Podcast
Chasing Excellence
Hosted by Ben Bergeron & Patrick Cummings · EN
Most people aren't stuck because they lack information. They're stuck because they know what to do and can't quite do it consistently. The slow drift keeps winning.
Chasing Excellence is for people who are already trying — working out, eating well, staying positive — but find themselves in the one-good-week, one-bad-week cycle.
Ben Bergeron, Patrick Cummings, and a crew of authors, thinkers, and doers explore the five factors of health — how we eat, move, think, connect, and rest — and what it actually takes to crowd out the drift and build the life you keep almost living.
New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
Beyond the podcast: the Chase Club brings together a crew for daily lessons, monthly challenges, and the real work of crowding out the drift. The ChaseTracker app helps you track the Five Factors daily.
60episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
You Don't Owe Your Past More Than You Owe Your Future
2d ago00:33:01Tap to summarizeWhat if the guilt you're calling loyalty is the very thing keeping you stuck?In this episode, we answer a question from Chase Club member Mike about whether to switch gyms — and it turns out, it's not really about gyms at all.We unpack the difference between loyalty (a choice) and guilt (a feeling), explore the three pillars that make any community worth staying in, and give you a framework for knowing when it's time to move on — and how to do it with integrity.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Raise | Receive Your Kids — Don't Just Shape Them (w/ Christina Watka)
5d ago00:54:03Tap to summarizeWhat if raising a child well means releasing your vision of who they're supposed to become — and learning instead to see who they actually are?Patrick is joined this week by Christina Watka, an installation artist whose entire practice is built around entering a space without a plan, noticing what's there, and letting the work lead.In this Raise episode, they explore how that same artistic openness transforms the way you parent: the role of noticing, the power of solitude, and what it means to receive your children instead of trying to shape them.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →The High Performer's Playbook: 2 Rules, 5 Habits, & 7 Traps
2w ago01:59:59Tap to summarizeHigh performance isn't a talent — it's a system.This week, we bring together three of our most foundational conversations to show you exactly what that system looks like in practice.From the two non-negotiables that underpin every kind of success, to the five specific characteristics we see in every high performer we've ever met, to the seven quiet habits that keep most people from closing the gap — this is the raw material behind our new 21-Day High Performance Challenge.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start here!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Chase Challenge | High Performance Isn't a Talent. Prove It in 21 Days
2w ago00:21:55Tap to summarizeWhat if high performance at work isn't a talent you either have or don't — but a system you can practice starting today?In this episode, Patrick introduces the 21-Day High Performance Challenge and walks through the five interdependent characteristics that, together, make up a practice for doing the right things at the highest level you're capable of.We connect this system to the Five Factors of health you already know — because drift, the quiet enemy of excellence, doesn't just happen to your body. It happens to your work, too. And these five characteristics are how you fight back.Whether you join inside the Chase Club, the ChaseTracker app, or with nothing but a notebook and three questions at the end of each day, this challenge is an invitation to close the gap between who you are and who you want to be at work.❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Purpose Effect | Athena Perez on Fasting 40 Days to Face Emotional Eating
3w ago01:18:19Tap to summarizeWhat does it look like to go from 500 pounds to a CrossFit coach - not out of inspiration, but because fear was the only thing in the room?In this episode, Jamison sits down with Athena Perez: affiliate owner, coach, and author of a two-part memoir about identity, worth, and what fitness spaces get dangerously wrong.We explore how compounding habits shape who we become long before we notice, why a 40-day fast became Athena's clearest window into emotional eating and genuine purpose, and why placing people on pedestals - in the gym or anywhere else - always costs you something.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →The External-to-Internal Method for Raising Healthy Kids
3w ago00:27:24Tap to summarizeEvery parent who cares about health eventually hits this wall: your kids don't want to do what you know is good for them — and the more you push, the harder they pull away.In this episode, we tackle Chase Club member Brendan's question about getting his 16-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter to move consistently, despite shared custody.We dig into why the modeling you do today isn't for the teenager in front of you — it's for the 26-year-old they'll become. We explore the power of structured environments over parent-led training, how external rewards bridge to internal motivation, and why finding the right entry point matters more than finding the perfect program.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →7 Habits of People Who Make Other People Better (w/ Jon Gordon)
4w ago01:16:26Tap to summarizeWhat if becoming extraordinary isn't really about your own habits — it's about the habits you build that make everyone around you better?In this episode, we sit down with Jon Gordon, author of 33 books and 18 bestsellers, to explore seven habits that transform ordinary people into the kind of person others genuinely want to be around.We explore how the ratio of positive to negative interactions determines whether your relationships thrive, why shouting praise and whispering criticism builds deeper trust than you'd expect, and how the abundance mindset — giving freely, making the pie bigger, winning the person instead of the argument — creates energy that lifts everyone in your orbit.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Chase Challenge | Why You Need to Reverse Engineer Your Triggers
May 2800:22:13Tap to summarizeWhat if your triggers aren't random — they're a map back to yourself? In this close-out episode, Patrick reflects on the 21-day trigger challenge with two reframes that change everything: the tug of war between wants and reality, and the difference between surface triggers (your mental dojo) and the serious ones rooted in your own history.Learn why the fastest road to context-independent peace of mind runs through accepting reality — not fighting it — and why turning the spotlight on your triggers is the first step to responding instead of reacting.👉🏼 Get the full 21-Day Trigger Challenge🐾 Start using the ChaseTracker app❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Forever Fit | Train Heavy, Fast, Far, and Free: How to Stay Formidable for Life
May 2501:02:50Tap to summarizeWhat if the key to being capable at 75 isn't training harder — it's training more completely?In this episode, we introduce the Heavy, Fast, Far, and Free framework: a simple weekly approach to strength, power, endurance, and mobility that keeps every fitness bucket full.You'll learn why power declines 10x faster than strength (and why that matters for staying formidable at any age), why VO2 max has a 400% greater impact on all-cause mortality than smoking does, and what the minimum effective dose looks like for each pillar.If you want to be able to say yes to everything — forever — this episode shows you exactly how to train for it.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →Coaches Aren't Essential. Here's Why You Need One Anyway.
May 2100:30:58Tap to summarizeCoaches and mentors aren't essential — but they might be the best shortcut you'll ever find.In this episode, we answer Chase Club member David's question about whether coaches need coaches, and explore how Ben has built three very different mentorship relationships, each running on a different value exchange.You'll learn why reciprocity is the non-negotiable foundation of any real mentorship, and why curiosity, vulnerability, and patience are what you must bring as the mentee. Whether it's a paid business coach, a peer who trades expertise, or a friend who keeps you accountable — the best guidance always helps you see what you can't see from inside your own life.👉🏼 Get the full Listener's Guide here❤️🔥 Free Newsletter & the Chase Club👋 New to Chasing Excellence? Start hereSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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