Turn Adversity Into Your Greatest Advantage with Bryce Henson

What is some good advice you could give somebody who wants to kind of move up and achieve more?

Success is interesting. We see all the highlight reels and the social media, but really, at the end of the day, it's individual. So getting understanding of who you are and how you define success I think is important because success for some people looks very different than other people. So I think that's super important.

First and foremost, what's your definition of success?

Being able to live in a way that ultimately fulfills my purpose and allows me to, I guess, inspire fitness and change lives. I love fitness. It's the foundation, which is the. The center point of the next piece I was going to, you know, allude to and when I can help others with their fitness, with their mindset, ultimately for me, it just lights a fire. So I've been in the business of transformation for the last 20 years and that was a big, like, eye opening experience in terms of writing this book as well, kind of tying the, the, the lines together. But for me, fitness is an incredible part life and my foundation. So that would be another way that I would encourage, you know, the audience and be able to lead people, be able to market, to be able to sell. Those three skills are very high income, high impact. So if you're looking to find success in whatever, you know, discipline, those would be a good few skill sets to start with.

Hey there. Thank you for tuning in to the Amberly Lago show. I'm so glad you're here. I have one of my best friends, I always say, brother from another mother. Bryce Henson is here with us, y'. All. He is an amazing keynote speaker. He's got a new book coming out that I'm excited to share with you. He's CEO and you may have heard of Fit Body Boot Camp. They're all around the Dallas area. But I think we start. You started in California, didn't you?

We did, yeah.

Yeah.

2012.

Wow.

Gosh.

And look how it's grown.

Look at that.

Thank you so much for being here. Oh.

Am really, I am super grateful. Kindred spirits. And it's an honor and an opportunity, opportunity to be here with you. Incredible. So thank you for having me.

Oh, my goodness. Well, I will never forget the first time I met you. It was at the headquarters at Fit Body Boot Camp. And I was waiting to talk to Bedros, who is your business partner. And I turned around, I see this good looking fellow with a big smile and your energy was just so amazing. And I was like, who is this guy? And we just Hit it off. Since then, I've got to meet your amazing family. Spoken at Fit Body boot camp events. And I have to say, and I'm not just saying this, that fitbody event that I spoke at that was here in Dallas was my most favorite event.

Well, you shouldn't just say like fitbody events. We're talking about the annual world conference we had with 500 people. Amberly, you were the keynote. Just rocked the house. Even till this day, we all hear amazing feedback. So that was the foundational event. And then this past October we did our first client facing event, the I am event that you were so kind to speak at. So Amberly Lago is a fan favorite not only of me, but our Fit Body brand.

Well, it was just the energy is amazing. And you have a new book coming out that I'm so excited about. I want to talk to you about it. Turn adversity into advantage. The five levers that transform setbacks into your superpower. But before we get in the book, what do you think? That was a point in your life where there was adversity that really truly shaped you into who you are today.

Oh, great question. Thank you for that bug plug and we'll definitely talk about it. But looking back, it's interesting. I always had this thought that adversity is your advantage. What I've now realized adversity is neutral. It's just energy. It's about what you do with that. And ultimately what I teach is a transformational process. So ironically, I first annually went out for the book that I wrote, turniversity Advantage, which is coming out in October. I went to write a book on mindset and resilience. What I realized halfway through, I wrote a book on transformation and back from my first story of versity back when I was a little boy. And ironically we have, we're kindred spirits. I've lived in California for 20 years. The previous 14 years I lived in Michigan. But the first eight years of my life actually was in the south. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia or suburb from it. And because of that, my mom and my dad had a very vulturous, volatile type of relationship. Bless my mother's heart, she's the salt of their birth person. My father had some problems. He was a drug addict addicted to alcohol and gambling. Not the trifecta for a good family upbringing. Thankfully my mom hit a lot of that. But as I got older, I could just start sensing the friction. I also understood my dad showed up in two different ways when he was sober. That Was one way very mild mannered when he was not very different through a, interestingly enough a fortuitous situation. I didn't look at at the time, but late one night after a weekend bender which was very common back in the day, my dad came with a rage in his eye and he was under the influence. He gambled away the mortgage payment again and a fight broke out, a verbal fight. And then this time actually got physical. And before you know it, my father was on my mom's neck. By the grace of God, she escaped with her life and our lives. And then before you know it, we got out of the Dodge the following week we were living in Michigan and it was a very challenging, traumatic situation as you would imagine. Didn't fully understand it. But as I grew have grown up, I realized that was a gift. God literally handled that opportunity because the situation, if we would have stayed in that negative toxic environment the situation wouldn't have turned out good. So to your point about what's the first like eye opening experience of adversity? That was that it took me a long time, probably better part of a handful of years to fully like under start understanding the value. But that was the first experience that late old were you When I was eight years old, a little boy.

Wow. I feel like eight is a big year. That's when I remember some hard stuff as well. Was eight years old.

It's interesting. I was like kind of just starting to come into awareness of my younger brother and younger sister. They didn't, they don't fully remember like the details of the situation and I didn't either. I was still a young boy but I was starting to put things together.

Yeah.

That was the foundation.

Well I also think that it has given you a, that adversity has given you a gift. You're very good with people. You're such a great leader.

Thank you.

And you teach so much on leadership. But you I feel like have this superpower, this spidey sense of being able to kind of read people.

Well thank you for that.

I think probably I. I don't know. Do you think this because you had to kind of see is my dad under the influence? Is he safe? Is it safe for me? I don't know. I feel like when you grow up with that adversity sometimes you're able to kind of judge the room fairly quickly.

Oh, 100. It gave me a superpower is when I was younger I didn't know what dad was going to show up and he was a very mild mannered guy in A normal state. But things turn really south if he wasn't. So because of that. I remember being a 6, 7, 8 year old boy, you know, just kind of getting a sense of when my dad walks in, what type, what dad am I getting? Right. So because of that, it definitely has allowed me to be good with people. Read the room. I also similar to you, and this is why you have such a following, people just gravitate to you is you love people and you have like that centric heart around that. And I've always just gravitated. People I love, I, I would say probably from a foundational qualification. The only qualification I have from a leaders perspective naturally installed was the fact that I have a love for humanity. I love people. I learned that from my mom. And then some of the other skill sets were learned because of just navigating a really tricky situation with my father.

Yeah, well, you are such an incredible leader and one that shows up authentically honest, real. And you do love people. It shows. And everybody goes. I love your speaker reel by the way, of you in the middle and everybody at one of the events, like cheering. It's amazing. But you talk about leadership a lot. What do you think that you learned in going through under a pressure, high pressure situation about leadership that you can't, you couldn't have learned in the classroom?

Yeah, great question. And foundationally, I think this answer has shaped my view on leadership. In the absence of strong leadership, chaos ensues. And I saw that when I was a young boy. My father, he. I would like to think he was a good person. In fact, as time has gone on, I've made my amends and I'm good with the situation. In fact, this sounds bad. I pity him. I just, I look at the situation and I realize, you know what, he had some addictions and issues that he just didn't fully overcome. And I don't think he, he wanted it that way. Just unfortunately that that's the way it happened. However, what I did see is because he couldn't lead himself, he couldn't lead his family. It created a chaotic situation for my mom, my sister, my. So at a very young age in this particular situation, I learned that when you don't have strong leadership, chaos follows. Well, I learned the opposite is also true. When you have strong leadership, then good things happen. And I think from a foundational perspective, looking at my life, these are some like really early stories that have helped me develop to be the person that I am.

Yeah, well, during. We were just talking before we started recording about how crazy it was in 2020 with COVID Attorney, especially in California.

Oh, man.

I mean, everything was shut down and there were gyms that didn't survive. Our gym put plastic trash bags on all the windows and let people sneak in. It was crazy. Like, you could get liquor and the pot shops were open, but there were no churches open and no gyms for a while. How did you. And you, within 24 hours were such an incredible leader. You helped businesses stay open and people keep their jobs. What did you do to turn around so quickly and saved so many fitbody locations?

Well, thank you for that. Yes, it was a crazy time. Like just have a little PTSD from that. But that's just the reality of stuff that we went through. I have a great team, first and foremost, so it's definitely not all me. I have an incredible, awesome leadership team and awesome HQ team we're executing against this. I remember just very, you know, clearly when March 16th was the day that the governor of California shut Los Angeles and then the rest of the cities down in a.

Was it 15?

Did you say March 16?

Do you know what? That's what I remember that day because it was my birthday on the 16th, and I kept telling my husband, it looks like things are shutting down. He goes, no, I called that restaurant, said that they're going to be open. And it was also the day that I launched Unstoppable, my unstoppable mastermind. And my husband was like, you're launching something called Unstoppable? When the world just stopped. And I'm like, well, yeah, the IR still. I know, right? Is that so? I never forget that day.

But yeah, your birthday.

Yeah.

Look at that.

Yeah.

Well, thankfully, because we had, you know, a strong leadership team. I had Bedros and, you know, list of very, very talented people behind me. In a weird way, we didn't freak out, actually, was we started making jokes. And there was some levity behind this, probably with time and experience. Similar to you. I have many friends who've been to Navy seals and what I've learned from, like, Navy SEAL combat, they have a weird kind of sense of dark humor because when stuff goes bad, you kind of have to laugh at it.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

That was the element. But it was interesting because running a franchise system in that particular time that was based out of California, but we had, you know, gym locations in all 50 states in North America, throughout Canada as well. So it wasn't like I was just focusing on my GMI lowest local jurisdiction, which I had three locations in Addition to the rest of the brand, personally at the time. So I was dealing with the California craziness.

Oh, my goodness, Bryce.

But then the wild part was, is like every state jurisdiction was completely different. So in South Dakota, there was no Covid yet in California and New York, it was freaking crazy lockdown.

So my gosh. And that was like how it was here in Texas too. And in Florida, things were just open. It was like, Covid, what?

You know, we're chilling and obviously, as time has gone on, we obviously see what's going on in the news of exactly what happened and how everything shaped out and who's on the right side of things, which is, I guess, a topic for another day. But my whole point though is it was just an interesting situation because the multiple jurisdictions, things were changing so drastically. What we did, we decided to meet instead of one time a week, we do in our leadership meetings. We started meeting twice a day. So 8am in the morning for leadership team briefing, 5pm in the. In the afternoon. We did this for probably three months because the protocols were changing. And then Bedros and I would go live stream to our franchise partners every day at noon. So we'd get the brief update what additional action ships and support we're going to do, and we'd go live at noon. We'd meet as a team the next day by the end of the day. So it was just all hands on deck. We had to increase the communication and it wasn't a fun situation to go through, but looking back, I mean, certainly learn and grew from it.

Wow. Yeah. And there were businesses that either survived or went under for sure.

Yeah. Sadly. And even within our brand, like, it was, you know, hard to guard against, you know, the lockdowns and the policies they went through, but very tragic and, you know, frustrating. We look back very candidly the other side of it, it developed my leadership skills, I developed my communication skills, my, you know, resil. Resilience skills. In fact, it was probably the. The foundational thing that allowed my business partner to give me full confidence that, wow, this guy, you know, he means business. Yeah. And I was. I was a vi. The vice president at the time and throughout Covid the following 12 months is when I sent it a CEO. And it's not a coincidence, you know, know, feeling that pressure and adversity and navigating that made a good impression on Bedros and our interred brand. So.

Well, I mean, you're amazing. And just how you show up and what all you do. Like I've seen you speak, I'VE seen you run events. I mean, you're amazing. Thank you. I've seen you podcasting live right there behind, you know, it's like you just did a podcast, like. Yeah. So, yeah, you're amazing. He is really lucky to have you. What is one thing that you think is probably the greatest lesson that Bedros has taught you?

Ooh, interestingly enough, similar to around adversity is turning adversity to advantage. In 2012, when I first met him, and I think human nature, this is true. It's still even me today, always trying to put the best foot forward. And that's true of our human nature. But what I learned From Bedros in 2012, he got up on stage at the first Fit Body World Conference and there was only 35 people, 40 people at the time. Now we have a 500 person event. Right. And he talked about the chinks in his armor at the time when he was, you know, involved in a high police carjacking chase and he wasn't on the side of the police. I was like, on one hand, I was like, in awe. I cannot believe this guy is telling like war stories and chinks in his armor. But what I realized, it actually connected me and the audience deeper to him. And I think from a marketing, a business perspective, a leadership perspective, an entrepreneur perspective, what I learned in that moment is and Craig Groeschel leadership podcast, I'm sure you follow. He talks about people will follow a leader who is real more than leaders, who's right.

I love that you share that because I get all your newsletters and everything and I love you're such a gifted writer.

Thank you.

Like, even in all your posts, they're so good. You gotta go check him out. Go. You'll be stalking his page. But no, you really are such a gifted writer and I love that what you share about leadership.

Well, thank you. And we are kindred spirits because I'm hearing I inspire you, sister. You inspire me to the moon and back. This is why it just made a ton of sense. And I was so humbled and honored when I asked you if I can include you in my book. The life that you've led, the adversity that you've overcome, like your message that we were talking offline about your two books, Joy through the Journey and Grit and Grace, they just speak to humanity and they speak to me. So kindred spirits. And I'm grateful for you as well.

Well, it was just an honor to do that. I was so grateful that you asked me to do that. And can you don't have to walk us through all of it if you don't want to, but you can if you want. Talk about the levers of leadership. Yeah.

Well, it's interesting going back to the point. I wrote a book initially for mindset and Resilience because I thought first principles, thinking, what's the most important thing? It doesn't mean it doesn't matter if you're a gym owner or an entrepreneur or a family person or a mom or a dad. We all go through advers. We all go through challenge. So it just made most sense to me to write a piece of content or write a book that will serve humanity because we none of us get out of this thing called life alive. Right? So I wanted to write the book and wrote my five step process. It was an incredibly enlightened experience. I'm sure. Actually, I never actually unpacked this with you, but writing this book, I hope it will help humanity the way I have envisioned, but it also helped me so much.

It's cathartic, isn't it?

So much so. So when I wrote these levers, halfway through I realized, oh my God, I'm not just just writing a book on mindset and resilience. I'm writing a book on transformation. And what I did is I labeled them the five Phoenix levers of transformation. When you activate them, you activate what I call or you ignite what I call the Phoenix Effect. And the Phoenix Effect is the process of transformation which has five steps I call five Phoenix Levers. And when you do that, then you're more equipped to turn adversity into advantage or make bad things good. Now, the reason I named them Phoenix Levers is I was never a big, big movie buff. When I was younger, my brother Barrett, he can recite all the movies and the quotes. That wasn't me, but I loved myth and the Odyssey and the movies. Troy, I was like infatuated, was a younger with Greek mythology and Egyptian. So when I was writing this book and I realized I was actually writing a book, it was crazy, so cathartic. I was writing a book on transformation, not just mindset and resilience. And one of my favorite stories of Greek mythology is the story of the Phoenix. And most people know about the Phoenix and a little bit of transformation. But to give you some insight, I was infatuated with the story. The Phoenix lived to about a thousand years old. Unlike the rest of the annual kingdom where it died natural death, it would actually prepare for its own death or actually rebirth. So it would light A fire of aromatic woods and spices. It would engulf it in flames, and then it would dive in through the adversity of the flames. It would actually be reborn. And I thought to myself, that would be. That's a perfect analogy of trying transformation. And there's five steps of my transformation process, so I've named them the Five Phoenix Levers. And when you activate or pull those levers, then you ignite the Phoenix Effect. So that's how it all came to be and how I put the content together. And my hope will be it will connect because human nature, we're drawn to stories and metaphors, so that's the. The foundation behind it.

I love that. And. And you. I love. I think I read one of your posts where you were sharing about how this book started off One Way, ended up being a book on transformation, and you really have taken people on this journey. Of your whole book writing experience, has it been like two years that it's taken you to write?

About a year and a half. I've framed it for about two years, but it's been. Yeah, it's been a decent.

I mean, it's a lifetime of learning.

Totally. I say I just turned 43, so it's 43 years of experience, like, in terms of. Packed in this thing with two years of, like, intentionality. Pen to paper.

Paper, yeah. It took me two years to write my first book as well. How about your second? I didn't have as much time on the second one because my publisher was like, you gotta get that turned in. Get it turned in, get it. You know, but with my first one, I wrote it and then found a publisher. With my second one, Wiley had reached out to me and I had the publisher pitched on this idea. And then I was like, oh, my gosh, what have I just done? Am I going to write another book?

You know, and we are. But at that point, you had the experience, and I was thinking it would probably just logic would tell me it would be more condensed because you're more experienced, the second book.

So it's just. It's a learning experience for sure. But I love how you have just taken everybody on this journey with you with your book now or. When I wrote my first book, book signings at bookstores were a thing. And it's not as much like that anymore. I feel like it's more podcast interviews.

Yeah. Well, I'm open to additional ways to get the message out, but my strategy is I've grateful to have a lot of awesome friends who ultimately will have a lead Magnet, be able to help out and promote the book on Amazon.

But podcast, we'll be shouting this off the rooftops. Okay, thank you. Yes, we will be shouting this off the rooftops. So what you started in California with fitbody in 2012 and then you worked your way up to now becoming business partners and CEO. What do you think is the most important thing you could tell somebody who they see you in? Like, wow, look at all this luminous success. They don't necessarily see the hard work that it took to get where you are. What is some good advice you could give somebody who wants to kind of move up and achieve more?

Yeah, great question. Well, thank you for that. I'm just a regular guy. I grew up in a trailer Parker. I lived some time there. I had an abusive father. And just in many ways, life was in shambles in a lot of ways. And through that I've, you know, found my way. And ultimately I still make mistakes and errors and I look back like, Bryce, what are you doing there? But thankfully, I have a strong North Star. I have a big burning why I love people. I would say my biggest recommendation is success is interesting. We see all the highlight reels in the social media, but really at the end of the day, it's individual. So getting understanding of who you are and what you want from a success or how you define success, I think is important because success for some people looks very different than other people. So I think that's super important. First and foremost, what's your definition of success? Being able to live in a way that ultimately fulfills my purpose and allows me to, I guess, inspire fitness and change lives. I love fitness. It's the foundation which is the, the center point of the next piece I was going to, you know, allude to. And when I can help others with their fitness, with their mindset, ultimately for me, it just lights a fire. So I've been in the business of transformation for the last 20 years. And that was a big, like, eye opening experience in terms of writing this book as well, kind of tying the, the, the lines together. But for me, fitness been an incredible part of my, my life and my foundation. So that would be another way that I would encourage, you know, the audience, get fit, get healthy, you know, put down the, the, you know, enjoy yourself at times, but put down the, the bad food, get in the gym, and it will change your energy, it'll change your life. So that would be another, like, big takeaway that I would encourage, you know, audience to listen to. And the last one would be if you know, you're listening to this and you want to put yourself in a better spot. You need to also be able to learn skills and be able to lead people, to be able to market, to be able to sell those three skill, high income, high impact. So if you're looking to find success in whatever, you know, discipline, those would be a good few skill sets to start with.

That's awesome. And one of your speaking topics or keynotes is about AI. What do you think? Where do you see AI? Do you see it like taking over people's jobs?

What, what?

I'm, I'm interested to see what you say about this.

Yeah, well it's interesting. So for clarity, I'm not an AI expert by any stretch of imagination. I grew up in, you know, technology era so I use it and I leverage it and it's a focus of mine. But I actually talk about what I call the AI shadow because AI is extremely powerful. Holy smokes. It's changing the efficiency of our, of our world.

Wild.

I don't know if it's going to ultimately turn bad like some premonitioners, but what I do know, it's a tool. However, while it produces a massive amount of value, what I also see happening is the human connection sacrificing. And that's what I actually see as the AI shadow, the human connection. So in many ways we're so connected. In some other ways we're actually like craving for connection. So that's my big, you know, focus and opportunity. Kind of like interestingly enough, and I'm going to talk about this at our world conference this weekend is on the fitness side is the strength shadow. So it's interesting, for the last 30 years because of prosperity we've had the obesity endemic rage on. We were just talking about this off film. It's like our American fellow friends. I mean we need a big eye opening awakening about the health and fitness of our country, which is a mishraman. A few Years ago peptides, GLP1s were introduced to the fitness industry. And I'm not here to glorify, I'm not here to vilify what I'm here to say. Kind of like AI, it's a tool, it's a very powerful tool. So using the same analogy, what's happened? Actually looking at the data, three years ago the obesity epidemic in the United States of America actually halted. For the last three years it's actually regressed a little bit. It's because these medications now interesting. There's a lot of swear it's Just

all people are talking about.

Well, there's benefits from this for sure. So I want to lay that out there. The flip side of this, the data showcasing. Because there's always a side effect that's just part of physics. Right. It's reducing, by and large, bone density and also muscle loss. And your muscle is our organ of longevity. So what I see happening is we'll transition. Obesity is still going to be an issue. It's not going to all of a sudden go away, but we're transitioning away from, I believe, the obesity epidemic and then into the undersh. Strength under muscle epidemic, which I'm calling the strength shadow. So similar type thing both with AI and also too with the technology. In terms of fitness, I would say there's. I don't like to glorify or vilify. I just like to be real with what the situation is and then figure out the benefits and then also to figure out where are the deficiencies. And in my case, I try to just solve those deficiencies.

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's interesting. Yeah. Um, and also I wondered if you were seeing a lot of that come up for. Because you're in the fitness.

Oh, yeah.

Business. If you're hearing a lot about that. But I had somebody that was trying to get me to take them and I'm like, this is not for human consumption. Right on the bottle. I don't think I'm going to inject that.

And there's some. I mean, literally, I have a dear friend who actually had some. Some adverse reactions from that. So, you know, you got to assess your risk there. There is a risk part. But again, from my, my lens, I'm glorify or vilify. I want to just be part of the real conversation. And when there's like, advancements in technology that benefit our lives so many ways, there's also a dark side, if you will. Okay. Just like adversity can be your advantage, but in the flip side, if you have too much advantage, there can be adversity on the other side of that. And that's part of my talking points, both on the strength shadow and also to the AI shadow.

Oh, that's amazing. So where can people get your book?

Well, thank you for that shameless cloud. But my site, brycehenson.com and then specifically we're doing a big book launch providing a free digital masterclass. So even if you don't buy the book and you're watching this, you can access the free digital masterclass. You can go to bryce henson.com, forward, slash, launch.

Okay. And then what can they expect to learn? In the free gift that you're giving

the masterclass, you have a foundation of basically the. The mindset that I have, the resilience formula, the five steps, five levers. So you have a good overview. It gives our audience, and it gives you just a sample to have a basic understanding of the framework. And then, of course, it builds to the book and actually what it's designed for. It's the implementation guide, if you will, to read the book. So they do go hand in hand when you read the book, that ultimately the free digital masterclass will be able to help you implement some of the concepts.

Okay. I love this and I love that you also talk about discipline over motivation.

Oh, yeah.

And what is a habit that you have created that you've been disciplined about that's changed your life?

I win the mornings, and I work out in the mornings, and at the end of the day. Human nature, we have variants. Right. There's some people that work better in the evenings. My wife Tatiana, she's a night owl, so at the end of the day, she works better in nights. So there is some variance there. But generally speaking, what's been the foundation for my life and success has been winning the morning. I'm up before 5, I'm working out, and then I'm at my desk by 6am and when I'm at my desk by 6am, I already have my endorphins firing. I feel good. I've already stacked wins. And there's something to be true about Newton's law of physics, momentum. A body in motion stays in motion. And it sounds cliche, but it's so true. So when you get in, when you attack the day and you stack some wins, everything else gets way better.

I think so, too. And, you know, I had. Years ago, I had postpartum depression. And so my husband was like, you need to go talk to somebody about this. Like this. You need help. This. I was driving him crazy, and I couldn't run. I was. I ran all the. Every day, like 10 miles a day. I loved running. That was kind of my therapy. And I couldn't run because I had had a cesarean. I tried, and my stomach kind of blew up.

Recovery's harder. Yeah.

But I went to this therapist and I said, well, you know, I know when I can work out, I'll feel better. Better. And she goes, if you need to work out to feel better, then you definitely need to be on antidepressants. And she tried to get me on antidepressants.

Oh, wow.

I, I called my husband crying. I said, well, you were right. I'm crazy. She wants to put me on antidepressants. But I didn't, I didn't take them. And as soon as I started working out, I felt better.

Oh, yeah, just change your physiologic physiology. I went in, you know, humbling myself 20 years ago before my first workout. Tested 2007. Crazy. 20 years ago. 19 years ago was the first time I started, you know, fitness. And I was out to get a better physique. I wanted to impress the girls. That was the, that was the, the found or the high level reason I wanted to get in. Now. It's the mindset, it's the clarity, it's the physiological transformation and change. Just makes me feel like a million bucks. You obviously had the same experience, which is the big call to action if you're looking to improve your life. Start with you. Start with your fitness. That's a great way to play.

Great also.

Who.

When I see somebody that takes care of their body, I think they're. They're going to take care of business. Us too.

Totally. Totally.

Don't you think? Yeah.

It's interesting. People ask me for tactical leadership vice, and there's tactical leadership vice. It's being able to have hard conversations and communicate both verbally and written. But I would say, Amberly, 85% of my experience of leading organizations with tens of thousands of people is leading myself. When you can lead yourself, when you show up with energy, when you show up fit, when you, when you show up with a high sense of discipline, people take, take note. And that's. I think that's probably the biggest qualification for leading other people is leading yourself at high, high caliber.

Yeah. And I think that goes for our kids too, because we can tell our kids to do certain things, but if we're not doing the same, eating healthy, moving our body, they watch what we do.

They watch, watch what you do, not listen to what you tell them.

Exactly. Exactly. So I did want. We have a lot of people that listen to the show that are so sober, they were in recovery.

My sober sister.

Yeah. And you. Did you always talk about your sobriety or did you kind of start talking about.

No, I started talking about it probably about six or seven years ago, right before. And this is also another lesson that Bedros libido liberated for me right when I first met him in 2012, showing the chinks in his armor. And at that period, I stopped drinking alcohol. I got sober in 2017, January 1, I told the story in the book, so another shameless plug there. But in 2012, when I met him, I, in the back of my mind, I knew I had an issue. I don't know if I would have said I was a full blown alcoholic. And my story is I was a very high functioning alcoholic. I had a hard time for a long time realizing I had an issue with alcohol because I thought if you had an issue with alcohol, you're like my father who drank every day, who didn't have jobs. It was just like his life was in chaos. And that wasn't me, actually. I got my stuff done. What I used alcohol for is released. And I, you know, ultimately there's, there's different thoughts on this, but I think my alcoholism was a genetic disposition. I genuinely believe I was an alcoholic the day that I was born. I didn't realize that when I drink one drink and I have a craving for the other, that's not what normal people feel. So it took me a while to realize this. But this all to say in 2000, I would say 18 or 19 is when I started to share about, you know, the journey. When I stopped drinking alcohol on January 1, 2007. 17.

Oh, wow. Wow. What do you think helps you stay sober the most?

Having a purpose, having a mission. My personal word of the year this year is faith. So part of the 12 step program that I am a participant on has helped me reconnect with God. I grew up Christian, Catholic. For the first 20 years of my life. I'm still Catholic to this day, but I would say I drifted for a bit and I still am working on my faith. So I'm not here here to get on my high horse by any stretch of the imagination. It's a work in progress for me, but that's also been very helpful. But I think, and this is one of the principles in the 12 step program that I attend is the service of others. And it's interesting human nature. And for some good reason, but for some not good reason, we get in our heads, we become self centered, et cetera. And then what I've realized is when I stop getting out of my head, when I focus on other people, just better things happen and I'm able to maintain my sobriety and keep on. One day at a time is the same ghost.

Yeah. Well, that's, that's amazing. And I love being your sober sister.

Thank you. And super inspiring. Congratulations. I know you just marked a good anniversary milestone. Super.

Thank you. Yeah, that was actually, I Didn't really share about my sobriety until I had help with it. I had somebody that announced she had a pretty big following on social media and she had a page all about sobriety. And she shared that I was sober and I only had a year of sobriety at the time. And I was like, oh my gosh, now everybody knows. Everybody knows. You know, it was the best thing though, because it was like, yeah, everybody knows.

Oh, well, I don't know if you had this experience. I was through an interesting situation. I had to share more prematurely than I was initially thinking. But even before that, the first time I actually mustered up enough courage to say, hi, my name is Bryce and I'm an alcoholic. Now. I knew logically people were not going to be making fun of me and calling me names, but I just had this weird feeling.

Oh yeah.

And when I said that. But all of a sudden like the weight just fell off me and it took a while, it took a while to be comfortable with that. So I can definitely resonate and I feel your, feel your connection there. And if you're watching this, hopefully that you know is connected with, with you as well.

Yeah. Oh, I tell you what, the scariest thing, scarier than any surgery that I ever had was walking into that 12 step of recovery, into that room and thinking, what if somebody sees me? What it's like. Well, they're all there for the same reason. Same reason. Yeah. And it's just changed my life. So I'm great, so grateful for sobriety.

Thank you for sharing that. And I feel that my, my story, there's certainly differences, but there's so many similarities and thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, just a few quick fire questions. What is your so in the morning morning routine workout by your desk by 6 o'?

Clock?

Yeah. Every day before 5am So I work

out at 4:30 and then I'm on my desk by 6. Although I just started a new challenge, I'm mentally putting this out in the universe. I'm becoming a black belt in jiu Jitsu. Now. I just started. This is a ten year, this is a ten year journey. So there's two days a week, Monday and Friday. Now I have, I've worked from 4:30 to 5:30 in those two days and I'll get my 6, 6am Jiu Jitsu class. So that's a new. I guess.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

I don't know if I told you I used to do Croft McGaugh.

Did you really?

Huh. How good for you. Yeah. Oh years. I Had a belt in it. It was hardcore. Getting one of those belts, tactical.

And that probably gave you good. Like, increased your level of confidence.

Yes, for sure. Sure. Yeah. That's why, like, when I was telling you earlier that when I was mugged.

Yeah. Which is crazy.

I was ready to fight. And it scared the homeless person so much, I guess, the way that I got back up off the ground because they knocked me off of my bike and I got back up ready to like.

Yeah. Defend yourself.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they looked like, oh, no, I messed with the wrong girl. And another quick funny story is, so when I started dating John Bonnie.

19 years. Congratulations.

Thank you. Yeah. Married. He's been putting up with me for 19 years. He was like, okay, try to get out of the. You know, he was a cop and he's like, try to get out of this, Ms. Krav Maga. And he would put me, like, in a hold and I would get him off. He's like, okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I miss it, though. I used to do Muay Thai. Yeah.

Goodbye.

Oh, I loved it.

Well, you have way more experience in this. This realm than I do. I'm new in the journey. I'm four months in, but so far, so good.

Well, I'm excited.

Thank you.

I am excited. And you are hardcore. I mean, I'm talking to somebody who used to sell blood to pay them their way through college.

Right. I did do that. You're well researched. Thank you, Amberly.

Yes. I am impressed. I am impressed.

Blood plasma specifically.

Yeah. Which is harder to donate.

They part of the story.

It's a bigger needle, isn't it part of the story?

Think so. It's 20 years since I've done that. But. But just part of the story. And it. It's added character.

Yeah. Well, you're amazing. What is your favorite book that you've gifted the most?

Ooh, the book Relentless by Tim Grover spoke to my soul the first time. And it's also book our resilience and mindset.

I have his book. Yeah. So, yeah, I met him.

Him.

I was speaking at an event, and he was one of the speakers. And I was like, there's no way he's going to know who I am. And I walked by the restaurant and goes, hey, Amberly, I saw you spoke today. How was it? And I'm like, big time.

You are.

He knows my name. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

I love about you, Amberly. You are so big time, yet so humble at the same time. And that's. It's just. It's such an attractive quality speaking from personal experience, but also to the world you're following so well.

Thank you.

I want to acknowledge that. And there's also a lesson for that as well.

Well, I really appreciate that. I don't think of myself like that at all, but I was. I get IV treatments a lot, and I was getting one earlier, and the nurse came up and goes, well, I just thought I would let you know the last time you were here, the lady that was in here, too, she was going on and on about you. She has both your books. She was telling us about your books. And I was like, really? Somebody knew who I was like, you know, that's just shocking to me, though. So, yeah, when he knew my name, I was like, oh, wow.

And friends, if you don't know who Tim Grover is, Tim Grover was the personal trainer for the Michael Jordan for a period of a decade, and then also Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade. So he has a fair amount of credentials under his belt. And the fact that he's.

And I have a signed basketball, but by him.

That's awesome.

Yeah. Saving that sucker. What's something people assume about you that's completely wrong?

Ooh. I think actually I came from Silver Spoon. I've gotten that many times before. Before people hear my story, et cetera. In fact, like a dear friend of mine, his name's Joey, he owned. He's very successful fit body owner out in Athens, Georgia. Owns four locations. And the first two years before I ascended to become the vice president of CEO, we were fellow franchise partners. And he said, bryce, before I learned Drifting Story, and I've heard this a few times, he's like, I just thought you came from a silver spoon. The way you look and the way you show up. And I said, well, I thank you for that. Not necessarily the case, but I would say, taking a step back, if you look at humanity in general, the fact that we were born in this time in the United States of America. And actually, this is one of the things I go through in the story in my book. While I come from humble beginnings for first world standards. They are for first world standards. And that's important part. And that's why I always preface that, because one of the first times I shared in the story, um, I visited Rio de Janeiro when I was 25 years old, and I got a chance to go see one of the favelas or the slums there. And I'll never forget, like, the cab we went through winding road, and all of a sudden, like, you hear, like, the music and the samba. And all of a sudden I started seeing these shacks in these. These. These houses. Houses that people were living in without running water. It was crazy to me. And I had this, like, God shot, like, wake up moment. Oh, wow, Bryce. Like, you were. You grew up like a prince scheme of things. So I think that's also another, you know, important part of leadership and resilience is to have proper perspective.

Yeah, I think so, too. Oh, wow. I've never been. Yeah.

Well, you will have to go at some point.

I know, I know. If you could put one message on a billboard for the world to see, what would it say?

Turn adversity into advantage.

Oh, yes. I love it. Well, tell us again where people can grab your book and also get that free master class when they do.

So awesome. Thank you so much. Bryce henson.com forward/launch. And the book goes live on August. October. Not August. October 20th. And I'm super grateful for the opportunity to connect with you, Amberly, and for you to be able to share about me in the book. So.

Goodness, your book is amazing. Every one of my Mastermind members are going to get a copy. We'll be shouting this off the roof. Ty.

Amberly's in it feature Phoenix Lever number one, which is about embracing adversity. And let's face it, you've gone through your own fair share of adversity, and you are a strong, shining light. As much as I hope I inspire other people, Amberly, I tell you this with every fire of my being. You inspire me to the core. You do that for people.

Just.

It just meant the world to me to include you.

I just. I just love you. Thank you so much. Thank you for flying out here, being on the show, and thank you so much for tuning in. It's because of you that this is a top 1% podcast. So thank you, thank you, thank you for tuning in and we will see you next week.