I published this blog over a year ago after meeting Mike Bledsoe from Barbell Shrugged for the first time at the American Open Weightlifting Championships. Most of you know, meeting him led to a great friendship not only with him but the whole crew. Making that trip last year was risky decision that has led to one amazing year for me and my amazing wife. Since the American Open is coming up quickly, I have decided to repost some of the blogs that I published about that incredible weekend.
The people in weightlifting are so amazing. They seem to want to share with one another on their successes. This story is about one of those times. Enjoy!
This past weekend at the American Open I got to hang out with two very inspiring people: Mike Bledsoe and Christmas Abbott. I hung out with a lot of other people, but these two made the biggest impression on me. They both were life altering in their philosophies on life. They both are super motivated, and they both want to get as much out of this life as possible. Doing Weightlifting Talk(find it on Spreaker.com) with these guys was absolutely epic, and I believe that you all stand to gain a lot from what I learned.
Mike Bledsoe(www.BarbellShrugged.com) is the Steve Jobs of the Barbell World. He is a deep thinker, and he wants to leave an impression on the world. He looks at the world as wide open to impact with his ideas and knowledge. Mike isn’t afraid to invest thousands into himself, so that he can better serve the world. I learned more this weekend from Mike than I have in a long time. I learned enough to fill up volumes of new educational book, but I will narrow the information down into two simple but life changing philosophies.
First, if you want to impact the most people, learn to empathize, serve, and listen to others. Mike told me that he invested in a marketing seminar to learn how to market and sell his products. The person teaching the seminar explained a lot more that sales and marketing. He learned that if he wants to have an impact on people, then he has to listen and empathize. Empathy defined is: the capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another person. The only way to provide a need is to know that there is a need. The seminar not only taught him how to influence the world, but more importantly, it taught him to listen and empathize with his wife. He realized after talking with the teacher at the seminar that he wasn’t making time for his wife. He realized that he needed to slow down, listen, and try to understand what his wife was feeling. Wow! Guys take notes on this one! Your marriage is your number one relationship. If you can’t get this one right, how do you expect to nurture other relationships?
Empathy allows you to put your feet in someone else’s shoes. It allows you to experience the challenges that others are going through. The challenge is the need. Then all you have to do is provide the solution. If you are simply out to get others to buy a product because you think that it is cool, then you are destined to fail. Simply provide the world with a solution to its problems, and you will be successful. The same goes for life. If you are on a soccer team that struggles with goal keeping, then become an awesome goal keeper. Boom! You are providing a solution. Your goal in life should be to make the world a better place with solutions to its problems, and then money and success will be the result. If you seek to simply make money, then the result will be failure.
The other thing that I learned from Mike was more of a philosophy. I will call it the “45 Minute Philosophy”. He asked me if I had 45 minutes to tell a classroom full of my peers exactly what I wanted them to know, what would it be? That’s a solid question! If I only had one shot and 45 minutes to tell a room full of important and influential people, exactly what I want to be remembered for, I would want the lecture to be well thought out. It took me a while to answer him, but then I came up with my answer. I would want the world to know how that I have been impacted by the barbell. It taught me that I am risk taker and that I can overcome fear. Now I want to impact the whole world with that very thought. What would you tell a room full of people if you had 45 minutes? Think long and hard about that, and then go impact the world.
Mike will be a friend forever because he is his sincerely interested in helping others. Within one minute of getting to know him, I realized that he was genuinely interested in me and my ideas. We were at lunch together, and within a few minutes, I was done eating and just wanted to learn more about him and his way of thinking. I guess that you can say we started a Bromance, but before my masculinity is totally wrecked in the eyes of my readers, both of our wives totally hit it off as well. Now it’s more of a family thing! I recommend you all go check him out on www.BarbellShrugged.com. His podcast is full of information and entertainment.
Next time, I will talk about what I learned from Christmas Abbott. If there is still someone out there who doesn’t know who Christmas is, then google her for crying out loud. She is totally inspiring, and will have you wanting to rule the world in seconds after meeting her.
Next year Adee Zukier, Hayden Bowe, and I are teaming up for my Learn 2 Lift Seminars. We are adding the “Eat What You Want” aspect, so the seminar is more of a complete package of Barbell and Nutrition awesomeness.
For any questions regarding Learn 2 Lift/Eat What You Want Seminars, email me at:
Travis.Mash@MashElite.com
We are hosting a Holiday Meet December 20th at the Mash Mafia Compound. Come hangout with the Mash Mafia Crew, some MDUSA Stars, Coach Mash, slam some bars, and of course KILL Some PRs! Click on the link to find out more:
December 20th Meet at the Mash Mafia Compound
We are hosting a New Year Learn 2 Lift Seminar at the Compound as well! January 10th and 11th come out and hang with Coach Mash and the Mash Mafia. Weightlifting Day 1 and Powerlifting Day 2. Come to one or both days just click on the link to find out more:
New Year Learn 2 Lift at the Mash Mafia Compound
To check out one of the Online Teams, click on one of the following on links:
Eat What You Want! Lift What You Want!
Online Coaching and Mentoring with Coach Mash
