I send all the emails, but I don't know if we put back or no.
Okay.
We'll get back to you for sure.
Part of that has been that, I got to give a major shout out real quick to Cynthia.
So Cynthia is behind the scenes helping us in the show, and she's been going through
some illness stuff, and she still shows up and loves to help and support.
She's the host of that show, and we got to get her in her healthiest position so that
way we can bring you on because your story, do you want to go by Charlie today or Carlos?
Which one?
Oh, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.
Charlie, perfect.
Your story, man, is so incredibly inspiring.
The things that you've done and accomplished, the depths that you've gone to to achieve
professional excellence and sporting and beyond, dude, I'm blown away.
I know other Latinos are going to watch that, watch you and say, oh my gosh, I want to be
like him.
I want to do that.
I want to be like you when I grow up.
So you get that a lot, dude.
How does it make you feel when somebody says that to you?
No, it makes me feel fulfilled and grateful with a very full heart that the mission is
being on its course to do the things for something greater than just me.
So that's what I like.
Well, I appreciate it.
I love the fact that you're doing what you're doing and you're able to be vocal about it
and maintain your humility at the same time.
It's been an honor to get to know you.
So we're going to dive in to one of the most important things, in my opinion, that we could
always ask leaders out there, what are three resources that can be books, movies, YouTube
videos, whatever that you would recommend for other visionary leaders to lean into and
to consume?
Well, basically, the first one, I will say, for me, it's the six fundamentals of success.
That's a good one.
It's a small book.
I don't remember.
I think it was Johnny Levy, the author.
I don't remember right now.
I read it a long time ago, but that's a very good book.
Then the other one that I really enjoyed, it is the Sports Gene by Malcolm Gadwell,
because he talked about the hypothesis of the 10,000 hours.
When I started to do an ultra runner, I said, I'm going to beat his hypothesis and I will
get in the top 1% in less than 10,000 hours.
I did.
Obviously, I put a lot of effort, but that's another good book.
What was the book called?
I've read Talking with Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell, but not that.
Sports Gene.
Well, that's another one.
The third book, I will say it's The Winning by Jack Welch, which basically I like it because
what I recall about it is that when you want to see if people is not moving forward, he
told that from a management perspective in organizations, but I think it can be applied
in everything, even with you.
If you are not seeing any progress or advance, he said in the book, you have to shake the
organization intentional.
So if things are not working, just shake it out and you will see that create some cows.
So creating cows and catharsis are hard, but eventually are good in the long run.
So that's what I like about that book.
I know that you only asked me for three, but I will do one here.
The bonus one is going to be called, it hasn't been released yet.
So this is the first time I want to share this.
This is the first time in my life I want to share this in your podcast.
I love it.
So the bonus book is going to be called The Real Ultraman by Charlie Sarmiento.
This my book, basically it relates my story and all the traumas that I have been healing
through sports.
And also it's going to be a specific part that I share resources that I personally
developed to rewire my brain so you can do it by yourself.
So that's going to be a bonus book.
I hope for everybody is in the top three when you ask them.
Yeah, I love that.
Well, way to announce it on my show.
I appreciate that.
I'm super honored.
The Real Ultraman book will be coming out soon.
That is going to be an awesome epic read.
I'm just so floored and impressed with your story, man, and the way that you've been able
to overcome so many amazing challenges.
And the three books you gave me, humbly speaking, I have never read any of those three and they're
all going on my list.
Malcolm Gladwell is a great researcher and a pretty difficult read.
That's already exciting.
Jack Welch is an amazing entrepreneur, obviously, and the six fundamentals of success.
I looked it up Stuart Levine, so I'll definitely be looking into those.
All right, we're going to take a quick break.
We're going to be right back.
We're going to be talking about ultra marathons and going inside the mind and heart of an
extreme athlete that has also become an extreme friend.
So we'll be right back after this and dive right in.
All right.
Welcome in to Vision Pros Live with Jackson Calame.
I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic
visions out there.
Hey, what's up?
And welcome into another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I have the jitters.
I am so excited to have Charlie Sarmiento on the show today, also known as Jose Carlos.
Pick your language.
He's open to both, of course.
And my goodness, this man has is an ultra marathon runner and beyond.
In fact, I'm going to pull his website up real quick.
We're going to break from our typical process because if you're listening in, I hope you
take the time to see what I'm pulling up here.
Known as the Ultraman, new book coming out, The Real Ultraman and the story behind why
he runs and how he's used running and ultimately maximizing his health to combat and overcome
depression.
A world ranking of 138 in the 2018 World Trail Championship and top five among Latin Americans
in the Ultra Trail World Tour.
And these accolades just keep going.
As I was going through these a couple of months ago when we first met, I kind of fell in love
with this style of how he showcases everything from his run in Bandera, San Antonio.
Shout out to my home and his here in Austin, Texas area.
But to Italy, Japan, let's see here, Guatemala, you know, and beyond.
I'm just scrolling through and he's done all these different championships and all these
different races that he's been involved in.
He lets you know where he didn't finish, where he did.
It's just incredible the amount of determination and diligence that I know somebody's got to
put in to be able to produce this many miles of races to also be a father, to be a husband.
I'm just I honestly I can't be more.
There's one person who like I can point out publicly.
I'm like, man, that dude inspires me so much.
It's LeBron James.
I got a LeBron James esque individual on my show today.
So I really hope that you guys enjoy all of what we can learn from somebody that's this
diligent and passionate about living life right.
Before I bring him on, I always got to talk about some sponsors, opportunities for you,
not because I'm paid for these sponsors.
It's actually because I just love them.
One of them is Melissa Gray.
She is a strategic partner.
She is a client as well.
And it has been very clear to me that there is a there's a huge gap.
And I've seen this in many years of business.
Most business owners I know that wouldn't admit it.
But if you ask them who's their legal counsel on hand, they don't have one.
They don't know who.
And at Restaurant Connect, we ran into a twenty thousand dollar trademark lawsuit.
We didn't know it was going to be twenty thousand dollars in the beginning.
But to protect our own brand name, we spent twenty thousand dollars and we won.
Did we win?
We spent twenty thousand dollars as a startup.
That was a that was a pretty foolish move.
We could have been positioned with somebody.
Have we done a little bit of due diligence in the front end and found general counsel
that we aligned with?
I hope that you take the time to get to know her as you continue to get to know who else
is going to work with you to protect and build your brand with you.
Then there's Andrew Sosin of Recovery Unplugged.
He's not a client.
Andrew Sosin created Recovery Unplugged to help people overcome addictions to get through
their depressions and beyond.
He's got over 400 team members that he loves dearly.
And the pandemic pushed them to go online.
So they do have five locations throughout the states.
But what's really cool about that silver lining, the pandemic is it forced them to turn their
services online and they got real creative with it.
So now, if you know anybody who struggles with depression, usually that comes in the
form of saying something like, hey, how are you?
And they go, I'm fine.
And they walk away.
They're not fine.
They might need some help.
You can call in and get counsel on their behalf of how to introduce them.
It's a free hotline.
They got programs related to music as well.
I do believe music kills the soul.
I wouldn't have that guitar behind me if I didn't.
And my daughter wouldn't be named Harmony Melody.
So I'm a big fan of music.
I'm a huge fan of helping people heal and find resources.
And Andrew Sosin has proven to be somebody absolutely amazing to me, and I hope more
and more people find access to solutions like that.
Then there's the water project.
And I'll be fast on the water project today so we can get to Carlos's story.
I've had water my entire life.
I've never had to live without it.
There's millions of people out there who don't.
They do have to walk miles just to find a source of water that might not even be good
for their families.
I love how the water project showcases where your dollar goes.
And you get to see the outcome of that impact.
The ripple effect is massive.
You help people who don't have water have water for the next five to 10 years.
You're having a generational impact by doing so.
If there's a cause you would rather see a support or that's near and dear to your heart,
don't hesitate to drop that in the comments.
It's not a competition.
We've got 8 billion people in this world to help.
I'm just doing the best I can to help a community as well as many communities as I can.
When these kids are celebrating water like my kids celebrate Christmas Day, that means
something tremendous to me.
It makes me say we've got to step up as a world and help out and make sure these people
have what they need.
Without further ado, Carlos, Charlie, my friend, thank you so much for joining me on Vision
Pros Live.
Thanks to you, Jackson.
I'm very, very excited to be here and know what you have done, what you are doing.
It's I admire.
So thank you for this opportunity.
Absolutely.
El Ultraman, the Ultraman.
We're going to talk about your vision and what's your vision for those that you serve?
What are you hoping they get, they accomplish or they see?
Well, the intention for those that I serve and those that are somehow related to what
I'm doing is to help them to see beyond their inner selves, to know that they can rewire
their brains for to really go through to those dreams that they have some some some day when
they were younger.
They were children because that's where the real dreams that we have are very genuine
and authentic.
Let me ask this to you.
I made a little assumption on this part because you're running these marathons.
Who is it?
Who is it that you're serving, Charlie?
Basically is anyone who wants to to to go beyond their limits, to to to transcend in
life to to find these plenitude and abundance, not only economically, but to really go beyond
doing extraordinary things, not only for for themselves, but for to be an inspiration for
others.
Love it.
Okay, very good.
And that that's a fantastic I just I get so mesmerized by your website that I got to I
got to keep pulling it up while we talk.
But what's your vision for you?
What do you see for yourself on the horizon?
I mean, you've tackled almost every mountain.
So what's ahead?
So so basically for me, this this, you know, this intention to the way that I serve others
is to do it in different aspects of life, not only not only in the way that I serve
in business, not only as an athlete, but I also try to do it in the community as well
as you are seeing here.
So so the vision that I that I have for me is how I can impact in these different roles,
being authentic and holistic in every field, in every field that I'm that I'm like as
an entrepreneur, like here, for example, that you are showing, VTX is a platform that I'm
building after after launching vertical, which you're watching right now.
Vertical was a sports training facility that we opened in COVID.
And then I decided to transform into a sports tech company based on that experience, in
order to serve these athletes, endurance athletes to find sponsorships opportunities based on
performance data.
So so I always try to see these.
Is it different people that I'm trying to serve?
But because it depends on the different ventures or vertical that I'm developing.
But in general, is that's what I what I share.
So my vision is to be an inspiration for others that it can be done.
It doesn't mean that I'm smarter or I'm better than than anyone else.
It's just it just means that I have the courage and discipline and determination to do what
I visualize and what I have dreamed before without without listening to to other voices.
I basically turn off voices from my from the outside that distracts me in order to be focused
on on what I want to accomplish.
And basically, that's the vision that I have that I have for me to keep to keep doing this
in in in any in any venture and adventure that I that I decide to go in.
And the way that I choose and the way that I choose those are basically has to come from
from within has to come from the heart.
It has to come from.
From a better from another place.
From a place of of of really impacting all these all these communities or people that
that resonates with with the vision and the mission.
That's huge.
And I think about tuning out the noise, you know, so to speak, and knowing what to listen
to, how to focus on the right aspects of life.
And that that gift is something that is very hard to do in a noisy world.
Right.
There's a lot of distractions out there.
So many things that we can do with our time that are good.
But they may I love the quote.
Good is the enemy of great.
You know, you do too many good things.
You might miss out on some very important great things.
And you also talked about going through certain struggles.
You were 14.
You lost your dad.
It talked about you that affected your sports career, you know, to an extent financially.
What did that look like?
How did it affect it?
And how did you then still go on to become the ultra sportsman that you are?
Well, yeah.
So for me, one of the biggest struggle that I have faces is the loss of my dad at 14 years
old because the age is was an important age for me.
But also, he was an amazing guy, very, very charismatic.
And I really admire him a lot.
But also he had he had a disease.
He was alcoholic.
So I was dealing with that as well.
So as a son of an alcoholic.
So for me, it was it was a big, big, big thing, big trauma.
And and after that, you know, I developed these traumas.
I actually there I turn on the voices because I was always doing people policing because
I assume responsibilities that didn't belong to me, et cetera.
So then is when I decided to to quit.
I was a baseball national team player for Guatemala for seven years, very young.
I was very I was very talented.
I want to become I could become a professional baseball player.
But that situation just took me out of my mind.
And I went out.
So I started doing things that, you know, everybody does.
Well, which is obviously studying and having this kind of path of studying, getting a degree,
having a master degree, have a good job, get married, have children, have another good
job, et cetera.
Yeah.
So that that I did it.
And but but besides that, I was not doing necessarily my true calling because I was
so with so many things in my life.
And that is when I hit the black hole, what I call the black hole.
I went back in depression or I realized that I was I had depression and anxiety.
And then is when I decided to say, hey, like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go for medicines
if I know if I already know that my dad was an addict.
Obviously, probably I genetically I could have it as well.
And I said, I'm not gonna do it that way.
I'm gonna do it my own way.
And I said, I'm gonna go back to sports.
And that's what I choose going and doing the ultras back.
This is back in my first ultra was was in 2015.
I realized and make this decision in 2013, but the decision of doing the ultras I was
in the black hole in 2013.
And the decision to do the ultras was early late late 2014.
How old were you?
Right now I'm 42.
By that time I was 32.
You were 32 when you decided to go back into sports.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
So rare, you know, like, I can't imagine how many voices came at you.
And we're like, what are you doing?
You know, this is not the path.
That's not you're supposed to go to college to get a job and stay the course.
And like, well, yeah, I will tell you one of the main things that happened to me when
I so I have.
So after being a baseball player, I play for Guatemala soccer, U 17 national team as a
striker as well for two years.
This was when I was 16, 15 and 16 years old.
Latino version of Bo Jackson of Michael Jordan.
Well actually actually actually Michael Jordan birthday is the same as me.
I'm very sad.
What day is it?
February 17.
Oh, 17th October.
All right.
Good thing.
So when I decided to do the ultras, I have never run even five K before.
And I just went from zero to 50 miles or 84 kilometers.
And I said, when I said I made it so I made it public because I had a sponsor.
It was a rebranding of their brand rebranding of their is a water water beverage.
So it was a whole deal in media that I was saying that I was going to do to become an
ultra 32 years old, no running before.
So people because it became public.
Mainly your your closest people, right?
Family.
Yeah.
Are the ones who make all these noises.
Right.
And one of them very close, he said, you are going to die.
You are very irresponsible because you have children.
You have by that time, I already have the four children.
Oh, no, I have no, no, no, the four.
I have three children by that time.
Okay.
And I said, you know, don't do it.
And I said, I'm gonna do it.
So everybody started calling me crazy that I was crazy.
And I was or I am sure.
And and so that happened to me.
And I turned off the noises and I said, no, I feel it.
I know I have it.
I'm going to make it.
And imagine that I started I started with one ultra in 2015.
And in the last nine years, I have done 24 very competitive ultras, including taking
the to what taking the what I'm allowed to the first trade war championship in 2018.
I just came back from I just came back from Portugal last month.
I took what I'm allowed to the master sky running world championship.
Yeah.
And I have 42 now.
So at 42.
So so so yeah, everybody called me crazy.
And and I have those noises.
But for me, the the it's not about being stubborn or arrogant is about when you really feel
in yourself and it's for something greater than tension.
Then do it.
Yeah.
I can't ignore that.
You shouldn't.
I wouldn't.
I can't ignore.
And then and then there's another stuff.
When somebody tells you not do it.
Just like that is because they are talking from their own fears.
Yeah.
And and it only reflects that.
So so I that's more or less what I have been experiencing.
And it's not only one time.
It's a lot of times.
So I will tell you one more one more hit it.
2020.
I have been a corporate executive for 14 years.
Very corporate, very high level.
Very I started very young.
But in 2020, I decided to become a full time sports entrepreneur.
And I quit my corporate career.
With four children.
You can imagine.
They didn't call me crazy.
They call me stupid.
Yeah.
Delusional.
I've had that one too.
Delusional, stupid.
You know, yeah, absolutely.
You know, selfish, selfish, a lot.
But again, it's it's you want to have this dream and an idea, concept, and you really
believe it.
It's you.
You have to take your own risks as well.
It doesn't mean that it will be like Charlie, I just want to say it in case I never ever
have the chance again to say it.
I see what you do.
I don't see anything selfish about what you're doing.
I see the inspiration that it drives.
I know the importance of athletes on the world on inspiration.
I know how much it's motivated me to see people do things like what you do.
And I've talked to you behind the scenes.
I've gotten to hear about your priorities and all that.
And so if I just never have the chance to say, I'm gonna say it right now that what
you're doing is it's an amazing act of love.
And we don't have to choose those who are listening.
We don't have to choose over love, like self love over love of others.
There's this misconception in the world that that is selfish to love yourself.
No, it's a part of the equation of learning how to love others.
And you know, if you're you don't have to be Christian to believe this.
I just happen to believe that love is the greatest power there is.
And I think it's indisputable.
You know, and that's not fair to the scientists out there.
But nonetheless, you know, that is my superpower, the one that I want to lean into the most.
And I see what you do and I see the love in your heart as you do it.
How you fought through some tough stuff.
Has there been any rewards on the family front?
Have your kids and your wife gotten to see the great changes that it's driven for your
life?
We don't all get that.
Sometimes we do things like what you're doing and we never we never get the feeling of validation.
We just have to walk by faith.
But what are what are some of the positive outcomes on the other side of the hill there?
Well, I always said that I think in terms of my children, my family, I it's it's I always
said that is leading by example.
Eventually they will understand better.
I don't have any expectation that it has to be in this right moment.
But it's going to be the moment for them to when they face something that they will remember
what I have done.
And I'm not expecting to be immediately.
But I know that so far, all what I have done and now with the with the book that I'm close
to to launch, that is going to be the legacy for them to have it forever.
And, you know, being a dad of four children, it is a it is a blessing.
It is a responsibility.
And it's it's an act of love as well to to not be selfish.
And that is why why I appreciate what you said, because at the end of the day, when
I say for something greater than me includes them, obviously.
And and I always also said that I don't like to to use or try to avoid when people use
it to at least mention the word sacrifice.
Because for me.
Oh, I heard you there.
Now the audio turned off a little bit.
While you're getting your audio reconnected for me, for me, for me, the word sacrificing,
it's a it's a very hard word to use.
Yeah, because that means that it doesn't come from within.
It is not authentic and it doesn't have a it is not genuine.
So so that is one of the things that as a as a as a parent, I always try to to lean
on like it's if you are going to do something, it has to come.
You have to do it with great passion and because you really want it, it makes you happy, whatever
whatever it is what you're doing.
So yeah, that's that's what what I what I see about the things that I have been doing
and the experiences that I have been, you know, providing to them not to to be not to
be the same that I want that I am because I don't want that.
I want them to be themselves.
Yeah, but at least to have a reference of how things can be done.
And that's all.
I appreciate the authenticity in your answer.
And it's it would be so easy to the showboat or to feel like you have to, you know, like
find something colorful to say.
And at the same time, parenting and fatherhood and showing up, it means different things
for all of us and different people.
You know, the somebody who's in the military and they go to war when they're gone, you
know, especially years, decades ago when they were gone for years at a time, didn't know
when they'd see the family again.
The dynamic of that relationship with their children is different than mine.
It doesn't make my relationship better than theirs.
It's just different.
And so when I when people ask me how my kids are, I know the social acceptable answer is
supposed to be like, oh, they're good.
They're great.
You know, and I stop and I go, OK, healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy.
They're they're all healthy.
You know, and I hope they're happy.
That's my answer almost every time is I don't control their happiness.
I don't get to choose where they're happy.
Now, I'm not going to make it up.
If you want to know if they're happy, ask them.
But if not, then my focus is, are they healthy and are they learning to become their best
selves and do they love themselves?
Like that's all I really want for my kids is is for them to find them as best as possible.
And it's I hear you again, looking at that from a much deeper perspective than most parents
want to go.
And to me, that's that's the essence and beauty of life.
We're going to take a shift to leadership.
You've been in corporate America.
You've also been in sports and you've got a background just like everybody else.
What's the worst leadership experience that you've ever had?
Oh, that's a good one.
I like it.
I will say that being an entrepreneur, I think one of the worst experiences I had is when
I launched vertical sports performance, it was in covid.
There was so many so many distractions, so many stress, so many obstacles, so many things
going on.
In order to to manage these obstacles and I will say crisis, the team that I have put
in place, you know, they started to not all of them, but some of them do things that they
were it would it were not proper.
So I think that's kind of the worst experiences that I have ever faced because I always try
to help others.
Obviously, it's a job to help the company.
And I just felt frustrated for that.
We have a fraud situation.
So I think those kind of experiences, it's mainly when it's your own money, right?
When is your main startup?
Because when you are corporate, you are responsible as well.
But honestly, it's a different type of responsibility, even that you take it like personally, but
you own it.
But you don't own it.
So at the end of the day, you have that tranquility.
You call it an employee mentality.
Yeah, at the end of the day, it is that.
But when you face that, it's difficult.
So I think I will say that.
So this crisis management during COVID, I think it was my worst leadership experience
when I tried to see how I transformed that facilities, recovered investment and converted
into a sports company, flying and leaving the team there with trust.
It was tough because they always say in Spanish, enojo del amo, cengor del ganado, which means
that when you are watching your cows, you see them how they get big and because they
are eating.
But if you are not watching, probably the cows will not be there anymore.
So it means that you have to be present in your business and having eyes there.
So I think that's what happened.
But for me, it was a good experience to learn.
I always take this worse.
I will say, I always said my mindset is failing forward because these worst experiences, it
just makes us better for the next one.
Yes, it does.
If we allow ourselves to see the lesson behind and not the pain, that's a real win.
It's good when you win races or when you win games, but the most valuable lessons come
from when you lost and when you lost forward.
That's huge.
Thank you for that.
COVID experience was certainly a jarring reality for a lot of people.
It disrupted.
It created a lot of disruption for people.
It broke a lot of situations.
I try to remember, even in my worst moments, the art of a seed.
That seed, in order for it to grow, it has to break.
It's part of the process.
Then it has to dig through the dirt and feel lost in the dark for a while before it actually
comes to fruition.
Life can be a lot like that.
Then when you've got fraud situations that occur, it can be easy to…
Certainly there can be a character issue there, but I was talking to my team today about how
we as human beings become animalistic sometimes when we're in certain circumstances.
I told them a story about losing my daughter in a store when she was 10 years ago.
I got emotional just talking about it.
It's supposed to be funny.
It was like 10 minutes and she was right by us.
I was running outside and stopping cars, making sure nobody had kidnapped my daughter.
That animal reaction that comes in in certain circumstances does not define us during all
circumstances.
Whatever you went through with COVID on your side too, those are all opportunities to learn
from and see what are we going to become as we go through that.
There's too many stories to take away from that experience to dive in.
It's a whole book of its own probably, The Real Ultraman 2.
It probably has a separate space for that.
What about the best leadership?
What's the best leadership experience you've ever had?
I will say that in any space, not only professional, I will say that the best leadership experience
has been from a world perspective to open a new operation of a company that I used to
work in the fertilizer and chemical industry in Colombia.
I was in charge of opening the businesses in Colombia.
It was an amazing experience in a way that when leadership really comes out because you
don't know anyone, you have to build everything from scratch.
The team, the office, everything that you can imagine.
Long story short, building a team, that's the most important thing.
Finding the right talent, the right people for the needs of the stage of the project
or the company and then putting together those talents.
What about in your passion project?
I'm going to switch your gears a little bit.
In these races or in your training, your personal training development, what about that?
Where is the best leadership experience you've had or even seen?
Is there somebody who's helped you along that path?
Is there somebody you've helped a moment where you're like, dang, this was it?
I would say I got to give you credit.
What you're doing, that in and of itself to me, trumps the corporate leadership experience
like 20 billion times over.
Let's take the opposite angle.
Let's go to sports style.
For sports, for me, there are, I will say, two or three big experiences.
The first one was when I was a baseball player.
There is a, this is cruel because I always, for some reason, I always been on the newspaper
since I was very young.
I don't know.
Although it can handsome.
It kind of happens, Charlie.
Well, but yeah, so I have this newspaper article, one of them, it's me leading the team after
qualifying the national Guatemala team to the Pan American baseball tournament in Puerto
Rico.
I think in that, in the series, I always been a leader of the team, even though in baseball
you don't have captains like soccer.
But I will say that experience in youth sports.
And then as an ultra, when I started, similar as I was mentioned before about this Columbia
stuff was to put a high performance team around me.
So I invited an sports medicine expert.
He was one of the initial coaches that I have high performance for the ultras.
His name is Carlos Ramirez.
He has a PhD degree in the sports science.
He lives in Europe now.
He works for the national team of rugby, national team.
So he's very, very sharp.
So I invited him to this team.
Then I invited a nutritionist.
She was, this was, you know, 2015, 16.
So I invited her.
She later, she became the Guatemala soccer national team nutritionist.
And then she became the main professor at the biggest, at the best university private
for the nutrition faculty.
That was after, after we did created this team.
So what I'm trying to tell you is this leadership skills about finding the right talent and
then see them grow the way that they did.
It's for me, it's, it's a, it's just, I will say I wasn't, I wasn't wrong.
That's probably one of the things.
And then I will say, you know, they really push beyond themselves.
And that's what I, what I, what I have seen.
And then there's a third one that I have for that team.
It's a, it's a, it's a running coach.
His, his name is Jacob.
And he's from us and Canada, but he's one of the top international runners globally
for a long time.
So I will say that.
And yeah, that's in, in sports, that's the main thing.
And then the third one, it is more when you do these self-supported race, races, you have
to make a crew.
So last year I did my, my second extreme triathlon in my, well, my second triathlon in my life,
but I only have done extreme triathlons.
And I put a crew without knowing the crew.
So it, it teach me how to be a good communicator.
And he, he, he's a Brazilian.
I barely speak Portuguese.
He speaks Spanglish, Portuñol, and he speaks good English.
But the good thing is that trying to communicate, not necessarily just in words.
And that's what baseball taught me about my communication skills are also a more visual
and more.
So it not necessarily have to be always words.
Right.
And I think that's what I'm seeing from your story too, is you have a gift for recruiting.
That's evident, but your greatest superpower, in my opinion, on your recruiting is your
disciplines.
Right.
You don't have to convince somebody that you're amazing as an ultra marathon athlete when
you compete and when you win and when you're exercising those disciplines, it's not like
you have to talk to somebody into believing that.
So that, that recruiting mechanism of leading by example is what I've seen in all three
of these equations is the people who aligned with that.
And I've saw that gravitate towards you as well.
And so yes, there's some words that go along with it, but in reality, the best leadership
is taking place because you're giving your all to these experiences.
Is that fair to say?
Yeah, it's fair.
It's fair to say it's fair.
Yeah.
We're going to hit it.
We're going to hit one more thing because we're running out of time, but I want to make
sure I ask this question.
It's my favorite question.
If this was the last chance that you had to share a powerful truth with entrepreneurs,
visionaries, leaders, sports athletes, anybody who's going after their visions, what powerful
lesson can other visionaries learn from your experience?
I would say that there will be always obstacles.
No matter how hard it gets, if it really comes from within, you are going to be there.
And that's what I, one of the powerful lessons is, and I have faced obstacles when I have
to, in these 24 ultras that I have done the last nine years, I have DNF, three of them.
And one of them, or I will say three of them, obviously I didn't want to, but also there's
another place when you have to.
In my case for medical conditions, for example, or for an injury or something that could become
worse.
So being mindful that you will face obstacles, that you will give everything that you can,
but also that it's okay to quit if the situation is not good for your future or long term.
It's fair to do it.
Like everybody talks about resilience and endure, and obviously that's what I do.
But also I have to know that if I want to continue to do this, sometimes I have to say
this time I have to step up.
And that's okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
So sometimes we, as much as we give, sometimes we, let me make sure I understood that, sometimes
we have to listen to our body, heart, or mind and put a boundary up on our desire to push
through.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
It's correct.
Even that you can have the mindset to, but it's going to be detrimental in the long term.
There are some, I always say that everything that you face and the way that you are facing
that challenge, if it happens something, it has to happen.
And it's not a bad thing.
It's just like, I have DNF these races, for example, one of the best races in the world,
Ultra Tray du Mont Blanc.
I did it twice.
The first one was the hundred kilometers.
The second one was the hundred miles or 175 kilometers.
First one I went very good.
One of my best races in my life, the 100K, that was 2016.
2018 I went to the bigger one, a hundred miles.
And I was really doing it very well.
But in kilometer 140, 140 remaining 30 kilometers more.
You said why he's DNF, why he's quitting?
He's so close.
But you feel it.
And it's okay.
It's fair to do it.
You're saying you knew, you could feel that you were over DNF meaning did not finish.
You knew to shut it down.
But that taught me exactly to also be humble.
It's okay because sometimes we only push for ego.
And that could be detrimental in the long term.
So what is the intention behind it?
Is to win or to finish the race just because I have to have the ego to say I finished?
Or it's because it's for something greater.
If it's for something greater, saying, you know, I have to leave the race because I have
this and I don't want to.
That's for something greater.
That's the lesson.
And that's good as well as being in the finish line.
I appreciate the balance on that because, you know, I think some people confuse, you
know, some of the sports quotes and context, right?
The mamba mentality out of Kobe Bryant.
He still knew his limits.
You know, and if we're not careful and we're not really paying attention to what our individual
needs and limits are and our ability to push through, then we can break ourselves.
I like the analogy that we should push ourselves outside of our limits, right?
We should stretch ourselves out of our comfort zone.
But if you take a rubber band and you stretch it too far, you can break it.
And if you break it, it's useless.
There's not really any going back at that point.
So there's a prudence that exists within us that we want to maintain that feeling, that
vision at full strength to not overdo it, to not also leave behind opportunities.
Sometimes you do have to just push through, but only you know that, right?
It's something that's internal, not necessarily something an outside coach can reveal.
So thank you for this.
This was awesome.
We went over and I'm grateful that you were willing to go over with me.
And those of you listening in, we're going to put links in the description so you can
follow along as the book comes out.
We'll also get a link added to that.
There will be in the action steps below the episode.
And if any of you are listening in, even if you're not an ultra marathon runner, even
if you're not competing at the greatest events in the world or building the biggest companies,
if you have a vision that's helping others, then there's a button in the top right corner
for you that says, be our guest.
We'd love to have you.
We're looking for excellent leaders, people who are wanting to inspire, deliver knowledge
to others and goodness to others.
And I'm not the judge of how important your vision is.
I'm just here to explore it.
And I find it a lot of fun.
So if you want to join us, please do.
Charlie, thank you so much again for joining us in Vision Pros Live.
And everybody have a fantastic rest of your day.
We'll see you guys in the next episode.
Take care, everybody.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision.