In this solo episode of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Connor Agnew reflects on the past year by revisiting goals, evaluating growth, and acknowledging areas for improvement. He shares personal lessons shaped by family, health, and the loss of his father, and explains how these experiences influenced his priorities moving forward. The episode closes with a renewed focus on education, intentional living, and setting meaningful goals for the future.
Key Takeaways
- Reflecting on past goals creates clarity and momentum for growth
- Time with family and loved ones must be intentionally protected
- Health management is essential for long-term success and longevity
- Education and learning should remain lifelong pursuits
- Life changes often redefine priorities in powerful ways
- Sharing experiences can help others navigate similar challenges
Quote
“Time with loved ones should be prioritized.” — Connor Agnew
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the lesson is be kind, but don’t just take it from a, OK, I need to be nice and say hello more. But take it from a,
I need to really truly understand that we’re all in this together. No matter what your views are, no matter who you are as a person, we’re all human beings. We all need to be here for each other at some point.
What’s going on Sampson Strength Coach Collective listeners on today’s episode? I will be the guest yet again. I know everybody here is incredibly excited, but it is that time of year where we reflect and we look back on how the year went. If you remember from last year, I believe the episode came out early January and then the previous year before that was early January again, which is now three reflection episodes, which is pretty cool in itself that I get to be on this podcast for long enough that I get to do three reflection episodes, but
I digress, we are back with another reflection. So I set goals last year and I’ll review those goals. And we’ll look back and see if I did well with those goals, if there’s things that I could have improved upon, talk about that process a little bit. And then I’ve also got three new goals, obviously. If you’re gonna set three goals the previous year, you should probably go three goals again for the next year after that.
And then I have three lessons learned from somebody very special to me in my life. So we’ll touch on that in a little bit. ⁓ And then three favorite artists of the year as well too. And fun fact, Bossman D-Lost still gonna be number one for me. So ⁓ let’s get rolling with it. I mean, that’s pretty much all there is to it, right? ⁓ So let’s begin. ⁓ Last year I set three goals, as I’ve mentioned six times already in this episode. So the first goal that I set,
⁓ was improving recruiting visits. Now we talked about the importance of recruiting within the NIL space, how a lot of times your teams are going to end up having transfers. And really the recruiting visits are going be important. again, I’ll touch on this. It’s obviously not the strength and conditioning piece that’s going to be the biggest reason why they choose a school. But it does help.
And so if you can present a unified front with the rest of your coaching staff, if you can show that your values align with what the coaching staff wants to see, what the athlete wants to see, then it will help in the recruiting process in the long run. So my goal was to improve my recruiting visits, make them better, get better at specific things, get better at presenting things, and ultimately make it a better experience. Did I meet the goal or not? I’m gonna give myself like a, you know,
If we’re talking about gladiator right now, I’m just going to keep my thumb in the middle. I’m not going to go up or down. The reason behind that, I’ll be completely transparent. I’ll do a year reflection here in a second too. I got married in May. We’re prime recruiting time. I’m calling companies about tents for the…
wedding venue, what, you know, somebody else canceled last minute on Gladys isn’t going to be able to make it. So who are we going to sit them with? The coach staff has come. It’s the coach staff needs to be there all together. But at the same time, we don’t have tables big enough to fit these, all this stuff, man. So I’ll be honest. I kind of got distracted with that piece. ⁓ and I liked my recruiting visits where they were before, so I didn’t really improve upon much. ⁓ but I will say the main piece that I tried to do was be better with concise information. I think
Last year, past couple of years I’ve been giving recruiting speeches, whatever you want to call it, ⁓ I try to kind of like blast with information and really tell them every single thing. Like, here’s our hydration protocols, here’s our force plates, here’s our tracking, here’s what our supplements look like, right? And this year, what I did a little bit differently was try to feel out who was on the visit and see what things they were engaging with and what things they weren’t really caring about.
And so I think that ended up helping the visits overall. So, you know, we spend a lot of time on technology, right? We talk about technology a lot. And at the end of the day, some people could care less about technology. And I’m just shouting out a bunch of numbers. They don’t really matter. ⁓ And ultimately, ⁓ it’s hurting the visit because they don’t want to hear about these things over and over again. ⁓ understanding and kind of seeing the feedback through body language, through questions asked that I’m getting ⁓ based off of each individual who’s coming on a visit.
Obviously people are going to care more about certain areas than not. Some people are going to care about strength and conditioning at all. That’s kind of the, I mean the truth of it. So just understanding, okay, what areas do I really need to focus on with this specific person? ⁓ And one thing that helped me with that is asking the coaches beforehand, okay, what do they really care about? You what are the things that they’re really invested in? ⁓ Some of the coaches would say, well, they really want to know about the technology piece. Some would say, look, man, just make sure they have a good time and laugh, you know? And so one of my strongest issues is I feel like I can make people laugh.
And so, you we just try to adjust it from there instead of kind of giving a more generic recruiting speech. So that’s one of the biggest things that I’ve focused on this past year. And I do think it has helped recruiting the recruiting visits. do I think I improve my recruiting visits? Yes. Do I improve it to the level where I think it’s really astronomically better? No. So I’m going to blame the wedding on that one, although the wedding was fantastic, and give myself, like I said, a thumbs middle.
The next goal was spend more time with family. And you know what? I think I smashed this one out of the park. ⁓ My concern last year was doing too much work when it was unnecessary. I listened to the episode right before this, so you didn’t have to. A lot of the things that I mentioned were basically doing a lot of work ⁓ that could be done more efficiently. Sending out emails.
not picking up the phone in between. then sending emails takes 30 minutes versus five when it really needed that much time. ⁓ Doing work at home, ⁓ taking work home and really thinking about it, not even physically doing work, but just thinking about it a lot more. And really I felt like it was unfair to my wife. ⁓ It was unfair to my dogs, which we got another dog as well too. Like I said, we have to recap the year ⁓ and I’ll do that right after that. I’ll do that after the goals check. ⁓
I really focused on that this year and I really said, you know what, I want to be in this career. I want to be a strength and conditioning coach for a long time. So how do I make this last? And one of the things was understanding that I don’t have to be here all the time. I don’t have to be thinking about work all the time. And I’m actually a better coach when I don’t spend all my time doing those things. spending time away from the desk, spending time away from practice, sorry, from the court, I should say.
⁓ spending time away from things that make me feel better, but don’t make me a better coach, if that makes sense. Because there was a lot of stuff that I did that was like, okay, I’m doing this and it’s making me better as a coach, right? Or I feel better, you know, because I knocked this out versus just saying, okay, is this really actually helping me or is it just helping keep my anxiety about how I’m perceived at bay? ⁓ So that’s been a big goal of mine. So I ultimately don’t bring work home. ⁓
I’ve gone in later on days that I don’t need to go in until later because I mean, I love spending the morning with my wife. It’s like one of our favorite things we get to do is, you know, I’ll make breakfast, she’ll make breakfast. We’ll spend time, talk to each other. And instead of, you know, just showing up at the end of the night when I’m already exhausted from work, I have some energy to really speak with her and check in with her. So I think I really crushed that one. ⁓ And so that’s with my direct family ⁓ with my
⁓ extended family or it’d still be my direct family, right? Because mom and dad and my mother and father-in-law like we spent a lot of time together because of the wedding as well. Obviously there was a lot of plan prep that went into it. But we did a lot of visits with everybody this year. We saw people a lot of times and one of the cool things that we’re going to do this year is my wife’s family is going to come up and see my family and we’re going spend Christmas together. First time ever. What she has said is a dream of hers. ⁓
It’s a dream of mine as well. We will say that. So I’m excited for it. ⁓ And I think it’ll be good. But ultimately, I really have spent more time with family and I can say it was worth it. And I can say it was a really good goal because when I come to work, I’m a lot more excited about work because I haven’t been thinking about it for the past 12 hours when I haven’t been at work. ⁓ I feel more rejuvenated. I feel less bogged down by what can happen with work. And I actually ended up taking on more responsibility this year. Again,
another piece of the recap. I maybe should started with that and I apologize. So yeah, it was fantastic. And then the last piece was social media. And this one is not a thumbs middle, it’s a thumbs down. It’s a thumbs down. And this is why I love this process, right? Cause I publicly say these things. And then I know the next year I’m going to have to come back on this podcast and say to you listeners, did I meet or did I exceed or did I underperform my expectations for the goals? And I certainly underperform this one. ⁓
I wanted to get back on social media to help ⁓ in a small way influence the field with sharing my experiences and ⁓ being a resource for other young strength and conditioning coaches, ⁓ putting out more content, which I have put out zero content whatsoever since I recorded the episode. I did actually ⁓ put out a couple of videos, but then to be honest, they were sponsored posts.
And so they’re sponsored, so I had to put them out. There’s a contract that said, hey, we are going to pay you money, so you have to put these posts out. And so legally, I met my expectations, ⁓ but for my own expectations, not necessarily met. ⁓ as I reflect upon it, I do wish I spent more time on social media. It’s certainly another goal that I have for next year. It’s not one of the three that we’ll touch on.
I’m not super disappointed in as well too, because it has been quite the year. There’s been a lot of stuff that has happened and lot of stuff that’s gone down that’s been really time consuming. so I think the last thing that I needed to do was focus my energy on something that takes even more time. Obviously, the podcast I love doing, that’s kind of an energy giving activity for me.
Social media sometimes when I post can be an energy taking activity. It consumes energy. It takes a lot of time to edit. It takes a lot of time to think of new content ideas and you’re kind of always on. And one of the main goals is spending more time with family, right? So when I was posting a lot of social media, a lot of my time was spent thinking about, what am going to post next? What’s a video? Oh, that’s a good video. Let me write that down and getting distracted from the things that I really wanted to focus on. So.
I’m not super disappointed in it. I would like to continue to do it. And hopefully this year is not nearly as ⁓ crazy as this previous year was, but we’ll just have to see. So let’s do a year recap, which I did an intro on my episode. And I apologize. ⁓ what is it? Speech professor. I took a class ⁓ in college where we had to talk about giving speeches and presentations and how you always need to detail what you’re going to say and then wrap it up at the end. So I apologize to my speech professor ⁓ for.
failing him in this, right? But our recap of the year, it has been a crazy year. So, you know, starting off from January when I recorded the episode, we had some ups and downs with our season. We had some really good games and we had some not so great games. And unfortunately, we lost in the first round of the conference tournament. So a lot of the energy from the coaching staff and myself was spent on let’s get better for next year. ⁓ And let’s let’s do everything that we can to have a good team. And I think we certainly achieved that.
⁓ And then obviously the big one was the wedding. I got married, which is pretty awesome. I mean, it was a fantastic day, best day of my life. And then the best week of my life ensued after that, which was the honeymoon. ⁓ But I got a lot of really good wedding advice from people throughout the year and I greatly appreciated it. ⁓ But ⁓ I think back to ⁓ one of our guests that was on the show and he gave me the advice and he just said, ⁓ when you are at the wedding, take a look around.
and take a mental picture of the entire scene because this is most likely the last time you’ll have everybody that you love in a room together. And he didn’t know how important that advice was. So it was truly something special for me to do. And I did that. I followed his advice. And I had that mental image in my head. And he obviously had a lot of different pictures, which, let’s say this, funny story.
Like I said, I like to make people laugh More weddings on Sunday. Okay on a Sunday May 25th May 23rd, we’re getting ready to drive down to Knoxville We’re from Boone, North Carolina, obviously, so three-hour drive we wake up that morning and I thought I mean I was pretty juiced weddings coming up, right, you know exciting stuff And I opened my eyes and my fiance at the time turns to me
Obviously has been awake for an hour or so at this point already. So always good when that happens, right? She turns to me and she says, I haven’t heard from her photographer since April. I said, okay, that’s not good. We, and obviously I just woke up. So my brain’s kind of fried thinking about, okay, what are you saying right now? And I said, okay, so what do you mean you haven’t heard from her since April? She said, well, I’ve sent them a couple of texts. I’ve called a couple of times and I haven’t heard from her since April.
And I said, like late April, or early April? And she was like, March, like that early of April, March, April. And I was like, OK, not good. So let’s try to call her. And so we went on this wild goose chase in the morning before we supposed to leave for the wedding of trying to find a number that we can call her. Obviously, when you try to call her, office number is disconnected. It doesn’t exist anymore. I mean, why would you have a number that works?
Doesn’t respond to emails doesn’t respond to ⁓ Instagram DMS ⁓ and It’s a little concerning. I mean I would like pictures of the day as we just mentioned I took a lot of pictures so I would like pictures of our wedding day and so we are driving down and we called none other but our wedding planner who was the man by the way if you guys Anybody wants to get married in Knoxville? I highly recommend spaces in the city elite elite planning group and We called up Demi and said hey Demi ⁓
we don’t know about our photographer right now. Have you talked to her?” And he was like, no, certainly haven’t talked to her because that’s your job, not mine. I was like, obviously warranted. And then he said, what you need to do is you need to email her and say the venue has an issue and needs to get back, needs to hear from you right away. And so I said, obviously that’s not going to work. So we sent an email and then when you’re driving out of Boone, you go through the mountains, right? So there’s like an hour stretch where you don’t have any service. So he sent the email right before the end of the, before we.
get any service, mean, we’re lose service. So it’s an hour long where we don’t have access to our phones, which is usually a blessing. In this one, it was a nightmare. And so we’re trying to listen to music, ⁓ you know, put on a couple podcasts, knows anything to keep my ⁓ wife’s mind off of the fact that we don’t have a photographer for the wedding. And ⁓ the entire time she’s freaking out, obviously, I understand it. I’m freaking out internally as well.
And then as soon as we get service again, we get an email from the photographer. yeah, sorry, I’ll reach out to the venue right away. Can’t wait to shoot the wedding.
Let that sink in. All it took was one email from the venue. another lesson learned this year is you don’t always have the power you think you do. You may think, hey, I’m giving this person money to come shoot our wedding. The venue has the power. so just think about those things. But then again, it was an amazing wedding. I had an amazing wedding party, great cocktail. Mine was the Irish meal.
Jamison instead of vodka elite move I might say ⁓ Spent a lot of time rehearsing our wedding dance messed it up obviously because I had three Irish cocktails before we started doing the dance So it was fantastic and my dad was my best man, which was amazing to see And yeah, so we went on the honeymoon afterwards. I did nothing but eat and drink I ballooned up came back a beached whale sunburned and ⁓ severely bloated and
It was fantastic. I couldn’t ask for anything more. And then we had time off and got to see our family again and spend more time with our family and spend the rest of the summer. ⁓ During that process, I found out that our director is going to be taking a different role. So I was actually offered the job of ⁓ Olympic strength and conditioning director, which was absolutely awesome. Fantastic. I said yes right away, obviously. And then as soon as
the paperwork was to go through, we hit a hiring freeze in North Carolina. UNC school systems as a whole, giant hiring freeze. And so not only do I not get promoted, which is fine, because at the end of the day, I can still do the director stuff. It’s not a big deal. But we are not able to hire another strength coach. So now we’re down to strength coaches. We do not have the ability to hire another strength coach. And at the time we were told that the hiring freeze would be done by August.
Well, it’s December 17th as I record this episode and the hiring freeze is going strong. It does not seem to be any, anytime soon. So, last I heard was March. And so if we continue on the same trajectory in ⁓ May of 2027, if you want to be a baseball strength coach at Appalachian State University, please send me your resume. So learning how to be a director was insane ⁓ while also being severely limited on resources.
So we talked about additional responsibilities. I also took on volleyball as a team, which is a fantastic group to work with and has been super fun. And then, unfortunately, a massive life changing event occurred for me later in the year, right around the August time frame. My dad passed away. As I just said, he was my best man. This is honestly something I haven’t spoken about or
been very public with because it sucks. mean, there’s no other way to say it really. sucks. And to be honest, if there wasn’t a purpose behind me saying it, I wouldn’t mention it on the podcast, right? Like the three lessons learned, like I said, from a very special person or from my dad who was, I’m looking at his picture right now, my desk, the most amazing man I’ve ever encountered. He was my best friend.
Yeah, I I’m at a loss of words over it just because of how amazing he is and was. So, you know, it was a really tough process. Yeah, you know, this is one of the few times I can’t really say anything. I got a call ⁓ Sunday night. My dad was walking the dogs and fell.
They didn’t know why he fell. Later they would find out he had a heart attack. ⁓ The next morning I flew up to see him and he was on a ventilator so I didn’t really get to speak with him but I was really grateful for being there at the time I got there ⁓ because he had to get another procedure done. After that procedure you could tell he really wasn’t with us anymore. So I got to see him before that. I got to say goodbye and I got to…
I him I loved him. the time, wasn’t goodbye. Obviously, was we needed you to fight and do all these things. anybody who’s been through the experience, there’s kind of a point you hit where you understand that it’s not going to go the way you want it to go. ⁓ And I mean, he fought his ass off, man. He’s a true, true fighter. He’s amazing. And so he did everything that he possibly could to be there for us. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t win the battle. So the next day, he passed away. I got to be by his side while it happened. So it meant a lot to me.
⁓ What’s funny about it, even though nothing’s funny, my uncle actually had a heart attack three weeks prior. I got to talk to my dad and he just said he was scared. Obviously, my uncle survived and that was amazing, but every male in my family has died from a heart attack. He was scared about it and then unfortunately it happened three weeks later. It sucks.
Yeah, it sucks. Happened in August, and you still think about it every single day. ⁓ that certainly took a lot of my energy. ⁓ Still, obviously, recovering from it and just trying to piece things together. But ⁓ how grateful am I that he got to be there for my wedding? He was the best man on the day of my wedding. He was right by my side, gave an amazing speech. ⁓ He’s a recovered alcoholic. He’s been sober for.
35, 40 years. can’t remember at this point, the number is astronomical. So a funny moment was he went to go give a toast right after the speech and I thought he had champagne in his hand. I karate chopped his arm. Oops, sorry, I just smashed the mic. So I karate chopped his arm to make sure that he didn’t drink champagne. It turns out it was sparkling apple cider. So classic move by Connor Agnew. So yeah, so I incredibly grateful for that. And then, you know, when it had
the hits come, they keep coming. Unfortunately, my wife’s grandfather passed away a little bit later. So you know what, it’s been a tough year, if I’m going to be 100 % honest. So it has sucked, but it’s given me a lot of time for reflection. So I say all this not to just dump my emotions onto a podcast, but there’s a reason behind it. And that’s because the three lessons I want to talk about today are lessons that I’ve learned from my father. And so just to give you guys a
A brief background on who he is. ⁓ name is Alan Agnew, born in Syracuse, New York, May 13th. I always like to joke that he was born, you know, BC time era. He was 78 when he passed. ⁓ But he was a standout athlete in high school. Was actually planning on going to college for track and field and then got drafted into the Vietnam War. ⁓
not very chill, not something you can kind of skirt. So he went out and ended up becoming an Army Ranger, Silver Star and Purple Heart recipient. ⁓ He would, my favorite story from the time that he was overseas was that he actually helped people get their GEDs. So people in his platoon who he wanted to see succeed after Vietnam, he’d helped them.
get their GEDs. They had a program at the time, I believe, that you could do that through the Army. just an amazing man through and through. And so he came back from Vietnam and he said it was obviously one of the worst experiences ever. He wouldn’t talk about it to me and I understand that. But because of that, and he wouldn’t mind me sharing this because I know how proud he is of his sobriety, he fell into ⁓ a really deep hole of addiction. ⁓
And he was an alcoholic and ⁓ abused other substances and ⁓ really struggled with it. Because obviously the PTSD from the war ⁓ and really having to deal with a lot of the emotions. And then also when you come back from Vietnam War, you kind of think people would celebrate you, but that was not the vibe at the time. A lot of people spit on him. ⁓ People didn’t respect what he did. They thought he was part of the war when, in fact, he didn’t even have a choice to be there. So he really struggled with that, moved to Maine.
for eight years and then came back to Syracuse and eventually, I mean, because of how amazing he is, was able to get sober. And what’s so cool about that is after he got sober, he actually became a drug and alcohol counselor. So he helps people with drug and alcohol addictions. One of his crowning achievements, I remember, was he studied for a long time to get his gambling license and help people with gambling addictions, which we need now more than ever, now that online sport books are a thing, but helps people with their addictions.
help people overcome them. And he was universally loved. mean, everybody loved my dad, like everybody on the planet. People would scream across the streets, know, Alan, Alan, Alan. And it would be former clients of his and people who he’s helped and people who have their own families now and are able to succeed because of the work that he’s done with them. So he was an amazing example for me. And he gave me a lot of really good things to reflect upon when he passed. And so the first lesson, and I share this, you know, with everybody.
is be kind, ⁓ which is, it sounds so easy, right? But I think the level my dad took it to was it surpassed what you would expect from a regular nice person, right? He cared about everything. He truly cared about his coworkers’ families. He would ask questions that people would always say, I didn’t remember even telling you that. Like, how do you possibly remember that, right? And he was so detailed.
in how he approached his conversations with people he was so kind and wanted to spend so much time with everybody else to be able to show them that somebody out there cares about you. And especially for people with addiction issues, you can go to a dark place. You can feel like nobody cares about you. It can really put a strain on your family relationships. And so he was that person. He was the person who cared for these people. So really amazing work that he did. And then it extended to everybody else, right?
When you go to a party with my family, or we go to a function in the neighborhood, everybody wanted to talk to my dad. And he’s this quiet man. He’s not very outspoken, but it’s the presence he has. It’s the way he carries himself. And it’s the way that he would talk to other people, that he would be sometimes the best part of their day. And so the lesson is be kind, but don’t just take it from a, OK, I need to be nice and say hello more. But take it from a,
I need to really truly understand that we’re all in this together. No matter what your views are, no matter who you are as a person, we’re all human beings. We all need to be here for each other at some point. And so he understood that and he exemplified it and I thought it was really astounding to see that. And so it’s a good lesson for me to learn too. And then the second lesson learned from him is listen without judgment. Imagine the stories he heard from people.
who were in the throes of addiction, who really struggled ⁓ with who they are as a human being because of the things that they’ve done in order to fuel their addiction. I mean, I remember hearing stories of people losing their houses. I remember people losing contact with their families because all they cared about was getting high. All they cared about was getting drunk and basically going back into what their addiction really showed and what it was for them. And so,
He listened to these people and he always looked at them as people, not as ⁓ somebody with an addiction that was a human being, that was somebody’s son or daughter that he was speaking with. And so the lesson learned here is just be more open, right? And remember again, at the end of the day, we are all humans. So those two lessons kind of go hand in hand, but listen without judgment when an athlete comes to you and an athlete, ⁓ you know, struggling with something.
Instead of thinking about it from a performance lens, can you think about it from a human lens? Can you not be judgmental? I think back to small, silly examples, Like one of our weight gain guys forgot to eat breakfast that morning, right? There’s two ways to approach that conversation, which is to get on them and say, well, you’re never going to play for us. You’re not doing what you need to do. And then the other way of the conversation is asking questions and finding out if that person’s OK and treating them as a human being, because that’s what they are.
and not judging everything that a person says. And it was really amazing to see how my dad operated because like the most annoying people on the planet, like people I could not stand to be around, and my mom and I are the same. We’re the exact same. I just happen to be her younger and in male form. And like she would always be like, I don’t know how your dad talks to this person. I don’t know how he doesn’t hate him, right? And there was just no hatred in his heart. And I think it’s because he never judged.
He would always listen and he would never judge. And I think that really made him this amazing special person. And then the final piece, it’s a lesson that he taught me. ⁓ It’s more related to me specifically, but I think it’s applicable to everybody. Your time isn’t infinite. The time that you have with the people you love is not, it is not always gonna be there. And so.
I think one of the main things that really stuck with me when he passed was I didn’t call him enough. I didn’t reach out to him enough. didn’t text him. I always texted him back. He’d call me. I’d always call back. I didn’t really. I did. But I wouldn’t initiate the conversation enough. He was retired. He was just living with my mom. And so I think back to how good of a relationship we had. And there should be more of me reaching out.
What it’s really helped me with is understanding that I need to be better about reaching out to people because I am that type of guy where people have to call me for me to stay in contact. I’ll always have the love for those people. I’ll always make the time for those people if they call, but I don’t really act on it. I’m not the one who really typically reaches out. just respond. And so I think it really taught me a lesson. I need to be better about that. And then I need to be the one who
makes time for other people, especially in such a busy profession. So I say all of this, not as a you need to call your mom or dad right now and you need to check in with them and call them 24-7. But I always knew, because he was an older dad, I’m 29, he’s 78, I always knew that he was going to pass away earlier in my life than my friends’ parents would.
I would always think like, ⁓ man, I got to call him today. And then I wouldn’t call him because I’d get caught up in being busy or worried about something with work or whatever. And so I always had that thought in the back of my mind. I’m sure everybody here, anybody listening has those same thoughts. I guess my lesson in this would be don’t wait. Don’t say, I got to do this and then not follow up on it. Always follow up. ⁓
you know, always because I remember the last, the last call I had with my dad last time I spoke to him. ⁓ he, he, were talking about something, ⁓ about fantasy football. And, he said, you know, I gotta go. Your mom’s burning down the kitchen or something, right? She’s a great cook. So I don’t know what the hell happened there. ⁓ and so he’s like, I’ll call you back. Right. And so he didn’t call me back that night. And then literally the next morning in my head, I was like, I gotta call dad. I gotta call back to see how he’s doing and everything. I never did.
And then he passed away that Sunday. So it’s a dramatic example. But at the same time, I always assumed there was more time. I always assumed on the moving to Tennessee, to Texas, to North Carolina while they were living in New York and eventually to North Carolina that I would always have time to, well, I can focus on my career more and I can do these things more because there’s always going to be time. And quite frankly, there’s not.
Understanding that and kind of really synthesizing that information has been huge for me. It’s really helped me with my other relationships So I just want to share that advice with you So super depressing episode and I apologize for that That wasn’t the intention there was more to share about how amazing my dad is How much he means to me and you know, again, I’ve got a great I’ll show this to you if anybody’s watching right now I’ve had this picture on my desk for like
Seven years, right? That’s me and my dad right there. He’s a stud. They used to call him the silver fox man Who’s also quite the ladies man, too Obviously never, you know didn’t my mom would always say that right because all the women would always go up to him Alan Alan You know, you’d always shove him away because he was a gentleman But yeah, he was amazing himself. I love you dad Okay, so let’s spin this a little bit and make it a little bit more positive three new goals. Okay, I
complete one 80 my three new goals for this year. My first one is to grow in my education base. So I’ve talked about this a couple of times, but, when I decided to get my master’s degree in sports psych, I knew that there was going be lasting implications with that. There’s going to be lasting detriments and kind of my education base. And so I always knew that those who did their master’s degree in exercise physiology would have a better grasp on it or strength and conditioning, whatever it may be. ⁓ and
I would still choose that path 10 times out of 10. I would still absolutely go sports psych because it exposed me to a world that I think really, really helped me develop how I want to be as a coach because I am a relationships-based coach. I don’t really care about programming or periodization and all this stuff. In the moment when I do it, I do. But the reason I coach isn’t because I’m super excited about throwing a triphasic into a program or starting strength or whatever. The reason I coach is because
we get to build amazing relationships. So the sports psych aspect of it has been huge for me. So I would never change my decision. But one of the things I’ve said on this podcast before is I chose sports psych. And so part of the onus ⁓ of my continuing growth as a coach is going to be basically continuing my education in the area that I didn’t continue it in for my master’s degree. So I’ve already started with this goal and I’m excited for it. I took an anatomy and physiology class. ⁓ It is online.
And you know what, I’ll be honest, I really thought it was going to be easy. I thought I was kind of just going to skirt through this and have no problem. I knew I was in for it when I got my lab kit for home. And the lab included a fetal pig, cow’s eye, and sheep’s brain. And I had to dissect those, obviously. They don’t just send those to you for fun. So it was a lot of time. And it was a lot of investment that I put into this. But it was great. And it really
What I was really excited about is it was able to help me connect concepts that I have always been able to connect in my mind, but never really solidify the connection between if that makes sense. And so I really got better at understanding the base of my knowledge. Next semester is going to be anatomy and physiology too. And then one day my goal is actually to get a certificate in biomechanics. ⁓ Because part of me has always wondered, do I like being the relationships coach? Because I don’t necessarily have the knowledge base in the other areas.
Tough question, tough self-reflection question. Say that three times fast. So ultimately, let’s find out. Let’s educate myself more. Let’s get better at those things and let’s continue on this process and continue to educate myself. And I have found, I don’t know, this is another self-reflection piece. The main thing that I need to do is actually take a class. I need to have deadlines. I need to have somebody who’s on my ass saying I need to get this stuff submitted, right? Because when I do it on my own,
I have no problem reading a textbook, right? But if I don’t have to answer questions about it afterwards, I’m not paying attention nearly as much as I should. take a class, read a book, always fun. Okay, I guess we’re going back to sad now that I look at my notesheet. Follow the lessons from my dad, his goal number two. ⁓ So, you know, ultimately the be kind and listen without judgment and time isn’t infinite, right? Those are my three lessons I’ve learned and those are huge, but
I mean, we’re what, four months removed from my dad passing away. ⁓ I can already see how I can learn these lessons but not integrate them, if that makes sense, right? Like I can know that I should be kind. I can know that I should listen without judgment. I can know the time is infinite, but do I actually act upon those things? And so that’s something I’ve been checking myself on, is am I actually being kind? I spending more time?
investing in others from a emotional standpoint and really trying to get to know them and really trying to develop these deep relationships with them and just being nice to people just because it feels good to be nice, know, and listening without judgment. I’ll be honest, I’ve struggled with that one. I’m a judge. I like to judge. You can call me Judy. Okay. I love to judge. so it’s been hard for me to,
you know, change my judgment on things, right? Because one of my strengths I feel like is I feel like I can get a good read on people within the first time medium. And so that ends up lending itself to you judging a lot of people a lot of the time, right? And so making these snap judgments and making these sweeping assumptions is not beneficial. And so I’m struggling with that, but I’m trying to do better on it. And then understanding the time is an infinite piece, You know, reaching out to people more, calling people more, being the one to.
Inspire those connections is definitely a big goal of mine for this upcoming year as well, And the third goal and final goal of this upcoming year 2026 It’s gonna be manage my health better. Okay, Transparency time right this is part of the reason why I like say these goals publicly because I kind of get a follow-up on them, I am strong. I’m strong as I’ve been you know before because
I jumped on the starting strength chain and I love learning and training and doing all these things. And I really want to get my certification finally and pass my oral board, which is the second part that I got hung up on. ⁓ And so a big part of it is you hire a coach and you have to work with the coach and get a lot stronger. But I’m also heavy. OK, so the strength with heaviness comes strength, obviously. ⁓
I think, again, the lesson I learned from my dad is that you’ve got to be healthy. You’ve got to take care of your body. ⁓ And so I say these things, again, not to just spew of consciousness and just say it, maybe hopefully inspire other people to do these things. I set up an appointment to get a CPAT because I snore loud. I saw logs at night. And first of all, it drives my wife insane, obviously.
But at the same time too, it’s obviously not a good thing for your health. And so I did a sleep study. Your boys got sleep apnea, obviously. And I’ve ordered the CPAP. So using the CPAP and doing the things that will help me and incorporating cardiovascular exercise. I ran a marathon before, believe it or not I did. I ran it at 260, which I highly do not recommend. And so I’m gonna run the Philadelphia Marathon with one of my best friends this upcoming November.
and I cannot be 260 when I run it again. I’ve already done that once and it sucked, and I’m not gonna do it again. incorporate the cardiovascular exercise. Another thing that I did was actually go to the doctor, which sounds insane to say that out loud, right? But do blood work. I mean, all the stuff that I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about until I’m 50, I’m doing now. Because at the end of the day, this lesson really,
from my father passing just really taught me a lot. But at the same time too, was like, one day I hope to be a father, right? And I have an amazing wife and ⁓ it’s scary to see all the health problems that can occur. I’ve had a lot of health problems myself. I’ve had to a couple of different surgeries. I had Lyme’s disease earlier in the year. Like, what are we talking about here? So like taking care of my body has got to be a big goal of mine for this upcoming year because I want to be here for a long time.
And Samson’s been around for a long time, so hopefully I can host their podcast for a long time too. So I would love to continue to do that. So those are my three goals. Grow in my education, follow the lessons from my dad, and take care of my health. So yeah, those are huge. And it’s exciting. A lot of perspective has been gained this year. A lot of new responsibilities, a lot of different things have happened this year. If I’m 100 % transparent, it’s been the hardest year of my life.
And so understanding that I could still meet some of my goals from last year. I’ve got new, more targeted, more direct goals for this upcoming year is exciting. ⁓ So yeah, I’m juiced about it. And to finish off, I did promise top three artists. I did. And so it’s a big, know, it’s exciting for me to talk about these things. And you know, I do say it in fashion of what our athletes listen to. So I wouldn’t say these are my personal three favorite artists, but at number three, which the guys love,
⁓ 1900 Rugrat. Think about it. 1900 Rugrat. 1900 Rugrat. ⁓ Great artist. ⁓ Very fun to talk to or listen to, should I say. I never once talked to him, obviously not. ⁓ And if I had to recommend a song from him, would be ⁓ No Makeup. Great song. Okay. ⁓ The second for me for this year is still Gunna. I love Gunna. I mean, he’s absolutely fantastic.
And our athletes ⁓ love him and love listening to him. And so my song recommendation would be Spending Addiction. ⁓ Always exciting. And then my final, ⁓ as I mentioned earlier, I already spoiled this in the podcast, was Boss Mandela. I love Boss Mandela. And he just keeps putting out hits. And it doesn’t end. Every song he puts out is absolute banger.
I fully embraced my love for boss mandilo this year And so my recommendation my number one recommendation from boss mandilo is going to be the biggest that’s his song so Enjoy those take those with you if you will if you don’t like rap you’re not gonna like any of these people Guarantee it, but if you do if you’re open to rap then you’re gonna love them. So always exciting Now I do have to finish this off again. I always have to do this express my gratitude
for the amazing people at Samson Equipment for allowing me to continue to host this podcast. ⁓ I’m sorry that after three years, I released the most depressing episode that I possibly could. the amazing people behind this company allow me to have fun, allow me to ⁓ have a forum where I can convey my opinions and meet some really, really amazing coaches. I mean, shout out to everybody at Samson and a very special shout out to my guy Andy.
which I don’t know if I can say this publicly, I think he’s gonna complete a high rocks later in the year. And Dexter, these guys are the best. And the final marketing intern, I don’t know her name, because I’ve never been introduced to her. She does all the behind the scenes work. so marketing intern, thank you so much for everything you do and allowing this podcast to go on. The final piece is always thank you to the listeners for allowing me to continue to have this amazing position and continue to
grow and continue to host this podcast. Cause man, this is like the most fun thing I do. Seriously, besides winning, it’s winning games. ⁓ And then, okay, sorry. Number one’s hanging out with my wife, obviously. All right. Number two is winning games. Number three is hosting the Samson ⁓ podcast. So I hope Samson is okay with that order of things as well too. But again, I always appreciate it. And I appreciate you listeners for allowing me to do this. And thank you to Samson cause it is a ton of fun. ⁓ As always, thank you for listening.
I hope you enjoyed the podcast and I hope I can help with some of the reflections for this upcoming year. Let’s go absolutely crush 2026. Thank you guys.
