The Pulse: How Shawn French Rebuilt His Life After Losing His Identity

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Determined Society – "The Pulse: How Shawn French Rebuilt His Life After Losing His Identity"

Date: February 23, 2026
Host: Shawn French
Guest/Co-host: Pat Sickens
Podcast: The Determined Society (“Culture Unscripted” series)

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Episode Overview

This “Pulse” episode offers an unfiltered, behind-the-scenes look at how host Shawn French rebuilt his life and identity after the collapse of his baseball career. Joined by co-host Pat Sickens, the conversation moves beyond surface-level soundbites to explore topics like identity loss, the importance of community, handling rejection, personal transformation, and cultural perspectives on sports and achievement. The hosts also field questions from listeners, discuss notable recent guests, and share insights on navigating discomfort, embracing change, and building the “Determined Society” community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rebuilding Identity After Loss ([01:08], [27:30])

• Shawn’s Identity Crisis: Shawn recounts the end of his baseball career after the College World Series as a huge turning point:
  • “I’m sitting there in right field…who am I? I don’t know who Shawn is. The only thing that I knew is like Shawn the baseball player, the catcher. That’s who everybody knew.” ([28:07])
• Coping Mechanisms: He details his initial negative coping (drinking, womanizing, burning relationships), and contrasts it with healthier approaches:
  • “Deal with your feelings, don’t project them. Don’t lean on substances or extrinsic things to fill that void. Really dive into who you are and who you want to be and then make a plan and then work on that plan every day, no matter what.” ([29:51])

2. The Power and Nuance of Community ([03:13]–[06:28])

• Beyond Social Media: Pat introduces the idea of real community, emphasizing the value of in-person connections—a recurring theme in recent interviews and personal reflections:
  • “This is not a podcast, it’s not social media play. It’s truly a community that we’re building, and it’s a movement.” ([03:13])
• Diversity as Strength: Shawn highlights the range of personalities, backgrounds, and beliefs at their dinner with partners and guests, underscoring how differences enrich unity:
  • “A table full of dudes that could not be further from the same… this is what America’s really about… everybody was there as one.” ([06:28])

3. The “Backpack” Analogy – Stress & Boundaries ([07:00]–[10:43])

• Extending the Metaphor: Inspired by Alex Boylan’s “the backpack you start with doesn’t define you,” Pat spins this further:
  • “It’s what you allow people to put in that backpack…sometimes people can put stuff in that backpack that’s going to help you, and sometimes they’re going to put stuff that’s really going to weigh you down.” ([07:00])
• Shawn’s Take: Shawn reflects on boundaries and personal agency in relationships:
  • “We have to sit there and say, like, okay, I’m gonna either keep this in my backpack or I’m gonna take it out because I can’t shoulder it.” ([08:18])

4. Handling Change & Discomfort ([33:56]–[37:34])

• Choosing Discomfort: Both hosts and recent guests highlight the necessity of seeking discomfort—whether chosen or circumstantial—as vital for growth:
  • “You survive it, I think it teaches you…to stop fearing change.” – Pat ([33:56])
  • “When I lean on comfort, I’m retreating from something, I’m hiding…Doing things that scare you builds that thick skin.” – Shawn ([35:21], [63:19])
• “Easy way, hard life; Hard way, easy life”: Shawn repeats this principle as foundational.

5. Sports, Culture & Shifting Values ([11:12]–[26:56])

• Olympics & Attention Shift: Pat prompts a discussion on why the Olympics and other major sporting events have less cultural resonance now.
  • Shawn: “I didn’t even know they were on…for me, the season I’m in is family first…” ([11:21])
  • Discussion on the transition in sports from national pride and team competition to individualism, social content, and exhibition.
  • “It used to be the best dudes playing the best dudes…now it’s about how do you get more of the personalities out?” – Pat ([26:00])
• Professional Athlete Mentality: Explores how changes in money, media, and cultural focus influence athlete attitudes and fan engagement.

6. Manifestation vs. Wishing ([51:22]–[54:42])

• Manifestation = Emotion + Action: Drawing from interview with Taja and experience with Skip Bertman, Shawn shares:
  • “Anything you can vividly imagine, ardently desire, and enthusiastically act upon must, absolutely, must come to pass.” ([52:19], [54:42])
  • Internalizing and emotionally experiencing the success you seek is essential.

7. Navigating Rejection & Missed Opportunities ([49:59]–[51:22])

• Guest Story – Taja: Missed out on “Real Housewives,” found success with a different TV show (“Members Only”).
  • “You judge that…rejection or that failure at your current state because you know what it could do for you at that point. But what if that comes through and it hamstrings you five years down the road?” – Shawn ([49:59])

8. Doing Things That Scare You ([63:11]–[64:39])

• Shawn’s Early Days: Fundamental principle from recording on his phone:
  • “I was mortified to record my first episode, man…do the things that scare you. That’s going to give you proof that you are unstoppable, that you are determined, that you are disciplined.” ([63:19])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Identity Collapse:
  “You can make a bunch of stupid decisions, drink, womanize like I did…or…do the things that are hard, deal with your feelings.” – Shawn ([01:14])

• On Community:
  “It’s just about being in the room with the right people and being inspired.” – Pat ([03:15])

• On the Backpack Analogy:
  “If you let people put additional weight into it…you can take that stuff out.” – Pat ([07:00])
  “Sometimes people will put a little extra weight in your backpack…I’m gonna either keep this in my backpack or I’m gonna take it out…” – Shawn ([08:18])

• On Manifestation:
  “Anything you can vividly imagine, ardently desire, and enthusiastically act upon must, absolutely, must come to pass.” – Shawn quoting Skip Bertman ([54:42])

• On Growth:
  “Doing things that scare you builds that thick skin and gives you proof you are unstoppable… Do it scared. Just do it…” – Shawn ([63:19], [63:50])

• On Community Goals:
  “It’s not about me. It’s about you, the viewer, the listener.” – Shawn ([73:58])

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:08 | The fallout and aftermath of losing his identity as a baseball player | | 03:13 | The meaning and value of true community | | 07:00 | Discussion of Alex Boylan’s "backpack" quote and boundaries | | 11:12 | Cultural shifts in sports and the Olympics | | 27:30 | Recounting the identity crisis after leaving baseball | | 33:56 | On seeking discomfort and overcoming fear of change | | 35:21 | “Easy way, hard life” – the importance of deliberate discomfort | | 51:22 | The difference between wishing and manifesting | | 54:42 | “Anything you can vividly imagine...” – Manifestation and leadership | | 63:11 | Listener questions: starting the podcast & lessons learned | | 69:50 | Building The Determined Society community | | 72:22 | Teasing upcoming TED Talk and events |

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Community Engagement & Listener Q&A Highlights

• How did you refocus after baseball?
  By hoping for and embracing new passions—moving beyond just being a “baseball player.” ([31:32])

• Three lifestyle habits for everyone:

  1. Take care of your body.
  2. Self-reflection and relationship ownership.
  3. Daily engagement in personal faith or purpose. ([55:44])

• Biggest challenge when starting:
  Not having the “professional setup”—overcoming perfection paralysis by bootstrapping and just starting. ([59:30])

• Still-fundamental lesson:
  “Do the things that scare you” – courage is essential from day one. ([63:19])

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Memorable Personal Stories

• Walking Fashion Week for His Daughters:
  Shawn explains his motivation for modeling in Fashion Week in NYC—fulfilling his daughters’ dreams and showing them “their dreams are fingertips away.”
  “My daughters are getting to experience…and have a core memory because I chose to get out of my own way and do something weird and uncomfortable.” ([41:26])

• Fan Engagement with Grunt Style:
  Reaffirms his commitment to advocating for veterans and the military community; shouts out Grunt Style apparel.

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Closing Reflections & Community Invitation

• Building the Determined Society:
  Listeners are encouraged to join the new free community for support, exclusive content, and monthly coaching calls ([69:50], [71:51]).

• Final Inspiring Thought:
  “Start the thing and then grow into it… The version of Shawn four years ago would have just killed and maimed to be where I’m at right now.” ([72:22])

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Next Steps & Coming Attractions

• Upcoming TED Talk on being a lifelong learner (March 21, Naples) ([72:22])
• Upcoming episodes and interviews with high-profile guests
• Ongoing focus on fostering real community and transformative discussion

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Tone & Style

Conversational, authentic, motivational, and open—Shawn and Pat blend vulnerability with actionable strategies, humor, and a strong undercurrent of camaraderie.

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For Listeners:

• Join the free community: thedeterminedsociety.com (sign up for newsletter)
• Podcast available on: Apple, Spotify, YouTube
• Engage: Ask questions for the next Pulse, leave ratings/reviews, and join the conversation!

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Stay determined.

Transcript

[Sean French]

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[Pat Sickens]

what happens when your identity collapse happens? How do you get out of that one?

[Sean French]

You can make a bunch of stupid decisions, drink, womanize like I did, or if you are a level headed individual, do the things that are hard, deal with your feelings. I loved baseball and it was everything to me. But if I loved that, it was everything to me. I always held onto this hope that I would find something else.

[Pat Sickens]

I love that, man.

[Sean French]

Don't lean on substances or extrinsic things to fill that void. Really dive into who you are and who you want to be and then make a plan and then work on that plan every day no matter what.

[Pat Sickens]

Some people, they choose their environment, they choose their situation, they choose not to deal with whatever it is, they choose their discomfort. But either way, I think it teaches you something very, very important and that is to stop fearing change.

[Sean French]

What up, everybody? Welcome back. Here it is again, the Pulse, the behind the scenes episode of the determined Society. I have my boy Pat Sickens here. We're going to go over a lot of different things. He's got a lot of questions that people on socials have asked him. I'm going to answer them. We're going to shout you out, but we're just going to go deep of what's been happening in our world the last month and what we're looking forward to. So welcome to the show, man.

[Pat Sickens]

Sean French. What up? I miss, I miss that dude, man.

[Sean French]

I miss it so much, dude. Yeah, we should probably incorporate it somewhere, man.

[Pat Sickens]

Crash. What's up, man? Just. We gotta give him a shout out for that song.

[Sean French]

Ah, Crash Minati. Man, what a great dude, man. It was so fun when he came, you know, him and Justin and everybody came to Jacksonville, and to have him perform that song was just a special moment, but, you know, incorporate somewhere.

[Pat Sickens]

It was. It was great. So you're right, you know, to be back on the pulse. And I was thinking, oh, my gosh, we're going to start doing this monthly. What the heck? Are we. Are we gonna have enough to talk about? Got too much to talk about today, so.

[Sean French]

Yeah, man, for sure, dude.

[Pat Sickens]

You know, so I. I've been thinking about being down in Fort Myers and, you know, having Alex Boylan on the show and just the time that we got to spend. And I wanted to open up today's with the idea of community because we talked a lot about being in person and, you know, how the world shifted since COVID 2020, all that. And what I'm not talking about here is community and the fact of followers, but in true community, being around people that have their own experience, their own strength, their own wisdom that they can, you know, basically bestow on you. And it's just about being in the room with the right people and being inspired. So I wanted to start with just that whole conversation we had with Alex and Matt and Roman at dinner and just the idea of community and what we're really building here within the society, because we said it before, but it just hit me so much harder that this is not a podcast, it's not social media play. It's truly a community that we're building, and it's a movement.

[Sean French]

Dude, I could not agree more. That specific week to have you here, Roman here, you know, to my partners, and then have, you know, Alex Boylan fly in from California to be on the Determined Society and then get up to Jacksonville to be on two types of people. It's a special thing just in itself, right? To just know that so many people are coming here to be a part of something like, you know, just a small part of something that we feel could be something very big. But what I realized in that dinner was how special it really is and how blessed that I am to have everybody here that has come to. And I mean, this most humbling way to see me, like, to. To do stuff with me and the conversation and the. In the deep dive into the relationship building, you know, with Matt Dillon being there, Alex being there, you and Roman, man, it just makes it made the next day so much better, right? It Made the next day when me and Alex were on the mic and on camera together, that conversation was next level because we built more community that the night before. Right. And spending more time. So I guess the way I feel is, you know, people always say, get in the room, but they never tell you why. They never tell you why. Because I think the big thing is when people say, get in the room. And so that way you can advance your, your network, you can advance your revenue stream. But to me, it's more about relationships and making the thing that you do so much better. And without a doubt, it made that conversation with Alex Boylan be at a level that I don't think it would have been had we not spent so much time personally, one on one.

[Pat Sickens]

I agree. And you know, we talked a lot about just the digital age that we're in right now and everyone's connecting in groups and on social and all that stuff. But there's just a lost art of being, you know, in community. You know, having a meal, you know, breaking bread with. With a group of people that aren't necessarily the same but are like minded or all trying to push forward.

[Sean French]

Yeah, that, that's the thing that's special. Right. It's like you had, you know, a table full of dudes that could not be further from the same. And it was all so, it was, it was all so amazing and it flowed. And to me it was like, man, this is what America's really about. That's what society should be about, is everybody at this table has different, you know, personalities, different, you know, perceptions of the world, maybe even different beliefs, but everybody was there as one. And that's what I feel this community or this determined society truly is.

[Pat Sickens]

Man, there you go. Well, I want to stick on his episode because I do want to hit the episodes that we've had since our last pulse. And it was one of the clips, and it's on the back of his book, the Miles that make you. But there was the quote about the backpack you start with doesn't define you. And you guys talked about that. But I wanted to bring that back up because we talked a little bit about it on two types on my show. And where I went with that is a little bit different than you guys went. So I want to get your take on this. So when you think about the backpack and the conversation you guys had, what I was talking about with Alex is it's not necessarily everything that you. I'm sorry, it's everything you guys talked about. But what I went with is it's what you allow people to put in that backpack, right, because it's yours. So if you let people put additional weight into it or things that you're carrying around that you don't have to carry, you can take that stuff out. So I really love that backpack mentality. I love the fact that you guys talked about that. I just wanted your take on. It's not just a solo mission. And so sometimes people can put stuff in that backpack that's going to help you, and sometimes they're going to put stuff that's really going to weigh you down. So it's about the boundaries, the protection of yourself. So your take on maybe that slightly different slant on his backpack analogy, honestly,

[Sean French]

I think it's genius the way you spun it in your own way and created your own narrative off of it, right? About, hey, we're doing life together, and sometimes people will put a little extra weight in your backpack. And I think that's natural. Anytime you're doing stuff with people that you know love and trust, like, I can put things in your backpack. You can put things in my backpack, and it may not necessarily work. So we have to sit there and say, like, okay, I'm gonna either keep this in my backpack or I'm gonna take it out because I can't shoulder it. It's too heavy. But, man, like, that. That's a great perspective, man, because I. I didn't think about it. The way I thought about it in that sense was, oh, my God, like, we all have heavy. That happens, man. And we all have these struggles. And I even got a little choked up because I've been through a lot in my life. And I'm not saying I've had a terrible childhood or a terrible adulthood or even adolescent life, but I have gone through some. And it. In. In. In those moments when you read something like that, it's all on how you perceive that quote and how it speaks to you. And it just ripped out these emotions to the forefront, dude. Just like, all right, I'm, like, naked right now, and I'm remembering everything that's happened to me right from the time that my grandma died to my blood clot, to my injury to my exit of baseball, to losing everything multiple times and rebuilding it back up and then walking away from corporate America doing this is like, all of it came back, you know? And, but, but. But your perspective, dude, Like, I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I mean, it's about.

[Pat Sickens]

It's about. It's about boundaries, right? And it's about boundaries, and it's support. So you're saying, you know, I can put stuff in your backpack, you can put stuff in mine. Sometimes it's very helpful. It's a great tool, and it's a resource, but sometimes it's not. And that's just our relationship. It's a human relationship, and it's a friendship, and, you know, everyone's got their stuff. And so, yeah, I loved what Alex and you were talking about as far as the personal, you know, weight that you're carrying. And, you know, it's not about the weight. It's about what you do with it, but it's also about protecting what's in there and realizing that you may be carrying some stuff that you don't necessarily have to. So I just think, to your point, like, it's.

[Sean French]

It.

[Pat Sickens]

That whole. Whole analogy and that whole, you know, the whole story of what he. He goes through and how that works. I think to your point, it's. It's very powerful because it can speak to you wherever you are.

[Sean French]

That's the great thing about quotes, right? Any. Any quote that you. It depends on where you're at in your life. I could have read that. I could. I could have read that in two years, and it may not have hit me like it did that day. So, like, quotes are beautiful because it speaks to you of where you're at emotionally and mentally at that time.

[Pat Sickens]

Ooh, we're gonna have a callback later because we're getting into some quotes later. You're gonna love it.

[Sean French]

Yes, I love it.

[Pat Sickens]

All right, we're gonna move on for a second.

[Sean French]

Okay.

[Pat Sickens]

I want to get your opinion on current events since we're a society and culture show. What are your feelings on the current Olympics?

[Sean French]

I. I mean, I'm. Dude, I'm so embarrassed. You know, I do love America. I didn't even know that they were on. And I'm being fully transparent, you know? Like, everybody's talking about the Olympics. Are you gonna watch them? I'm like, yeah, when it's time, they're like, bro, we're like a weekend two weeks in. I'm two weeks in. And I'm just like, what a dipshit. You know? But. But again, you know, I feel like in life, we're. You know, everybody has certain seasons where they're so focused and dialed in on what they're doing. And for me, the season I'm in right now is family first and foremost. Right? Making sure that my children are good, that they're doing great in school, and that we're, you know, there for them emotionally. You know, I want a great marriage. And then also, I'm building this business, you know, alongside you and our other partners and our. And our contracted partners. So that's where my mind's been. But, dude. Yeah, dude, I. I don't know anything. I don't know anything. I know they're in Milan.

[Pat Sickens]

They are. I think you are in the majority this time. They feel different this year, and I don't, you know, and everyone I talk to is like, oh, yeah, they're happening. But no one. There's not that national pride and anyone. I'm not just talking about Americans. I mean, I've talked to people, you know, with other national. But no one's really. Of course they're paying attention. They're doing a great job. And there's different formats and all that, but it just seems like a lot of people just kind of miss the fact that the Olympics are happening, and I have some ideas why. And so there's a lot of going

[Sean French]

on in the world right now, dude.

[Pat Sickens]

So there's a lot going on. Is it a. But are you more a Winter Olympic guy or a Summer Olympic guy?

[Sean French]

Summer. Summer. Why? I don't know. I just think, you know, growing up, it was always the thing. Every four years you had the Summer Olympics. It was just the thing that I was so caught up in, and I could be wrong. So, you know, for the viewers and the listeners, if I'm wrong, you know,

[Pat Sickens]

this is totally a personal opinion.

[Sean French]

Yeah, I don't remember the Winter Olympics when I was a child. Like, I. Like, I don't remember them, you know, Like, I remember, you know, seeing some ice skating, but when you're so little, you don't know that it's broken up into two separate, you know, a summer and a winter. So I remember that stuff. But, you know, when I was a kid, I grew up watching, you know, the track and field. I grew up watching Mary Lou Retton, you know, gymnastics. I mean, she was dope. Like, that's what I was used to. So I'm a summer guy only for the reason of. That's what I grew up on, man. That's what I remember.

[Pat Sickens]

I. I think the Summer Olympics have the ability to be just sexier. You know, it's sweat, it's. It's, you know, harder sports. Maybe I'm not saying harder as far as physical ability, but there's more of the competitive, like, team stuff going on. With basketball, we have hockey in the winter, but it just seems like there's. And maybe it's because I grew up and I'm in Florida native and I don't do winter sports as much, but yeah, it's just everyone I've talked to is just like, watch a little hockey, watch this, little that. And I think part of the problem is, is this idea of exhibition over competition. Because what you're seeing right now is a lot of individuality. And it's just, it's the world right now, right? But it's so much more about the individuality of the athlete versus the national pride and the teams and stuff like that. And I think that cascades to all the issues that the NBA, the NFL, mlb, these all star events and weekends, right, like the Pro bowl, the MLB All Star Game, the Olympics, like they're all kind of having this problem where the main, the main viewership is down, but they're having success in other formats. Right. So streaming, the social posts, you know, drone footage, stuff like that. And I think the problem really is it's more about exhibition and, you know, the, the status of being Olympian versus the actual competition.

[Sean French]

Hey guys, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to slide into our recovery segment brought to you by TheraBody. What an amazing technology that TheraBody has and it was founded on a really cool story by Dr. Jason Worsland. It was founded on pain. He got into an accident and had this extreme pain in his arm and found that percussive therapy was really helped. So he created the very first version of the Theragun with a makita drill just to pilot and test to see if his pain could be relieved by percussive therapy overall. And surely it was. So now birth to the Theragun and now therabody, who has a multitude of products to help you recover emotionally and physically. And some of the products even help with stress, meditation and better sleep and just overall better wellness. And when I had Dr. J on the show earlier in 2025, it really spoke to me because his platform was founded out of. Out of physical pain and the Determined Society was founded out of emotional pain. 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The other thing it's really good for is just creating a peaceful time in your day. And what I found since using the smart goggles and then the other products is it works for me, it works for my family, and I know it can work for you too. So I want you guys to think about things that you are struggling with. If it's lower back pain or you wake up in the morning, your neck is tight, I'm going to tell you, the Theragun Pro plus will help that out. They have cold therapy on it, hot therapy. I mean, think about that when I open that box and realize that I could have heat therapy and cold therapy and a theragun changed everything for me and also really made the thing that I hate doing the most is warmup. Made that very easy for me just by applying it to the muscle group that I'm going to use before I do it and in between sets, which promotes quicker recovery between sets. So if you're looking to go high volume or to lift heavy weights, I strongly consider that all these products are there to help you move along in your day with less pain and recover quicker. So go check it out because now, like I said, the official partnership has begun. And from now until the end of March, in your first order, you get 15% off your first order. Not every order. So if you're gonna buy some stuff, load up there in that cart for that first time and you get 15% off. Go to therabody.com and at checkout, the code is determined. So let me know how you guys like it. Until then, stay determined. Interesting. I never looked at it like that, you know, and. And you're right, though. Like I. Another funny thing, I was in, you know, New York City this weekend, this past weekend. And my nephew was watching, you know, the three point contest, you know, and I'm like, what is. I go, is All Star weekend? He goes, yeah, I don't really care. It's just what's on. I'm like, have they done the slam dunk contest yet? And then we started talking about how it's just more of a production now. It's more about the individual and more about what individual can grow their brand based on socials and collaborations with ESPN and whatnot. And it really used to be this community thing where you had Michael Jordan, you know, all these dudes. And I just, I, and I, and I said to my nephew, who's 18, I said, Bro, I don't think I've watched basketball consistently since Michael Jordan. You know, I mean, those were days. And then of course, you know, when Kobe was around, I, you'd be a crazy bastard not to watch Kobe Bryant. Right. But I just, it's just so weird. I think the world moves so fast now that everybody's caught up in their own thing. Like little things like that just kind of squeak by me, to be quite honest.

[Pat Sickens]

I mean, I, I, I, the 04 Red Sox, I could probably still do it, but yeah, I knew the entire starting lineup and, you know, their depth chart with their pitchers and, and all that because that's what I cared about. I didn't have kids, you know, didn't. Yeah, I wasn't doing nearly what I'm doing now. So I agree with that. But when I look at the competitive part, and I'm talking about why people don't care as much maybe at least perception wise is, you know, I was thinking about the Major League, the Major League Baseball All Star Game right now, this is before you and I were born, but it was legendary. Pete Rose trucking the catcher in the 12th inning of the All Star Game to win it by one. Like that doesn't happen today because I might get hurt. And I understand that. I'm not saying we're soft or anything like that, but they were 100%, all in all the time, they didn't care about tomorrow. It was, I'm going to win this game and I'm going to run through another All Star to win the All Star Game. And I think it's a mentality thing, right? Because you can't, you know, it's the old practice. Like you play. If Pete Rose wasn't willing to crash into that guy in the 12th inning, the All Star game, what happens in the 12th inning of the World Series in game seven. Like, can you flip that on? And so I think it's a big mentality shift of, well, my next contract's coming up, you know, I may get canceled for trucking the guy instead of going, this is my job. This is my passion. And my mentality is 100 in all the time.

[Sean French]

Well, you hit the nail on the head. You're talking about contract years, free agency, etc, there's so much more money now involved in these professional sports that these athletes are forced to look at it a completely different way than Pete Rose, Dave Henderson, Ricky Henderson, you know, Mark McGuire and all those cats. It was like, I'm gonna win at all cost. I mean, Pete Rose was that way or else he wouldn't have trucked a catcher in a fucking All Star Game, bro. I mean, like, I really think about that, like, it doesn't happen now. Now it's like watching paint dry, you know, and they, and they tried years ago to bring the interest back in the All Star Game and make it mean something, like the winner gets, you know, home field advantage. And, you know, when you have to start doing things like that, you know, or in trouble because you should want to win regardless. I mean, that's what I mean. It's a game. There's a winner and there's a loser. And where we're at right now is a lot of people, you know, like, we've got a little issue with this participation trophy thing. And, you know, it's not really related to this, but when you dive into the complexion of all, all professional sports, these people got to be very careful with their bodies because if they're not and something happens, then they're children's. Children's children are not taken care of. And I think a lot of people, you know, are looking at this like, if I can get a $200 million contract, like no one else in my life is going to ever have to worry about anything. I just think it's a. It's a difference in, you know, where we're at.

[Pat Sickens]

It is. And again, I think it's just where we are culturally and, you know, it's a big business now, but it's just. It is very different, you know, it's. It's more about the exhibition and all that. And so I think what they're doing, and I think some of the major organizations are doing a better job than others, but, you know, they're trying to find ways to make it more interesting because it used to be the best dudes playing the best dudes and whoever wins, you know, that's it. And so now it's about how do you get more of the personalities out? So like watching the Pro Bowl, I actually enjoyed it. I think the production wasn't great and it was, it was smaller than it probably could have been and certainly the way it used to be as a game. But to see the guys faces, to see their personalities, to hear them joking around like that, I think that's very important. I don't, I'm not saying I have the answer at all, but it's just, it's an interesting conversation of where we are and I think an interesting look at the fact that people still really want the competitive nature of sports.

[Sean French]

Yeah, I agree, man. I do agree. That's, that's a good one, man.

[Pat Sickens]

So I want to stick on this for just a second because as I'm thinking about the, the Olympics and know all these All Stars, you know, all these things come to an end, right? You're, you know, Lindsay Vaugh tried to give it a go and she blew out her ACL again. Like your peak is going to come to an end. I'm not saying your peak overall, but what you're doing now, good or bad, is going to come to an end. And so as I was looking, listening to one of the episodes with Derek Carlson. Right, okay.

[Sean French]

Yeah, yeah, yep.

[Pat Sickens]

And so when we were talking, you guys were talking about that and he talked about his transition, you know, going from basically rock bottom to transitioning and whether it's voluntary or it's something that you choose with that transition, I wanted to dive in a little bit to what actually happens, because you have a TED Talk on it. And so what happens when that title, right. Baseball player, entrepreneur, best salesperson, husband, whatever it is, what happens when your identity collapse happens? How do you get out of that? And I know you and Derek talked a little bit about it.

[Sean French]

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think not a lot of people, I mean, I wouldn't say everybody has that identity crisis or identity collapse. I think for me, because I can only speak on my own experiences. Right. You know, when, when my identity crisis happened, it was in 2003 after the college World Series. You know, I've talked about it publicly a lot. You know, South Carolina beat us 11:10. We, we lost two games, our first two games in the College World Series. And then we had to go home. I'm sitting there in right field and I'm looking around, I'm like, oh, fuck, who am I? I don't know who Sean Is the only thing that I knew is like Sean, the baseball player, the catcher, that's who everybody knew. And so, you know, for me, like I, I equated my worth and who I was to a baseball with red stitching and eventually that goes away. Like no matter what in life, even if I would have played in the major leagues or went and got drafted and played in the minor leagues, at some point that part of my life's going to be over. And there's two ways you can handle that. To your question. One, you can unravel at the seams, no pun intended, right? And you can make a bunch of stupid decisions, drink, womanize like I did and burn relationships. Or if you are a level headed individual and go, okay, well that was a point in my life and now I get to find out what's next. I would have handled that a lot differently now than I would have back then. So I think a constructive way, when people are going through an identity shift or a collapse or crisis, however you want to put, brings a lot of stress because all they are thinking now is I'm not good enough. And it's important to dive into yourself and really ask yourself, okay, this is how I'm feeling. Is it true? And honestly, it's not true. Yeah, everybody's worth so much more than what they do. And so the people that come out better, like the, you know, like, look at the A rods, look at the Derek Jeters, look at everybody that has left a very illustrious career with some adversity. You know, A Rod will never be in the hall of Fame, which I, you know, you talk about that later. But they were also businessmen and they transitioned into something and they, they were constructive post sport. I just think a lot of people panic and they don't handle it the right way. The best way to handle it again, to your quiet, to your, to your question is day by day and do the things that are hard to move forward. Meaning deal with your feelings, don't project them, don't lean on substances or, or women or men or extrinsic things to fill that void. Really dive into who you are and who you want to be and then make a plan and then work on that plan every day, no matter what, just with anything.

[Pat Sickens]

No doubt. We actually, we just touched on one of our first AMAs. So for those who don't know, we are putting that out there and you have the ability to ask us questions every month. So that was actually pretty much answering Daniel Whittington's. He wanted to Know, he said how much. He knew how much baseball meant to you. He wanted to know, how did you motivate and refocus yourself after you realized baseball was no longer an option? Think we just answered that one.

[Sean French]

Yeah. You know, and Daniel Whittington, I love that dude so much. We played Little League together. We've known each other, I mean, 90% of each other's lives. And, you know, that specific question is a great one. And. And more targeted specifically is like, you know, Daniel, like, I loved baseball, and it was everything to me, but if I loved that, it was everything to me. I always held on to this hope that I would find something else. And, you know, so I thought it was, you know, me being a top salesperson or. Or a baseball coach and it. Or a father and. Or a husband. And, you know, the father and the husband thing, that's a real thing. Right. But. But for me, it was finding this, like, this opportunity for me really spoke to me, because I love this more than baseball. You know, I can't get physically hurt doing this. You know, I mean, it's a. I mean, it's been emotionally taxing, at times stressful. But, man, if we allow space to love something else, then we can't lose.

[Pat Sickens]

I love that, man. Good answer. And good question. Thank you, Daniel.

[Sean French]

Yeah. Very good question.

[Pat Sickens]

So I want to talk a little, and we're still on this, but talking about getting uncomfortable. So we talked about that. You and Alex talked about that. And he and I talked about on a show, and it's something that he talks about a lot, and he was born into some discomfort, but he is one that chooses to be uncomfortable, especially when he feels like he's getting just a little bit stagnant. He'll go do a big hike or, you know, try some new project, whatever it is. And so I keep hearing that as. And maybe it's because I'm paying attention. You know, if you're looking to buy a truck, you look around, all you see is trucks. Same thing. So as I was listening to Zoe Carly's episode, she was talking about being a Navy brat moving around, which I have a lot of family members that have done the same thing. And she was talking about, you know, having a new identity, a new school, like, basically every year. You know, that she moved a lot. And the point of all this, and what I'm getting to is some people choose discomfort, right? Some people, they choose their environment. They choose their situation. They choose not to deal with whatever it is. They choose their discomfort. Some people are Raised in it. But either way, if you survive it, I think it teaches you something very, very important and that is to stop fearing change.

[Sean French]

Great point, man, great point.

[Pat Sickens]

And the reason I wanted to bring that up is you started talking about it in Monday's episode and when you guys were talking about. And it's something you and I have talked about several times, but it's really running towards your problem and looking at the one thing. And so as I look at discomfort, I think people get in a victim mentality, right? Oh, this is all happening to me. This, that and the other thing. And I think sometimes people are choosing it and they don't realize it. You know, again, going back to the backpack, they're carrying stuff around. And so I just thought it was a very good conversation that you guys had about her finding the comfort and being uncomfortable and Alex talking about it. You talk about it all the time. You know, Alex and I talked about it just in the little things. Like if you're at the gym, you say, I'm going to do a 20 minute sauna. Are you going to do 20 minutes or are you going to do 10? You know? Right. Because you said you were going to do 20. Right. It's about the discipline to do it. And it's a mentality of saying, this is what I have to do. And so I wanted to get your take just a little bit more on the idea of being uncomfortable because I think a lot of times people get comfortable being uncomfortable, but not in a good way. Meaning they're uncomfortable all the time. They're just not willing to do what they need to do to get past whatever it is they need to get past.

[Sean French]

Yeah. I just think in my own experience, like when I lean on comfort, I'm retreating from something I'm hiding. Right. If I'm, I mean, you know, being comfortable is never going to the gym, never pushing my body, giving in to fleshly desires, about eating whatever I want to eat, whenever I want to eat. Right. And, and to me, like, that's just so easy to do. And what I've realized is, is that the cliche of like, you know, choose the easy way, have a hard life, choose the hard way, have an easy life. I think about that often in decision making every single day. Right. Like, do I, you know, I really don't want to do this. Like for instance, like last week, I haven't squatted in forever. I always do hack squats. I always do like belt squats. I'm like, I walked in the gym, like, you know, I Should probably squat today. I'm like, fuck. Now I have to. You know, I went over there and I. You know, it was like my third exercise I did. It was very uncomfortable. But what I realized is it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I didn't hurt my back. Okay. My body isn't the same as it was a year ago, and it's, you know, it's. It's stronger now than it was in the past. So, like, can I be open to the fact that it's probably going to be good for me? It's going to feel good. And so I did it. I'm like, wow, that wasn't so bad. And now, like, I literally can't wait to go later and do those again. So when we fight through something that we think's going to be an issue, instead of running from the problem, we realize, like, wow, what an opportunity to grow. And like, hey, the worst thing that I thought was gonna happen did not happen. And now we go attack that. And then what you do is you build this muscle for resilience. You build this muscle so that way, anytime that you think of something like, oh, I should probably implement this, it could be in business, it could be in your. In your marriage. Doesn't matter. A hard conversation or admitting that you're wrong and you're not doing or being your best, it is very simple at that point and easy to execute that hard conversation or try something else because you did something scary over here.

[Pat Sickens]

You just hit on it. Because I wanted to make sure that this part of the conversation was clear, you know. Yes. It's about pushing through at the gym and things like that and doing the things that you don't want to do. But it's about being uncomfortable and taking chances and putting yourself in a position that is. Is scary sometimes. Right. And that can be scary, can mean whatever to whoever. But, you know, what's coming to mind right now is Fashion Week for you.

[Sean French]

Okay.

[Pat Sickens]

Okay. Because here we go. Here we go. Derek. Derek Zoolander.

[Sean French]

Derek Blue Steel.

[Pat Sickens]

Derek Zoolander. That is not a comfortable place for you because you are not a model by profession today. And so you and Daria actually talked about that on Monday's episode and talking about doing the things that are uncomfortable because you just never know what's going to happen. Right? So she was doing things on Sundays after bartending to work in wrestling, and it ended up she was doing all these things. And then one meeting met to Maria Menounos, you know, so it just. On and on and on.

[Sean French]

Yeah.

[Pat Sickens]

So as I was thinking through, the number one question I have gotten not on ama, just in general, is, why is Sean in Fashion Week? And so I know why, and I know I'm leading us there. But I want to just a. I want you to talk about Fashion Week because it's a big deal. Talk about the billboards and all that. And then specifically why? Because I think it is a very good, good topic.

[Sean French]

Well, you know, I thought a little bit harder about my answer. So you're. You actually know maybe a quarter of it.

[Pat Sickens]

Let's go.

[Sean French]

Okay, I'm gonna get to that. I'm gonna tell you why. But it was, you know, listen, I was up there for the billboard. You know. You know, we. We had a billboard up there. You know, Matt and I went up in middle of January. And after we, you know, saw the billboard, took the pictures and got the videos, it was super surreal, right? And. And then we walk into this Diana Mirage, her. Her designer clothing store, because he needed to be fitted because he was walking in Fashion Week. And I didn't even think anything of it. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go in there. No big deal. I'm just. You know, all I'm worried about at that point is like, hey, can we hurry the hell up? Cause I'm starving. And anybody who knows me knows I eat five, six times a day. Don't fuck with my meal schedule. I need to eat. Daddy needs to eat. And so we go in there, and we're there forever. And then finally, she goes, I need another male model. I. Matt, he's walking. He's going to do Fashion Week. And, you know, pointing to me and Matt's like, yeah, it's a great opportunity for exposure. You need to do it. And I'm thinking, no, that was my. Honestly, I. I said to him, like, guys, I'm not. I'm not. That's not my thing. I'm not a model. I don't claim to be. Not the world that I live in. But then I'm sitting there, and she goes, no, you're gonna. We're gonna fit you for this suit. I'm like, it's Valentine's Day weekend. Can I pull this off? Like, I thought deeper about this. What. And. And this is I. And I. And if the people that asked you that question don't listen to this episode, I want you to personally go to them and tell them the real reason I did it.

[Pat Sickens]

I'll send them the link to the episode.

[Sean French]

I have two beautiful Daughters, as you know. And what people don't know is one of them's here. You know, they're on ski week. The other one's with Jackie. But who's with you? Alina. Alina's here. She's over there doing. Doing her iPad. Just, you know, she can't even hear attention. Yeah. Paying attention to what she's doing.

[Pat Sickens]

It's locked in nuts, obviously.

[Sean French]

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Because what we do is so cool. But, you know, so, you know, I look at this situation, I have two beautiful daughters, and their dream is to go to fashion school. So they want to go to fashion school here in the States. And then when they graduate, they want to move to Paris together and start a clothing line called. What was it? I thought it was Sisters clothing line, but they changed the name to something else. So the real reason I did it was because I saw it as an opportunity to bring my daughters to fashion Week in New York City so they could see their dad walking in Fashion Week and just to know that their dreams are literally fingertips away. That's it. And when I came out that door, when I. When it was my turn, my daughters were freaking out. They're holding up hearts. I love you. I see my wife smiling. She got the camera on me. I'm like, bro. Like, this is it. My daughters are getting to experience and have a core memory because I chose to get out of my own way and do something weird and uncomfortable. And by the way, absolutely murdered it. I was. I was asked back for the fall, the big one. And I'm like, what is this? Right? So, okay, fine.

[Pat Sickens]

Can we. Can we do a video with us at the gas station and our mocha frappuccinos and. Yeah, it'll be good. That's a fantastic answer.

[Sean French]

Yeah. And. And my knee jerk reaction yesterday was when you said, hey, heads up, this is coming. Was like, what do you mean? It's pr. It's getting your name in a different circle. It's having proof of concept that you are able to get uncomfortable and do something strange and weird to you. Right. That you may not fit in. But as I was sitting there, you know, I went to the room where we're getting ready, and you know, my wife and my two girls, and we were with Matt, and he introduced me to this girl named Ashley, Ashley Baronet. Oh, my gosh. Why am I blanking on her last name? I'm sorry, Ashley. I'm sorry, sweetie. Great girl. Met her boyfriend and, you know, we were. We were vibing. I was like, hey, what do you do? And she goes, well, I run a podcast. I'm like, huh? I'm like, where? And she was. Staten Island. I go. And she goes, yeah, me and my. Me and my aunt do it. I'm like, who's your aunt? She goes, I'm like, oh, my God. The Red podcast. I know you guys, I'm supposed to come on. She goes, wait, you're Sean? Yeah. You're gonna come here? We're gonna. We're gonna do stuff, and then I think we're gonna come to you. I'm like, yeah, that's cool. So I got to network with somebody else in the industry that's doing big things that have interviewed, like, names like Tom Arnold. Okay. And really cool things. So, like, again, not judging an opportunity is. Is super important because I got to inspire my children, and I got to meet somebody that I'm going to do a show with here in the next few weeks. And now I have an actual relationship with her. I mean, that's a win.

[Pat Sickens]

That's a win.

[Sean French]

Yeah.

[Pat Sickens]

That's a win. Well, I'm excited for you. And speaking of fashion, man, I know you've gotten a lot of comments, but that jacket.

[Sean French]

Which one?

[Pat Sickens]

The one you're wearing right now.

[Sean French]

Oh, dude, you know what, man?

[Pat Sickens]

And I'm sorry. I'm sorry, the viewers. It's a. It's a very nice bomber jacket. It's from Grunt Style. It's got all the patches.

[Sean French]

Dude, I love this jacket, and it means so much to me because, you know, Jana Sergio is a good friend of mine, as you know, and she's working with Grun Style. You know, I've had the opportunity to. To meet virtually Tim Jensen, which is the co founder of Grun Style, and they sent me a bunch of stuff, and I love what they're doing there, man. For the veterans. You know, my shirt says no more dead friends, because veterans die way too often. And a lot of times on the. In the VA lobby, because they're ending their life. These. These. These members of our country that gave their lives, you know, in a lot of forms. But these veterans gave up, you know, years of their life to fight for us and our family's freedom. They need to be treated better. They need to be healed mentally and emotionally, because, as you know, even when we talk to, you know, Marcus and, you know, Marcus and Morgan Luttrell, it was like, our switch is broken. When we come back, we don't know how to live in this world. We're used to ops. We're used to, you know, Strategy, schedule, implementation. Go, go, go. And then we get back here, you hand us a baby. We all know what to do. These, these veterans are heavily underserved, so I will forever support Grunt style. And yeah, man, that's why I wear a lot of their stuff, man. This jacket, man, is my favorite jacket I got. It's.

[Pat Sickens]

Yeah, I mean, the jacket's great. The fact that they're fans of the show and support is awesome. I looked more into them. They're one of the most charitable veteran run organizations in the country, I guess, or in the world. And I've got such strong ties. I mean, most of my family is represented in every branch of the military. And I just, I agree 100% with you because I've seen the sacrifices that my family members have had to make. And what I don't particularly like is when people are against the military. Like, look, you can be against politicians, you could be against policy and all that, but these people volunteer for you to be able to say and think whatever it is you want. So I just, I wanted to a. Just talk about the jacket because it's awesome. But since we're here, you know, from a military perspective, any idea, value, whatever it is that you have, an opinion that you have, the way you look, the way you think it's represented in our military and they keep us safe at home. And so, you know, to have an organization that supports them is awesome. So I'm glad you wear it. And I. Can I go somewhere real quick?

[Sean French]

Sure, go ahead.

[Pat Sickens]

Absolutely. So I don't know if Grunt Cell does it, but because they support military families, there's a ton of companies out there that do that. Right. So they do big charitable things. They give discounts. So what I would say is if you are listening or watching and you are a company that offers benefits to our military, dow first responders, drop it in. You know, I'd love for people that are in those communities to know like, hey, grunt styles out there, hey, Home Depot gives 10%, whatever it is. So maybe we'll make a clip out of it. But either way, I would just love for organizations like, yeah, we support the military and see what's out there.

[Sean French]

I love that, man. Absolutely. Great idea. Let's run it. All right.

[Pat Sickens]

All right. I want to get back a little bit on the topic of some of the conversations you've had in the last month. We talked a lot when I was in town, specifically at dinner, and Matt just kept talking about Taja and how amazing she was going to be. And she was as Advertised. It was a great episode. Matt certainly talked her up appropriately, and I just. I loved the conversation. And one of the things that I really enjoyed was, and it was pretty early on in the episode was talking about her failures of, you know, I wanted to be on the Real Housewives, and it didn't happen, you know, and I. We hear that with so many people. You know, Alex Boylan talking about he missed being on Survivor, and then he's on Amazing Race, like, just the way things work out. And you and I have talked about this on air. We talk about this probably every time. We talk of not pressing on things, pushing forward, but not pressing and just realizing that things might work out for you, even though you're just devastated in the moment. Right. Like, I'm sure. And she talked about, Tasha was not happy after how many attempts of trying to be on Real Housewives, and now she's got her spot with Members Only. And so I just. I wanted to hit on that because it's something we talk about a lot, but she said it in her own experience. And so I just wanted to give you the opportunity to comment on that and just talk about the interview overall, but specifically about just where we get so tied up in the missed opportunities, the missed partnerships, the guests. We couldn't get on, and then somehow it just kind of works out.

[Sean French]

Well, first of all, Taja is an unbelievable human being entrepreneur. Her partner is very successful. You know, David Cohn. I mean, I've heard the name, name drop there. Hi, Dave. You know, a true champion, right? And Tasha is such a fighter and such an amazing and accomplished entrepreneur. You know, she calls herself, I think she said, the manifest, the manifesting generator. She manifests like she generates the life that she wants to have. And I think that's so important when you're dealing with certain, I guess, rejections or perceived failures. Like, hey, you know, I wasn't. I didn't get on the Real Housewives or. Or, hey, that, you know, network passed on us. You know, it's all for the betterment of us. But what we don't understand is. And. And for the viewers and the listeners is like, you judge that. No. Or that rejection or that failure at your current state because you know, what it could do for you at that point. But what if that comes through and it hamstrings you five years down the road or even a year down the road. Why don't we wait patiently, but also work towards being the best that we can and manifesting the life that we want? So that way that when that. Right. Opportunity comes along, you're unencumbered.

[Pat Sickens]

Yes. And you guys went so deep on this and you hit on something that a lot of people tend to miss, at least in what I understand and what I see about manifestation. Right. And this whole idea, it's the difference between wishing and manifesting.

[Sean French]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat Sickens]

Wishing is. I wish. I wish our show was number one. I wish I had a bigger house. I wish, I wish, I wish.

[Sean French]

Yeah.

[Pat Sickens]

What you guys talked about is actually feeling it. It's internalizing that idea and actually feeling it. And you talked about that. So I want you to just go into that for a second and then point people back to the episode. But, you know, just talk about the idea of actually feeling the success and knowing that maybe it's, you know, it's already happened depending on how you feel, but just knowing that you're working towards something bigger. And it's not. Again, it's not the vision board or, you know, writing it down, but it's actually internalizing that thing.

[Sean French]

I'm picking up where you're going. And, you know, I believe in multiple time dimensions. Like, I. I believe in that. Like, I believe what is already going to happen has already happened. We're just waiting for time to catch up. Like, I truly believe that. Right. But, you know, specifically, I can't take credit for the feeling of the emotions of the attainment of the thing that I want to attain. Right. I'm going to give all that credit to Skip Burtman. Okay. Legendary coach, LSU baseball, had the opportunity to, you know, play for him for a year, and unfortunately, I was injured that year. But every single time you walked into the LSU squadroom at the old Alex Box Stadium, the biggest sign that it was in there, it was also in our locker room. That said anything that you could. And it's not his quote. Okay, it's not his quote. But he made it famous because nobody knows who the other guy is. I'm sorry, I don't even know his name. But I know that Skip Berman did not create that quote. But here it is. Anything that anything you can vividly imagine, ardently desire and enthusiastically act upon must, absolutely, must come to pass. And as I say that quote, and as it drags on for the 20 seconds, I get a full body chill because I know what it means. And so to tie into the manifestation of the feeling of. It wasn't just the quote is what he did to enhance the definition of that quote and its validity. Every single pre practice, pre, pre game, whatever, we were in that squad room. And you know what? We watched highlight videos of the people that came before us winning national freaking championships and throwing up in the air. Armando Rios throwing his helmet up in the air. And then in 2000 when LSU won and Ryan Terrio scored the winning run against Stanford and won 6, 5 in a hard fought battle, what did he do? Threw his helmet up in the air. Just like Armando Rios did. Because he's seen it a thousand times. He already knew what it looked like, he already knew how it fits, felt. And so my point is, when you have mentorship and leadership like that, like we all had with Skip Burman,

[Pat Sickens]

we

[Sean French]

owe it all to him because he taught us how to do it. And so when we, when we think about where we want to go with the show, where we think about where we want to be, I'm not just looking at it, I'm feeling it because I know it's going to happen. It's a matter of time. And he gave me, Skip Burtman, gave me that gift, to be clear. Wow. Thank you. Yep, Absolutely.

[Pat Sickens]

Do you have a picture of that sign?

[Sean French]

Oh, I mean, I'm sure it's on the Internet somewhere, but I don't, I don't have.

[Pat Sickens]

You have a picture of that sign? Oh, man. All right, we need to find that.

[Sean French]

Yeah, we'll find pictures. Well, when we get our corporate office, we'll throw it in there. O.

[Pat Sickens]

All right, I like that. All right, I have a few more things and I wanted to get into a few of the amas real quick because.

[Sean French]

Yeah, let's do that.

[Pat Sickens]

Great ones again. We've already hit one. So the next one is from Joey Howes and I love this one. He asked what are three lifestyle habits you think everyone could benefit from.

[Sean French]

I love it, man. Joey Howes, man, I used to coach him. Such a good kid, man. I love him. So proud of him. He is a firefighter now and he, you know, he had his first rescue the other day, rescued some animals, I mean, in a burning building. So shout out to you, buddy. So cool, man. You know, three lifestyle things that everybody should have on a daily basis I think is, you know, take care of your body first and foremost, right? Because if you're not working out, if you're not eating right, then your mind is cloudy and. And you can't make great decisions and you can't be the best that you can be, man. So like, for me, like that right there, that lifestyle of this is my standard. This is what I do. You know, I'm in the gym six days a week and the day that I'm not, I'm moving my body somehow and I'm eating what's going to, you know, bring purpose and substance to my body. How's it going to help me, right? So I'm going to execute that daily. The other thing is, I think that we need to be very introspective, you know, about just the self reflection of where am I at emotionally, how am I treating my people around me? That needs to be a daily activity in someone's life. Because if you can do that, the amount of relationships you can fix without even burdening that other party is astronomical. Because most relationships break down because of us. We have to own our own part of that relationship. And a lot of times when you fix you and when you fix everything that you're doing, it's, it's amazing how relationships start to mend themselves. But you can never mend a relationship by telling somebody what they're doing wrong and it's their fault. That's horseshit. Never going to happen. So self reflection to be the best you. Right. And to, and to fix things for yourself. So I just think that is a giving thing. That is so, you know, we're working on our body and we're working on our relationships. And then I think another really big thing, man is, is, is faith. You know, whatever, whatever it is that you believe in. I think you really need to dive into that every single day and just understand that everything that happens, whether you're late, it's for a reason. If you're late and you don't get on the road and you're stuck in traffic because there's an accident involved, most people get really pissed off. But maybe you were supposed to be in that accident. So hey, maybe I, maybe I'm not because I was late. Like, have faith. Understand that things that happen are truly on purpose. Like it's part of the design. So if you can accept that, then I think that you'll be a lot less frustrated. And trust me, I still need to work on that. I'm, you know, I'm a work in progress.

[Pat Sickens]

But I think these are lifestyle habits you think everyone could benefit from, not the ones that you've mastered. So I'll give you a little.

[Sean French]

Right, exactly. Yeah, thank you for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just think that those three right there for me, like if you can, if you can start executing those and you'll start to benefit a lot from them and a lot of things that are, I guess, lackluster in your own personal Life. I think they'll change. I think they truly will.

[Pat Sickens]

We've mentioned it multiple times and you've said it as well. Just about your transformation from last year to. Or, I'm sorry, from 24 to 25. And you're right, you know, it's. It's about focusing on yourself first because, you know, it's cliche, as I'll get out, but you can't help other people until you're. You're working on yourself and you help yourself. So. Okay, the next one I like, this one is from Aaron Williams, funding architect. And he said, what is the biggest challenge that you face when you got started and how did you overcome it?

[Sean French]

I love Aaron. He's a great duties in the Gold coast, in Australia. Great, great man. Love him. New friend. Solid dude. I know for a fact that I hesitated in starting this because I didn't have everything that I needed, right? I. I didn't have the microphone. I didn't have the studio. I didn't have production. I didn't have the beautiful, flashy video because when you look at the people that come before you, like the Joe Rogans and all that kind of stuff, even the Andy Frisellas, it is amazing. Amazing platform. All this influence and. And the. In the. In the flashy stuff, like, the production, like, I didn't have that right. But. But what happened, Aaron, is I got so upset and so uncomfortable and so mad that I was just wasting away in something else that I was doing and that wasn't giving me any real joy or purpose. And I just said, okay. Popped on the phone how to start a podcast with no equipment. And it came up like, you know, I asked my friend Natalie as well, and she's like, go to anchor. And I'm like, oh, well, I just started talking into my phone, and it was a way for me to execute something that I wanted to do and kind of release the fact that it wasn't where I wanted it to be. Because I think that everybody's waiting for that special time that. That, okay, that vision point where shit pops off and you have all these money, like, resources, and you can implement beautiful. Implement beautiful production like we have now. That's not how. That's not how it works, man. You got to put in the time. You got to be willing to suck. You got to be willing to do it. Bare bones, bootstrap that, man. And that's what helped me, is I just bootstrapped it and worked my ass off. And then there was nobody. And then all of a Sudden there's, you know, company full of partners and an amazing production, you know, PR agent, brand manager. That's all because I chose to move. I chose to just do it.

[Pat Sickens]

It's, you know, the old analysis by. Or paralysis by analysis. Right. It's never getting off the launch pad. And I think you're right. So many people get. Get scared. And I'm, you know, I'm dealing with it right now with my show of getting season two out. It's like I want all the things right, because it's season two and we learn from season one and all that, but it's realizing that it's not going to be perfect. And we talked about this last time, you know, if you're not looking back going, oh, that was kind of cringe a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, then you're not moving forward. So this actually plays right into the next question, our final one. And this is from Tom Williams, which I assume is not any relation to Aaron Williams, but we just got a bunch of Williams asking questions. So he said, what was one thing from the beginning when you were recording on your phone that you still consider fundamental, whether you knew it or not?

[Sean French]

I love Tom, man. Like this. Okay, let me, let me edify Tom Williams real quickly. Okay. I met Tom in a community, you know, a little, you know, 49amonth community. And he's been around since ground zero with my show. He has listened to it every single year. He has never left my side. He's an og. Okay. So thank you for always being loyal.

[Pat Sickens]

Go Tom.

[Sean French]

And always giving great feedback too, man. He's a. He's a friend. Like, this guy has turned into a really good friend. What did I do then that I still.

[Pat Sickens]

One thing from the beginning when you were recording on your phone that you still consider fundamental, do you're scared of.

[Sean French]

I was mortified. Mortified to record my first episode, man. Like, who am I? I was mortified, dude. And so, you know, do the things that scare you. As long as I'm not saying go skydiving if you truly don't feel led to go skydiving because I'll never jump out of a plane. That's just stupid to me. Never, never, never, never, never. Like, there's very few things I will say. Never. I'm not jumping out of a perfectly good freaking airplane. That's. I know.

[Pat Sickens]

I've tried.

[Sean French]

We've had the conversation. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of that you're not going to get me to do. You can try, but it's fun. No, man. I just think that, you know, doing things that really, really scare you is just going to build that thick skin and it's going to give you proof that you are unstoppable, that you are determined, that you are disciplined. Because too many people are backing off because they're scared. And how many? I mean, would we have Amazon? Bezos was scared. Would. Would there be Amazon? I mean, it started in his garage, dude. I mean, he didn't start with everything. So why. Why do we think that we have to. So do it. Scared. Just do it, man. Like, really, that's why Nike's so genius. Just do it. You know, like, why not?

[Pat Sickens]

Why not? Yes. You know, it's. We've looked at over the last, you know, two years of the evolution of this show and 100. There have been times where we have stepped way outside of our comfort zone. You know, done things that were very, very scary, very unknown, but we stepped into them, you know, in having. Guess I don't think we would have had the success that we've had if we hadn't done the things that we were unsure of. And we didn't know going into it. You know, Marcus and Morgan Luttrell talked about it. You're running into the firefight, not knowing the outcome, but knowing that you're as prepared as you can be. And so being prepared to step in, you know, to an interview with Jay Leno or Emily Harrington, Bijou Bot, whoever it is, like, those are not easy things to do.

[Sean French]

No, the Jay Leno thing, it was funny because you. I was thinking Jay Leno when before you said it like, that was a very scary moment. You're sitting down in front of a legend.

[Pat Sickens]

There's. There was so much wrapped around that and we've talked about the trip, so we don't have to do that again today. But it was a big moment because you're sitting in his museum surrounded by, you know, American and you know, world car culture with this legend that you've literally grown up watching.

[Sean French]

Yeah, yeah. And he also had a mini tank and a full size tank too, by the way. Just throwing that out there. You know, real quick though, you. You mentioned her name. Emily Harrington. I was communicating with her last night. I saw the post.

[Pat Sickens]

I saw the post.

[Sean French]

Yeah. And I'm so proud of her, you know, and everything that she has done, her team, you know, Sarah or you know, over at a line, like they're all just crushing it. And she has a great friend. Friendship with Alex Harnold. Right? Yeah. And he just climbed the top of that, the biggest building in Taipei. But I'm sitting there, you know, we were flying back from, you know, Fashion Week, and I go to my seat back Experience, and I'm going to all the movies from A to Z. And there it is. Girl Climber. And I just looked. And I looked at, you know, I looked at Jackie. I said, look at this. And she goes, what? I go, emily's got distribution on United. This is incredible. Like, you know, and. And. And so I just. I just want to say publicly I'm so proud of her, you know, like, everything that she's done is super uncomfortable. Her and Alex support the hell out of each other. And I told her. I was like, man, I want to do something with you and Alex, like, asap. She goes, let's set it up, you know, so, you know, Sarah will be getting a call from me today from a line and see if we can't do something in person. But. But, I mean, like, from the standpoint of, like, there's so much community with them, friendship and support. Like, Alex and Emily embody what true friendship is. I'm here with you. I'm gonna be here while you do this. And, like, dude, she commentated on that thing that Alex is. I was like, holy. She's on Netflix. Like, what the hell? Like, this is great. I'm like, I don't know how she's there. I told her. I was like, I watched five to 10 minutes of that thing, and my anxiety was just way too high, and I had to turn it on. I couldn't do it, dude, because I'm afraid of heights. So I was like, yeah, no, no, no, I'm not watching this. But what an incredible, incredible job she has done. Alex has done. Aligned PR is done with Sarah. Like, everything that they're doing with each other is just. It's inspirational, man.

[Pat Sickens]

So what I was going to ask is doing something with them, does that mean we're going to be on the side of a cliff with them? Or more like sitting in a chair in a studio talking?

[Sean French]

No, man, I think. I mean, what. I mean, listen, man, I. I can't confirm that we ever will. Like, I can only try, right? It's a much bigger decision. Above my pay grade. It has to fit. But, no, all I'm asking.

[Pat Sickens]

All I'm asking is you.

[Sean French]

Yeah, no, I'm gonna be on the ground. I'm g. Be on the ground, and hopefully they're sitting next to me, you know, in a chair.

[Pat Sickens]

It's called b. Roll. We can B roll.

[Sean French]

Yeah, we'll pull that. I'm not new, man. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, man.

[Pat Sickens]

All right, I got one final thing that I wanted to talk about as we wrap this thing up today. This has been fun, man. I. I really like doing a monthly cadence on this. You know, again, we were kind of nervous. At least I was nervous about, do we have enough to call to cover every single month? And my goodness, you know, putting out two episodes a week if you guys aren't subscribed on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, please do. And I want to wrap this whole thing up with an idea we started with, but it just.

[Sean French]

It.

[Pat Sickens]

You keep saying it. You say it again with friendship, Community. It's about the society. It's about community. It's about finding people. Yeah. You know, you talked about a 49 online group and then, boom, you're best buddies with Tom Williams. Right. So it's about people finding community, and we just happen to have one. So talk about the school community and what the heck we're doing there.

[Sean French]

Yeah. Thank you, man. You know, everybody can go to, you know, thedeterminedsociety.com and automatically if they subscribe to our newsletter, they'll be enrolled into our free school account. All right, this is going to be. There's a message board there. There's going to be a determination blueprint thing that we do. It's going to be a five to seven day thing at night. But then also they'll get to be in community with people, right? And they get to post their challenges. They get to ask us questions. They will get to see behind the scenes things that nobody else sees. See, there's a whole bunch of things that I filmed that has never been put out that is going to go specifically for there. There's going to also be courses in there. There's going to be some of my keynotes in there. But. But most importantly, even with the free part portion of the community, you don't have to ever pay. You can if you want. There'll be multiple levels. You can pay zero. You can pay 97amonth. You can, you know, be a part of the mastermind. Cool. Like whatever. Whatever blows your skirt up, you can do. All right. But the point is, even with the free community, I'm gonna hop on every month for a coaching call with everybody there. They'll get to interact with me and they'll get to ask questions. We get to dive into what they're going through. But yeah, it's very simple. You know, join for free. Like, you know, come on. Like, we haven't even launched this yet and we already got 40 people in it. Dude, we haven't even.

[Pat Sickens]

It's been great. I mean, there's conversations going on, there's people that I do not know from real life social, whatever it is. And so it's great. And like you said, we have many more features. We didn't want to roll out every feature obviously, right off the bat. So just giving people community, giving them a place where there are like minded people within the society that can help you or just hear what's going on with other people. We have, we do have the features like the ama. So if you're in the school community, you do get preferential treatment and more guarantee that we'll be talking about your question on the air as opposed to, you know, out on the general social, so.

[Sean French]

Yeah, exactly, Exactly. That's a good question. No determinesociety.com the determinesociety.com Sign up for the newsletter and then you'll be entered into the school community. So there you go, buddy. Cool.

[Pat Sickens]

Well, it's been a good month, Good conversation today and anything big that you want to hit on before we wrap this thing up, man, as far as what's coming up, any interviews or events, I know we have some in the future, some big ones that we're, we're trying to get pulled off here. But anything coming up in the short term you wanted to hit on?

[Sean French]

Shoot, man. I got a Ted Talk coming up in March, March 21st here in Naples. It's about being, the theme is being a lifelong learner. I think both sessions are, are sold out. Really happy about it. Very excited about this conversation that I'm going to have or this talk. But I mean there's, there's so much going on in our world right now, man. And, but, but that one right there, you know, I, I really want to focus on and, and you know, this is my second one and I know there's a lot of people out there that, you know, that's their dream is to be on a, you know, a TEDx or something like that. And this is something that I've had the opportunity to do a second one for like in the last two years. And so like the version of Sean four years ago would have just killed in maim to be where I'm at right now. So I want everybody to understand that, you know, first things first, start the brand, start the thing and then grow into it and you get to do really cool we're going to be traveling up to New York again next couple weeks. There's some big, big name that we're working on right now to interview. And, you know, that works out. It's going to open up a lot of different things in Hollywood for us. So where I'm excited, but I'm also not getting too high, not getting too low. We're just taking this as it comes. But a lot of great things on the horizon for the Determined Society show. And then myself and all you guys and, you know, or, hey, man, who knows, who knows, who knows?

[Pat Sickens]

Awesome. Well, always a pleasure. Sorry we had to do it virtual this time, but you get, you know, little Jack speech.

[Sean French]

Yeah, man, it's okay. It was good, dude. It was good. It was really good, man. It's a great conversation. They get better every time, man. You know, appreciate that. So, you know, but no, thank you, bro. And. And it was a very good conversation, and it was fun giving more of a peek behind the curtain and answering questions that people had. I think there's massive value in that and, you know, for the audience. Thank you again. If this is your first time listening, I only ask one thing. Subscribe to the show. Engage in it. Share it with somebody you know, love and trust. And, you know, like, just tell us what you love about it. You know, like, be here, because what you'll find in every episode, we talk about real life stuff we don't talk about. We. We don't give any, you know, inauthentic reactions. We're ourselves here, and we talk about the things that are hard that are going to make our lives better. So I want your life to be better. So I want you to be a listener of the show. It's not about me. It's about you, the viewer, the listener. So tell everybody about it. Leave a review, written review on Apple, please. You know, leave a star on Spotify, send a comment on YouTube and subscribe, but let me know you're here because we will respond. All right, we're not gonna not respond to you, so thank you guys again. And until next time, stay determined.