"Influencers" *REPOST 1/13/20*
It has taken folks far beyond my Personal Board of Directors to get me where I am today. Below is a listing of the 10 Influences who have either influenced big decisions, big actions or small and constant companionship influencing the way I view the world…they are, usually for the better, the sound or words that I surround myself with most of my days…enjoy!
Again...they are in no particular order...
Dave Asprey - https://www.bulletproof.com/
I first found Dave Asprey through his podcast Bulletproof Radio, close to 8 years ago. The title caught my eye and I was looking to learn more and be better…I wasn’t sure what that meant and I wasn’t sure what Dave was offering at the time, but I was not disappointed.
My estimation was that, much like Tim Ferriss, Dave Asprey had put himself through a number of human performance experiments and was drawn to high performers so his podcast episodes were his platform to present his knowledge to the universe for us to take what resonated with us and leave the rest. I have spent hundreds of hours with him and his guests and he has influenced both my high-performance habits and nutrition.
The Bulletproof diet is an eating style that works well with me and I have seen the benefits of experimenting with both intermittent fasting and bulletproof coffee.
Dave has an incredible history, and you can read more about him by clicking here
Jerred Moon - https://crew.endofthreefitness.com/
I was introduced to Jerred Moon through a friend of mine named Chuck when I was overseas in 2014-2015. Chuck was experimenting with One Man, One Barbell at the gym he worked out at and was seeing really solid results. I wasn’t confident in the barbell lifting space quite yet, but I was all in chatting all things strength and conditioning and sports nutrition with Chuck. We’d chat for hours most Sunday mornings.
I became intimately familiar with One Man One Barbell in my last couple of months overseas…I was looking to understand it so I could find a way to fit it to my confidence and abilities inside the weight room. Interestingly enough, I never really did. It had way more to do with my familiarity with barbell movements than the program, but nonetheless, I was interested in how such a simple program could yield consistent strength gains…I was used to folks changing up their programs based on what the latest Men’s or Women’s Health magazine had available; losing and gaining the same 10lbs and never getting “that much” better over time.
Around the time that I’d found Jerred Moon, he was just launching End of Three Fitness (Eo3) and I had a front-row seat to watch how he grew his “side hustle” into a leading strength and conditioning company. He, like most of my influencers, has audio content that I listened to often and really felt like I to know Jerred as a human being and tag along on his journey to build better humans. I’ve also taken an active role in learning through Eo3. I’ve taken their Coaches course (where I learned both the science and the art of building better humans) and Digital Side Hustle course (where I learned the basics of building an online business)…I used a lot of those tools to help with Nine-Four Coaching
Click here to learn more about Jerred at End of Three Fitness
Here are links to both of Jerred’s podcasts The Better Humanology Podcast ; Garage Gym Athlete Podcast
Brian MacKenzie - https://www.brianmackenzie.com/
Brian MacKenzie is my spirit animal. I can’t quite recall where I was introduced to Brian though. It was either his book The Unbreakable Runner or through a Tim Ferriss Podcast where he was interviewed along with Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece.
At any rate, Brian doesn’t look like your average endurance athlete he’s covered in what I imagine to be very powerful and meaningful tattoos and regardless of the meaning lots of visible tattoos a decade ago even was a bit unique (I mean I didn’t even have most of my tattoos back then).
Beyond that, he was unique among unique people. He was in an endurance sport and looked for ways to compete and save his athletes’ bodies at the same time. He was programming CrossFit and interval training to train for marathons; he was telling his athletes to run harder on intensity training and slower on volume training and he was measuring most of his intensity with nothing but breath…
I started following Brian because of his programming, and I’ve stuck with him because of his pivot to breathwork. He’s working with a number of really intelligent people developing breathing practices and tools approachable to everyone. He’s realized that everyone can benefit individually and collectively through better breathing practices…and I am 100% in along with him.
His best tool to date is his Shift State app. I have 4 mindsets to shift into (alert, present, calm, sleep) and it takes a little as 3 minutes and as long as 7 minutes to get there, and it’s all unlocked through the breath. Click here and give it a look
Steven Rinella - https://www.themeateater.com/authors/steven-rinella
Steven Rinella is doing what I want to be doing. He’s making a living doing what he loves and is building a legacy at the same time. Among many other titles, Steven is a writer, storyteller, hunter, advocate, conservationist, and teacher. His passion seems to be wildlife and the grounds that they’re found on.
I found Steven through his series Meateater on Netflix. I’m not an avid hunter, but Meateater isn’t a hunting show…I mean it is, but that’s only one part of it.
Wildlife and hunting grounds are not my passion; I’m following Steven because he’s the closest thing to what I see myself doing in my perfect world. He’s weaved his lifetime passion into several unique careers and that calls to me.
Check out Meateater on Netflix
Mike Bledsoe - Instagram @mike_bledsoe
If I’m not mistaken, I was introduced to Mike Bledsoe through his interview with Jerred Moon via Jerred’s Better Humanology podcast sometime in 2015.
At that time I was still just getting into studying true strength and conditioning and getting to know Mike was getting to know Barbell Shrugged, Barbell Business, and what’s now the Shrugged Collective.
As with most of my other influencers, I spent a lot of time learning about Mike’s history, his time in the Navy, college, weightlifting, CrossFit affiliate partnership, and evolution into the universe …
I say evolution into the universe, because while my introduction and influence had started with strength and conditioning…Mike’s greatest influence on me led me to evolution well outside of any gym walls.
Mike’s partnership with Anat Peri and work with Training Camp for the Soul (TCS) is almost 100% of the reason why I attended TCS. For a time I think Mike and Anat were on most of the Shrugged Collective podcast network shows and that was by great design and relationship building over the years. It was through those interviews I became aware of, learned about, and decided for myself that TCS was the right fit for what I was looking for the next step in my personal development.
I had no idea what that personal development would entail, but I guarantee that Nine-Four Coaching would not exist had I not attended TCS and I would not have attended TCS had it not been for Mike Bledsoe...
Follow him on Instagram…he’s always up to something pretty interesting
Joe Rogan - https://www.joerogan.com/
Joe does a little bit of everything and between acting, comedy, and calling UFC fights, I’ve known about Joe Rogan for the better part of 20 years…
…that said…I’ve spent the most time with Joe via his podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a fan of his early podcasts, but over time his message has evolved, and I’ve gotten to know more of who he is, and those two things together have made a huge difference. Joe is just very personable, he has a very low pressure interviewing style (much like Tim Ferriss) and it’s a conversation more than in an interview.
Beyond that, Joe’s a real guy. He really makes mistakes, he’s really fallible, he’s super hard on himself and at the same time, he wants everyone to work hard and win together. When I think about the business of business, I think about the rising tide that lifts all boats and I think about how that's what Joe’s 100% done in the world of comedy and how that’s what I want to do with what I put out into the universe
Dr. Sean Pastuch - Instagram @drseanpastuch
Dr. Sean…I was introduced to Dr. Sean when our gym participated in his Coaches Immersion course back in 2018. After that, I found some podcasts, and I’m a big fan of his IG presence.
Dr. Sean isn’t for everyone and had I not been as familiar with him as I am I’m not sure I’d have given him as much leeway as I have…the truth is Dr. Sean cares and Dr. Sean wants to help if he can. The work for you is to get clear on what you want…
…my biggest take away from Dr. Sean prioritizing clarity…clear in what you do, why you’re uniquely qualified to do what you want to do, who you serve, and how to most clearly communicate that to your audience.
I use Dr. Sean's tools and resources for Nine-Four Coaching and plan on using them for the people I’ll serve. Clarity can not be underestimated.
Follow Dr. Sean on Instagram @ActiveLifeRX and @ActiveLifeProfessional #turnpro
Mike and Adee Cazayoux - https://www.workingagainstgravity.com/podcast
When I first met Mike and Adee Cazayoux Mike was in the CrossFit athlete/coaching space and Adee was in the remote nutrition coaching space…they’re still there, but now they’ve joined forces to become the most tactical relationship coaches I’ve experienced in my podcast universe.
Mike and Adee have taken over a share of the Working Against Gravity podcast episodes and created usually short (30 minutes) singularly focused episode surrounding relationships in all of their forms and phases; how to cultivate them, how to repair them, how to maintain them, how to recover from them…
They bring their real-world relationship celebrations and heartaches to the podcast and that level of vulnerability allows me to feel comfortable exploring my own patterns and actions within my current and past relationships.
If I can suggest 1 episode to start out with, it would be Creating a System of Vulnerability in Relationships click here to view it on Spotify. I have historically had a hard time being vulnerable in all of my relationships, not just romantic relationships. This episode literally provides sentences to use to initiate difficult conversations…it was mind-blowing.
Julien Pineau - https://www.strongfit.com/about
I found Julien about a year and a half ago. He is an outlier. He is more in line with the strength and conditioning I was paying attention to before I started coaching CrossFit.
He is not loyal to any sort of dogma found in conventional strength and conditioning lanes. He is loyal only to is experience and his experiments.
The most interesting thing about what he’s doing is he’s exploring treating both anxiety and depression with movement practices. The treatment protocols look vastly different, but the concept remains the same. Humans can treat their own mental health mostly without the use of doctor-prescribed drugs and all they need is maybe a sandbag, sled, 200m course, and human connection…
He’s doing amazing things and I’m looking forward to what he uncovers in the near future.
If you’re into deep, deep nerdery, give his podcast a listen. Be prepared, he has a very thick French accent and dives deep, deep, deep into economics, quantum physics, energy along with lifting heavy things…enjoy!
KFAN Twin Cities - https://kfan.iheart.com/
…and last but certainly not least…my constant companions…the entire KFAN Twin Cities daily lineup…
Power Trip - Cory Cove, Chris Hawkey, and Paul “Meatsauce” Lambert
Paul Allen “The Paul Allen Project” - Paul Allen and Eric “Nordo” Nordquist
The Common Man - Dan Cole and Brandon “Tenna B” Mileski
Dan Barreiro with Justin “JG” Gaard
I started listening to KFAN via The Common Man “progrum” at least 15 years ago. Back then their podcasting wasn’t nearly as robust as it is now and I didn’t have the time or the “want to” to spend listening to sports talk radio
I slowly incorporated Dan Barreiro into my daily mix followed by the Power Trip and finally Paul Allen…when I’ve run out of things to listen to…or when Marney Gellner fills in…
These days my “Power Rankings” are as follows:
Power Trip
Dan Barreiro
The Common Man
Paul Allen
I like to tell people that I listen to KFAN when I don’t really have to pay attention to what’s going on in the background. It’s funny and it’s a bit true…what’s happened over the years for me through, is hours and hours of “not paying attention to what’s going on in the background” has fully engrained the KFAN line up into my vernacular, into the way I make small talk with people in my day to day life and the way I think about life in general
KFAN was in my universe during my last two deployments and there’s no doubt that each hour listening to sports, sports, sports was a slice of home and helped get me through
They are 100% my most constant companions and I talk to people in my life about what I heard on KFAN just like I was relaying a story about one of my oldest and dearest friends…
This thing that I’m doing…this venture into consulting and coaching and helping build strong communities…it’s a lot of idle time staring at whiteboards and computer screens…it’s new and even though I’m on my own, it’s actually a bit scary at times ...when I am listening to my shows though…it’s just like any other day and it’s great.
Lastly…I never grew up a Minnesota sports fan…for some reason I’ve always liked the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland A’s and never paid much attention to the NBA or NHL…I can’t say that I’m much of a Minnesota sports fan now, but I will say for being my 4th out of 4 choice in KFAN programming…Paul Allen is an ELITE Vox for the Vikings and Track Announcer at Canterbury Park…he’s a consummate professional at his craft and I’ll turn down the national guys and listen to him call the Vikings game every time.
And that's all for now
There are a number of “Honorable Mentions” that are too plentiful to mention at this time.
I noticed on the read through the pretty heavy unequal gender representation…and I didn’t change anything either…it’s not to say that I have not been influenced by women…that’s the furthest thing from the truth…
I guess what I mean to say is that I am the culmination of this unbelievably unique gathering of my influencers and I am the woman that would fit 100% perfectly into my Influencer list and potentially so far as my Board of Directors…#beingmyownhero
Thanks for the read!