“By far, my number one biggest regret of my pro career was I didn’t start a YouTube channel earlier. I’m really happy with everything I did on the track. I just could have been set up so much better for the transition after running if I had been throwing up all my workouts on YouTube. I’d have millions and millions of followers and subscribers now. That’s a massive audience to sell products to and continue to inspire. I didn’t do that. It’s a double-edged sword. 1) It takes a massive amount of time and energy and resources to be a successful YouTuber and that would have detracted from my ability to put all of myself into running. On the other hand, I do have an entrepreneur’s mind and could have outsourced and hired a lot of that out.”

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2x Olympian, World Championship medalist and 6x U.S. champion Nick Symmonds join us to talk about what the future if track needs, our dream track event, the 400m Crocs world record and more.

Nick also addresses his haters on what they get right and what they get wrong about him.

“People call me egotistical and money-hungry,” Symmonds says. “This is a world’s first for your podcast audience…I am egotistical. I am money-driven. Guess what? There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s absolutely nothing wrong being ego-driven so long as you recognize it and keep it in check. Ego is what allowed me to run 12 years professionally. Ego is what allowed me to make an Olympic final. Ego is what got me on two Olympic teams. Sometime’s there’s something to be said about being ego-driven.

Through it all, I had a sports psychologist. I had a family that said, ‘Hey, harness that for the track but when you step off the track make sure you can come back and be the kid that grew up on a farm in Boise, Idaho.’ I always knew where I came from and knew I’d get back to that place one day. It’s a place of happiness.

Being ego-driven entirely is not a happy existence but damn it, it fueled me. It still fuels me in business today. I want to be successful. I want to beat my competitors. The haters say I’m ego-driven and I’m focused on money. Well, yeah, I’m an entrepreneur. What do you think, I wake up every day as a philanthropist or as a social worker? I’m not either of those things at this point in my life. Right now, I’m an entrepreneur and I love being an entrepreneur. I check our balance sheets. I check our P&Ls. I’m looking at the dollar signs every day.

When people say I’m egotistical or I’m money-driven, I’m like ‘Yep. You nailed it.’ And I don’t take any offense to that. Where they get me wrong is that’s all I am. I do a lot for this community – not just the running community but my community here and taking care of people. I’m a family man first. If I list my priorities, always from day 1, family has come first.”

Who knew this Podcast would get this far CUZ DAMN this was a good episode?!

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