Ep. 49: Ryan Hawk | Crafting a Legacy of Leadership

Ryan Hawk, the voice behind "The Learning Leader Show," eloquently shares his passage from a budding sales rep to a beacon of guidance and performance excellence, and the cherished upcoming book project with Brook Cupps. This episode paints a vivid portrait of Hawk's ethos, rooted in the multifaceted nature of mentorship and the vibrant tapestry of life's locales, from Dayton's familiar embrace to Hawaii's enchanting call.
 
My own narrative intertwines with Hawk's as I delve into the transformative power of preparation, a reflection of the athletic world's disciplined practice. Drawing from interactions with thought leaders like Todd Henry and Alex Hormozi, I underscore the potency of thorough engagement, the art of meaningful questioning, and the personal values that anchor my journey—thoughtfulness, thankfulness, curiosity, and consistency. We muse on living by an internal scoreboard, the pitfalls of comparison, and the cultivation of emotional intelligence that transcends generational divides, all while celebrating the dedication that defines our pursuits, whether in a podcast studio or on a keynote stage.

As the conversation crescendos, we revel in the universal language of music, its power to forge indelible bonds, and the memories etched in the melodies of Tom Petty, O.A.R., and the Dave Matthews Band. These shared experiences, from the electric energy of live concerts to the cherished moments with our children, underscore the essence of why we toil and triumph.

Our episode is an invitation to savor these narratives, to recognize the sacrifice and gratitude inherent in military service, and to partake in the wisdom and warmth that Ryan Hawk extends, not just as a leader, but as a storyteller for the ages.

Conversation:
00:00 – 20:58 Intro, Military Appreciation, Importance of Preparation and Focus. We also discuss Todd Henry, Alex Hormozi, Ed Mylett and Peyton Manning

22:06 Referencing The Score That Matters, a story about Ryan’s time as a High School Quarterback and preparing for an undefeated cross time rival
Ryan Hawk That was a fun time. I think that was written in the chapter about focusing on yourself versus comparing yourself to other people on your own internal scoreboard, and I think it actually has this added benefit, in that case where you are competing against other people, that we truly weren't thinking about them. We watched, we watched film on them, but they were just jerseys and numbers. To us they weren't Wayne or this undefeated team that had nine guys with Division one scholarships, multiple ones going to Ohio State and number of them ended up playing in the NFL and it was just that's number 11 or that's number 92. To us it was we're focusing on us. We're focusing on executing our offense, our defense, our special teams. That's the focus, and I think there's so much to be learned from that in your regular life outside of playing football is focus on what you do each and every day, consistently and I tried to break it down as a quarterback because it can be a daunting task and when I would literally be so nervous on Fridays, but I would think what is my job. My job is to execute our offense and do my job with excellence, as perfect as I can, and then, on top of that, it's to help make sure our team is in the right position to also execute as a whole. So when I broke it down to the smaller parts, I felt much more at ease, much more prepared. I can do this. I've been doing this all along, and I do the same thing when I'm like getting ready for a big speech with a thousand people. It's like execute the opening. Once you get into the groove of the opening, of getting going, you've done this, you've done this hundreds and hundreds of times. You'll get into the flow. And so it's like breaking it down until a smaller component part. Whatever the thing is has been really helpful. But none of that has anything to do with anybody else. That has to do with my work, my prep, me executing, and then the rest typically follows. But that story then seemed to be intimidating when I never even thought of that. That wasn't even part of my equation that it could intimidate the other team. It was just the truth. And they loved when people wore the beat Wayne sweatshirts, or they said beat Wayne, or they thought they love that because it showed that we were thinking about them. And so I end that section saying why do that? Like I live in Ohio and you're not originally from Ohio but you understand the Ohio State, Michigan rivalry. It's like why do you cross out the M's or say beat Michigan. Just focus on yourself, your team, executing with excellence each and every day in practice, and then show up on the field and do it. I think the obsession with Michigan Is weird, I mean, and I know people in Ohio. They hate me saying this, they hate this, they love this obsession, they love having somebody to hate. I don't know, I just view it differently and I know I'm in the huge minority in that, in that case, but to me it's like focus on your stuff and your work and your execution. I think the results will typically take care of themselves. Brook Cupps is a great example of that, speaking of another person in real life who's actually doing it. So, anyway, I probably could go on forever about this stuff, but that's overall how I view it.

26:03 At 14 years old, Ryan was the starting Quarterback for the HIGH SCHOOL football team. If he could go back in time and talk to 14 year old Ryan, what final score he would say to measure and which one matters
Ryan Hawk The advice to younger self-question is a little tough, because there's no chance I would have listened. I had people coming back and telling me things. They you know, hey, it's going to go by so fast and embrace your teammates love your guys and we roll our eyes, right, we were tired, we just wanted to eat, like we weren't thinking about that. So I think of that now as a dad. It's like, yeah, I say these things, but they're tired, they want to eat, they go talk to their friends, whatever. However, assuming I would have listened, I would have said, like, kind of be grateful for what you have. You have amazing coaches, phenomenal teammates, your parents love you so much, your brothers are so supportive. I just kind of took it for granted. It was just because it was normal. It was normal. So I didn't really think about being grateful. I didn't think about how lucky I was. I just was trying to kind of live each day and do a good job and I didn't focus enough on building relationships. I was more selfish and arrogant and I would say, dude, why don't you try to be a better teammate? Why don't you try to do a better job of connecting with guys, of connecting with people other than just thinking about yourself all the time, and so maybe that just comes with age and maturity, but I don't know. I go and talk with high school kids and I'm amazed at how good they are at some of this stuff. People talk about the fact that they're all on their phones and they don't pay any attention. Yeah, maybe some of that's true, but in my experience, these younger people seem so more far advanced when it comes to all of the things I wasn't good at, like relationship building, thinking long term, all of that, and I'm amazed and I'm inspired. I think that bodes well for our future. So I guess those are some of the things I would have said. I don't again, I probably wouldn't have listened, but I would have hoped maybe some of that would have gotten through.

29:09 On differentiating between the two scoreboards that run our lives
Ryan Hawk Warren Buffett has this great quote about the internal and external. He called them scorecard. We just switched to the scoreboard the internal versus the external or the outer scoreboard. I think it's really easy, especially today. Social media makes it very easy to see what is happening and to make comparisons to other people's lives. You see the highlight reels of other people all the time, and so it's natural, when you see that, to make comparisons to other people's lives, but you're not seeing the full picture. You're only seeing some of the highlights. The internal scoreboard is more about focusing on yourself and your core values and the behaviors that match, to align with those and getting very clear and living in alignment with those behaviors and values, and so that's why there are exercises and ideas throughout the book to help you get very clear on that and then live in alignment with it, versus the outer scoreboard, where it seems to be more materialistic comparison with others, always being a little bit upset or even sad, because when you compare your regular everyday life to the highlight reels of other people, there's just no chance that it's going to feel good in most cases, because if you look at my social media, I mean it's primarily the things that I'm doing with my podcast. But even in the occasional things I post, they're highlight reel moments of my life. They're not the boring parts or the really bad parts or any of that. So if you compared, you'd say, oh my god, this is amazing. He's on the stage with all these people, or him and his family doing this fun thing. Well, that's like 1/20th of my life or more. So I'm not posting any of the things that are tough or really sad or really hard. Most people don't. And that's the problem is, I think, when, if you're living for the external scoreboard or the validation of other people, you're probably never going to fully measure up, you're never going to feel content and you're going to be so distracted aiming at the wrong things as opposed to saying OK, what are my core values, what are the behaviors that match? And then you create some prompts at the end of the day to ensure, like what did I do today to be more thoughtful? What did I do today to be more thankful? What did I do today to be more consistent? What did I do today to be more curious? Those are my four core values right, thoughtful, thankful, curious and consistent. So that's the prompt I can ask myself, as opposed to scrolling, seeing the highlights and being, oh my god, my life's boring or terrible. No, it's just a series of prompts to say what did I do today to be a little bit wiser going to bed than I was when I woke up? Right, the Charlie Munger quote. So that's more what I think living by the internal scoreboard means to me.

33:49 On his viral podcast clip with Ed Mylett and unique question he asked
Ryan Hawk Yeah, I think that stuff can apply to anything. It also helps to really love what you're doing and love the process of preparing. I feel super lucky that I get to do something that I love almost all elements of it, especially the preparing part, and it also helps that as an athlete, some people are born good enough where they can show up and just roll out the ball and dominate, and then others, like most of us, are born where you have some of that but if you're not putting in the work each and every day, you aren't going to be able to do very well. And I learned specifically about work ethic from Bob Gregg and Ron Ullery, about what it takes to be excellent, and those guys lifted me to levels that I didn't think I was capable of. So one great lesson there it's the power of what great leaders can do for others, that they can lift people to perform at levels they didn't think themselves that they were capable of. The cool part about that is since I learned that in my formative years from age like you said, 14 to 18, I can draw from that in everything that I do. And you mentioned about preparing for a podcast. I actually don't think it's that hard to read Ed Mylett's book, take a lot of notes and then ask him some questions about interesting parts of the notes. In this case it happened to be about his dad who had died, the note cards that he had found on a dresser. And I was shocked when he responded brother, nobody's ever asked me that before. I'm like, Ed, it's right in your book, man, like it's right there. I know I'm not the first interview, but you've done tons of these, so to me it's almost like wow, okay, yeah, it's a little bit validating in that moment. This is why you prepare, because it shows deep respect for your guest. But I just love that element of it, like I love the prep process. I think it's fun. I enjoy the quiet time. I remember where I was. I was on the elliptical, it was like 5.30 in the morning. I was reading that book on the Kindle Apple, my iPad in the movie theater at Club 51, where I was working out that day, and I read that part of the book and just took a note, just wrote down the note on my phone of the about Ed's dad's note cards. Then it popped up as we were talking and it became a pivotal moment in the show. So, but that was literally in the dark because it's a movie theater part of that gym where they keep turning the lights off and just have a movie playing. But that was, I think, indicative of just how I try to approach the work and that's part of why the show has grown and become the foundation of my business.

36:49 On whether his drive to over prepare stems from a potential fear and turning that fear into fuel
Ryan Hawk I really identify with Jim Collins' productive paranoia and great by choice. I think I have a lot of that with everything I do before others as keynote speech or whatever. I think I have one next Thursday that it's on my mind kind of all the time, so I know that could be a rough thing, but that's because I want to do an excellent job. There's going to be 500 people there, it's their entire company, it's their offsite and I want to do a great job. So productive paranoia is very real and it's helpful for me. There's also downsides to that, because I am thinking about it a lot, not just during the nine to five working hours. It's always on my mind the next, the big thing, and there's always big things on the calendar. I think being over prepared is just part of what I feel like I have to do in order to show respect, either from my audience, from speaking or my guest if I'm doing a podcast. And ultimately, I think it's very disrespectful to show up for either a speech or a podcast or whatever you're doing, and not be prepared. I think that's the ultimate form of letting somebody know that you care for them, that you love them, in a sense that you show up by having done the work leading up to that moment.

38:51 Advice for avoiding the poison of comparison
Ryan Hawk It's always going to be there a little bit, but I think if you're trying to focus more on you, your work and create systems to do that. So I mentioned earlier about prompts and journaling. I love questions. I'm a questions based writer, so I hire a writing coach who spends a lot of time asking me questions and then I respond to this question, sometimes literally in an email, whether it's on my phone or on the computer, in a way that it feels more like a one-on-one conversation, and then those end up in my books.

If you ask questions of yourself to answer each day, that could keep you focused, I know I'm going to ask myself those questions. I'm going to ask about living in alignment with my core values. At the end of the day, what did I do to be thoughtful today, specifically, like in a specific action? What did I do to exemplify a curious person today and write that out like?

Write those answers more focused on your actions, what's most important to you, and living in alignment with those things just shifts the focus away from mindless scrolling and looking at others, because most of it does come from that, I think, or even thinking about them. You're just much more focused on what you're doing and I think by leading yourself first that gives you the best chance to lead other people. Create those prompts for you, create some sort of a journaling process or at least some sort of reflection process each day, and do it consistently. I think the chances of you comparing yourself to others will go down because you're more focused inward, on what you're doing and on what you value and are you living in alignment with those values. That I think that gives you a better chance of not that comparison with others piece.

41:30 In a past podcast, Ryan shares a story and AHA moment from a fellow dad in a parking lot. From this, he shares if two of his core values can be traced back to that moment
Ryan Hawk I think that's a good moment. I mean I'm walking, listening to podcasts with my AirPods, and I see another dad who I kind of know, never really socialized with them, but you see him at the events with your kids and good guy, and yeah, I mean these are the guys that sometimes you need those reminders where I was just complaining. Right, I was complaining, I was doing what we do. When we have those types of conversations where I was kind of mindlessly complaining oh my God, we're Uber drivers for kids. We just had to stay at a hotel at the tournament the last. It was terrible.

You know all this stuff and he's just like dude, you know what else are you going to do? This is what we're doing. In his case he said my son went to college last year and it's far away, it's not drivable, it's a flight. I don't see him. I don't see him anymore. Like I'll see him when he comes home over break. Other than that, like I don't see him and he's doing his own thing now. He's like your daughter is about to turn 16 and that opens up a whole another door of freedom for her. That gets her away from you. You're going to miss this stuff, man, like these are the good old days.

And so I sometimes just need to be smacked in the face by a random dude in a parking lot to be more present with what you have going on. And so I try to enjoy every single one of those car rides, especially now I'm sitting shotgun while I'm teaching them to drive. They have their temps and, and try to enjoy every one of those trips to Dunkin to get an iced coffee, or every one of those trips this weekend to watch a football game at a sports bar. You know where you're sitting, side by side, which I found is a better way to do it with a teenager, because it's, it's more like open and free flowing than if you're face to face. And so, like, try to embrace each and every one of those moments because, like, boom, they're gone, dude, like they're going to be gone. And so I think I've been become more present because I've gotten advice from others who have gone through what I'm going through, and I see how much they miss it, and I want to say I want to look back in a few years and be like I kind of gave everything.

I had to be present in those moments and realize that I was in the good old days when I was in the good old days, and so sometimes I'll even use that as like a hashtag for myself. It's more for me than anything. Like you know, on a snow day a couple of weeks ago, with my youngest, Charlie, who's nine, and we're building an igloo, it was freezing cold and we're out there with a couple of her friends and we're just shoveling snow and packing this thing and building it. But, man, those are the good old days. We found a couple of sleds. We found these tiny little hills.

It was so fun. We were videoing it, having so much fun. Those are the good old days, man, and so I just want to be as present as humanly possible for those times, and sometimes, though, if we're not careful, we'll get too caught up complaining about the all the different things that we quote have to do as parents, and I think that's wrong, and but I was right in the middle of that and just kind of need to regularly be snapped into place.

47:37 When reviewing footage of his own performance (from podcasting, speaking engagements, writing, as a husband, dad, brother, friend, etc.), what kinds of things he looks for and picks out for improvement
Ryan Hawk That's a great one. I do like to enlist help of others to get outside perspective. I've already done it a few times during this conversation, but I tend to get excited and then long-winded. And so my favorite guests, the ones who I think are most impactful, are they. James Clear calls it the compression of ideas, and James is one of the best in the world at it, but they are able to compress their ideas much better than most, and I am not very good at that, and so typically, when I look back at my own interviews or speeches, it's the fact that I failed to compress either the question or the idea as well as I probably could.

So it's something I'm regularly thinking about and I've yeah, I don't know why that I struggle with that, it's usually out of kind of excitement and then you just keep going, but that's probably one of the main things I'm looking for is could I have asked that question using fewer words? Could I have answered that question using fewer words when I was on stage? And I look at how I told that story and the science and the practical application element of that bit could I have done it in fewer words? And usually I can and I don't, and so I think, yeah, it's something, it's a work in progress I'm still working to get better at that but definitely something I still struggle with.

50:23 Of all the stories in Ryan’s life, if he could hear a life story told from his children's perspective, which life story Ryan thinks would be most interesting to hear how they tell it
Ryan Hawk When it comes from their eyes, I've written my eulogy and the words as given by my youngest daughter, because I hope it's not said for a very long time, which I think is a great exercise, by the way, for everyone to do and her voice is how I write. I think you should write it in the voice of somebody that you love and that loves you, and so if I think about that eulogy that I've written, that Charlie will one day give it's almost all based upon being very present and kind and loving, first and foremost for them, so that's the story that I would hope they would tell. And so the reason why I think that's a good exercise is because when you write it, you're creating something for yourself to live up to. It's aspirational. It's not all necessarily fully true, but yes, in there.

Is it about putting her on the bus every morning at 8.06 and getting her off the bus every single day when I'm in town at 3.55? I hope that's in there. Well, that means I got to do that when I'm in town, which is most of the times now, because I'm very picky about travel. For speaking, it's about going to the pool in the summer and launching her up high when she was young. It's just about being present for actual conversations when we're eating Chipotle at home because it's rushed and it's crazy and so we had to pick up food but it's listening, it's knowing their friends' names, being engaged, asking them questions, all of the other stuff.

When it comes to my podcast, I hope it's inspiring in the fact that I was able to chase my curiosity and obsessions with great rigor and by doing that it's impacted people in a positive way, and they do get to see some of that impact. They hear about it, they see it, they. You know the conversations I have, the people they meet. That's part of that too, but it starts with them and then, secondarily, it starts with the fact that it is possible to go after something you're deeply curious and obsessed about and create a business that changes other people's lives and impacts them in a big way, and that's the story that I hope that they see, and I'm trying to live up to that each day.

53:54 On the significant legacy impact of podcasting and interviewing Dayton billionaire Clay Mathile
Ryan Hawk Well it's the other thing too. That's cool. So I interviewed Clay Mathile, he lived here in Dayton. He built his businesses, he sold to IMS and made a couple billion dollars. One of the wealthiest people here. I think he wanted to leave an impact of leadership and entrepreneurship here. Well, I went to his office up at Aileron, which is an amazing place that he's built and funded the whole thing. I sat in his office. I brought my top notch film guys with me and we filmed that conversation and Clay died, I think it's been within the last six months and so many members of his family have personally reached out and said thank you so much for not only doing that but also filming it the way you guys did, because we now have watched that over and over since he's died and we're so glad that that exists.

And so you're creating these artifacts for yourself and for your own kids and for your family to go back and watch or listen to. But you're also doing it for others. You're doing it for these family members to go back and watch and have these memories of people that they love so much, and it is it's super meaningful to get notes like that from family members of people who are no longer with us, and they're very grateful that he showed up with currant, because a lot of them would say Clay's a multi-billionaire. He's done a zillion interviews, that's the best one we've ever seen, and so we go back and watch it over and over, and it's also was filmed beautifully, because I care about the filming of it being excellent too. It's not just that, and I think that I'm just so glad that we made that decision to do it that way when we could have done it cheap when we could like yeah, we spent some money on that thing, but it was, it's like, so worth it now when you see the impact that has on so many people.

58:17 Discussing when music entered Ryan’s life and whether he viewed a career as an accessible goal
Ryan Hawk I love enjoying live music, especially. I started. My first concert was in middle school. I went with my dad to see Tom Petty. I was blown away just by the craftsmanship of, just how cool he was. I always said I'd go back. I'm like, yeah, I'll go back, I'll see him again, you know. And then he died and it was like, hey, if you want to go see somebody in concert, don't screw around, just go. I've seen Dave Matthews band probably over 60 to 70 times by now. We started going when I was quite young. I love them.

We were looking for a way to say thank you to all the supporters and so I just hosted a concert. There's no fundraiser or , no presenting sponsor, it was just me with about 80 to 100 friends supporters, Marc Roberge, lead singer of OAR. We did it here in Dayton and it was one of the coolest nights of the last decade of our lives. It was just so much love and fun. And you know my book launch party I'm bringing in a live band to be a part of it. It's going to be more about the music than about anything else. I'm not going to do much reading of a book that's coming up here soon and Brook kind of said, hey, you can, you could run with this, so I'm going to. I just love getting, I just love being with people and I love Artists and I love people who have had the guts to write down their thoughts and create music out of nothing. I think it's amazing, I think it is so cool that people do that and I don't have that real skill, and I'm focused on other things, so it's not like something I'm trying to develop but I don't need to, but I just so appreciate the artist who do that. So, yeah, we make it a point to go see live music as much as possible and to just embrace the vibe of being with people. You love listening to cool music. I just think that is an amazing experience and a lot of my most enjoyable nights have been with music and with people I love.

I got together with a group. We took a, like a one of those sprinter vans, last summer to an OAR concert in Cincinnati and it was with some of my buddies that I don't get to see enough. We all have kids and crazy stuff going on, you know how it goes, and it was just one of the best nights of the year and we all we just sat there and said like man, we got to do this more and the cause of that was a live show, and so I'm just a big fan, of artists who have the guts to do that. I love seeing them perform it. I just love being in that arena with people who do it. And so when I've mentioned the live music thing, like yeah, I could talk about music or things like that probably forever, but it's to me it's just about the art and the guts and then the enjoyment of us do like experiencing it together.

It's part of the reason, too why you work really hard. What money is for me is like I want to work really hard and turn that work into amazing experiences with people. I love that's why we did this, why are you hosting this kind of concert with a singer? There's no reason for it. There was no event, there was nothing. And I'm like because I want to turn hard work into an amazing experience with people. I love that's it. There is no ask, there was not a single ask. It was just show up, let's have fun, love each other together. And it was the best like, it was so cool and that's the whole point. Let's turn this work and the work helps people, obviously, but the money you earned from it into amazing experiences with people you love, I think that's the whole point. I feel like that's the whole point to this whole thing.

1:06:30 Ryan Hawk has a very distinct voice. If a book were written and narrated about his life, who would provide the narration
Ryan Hawk Probably somebody with like a cool British accent, so it sounds smart. The person sounds smarter than they actually are. No, I don't know. I have to think about that. I like to be the narrator of my life. I like being the narrator of my books.

I mean, yeah, there's a connection that I've made with people from talking into a microphone and so when the audiobook people come around, right, you want to Us to hire a professional voice actor, I'm like, no, I'm, I'm doing it. That's a non-negotiable. So I just like, kind of, I personally like reading or listening to other people's books if they read it themselves, even if they don't have like an amazing voice. Morgan Housel doesn't read his books, and I've told him I think that's a mistake. I think he's a great voice and I think he has a great way about him and he has a podcast and he's one of my favorite writers right now. Maybe the top two or three and I'm like you should read your own books, you should, you should narrate those things, and I know the voice actor guy's pretty good, but you should do them yourself. And yeah, I think it's cool to kind of be the narrator of your own story, of your own life.

1:08:05 In 2001 while a Freshman QB at Miami of Ohio University, Ryan emailed Drew Brees seeking advice on being great. If he were in a similar situation today, what QB or Leader would Ryan email (or dm)?
Ryan Hawk Hmm, I think Peyton Manning is super interesting because he's really funny, really smart, was a great player, is building an empire beyond his playing days, seems to do a fantastic job of surrounding himself with excellent people at what they do, so he can focus on being excellent at what he does and has completely created. He thought, yeah, I want to do tv, but I also am going to coach my daughter's volleyball team and my son's football team, so I can't be doing the normal broadcaster thing. How about this? I'm going to stay home and do it virtually and absolutely, and I want to do it with my best friend, my brother. I love people who think like that, he is understanding the important things in his life right now.

His kids are at that pivotal age, similar to my kids age is where we don't want to miss these things, but we also don't want to miss out on these cool opportunities. So we're going to find a way, and one of the ways you find a way is to surround yourself with great people and then, when you show up to do the work, though you have to be world-class. You got to be excellent at the work, and he is prepared. He's ready.

He's funny and his brother have great banter, like my brother and I do, and so there's just there's so much there that I admire certainly as a quarterback, because he's the guy who got every rep and practice and loves to prepare and all of that, but takes the same approach to now his business, Omaha Productions. I mean that's going to be it already is a massive, amazing media company and it's only the beginning, and so he's probably a guy that I would love to learn from, because of the fact that he's done amazing things, but done it in a way in which I really admire, that it hasn't cost him his family or the things that are most important in life. So that's probably a person I'd want to talk to.

1:10:29 If there was a GIANT BILLBOARD that he could place anywhere in the world with his message on it for the world to see, where would the billboard be and what would the message say?
Ryan Hawk I don't know where I'd put it. The question I would write on it is a question I've already mentioned is what did I do today to be a little bit wiser going to bed than I was when I woke up? And if you because that's it and if you stack enough of those days with the positive, you document day after day of I did this, this and this, I met with this person who's far wiser than me. I did this hard workout. I learned about this specific topic, like what did I do today to be a little bit wiser going to bed than I was when I woke up? That compounds over time, and so that's why that would be a prompt. One of the prompts at the top of the list for me is about going to bed a little bit wiser than you were when you woke up.

1:11:25 Ryan’s appreciation for the military and high levels of preparation
Ryan Hawk I very much appreciate your level of preparation. I think that's the ultimate form of showing love and respect, and so I don't take that for granted. That means a lot. So thanks, Martin, for that. I appreciate that this second one should have been first, but I am so in debt to people like you and others who decide the more selfless act of serving our country. I don't take that for granted and try to think about that, especially when I go to sporting events and they play the National Anthem. I go to a lot of high school basketball games, Brook Cupps games, and we play the national anthem.

I think about guys like you who said, yeah, I'm going to serve my country for 20 plus years doing some stuff that I can't fully talk about, right to protect us, the people who just get to go and go to Speedway and get a big gulp and hang out and do podcasts and write books like dude, we got it easy, you know, we got it easy because a guy's like you, and so I just want to publicly say like I don't take that for granted. I hope most of us here in our country are grateful for that every single day, because it's not free, it's not free to work, and there's a lot of people that got a sacrifice for this freedom, man, and so I'm grateful for you for not only having done it for the past 20 years and signing up right after 9-11, but that you continue to do it and move all over the world and do crazy stuff. Thank you for that, man. I really appreciate that.

Resources:
Order The Score That Matters
Read: The Pursuit Of Excellence
Read: WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT

More resources from Ryan Hawk:
Website: https://learningleader.com/
Follow Ryan on Twitter: @RyanHawk12
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanhawk12/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RyanHawk

Books and People mentioned:
Book Die Empty by Todd Henry
Alex Hormozi
Brook Cupps
Katie Kenney
Ed Mylett
Warren Buffet
Charlie Munger
Bob Gregg
Ron Ullery
Book Good to Great by Jim Collins
Admiral McRaven
James Clear
Polina Pompliano
Clay Mathile
Tom Petty
Dave Matthew Band
O.A.R.
Marc Roberge
Morgan Freeman
Pat McAfee
Morgan Housel
Kurt Warner
Drew Brees
Peyton Manning
Eli Manning

Quotes:
“Success is based on a comparison with others. Excellence is measured against your own potential.” - Brook Cupps
“There is little success where there is little laughter” – Andrew Carnegie

My Links
Podcast: https://www.passingthetorchpod.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04suOPTX3ny_M0aDxmBAXQ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pttorch
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torchmartin/

More Learning:
Episode 28: Purple Heart Recipient CMSgt Ben Seekell – Your Capacity is Limitless
Episode 31: Todd Henry – Choose To Be Brave
Episode 35: Brook Cupps – Shaping Leaders On and Off The Court
Episode 41: Lee Ellis – Freeing You From Bonds That Make You Insecure