Shad Martin (00:00.36)

Yeah, and for me, I probably do 10 a year and Dustin probably does 50.

Shawn Stringham (00:05.356)

Okay. Okay. Wow. Good. That's incredible. Well, that's, that's, that's fantastic. I mean, the principles that you're teaching and, are I, I connected with immediately as we kind of went through my background as a coach and as with obviously within game online studio. And, I think that the name of this podcast is find your challenge. And so part of that is like helping athletes. I I'm all in on helping.

individual athletes and teams become better people and like obviously immediately resonated with what you guys were doing so We'll wait for the final thumbs up for Chloe here, she's working on something here quick

Shad Martin (00:41.928)

Sweet. Awesome.

Shawn Stringham (01:02.166)

Okay, cool. Hey, Chad, thanks for jumping on, find your challenge here with us. I really truly appreciate it. I have been to a couple of your presentations resonated immediately with your message with, especially for athletes. And actually Melissa, my wife, went to one without me and came home immediately and said, you have to get ahold of Chad. You have to connect with him. You have to be friends with him.

Because what especially for athletes is doing is right up your alley And and so we want to dig into some of those principles and what you're teaching But quickly like just just drop the bomb on us like what is especially for athletes? What is the mission? What are you and your organization trying to do?

Shad Martin (01:49.448)

Yeah. So the founder of especially for athletes is Dustin Smith. Dustin Smith did a lot of QB training and as you're training, QB knees, you do a lot of leadership training and you see who is training these QBs on being leaders in their community. And, and it's not just what happens on the field. It's the way you treat people. It's using what we call the sport light that extra attention that's given to athletes because they play sports.

that is you could use that sport like to do good, not just to attract attention to yourself. And so it started there and Dustin and I were college baseball teammates. And I still remember where we were on the golf course at Hobble Creek when in Springville, Utah, when he said, hey, Chad, we need to take this a little bit beyond. I feel like this message is a little bit bigger than the QBs that I've been training.

And so we started to meet with groups and train groups and hold events. And now it's been 12, 13 years that we've been doing, especially for athletes. And, and it's grown. Now we're all throughout Utah, up in Idaho and into Arizona, Dustin flew out to Delaware to meet with the team and the athletic program that came upon our podcast and what we do and our book. and so.

So yeah, that's the origins of especially for athlete. Dustin Smith is the founder. I'm the co-founder and we love the message and I'm sure we're gonna dig into the message a little bit. That's the origins of it.

Shawn Stringham (03:24.226)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just so we're right up here up front, mentioned several different kind of media outlets there. You mentioned a you mentioned a podcast that I know is very active because I listen to it, and you mentioned presentations, right? And so are there other ways that people can experience kind of the messaging for, especially for athletes, or are those the main? So just like go through and shout out the topics and titles of each of those so people can

Hopefully not leave this one quite yet, but they can note how to get to your stuff from there.

Shad Martin (03:58.79)

Yeah. Our podcast is called especially for athletes podcast and very original. came up with that. And, I mean, we're, if you go to E the number four, a.org E four a.org, we have all of our links there. we have a podcast, we have very active social media pages. We go around and we do presentations and we'll go to Peewee. We've met with Peewee teams.

Shawn Stringham (04:05.484)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (04:28.264)

and we've met with professional teams. And so we go and do trainings, teams, large trainings. We do business trainings. Oftentimes our message resonates with more than just athletes and the principles applied to business and teamwork and creating a great culture within a business. so you can see everything we do at e4a.org and search out on any platform.

especially for athletes podcast and we're there.

Shawn Stringham (05:01.069)

Cool. Let's dig in. How about, let's start, you mentioned it already, the sport light. I love that and the kind of the imagery that comes along with that. How is the sport light a privilege, right? That's kind of what we're talking about, the essence of that. Sport light is a privilege and what is the responsibility that comes with it? Just break that down for, as we jump into the message here.

Shad Martin (05:24.22)

Yeah, so a sport light is a privilege because there's a lot of people who would love to be great at sports. And some are blessed with talent and ability and opportunity that allows them to excel in sports. And as someone excels in sports, our culture gives them an increased amount of, of attention. Right. And that attention is a two way sword.

Like it's a double edged sword. Everything an athlete does is more powerful. And sometimes that truth is a great thing. And sometimes that's a horrible thing. Because if you're walking through the halls of a school, for example, and you know, you're picking at people, mocking people, making fun of people or excluding people. If you're an athlete in the sport, like it is more hurtful. It hurts.

Shawn Stringham (06:01.324)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (06:21.72)

worse because it just seems to have a bigger impact. The other side of that sword is that when an athlete does something kind, when they give a compliment, when they bring someone in, we like to talk about that. We don't talk about including people. No one wants to be included. They want to be valued. And when an athlete recognizes the value in another person,

and is kind toward them, that sport light then makes that kindness more powerful. So we often tell athletes, you can't choose what you do. Like you can't turn off the sport light. You can only choose whether it's power for good or power for bad. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (07:03.531)

Right? How it's shining. Yeah. I love that. So, so mean, and, honestly, like I, as you described that for my, in my world, I kind of went to like different movies, right? Where maybe you have seen positive and negative examples of that sport light. And you think of, know, unfortunate, the very, very stereotypical, like the jock walking down the high school hall, wearing his letterman's jacket and he picks on a bully or he bullies someone, right? Someone who's, you know, like

I'm thinking of like, like Spider-Man or something silly, know, something silly like that, right? Like the negative use of that. give like, do you have, can you think of someone or a real life example or media example of like a prime example of what that sport like might look like or how that has impacted, can impact people's lives for good?

Shad Martin (07:51.836)

Yeah, as we interview a lot of professional and college athletes on our podcast, we'll often ask them that question. Like when have you seen someone use their sport light for good? The funny thing is with our media today is this stuff is happening every day all the time. These athletes are visiting hospitals. These athletes are going and taking time with a kid who's been through something tough at their school. They're raising money and forming foundations and building.

schools and all of these things that they're doing. And rarely does that get attention. What gets attention is all of the negative. But there's one of my favorite stories came from kind of two successive presentations. One year I went and I did a presentation at a school and we talked about this idea of valuing people, not leaving people out. And we give

Shawn Stringham (08:29.655)

all the negative ones,

Shad Martin (08:49.564)

this invitation to even think of those on your own team. You know, when you get together with people, notice who's not there. Notice what teammates are not there and why are they not there? Is it because they don't feel welcome or do they not want to be there? And if they don't want to be there, that's fine. But what if they just aren't brave enough to hang out with their own team or to make the steps necessary to do that?

And so we talk through those things. We talk about looking out, keeping your eyes up and doing the work and looking for people who are in need, doing the work to help them. Well, shortly after the presentation, there was this girl who had just recently moved into a community and she was just feeling left out. She mad at her parents, you know, how could you take me out of this high school?

Shawn Stringham (09:43.405)

Right.

Shad Martin (09:44.914)

where I had roots and now you put me here and no one's accepting me. I'm not connecting with anybody. And her mom said, no, you just need to put yourself out there. And she's like, mom, I'm trying. And she said, you just have to text people. We're having a party this Friday. You need to text people. I'm going to buy like 10 pizzas and a bunch of soda and you're having people over. So this girl started to text people and come to find out later, one of the...

young people who got the text. It was a drill team here in Utah. They sent out a text to the rest of the drill team and said, who is this? Like, does anyone even know who this is? This young lady who had been to our presentation, she was wearing her eyes up, do the work wristband. And she was like, this is an opportunity for me to do the work. So she...

Shawn Stringham (10:36.672)

Uh-huh.

Shad Martin (10:43.548)

decided that she was going to go to this party. She could tell that her teammates were being kind of negative about it. She shows up to this party and that night she was the only young person who showed up to that party. 10 pizzas, coolers full of soda. Now that sounds like a sad story, right? But she said, look, I would love to start hanging out with you. Come sit by me at lunch. I would love to introduce you to some people. And that girl...

Shawn Stringham (11:01.868)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (11:13.638)

like helped this young lady break into the social circles at her school. A year later, I go back to do the presentation at the same school and two moms and two girls come up to me. And there was a mom who was in tears saying, this girl saved my daughter's life. Like she helped our family so much. And so yes, it's professional athletes going to hospitals.

But what we try to help young people realize is if you will just keep your eyes up in your school, you're gonna see dozens of opportunities every single day to use your sport light to help and lift those around you. And our principle is seek to bless, not to impress. And we emphasize in our presentation, as you probably know, the word seek. We aren't talking about taking passive opportunities. We're trying to get athletes to be intentional, to understand.

Shawn Stringham (12:02.828)

Right. Yep.

Shad Martin (12:10.234)

I have the sport light, everything I do is powerful and if I'm kind, it can have a powerful impact on other people. And we ask them not just to, we ask them to seek out opportunities to use that sport light to help and lift those around.

Shawn Stringham (12:24.333)

And what I love about that is like when you're seeking, right? That's a different mindset, right? As opposed to just waiting for things coming at you, right? The act of seeking, of going out there and looking for ways to help. I mean, it's really a way of expressing humility and gratitude at the same time, really in a way. And what I would love for you to kind of talk about is like, you've got youth, you know, maybe younger than high school, you've got high school, you've got collegiate, you've got pro level.

How does it, like, how can it apply, how can a message for someone 14 and under, right? And maybe on the other extreme of that, you mentioned a little bit with like going and visiting hospitals, but what experience have you seen with it in the pro levels? Like, I think that's an amazing thing to think about as well. Like you've got maybe a pro athlete out making their living doing this, and how can they use this seeking guideline to improve the, what's people around them, right? And leadership around them.

Shad Martin (13:23.154)

Yeah. Well, let me start with that 14 year old because Sean, don't know. You've probably watched your kids go throughout school and some of our hardest experiences that we've seen have been in those junior highs. And so, you know, a while ago, Dustin and I started to realize like we're talking a lot to high schools and it's almost like by that point,

Shawn Stringham (13:26.391)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (13:38.388)

yeah. yeah, like amen.

Shad Martin (13:50.727)

Those kids have been hurt so much, you know, they've gotten behavior patterns. And so I think for the 14 year olds, if parents, any parents who listen to this, if you'll take your kids aside and if you'll teach them that principle of seeking to bless other people instead of to impress other people, a lot of times the idiotic things that junior high kids do to one another.

Shawn Stringham (13:53.356)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (14:07.329)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (14:18.77)

they're trying to impress people. If we could just flip that and not care as much about impressing people and turn our eyes to how can I lift and bless other people, that will change everything for them. And it's not just for the kids around them. My own daughter gave a talk in our church group and she said something that I felt was so profound. Of course, you know,

We've embedded these principles into the, into the, like, she's heard me talk about this a lot. Let's just say that she's a player at her high school and she made a statement. She's just getting ready to graduate high school. And she said, it's really hard to be self-conscious when you're being conscious of other people. And, and to me, that is a super powerful.

Shawn Stringham (14:49.227)

Right. Right.

Shawn Stringham (14:53.91)

Yeah, that's fair.

Shad Martin (15:16.686)

statement. And so I think it not only blesses those around 14 year olds, it also blesses the 14 year old if they'll start looking at life that way. Now Sean, don't know your camera's off.

Shawn Stringham (15:26.401)

Right, right.

Shawn Stringham (15:31.739)

I was just gonna say, Chloe, think my camera went off.

Wot Wot

Shawn Stringham (15:44.075)

While it's dark, I'll take a drink of water.

Shawn Stringham (15:49.966)

I just do that because I missed my 10 minute mark. What's that? I said I think I missed my 5 minute mark. Yeah, that's a 5 minute mark,

Shad Martin (16:00.68)

That's because I'm long-winded, Chloe.

Shawn Stringham (16:02.537)

No, that's great. That's fantastic. I love it. I, like I said, I could literally talk about this stuff all night. So, we're hopefully we don't go too long, but so as, as we jump back into this, want, I wanted to ask this question. Did you said you've been doing this for almost a decade now, 10 years or over or less than, how, about how long have you been doing this? Over 10. So have w like, what's the trend that you have seen in athletes? Like has, has the impact of social media.

and the professionalization of youth sports has that focused people away from this seeking, right? And the sport light. And obviously your message is trying to reverse that, but like, how do you see those two, two sides of the continuum with each other? Like what have you seen in terms of trends in youth sports now?

Shad Martin (16:54.44)

Yeah, well first of all, I would say that that bully who's slamming people into lockers, we haven't met many of those. That's totally fictitious in my mind.

Shawn Stringham (16:58.668)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (17:03.553)

We hope that is, right? Like they like to use that story in the movies, but like that's, that's fantastic to hear.

Shad Martin (17:07.176)

Most of our young people, fact, Dustin and I often say, what we're trying to do is not take a bully and turn him into a blesser. We're trying to take a bystander and turn him into a blesser. You someone who kind of looks and sees needs, but doesn't have the own personal confidence to address.

Shawn Stringham (17:21.25)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (17:35.229)

the needs that they see in their school. And so that bystander group is the group we're dealing with. mean, the bully group now, they're almost fading away, right? There's just, I haven't met many of those. I think it's a total made up thing about athletes that they're like that. But a lot of athletes, we look at them and we see them performing on the field and we think that they are these just super competent

Shawn Stringham (17:45.943)

Really? That's great to hear.

Shad Martin (18:04.615)

you know, I could reach out to anybody, I could do anything. And the truth of the matter is that those incredible athletes or those beautiful girls on the drill team, or there is just a self-conscious as everybody else. So what we're trying to do is flip a switch in their mind and help them live outside of themselves. And as they do that, it does have a huge impact on them. We've, we've talked about this on our podcast a lot about

A lot of things have changed in the last 10 years as we've been doing this. mean, the advent of social media and how easy it is for kids to get in trouble by posting one dumb thing. But for the most part, young people are good and they want to do good. What we do is we are not an awareness program. Like we don't go and just bring awareness to, there's...

Shawn Stringham (18:34.935)

Yeah. Yeah.

Shad Martin (18:59.731)

There's some mental health struggles at your school and there's lonely kids at your school. Like there's enough awareness programs. We want to be an action program. We actually want to go in and train young people. When we have our leadership council meetings, when we have our leadership council meetings, it's actual training. Here's how you could approach someone. Here's some things happening at your school. Council together as a leadership council and decide.

what you're gonna do to address these issues at your school and we train those things. And so, I mean, to your question, a lot's gonna change over the next, I mean, NIL, it's creeping its way down into high school, right? Where kids transfer high schools and they feel like they have to go a certain place to have an opportunity to get NIL in college. Like, it's, lot of things are changing, but things were way different for you and me when we were in high school than it was for our parents.

Shawn Stringham (19:41.131)

Yeah. Yep, it is.

Shawn Stringham (19:56.791)

Yeah. Sure.

Shad Martin (19:59.367)

So by training these principles, we have four core principles and we really believe like these things can keep kids steady through all the changes and they're basic principles, but it's helpful to the young people.

Shawn Stringham (20:13.356)

And I'm aware of it through obviously the podcast, the book, the presentations at the school, your, mean, do schools contract with you to come in and do training and to run leadership councils? that, there's a deeper connection there it sounds like as well that you can offer within, from a training standpoint for either a team or an individual or a school, break, kind of break that down.

Shad Martin (20:37.417)

Yeah, there's a nominal fee for schools to participate in our program. A lot of times that's more for buy-in. Most of the funding, the large, large, large majority of our funding comes from our donors and those who believe in the program. But the schools, it helps with the materials that we give the school. We give them bands and we get the leadership council books and

Shawn Stringham (20:45.546)

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, just to keep them engaged.

Shawn Stringham (20:56.193)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (21:06.631)

And we produce videos like we have videos that we take snippets of our podcast and we produce leadership lessons that are designed for leaders, athletic leaders of a school to come together for lunch once a month or whenever, however often they would like to do it. And, and to go through a five minute video that will set up a discussion that will help them be intentional about improving the culture of their school.

Our program is pretty robust. It's not just going and speaking to a group. We believe there has to be that training and that ongoing touch points. That's why we do our social media. So kids are constantly seeing the messages that we share. That's why we do the podcast is we just feel like these are things that we could talk about a lot. The more frequently we talk about them, the more likely they are to take hold. So.

Shawn Stringham (21:57.933)

Cool. So let's transition here. Like I said, as Melissa and I sat through your presentation with our kids that have gone through it and our athletes, there were some specific things in terms of the E4A exists there to develop character and the social responsibility in athletes. You've distilled some of those specific principles and that kind of put them with phrases that make them stick.

So let's jump into that and kind of talk through some of those things. But let's take a break right here. Are you good? Are we good, Chloe?

Shawn Stringham (22:42.326)

Okay. Work, I'm great.

Shawn Stringham (22:47.444)

Okay, take a drink.

Shawn Stringham (22:52.394)

So we're going to talk about coming up, we're going to be eyes up, do the work, and then...

Win the hour in the 16 to zero, That's a cool one. Make sure we hit all of these other that we have in here. Principle three, embrace the boredom of consistency. Is our language correct in terms of all of these individual principles?

Shad Martin (23:19.485)

That's with win the hour. we win the hour. We have be resilient. And then we have compete without contempt. And seek to bless, not to impress, which we've already.

Shawn Stringham (23:21.952)

Okay.

Shawn Stringham (23:35.212)

So let's kind of go into eyes up to the work first though, because I think that's kind of the main one.

Shad Martin (23:41.427)

Yeah, that is absolutely.

Shawn Stringham (23:48.958)

Set's falling forward. We're good. There we go. Good. Nothing. It's just me knocking things over. What's new?

Shad Martin (23:52.915)

next.

Shawn Stringham (24:02.667)

Thanks.

Shawn Stringham (24:06.476)

Solid. Sorry.

Shawn Stringham (24:13.994)

Alright, just confirming that we're recording, Chloe.

Shawn Stringham (24:21.43)

Cool. All right, Chad. So let's, let's jump into some of these key principles and do some, undo and break down on these. Cause I think they're so important and they're very memorable, easy to get through. First one you've mentioned a couple of times, but, this seems like it's one of the key principles of, especially for athletes. that's eyes up, do the work. So tell us, give us, give us, let's break that down. What do mean by that?

Shad Martin (24:47.075)

up, do the work, a lot of things. I'm getting back. Can you hear that?

Shawn Stringham (24:53.76)

Yeah, I'm here too.

Shawn Stringham (24:59.241)

Me or you?

There we go. Is that better? Okay. Let's start again. man. mean, at at least you're not knocking surfboards over like the rest of us in here. Maybe it is a surfboard. Yeah. All right. All right, Chad, let's, so let's break it down. Each of the, have a few key principles that, especially for athletes want to bring in the first one. We've mentioned that a little bit is the eyes up, do the work. So let's break that down a little bit.

Shad Martin (25:03.145)

There we go. Yeah. Yep.

Shad Martin (25:12.265)

I wondering what that was, surfboards, snowboards?

Shawn Stringham (25:31.82)

It makes sense, like, let's talk about eyes up. Here we go. Your turn.

Shad Martin (25:36.977)

Yeah. So when we say eyes up, do the work at its basic level, eyes up means that we're being intentional, that we're looking for opportunities to help people. That when we're walking around in the community, when we're going through a drive through, when we're walking through the halls of our school, when we're at practice with our own teammates, when we walk into our home alone, if we don't record our home when we're done.

don't recognize that there's needs, then we'll never, we'll never meet those needs, right? But but it's not just enough to recognize it. There, there's tons of times where we see things happening in the world. And we're like, man, that is so sad. I wish someone would go sit next to that kid. I feel so bad for that kid that's sitting alone at lunch, right? Like, we see things, or we see a young mother trying to

Shawn Stringham (26:14.347)

Right, right.

Shawn Stringham (26:31.457)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (26:36.467)

trying to unload a cart of groceries with a crying kid and it's cold and she's trying to keep the cart from blowing into other cars. Like just keep your eyes up, just look for things. And then when you see them, when you see opportunities, do the work, lift people around you. And when you live that arrows out mentality,

It makes your life better. makes the community better. And because you're an athlete, as we've talked about extensively before this, it's even more powerful. so that's eyes up, look for it, do the work, address it.

Shawn Stringham (27:11.008)

Yeah, I love it.

Shawn Stringham (27:16.564)

Right. And so again, the topic of this podcast is find your challenge, right? So similar kind of ideas, like we're trying to find ways for personal improvement, right? And the one, the reason that I love this is that if you're, think you've mentioned that your daughter and her talk, but if you're looking to, if for ways to seeking to help others, it really does help you forget about your own issues, right? Like it really does help put things in perspective, and help change that. so.

I personally love that. And we live in a world, like if you, this is one of my favorite things, like I travel a lot and when I go through the airport, I purposefully put my phone away, right? And you walk around and 95 % of the world's face down, right? They're face down, not looking around at the amazing things around them. And it's just, it's incredible to see that and I love seeing people who are giving this message, especially,

athletes and young people. Did you have maybe another story or something that kind of relates back to this change in perspective of how people have applied this Eyes Up to the work and the feedback that you've received from these teachings?

Shad Martin (28:30.951)

Yeah, I wish I would have brought some of the letters that come in. At the end of each of our presentations, we put up a QR code and the kids fill out a survey if they would like to sign up for our program. And we have some questions there. One of my favorite statements that a young person has ever made, they simply wrote this sentence when it said, what are you going to do because of the presentation tonight? Young person replied.

Shawn Stringham (28:39.148)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (28:59.463)

Today, someone was lonely at our school that won't be lonely tomorrow because I'm gonna do the work. just, I mean, we really do have binders full of these responses from young people. The greatest joy for us comes not just seeing what they do for other people, but to see the light in their eyes and the joy that comes to them when like you said, so.

many kids live their life like this right now. You'll walk up to a circle of kids, they'll be standing in a circle and they're all looking at their phone, right? And so that's part of it. And we do talk specifically about technology and the impact that it's having on young people when they're just living in virtual reality all the time and there's people right in front of them that they could truly connect with and...

Shawn Stringham (29:29.792)

Right. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (29:34.176)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (29:56.185)

and have experiences with. And to see young people start to live outside of themselves and the joy that brings into their lives is one of the greatest joys of sharing the message that we share.

Shawn Stringham (30:04.652)

Mm-hmm.

Shawn Stringham (30:13.548)

That's incredible. I love that. All right, second principle, and this is one of my favorite, like they're all great, but I really enjoy this one. And this, when I went through the presentation, I have been a win the day kind of guy, right? Like I go out there and I think of myself as we go in, like we've to go out and win this day. But you break it down even further to win the hour. And like, as I thought about that, I really love that because you change, you go from task to task or from event to F.

And so just talk about winning the hour and kind of how we should break that down and how we should change the way we think about

Shad Martin (30:52.561)

Yeah. So like you already said, we feel like transitions are important and we love the word when we're talking win the hour, we love the word intentional. So we try to train young people and ourselves, right? That if we are intentional with our time and we direct it toward our goals, there's a well-known speaker, Michael Ashler. said, the bad news is time flies.

The good news is you are the pilot. We had Justin Sua on our podcast, great episode. He's now the mental performance coach for the Dodgers. And he, when he, was for the Tampa Bay Rays as he was, when he recorded the podcast, but he said that we either live a life by design or by default. And we love to talk to young people about what that means.

A life by design is one that you are steering your time and your energy toward the things that matter most to you that you really want to accomplish in life. But to be honest, Sean, like most people and especially young people, they just let life happen to them. And so what we found is to win the day, you know, that's a big chunk to bite off, right? That's it. And so

Shawn Stringham (32:16.182)

That's a big order. Yeah.

Shad Martin (32:21.935)

Instead, we talk to them about winning the morning. What's your morning routine? If you don't have a morning routine, mean, everyone who's listening to this, if you don't have a morning routine, you can improve your life just simply by establishing a healthy morning routine. And then we talk to them about, now you're walking into a math class or a history class. What would it look like to win that hour, to dominate that hour?

And we you were there, I asked him, what would you do? Give each other advice. So they say, sit in the front, take notes, put away distractions, right? So what we're saying is if instead of just going in and let history class happen to you, as you're walking in, check in, you know, okay, I'm going in this class, I'm gonna sit in the front, I'm gonna take notes, I'm not gonna flirt with Julie, I'm gonna, you know, I am going to put away my phone.

Shawn Stringham (32:57.868)

Yep.

Shawn Stringham (33:11.498)

Okay. Yeah.

Shad Martin (33:22.823)

I'm gonna lock in, I'm gonna ask questions. If I have them, I'm gonna go up to the teacher after and thank him or her for the lesson. I am going to pay attention to those around me and help them get concepts they don't get that I might get. Like, if you're intentional, this is what I'm going to do to win this next hour. And then during the transition to the next thing, now you say, okay, I'm going to lunch.

And you might think, lunch, okay, that's when we let our hair down and don't be intentional. you know, when you pay attention to really good athletes and what they're doing, being intentional about your nutrition, not eating a bunch of crud and then expecting your body to run like it's, you know, being fueled properly. Be intentional about your nutrition and keep your eyes up and look for people. I really want to find someone today that I could talk to that I've never talked to before that might be on the outskirts, right?

Good nutrition, find someone to talk to. That's how I'm gonna win this hour. If during the transitions, we'll just take five seconds to think, what do I need to do to win this next transition? Sean, you've probably had a bad day in your life. I've had bad days in my life. Imagine the power of transition if you just say, I've had a tough day at work. Now I'm going to lock in here and I am going to go into my family.

Shawn Stringham (34:35.183)

Yeah, every once in a while.

Shad Martin (34:50.057)

and this is how I'm going to act. I'm going to be intentional about the way I act so that I'm a blessing to my family instead of a burden or whatever. If we'll just be intentional about that, we'll be better. Now, we say go 16 and 0, meaning there's 16 hours of the day that you're awake. Try to be intentional about every hour. Steer it toward those things that matter most to you, your time and energy, and then get a good eight hours of sleep, which a lot

Shawn Stringham (35:19.21)

Right? Yeah.

Shad Martin (35:19.721)

of a skip that step, right? But it's hard to go 16 and 0. Can you imagine if you just start stacking days of 16 and 0, 14 and 2, 15 and 1, 13 and 3, and you've been living in a

Shawn Stringham (35:25.749)

It is.

Shawn Stringham (35:34.7)

That's a good record, right? 13 and 3, you're winning in that world. That's right.

Shad Martin (35:37.321)

It's not good enough for the college football playoff we've learned here in Utah. But it's a good, like you're doing good, right? And you're being intentional and you're steering your time and energy toward the things that matter most and the goals you really want to accomplish. And so that's what we try to teach young people. It's amazing how many young people have just never been taught that concept of time management and of being intentional.

Shawn Stringham (35:44.748)

11.1. Yeah.

Shad Martin (36:07.741)

And we you have limited energy. So if you're just letting your energy go wherever it goes, you'll never become extra ordinary. We love that word. You could be ordinary by living a life by default, but you're not going to be ordinary or you're not going to be extra ordinary. You have to be intentional to be extra ordinary. And so

Shawn Stringham (36:26.293)

And so.

Shawn Stringham (36:33.963)

I have to say that I love this one. I've spent the last probably six to eight months really just trying to dial in my own personal, especially my morning routine, right? And I have done that now and dialed that down into a point now where like, if I don't get, it's not that I don't feel great, but I feel great when I dial in my morning routine and that morning routine.

usually starts at nine o'clock at night the night before. So we'll see how tomorrow morning goes. the, the, as we get into it, today, today is a perfect example. Actually, this very day that we recorded this, like, I had some disruptive travel, we were, we got in late, all those kinds of things. And it's like, okay, like, so it got to be 930 10 o'clock. And I was way off my routine, I was, I didn't love it. And I thought to myself, okay, I'm not gonna

I had to pause, I stopped and I told myself, can let this ruin your entire day or you can go win the next hour. You can choose to like, okay, there's nothing I can do to control the last three and a half, four hours that didn't go the way I wanted, but I can go and win the next one. And like you said, just, you build that individual success with each individual win and the day turned around and it was great. I didn't go 16 and 0 today, but I went.

14 and four, know, or, or, you know, 14 and two or whatever. and clearly math's not my best skill there with that example, but, what, what about like, we're trying to teach the athletes this and I'm thinking about myself and my own individual family, right? I'm, you know, I'm running a business, I'm coaching, I'm trying to be a great father, all of those kinds of things.

Sometimes the parents are the issue, right? Like an athlete and high school kids trying to learn this, how can a high school kid teach their parent to be supportive of that and make sure that they can have eyes up and that they can win the hour and kind of have a reverse back and forth? Because maybe you just said, know, maybe they're not being taught well there.

Shad Martin (38:43.433)

Yeah, it's a great question. think that as parents get busier, see what happens is a lot of parents, they're very directive toward their kids. Some parents are, no, you're going to wake up at this time, you're going to do this, you're going to do that, you're going to, you know, and that's probably needed that scaffolding a little while. But the truth is when I have my daughters leave my house, I hope that they could do that stuff on their own, right? That it's not

Shawn Stringham (39:00.959)

Yeah. Right.

Shad Martin (39:10.799)

only happening because I have told them that it's going to happen. And so I do think it's important to sit down and just ask some, ask some questions, you know, like, does your routine match your goals? You know, there's every high school football team, we just finished the state playoffs here, right? They all want to win the state championship next year, right? It's not realistic for some.

But the truth of the matter is that, you know, September asks what happened in June, July and all of these months leading up. And so sometimes our kids will say things, just asking them, what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish? And then say, okay, great. Can I give you some?

Shawn Stringham (39:49.257)

Right, right, yeah, absolutely.

Shad Martin (40:07.355)

If you really want to accomplish that, there's a price to accomplish that. We can help with the design of their day. We could be support. We had Eric Weddle on our podcast and, and he made a statement. I'll probably butcher it. Go back and listen to that whole interview. He's one of the best. He's just, yeah, he was one of the best interviews, but he said something along the lines of I will not be my kids fuel.

Shawn Stringham (40:25.289)

Yeah, wedge is

Shad Martin (40:35.643)

I will not be their motivation. I will be their support. I will give them advice. So we can't be the fuel for the kids, but we can help them design a life that will lead to their goals. Pat Sund, you know, the coach at Tennessee forever. You've probably seen this social media clip. We shared it on our social media.

Shawn Stringham (40:57.983)

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Shad Martin (41:03.433)

where she told the story of her son getting cut in high school. And he came home and she said, my first thing was, who cuts Pat Summits in high school? know, that is bold. But the kid came home, he was devastated and she said, do you want to work? And she said that phrase to him, I will not be your fuel. But if you want to work, I will help you know what to do. So I think we could help with the design.

Shawn Stringham (41:15.071)

Right.

Shad Martin (41:31.507)

But some kids, I think there's a lot of kids that are just floating through life. I don't care if my daughters have, you know, I don't care if it's sports or if it's academic or if it's career. I want to know what their goals are. And then we can start talking about, okay, if that's your goal, then let's do a little research together. I might not even know what they're talking about. I want a daughter who came home and said, I want to quit dance and play tennis. And I'm like, well, I know nothing about tennis. Your mom only knows stuff about dance.

Shawn Stringham (42:01.706)

Right.

Shad Martin (42:01.721)

Right? I couldn't help her say, well, this is what good tennis players do. But I could do some research and I could connect her with people and I could give her those opportunities, but I was never going to be her fuel. So I think design versus fuel, that's what parents can do.

Shawn Stringham (42:19.669)

I love that, I love that. Principle three, let's move on to that one. Everything matters, embrace the boredom of consistency. Did I hit that one right? Is that correct?

Shad Martin (42:32.713)

So that's connected to principle one of win the hour. Yeah, but it's another quote from Justin Sua actually, where he talked about the only people he sees become great in professional sports are those who embrace the boredom of consistency. Most people quit when something becomes boring. What we teach athletes is as soon as you become bored, that's where your opportunity begins because 90 % of people just quit.

Shawn Stringham (42:34.891)

Okay. Okay.

Shawn Stringham (43:01.984)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (43:02.385)

So if you're going to keep pounding, if you haven't worked to boredom, then there's probably still people working with you. But when you've hit a ball off a tee so many times that you're sick of it, you know, that's when people have stopped. And if you could put in that extra time, that's when you pick up ground. And, and that was the point he's making. We love to share that because, you know, when the fun is done,

That's when winners start to cut hay, if that makes sense.

Shawn Stringham (43:33.62)

Right. And yeah. And I think it applies especially to like, we've, we've referenced it throughout, but like it applies to nutrition, right? It applies to sleep. It applies to attitude. It applies to how you're treating teammates. Right. Like, I mean, to me, that's, that's a very important part, right? Like if you're routine, if you've got your routine dialed and it's like, that's kind of bored. My nutrition is kind of boring. Right. It's like probably dial in too, is my guess.

Shad Martin (44:03.763)

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. it is so valuable for young people to put a routine together and simply execute that routine. You know, I mean, we've had so many professional athletes on golfers. Daniel Summerhays. We talked to, it was actually Zach Jones, really good golfer right now with Brigham Young University, one of the top in the country.

you know, probably going to play some pro golf. If he were to walk you through, Sean, his putting routine.

Shawn Stringham (44:43.733)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (44:45.529)

He will sit and practice four foot putts for like an hour. Now would that get boring to you? Cause that might get boring to me. And that's why most people aren't good putters. Right? But those who like, I want to do well. I want to become a professional golfer. There's a price to be paid for that. And you start to realize as you, as you dig into people's routines. And we asked that a lot. We had Ryan White on.

Shawn Stringham (44:59.007)

Right, right.

Shad Martin (45:14.897)

Olympic swimmer. And so Ryan is a backstroker and she she like knows the exact number of strokes it takes her to get across the pool and to get into her flip and to turn. And Sean, she is so intentional. She even does her workouts. I forget what the number is. It's like eight or nine.

Shawn Stringham (45:15.711)

Yeah. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (45:35.871)

Right.

Shad Martin (45:44.381)

She even does her workouts in reps of that number because it's like, so she is so intentional about that. And you start to see that in all these professional athletes that they become great because they're willing to embrace the boredom of consistency, consistently executing a plan. And one other point with that, they aren't just coming up with random plans.

Shawn Stringham (45:49.417)

And that count. Right.

Shawn Stringham (46:14.281)

Right. Yep.

Shad Martin (46:15.037)

We have to be humble enough to go to someone who does something well, the way that we would like to do it, and to ask questions. How did you do that? How do you hit the outside pitch so well? What drills do you do? Like, please help me get into your mind and understand what you do. What's your routine? If we'll be humble enough to do that and then do it until it's so boring.

that we can hardly stand doing anymore, that's where greatness lies is beyond boredom.

Shawn Stringham (46:50.207)

Well, and if you think about that professional golfer, right? What is the most valuable putt in golf? It's, it probably is that four foot putt, That you need to put in on the 18th green to win some bag to go along with it, right? And you want that to be automatic. You want that to be so dialed in that you're not thinking about it because you're controlling the psychology of that event as well, right? let's, no, tell me about it.

Shad Martin (47:15.485)

Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what gate work is? Well, no, that's that's my point, right? I draw off a lot. And, and Zach said, Yeah, I, know, and I do my gate work. And then I get into my and I'm like, what's gate work? And it's, if I understand it correctly, it's putting up T's, you know, so your your putters going back through that gate of T's and forward. And if you're off just a little bit, you're going to hit the T's.

Shawn Stringham (47:22.323)

Right. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (47:40.048)

got it, got it, yeah.

Shad Martin (47:44.605)

I mean, there's things that people who excel at things do that you and I don't even know the definitions of those things. That's how intricate they are. If you can imagine bringing back and forth your putter just between tees when you're a borderline professional golfer, that doesn't seem, I feel like if I could hit the ball like them, I would just go drive it over the net at the range all the time. But that's not how you become great.

Shawn Stringham (47:44.778)

Right.

Shawn Stringham (47:51.742)

Right, exactly.

Shawn Stringham (48:09.757)

Right? Right.

Shad Martin (48:12.549)

And that's, we've just picked up on that. It's incredible to hear the routines that people have who are truly great at stuff. And that's what we mean by the boredom of consistency.

Shawn Stringham (48:21.855)

And I'm

Right? And I'm not sure if I'm inserting this, but like practicing with a purpose. I'm not, that might be one of your things, but like having that consistent practice. And I think you can start applying these, right? Like together, like practice with purpose, but at the same time, have your eyes up all of the, you know, and being able to see, then you start to really put together the dynamics of team and everything that goes along with that, that goes along with it. So.

Shad Martin (48:51.143)

Yeah. And one more example, Sean, that I think for me, nothing struck me more than going from playing college or high school baseball to playing college baseball. And I played for a hall of fame coach. His name was John Herbold. And in high school, I had good coaches in high school, but you know, the time we spent on the tee was not very significant, right?

Shawn Stringham (48:53.312)

Yeah, please.

Shawn Stringham (49:03.179)

Mm-hmm.

Shawn Stringham (49:17.576)

Right, right.

Shad Martin (49:18.671)

It's you get up and you take eight swings in a cage and there's people out there shagging balls for you. Very inefficient. I get to college and I'm taking hundreds of swings off of tees. It's like I graduated from high school baseball, a pretty successful career there to tee ball. That's what it felt like. But that's how you build those muscles. I mean,

Shawn Stringham (49:39.923)

Right.

Shad Martin (49:46.857)

all of sudden I was like, what ab work am I doing? Like, why am I is my body transforming? It was because I was taking like 400 cuts off a key every day. And so that's the stuff, right? And then you get there to college, and it's not just hitting off a T, you place the T in your stance where you should be hitting an outside pitch. And then on the up further where you should be hitting an inside pitch. And you realize people who do this stuff,

Shawn Stringham (49:49.854)

Right.

Shawn Stringham (49:55.199)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (50:17.373)

There's an intentionality. That's what you said, practice with purpose. The word we use so much is intentional. You have to be intentional. a routine in place. if you don't wait for the perfect routine to start, just start with the routine and then refine it.

Shawn Stringham (50:32.255)

Yeah. Just art. Yep. Yeah. Love that. Okay. Fourth principle here. and it might not be directly with your specific words, so correct me if I'm wrong here, but to be the idea of being resilient, right? Being resilient and creating the accountability and mental health that goes along with that. Talk, talk about how that, how that applies in the EF4 framework.

Shad Martin (50:58.323)

Yeah. So, so we wrote in our book that one of the greatest gifts that sports gives to the athlete is the opportunity to experience failure and learn to respond to it. I love that for sports. And by the way, it doesn't matter if you're an all state performer or someone who's trying to make your junior high team, sports is going to provide disappointment for you.

Shawn Stringham (51:13.908)

Right.

Shad Martin (51:26.575)

you can build that muscle of resilience if if you respond the right way. Did you just see that movie recording stopped? Okay.

Shawn Stringham (51:37.929)

I did see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chloe, we need help.

Shawn Stringham (51:46.549)

Here she comes.

Shawn Stringham (51:55.723)

There should be two in there so you could probably

There is some stuff in there, but I have another set of cards on my desk. I can go grab them.

Shawn Stringham (52:24.946)

Or in my backpack. I'm gonna go grab them, but you got it.

Shawn Stringham (52:32.254)

There's a bag full of them. Any of those. Yep.

The 64 gigs are brand new. Those are all should be good. But there's two should be two 256 card gig cards in there.

Shawn Stringham (52:56.842)

Yeah, that should be great.

Shawn Stringham (53:05.134)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (53:21.224)

This will be our drink break. We'll keep going.

Shad Martin (53:23.529)

Maybe I'll go grab a drink real quick actually.

Shawn Stringham (53:25.939)

Okay, yep.

Shawn Stringham (53:54.889)

I might need to move to one of those white chairs. This chair is not good for long-term sitting.

All right. Let's see. were.

No, I'm good for now.

Shad Martin (54:16.231)

I do remember what I was saying. If that would help. It's, you know, I can start with one of the greatest gifts that sports gives and then you could just in. So you tell me when you're ready.

Shawn Stringham (54:18.431)

Good.

Shawn Stringham (54:30.088)

All right. Yep.

Shawn Stringham (54:37.354)

Chloe, we're recording on your side. We're good.

Shawn Stringham (54:48.126)

All right, Chad, T.S. up. Here we go. Ready? You're on.

Shad Martin (54:50.153)

Awesome. So one of the things that we often teach, we wrote it in our book is one of the greatest gifts that sports gives to an athlete is the opportunity to experience failure and respond to it. And that happens at every level, right? I mean, it happens at professional levels, but the kid who just lost a tee ball game that's devastated, you know, he's learning.

Resilience, she's learning resilience and sports. It's like resilience is this muscle that you could build if you respond to it the right way. There's different ways to respond to adversity. And some parents, this is where parents become a problem sometimes. They start giving kids excuses. your coach just doesn't like you. You know?

Shawn Stringham (55:47.603)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (55:47.741)

that that kid's dad is a booster or whatever it might be. That dumb ref made all those bad calls. And when we start handing our kids excuses to respond to adversity, that's what they learn to do. When life gets hard, they start making up all these excuses for why their life is crappy. But if you respond with goals and with work and with

Shawn Stringham (55:50.515)

Right.

Shawn Stringham (55:53.854)

The referee killed it,

Shad Martin (56:17.469)

just that stick-to-it-ness that we hope kids have, then we build that muscle of resilience instead of excuse. I would much rather my children have a great life than a crappy life with a great excuse. And so it's just that mindset. We actually talked about this with Paul Peterson just this week on our podcast that came out this week. He was former...

Shawn Stringham (56:35.976)

Right? Right.

Shad Martin (56:47.207)

Boston College quarterback and head football coach at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah. And he talked about this concept of just so often, he called it snowplow parenting, that it's not, it used to be helicopter parenting, but now it's snowplow parenting where we're trying to just clear the way for our children. But if we'll start asking questions like, yeah, that's hard.

Yeah, maybe your coach is favoring another kid. What's within your control? What are you going to do? How are you going to make it so obvious that they cannot keep you off the court or off the field?

Shawn Stringham (57:26.718)

Right. Right.

Shad Martin (57:28.829)

That is training our young people to respond to adversity with work and goals and adaptation and innovation instead of with pouting and blaming. And how much of our society, Sean, is like that right now? It's just like, yes.

Shawn Stringham (57:47.947)

Right. A huge amount, right. Cause that was going to be my next, like these are skills that you learn in a safe environment of sport. Right. Like it's easy. If you're in high school, basketball, football, swimming, water polo, whatever, if you fail there, the world is not over. I might, I might, might feel like that as a high school athlete, but, um, really the training ground of how you're going to respond to failure because there is failure in life, right. Really does apply to when.

how you're going to respond in college and beyond and in your professional world that you might be living on or as a parent yourself and how you're trained that.

Shad Martin (58:24.649)

Yeah, absolutely. And we see it a lot in society. It's almost like people are content to have a crappy life with a good excuse for it. And I just never want that to be me or those I love. And when we start feeding them excuses, when they hop in the car after a tough game and we instantly go to referees and coaches and teammates and wind and rain and all this stuff, what we're training them to do is to respond to adversity with pouting and excuses.

And that's not gonna get anyone where they wanna get in life.

Shawn Stringham (58:57.254)

Well, that's one of my favorites and, you, it's hard not to sometimes buy into it. But when I'm coaching, which I have coached for years, 30 years of water polo, right? You come in at halftime or after a game and they start in with like the referees, like, like you, you didn't execute like the referee has nothing to do with the referee. Like you're going to let the referee decide if you're going to win or not. Like those are the things that you're can control.

right, to be able to execute on and honestly, if the referee, you're giving the referee an opportunity, if you're not the one controlling those individual actions, right? So I, yeah, I'm right there with that one, with the referee, everyone blaming the referee, like that's not a real life.

Shad Martin (59:41.929)

And the truth is that sometimes referees do make mistakes, big mistakes.

Shawn Stringham (59:46.398)

Yeah, I do for sure. I'm not saying that, but like not on every possession, right? Like not. So.

Shad Martin (59:52.019)

Yeah, and it's even if, let's say even the referee is actually favoring the other team. Putting your time and energy and everything toward that is not gonna get you better anyway. It's not.

Shawn Stringham (59:54.921)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:00:04.851)

Right.

Right. Yeah. And my other favorite one is that like, this is as much parents in the stands as anybody, but athletes as well, like how many times you moaning about a call have you ever seen ever in your world of sporting, the referee has turned around and said, yeah, you're right. You know, let me, let me reverse that call and let me go back and make sure that you're, you are the one I've seen the error of my ways. Like that's just not how the world works. You know, like

Shad Martin (01:00:34.793)

Well, yes, absolutely. The other side of that is here you have these very imperfect players. If you've coached, you realize all the mistakes that make in a game. So we're going to hold the referees to the standard of you need to be perfect. But we're not going to hold ourselves to that standard, right? Like, can you imagine if we treated a player who missed a basketball shot like we treat referees who miss a foul call?

Shawn Stringham (01:00:47.252)

Yeah. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:00:54.74)

Right.

Shad Martin (01:01:05.481)

Yeah, things would not go well. So, absolutely.

Shawn Stringham (01:01:08.168)

It would be ugly. It would be ugly. Let's turn and talk a little bit about the framework of, especially for athletes and mental health. think that's an important topic for athletes. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that are growing out, up out there. And we've seen, right, attention on phones and attention and some, like we can, how we can use sports to better people. And how, how, just talk about how, within your framework,

we should be thinking about the overall mental health of our athletes.

Shad Martin (01:01:41.277)

Yeah, well, first, I think we need to recognize that there are real mental health challenges. I share some statistics in our presentation that, you know, during COVID and the CDC statistics, I forget the exact, but I know this exact statistic that, because I break it up, the percent into a classroom, because sometimes we hear these big percents, and it's easy to always think it's somewhere else, right?

Shawn Stringham (01:01:48.905)

Mm-hmm.

Shawn Stringham (01:02:11.166)

Right, yeah.

Shad Martin (01:02:11.785)

But the fact that it's about three to five kids in a 30-kid class that at one point in high school will seriously consider taking their own

And then there's statistics in the same study that says one of the things that leads to healthy life, like beyond into adulthood, is making close connections in high school. So obviously sports, it trends positively, though it's not perfect. We have athletes that struggle with mental health challenges as well.

But when you have a group that you're connected to, when you have a coach that cares about you, when you have people that are cheering for you, right? It tends to lead to better outcomes with young people that are playing sports and just feeling that connection. Exercise is very good for mental health. and having mentors in your life is very good for mental health. Having someone who will call you and say, Hey,

I realize you've been down a little bit lately is very good for mental health and prevention of some of the bad results of mental health. When you, that just all screams sports, right? The one caveat I would give to that is I don't know if there's anything more painful than a young person joining a team thinking it will bring friends into their life only to feel ostracized.

And that goes back to that double edged sword. Yes, being part of a team could be a huge benefit to mental health. And it could be even more devastating if you're part of a team and then feel left out by that team or not valued by those, those teammates. Then it becomes super painful to go every day to practice and feel like you're on the outside looking in. And so that's why we try to train people to be very intentional about.

Shad Martin (01:04:23.869)

looking out for their teammates, loving their teammates, valuing their teammates.

Shawn Stringham (01:04:28.456)

Yeah. And I mean, and one of the things that I think I recall from the presentation as we were talking about is like the idea of treating mental health, just like you would treat a sprained ankle, right? Like of recognizing that there are, that there are symptoms that go along with that seeking treatment. are there any other words of advice that you would give around that? I mean, we can go real deep on this, but like, in the interest of time, maybe let's just talk a little bit about how.

how we should create the construct of mental health and youth athletes.

Shad Martin (01:05:02.631)

Yeah, I think we need to teach our young people. There's an acronym that a lot of health professionals use. We've had Dr. Sheldon Martin, he's my brother. He might sound familiar, but he's a doctor of behavioral health. We've had him on our podcast a number of times and we'll have these discussions with him. He gave us an acronym. It's called ACT. When you see someone, you know, going through a difficult time, for example, I mean,

Shawn Stringham (01:05:10.25)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Shawn Stringham (01:05:20.798)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (01:05:32.721)

If you're a coach, see a player limping, right? All of a sudden, you see a player limping, running around. What are you going to do as a coach? You know, you're not just going to let them, you're going to say, Hey, you okay? What's going on? Where does that hurt? So the first letter of the acronym ACT is ask. Sorry about that. Simply ask, are you okay? Are you doing okay?

Shawn Stringham (01:05:35.839)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:05:45.374)

Yeah. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:05:53.652)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (01:06:03.399)

And if they're, why, why would you say that? Whether it's a coach or a teammate that's asking, because you just seem a little withdrawn. You seem a little off. I've just worried about you. You seem sad all the time. Most of the time when someone's thinking about taking their own life or experiencing severe levels of anxiety or depression, they will tell you if you ask them. So the first one is ask. The second is care.

Just show compassion and caring for them. Whatever they're dealing with, just show them that you care. Sit with them, talk with them. The T is tell. Tell someone. Love your friends more than you love your friendship. If one of your friends is having a hard time, they're saying, man, I just think I want to end it. I just think I.

This is getting too much for me. Life is too hard for me. Tell a coach, tell your mom and dad, tell a teacher, tell a school counselor. I think if all of us, that's a very easy to remember acronym, ask, care, tell. But there are a lot of people who are struggling around us. And if we have our eyes up maybe to come full circle, we'll see people, ask how they're doing, care about them, and then tell others if you're concerned.

Shawn Stringham (01:07:04.809)

Right.

Shad Martin (01:07:28.743)

And we could save a lot of kids that way.

Shawn Stringham (01:07:30.974)

Yeah, love that. Very cool. Okay, let's, as we as we're moving through here, the fifth principle, compete without contempt. This is one of my favorite, like I love sports, everyone probably who's listening to this love sports. I love rivalries. love, I love the, I love working hard, but tell us, tell us what you mean by as we're looking at compete without contempt.

Shad Martin (01:07:59.709)

Yeah, compete without contempt. Contempt is obviously hatred. You don't have to hate your opponent to compete against him. We capitalize and bold the word compete in our presentation. We're not talking about not caring who wins. There's not a more annoying game to play. Like when I go play basketball at the church house and people are shooting half court shots and it doesn't matter. No one cares who wins or loses. I lose complete interest in that.

Shawn Stringham (01:08:03.218)

Right. Right.

Shawn Stringham (01:08:29.457)

Right. Yeah.

Shad Martin (01:08:29.467)

in that setting, right? We gotta learn to compete for things that really matter to us. So bold, capitalized, compete. But your fuel does not have to be hate. If you're someone who has to hate your opponent to fiercely compete, you're not a true competitor. You're a hater. You're not a competitor. We share

Shawn Stringham (01:08:40.926)

Go after it. Yep.

Shawn Stringham (01:08:54.737)

Right. Right.

Shad Martin (01:08:58.643)

that quote from GK Chesterton that was given way back in the World Wars, know, English philosopher, he said, the true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. So this principle teaches young athletes to let love be their fuel, to love to win, to love to compete.

Shawn Stringham (01:09:04.061)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (01:09:27.741)

They love their coach, they love their teammates, they love their community, they love their school, they love and appreciate their parents who made so many sacrifices for them. There are so many things in the love category that could fuel your energy and your desire. And we have just found that love is a more sustainable fuel than hate. Because if you have to invent things about your opponent, we see coaches do this all the time, try to drum up.

controversy, taking it out of context, something like that. If you need something like that to truly compete, then I don't know if you qualify as a true competitor, to be honest. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:09:58.109)

Right.

Shawn Stringham (01:10:10.193)

And I was just going to say, do you have a good example of, know, I, I feel like young people and athletes probably do this naturally. It's probably the parents again, who like fuel that or the it's usually the adults that have the bad behavior, right? Do you have an example of any schools or that have come together like that have recognized, Hey, this is, this is an important thing. Or maybe two schools that are

both involved in your program that have overcome rivalries and some hatred that way?

Shad Martin (01:10:40.499)

Yeah, we've had so the most popular if you go to our website, go to our social media pages, you'll see a bunch of kids in different uniforms holding up their eyes up, do the work bands and taking pictures together and they hashtag it and tag us in it. Compete without contempt. And you could tell that, you know, they're, sweaty. They've just played a game. Right. And they're just like, when, we're after we're done competing,

Shawn Stringham (01:10:56.958)

That's cool.

Shawn Stringham (01:11:02.718)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (01:11:10.951)

Like if I lived in the boundaries of that other school, this would be my best friend. That's what we often teach. We've had schools come together. Two schools a while ago came together and they decided that because of the vitriol sometimes between the two communities, one school broke off, that one school became too large and the other school had to break off. And then they became these natural rivals. These two schools, both part of our program decided.

Shawn Stringham (01:11:16.19)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:11:34.835)

Right.

Shad Martin (01:11:38.195)

that they were going to make a statement to the community before the game and came together, cheerleaders, football team, coaches, mixed up, put their arms around each other, took a picture and labeled it compete without contempt. And then they went to work on each other, right? Which is the important part. It's an important part that compete. And then after, once again, hey, they realized if they lived in the same boundaries, they'd be best friends. We have an example, Eric Weddle.

Shawn Stringham (01:11:45.768)

Love it.

Shawn Stringham (01:11:51.581)

That's 11.

Shawn Stringham (01:11:57.351)

Right.

Shawn Stringham (01:12:04.967)

Right.

Yeah.

Shad Martin (01:12:08.379)

Eric Weddle tried to break into the league as a safety. If you see Eric Weddle, he doesn't look like a physical specimen. But the guy's a Hall of Famer, gonna be a Hall of Famer. Just incredible. And he actually talked about when he came in, no one on his own team would help him because he was the new guy trying to take their spot. And he just made this commitment in his heart, I'm not gonna be that guy. So.

not only those coming to his own team, but even those going to other teams, when safeties were drafted, he would call and say, hey, do you want to come work out? I could teach you a few things. He refused to make everyone that was a safety in the league his enemy. And what he said is, the benefit that came is I would show these guys some things I had picked up, and then I had to pick up new things to keep my job. And he actually attributed that fact

Shawn Stringham (01:13:02.929)

Right.

Shad Martin (01:13:06.035)

to his longevity in the league. That he was almost like another coach that he was training up new safeties. And one of his greatest joys, he talked about on our podcast, seeing someone leave his team and go sign a big contract with another team and think, I helped that guy. And so there's great example.

Shawn Stringham (01:13:22.877)

Yeah, for sure. That is coaching, right? Like you want them to be successful beyond you and above you. So that's fantastic. Shad, what are the principles for, especially for athletes that we're missing, that we haven't talked about? Are there any that's burning a hole in your heart that you want to share here?

Shad Martin (01:13:43.187)

No, think you bet very thorough. This is awesome. Yeah, I think this is the stuff that matters to us. Here's how we package all of these together. We have three that we call the preparatory principles. Win the hour, compete without contempt, and be resilient. As you do those things, just picture an athlete that's winning the hour, that's being intentional with their time, that's winning in the classroom, that's winning at lunch.

that's winning at practice, that's working when no one's watching, that's win the hour. At the same time, that athlete's competing the right way. They're helping people up on the court or on the field. They're not being a knucklehead attracting a bunch of attention to themselves on the court or belittling everyone else. They're just a good, solid person on the court. They're competing the right way. And then they're resilient.

They're that kid that's saying, guys, I know we're down, but let's go. Let's finish right. We got this. I know we lost that game, but let's, let's just work. Let's work this out. That kid is going to be an incredible kid. And that sport light is going to start to shine brighter and brighter. So those three principles prepare them to do the fourth principle, which is what we call the power principle that has power to transform and train and change lives. And that is seek to bless. Now that you're

doing all these things, you're gonna be getting better, you're gonna be getting more attention. Now with that, seek to bless people, not impress people. And so those are the four principles and they're all tied up in, you keep your eyes up and do the work, notice people and try to help people. And so that in a nutshell, Sean, that is our program, what you asked me about today.

Shawn Stringham (01:15:29.577)

I it. That's incredible. There's a quote on your website that I wanted you to break down and it's, is a poor chisel with which to carve your future. I love that. Tell me what you want the world to know about that quote.

Shad Martin (01:15:41.179)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (01:15:50.525)

Yeah, gosh. It's the person who wrote The Traveler's Gift. If you haven't read that book, I forget his name, but you could put it in the show notes. The Traveler's Gift. It's a great book. It's this guy that goes back in time and he meets these historical figures that had to display real leadership and

Shawn Stringham (01:15:56.893)

Mm-hmm.

Shawn Stringham (01:16:17.619)

Uh-huh.

Shad Martin (01:16:18.597)

In the book, it's like a fictional leadership book where he goes back and the person teaches him a leadership principle. And when he learns that leadership principle, he's able to go on to the next, you know, to the next travel to the next leader. This one was Anne Frank. And then he's talking to Anne Frank and, and he's basically asking, how can you be so positive?

And she said, I accept, or my head's not in the sand or something like this. I understand the reality. I'm just not going to settle for the reality. And then she makes this statement in the book. Fear is a poor chisel to carve one's future. So I want to give that, that's not our phrase. That's...

Shawn Stringham (01:17:15.805)

Right, right, yeah.

Shad Martin (01:17:16.423)

That's not, but think about that. How many young people don't try out for a team for fear of getting cut? How many opportunities we miss out on in life because we're afraid of failing?

Shawn Stringham (01:17:33.192)

Well, I deal with that with my own personal kids regularly. It was like, I don't want to make a phone call. It's like, make the phone call, right? Like, like you, you're one conversation away from greatness in my world. think like, if you're willing to put yourself out there and it's back to, you know, having your eyes up and looking for those individual opportunities, if you let fear overcome that. And I think that is something that's happening with within the social context of our, of youth and for our society in general is like.

We're becoming so much more isolated that we're afraid to have real conversations with other people.

Shad Martin (01:18:09.563)

And the sad thing about not doing things because of fear is all you did was increase the probability to 100 % that that good is not going to happen in your life. Maybe it was only 20 % before that it was going to happen, but now you've made it a 0 % chance that that thing is not going to happen because you're not even going to try. So you're dropping your probability of good things to happen in your life if you let fear be the chisel with which you carve your future.

Shawn Stringham (01:18:18.055)

Yeah, yep,

Shawn Stringham (01:18:40.177)

Right. So Shad, last question here. Someone's listening here as an athlete, parent, coach. They're inspired, but don't know where to start. What's the first step for each of, for any one of those individuals to get started down this pathway and of some of these key principles that you're teaching? How should they be involved? How can they get involved? What are the ways that your organization can help?

Shad Martin (01:19:08.329)

Yeah. Well, if you go to E the number four, a, especially for athletes. So e4a.org and you could, you could click there, contact us. We would love, we'll come anywhere to do a presentation. We'll go to a P we team. go to a protein. We'll go to a business. We'll go to a school. We'll go to a church. We we've been all over. We've, we love sharing these principles. So that that's the simple answer. Sean is.

just get in contact with us and let's talk and we would love to come and visit with you, share our message. Also, all of these principles, we wrote the book, The Sportlight, and you can find that on our website. And you can listen to our podcast. All we talk about are these principles with different people. I mean, it's really cool just to bring on a pro athlete and say, here's our principle to win the hour. How do you say that in your world? What are some of the things you've learned about?

Shawn Stringham (01:19:53.609)

Yeah.

Shad Martin (01:20:05.533)

these concepts that we're talking about and to hear people talk about that, we've learned a ton, we've learned a ton. But I would say going back, if I were to say where to start, just start. Like if we're talking in general, move forward in life. I think so many people are frozen by thinking they need a perfect plan in order to start. And they like spend so much time and energy

Shawn Stringham (01:20:10.717)

Yeah, I love it.

Shad Martin (01:20:35.837)

sometimes months, weeks and months trying to get a perfect plan. The trick is if you want to get in shape, start working out and refining it as you go. You're not going to burn any calories planning, you know? And so that, I think just that inertia to get off it, it's like a rocket ship. One of our podcast members shared this with us as well that, you know, when a rocket gets up into space,

Shawn Stringham (01:20:40.552)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:20:45.321)

just walk out that door. That's right.

Right. Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:20:58.377)

Mm-hmm.

Shad Martin (01:21:05.661)

There's that huge amount of energy to get it off the earth, to get it out of the pole of gravity. And then once it's up there, it's just little bursts of energy and it can fly forever. It's kind of like that with ourselves and with our goals. It does take a lot of energy at first to get going, but once you're moving along and goals become second nature, you feel more awkward not doing them than doing them. And so just, just start.

Shawn Stringham (01:21:09.693)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:21:29.671)

Right. Right.

Shad Martin (01:21:33.587)

take that energy, whatever it is to get going. And we had Brendan Schooler, New England Patriot on our podcast. He said, in the morning, I treat sleep as my enemy, like as my opponent. He talks smack to sleep. You're not gonna keep me in bed. And he says, I can't even tell you what I say to my bed on this podcast.

Shawn Stringham (01:21:46.931)

Hmm. Right.

Shad Martin (01:21:58.979)

But it's that attitude, right? Like, I am going to accomplish what I'm going to accomplish. Like, shut up. I'm not staying in bed. Like, just that grit to get going and get the inertia to get you off the earth and flying.

Shawn Stringham (01:22:07.208)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:22:11.303)

Love it. Love it. Well, Chad, it's been fantastic to have you on the podcast. Incredible concepts. I hope we can continue to talk. We have we have thousands of athletes that we touch out there and and we want them to hear all of this because I think it's key. I think it's so important.

Shad Martin (01:22:30.697)

I'm sorry.

Shawn Stringham (01:22:33.289)

That's all right. We'll use that as a break and a transition to do the closing here. Chloe, I'm going to put the iPad up to do closing and... Oh yeah, that would be fantastic. I'll knock something over.

Shad Martin (01:22:38.749)

Okay.

Shad Martin (01:22:50.098)

I'm

Shad Martin (01:23:03.731)

Sorry, talk too much.

Shawn Stringham (01:23:06.109)

Well, we've been having to... We've been having a great time here.

Shad Martin (01:23:09.011)

Yeah.

Shawn Stringham (01:23:34.483)

be okay.

Shawn Stringham (01:23:42.281)

somewhere.

Shawn Stringham (01:23:52.915)

goodness

Shawn Stringham (01:24:06.973)

there we go. All right.

Shawn Stringham (01:24:12.892)

Okay, so this will be the closing.

Shad Martin from Especially for Athletes, eight principles that can change how you complete. Shad Martin from Especially for Athletes, eight principles that can change how you compete, lead and live. Eyes up, do the work, win the hour, 16 to zero. Everything matters, embrace the boredom of consistency. Be resilient, compete without contempt, seek to bless, not impress, be a lifter.

and have accountability. Here's what Melissa and I realized at that E4A event. These aren't just for athletes. They're for anyone who wants to use their influence, big or small, to make a positive difference. You have a sport light. Maybe it's your kids watching you. Maybe it's your team looking to you for leadership. Maybe it's your social media following. Maybe it's just your neighbor who sees how you live. How are you using it? Are you...

Seeking to bless or impress. Are you competing without contempt? Are you a lifter? And here's the challenge Shad gave us. Fear is a poor chisel with which to carve your future. What are you building your life on? Fear or courage? If this episode resonated with you, here's what I need you to do. Subscribe to find your challenge. YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Hit that subscribe button. New episodes every week. Share the athlete. Tag an athlete, parent or coach.

And who needs to hear this posted on your story and tag game on LS, SQ string him. That's me. go to e four a.org. Shout has mentioned that multiple times. Find all of the resources there. Listen to the sport like podcasts. If you're a coach or organization, bring shout in this work matters. Just pick one principle. Don't try and master all eight tomorrow. Pick one eyes up, win the hour, be a lifter, whatever resonates work on that this week.

Shawn Stringham (01:26:11.336)

Tell us your challenge, comment below. What principle is hardest for you? What are you using your sport light? We wanna hear your story. Until then, remember you have a platform, use it well, find your challenge and carve your future with courage, not fear.

Shawn Stringham (01:26:31.336)

Cool. Good on that point. yeah, I missed that part.

Shawn Stringham (01:26:45.712)

I'll just read that last screen again. Until then, remember, you have a platform. Use it well. Find your challenge and carve your future with courage, not fear. Go be great.

Shawn Stringham (01:27:02.717)

Scrolling to the intro, yep.

Shawn Stringham (01:27:17.924)

The spotlight, every athlete wants it. The big moment, the winning shot. Nope, that's the spotlight, not the spotlight. Sorry, eyes are tired. Try it again. The spotlight, every athlete wants it. The big moment, the winning shot, the roaring crowd.

What?

Shad Martin (01:27:36.657)

It's fun to watch someone else do this. I said it's fun for me to watch someone else do it.

Shawn Stringham (01:27:38.758)

What's that? On that I'm giving you a good time. Here we go. We'll try again. The spotlight, every athlete wants it. The big moment, the winning shot, the roaring crowd, the recognition. But what if the spotlight isn't just about you? What if it's a responsibility? Shad Martin calls it the sport light that privilege athletes have to influence others and especially for athletes teaches something radical. Your character.

matters more than your stats. Your impact matters more than your highlights. How you treat opponents matters as much as how you beat them. Fear is a poor chisel with which you carve your future. Melissa and I went to an E4A event and walked away with principles that changed how we think about competition, leadership, and life. Eyes up, win the hour, compete without contempt, be a lifter. Today, Shad Martin breaks down what it means to use your platform.

whether you're an Olympian or a little league parent to make a positive difference. This is Find Your Challenge.

Shawn Stringham (01:28:47.389)

All right.

Shad Martin is a leadership mentor, sports advocate, and founder of Especially for Athletes, an organization dedicated to helping athletes use their influence—the “sport light”—to positively impact others. He focuses on character development, intentional living, and building resilience through sports and everyday challenges.

As a guest on the Find Your Challenge podcast, Shad sits down with Shawn Stringham to discuss how athletes can seek to bless rather than impress, compete without contempt, and embrace the responsibilities that come with their platform. He highlights the importance of mental health awareness, social media literacy, and the role of parents, coaches, and schools in shaping young leaders.

Beyond the podcast, Shad encourages intentionality in all aspects of life, showing that consistent effort, resilience in the face of failure, and a focus on serving others create meaningful impact both on and off the field. He believes that when athletes lead with character and purpose, sports become a catalyst for personal growth, community connection, and lasting influence.