we get our other brother-in-law involved. But it’s all motivated from my wife, so definitely credit to her.
Brad Johnson: So, your wife is the one that’s getting after it, huh? So, she sucked you into HYROX.
Alex Murphy: Yeah, she’s a beast, man. She went a full month not being able to eat because she was having stomach problems, like acidic problems. And then dragged herself through the HYROX in Atlanta, sticking with me. And the whole time I’m thinking, “If I felt that bad, I don’t think I could keep going.” So, she’s one tough cookie.
Brad Johnson: That’s awesome. Yeah, the ladies they… My wife’s the same. She did the wall balls, and the burpees were her two. So, she got the real tough rounds there.
Alex Murphy: Yeah, those are tough ones. Credit to her for taking those on her back.
Brad Johnson: Yeah.
Alex Murphy: Awesome, man. Well, so much value from you today. Just loved spending time with you. Love your podcast. Anyone who hasn’t heard it, Do Business Do Life, go listen to it. It’s a wide range of content from solo, where you’re talking more to the financial advisor, and then you have some awesome guests, that I’ve really enjoyed listening to. And, actually, I looked into Rebl Dads because of one of your podcasts.
Brad Johnson: Cool.
Alex Murphy: So, check it out. And thank you for listening. We’ll see you next time.
