Surviving the Side Hustle

Maximizing Athletic Potential Through Plant-Based Nutrition: Graham's Journey from Athlete to Wellness Advocate

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 55

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Unlock the secrets to maximizing your athletic performance with plant-based nutrition in our conversation with Graham, a former high school athlete turned professional speaker and remote high-ticket sales expert. Discover how a knee injury propelled Graham into the world of plant-based eating and hear firsthand about the initial hurdles and misconceptions he faced. Through his narrative, learn how his athletic background fuels his mission to optimize nutrition for athletes and how mastermind calls and the potential return to soccer energize his wellness journey.

Explore the vital connection between self-awareness, balanced nutrition, and athletic success. Graham sheds light on the influence of early family teachings, contrasting a father's instinctual approach and a mother's relentless work ethic. Gain insights into the importance of comprehensive nutrition education for young athletes and the diverse effects of dietary choices on performance. Personal experiences and practical strategies illustrate the powerful role of resilience and productivity in overcoming setbacks and maintaining momentum.

Emphasize the transformative power of habits and standards with Graham’s practical wisdom. From nutritious routines like drinking smoothies and experimenting with tofu to the crucial practice of mental discipline, Graham shares how consistency trumps lofty goals. Learn the significance of surrounding yourself with a supportive, high-achieving circle and how simple, consistent actions can lead to long-term success. Whether you're curious about plant-based diets, sports performance, or building sustainable habits, this episode offers a wealth of inspiration and actionable advice.

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Rob:

What's going on, guys? Today I've got my buddy, Graham, on. Man, it is always a pleasure chatting with you, Graham, and unfortunately I feel like I don't get to see you as often in person. And recently joining our Monday night call, so I get to chat with you more frequently and it's always a pleasure. So what are you up to, man? How's your week going?

Graham:

It's going well. Yeah, thanks, man. It's a nice Friday, nice sunny Friday here and I get it. I don't really live in the area anymore so we don't get to see each other in person as much, but I'm surprised it took me as long as it did to jump on the mastermind calls, because I live for those now, like Monday nights is like that's what I live for, so excited to be here. Thanks for doing this. How many? I'm just curious. I didn't ask you this before. How many episodes have you done so far with this podcast?

Rob:

Yeah, so this past week, I think episode 55 or 56 just dropped, so it's been going. So by the time this one comes out, this should be right around a couple more out. Maybe I'm not sure what we have in the queue, but kind of talk with the team, um, but yeah, dude, um, for those who don't know you, would you mind giving a little introduction on who you are and what do you do and what do you, what kind of problems you solve, totally, totally.

Graham:

And the reason I ask about how many episodes? Uh, because I think the like 95 of podcasts you might know the statistic better than me don't make it past episode two or something crazy like that. And then, of the two, 90 percent of those people don't make it past 10. So I think what you're doing is awesome. I love having these conversations, so thanks for having me. Yeah, so my name is Graham. I specialize in.

Graham:

My area of expertise is plant-based nutrition, so I'm a professional speaker and I also have a sales background, so I do remote high ticket sales by day and that helps to build up the bank account and allow me to make some money while I'm building up the more passion project, which is my speaking career. So I've been following a plant-based diet for seven plus years now. It was tough in the beginning, but now it's really easy and I try to help people simplify that area, because nutrition is not that difficult if you know the right strategies. So my target audience is athletes. That's where I primarily speak to.

Graham:

I was a former high school athlete prior to getting a knee injury that put me out of commission and didn't allow me to play in college. Unfortunately, soccer was my sport but, being a former athlete, I was always frustrated by the nutrition aspect. So when I made the switch to a plant-based diet and I've been in it for a couple of years now I felt like I've kind of cracked the code and I want to be able to give that to other people. So the speaking career is what I'm focusing on pretty heavily right now, but I also have a background in sales and in communicating and connecting with people every day.

Rob:

Nice, yeah, I love that. And um, since then have you gotten back into playing some soccer?

Graham:

You know, soccer is the one, the one thing, and it's pretty sad. Soccer is the one thing I haven't really gotten back to. I probably could I probably could go to the field and like kick the ball around and all that stuff, but there's a part of me that's like sad that I had to give that sport up, that there's a part of me that almost doesn't want to go back to it in a weird way. I don't know if that makes sense at all. I still play pick up basketball at the gym every once in a while. I'll still do, you know, some running here and there. So my knee is pretty strong right now. I'm very grateful for that and I feel pretty good. Uh, I haven't really gotten back to soccer, but after this conversation, maybe I'll go. Uh, maybe this weekend I'll go kick the ball around or something, because I've been.

Rob:

I've been feeling like I want to do that oh yeah, I love that uh make some social media clips on that, because, uh, I feel like your social game is on fire.

Graham:

You know, I got a little notepad right here. I'm going to write that down because that's totally that's a great social clip. I just saw a guy playing basketball today a guy that I follow and he was playing basketball in the gym and he filmed himself and I think he mic'd himself up so you could like hear him speaking while he was playing a little pickup game and it was super engaging. So I'm totally going to write that down.

Rob:

Sweet, sweet um, to share a little bit more about how, how you got started with the plant-based diet, like why and what, what it was like, because you said it was challenging in the beginning and I know a lot of people struggle with a lot of things just in nutrition in general. Um, so, having that plant-based specifically, yeah so.

Graham:

So I think the the plant-based realm, it kind of gets a bad rap, uh, from a lot of people because you automatically you hear the word vegan and you're like, ok, the food sucks, I don't want to eat salad all the time, I'm not going to get any protein, it's going to be too expensive. Like there's so many things that come along with it and I try to kind of demystify some of those myths that come along with it because it's really not that tough and it's it's second nature to me. Now Didn't start out for me for, like you know, environmental reasons. Didn't start out for me for, like, ethical reasons. The reason I made the switch was because I was looking to recover my knee from that injury. So I got I got a sports injury. I was never really injured to the point where I actually needed surgery and I was looking for anything I could do to repair my knee, which I stumbled across some nutrition literature. I was like, hey, let me give this a shot.

Graham:

And naturally my diet was pretty bad before. Like I was like a very picky eater, like I didn't want to eat the broccoli on my plate, like I would do like the chicken fingers in the oven and like I was. It's funny to think about and you probably didn't know me at that time. Uh, I was a very picky eater and I my mom would always have to force me to eat the broccoli and I just it was not for me.

Graham:

So naturally, coming from that you know, eating hot dogs and all that stuff to all of a sudden putting more colors on my plate and putting more variety, more whole foods, I felt better instantly and I think a lot of people will feel that shift. If you come from maybe not being the healthiest eater to putting more colors, more variety, more whole foods, you're going to notice the difference and I certainly did, and that's why I kept going. For me. So it started as just trying to heal my knee, but it spawned into so much more than that. I was like oh, the environment, the ethical reasons, I can feel my athletic performance, so I can still go to the gym and still be able to perform Like this is cool, let me see how far I can take this. And seven years later, here I am.

Rob:

Here you are. Quick question, though aren't hot dogs pretty colorful when you got like the ketchup and the mustard on top?

Graham:

I used to love hot dogs and the funny thing is when people say you know they, I tell them I'm vegan. They're like oh, like dude, you've never had like a good steak. I was like, no, I had the steaks. Like I ate everything. I did up until 18 years of my life. Granted, I was a little bit of a picky eater, but I had.

Graham:

You know that the nutrition was like an issue for me was when I had, I remember, two hot dogs before one of my soccer games, and it was. I was at my dad's house, my parents were separated and it was always kind of a rush to like get to the soccer games, get to practice on time. I forgot my shin guards at home, like all this stuff. It was a little stressful, but I remember my dad didn't really know much about nutrition. He wasn't really an athlete growing up either and I just had two hot dogs and I thought nothing of it because that was just the typical meal for me. I had the two hot dogs.

Graham:

I get onto the soccer field and I'm feeling like I want to throw up and I'm feeling super lethargic and all my coaches are like Graham, you're usually really good, you suck today. What's going on and they said it in nicer words. And then I realized, okay, the stuff that I put into my body, it actually plays a big, big difference. And I, I, I think I the seeds were planted, but I didn't start to make the switch until I got a little bit older, a little bit maybe wiser. But hot dogs I have my fair share of hot dogs in my diet.

Rob:

That was a big uh, that was a pretty much whatever. Whatever. I'm kind of feeling. I have kind of like my own menu of different things that I typically go to but a huge staple is is just salad. I like different kinds of salads and I buy like the pre made kind of things at the grocery store just because of the convenience factor of it. Pretty much the whole reason why I like eating it is because it is filling and I don't have that lethargic, sluggish feeling afterwards. I'm on my feet all day long, running around in and out of the house, different gyms and houses and stuff like that. When I start to eat something that I might enjoy more of, even just some eggs and English muffin, I like making little mini English muffin sandwiches with some other stuff on it. But even just that it kind of slows me down to a certain degree and I don't feel as crisp and clean and fresh and ready to roll.

Graham:

Yeah, it's interesting you say that, and this is why I tell people that I don't preach a one size fits all diet, because just as you can be a healthy meat eater, you can also be an unhealthy vegan. Okay.

Graham:

There's a lot of and and in terms of your performance and like your energy levels throughout the day, I pay. I'm hyper-focused on that throughout the day, especially cause I'm on the phones with people. I want to keep my energies up, especially if I maybe have a speech. That I'm doing like I got to keep myself in check and I'm not going to have a Chipotle the day of you know the day I'm going for a speech, cause I know Chipotle it's great but it's super high in salt and it kind of slows me down. And if I'm looking to bulk and maybe I'm towards the end of the day and I'm, I want to, I want to. I want a nice big, you know Chipotle bowl with you know Chipotle is a nice. It's a lot of calories for one meal and it's a it's a good meal. But I'm I'm mindful of those energy levels and what actually is going to translate to better performance for me, especially if I have important stuff coming up on the calendar.

Rob:

So I'm glad you mentioned that when you were younger you had a certain degree of it. Is that something that you just feel like you've always kind of had? Was that like intrinsic or like self-awareness kind of thing? Or is that something you've kind of worked on and continue to work on?

Graham:

That's a great question. I would say my father played a big role in that, because he was always telling me, like, hey, listen to your body, you know, listen to what your body's telling you. Um, don't push yourself too hard. You know there's a time and a place to push, but then there's also a time for rest. And he instilled that very, very early on, which was amazing, because my mother, on the other hand, was kind of like go, go, go, like just, you know, push your, push yourself. And the beauty of that was I developed a super strong work ethic with both my mother and my father, but my father also said hey, there's a time for rest as well. So I think I was always in tune.

Graham:

I think I was always a little bit more sensitive with the stuff that I put into my body, when I was drinking alcohol, back in college even and I don't drink alcohol anymore but when I was drinking alcohol back in college, it affected me and it affected a lot, like a lot of things. And I wake up the next day and I'm like, oh man, how do people do this? Like I can't, I can't keep going like this. So I think I was always a little bit more sensitive and some would call that. You know, I have buddies who they can eat and drink anything and they're totally fine and I think you fall into that category to an extent with like the food competitions and all that stuff. You know, having like the iron stomach. That was not me, so I think I was always sensitive. I just didn't know how to kind of crack the code in the early days of that.

Rob:

Yeah, yeah, I think well, just to switch it to me on that, I think part of the reason why I can do certain food challenges and going out with friends and such like that, I think it's because I have been so hyper aware of my nutrition and diet and such pretty much since high school, maybe even early high school Because my mom and my grandmother such pretty much since high school, maybe even like early high school, because I, my mom and my grandmother was always around they were always hyper aware of like oh, you should be eating this, this will make you feel better, and kind of like teaching me some of like the early stuff and that kind of sprung into my further interest in learning more about nutrition in undergrad and then grad school and kind of taking different courses and classes. So I think I kind of have an unfair advantage for certain competitions and things like that.

Graham:

And yeah, I mean I embrace it.

Graham:

I guess, I wish I had that and I think, yeah, I would agree. I wish I had that because I didn't really understand the importance of nutrition. All I was told was protein. It's like, hey, just eat protein, you'll be good, you'll get nice and strong.

Graham:

But then my brother, who's always been a little bit wiser than me, I think he's like hey, dude, and he knew I was like back in high school, he knew I was trying to bulk up for soccer a little bit, to kind of get a little bit more strong and be able to be a little bit more aggressive on the field. And he's like, and I'm like trying to like shovel, you know, chicken down my, down my plate. And I'm like, and I, just, I, just I was never a big meat eater, so like trying the idea of eating, like you know, two or three chicken breasts as opposed to one in a meal. It just wasn't for me. And my brother's like, hey, you're, you know you're focusing on the chicken.

Graham:

Like, like the potatoes are what's going to help, you know, like I just didn't, I didn't process anything. I didn't process that you know carbs are our body's primary energy source and that the protein is super important, but it's not the only piece of the puzzle. And, yeah, I would say you had that unfair advantage and I know some people did as well. Unfortunately, I just wasn't one of them, so I was the athlete that I think I had to push myself a little bit. That's probably why I do the work I do now.

Rob:

Yeah, I was just going to say, man, if only there was somebody who would like go around and teach these people like teach athletes and everyone about the importance of nutrition, right?

Graham:

I'm doing what I can. I'm doing the and that's what I do I so, for anyone who's listening to this, I speak in colleges and universities. College athletes is my primary audience and my goal is to be able to give back to these students who are in my similar position who they're athletes. They want to be high performers, they want to be, you know, competitive and they want to show up for their team and provide value. But they just have trouble tap into that extra piece because they, similar to me. They just thought nutrition was just kind of, you know, part of it. You know you need food. You just got to, you know, shovel whatever food you can get in your mouth, but it's, it's more than that and if you can pay attention to what you're putting into your body, it's going to make a difference with your energy outputs. So, um, that's the journey I'm on now and it's I'm at the beginning stages, but it's, it's fun.

Rob:

I got to ask you, though, so because I know myself. In college I was just eating whatever, whatever possible, because metabolism is super young and you encounter kids who are just kind of like yeah, whatever, I can just eat whatever I want, because I can just burn it off like nothing, and then it's kind of stubborn or, I guess, ignorant even to like the idea and like the information. When you do encounter somebody like that, how do you show them that it's important to kind of pay attention.

Graham:

So two things. The first thing is I try to focus on the past version of myself. Who is in the audience, even if that's just one person. So if there's one person that I can impact, saying who's going to come up to me at the end of the speeches which typically people do and they come back they say, hey, this was, this is really good. Like I want to learn more, I'm going to follow you, I'm going to subscribe to your email newsletter, like those are the people that do it for.

Graham:

But on the flip side of that, I know that a lot have to be there and they're listening to me, even if they don't necessarily want to. So I try to speak to them too and I say like hey, um, you know you might not want to listen to me, but here's what's worked for me, here's what I think can help work for you, and I can only speak from my experience. I'm not going to tell you what you should do, but, um, I'm like these strategies are very, very simple and if you implement them, you'll start to see them work on your own. So I try to kind of grab those people who are like I don't really care about this. You know nutrition. I'm super young, I don't really have a problem with this.

Graham:

Anyway, I speak to the people who really care, like my past version of me, that's in that audience. But I also try to hit on the point of like hey, if you're looking for that competitive edge, if you're looking for a little bit more energy on the field, a little bit faster recovery, a little bit greater endurance, like you will feel it and just watch it work, give it a couple of days, just put more plants on your plate. That's like my whole slogan is just put more plants on your plate and you will see the difference and then it becomes real for you. And when you can do that, I've gotten some feedback from students that I've kept the conversation with after I've actually had the speaking engagements and they're like dude, like we're doing this, we're doing this as a team. They like send me pictures of their meals, which I love, like that's. That's why I do it is to get that actual positive feedback to hopefully create that lasting change. So that's really what it's about.

Rob:

Yeah, yeah, I love that because that's a great lesson in just like marketing and even sales too. Like making sure that you're speaking to who can actually help, because I know in the past, younger days of personal training and such, you just have to go through so many free sessions with people and try to hope that they kind of book a session with you, and for the longest time I was always like, oh, how do I get this person to buy? Or how do I get this person to buy into this thing If they're not interested or they're not ready, or if they they don't care, they're never gonna buy. So, like making sure that you focus on people who are interested in, people who can help and at least being that source of information for those people when they do come around. And that's why I love a lot of the social media conference. You pump it out because it makes it one, it's super entertaining, educational and it's it's easy to listen to all the information that you're sharing I appreciate it.

Graham:

Yeah, I appreciate. You might know this from social media, but someone might like your posts without actually like hitting the like button on your posts, which?

Graham:

is so frustrating because you want to know that the content that you're putting out is valuable for people and you want that positive feedback saying, hey, I'll put out more content like this, um, but branding you. Doris told me this. He said, hey, uh, there was a girl that came up to him at, like a bar you might've heard this story and she said, uh, hey, thanks so much for posting all this content because, like, it really does help me. This, all this personal development stuff. It's made a joke of like, but you're not liking my stuff, like you're not clicking the like button.

Graham:

You know you do it for those people who are, who are watching behind the scenes. Right, they might not buy now or they might not subscribe to you now or they might not, you know, show that they're actually following your journey, but but they're there and I think people see how you show up more than what you actually talk about. You know you could go on stage and blabble on and you could be a really good speaker, um, but it's, it's how you actually show up when people aren't watching. I think you know about that pretty well.

Rob:

So that's what I try to do it for and that's actually. It's hilarious that you mentioned that too, because just yesterday I think I had like a little bit of downtime. I think we were um, victoria and I were waiting to get a table at this restaurant and I was looking on um, looking at some reel or something like that, and I clicked the like button on a on a reel or something and it popped up and it was like oh, we, we noticed that you like this, we're gonna, we will continue to share more of it. And I was like I don't know if I've ever actually liked a reel when I was just kind of swiping through, I think I just kind of like looked at it and like, okay, cool, next one, next one, next one. And I was like I should probably show that I actually care about some of these other things that people are making totally 100.

Graham:

engagement is everything people appreciate when you engage with their posts. But also most people don't think about this like putting out content is not necessarily just creating your own reels, it's also commenting on other people's posts. Right, it's like engaging with other people, because then all of a sudden people see your name in the comments and then you know other people share your stuff and then maybe you say something insightful and people like, oh, I think about that, you know, and then you can. I think there's even ways on social media where you can take your comments and then turn it into a whole nother post. I'm not like great, but like the social media, I just try to post, I try to be valuable. I got to get better with like the algorithms and but yeah, the engagement is everything.

Rob:

Yeah, so as I've continued to kind of grow and evolve as a human and as a coach, so too has my coaching. And now when I talk about intentional consumption, I talk more not just about the meals, but I also talk about media too and the different kinds of content that you are consuming, because that helps you kind of stay motivated, energizing you and keeps you in the right headspace. Um, so I guess, like following a vegan or plant-based diet, is is a form of diet, and there are many different forms of things that you can consume or categorize what would you consider like the media version of a plant-based or like a diet.

Graham:

That's a good. That's a good question. These are good questions. I think you're spot on with.

Graham:

What you consume is not just the foods that you put into your body, but it's everything that you allow you know into your, into your mental space. And a lot of that comes down to social media, because we're just constantly being bombarded with messages from different creators and all that stuff that are just grabbing for our attention in a good way, because the people that I follow are trying to put out real value to their audiences. So that's what I try to aim for. Anytime something kind of like rubs me the wrong way, I think back to the Jim Rohn quote.

Graham:

If you're familiar with Jim Rohn, he's the mentor to Tony Robbins. He says be aware of what you put into your mental coffee. He says watch your coffee. If anyone is interested in Jim Rohn one of the best speakers, in my opinion, that I've ever listened to and he's got a funny Southern kind of twang to his stuff and he's like oh man, there was a kid at the conference at A to B3, I think, where he did the best Jim Rohn impression. Do you remember that kid? I think it was Jason Gonzalez.

Rob:

Do you remember that? Yeah, that's him.

Graham:

So good, so good Because Jim Rohn's got a funny little voice. He imitated it. I think Jason Gonzalez had a really good speech at that conference, because I remembered it. That's what I remember. I remember he was talking about travel and event. Okay, we're getting off topic.

Graham:

Jim Rome, uh, watch what goes into your mental coffee, which means be cautious, be, you know, cognizant of what you actually consume on a day-to-day basis. You know whether it's you know reading the newspaper, whether it's, you know, spending too much time on social media, like there's a lot of stuff that grabs for our attention and if you're not careful, you can start to go down those, those, those algorithm rabbit holes where all of a sudden, you're watching something and then it turns into something else and all of a sudden, an hour goes by and you just killed an hour of your day spending time on needless videos on social media. We've all done it. It sucks Cause. Then you're like you're questioning the meaning of life and you're like, oh my God, I'm such a failure Like it happens, be just hyper-conscious about that. In addition to, maybe, the group chats that you're in, I know a lot of people still use Snapchat today. You know your friend sharing stuff on. I'm in a text group chat right now and I had to turn it off because it was just it was interrupting my day. I'll look at the text message at the end of the day, but you want to be, you know, hyper-focused on where your time is being placed. Uh, be really, really careful about what you consume on a day-to-day basis.

Graham:

My hack for this is I don't look at anything phone related, anything social media related, for the first hour of my day, uh, and then immediately for that first hour of my day before I. Then I ended up going to the gym and then that's another hour of my day that I'm not looking at any social media. I put my phone in the locker. I you know, I put it away. The only little bit of news that I might see is on the TV screen as I'm walking out of the gym like, oh you know, trump and Biden are going to war again. I don't know. So I'm more conscious, and this is you know. I'm conscious about the foods I put into my body, but I would say I'm even more conscious about the content I'm consuming and all the media that's constantly being bombarded with us. I think that's more important and the most important thing that you can do to protect your energy throughout the day is your mental headspace. All of that.

Rob:

Yeah, dude, I love that. And yeah, there's so many group chats that I'm a part of, where everyone's sharing different memes and stuff, and yeah, it's funny. But I can't spend all day long looking at other things that everyone's sending you in and I got to admit, I don't even scroll back up to read the entire conversation anymore. I'm just like, hey, somebody fill me in. If it's that important, let me know.

Graham:

And usually they will right. Usually if it's that important, you will hear about it Like if something's that important that happens in the news. Like I didn't know that Trump was shot until my girlfriend told me she's like hey, did you hear trump was shot? I was like no, what? First of all I told her I was like no, I don't watch the news, what are you talking about? And then she's like no, like president trump was shot. And I was like oh shit, okay, uh. And then she just told me that he did a interview with elon musk. I would have never known about that. You know, I just don't. It's not stuff that I consume, that what I do consume that's on my social media is motivational posts and it's people who are providing value to their audiences and it's, you know, friends of mine who, I think, put out good content. Like that's that's what I consume.

Rob:

And if you scroll on my social media, it's it's pretty darn good yeah, um, but I gotta ask you though, because, even like you have those great rules no phone in the morning uh, you're at the gym, not really paying attention to the tv, and even the group chats too.

Rob:

That's not, it's not the easiest thing in the world, so you have to build that discipline up. So how do you continue to do that? Because, just like with the plant-based diet and stuff, I'm sure when you first started off, did you, were you just full turkey, like totally no more animal products? Or did you have to do a couple of tries where you're like, okay, yeah, I had to add a little bit of this, let me try it again and start over. Or was it just kind of a natural progression?

Graham:

Definitely a couple of tries. So it takes iterations, it takes finding out what works for you. I tried to adopt all the success habits in the beginning, no-transcript stuff that actually works and you adopt and you get better with that. I think I've been doing it for so long that when I was in college, when I first started this, when I started my personal development journey, I would put in my headphones in the morning because I couldn't really meditate in college. It was kind of a weird thing, like what are you going to? You know, you're not like a college kid sharing a dorm with someone else meditating, like they're like who the hell is this weirdo? Although I did do it, but I did it like kind of in secrecy, like just just some quiet time. I say meditation, I just some quiet time in the morning, just get your mind right. But I on uh, jim rohn and tony robbins and les brown on my phone and I just plug in my earphones and I do that uh almost every day for like my entire freshman year. And then I got a little bit better with it, where I was like, okay, I don't necessarily need the tapes, but now I can just kind of sit with myself for the quiet.

Graham:

Um, I'm gonna keep the cold showers going. I like cold showers still to this day. I'm gonna keep eating the foods that I know are gonna be good for me. Yeah, I know that. I just met a kid today who runs a cold plunge business Pretty cool and he wants me to come do his cold plunge at his house. So it takes practice. Nothing's going to be easy in the beginning, but once it starts to become more of that second nature, then you're in the right spot. Then you're starting to get into that flow state where you're like, hey, this is just what I did and it's a non-negotiable. I'm not going to look at my phone in the morning and now it doesn't take effort to do that, but it probably did in the beginning.

Rob:

So if you can get into that that flow state, man, there's there's nothing stopping you um, and I know also, when you're kind of like I see it all the time with a lot of clients that all or nothing kind of mentality, are you somebody where, if you went out to eat and you accidentally did eat something, is it like like, oh great, everything's ruined, or is it kind of like, okay, yeah, let me kind of like get back on track and kind of go from there.

Graham:

No, uh, I maybe in the in the beginning I was, uh, where I was like, hey, you know, and that kind of gets to the point of, like you don't ever want to be like too overly sensitive as well, you know, because if you're too overly sensitive and you can't function throughout the day if you don't have your bowl plunge in the morning, like, come on, dude, like you know, you can do better than that. Uh, life's going to throw all this kind of stuff at you. I just want to stack the chips in the best way that I can. Uh, there has been chicken that has ended up in my Chipotle bowl and I'll just kind of push it. Do super well for me. But I'm like, hey, it's, it's, you know, it's not, it's out of my control, you know, whatever it's it's, you get back on track. You, you show up anyway. Uh, that's that's what I think.

Rob:

You show up anyway yeah, that's a powerful lesson that I learned, uh, probably within the last year, from uh one of my mentors, brett bartholomew, from art of coaching, because I was always like, oh, my morning routine blah, blah, blah, blah, and then I would travel and I wouldn't be able to get something in and then everything would be chaos and it would take me like two weeks to get back on track and Brett was just like dude.

Rob:

You can't live like that because you're just a slave to your routine. You got to be able to continue on with your day. You've still got to be able to be successful and productive and get things done. So that was a lesson I've been working on this past year myself 100%.

Graham:

That's a great lesson. I wish I had someone like that a little bit earlier in my life, because I've heard those lessons now and I've kind of absorbed what you just said now about like hey, if something happens, it's okay, just like brush it off, keep showing up, keep you know doing your thing. But I used to be the same way. My morning routine was off, my whole day was done. But it's like, dude, that's the whole point of a morning routine is to get you primed and ready for the day. But even if you can't do it, you still got to show up, like you still got to do the work.

Rob:

So yeah, yeah and I try to explain that to a lot of clients and such too is like hey, if you fall off your diet or if you miss a workout, do your best you can to get back on track. But it's not the end of the world. And if you screw up on like Tuesday, don't wait until the following week to get back on track. Just pick yourself up and just kind of do your best to get going again.

Graham:

Let me ask you this. So I'm curious on that, because I worked in the health and fitness industry for a long time and I'm still I guess I could still say that I'm kind of in that industry. So in saying that, how do you get your clients to not go through that mental turmoil and that mental kind of spiral of saying like, oh well, I screwed up on Tuesday, my whole week is ruined. I might as well just wait until next Monday to start being good about my diet again, because that's a tough thing for a lot of people to switch off sometimes because that mental spiral is real. So how do you get your clients to do that?

Rob:

I'm curious uh, every individual is a little bit different so it kind of depends case by case situation, but I try to shine the light on the bigger picture. Um, I don't necessarily just go like, okay, 24 hours, like this is what you got to do. Like, keep it as clean as possible. I try to spread it out for like over a week, because like a week or more, so as clean as possible. I try to spread it out for over a week because a week or more. So, as long as you're doing well, for the majority of the time you can still go and have cake or something.

Rob:

If you're at a birthday party, people always bug out like, oh no, what am I going to do this Thursday? I have to go out for drinks, for work. Okay well, are you doing it every Thursday or is it like a celebration because you just finished the project? Like you got to look at, look at it from a different lens every once in a while and I try to keep my communication as high as possible with all of my clients and friends and people so that they know that I'm there and I can help them or we can work through situations or I can just be another lens to look at it from I, I can say, hey, from this angle, from the outside, it doesn't look that bad actually. Let's just brush it off and figure out a new way to tackle this super helpful.

Graham:

Yeah, well, I can. I can sense that, that you have patience when it comes to your coaching and when you have patience when it comes to, like, the clients that you speak to, because you've had these conversations before. Right, so if someone falls off, you can say like hey, look at the bigger picture. We've been through this, this has happened before, mrs jones like let's, let's get back on the horse, because one bad day, from the outside looking in, you might think your world is crumbling, but you're really not doing so bad. Check out the scale.

Rob:

Like it's yeah, that's, um, that's cool, I like it and I think the reflection is always important to being able to kind of look back like hey, check out the scale, how has things been going? How has like the process? Um, somebody else has been uh, one of my other clients now has been working on trying to get like new jobs. They've been sending out application after application, interview, rejection after rejection, and it's tough when you just continue to see that, but then it's like okay, well, what have I been learning? How, how have my interview skills evolved and grown? How can I take a step back and look at everything that I have accomplished?

Graham:

so then I can continue to move forward totally yeah, yeah, I think I think that's why it's so important to have mentors, not just for the accountability but for, like you said, the bigger picture, someone who's kind of been there and done that, and then someone who can tell you back your situation. You're like oh, I didn't really think about that because I'm not, I'm in it right now and sometimes when you're in it, it's hard to kind of see. I love that.

Rob:

I love that you just mentioned mentors real quick right there, because I wanted to ask you who was like a source of information or accountability when you started the whole plant-based thing, because a lot of people they just try to figure out what they see on random places and then they don't really know how to stay the course or what to do next or how to progress things.

Graham:

Totally, and I would not recommend MyPath for most people because MyP, youtube, uh, my path was youtube. That was really was youtube university.

Graham:

It was, you know, learning how to do this, how to get protein on a plant-based diet, how to, you know, not just eat like cans of beans after cans of beans, like I'd just be like farting non-stop, because that's what I did I thought and I might have shared the story with you I thought beans were my biggest source of protein, so I probably ate, like there was a time where I was probably eating you know, two cans of beans per day, which is crazy, crazy and and it's like, and I wasn't like eating them, right, you know people listening it's not like I was eating them right out of the can, like I would mix them with my meals sure sure you have a meal of beans and rice and then you know there's a lot of.

Graham:

Anyway, I thought it was my biggest protein source. I was wrong. It caused me to be like bloated and just have like lots of bad problems with digestion and you got to get a variety of foods. Um, but it was youtube in the beginning and I was like, hey, I'm doing this for for myself, I'm doing this to prove to myself that I can actually stick with this and I can stick to the goals that I set for myself. I'm going to do this to to myself that, hey, these people who are talking about a plant-based diet and being able to perform and be able to go to the gym and all that stuff, like I want to be one of those people so I can show people what's possible, not to mention all the amazing health benefits of literally just putting more plants on your plate.

Graham:

Like there's so many people that you know they I hate to say it like they talk about, you know, like keto or like the carnivore diet, and it's like that might work for some people. It might, but statistically, if you look at the healthiest populations in the world, they're called the blue zones We've kind of probably talked about this. Different pockets of the world where people live the healthiest. They have the lowest rates of disease, highest rates of happiness. There's a lot of factors that play into that, such as living close to your family, you know. Staying close to your elderly folks in your family, you know. Having a sense of purpose when you wake up in the morning, contributing to your community, getting, you know, get being active, getting physical exercise, getting vitamin D, like there's so much stuff that lines up. But the diet is one thing that holds true for all these blue zones, which is hey, eat close to nature, eat a variety of whole foods, you know foods in their most natural form. When you go to the grocery store and you see the foods that are pretty and they look pretty, like that's the stuff that's meant to be in your body, cause it jumps out at you saying like hey, like, eat me, like I, I'm a nice, pretty amazing fruit, like there's a lot of benefits that come with, like these colorful fruits and all this variety. So, um, that's what I try to tell people is like.

Graham:

Try to tell people is like hey, it's, it's bigger than this. You don't need to go all or nothing like I did, and you certainly don't need to do the path that I did, which was go at this totally alone, like I wish I had some more mentors that were saying like, hey, dude, you're on the right track. You know, here's some things to look out for, because I made a lot of mistakes and maybe that's why I, of people who I've met that have said, hey, I tried the vegan diet for about like two weeks, but I just couldn't do it. I was always hungry, I was feeling bloated, I had lots of, you know, digestion issues, so I try to save people from that, but it's more of like you don't need to go cold turkey like I did. You know just more plants. Get yourself a mentor, get yourself some accountability, some expert guidance, and it'll go a lot further and you'll probably end up being a lot more successful. Not going to guarantee success, but the mentors will help a lot. That's my opinion.

Rob:

Now, if someone is interested in not making all those mistakes and just kind of fast track into feeling good, do you provide some services of coaching or is it just solely speaking on stage? Plus, how do people even contact you?

Graham:

Yeah, so I don't provide any coaching services right now. I could see that being something in the future that I will provide, just to be able to serve people at a higher level. But you can go to my Instagram. It's just at Graham Maglino Graham spelled like graham cracker, so G-R-A-H-A-M. Graham Maglino, so you can show me on there. You can go to my linkedin. I post pretty heavily on linkedin as well a little bit more educational on linkedin, a little bit more entertaining on instagram. I would say that's kind of the difference there.

Graham:

I try to put as much free content as I can. With the journey that I've had already, so the mistakes that I've made, some stuff that maybe you could look out for, how to create vegan meals at home, how to maybe stay on track while you're traveling all this stuff I try to cover in my content. I realized it's only a level of service that's about here and I want to be able to get to here by the end of my career, so I want to be able to continue to find ways to provide value. Coaching might be a part of that in the future. I'm also open for book and speaking gigs, so I primarily speak in colleges and universities, but I'm looking to get on as many stages as I can at this point. So you can reach me on my social media. We'll probably put a link to any other contact info, email, all that good stuff, but yeah, that's where you can find me. I'd love to connect.

Rob:

Yeah, yeah, and if you do have a question I know he doesn't have any services per se, but Graham super personable always services per se, but Graham super personable, always on social he'll answer questions and probably find a lot of the answers to your questions through a lot of his content. He covers a lot and it's very informative and interesting, like you were saying before too.

Graham:

And reach out to me. And reach out to me. I'd be happy to open up the conversation about, you know, healthy eating, healthy habits, more sustainable habits in our life, and the people that do reach out to me. I usually turn those conversations into more content. So, love, when people reach out to me, I would love to open up the conversation. Sometimes I'll strike up the conversation with people at the gym and I'll get new ideas on what content to kind of put out. So, definitely, reach out, love it.

Rob:

I do want to be courteous of our time though, because I know we're kind of getting a little bit further there and we shared a little bit about where, where you're, where to meet you and contact you, and you said that you're getting on more stages in traveling around the world a little bit soon, like around like the country, trying to branch out to a lot of other schools, are you staying mostly into, like the Northwest area at the moment?

Graham:

I had a mentor say to me in the beginning start with your backyard. You know, start with your backyard, where people already know you, and then try to kind of garner that following. And then you know, do your best to branch out. But I'm so, I'm trying to stay at least in the Northeast right now. I know that's going to, you know, as the journey of a speaker. You're going to be kind of jumping around from place to place. If people are cutting me those checks, I will travel, but I I like to stay with where I know. I like to get my reps and build up my resume, and if people want to book me elsewhere, then I'd be more than happy to serve Awesome.

Rob:

Well, I'm glad to be your friend. I love following around everything you've got going on social media and seeing you on stage and sharing stages with you, and I know you're a super busy guy. So, graham, I really appreciate you taking the time. I'm glad we kind of squeezed this in. We were thinking about next week or maybe down the road, but I'm glad we got it done sooner than later because I know you're on fire, so I just wanted to tap in and get some more of your knowledge here, a little bit about your story, and really appreciate it. But before I let you go, I got to ask you, though, if you were to boil all of the information down. I know we talked a lot about a lot of different strategies and things today, but if you were to share one piece of advice that trumps everything else that entrepreneurs could use to help them survive the side hustle and continue to grow and be productive and be the best, what would be your number one piece of?

Graham:

advice? That's a great question. I think I'm going to give the piece of advice and I'm'm gonna expand on it just a little bit. Um, the piece of advice is everything that you do in your life, the way that you show up, is gonna boil down to your habits. So I'm big on habits. I'm gonna expand on that a little bit. But everything will boil down to your habits and if you show me your habits, I can show you a little bit more of an idea of how successful you are or how you show up or how you take care of yourself and you take care of other people.

Graham:

The reason I say that is there was a quote and I know you've heard it, it's been used many times. It's we don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall down to the level of our standards. So standards, habits I kind of use those a little bit interchangeably. If everyone were to come and spend a week with me, like you will drink, and I would love this, I would love for everyone to, because anytime I spend an extended period of time with people, they always walk away saying like, hey, graham, I feel like really good, I'm feeling like you know, I'm drinking your smoothies and maybe I'm trying your tofu, maybe I'm drinking a little bit more water or getting a little bit more exercise. Like, come spend a week with me, I'll do.

Graham:

I'll show you my, my back exercise that I do for, like my back alignment, before I go to bed at night to, like you know, sleep well and make sure I'm stretching and all that stuff. Like I, it's all habits for me and my biggest piece of advice, adding onto that first part about habits, is you don't need to be extraordinary, you don't need to be above average, you don't need to be special or gifted, but if you can dial in on your habits and you can play the long game and you can show up every single day, you're going to win. It's just a matter of time. That's my advice.

Rob:

Wow, I love it. That was awesome. Thanks, dude, appreciate that and I appreciate you, man, and thank you again so much for taking the time and hopping on today. I'm looking forward to connecting, to see you on some more stages soon.

Graham:

Same here, brother, and I appreciate. I'm grateful for our friendship as well. I think we're going to continue to expand this network. Get yourself around people like Rob and people like myself, because when you start to realize that, oh, my inner circle is pretty tight, it doesn't need to be huge, but you have some real power players in that circle, it's going to make a big difference. So, grateful for our friendship and I'm looking forward to keeping it going too.