For years, I wanted to start my own podcast, but I never really knew how to do it. It seemed a little out of my depth, but with anchor dot f m-- it's absolutely free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit the podcast right on your phone anchor distributes the podcast for you. So you can hear it on Spotify Apple podcast Google play Stitcher all the major podcast platforms. You can even make money for podcasting you don't you have to have a minimum listenership.One listener you can start getting paid to podcast. It's got everything you absolutely need in one place. So if you're interested in doing what I do and starting your own podcast you simply download the free anchor app, or you can go to Anchor dot. F m-- to get started. You're listening to the rugged Legacy podcast, and I'm your host Jeff Putnam. Hey everyone, welcome to the first ever episode of the rugged Legacy podcast with your host. Jeff Putnam also known as rugged Legacy today. I am with Nick Lowry a guy. I've known for almost a year now and it feels like I've known him forever guys got the guys got a hell of a story. He fought his way up and he's not even 30 yet. He's already at the business owner and an accomplished Mountaineer. So Nick Welcome to the And thank you for joining. Yeah, thanks for having me dude. Not even 30 yet Madam name in 25 yet. Let's try to increase more it 24 your business owner Mountaineer living it up, man. Thanks, dude. So a lot of people already know you but plenty don't so I guess we'll start off with hear a little bit about you man. Where are you from? Yeah. So from st. Louis I moved out to Colorado when I was 18, I think for freshman year of college stayed out here after I graduated and just never want to leave spend like you said as much time as I can up in the mountains working on the company. Now that's something you always wanted to do head out to where the mountains. Where is that something you kind of always felt maybe calling you? You know, it's funny. I don't. I don't really know. I always grew up. So I was in Boy Scouts up until freshman year of high school. And so I started probably fifth grade or something and I love camping but I wound up like that's why I got into it. I love the camping hiking the high adventure Parts like loved it, but my troop kind of turned into a merit badge Factory where all we were focused on was merit badges and churning out Eagle Scouts and all of that and it just seemed like it got away from The like true nature of what the Boy Scouts was originally supposed to be so. I love that and then kind of got out of camping for a while and by I say camping, but I really just mean Outdoors stuff in general and st. Louis. There's no real good snowboarding either. So there's a little bit of it while I could all that but no really like big mountain things until I got the Colorado and when I came out here for the first time I was in it was a summer trip when I was in probably early High School didn't come. Again until a recruiting trip my senior year. I was actually talking about lacrosse coach out here at CU Boulder and man. I'll never forget like that first moment driving out to Boulder for dead bird. It's like a half hour drive but Boulders like in the foothills of the mountains and you come over the top of this little Ridge and all of their valleys spread up and eat through the Flatirons and it's just beautiful we came over that corner. My dad was pissed because he knew immediately. This is where I was going and there was nothing he could do about it. I was like I was moving away and I was never coming back and that's pretty much exactly what happened so I could say yeah, it's kind of always been there but more it's been a building kind of thing for a while. Yeah, it kind of sounds like it was more of a love at first sight kind of thing. Like you said, he'd come around that corner. And you saw all of Boulder Valley, you know, I've never been out there so I couldn't tell you what it looks like. But I've seen a lot of the picture you put up on your social media. Yeah, it is. It's gorgeous it is and and beyond that like if you just Google it just for everyone listening just Google Boulder like and you'll see the view. That's the first one that will pop up on gold on Google. Yeah, and you said you played lacrosse? What got you into lacrosse? Was that something you did when you were younger or is that something you kind of did as you got into high school and then wanted to do it in college or you just found something you were good at little bit of everything man. So I started soccer when I was really really little and I always love being goalie. So I kept with that for a while. I played baseball until like fifth or sixth grade quit baseball because I lived in caught in California just outside of La for all of elementary school. So when I move back from middle school, I stopped baseball bat. So I had a spring season that was empty when I got to high school. I was just playing I played soccer my freshman year of high school and I was soccer goalie and one of my teammates was like yo, the lacrosse team needs a goalie was like fuck his Lacrosse and it's just just come just play was like, okay did not know what I was getting into had no idea how of a sport it is and how much fun it was going to be and how much he'll I was going to put my body through but absolutely fell in love with it man from my first game until the day. I walked off the field. I loved it. And got me to got some got me to college played in college for two-and-a-half Seasons like to speak because it was spring season. So I played for to Spring seasons and then the next fall ball like training season and kind of in the middle of fall. I just all of a sudden didn't really want to do it anymore. And I think a lot of that came from realizing that after my college career was over there was nothing I could do. So like I wasn't I didn't want to make a career out of coaching lacrosse. I knew I could do it like if I wanted to coach high school team or maybe a college team later on down the line I could but I didn't want to make a career out of Lacrosse and there's no real money to be made in professional and to be frank wasn't good enough to be a professional lacrosse player. I was playing club and see you right like we play we practice six seven days a week one the club National Championship, which no fucking small feat and the lacrosse World it. Of kind of weird like D1 is obviously the best NCAA division 1 and then division 3 is actually a higher competition level the division 2 and the club scene like the top five to ten Club teams are right on par with some like mid-range division three teams and even better than some lower in division 1 teams. So we took it seriously. We played our hearts out won the National Championship. I was actually a red shirt on that team, but it taught me a whole bunch about how to Win and what it really looks like to be on the to be on the team that wins the last game of the season and I can imagine how that felt. I played baseball in high school, but that was pretty much about it. I was in no way on the same kind of level is that was ever going to actually go anywhere with it. Hmm, but it sounds to me like you've always had this kind of a an aggressive type Spirit. Oh, yeah. Yeah I've seen I've seen a lot of the stuff you put on social media man. You're you just want a gold medal in a jiu-jitsu tournament, right? Yeah yesterday. Yeah. Congratulations man. Thank you. Yeah, from what I've been able to see in the people that already follow you fighting's kind of become a really big part of your life on top of owning your own business and on top of being a you know, an avid Mountain near so what do you do to fit all of that? Into one capsule where you're able to do all of those things because none of those things are easy. So I mean it's got to be one of those things where you start to get kind of burned out and tired and physically beat up. I know you had an injury a while back. You took a kick to the face. Yeah, and that kind of scout right over there. Yeah that kind of slowed you down a little bit but I mean, it looks like you're coming back. Yeah. What kind of what kind of parallels are you seeing between Like this the mentality you've developed as a fighter and a mountaineer and a business owner because those three things while they seem kind of unrelated to me. They're more of the same because you're climbing a mountain either way. Yeah, and that's kind of what I was going to say. So first off you keep calling me a mountaineer. I would say aspiring Mountain Air would be a better word. I've gone on a lot of really long and hard hikes. I have not I have not Yet I just bought all my gear a couple weeks ago. I had the chance to get up there and do it yet. I have not done any Alpine climbs or anything. That's like totally out of this world and saying yet. That's the goal though. That's a 110 percent to goal and I'm like totally focused on that but back to your question, it's all the same. There's a that old like I think it was Sun Tzu quote is like who sees the way she sees it and all things and there's so So much there it's so accurate. So I just finished reading this book called The Rise of Superman. It's by Steven kotler and Superman is used in the Nietzsche sense, right the Ubermensch and it's all about using the Flow State or as Maslow called at your Peak experiences to find better ways to do things new new innovative ways and to push what he refers to as the ultimate Human Performance and it's considered ultimate because if you fuck up, You die. So like big wave surfing free solo rock climbing High Alpine mountaineering base-jumping ski basing right like this crazy shit people are doing where it's like. Yeah, if you mess this up you're dead, but because of that because the stakes are so high if forces you into that Mystic Flow State right where everything is just dialed in and your body's operating at levels that it normally can it. Has because you shouldn't operate at that level because you're going to hurt yourself. But if the other consequences death your body's going to let you hurt yourself, right? There's a there's a story of a dude who passed away now, he was a free solo climber Dean Potter and he was base jumping in the cellar of swallows, which is this huge cave in New Mexico is basically a 1200 foot vertical drop like a big pit and he's base-jumping and when he pulled his parachute half of it Was wet so it didn't inflate correctly and and then it kind of envelops around him while he's falling at terminal velocity down this massive pit and right before the parachute envelops him. He catches a glimpse of the Rope out of the corner of his eye and they just had a rope hanging down to the bottom that they could use to like get back up and he literally terminal velocity going like I don't even remember. I don't know what that number is. I think it's over a hundred hundred twenty miles an hour. I think I think it's somewhere around a hundred and thirty seven miles an hour. Whatever it is. It's insane this crazy bastard grabs the rope barehanded and stops his fall. Jeez, like a little climbing rope. He burnt the shit out of his hands. He tore every he tore every muscle in his abdomen. He blew out his rectum. He literally tore his body to shreds but he saved his life like you should not be able to do that. Like that should not be physically possible, but you go to the state when the It's are so high that you have to your body's like it doesn't matter. We're doing it and So point of that story is all of those things that I do right you did to the rock climbing mountaineering hiking the business which for those listening who don't know we haven't really touched on it yet. I own a coffee roasting company out of Denver Colorado. We should we my business partner and I started the company its ground shark coffee. We started it about a year and a half ago now August of 2018. But anyway that along with everything else it's All in my mind the same in its pursuit of that flow State. It's you find that thing that just like it takes you to that next level. Right? And we've all found it before a time or two. We find it more often as kids actually because of the way your brain develops. It's easier to get into that state when you're younger, but that the highest level like the more your life is in danger the more likely you are to find that state right? And so that's why these guys that we Refer to as Adrenaline Junkies just push the envelope of human performance so far so fast, they're not a journal and donkeys junkies their flow junkies right there looking for that state where you're just in and you feel alive and Entrepreneurship gives me that and rock-climbing gives me that in Jiu-Jitsu gives me that right because like Jiu-Jitsu especially because it's like if I'm not present in the moment, I'm getting choked out, right or I'm getting otherwise submitted or fucked up or hurt or whatever. It is. Like I have to be And I have no choice. So all this stuff is really like enveloped into a find the hardest shit I can do and do it be you do it enough and you do it at the right level of of not competition. What's the word intensity intensity challenge like the right Talent the right challenge level where it's just a little bit more than you can handle. That's perfect where it's if it's so far above what you can handle. You panic, but if it's just a little bit more than you can normally handle that's when your body like takes over and that like response kicks in and you just you feel alive man. Yeah, there's an old saying it says you never feel more alive than when you almost died. Yeah, so I kind of understand what you're saying now would you say That you're addicted to those things like you. Are you one of those guys? Are you a flow? Junkie? I would say I kind of you know, I so this goes back to La Crosse like when I was playing lacrosse I was I was in probably the top. I don't know. I want to say top 10% of lacrosse players right at least goalies in the nation. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm full of shit. Maybe it was 20 25, whatever. I was at the top level right? Like I was good enough to be a member of a national championship team, right? So I'm seeing right high level shit. Knowing it that well knowing having that like level of Mastery of over that that most people never get. I saw a lot of people say things like lacrosse saved my life or its referred to it was referred to by the Native Americans who developed it as the Creator's game or the medicine game because of the nature of it and I think hockey players will agree with this the nature of hockey and the nature of across kind of lend itself to that flow State because it's violent it's create and it's violent and his creative creative in ways that other sports aren't like soccer is a very creative sport, but it's not nearly As violent as LaCrosse or hockey football is a very violent sport, but I wouldn't say it's as creative as LaCrosse or hockey football is a very two-dimensional right? You're going down the field whereas lacrosse you're going down and back up and passing the ball around the same way at hockey. You're going down and up the ice and passing the puck around. It's more Dynamic and it's faster paced in there's not breaks between the place so it lends itself to that flow State and I think that's why it got that moniker the medicine game. Well, then you go to jiu jitsu. And you see the same you hear the same things. You hear the same people they're different people but you hear the same sentences. It's just Jiu-Jitsu instead of across its Jiu-Jitsu saved my life. And I love this. I love this game. I love the sport. I love this art because it's it's so deep and it's so pure but like the same people were saying the same thing about the cross right when you get into rock climbing and people are saying the same thing then you get into like the entrepreneurship world and people are saying the same thing like long-distance hiking same thing snowboarding say it's all the same. It's all All that like you get to that higher level of Mastery over something because of that flow State because of that like high you get when you're just crushing it at whatever it is. So would you say I'm Flo junkie. Yeah a little bit because I'm following that right like when people ask is why did you start the business? I don't really have a good answer because the answer is because it was next like what felt right like I didn't feel fulfilled at my day job because I couldn't be native enough because the stakes weren't high enough because I wasn't running on my own like by my own power. I was on someone else's schedule doing someone else's thing. Like I needed something to make me feel alive, right? Yeah. You see that kind of brings me back to what you were saying about the Boy Scouts never everything. You've said to me. It sounds like you're always looking for that next level. But at the same time you want it to be pure and you got out of Boy Scouts because it A merit badge Factory they weren't they were they were more focused on how many merit badges or how many Eagle Scouts they could turn out versus the purity of being out there. Is that kind of thing? I guess what I'm trying to say, is that what's driving you to find something pure and intentional versus kind of being swept up in the current of whatever's going to drag you along. Yeah through that's what I haven't thought of that. That's a really good way to put it that's definitely it, you know, because there's There's definitely a bit of like finding the The Road Less Traveled right? It's like what something I can do that. No one else is done. Right? Like there's got to be a mountain out there. I don't know. I mean there's a ton but like there's got to be mountains out there that I can climb that. No one else has climbed yet. There's got to be lying so that I can get up that no one else has like I wonder does a new way to climb this rock. I wonder if there's a new way to get up this and like the new way to get down it right like this this summer or this winter. Hopefully here in the next two weeks. I'll do my first Star cool or ascent and then snowboard back down so I can cool or is basically like a big shoot that runs up the side of a mountain and climbing up those is pretty rad and you do it a lot of high-altitude how high altitudes I just haven't had the chance or the gear to do one yet. I finally have it all so I'm going to go up one and then snowboard right back down at like that. That's like a new thing for me is like I haven't done that yet and like If I was I mean 50 years ago all this shit is brand-new, right? No one's done any of this shit, but now it's all been done. So you have to push the envelope further and further and harder and more more extreme and more insane and like one more Flip or one more rotation and it's like at the end of the day. It's it's just creativity that drives all of it. So would you say that? That is what drove you. From the time you dropped out of the Boy Scouts because it was the little merit badge Factory to finding the Flow State as a goalie in La Crosse to finding the Flow State going up a mountain to finding the Flow State on the mats and Jiu-Jitsu. How did you get to the point where you say? Well now I have to start my own company because that is completely kind of left field at least as some of these kind of extreme things that you're doing. You know you go from you know, being this guy who's basically a 23 year old Indiana Jones, you know, just totally killing it. You know, you're just totally killing it out there and you're doing everything possible your you know, basically like an apex predator out there and all the sudden you my dick to have no, but then you turn around and go. I want to start a coffee company. Like how did you come to the what? I don't understand the the connection to how you said I'm going to sell coffee dude. We thought it'd be fun. It's literally that simple we my business partner and I were getting lunch one day. He's been in the culinary industry for like 20 years. We are getting lunch one day and he was like, man, I can make great food. I just have no idea to how to sell it no idea how to Braun money or take care of my money or anything like that and I'm like well shit, I'm okay with people. I'm okay with money. I can figure out how to get go with both. Let's go what you want to do and he was like, well, I do a lot of this and that whatever I was like, you know coffee would be probably pretty cool when he goes. Yeah. I'll check it out three days later. He texts me and goes bro. I watched so many YouTube videos about how to roast coffee. Let's do it. Cool done. Let's go. It was that that's it. Like you can hear you. For everything so you to know basic YouTube was the founder of ground yard coffee. You're just taking pretty much it pretty much. Yeah this company fueled by YouTube. No, I don't know. I mean, I guess to some it's out of left field. But to me, it's the natural progression of events. Okay, you know, I know when I see somebody like you doing the things you were doing in the way you came up being incredibly hyper aggressive and just pushing that envelope with what we were just talking about I would think The ideal job for you would be getting as much GoPro footage as you could going down the side of a mountain at terminal velocity. Well, that's the thing. Like I'm always hunting like the bigger line or anything like that, but it's not It's never been something that I've seen myself being good enough at to make a living out of you know, I never wanted to make a living out of Athletics in any way anyway, and I think that goes back to the purity of it. If you're like, we'll take it to the extreme example because right because like I could I could I could make my way down the blacks and the double blocks of the resort, but I'm by no means like shredding my way down like crazy slope sending it off 40 50 foot Cliffs. Like I'm not by any means top-level snowboarder. I know enough that I can get my way down damn there anything that you can get to but I'm not really Captain. Insano. Oh, so I never wanted to make a living out of Athletics in that sense, because on one hand you're back. You're back in the grind like your back working for someone else. If you're an athlete you're an employee, right? Especially if you're on a team, like if you're a perfect like your professional football player. Yeah, you're a professional football player, but you're still employed by the owner of that team and your life is still dictated by your coaches. And that's fine because you're part of a bigger group that all doing it together. Other for a greater goal in you're going to do something and you might do something really really cool and historic with that. but it's also a little bit masturbatory and I say that as someone who's been there and I didn't really think about that until I got into Combat Sports. and this might ruffle some feathers out there, but I really think that most team sports most sports that aren't Combat Sports are really A what's the word? Like a simulation of War like a simulation of fighting, you know, and then if you're out there on the field, like don't get me wrong. I know firsthand how fucking intense it is and how good it feels and how much fun it is adjust how much fulfillment there is there? Don't give me I'm not by any means downplaying that but I think that we as a culture get obsessed with sports even Combat Sports, but we get obsessed with sports because it makes us feel more of a badass, right and we tell our friends about the cool shit. We did in high school and in college and all of that. Because it makes us feel young again. It gives us that we have like we remember that to those times. We were in that state. We remember that time where we threw the game-winning touchdown or called the game-winning touchdown or made the game saving play or whatever. It was like there's all of that there in that team sport atmosphere where you feel Fully Alive and fully engaged in the moment, but it's also like when you think of people putting up career-defining games, right like when we'll put up a hundred points, right or if you're a baseball fan David Freese game six of the 2011 World Series. I only know that that well because I was a Cardinals fan still am and David face went to School, so like that was a big deal for us that he put the st. Louis Cardinals on his back carried them to the end of that game like that without a doubt. He was so deep in the Flow State and operating at this ungodly level that we haven't seen from him before or since and that's a career-defining game, but you can only find that fleeting moments in those Sports when you're in the Combat Sports Arena or when you're in the extreme to the extreme sports arena. Now you have to find that or you lose like you have to find those or you watch massive upsets happen all the time or you watch guys die because they made a stupid mistake halfway down a slope snowboarding or big wave Surfers getting crushed under like wave after wave and like it's crazy. Um, And then entrepreneurship is on that same vein where it's like. if your if you're starting the company if you're working through all these problems all these just crazy chaotic problems that are happening all the time. Like you're just fully engaged in the moment like When you're operating on someone else's schedule you're not and so those moments happen, but they're fleeting when you're when it's life or death they happen and they're there all the time because if they're not you lose and you die where you end up on the street or whatever it is. I kind of took that on a tangent. That's all right. That was a good tangent. That was a really good tangent. So what are the some of the misconceptions that people get about? Best sports that you could probably debunk you may use it. You're very into them obviously. So some of the biggest misconceptions that you hear a lot that you can kind of put to rest or maybe even confirmed for some people who haven't had the opportunity to get into any of these Combat Sports. Yeah. So before we before we go down this path disclaimer, I was getting ready for a Muay Thai fight last year when I got kicked in the head and knocked out my goal was to take the moment. I fight last March March of 2019. And then hopefully get in the MMA cage by the end of last year that got put on hold after the concussion because I realized that if I get another concussion, I can't use I need my head. I need to be present so I can actually run this company and get it off the ground. So this is somewhat this is coming from someone with a strike with four years of Jiu-Jitsu and probably two years of my tie at best maybe a little bit less. It's been the same timeline, maybe four years total of Muay Thai but has been spotty here and there so Mostly grappling and a little bit of striking but the biggest misconception I see is that people don't fucking understand How Deep The Rabbit Hole goes I walked off the lacrosse field January of whatever four years ago now was January of 2016 and walk straight onto the Jiu-Jitsu mats. I quit the team and on Wednesday and I took my first class on Sunday or Saturday Saturday you wasted no time know I'm part of that was that I made a deal with myself because everyone everyone who quit the lacrosse team most people quit because it was too much work because I mean I was putting in 20 hours plus a week into that team man. We were practicing like our off season schedule was practiced for days a week lifting three mornings a week and then an occasional Saturday to like we were our off season schedule was hard are in season schedule was insane six seven eight times a week on the field, you know, like Ridiculous for 3-4 months. So most people quit because they're like, oh man, I couldn't do it. I had engineering school or I had business school or whatever and it's like dude. I did it for two years with engineering school and in architecture minor like I was pushing the fucking envelope, but I just didn't want to do it anymore. So I walked off the field and into the on the end of the Jiu-Jitsu gym, and I was just like I need to prove to myself that I didn't quit because this was too hard. I didn't quit that it was too. At work, so I did the same thing with jiu-jitsu like for that first semester. I made a deal with myself that I would put as much time in on the mats as I did on the field and I did and it was insane and it sucked but it was good for me so misconceptions though. Um, The big one is that you just don't you don't know how bad you are at fighting like most people have absolutely no fucking idea how to fight and they have absolutely no fucking idea that they have absolutely no fucking idea. Like I walked in there great physical condition strong as hell athletic as hell and I got the living shit beat out of me by a dude who looked like he played D&D in his parents basement. No sleep on the D&D guys. He beat the living piss out of me. Like this is quiet kind of nerdy guy. Right and like he's super cool. Dude, not giving him enough credit like really really personable guy really awesome guy. Like I'm proud that I can call him a friend. He's gotta listen to this episode and kick your ass again because you thought of minor d d and e we probably laugh. Um, but no so My point my point is though like I walked in cocky man. I walked in like I'm good. I'm like, I'm obviously not gonna just run in and like beat these guys, but like I'll be okay. I was not okay. I was not even close to okay and it's kind of like It's seeing it seeing the fabric that you didn't see before right like you're seeing the behind the scenes things like oh shit. Like I almost got sick to my stomach. It was like man if I had gotten into a fight with the wrong person in the last 21 years or 20 out of 20 in the last 20 years of my life. Like I could have easily been killed. I could have easily been knocked out or broken or her whatever that's the biggest one is that you don't know how to fight. The second biggest one is just How easy it is to get knocked out man. It is so easy take specially in MMA like in boxing. It's one thing but man if you know if someone knows how to kick and they kick you in the head you're done man, like it's like if you've never been hit with a baseball bat in the head, you don't know how it feels until you get hit with a baseball bat and the head and when you get kicked by someone who knows how to kick. It's like getting hit with a baseball bat in the head right and that Baseball bat is attached to an extra four feet of Leverage. Right. So it's it's very very very humbling. See that's what I was going to lead into. You know, you just got done telling me you did all these extreme things. I mean you went to college for engineering you had it in you have an engineering degree, right? Yeah, right. You have an engineering degree your Killing it in La Crosse and then you turn around and you walk onto a Jiu-Jitsu mat and you just get your ass handed to you not a lot of people would immediately go. Okay, fuck this. I'm done, but you didn't and I know you said it was because you had this thing. I'm not going to quit because it's too hard, but what do you think? Placed you into that mindset because I mean obviously you were good at lacrosse. Obviously you were good at you know, everything else that you've been doing and then said of this from my understanding you were 20 years old to this is probably one of the first things you walked into that you were not good at pretty much. I mean, yeah, you know, like everything was a kind of a natural progression of the thing before though, which is kind of cool. Like if I think about it business felt like a natural progression of fighting mountaineering felt like a natural progression of Boy Scouts back in the day Jujitsu felt like a natural progression of Lacrosse in a weird way until it wasn't until you walked into the mat. You got your ass kicked. Well, yeah, but you didn't you wouldn't write it was a natural progression in the sense that lacrosse taught me how to be really good at something like it taught me what it takes to be really good and it takes sacrificing everything like at the end of the day if you want to be the best you have to lose everything. and I got to the point. I didn't want to sacrifice for lacrosse anymore. That was really it was like for me to do what I want to do with the sport. I have to sacrifice more than I'm willing to sacrifice. It was literally that simple. It was like I couldn't after I left the team man. I couldn't watch a game even on TV. I couldn't the first time I saw another lacrosse game was a year later when I went to one of my little brothers in high school and like that was hard to watch it hurt man. It really hurt. But it just in my gut. Felt like I needed to I don't know. Um, but That was a natural progression of soccer right? Goalie goalie, whatever but I think the mentality that kept me going back to Jiu-Jitsu even after getting smashed for so long was that I like I said, I saw the fabric right? Like I took the red pill. And once you once you realize like for me when I realize that I'm awful at something. And I'm awful at something that could be really important I go back. It's like if I if you've never tried if you've never wrestled or done Jiu-Jitsu or boxed or Des Moines tie or anything like that, like if you never done a combat sport, you don't know what you're you don't know what you don't know and that's okay. You're ignorant right? Like it's like yeah. I'm still going to beat your ass if you make me but like I don't hold it against you. But like if you show up to jiu jitsu or if you show up to boxing or morotai or wrestling and you realize oh fuck like I'm screwed in a fight against anyone who's done any kind of combat training in any way and then you never go back. You know what you're missing. You'll always know that you don't know how to fight and you'll never do anything about it. It's like, you know what you don't have ignorance anymore. You're just dumb or a pussy. Yeah, I think I think part of that comes and you have a pretty big ego when it comes to being good at something. Everybody does right but it is he goes not necessarily A Bad Thing it can be a bad thing. Right? I've obviously had a big ego before and it's come crashing down on top of my head, but When you have your ego? Just completely smashed like you did when the first time you walked out on the mat. A lot of people will just shut it down and go. Yep not doing that no more because they can't live with that. Well, I'm not good at something. So I'm just not going to do that and be not good at it because they just don't they don't see the next phase of what's coming if they keep going. They don't they don't see like you said the fabric that no one else sees they don't see what happens if you keep pulling that thread. Yeah, and I think that's kind of the same way that I felt. I started my company, you know, yes, I was completely terrible at business and I'm not completely terrible at business now. We're both still pretty fucking bad, but we're both we were here but still bad but we better with it. We were a year ago. Absolutely, but guys like you and me we saw where we would because I started my company a year ago next week. Yeah, right. Yeah, but I but last year I saw where I would be a year from there. Is that how it was for you for ground shark when you first started you had no idea what you were doing. Um kind of so. Let's back it up a bit to that like fabric thing. So I think the ego is like you said, it can be a very good in a very bad thing and I think it kind of gets into have you seen you've seen The Wolf of Wall Street. I have you remember that scene where he was like saying some girl's name in his sleep and then it cuts to showing the scene and she's got like a candle stuffed in his butt and she's like totally dominating him. Yeah. Yeah, I think that kind of phenomenon right? We're like super successful men wind up with like super dominant women because they dominate everything they need someone to dominate them. They need a challenge because they don't have a challenge to me that challenge is threefold right? It's entrepreneurship. It's fighting and it's the mountains and the reason those three things are so appealing to me is that you can never You can never dominate to that level. You can never like yeah, maybe you can be you. Maybe you can get super rich right? Maybe maybe ground shark takes off tomorrow and everything starts connecting and I do become that dominant business owner. Awesome. Hell, yeah. Well, I still haven't figured out how to fucking climb up some crazy mountains, right? I still haven't dealt with 8,000 meter altitude. Like there's another challenge there waiting, right and it's like, okay cool. Well, let's go figure that out. Right, that's another challenge out there. And that's like there's enough out there to me in the extreme sports world to keep me occupied the rest of my life and never never be at the top. It's kind of scary to be at the top. Like when I look back on the reason I quit lacrosse like looking back on it now. It was one of the best decisions I ever made because it put me on the track to get me where I am now, but I made it with all the wrong intentions. Like I was I was fighting for the starting spot my entire time there and being a goalie if you're not starting Not playing and I was finally like neck I was there if I had stuck it out for that season. There was a solid chance. I would have had an opportunity to take it and I probably would have taken it and that little voice in the back of my head. Like I listen to it too much. I got that big fucking dose of imposter syndrome and I quit so I always want it's weird like it's a weird thing looking back and knowing that you made the right decision, but also knowing you made the right decision for all the wrong reasons like it's weird. But my point is its Target stuff to be at the top and I think that's why you see that psychological cracking with people who are at the top where they at where the top of the mountain and well I think I've always heard I didn't mean to cut you off there band. Oh, you're good. Um, I think I've always heard somewhere that success is a stale finale, you know, if you like, for example, you you said you just said there's plenty of mountains out there and there's plenty of things out there in the extreme sports arena where you'll be occupied for the rest of your life. Because it's something you can't dominate. I'm getting the impression that you're that guy that if you ever did make it to the top you would throw yourself violently off the other side down to the bottom because there would be nothing left. You're totally right your 110 percent, right? And that's what I did with George it with lacrosse. I just did it a year and a half too early. Right? Like when I when I was when I graduated my lacrosse career was going to be over either way, and I could have started. Jujitsu then, you know, but I decided to turn around 200 feet from the summit go do something else, you know, which whatever. I don't regret the decision. I just should have thought about it more or you know should have done it differently in retrospect, but that's okay, but you're totally right like I get to the top of something and I'm like cool what's next like so when we won the national championship I was a redshirt on the team. So my next goal was easy get the fucking spot, right? But like after we won the first when the Clock Struck 0 it was a one-goal game and they had the ball to end the game like it was close. with it was by no means a sure pad until the very end of the game and probably the last four or five seconds, but when that timer went off and all of that stress and pent-up energy like got release like that was one of those few moments in my life where all I remember is pure joy, that's it. It validated everything. It was like I went to the right school. I made the right choice to leave home. Like I made the right choice to play here. I made all the all the choices I've made up until that moment were correct because it got me to that moment and it was so unbelievably cool with Hi, and about 30 seconds later was the biggest void I've ever experienced in my life. It was like, oh fuck what now, like my whole six years of Lacrosse before this or four years five years, whatever. It was like my whole life since from the first moment. I stepped on my Crossfield. I knew I wanted to play at the highest level I could. And there I was right. Yeah, and it was like that was all-consuming my entire High School career, man. I didn't go to parties like I mean I did occasionally but like I was never a part of your because I would stay at home Friday night watching game film. I'd go to practice early. I'd leave practice late. I'd go lift. I'd go I'd go straight from a game to the gym. And I'd get a lift in like I was always working man. And then by the time I got to college it was like dude, we're practicing seven days a week and I'm there early an hour early with a have like literally a five-gallon bucket halfway across the field and I'm trying to lob lacrosse balls into it to work on my passing like Four hours and then over the summer lifting with Michael occur with my strength coach four days a week conditioning and extra to playing on men's leagues like dude. My whole life was that Sport and then we won and I was like, Well, you do now what the fuck is next and like that's something people don't talk about enough with success. Like I was not prepared for that. And I don't think most people are when they get to that moment where you get to the summit and even if it's not the highest Summit, there's a couple minutes there where you're like what the fuck is next like you just empty because you're so enraptured with this goal and you could tell yourself all you want the process the process the process and I believe that to the deepest part of my soul that the process is the key. But you still have those goals man and when you get to him, it's like cool like I just summited Everest but the fuck is next right like and if that's all you have you're gonna you're gonna like fall into despair there for a while. If you don't have another thing you can find and then so someone I have immense amount of respect for Reinhold Messner. He got his name because he was the first one to sum it all 14 8,000 meter Peaks. They need them all without oxygen which is insane. He did it in like this. 70s I think I don't remember but he's still alive today. And if you look at photos of him, you can see in his eyes that he just has this like lust for life that most people don't have. Um I like he's he's directing movies. Now. He's like I don't have the body to go climb mountains anymore. I lost that decades ago. So now he's involved in German politics because he German I think it's German but he's involved in politics. He's making movies. He's like moving into a more mental and artistic role and I think that's really cool. And I totally see myself doing that in 2030 years, right? It's like okay get the company sorted. So I have the money to go climb the mountains go climb the mountains go. In and compete at the highest level Jiu-Jitsu I can and then eventually my body's going to tell me to fucking chill and when that happens cool now, I'm gonna sit in my room. I'm gonna write some books. I'm a direct some movies like I'm going to do some cool artistic stuff because I'm such a doer right? It's like I can't do it physically in my whole life. But while I can I'm gonna I'm gonna you know, yeah, I totally get it. So coming up on the hour mark here. We really Jesus. Yeah, man. for those of you guys who don't know Nick and I are business partners as well where yeah, well were am kind of whatever but at the same time we talked a lot but there's something that I think is kind of been put on this episode that may be unintentional some people may listen to this and they may think Why should I even try to get to the Top If when I get there? I'm gonna feel empty if there's not something else if I have aspired in put everything I have into this one Summit. Why should I even bother doing it? So for those people listening? What would you tell them through it? And that's that's like the coolest part when you get to the top you now know how to get to the top right? Like you understand it. You get it. Like I never I wasn't the starting goalie when we want, right so I still got more to learn. Obviously. We all have so much more to learn but I was a member I was part of a team that got to the top and when you see it from the inside when you first when you experience what it feels like to win, Perfect things have to go like when we won. It was a 13 to 12 game. And we'd be Arizona State who was on there twenty second game of the season and they were 21 and oh going into that game. They have beaten us earlier in the year and we ruined their perfect season and it felt so fucking good because we had lost twice earlier in the year and but like it doesn't matter because in that moment everything worked. Um, But once you get to the top you understand you can you can visualize yourself at the top of the next Peak when you Summit the first one the first one is hard first one is hard as hell because it's hard to even imagine yourself being at the top. But once you're at the top you can see it. You're like, okay, it took me seven years to get to the top of the lacrosse game wonder how many years it takes me to get to the top of the Jiu-Jitsu game. I wonder how many years it takes me to get to the top of the business game right like you see it and you're like, okay. I know what it takes for me to get to the top now when Got to the top of that Summit. Like I said, there was like a pit in my stomach of like what comes next obviously I found the answer right? Like I wouldn't be here talking to you if I hadn't if I hadn't found the answer I'd be drinking my sorrows away still working at my construction job. And that answer is always the next Mountain. You're like all in a weird way you're running from your demons. You're running from that feeling avoid towards that next feeling avoid right? Like it's a it's a weird thing to describe. But it's so it's so intrinsic to success where you're always chasing that next level. You're always hunting that next mountain in you're always working and at the end of the day though, the reason for it all like the overarching reason for all of this is internal. It's not external. It's like yeah, I want to be at the top. Yeah, I want to win like I want to win a world championship in Jiu-Jitsu. Like I want to go to Worlds and I want to fucking win and I want to that's so ingrained that I want to be the best. First I want to Summit Everest right? I want to start a seven million dollar or a million dollar business from the ground up. I want to do these things knowing full. Well that after I do that thing I'm just gonna be looking for something else. But the point is the act of doing it is making me who I am and it's making me a better version of me and it's making its giving me life for talking about, you know, it's giving me shit that like I can look at and be like I can't believe I did that right like that was really cool and beyond that. I'm doing it with people. I care a lot about you know, like I've got a couple climbing partners that I love man like those dudes are awesome. And we're always up in the mountains, right my business partners my best friend, you know like but we are wouldn't be so close to those people if I wasn't striving for something greater with them. so at the end of the day It's not about getting to the top. It's about the climb. The climb is so much more important than the summit. I like that. I think a lot of people, you know kind of get bogged down and you know, they're trying so hard to get to the top and like you said earlier, you know, they have no idea if they make it to the top they got no idea what to do next because they're never they don't fully see that they're going to make it to that top. They're not Galaxy that going to Summit and then when they get there, they they just kind of go into shock. Yeah, they kind of shut down going. Okay, I fucking did it. I'm here. It's hard to even accept the you did it it almost feels like someone else did it right? And then you're sitting there saying to yourself? Okay, I'm done. But if you decide ok, I'm done. Hell you were 20 years old, you know, you gotta look at the fucking I'm not gonna Peak at 20. That's so fucking boring. That is so lame. Right and you got another 65 75 years left of life, you know, and yeah, you actively sought out that next mountain to climb and like Said you can net you said you could never fully dominate the mountain. Now and that's his the mountain is going to be the one that dominates you because I've always thought of it this way with mountains and with ocean like the guys who are super into sailing feel the same way about the ocean is the guys who are super into climbing feel about the mountains like you don't conquer the mountain like we name the podcast taming the mountains, which I think is like apt but also totally wrong because like you don't you can't you can't tame the ocean you can't tame the mountain the ocean allows you to cross it. Ocean allows you to sail from one point to another the mountain allows you up. That's the cool like I'm a expeditions. You're waiting for good weather snowboard Expeditions, you're waiting for a storm. You're waiting. You're waiting for the mountain to be like, okay now, it's your turn and you better fucking move cause you don't know where your turns going to end like you don't tell you that fucking Mountain the mountain lets you up it it's the same thing with success is the same thing with businesses the same thing with the market, right? Like if you're trying to sell a product you don't tell the product you don't tell the market what the by the market tells you what to sell right? And it's it's a We're kind of dichotomy because we look at Mountaineers. We look at Sailors. We look at Fighters. We look at business owners as being these dominant individuals and in a way they are but at the same time like they're not really at the end of the day dominating anything. They're just listening and the react they're responding or not reacting the responding to the cues of the mountains the ocean the other Fighter the the market whatever it is. I like that. So, you know, yeah, we did name this podcast episode taming the mountains and I think Like you said the goal is to climb. I think the goal is to try to tame the mountains knowing full. Well, you never will. Yeah knowing full. Well you never will your personal mountains the mountains you have to overcome within yourself. You have to try to tame those because you're never fully going to defeat yourself because you're always going to be you. Yeah, but the more you try to tame it the more you grow. Yeah, and I think for a 24 year old you've done a whole lot of taming in your life, man. And take something we are right here to do, of course man, but we're right here at the hour mark. So why don't you tell everybody where they can find you and real quick before we get to that. Explain to everyone what ground shark means because that's a very weird name for a coffee company. I know but a lot of people don't yeah, so actually I have I got a glossed over the company as a whole brown sugar coffee. We roast all of our coffee here in Denver. We import a lot of it from Brazil some scattered around the world. The name comes from an old Jiu-Jitsu saying I forget who said it one of the guys who started the art or one of the older. I don't know. He said the Is my art or no? The ground is my ocean. I am the shark at a most people don't even know how to swim and it's incredibly apt for Jiu-Jitsu if I'm buying into a some kind of weird grappling match with anyone on the street if they've never trained their non-issue, so it's pretty close. So, where do I find me dark on the ocean dude? Yeah, and you can't swim Where do you find me? I'm on Twitter at Nick Lowry. I'm on Instagram. And that's hello wa are why I'm on Instagram at Nick Lowry 39. You can find a company at Ground shark Coffee Co on Instagram at Brown shark CC on Twitter and a crunch our coffee.com. That's great, man, and I'll go ahead and save from experience. I love ground shark coffee. The Johnny mad cup blend is the best blend on the planet. You know, what we're almost out of it. It's going away soon. Hopefully sooner or later. I'm gonna have to order some before this episode comes out. So no one else can get any job big problem. Really? Appreciate. Yeah, man. I really appreciate you coming on. Like I said, a lot of people already know you But for everything that you've done and your 24 years of life, I know there's plenty more times that you're going to have to retell this story and it's just going to be added on to what you've done and over. Yeah, there's no way you're done right now man, and very proud of you and very proud to know you. I'm glad to call your friend and I appreciate you as well. All right, Jeff. Thanks buddy. And for everybody listening this has been the first ever. Sewed for rugged Legacy podcast. If you are interested in supporting this podcast, you will find a link below in the show notes where you will also find all of the links in at information for my very first guest and good friend Nick Lowry. Thank you all for listening. Have a good day. Everyone wants to Rise From the Ashes but very few are willing to set themselves on fire. This has been a rugged Legacy production.
There are plenty of people out there who will pursue a goal, achieve that goal, and then call it a day. Then there are those rare individuals that once they make it to the top, they throw themselves violently over the edge in pursuit of the next big climb. It's only appropriate that my very first guest is one of those people. At only 24 years old, Nick Lowary has been a National Lacrosse Champion, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gold Medalist, and a business owner, all while chasing his passion in the rugged Colorado Rockies as an aspiring mountaineer who just so happens to sling the best damn coffee that money can buy from his flagship company, GroundShark Coffee Co. Be sure to follow and connect with NIck: On Twitter: @NickLowary and @GroundsharkCC On IG: @nicklowary39 and @GroundsharkcoffeeCo And you DEFINITELY need to hop on the Groundshark Coffee train and start waking up like you mean it. Also, if your looking to join men like Nick and myself in the pursuit of greatness and find a band of brothers who will hold you accountable to becoming the best Man you can be, then join me inside the Fraternity of Excellence. ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 