Appoloche Production.
Welcome to another episode of Brave Always the CEO series. This series, we launch into the new world of brave leadership.
Happy people create happy businesses, true.
Emotionally intelligent leadership.
I've picked up vomit once on our about our fourth flight, and everybody thought, well, if it's good enough for him, I can do it.
Now.
We will be joined by culture and leadership.
Experts and some superstar CEOs who will courageously tell us the truth behind their brave leadership journeys. Today I am joined by the amazing and one of my favorite, d Rook.
Functional training expert.
D'arrook trains superheroes, Navy seals, firefighters, law enforcement, and Chris Hemsworth, a certified strength and Conditioning specialist with a Bachelor of Science and Kinesiology. He is the creator of Raw Functional Training RFT, a revolutionary approach to movement.
Welcome Rourke, how are you doing?
You know, it's so nice to see you. It's been a while. It's been a couple of years actually.
Later for people who don't know Rooke, obviously a lot of people in Stratium might know you from the Center app because I feel like that's something they might have seen you a lot on and I can tell people firsthand if you haven't done it.
Rook's pretty. He's frightening on the center. App he's not so frightening in personally.
When I read these comments about you and people are like, oh my god, he killed me.
He's so hardcore, I'm like, he's a teddy bear.
Man, you know, you know that's ridiculous.
He's nice.
I think it would be interesting just for the listeners who might have been not so familiar with you a bit more about like what your program does and what it is that you mainly do.
Guys, you were saying, my educational backgrounds guinesiology, emphasis and biomechanics, and I did all my research on movement sequencing, so it's any type of movement secrecing and how it directly correlates to a drenal system management and nervous moptimization, So basically managing your drenal system and organizing your nervousism, so helping you think better and be more conditioned and control
your adrenaline while you're in stressful situations. So for me, a lot of my training curricular foundation is all body weight based, so you don't have to utilize load or weight or anything. You pretty much just use your body weight. So it was something that I worked with a lot of, you know, professional athletes and lead athletes. I'd work with a lot of first responders just because they're in high
stress situations. So whether that be fieries, law enforcement, military, et cetera, any type of stressful situations, I helped to manage that adrenaline. I started working with Chris, and when we did that, we started focusing a lot more on how that directly correlates to the metabolism and getting you functionally strong and getting your metabolism optimized. And so a lot of people loved it. It's hard, but it's like I said, people get scared of it, but you know it's not that scary.
So you're talking about the kind of exercises you do or you teach these first responders help them lower their stress levels, they make better decisions in the moment.
It's interesting because when you're doing movement sequencing, you know the methodology is all based in For example, if I told you to run around the track one time, easy day. But if I told you to change the movement pattern every ten meters, every five meters and I told you crawl backwards, cross sideways, hop skin, jump up, jump out, hop on one leg, move around, you'd be exhausted by
the time. Because every time that we have to motor plan and figure out what the next sequence is, you're forcing not only your body but your brain to kind of come in line to figure that out. And that's where the adrenaline starts to increase, right, and your adrenal system gets elevated, and your nervous system has to maintain some balance so you can make correct decisions and recall
that information from a cognitive perspective. So I've seen a lot of my training protocols be very applicable to not only elite athletes and first responders, but those in corporate leadership positions, et cetera. Because really, you want to sharpen the spear across the board. You not only want to be functionally strong and functionally efficient, but you also want to make sure neurologically that you are sharp and you're able to articulate and recall information and your cock through
function as at a high level. And in order to do that, you have to be able to think while you're training. So a lot of us when we do training, we do a lot of things where we're just moving and we're trying to zone out. You kind of like, even if you go for a jog, you're you know, I don't want to think. I just want to move.
And that's totally fine from a cardiovaster standpoint, But when you get into a functional movement perspective and try to be functionally more efficient, you have to always be thinking right And that's where the application comes in with a lot of first responders because when you go into situations i e. Through like a firey going into a building, law enforces are going in with Chase the suspect, you
have to be thinking the entire time. You have to focus on your sensory processing and taking in all that data and the information around your surroundings and environment. But then you have to focus on getting your motive planning and your cognitive function at a high level so you can execute and utilize all that strength condition that you've been training for.
Yeah, that's super interesting because I totally zone out when I exercise.
This is not thinking at all.
You just mean.
Maybe what the next lyric is, But you know, I'm you're telling me I need to be thinking more when I'm exercising.
It's interesting because I mean, for me, like a lot of the things that we do, I mean even from coal water emersion therapies and a lot of the stuff that's been doing right now. You know, I work with Plunge, and you know Andrew Huberman does a lot of the recover modalities. I've been doing a lot of the resilience protocols and understanding how anytime our body's put under stress, our ability to become more resilient is probably the most important thing, right because we're able to succeed and is
important in learning how to win. But a lot of people do not know how to lose. I always tell people that I work with that I can't guarantee that you're gonna win, but I guarantee through the process you're going to lose and you're gonna fail. That's one hundred percent guarantee. And I think the trouble that a lot of people have is in those situations, their ability to overcome that and be more resilient is really the key.
So yeah, I'm really glad you talked about resilience because resilient is a key part of what I talk about when it comes to leadership. Now, I talk a lot about resilience being the obstacles.
Are the path.
This is like how I describe it to a lot of paper, right, like the obstacles of the past, Like it's going to be that they're going to happen, But how do you prepare yourself for it?
So how does d prepare himself to be resilient? No one will believe this in the world.
They'll think that Darrual bounces out of bed every morning pumped, he's full of But.
I reckon it's not true, erck. And some days you don't want to get out of bed.
No, absolutely. I think that's a great question. And I think for me it's always about capacity. Increasing your capacity is always very important to me. There's pillars in doing so. And I think one of the most important things is you've got to have purpose, right, So there has to be a reason why you get up, reason why you're doing something. And so the purpose is kind of our
GPS system. It kind of keeps our north star, It kind of keeps us going and keeps us in the right direction even when we get lost, and we all get lost in the process. Secondly, I think it's discipline. So discipline for us is really about making sure you're doing something even when you don't want to do it right, You've got to get up. If you've made a commitment to yourself, then you have to follow through in that commitment and do it whether you feel great about it,
you don't feel great. You're going to be great some days you're not, but you stay disciplined. And then when you apply that discipline over time, that discipline then becomes consistency. And when you have a consistent discipline over time with a strong purpose, then you start to increase your capacity. And I think in order to become resilient, you have to have the capacity to manage the failures, manage the setbacks so that you can dust yourself off and get
up and get back after it. And I think people sometimes look at it from a perspective of I need motivation or I need someone to inspire me. But unfortunately, I think when you focus too much on inspiration and motivation, they're not real. They're kind of fleeting emotions that sometimes work and sometimes don't. They're like, you know, those that utilize any type of crutch, whatever that may be, when they're stressed or they're sad, and they lean on it,
it becomes this addiction. So I'm always about making resilience an addictions rather than be addicted to something that's not going to be supporting your overall goal and initiative. I find to lean a lot more on to just embrace things that are hard and embrace things that are challenging, because when you do that, it kind of resets your brain to kind of do more of that, embrace more of that. On a larger basis, We've.
Talked to a lot of great leaders on this podcast, and a common denominator or theme that I've seen with everybody is they've all had to face or overcome some kind of adversity, right, Like, it's been a real common thing. And I think anyone I've spoken to hasn't had to go through something in order to get where they've got to. But is there been a challenge that you can think of or a moment you went through where you're like, well, that's kind of made me the person name today?
Would you say that's the same for you?
It's definitely not been an easy ride. I think through the process. I mean also, as you know, you know, like being a dad is always challenging, right because there's people that are counting on you, et cetera. But I think you start to second guess yourself a lot because all of us that are essentially whether you're working within a company or you're an entrepreneur, you have to lean on yourself. A lot of us lean on We're blessed to have good friends or family around us that will
support us through different hardships and challenges. But as you kind of grow into yourself, you understand that it's really you got to pick yourself up and you have to understand it. And I think, looking back, I don't regret any of my setbacks. I don't regret any of my losses because that's where I learn the most, because I don't feel like you learn anything from wins. Anytime you win or you succeed, you learn nothing. It's kind of
like you celebrate it. It's important to celebrate it. But at the same time, I think you don't learn anything. And I'm such a student of the game, the student of life, that I almost embrace failure. I embrace, you know, doing things that are not I'm not going to be proficient at. Because people tend to kind of shy away from those things, and you have to be willing to take ridicule and people to think that you're silly, you're a little different, You're not sitting in the same room
as all of us. You're willing to stay longer, get early, you know, do things a little differently. And I think those are the people that I gravitate toward and I'm passionate about because when you lose, the fear of failing
comes much stronger. So I think that's something that can be cultivated within a corporate environment as a culture, because most of the leaders, business leaders, you have an employees or base, you know, people that are counting on them for guidance and to give them to lead the ship. And so I think the culture you want to have is where everyone embraces that same perspective, which is it may not be fun, but understanding that, hey, we didn't succeed here, but we learned a lot and we're going
to continue to learn as we move forward. And I think if that becomes the barometer for success, then you're on the right ship. And so I think that's where all of us are trying to get to at this point.
I totally agree with you and surrounding yourself with people who back you and support you is great. But for me, it's always an element of self belief, right because to your people, right, you've got to have this self. But do you feel you've always had that? Like is that just been like you were born Drooks, like you know, he's always had self belief or is that something you've had to learn?
I think it's inherently. I think it was something that you had to learn, And that's something I had to learn personally, you know, growing up. It was one of those things for me that I've always done think a little differently. I beat it to my own.
Drum, can't imagine it.
Yeah, yeah, right, exactly. So I'm always I've always been a little bit different when it comes to that perspective, and I've been fascinating with it.
Yeah. I wanted to talk you about this because you're based in California, right, Yes, yes, so it would be when would be one of the places where the most pressure to be somebody or to look a certain way or to behave a certain way. Right, So how hard is it like when you talk about authenticity and I know this of you, you're a very loving fun, you know.
But here's a big question for you. Sure is that the authentic you?
That's a great question. And I think I'm much more of an introvert. I'm not an exterpt. You would think i'ld be an out loud but that it really drains my energy if you could be like an outgoing introvert, right, So I need my time to kind of find out is that who you are as well? Entirely right, because I what happens is that you give so much. Because when I'm engaged and we're getting involved in some type of an event or some type of business venture or whatever,
you're all in. Like I'm all in. But I think some people are able to kind of manage that where they'll give like sixty percent seventy percent of their energy. I don't know how to do that. I just go one hundred percent in and I'm like everything's going into it. But what happens is that I realize, like if I don't take time to sit back and recover and find my balance, and if I don't take time to do those things, that's where I start to have issues. I think I lose my creativity, I lose my drive, I
lose a lot of those things. So I think it's important to have time to have balance. And that's where I think there's a direct correlation m to in the training world that I live in, everyone was so focused on performance for so long. Right, there's three pillars in my business, which is performance, recovery, and wellness. Those are the three pillars. So you sit in one of those three pillars, and I think for so long people are
off performance. If you don't focus on the recovery and taking care of yourself and recovering from that training and that performance, right, then it directly starts affect your third pillar, which is the wellness, which is you just your overall health and wellness and my mental and physical health. So I think from my standpoint in business and in general,
we were talking about being those insurants. I need that because when I started to find out early in my career is that I would push so hard into performance and giving that then you have nothing left for recovery and this pillar starts to crumble, then your wellness crumbles as well. So I think balance is something that we all find We all have different types of balance and levels of balance, but I think it's important that we
find that part of ourselves that is a balance. And I applaud those that could be totally extroverts and they're just like they need it. But I definitely need my quiet time and my time to reset and find my balance again.
Look, I've got a big smile on my face because I find it very had to explain to people. Everyone thinks I'm allowed extraver all the time. M's always out there and she's always crazy. It's one hundred percent I'm not. I You call them my Patagonia days, right, This is my name for it, which means I just want to move to Patagonia and lie in a field and no one talked to me for like two weeks.
So some days I have those days.
Do you ever feel like you're putting on it? Like you have to put on the mask? Like you can wear the mask if you have to, you throw on the mask. You can be that total high energy like I put the mask on. But that mask ares get heavy and uncomfortable at a certain point, and I can't imagine. I try to liken it to people that, so you put a mask on, you wear it, everyone loves it. But then when you want to go to sleep, you have to wear the mask to there has some color
of time. We take the mask off and you just kind of reset yourself.
Yeah, I know, right, And I just think that what's important for leader is as well is for a lot of us there is that mask all the time, like you've got to step up, You've got to you know, sometimes you're going to show up when you don't want to show up. But you're right if you're not taking that time out to recover, right, because time's tough, like people are time Paul basically right, So when do you find this time to recover and do this for you?
And I have found over the years I have felt that level of burnout and lost my creativity at times because I'm like, I don't have anything left in the tank.
You have to fill it up, you have to plan it out. If you don't, you're going to run out of gas and then you're stuck on the side.
But this is I think where vulnerability comes in the right to the play, because what sells or what's interesting or what people often admire is the go go, go, go go.
And this is where imposter.
Syndrome comes in, right, because everyone thinks I can't compete with that because I can't be that person. I mean, there be people out there that think I'm never going to be like, well, sure right, and they never will. But but you but they'll have this like level where they'll go, I can't get there. But actually you've got another side to the coin right where you need to reboot and ranogize.
But don't you agreek up that mean with you with your friends and the people that you know. I think everyone has another side of the coin. It's just how well they hide it or how they're willing to express it. There's just there's no way, no matter who it is, the most high profile person has another side of the coin. So I think when you talk about vulnerability, it's much more about being honest with yourself, right, And I think you cannot be vulnerable unless you're honest. If you're not honest,
you're not really being vulnerable because you're still hiding. You're still hiding you trying to like pretend that you're this or that. But you have to be honest that I'm not superhuman, that this is who I am. When I go, I go, when I go to the best my ability and I go full throttle. I kick ass teck names. But at the same time, there has to come a time where you have to reset. And it's not bad, it's actually necessary. I don't think it's like natural, like oh,
it's just your human It's necessary. Every peak performer that I've ever been around, elite athletes, elite Olympic athletes, lead professional athletes, elite tactical you know, operators from the standpoint of military set all the same. They have to recover. You know, if they go on like for example, guys that are like on seal teams, they'll go on deployment and they're intense. When they come back there ghosts. You cannot find them. They need time alone, they need tell
to family, they need to times solo. They have to reset. That's how we are, that's how we're built. So I think this whole culture of just go, go go, I'll rest later. I think people equate resting to laziness, and it's not resting is to be very thoughtful, mindful of laziness rest. You have to find an adequate amount of time and optimal rest in recovery. If you do, then you'll be able to have a higher quality of performance in time that you're training. If that makes sense.
All right, I'm going to ask you to flashback.
I don't know how long you need to flash pack, but let's go at twenty year old d'arrooke, you're twenty.
Years old, son of a bitch, that was.
I'd love to see what that looks like a picture for me? Do we have do we have less? Hear more?
Here?
I don't know?
We have hair back? Then? The hair, all the hair, eyes all escaped, they all left, they left the building, they ran. I tried to keep them on where they left.
Well, you're a bit like the rock, right, Like I've got this vision of the rock like a big loft to hair back then, But what's the best advice you would.
Give twenty year old d'arrook? Right now?
You know, at twenty years old, when you're young, I think we always gauge ourselves based on our success. And like so, I was so definitely afraid of failing or not knowing what to do. The advice I would give myself back then is it's okay, don't be afraid to not know, but keep moving forward. I think progress For me. I struggled and I got paralyzed a lot of times mentally by thinking I'm going to make the wrong decision.
I think I got paralyzed many times, going I don't know what to do, so I'm just not going.
To do anything so common, so common, right, And I think.
Those are things that we, I mean, people still struggle with that now. I mean I think for me, I would think I would tell myself it's okay not to know, just as long as you keep going forward. And I think another thing I tell myself is if you fail, it's good, It's okay you're supposed to, but understand that, embrace it with the perspective of you're going to fail, you're not going to be great at it, but you still want to continue to down that path, keep doing it.
If you don't like something great, let's understand it. But don't stop something just because you're not good at it.
A couple of last things I want to ask you, and one of those is around and it's one of the things I love about you. So enjoy, as you know, is my business. Joy is a big factor of it, right, because life should be fun. Right. I spoke to this really interesting lady. Her name is Mets Speakes. She produces things like Big Brother and Farmer wants.
A wife and stuff like that.
She's really cool, lady, But she said this thing that it's our job as leaders of our craft or whatever we do, it's our job to make it interesting. And I love that, right Like, she believes we should make it interesting, make it fun. Like where does joy come into the stuff that you do?
Like?
Why is it so obviously important to you?
Right? Like, you're not this super serious, don't smile, don't bring joy?
Like where does the joy that come from?
I think it's interesting because you told me just now that lady had said to you that it's our job to make it interesting for me in fitness and movement, I try to not overcomplicate it because in my industry people try to overcomplicate. That's how the industry, my industry works and generates revenue. Is that let me try the new thing. This is how you do it, and you have to learn this. You have to learn that, and
you want to be a student of the game. Don't get me wrong, but the joy of moving is such a blessing because so many people can't write, and as you get older, people go I wish I could just walk around it out her. So the joy of moving is really just to demystify it and say, hey, listen, don't overcomplicate it. And if anything, that's where I try to embrace life. If you're just moving around every day, they're good to go. You don't have to do my training.
You can do whatever you love, yoga, pilates, but do something. And that aligns with what we just talked about. From the perspective of what would you tell your twenty year old self, it's just keep moving, keep moving forward, and keep moving every day. Some days are better than others. But I think that our job in our industry is always to get people to go to try to move forward right, brave always, and bravery is not the absence of fear. Is the existence of fear and still going forward.
Fear has to exist in order to be brave. If there's nothing to be scared of, there's no reason to be brave. So in order to be brave, we have to do that. So I think it's important for us that we get people moving. Some people are out there and go, how am I going to get back into shape? How am I going to do this? To fall off the bus? As long as you're brave, fears good, you're going to need that in order to get want to go.
So it's a necessary component of the process. And I think for us as leaders in different areas of business, it's important to let people know it's okay to be scared, it's okay to be uncertain, it's okay to have doubt, because without that you're not going to be able to succeed.
Was there ever an opportunity then that came upon your life where you wish you'd be more brave and taken it?
You know? Interesting, when I was younger, I wished I would have traveled more. I think travel is one I wish I was open more to doing things that I wasn't great at because I think now I would appreciate if I was better at them now, even more so than travel. It's just going back and you're really a lot of the things that real poigtant questions are asking because they're triggering me to think about different things. And I think, which is great, which is why you're great
at what you do. But I think for me it's much more about, you know, looking back, the regrets I have are my inability to stay consistent and discipline with things that were hard, and I wasn't good at because looking back, I wish I had that context or those skill based things that I would have gathered if I just would have tried it and not been afraid of not looking great at it, not being good at it, worrying about what other people say. That's another thing. I
think that is one of the hardest things. We're so driven by our peers in our communities that they can inhibit us, right, because we tend to project fear to others that are inside ourselves. So don't do it. Don't try it in because that could be bad, you know, like, can I get it? But if you have conviction and that's what you want to do, a better route is that that is that sounds kind of scary. But if that's what you want to do, do you think that you
want to try it? That's awesome. Fuck, I got your back, that's rat right, And I think growing up I didn't necessarily always have that around me, so it was kind of like, you know, what if I fail, what if I drop the ball? And I think those are things that looking back, those are the times that I doubted myself and I think I look back and I go, man,
But you learn from them right. So I don't regret any of that those things, but I think that is the thing is and I try to you know, stand that in into my kids, and I also try to express that to anyone I work with. Is that you know, whenever you go and I'm sure being a leader in what you do, there's people around you. I might always want to try this, but I'm a little scared. I don't know if I'm really good at it, and what if it doesn't work out? Right? But what if it does?
No one ever talks about what if it does? They always want to tell people if not, just be prepared for it might not work out and you're going to fail, it's going to be horrible. Then what right?
And this is I guess why I'm so passionate about the space, because I imagine a world where leaders of organizations and large organizations had this mindset.
We would all be trying and failing but learning.
You know, like the greater the turmoil, the greater the growth, right, And it is something I only learned sort of, you know, getting close to my forties, to be honest, where I was like, when you're going through that challenge, that pain, those failures, what you come out the other side, is nothing compares to it.
Otherwise you're just standing still.
And unfortunately, I think generational when we grow up, that wasn't always the message that we were given. Right, and so I get it. But all we can do is I love how you've used that though, so then I can see why you're so disciplined now, right, Yeah, you know, now, just keep going.
It's going to get there. I'm going to get there. I love that, and I think.
But that's like I said, and those are the little things, right, getting up early and doing this stuff and training, even the cool water verge, all those things that I gravitate toward, because it's just the days that I'm like, man, that was hard to do. I don't want to do it, yea, because if you got to look back the day after that and go yesterday, I was a piece of shit. I didn't feel like doing it. I didn't feel like going anywhere, and I feel like getting up. I got
I got it done. You get a sense of empowerment from that.
I won't lie.
I've had that, and I try and deny it, but I've got out of bed some mornings and push. I mean, I'm not jumping into cold plunges. But like even just going for my half our walk, there are days where I get back and I go damn, like I know I do.
I feel heaps better. It's not just the physical. It's a mental discipline that I pushed through.
Its metal. I think that's where one thing is focus on the it's not. It's like, you've got to get your that's going right. Even at work, you know how it is. You're just like I do not want to be here today at the office. I don't want this work. I don't want to go to these meetings. I don't want to take these calls. I don't want to deal with these clients. I don't want to deal with my employees.
But you've got to find a way to make the shitty days good days, because then the good days will become amazing, epic.
Days that people don't link. Make the shitty days good days. Push through and do it anyway and see how that feels. I think that's great advice.
I love it. I love it. So I want to ask you this for all the people that think they.
Know darrul right, everyone who follows you and does your moves, what's one thing about you something you love even right that would completely surprise people.
I'm pretty out there, you know. Like I said, I like, it's so funny, Like can I just say this word real quick? So when I did Center, they're like, hey, I go listen. I'm going to talk about I love donuts. And they're like listen. They sat me down. You're like, you cannot do that because you're a trainer and you're supposed to be you can't do that, and so they have very hard to heart serious talk. And then I was like, I got it. I totally understand. I got
to be inspirational and I can't. Can't say a parrot sticks and I get it. As soon as I got on, I was like, donuts, dude, eat them all day long. Dozn't of them? And I think it's for me. It's like you get to a certain age where you just you just throw it out I don't give a shit. You just don't give a shit anymore. You just like you just throw it out there. And it's like so liberating when you're just like whatever, Like for me, like
I never been one to feel bad looking stupid. So if you're not afraid to look stupid, then you're kind of just like you can do anything.
You've been doing anything.
You heard it first here on my podcast that why don't you know you heard it on Center. But I do love the fact that you've admitted that you can be the fittest man in the planet and love donuts.
I love that they're like and then people are like, hey, listen, I don't like beer. I'm like, really, wow, I'm sorry, you know, I'm like, I just for me, It's like, just be realistic, don't have to like hide it the fact that that's who you are and what you want enjoy life. Just find your balance right and do the hard shit so that you can appreciate the ship that's fun and easy. It's like, that's just kind of who I am. So but question, I'm going to actually think
about that. I have to come back to you for the next episode.
Yeah, yeah, I want to. I want to hear I reckon you can tell.
You or something, and I'll be like, I'm just gonna say it's okay for you to have that you dance around to Mowana or Frozen like, it's okay.
Thank you so much.
And I honestly hope that your mindset around letting people know that it's okay to fail to push through, that what you're trying to do isn't just about looking beautiful or sexy or strong. It's also about pushing your mental limits, about looking after your health.
Like, I love that angle of it.
So I love what you do, and I hope you can spread that more around the US and come back over to OZ and spread a bit more back here.
Let's go, let's go.
Thank sure, awesome, Well, thank you for coming on.
I appreciate you.