Good morning, good afternoon and good evening everybody and welcome to today's episode of the Never Peak Project Podcast.
Guys, today we're taking a little bit of a break from the usual Mindset Monday and Business Update episodes that we have every Friday for something a little bit different.
One of our very first guest episodes is going to be with a returning guest that helped me throughout my journey across the country do walk updates.
I think we recorded two or three.
So not too many updates, but I think that they were very impactful in terms of that beginning, middle, end-ish portion of the walk.
But today I want to bring him back so that we can talk a little bit about what I've been doing post-walk.
It's been about what two-ish months since I finished walking across the country.
So I just wanted to bring back my good friend, brother, I don't know, maybe future podcast partner, Stephen Concephan.
Stephen, how's it going?
Hey, good.
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
I'm excited to see what you've been up to since you've stopped walking.
And yeah, how have things been?
Really good.
I have done a ton of stuff since I've gotten back.
Something that I was telling my life coach when I was finishing up my walk was when I finished walking, I want to hit the ground running.
And I feel like that has been what I've been doing.
You know, so seeing a lot of people focusing on the business and just trying to recap everything from the walk.
It's been a lot.
When you say recap, what does that mean?
Yeah.
So during the journey every single day, what was it?
175 days, so March 10th through August 31st, I tried to keep notes throughout each day of the journey.
Just little things here and there, people that I met, interactions that I had, just the memorable experiences from each day.
So right now I'm currently done, I think up to day 55 or 60 or so in terms of actual day updates.
And that process of documenting it and recapping it, a lot of writing is what I mean by that.
But each day takes me anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half because I'm going through pictures, text messages, emails, trying to make sure that I pack as much as I can into those day updates.
I noticed that, you know, I feel like there's a lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda's from the walk.
But I wish that I had kept better notes throughout it, especially since I had so much time to do it.
Again, I was dodging cars all day every day, but it would have been a lot easier.
Like Frogger.
Like Frogger, yeah.
Did you, when you're looking back on your memos and messages that you've recorded, were there any of them that were like day 53, the voices in my head?
Peter, the horse is here. No, not really. I don't think I really thought that my journal was going to be a descent into madness. I made that joke before I started.
But no, I feel like the what is it like the morale or I don't know, my sanity was kept very high throughout the entire adventure because I was able to talk to people.
Like I called you a few times. I talked to Brett almost every day, if not every other day. Talked to Julie all the time. I had access to people at all times.
So I never really had anything weird like that. I definitely think the in-person interactions for a period there were a little bit few and far between, but that only lasted for a couple days.
And even then it was not that big of a deal.
Right. So you're you're looking through these your your messages and your memos and you're compiling it, compiling it for what?
Yeah. So there are three books that I would like to write at least. The very first one is just the journal. So that's just going to be a I guess a transcription of all 175 days.
What I was doing each day, the thoughts that were going through my head, the things that happened, the people that I met as much as I kept track of and can remember.
And that's just going to be a very, I don't know, very basic just a biography of the walk. I don't want to I don't want to edit things out of it. I want to be very much unabridged as much as possible.
It's going to be very long. It's going to be very redundant. And I was telling that to our buddy William that we went to college with.
And I was, you know, we were on a hike and I think we were like we're a few miles in and I was telling him about the books and I something that I noticed about the book so far the journal is that every day starts and ends kind of the same.
It's like I woke up, I got ready, I stretched my body hurt, I started walking. And then the days are a little bit different. And then it's I got picked up or I got to my final destination.
I ate, looked at my ref for the next day, made a few text messages, went to bed. I'm like, you know, just feels very redundant. And it's like the same thing over and over and over again.
I don't know how to make it not sound redundant. And he said something else like, damn, that's why I keep you around Billy. But he was like, well, isn't that just the process?
Like, isn't that the lesson there? Is that sometimes to get where you want to go? Like there is that redundancy that you have to get used to. So damn it, that's gonna make it into the second book.
So the first book is very much just good.
I was gonna say, see, you talked about the trilogy. And the first book is you're saying is going to be just a recap of your walk, right?
Exactly.
And then do you know what two and three are going to be about? Yeah. So the second one is going to be a more it's going to use lessons from my life, my walk and post walk.
I think it's going to take a few years to get out. So I'm sure I'll have plenty of extra stories from that experience.
But that one's going to be a little bit more of a I don't know how to put it like a self help wife coach II kind of book, really just putting in all of my, you know, my thought processes, the metaphors that I'm coming up with.
I've been writing some articles here and there about it. But just, you know, instead of just a day to day recap of the walk, I want to use the actual lessons that I learned with the stories that I gained from the walk.
So for example, the one that I just wrote for my website is lily pads and the frogs, how to chunk down big goals into manageable steps.
So that's a process that I use when I was planning my walk was, you know, I'm basically the way I thought, which is funny, you just said that the Frogger joke, but the way that I kind of saw the whole walk was I'm just a frog getting from one side of the pond to the other.
And instead of looking at the entire map of the US and being overwhelmed by, you know, all three ish thousand miles that I was going to walk. How do I chunk it down into these smaller objectives kind of like checkpoints in a video game, right?
So instead of, you know, one big jump, how do I chunk it down from lily pad to lily pad to lily pad and swim in between.
So it's just going to be lessons like that and explaining how that can apply to people's life, their business, nonprofit, family, etc.
And then I have a whole bunch of other ones, which I feel like that could even just be a whole other episode is a sneak peek of the book.
And then, you know, conversations post walk, like the one that I had with William about the process and the redundancy or monotony that life can kind of have at times, or, you know, just other conversations I've had with people about the walk and their takeaways and things that I learned from that.
Mm hmm.
So obviously these books are going to be like New York time bestsellers and all that stuff. Well, yeah, I hope you buy enough.
All 30,000 copies will be all 30,000 copies off of a teacher salary.
Are you how are you going to publish these are you to go through a publishing agency, are you going to I know a lot of people they they publish through like Amazon.
Yeah, I thought about that. Yeah, and I feel like the hard thing on this also is if you Google something or you look on Reddit or any Facebook group ever that everybody gives you such crazy different answers.
And it's again very overwhelming. So I think that the the method that I'm going to take at least for the journal would probably be just self publishing on Amazon.
Just get it up. What was it one of the people that I stayed with Michael and Diane, the bird sanctuary people he offered to do a cover for at least one of the books so have him do a book I thought that was really sweet.
So I'm not actually be really cool.
Anyone who like helped you along the way. Yeah, if they're willing to like, create a cover for you. Yeah.
So I thought that that was really cool because I was like, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do for this. Am I just going to have chat GPT throw something together. Am I just going to take a picture and throw it up there but I was just like cool as long as I'm okay with parrots and the birds from a sanctuary being in there in some way.
I'm sure it'll be fine. Yeah.
But yeah so self publish that one at least, and I would really love to figure out I have a few friends that are authors one of my teachers from high school, Mrs. McHenry she's a published author, like dozens of books I think.
One of my coaches that I've worked with MK Chavez she's also an author so I'm going to reach out to them and kind of see hey, how does this work what did you do how would you recommend I tackle this, because I've seen some things that say some publishers will pay you to write the book, like
kind of an advance like a few grand to focus on doing the book so I think that that would be really cool. But yeah, that would be cool. I don't know if they're going to give me anything for being some random schmuck that is writing one of these so but I would really love to figure out a way to be published with somebody for the more self help life coachy one or the third one.
Yeah, and, um, for the third one, I was gonna say for the third one.
I'm not sure when I would write it out probably write that one before the big one, but I would really love to do one called Walker across America.
And, you know, the cat that I found Walker. I think that making a children's book version of my walk, and just kind of again break down those concepts that I learned to a more elementary school age level. One would help me understand them more and be able to explain it to more people.
But I think that that would be. But I think that that would be more valuable for kids as well. Like how do you make a big goal how do you overcome your sabotaging voice how do you determine what the most important next step is etc etc etc.
I think kind of using him as the, the focal point would be super cute. And I think that also was that the people that I stayed with most of them had animals or some kind of creature associated with them, so like the bird sanctuary.
They would be parrots. And then, you know, I don't know like my relatives that I stayed with, they would be cats, and then I stayed with a guy that had a great Pyrenees and what else, just, oh the reptile sanctuaries that I stayed with you know so I'm like I feel like all of them could be associated with some kind of animal in some way, shape or form.
I just think that would be kind of actually be really cool because there are mean. It's already hard enough being a kid, and like, they don't know how to one they don't know how to problem solve but they don't know how to really set them up set themselves up for success to achieve their goals either.
Yeah, and I feel like a lot of the, which you can also, I don't know, elaborate on as well from your experience with teaching. I feel like a lot of the education is focused on very basic math, science, listen to the book, do what you need to do, get the grade, go home, go to college, repeat, repeat, repeat.
So I feel like having those more soft skills of how do you actually plan for something how do you actually look forward five 10 months or years.
And what happens when your plans go out the window, because my experience going to Davis to be a veterinarian.
Like I had no idea what to do once I realized I wasn't going to graduate with that degree.
So I feel like being able to play for that would be helpful.
Yeah, and that's the other thing is like the students there. They're so close minded and it's not even a fault of theirs. It's just that they don't have the experiences to to really think out of the box and and see well this is a possibility for me in the future.
How do I get there. They're not capable of thinking that just yet maybe some of them but not a whole lot. Yeah, being able to so. Yeah, just look at things differently.
There's an exercise that in one of the books I read $100 million offers by Alex Hermosie. He has something he calls the brick exercise.
Have you ever heard of that.
No. Okay. So basically, the what he does is he says you have two minutes 120 seconds to write down every use you can think of for brick.
And most people will say things like, you know, build a house, break a window, maybe a tire stop doorstop.
And they kind of just have like you know four to 10 things listed on there.
And then he says awesome stop at 120 seconds.
And then he says, great. But did you consider the color, what the brick is made out of the size of it if there's holes in it if it's a different shape than a normal brick. And then he gives them another 120 seconds.
And then it's like you know, gold brick use as currency silver brick use this currency.
Small brick with holes Lego.
Big brick with holes, a house for fish.
A brick, a chair to sit on, you know, so it's like bringing it down from like these typical uses and just looking at it more creatively rather than just, you know, he said a brick, not a clay brick, not a building brick right he didn't say that specifically.
Yeah, so I feel like that.
I can't remember what it's exactly called but it's like that close thinking versus possibility thinking. So, that would be something that I would want to incorporate into that book somehow because you know again, moving back to the walk.
There were a few times where I had to be kind of creative and how I was fixing things or getting things moving or making quick repairs or, you know, protecting myself at times.
Right.
So, you talked about when you're in your journal, how your daily routine was like and things like that. What exactly was your daily routine.
Yeah, so I think it kind of varied but it was very much. It was very basic right.
So, generally my daily routine.
Let's say I didn't have a host family and I stayed at a campground or something.
My aim was to always wake up as early as possible.
So if I was, if I had slept on my route, I didn't get picked up I didn't get moved around at all. I would wake up as early as I possibly could typically about an hour or so before sunrise.
Start stretching start eating wash up, you know, use the bathroom, start stretching a little bit.
Then I would just start walking. Typically, I think maybe one out of five or six times I had a flat or I had something I needed to fix on the cart or my gear.
So I tried to knock that out as soon as I could.
And then, yeah, just kind of walk for a few hours.
A few rules that I made up for myself were the first one's kind of silly but P every chance you get, which you know if there is a nice hidden area outside, do that.
If there is a gas station or food place, do that as well right use the bathroom, because there were a few times where I was like no I just need to get to the next spot like I don't want to waste 3040 seconds.
I'm just going to keep going. And then I got screwed, and there wasn't a bathroom that was public use for another hour or two.
And that's something that also is going to get into the book but in a different way I can touch on that later.
What else is there refill water every chance you get. So up until I'd say Amarillo, I was averaging about two to three gallons of water per day.
And then after Amarillo, it was up to four or three to four and a half gallons of water a day.
So I would refill water every chance I got get snacks every chance I got and just make sure that I was always good on food and water.
So usually around, you know, halfway through the day or so I would stop for lunch.
I didn't have any specific like I need to stop for an hour I need to stop for 30 minutes.
A lot of times I didn't really take a lunch break, I would stop just long enough to, you know, make the little tuna salad sandwich or open up the bars or whatever it is that I was eating or grab fast food, and then eat it while I was walking.
Because for a couple reasons one I was kind of always on a time crunch, because I always tried to get to where I was going before sunset.
Or if I had a host family that was going to pick me up at the end of the day. I wanted to make sure that I got as far as I possibly could, just to avoid any issues the next day or, you know, to make the next day easier was always kind of on my mind.
And the other reason if I stopped for too long, everything starts to hurt.
The object in motion stays in motion, but if I took a break for too long, then I have to, you know, restretch and re get myself back up to speed.
But typically around halfway point I also tried to stretch and do a few things that Stephanie my yoga instructor sent.
And then I would just keep going.
What was it throughout the day people would usually stop or check on me or see what was going on so that was always nice to kind of chitter chat and talk to people.
And then at the end of the day, I would either set up camp at the campground I had walking to the hotel that I booked, or get picked up by a host family that would take me back to their house, and then they would drop me back off there the next day.
So, again, very basic wake up, start walking, keep walking till I can't anymore get picked up or set up camp and started over the next day.
When you were walking, basically every day because that's what you're doing. Did you ever have any like epiphanies about yourself about life about your journey.
What, what was that like.
I think one of the biggest epiphanies that I had is in terms of people, I think that the biggest one would just be that everybody's out there trying to do what's best for them.
And that's not saying it in a way that is self centered. I had this conversation with another coach recently actually the difference between selfish and self centered.
I feel like a lot of people really are selfish, comma, and that's okay.
Like everybody is there, like they're looking out for number one, right, they're trying to make sure that them and their families can get to the next day that they're doing everything that they have at their disposal to move forward, right.
And that came to a front a few times like when I would ask people if I could set up camp in their front yard and they would say no.
Or if I would post online and people would say nasty things. I'm like, well, like that's just their worldview. That's what they want to do. Right.
And I feel like those, those last few things I said were kind of focus on the negative aspect of it.
But I think really what the helm of that was, was just staying with so many different people all across the country seeing how many people live differently from what I'm used to or even what people down the street are doing differently.
Like, there is no right way to do things.
It's just all so focused on again like that very I always try to think of things like when somebody does something or says something or exhibits a behavior I don't understand.
I try to it sounds a little bit weird, but like, why would a caveman do that?
Right. Like, why would a caveman not let a stranger like, what is it set up camp outside of their cave?
Well, it's because they want to protect their family. They want to protect their, their wife, their kids. They don't, they don't really know me. Right.
Then I was like, OK, well, how would that?
Again, this is a funny example. I mean, in one of my podcasts, I compared people to cows. So my little weird metaphors.
But then, like, you know, how would I get somebody to trust me? Right. Like, I would have social proof. I would be trustworthy. I would be the type of person that should be trusted.
And that's why I started trying to post a lot more on social media. Like, I started being a little bit more outspoken about the people that are helping me and other people like kind of like testimonials in the business. Right.
Like, the more good reviews you see, the more likely you are to work with that person.
So I think that that's another thing, too, that I learned a lot about during the journey was like these different business aspects and like tips and tricks that I'd heard in all of the content that I consumed and listened to.
And like, it started to kind of make sense and I started to find some parallels.
So I think that's a lot of it is like human behavior was something that I started to understand a little bit more.
And as I learn more about psychology and behavior, I think things will start to make more and more sense, especially for the book and my own understanding.
Does that answer your question? Did you notice? Yeah. OK. Did you notice that?
Different either states or regions or or even cities?
The people behaved or acted differently.
I feel like this is like a point of contention in the Walker community, because I feel like I've heard from a bunch of other walkers that typically in cities, people are more rude or they're more.
Different to you. And I kind of disagree.
I feel like no matter where I was, like every day, there were people that were stopping to talk to me and ask me what I was doing and offer support or, you know, give me water or food or donations or just ask me questions.
And I definitely felt like there was more.
I kind of called it so on the maps, when you look at them, the cities are typically like these blotches of white, right, like the cement and the buildings.
So I was always kind of more cautious of the white areas on the map as opposed to the green or blue or whatever.
And the reason for that is like, you know, the more people there are, the more problems you could face.
So I think just the population density kind of does warrant itself to being more issues with people.
But at the same time, I was in the middle of nowhere and being a walker, you're the easiest target.
Like, what am I going to do? Chase after them?
Like, I can't do anything, right? So it's a very vulnerable experience.
But no, between the cities or the country areas, I didn't notice any major difference in how people treated me.
I think something that could be a pattern was that in the cities, there are more people.
So you would kind of think that more people would stop. And that wasn't the case.
And I think that also goes back to the same thing that we said earlier, which was, you know, everybody is so caught up in their own lives, like not everybody has time to be curious or willing to take the few extra minutes out of their day to ask what the guy walking down the street and the guard that I had is doing.
Right. Or they just don't trust me. They don't know who I am. They don't. Maybe they didn't see the signs. They can't read from that far.
I think it's just, again, bleeding into that whole idea of what was it?
Somebody asked me if I felt if I felt sad or frustrated or mad or whatever, and people said no.
Like to me asking to stay with them or posting on these pages trying to find a place to stay. And it's like the risk versus reward for them is so teeter totter if they don't know who I am at all.
Like the reward of me staying with them is they help me out. They feed me. They give me a ride and nothing happens.
But on an actual level, the risk is I murder their family. Right. Like it's it's it's just like I totally understand where you're coming from. And I'm not going to be upset if you say no.
I just need you to tell me yes or no. And then we can go from there. Right. So that was something that I noticed throughout the time.
And well, I think I kind of understand what you're saying, because, well, while you were doing your walking, I also went on a little journey myself.
And I went to New York and I walked all over the place in New York.
So I understand your struggle, the 30 miles you walked every day and.
Yeah, I'll put you on the plaque.
My friend, she told me, she said, you know, Stephen, you can't just be like this isn't California.
You can't just go up to people and like talk to them like they're your best friend.
Like you basically kind of have to be rude and you got to ignore them.
And I was like, oh, now this is already like two days of me staying in New York.
And I was like, oh, well, I've already been saying hello and talking to strangers and doing all the things that you're telling me not to do.
And she was like, oh, OK, well, you need to stop.
And I said, oh, that's that's a bunch of baloney. Watch.
And as we're saying this, we're walking back to her house and and I saw some people in the street and said, watch this.
And so we walked past. And I was like, oh, hi, how are you?
And and no idea who these people were.
And they stopped mid-sentence and they're like, hi.
And the other person said, hi, I'm good. How are you?
I said, oh, I'm doing great. Thanks. And I just kept walking.
And I walked back to my friend and I said, see, I told you and and I think regardless of where you are, everybody knows how to be nice.
You know, everybody recognizes a smile.
I think that's going to be a sound bite for sure.
But no, I think you're totally onto something like I tried to wave at every single car that passed by and give a smile and like be be what I want to see.
Like, I think that's the biggest thing, too, is like the whole point of my walk was to find the good people.
Like, you know, there are good people out there became so cornerstone to Rangers walk across the country.
And I think that that like you you you attract what you put out.
Right. And I think that you might know like the more spiritually terms for that.
Like, what is it like? Is it karma? Is it something you know, I'm trying to get at or?
I guess it's just energy matching, energy matching. Yeah.
And yeah, I mean, what was it? There was one thing as I was getting into California, people were starting to warn me more.
I mean, people told me that I was silly for doing the whole thing to begin with and telling me that, you know, people are going to mug me or stab me or do all these crazy things.
And and I've come out stab free.
So to everybody that said that all my ligaments, all my pieces and parts are still here. I lost a couple toenails.
That's on me. But when I was getting into California, they were saying, hey, you know, like you're walking through San Bernardino.
You're one was I was walking through Joshua Tree. So, you know, one hundred and twenty miles of nothing and nobody.
And then I was walking through twenty nine palms into San Bernardino, into East L.A., into West L.A., right?
So people were like, oh, like you'll you just have to survive the desert.
But then you're getting kind of into these people were telling me like you're getting into like the kind of ghetto areas.
Be careful where you walk. And, you know, they were telling me about what is it? Skid Row in Los Angeles.
And that was something that I knew was like there are certain communities and neighborhoods that you should avoid.
But like, I don't I don't know them all.
Like and I've told people some places that I walk through and they kind of look at me like you walk through there. Why?
I'm like, well, Google Maps doesn't tell you, hey, buddy, this is a high crime area or, you know, if I spent hours Googling every city I walk through, like that would just be insane.
Right. Like I would go crazy trying to map everything out.
But when you're walking, you'd still be walking because you would you would be zigzagging your way through the United States.
I do doing a walk around America, not across.
And I also do feel like, you know, there was one exception.
I was told by almost like, you know, maybe hundreds of people on a post that I made to not walk through Memphis.
And they said it was a very hot, super, super high crime area.
And, you know, people were telling me very specific routes to walk through. So then that's why I kind of decided, hey, if if a lot of people are giving me these bad reviews, like we're kind of talking about testimonials a minute ago, maybe I really should avoid this area.
But nothing, no other city I walked through was as bad as what people were saying about Memphis, which like I feel like a lot of people were also saying it can be done.
Just be careful. And I do want to visit Memphis because I do feel like there is a lot of history there and a lot of cool places I want to see.
But maybe not walking with all of my stuff on me. Right.
But back to California, there's, you know, higher homeless populations because throughout the entire walk, I never really encountered a lot of people that were homeless.
I do remember at one point in the middle of New Mexico on this like 80 mile stretch of nothing. Right.
I passed another guy that was walking east. He wasn't walking across the country, but he was he he didn't well he didn't say he was I assume he wasn't so maybe I should have asked.
But you know what I mean? Like that was probably the only experience I had of like a potentially homeless guy walking across also or walking near me.
Yeah, but kind of what we're seeing like the dangerous thing like I did encounter some homeless people while I was in San Bernardino and Los Angeles.
So what was it? There were three stories.
I think two were in San Bernardino. One was in Los Angeles.
And I think it was like one of those moments that your own personal biases and your worldview kind of come into play.
And you kind of realize that maybe the way I see the world or the way I see other people isn't great.
But I had what was I think I had just gotten into the outskirts of San Bernardino and I was walking by a gas station and Dollar General and a few other things.
They weren't even open yet because it was so early.
And as I was walking I was about to cross the street at a red light and there was another guy walking so I was going this way. He was going to like meet me like we're going to like bisect right.
And as he was walking I started walking and he said something I didn't quite hear what he said like like something something Gatorade.
And I was like like I could feel like I didn't want to interact with this guy like he was a homeless guy.
I felt scared like I could feel that tightness in my chest. My hands were kind of shaking like I was nervous that something was going to happen.
And I was like oh no man I don't have any on me I'm sorry.
And he like stopped and looked at me and he was like no do you want any Gatorade.
I have an extra. And I was like oh oh no I'm I'm good man.
I'm sorry. Thank you. I appreciate I have like water already. It's like all right man be safe in this heat and like walked away.
And I was like oh that was very pleasant.
And then what was it there was another guy I think later that day.
Like I think he looked like he was living out of his car and he kind of just and I could tell because there's like clothes drying on it.
And he kind of like yelled at me like hey what are you doing. And I was against a little spooked.
I was like oh you know walk into the coast.
Dude that's cool as hell you want some water. I'm like oh no I'm good I have a few gallons.
It's like best of luck brother you know.
So there was just a few things like that. And there was another gal that I walked by.
And again you just feel whenever you walk by someone like on the sidewalk like I feel like the thing is like look forward do not look at them do not engage because they're just going to ask you for something right.
But she was sitting there eating lunch. And as I walked by she like held it up and was like do you want some.
And I'm like no but thank you. You know like so I was just like that's no but yeah.
I'm like I really like I really like ramen.
But yeah so it's just like those kinds of things like those like those moments of clarity of your worldview kind of being shattered and like the best way possible.
I think we're impactful.
You mentioned some some people's reactions to your your journey and what has surprised you the most about how people have reacted I guess like before your walk during your walk and after your walk.
So I'm going to go on both sides here I'm going to say the support side first.
I was not expecting so many strangers to be willing to let me stay with them. I thought that a lot more of my nights were going to be roughing it out in the cold in the middle of nowhere.
Staying in hotels which get expensive very fast obviously.
But just the insane amount of support that I got like from South Carolina all the way to California.
I think California is the only state where I didn't stay with a stranger and that's because I have friends and families in California obviously because that's where I'm from.
So I just think that again their willingness to support to help out and again let me stay in their houses with their family at times right.
So I think that that just really speaks volumes of the type of people that are out there that people they want to see good in the world and that that's what you are promoting that that's what you're doing.
I feel like a lot of people are very much willing to support that.
So I think that on the.
And then it's the interesting thing too is like on the in person side I got insane amounts of support and nice words and like I never really had anything aggressive happen.
The only aggressive thing that happened in person was dogs and even then it's like they're just protecting their houses right.
Like I have to protect myself at the end of the day but they're protecting their families too.
Sure.
But I would say on the on the negative side there were times when I was on the news or I would post things.
Actually nobody ever really made any bad comments on my own posts.
But like when I was on the news or other people posted about me I would get some like very negative comments and a lot of them were kind of around like.
What was it they were there were some that were like you know if he really wants to make a difference he would promote this this this and this or how in the hell is this supposed to do any good or that's the dumbest thing ever or what else is there.
Oh I can't believe my tax money is going to support idiots like this.
I got something like that once and I'm like my brother in Christ like I saved up for three years for this.
My bank accounts are drained. I'm not using any like what what government program do you think I'm on.
Like I'd love you know because I want to apply for at this point.
But like I'm not you know like people like there are some people that took offense to it.
And I think a lot of that kind of does stem from I mean this is top of mind right now from this morning's presentation.
But a lot of it really does come from that like sabotaging voice that a lot of people have like they have these stories of how they view the world how they think about their own capabilities.
So I think that seeing someone do something that is so out of the norm that doesn't align with their status quo or how they think the world should work like really does make them feel attacked.
Therefore they go on the offensive. So even when people would say things like that I never really I couldn't really I don't know I didn't want to take it as an attack.
But more so like I what I really wanted to do was be like very curious with them and kind of coach them through it.
But I was advised that perhaps when people are pissed off on the Internet throwing coaching questions at them may not be the best way to not have them try to hunt you down and run you over with their car.
I don't think that that would happen and I have talked to other walkers that do kind of clap back to what people say.
Like if they say something negative they will respond and nothing ever happened to them.
But I just didn't want to increase any chances of finding the bad people.
Right. So I would typically just not engage with them but just be super positive with everybody else that was taking time to comment on that.
So I think the what the 95 percent of positive interactions I had like are not overshadowed at all by the five percent of bad interactions I had.
Yeah absolutely. In our first podcast together I asked you a question.
Oh boy. And you refuse to answer it. And ever since then people have always been like oh my gosh Stephen what's the what was the what was the answer.
What's the answer. They want to know. People want to know.
I asked you what what were what safety precautions and what protective equipment were you utilizing to protect yourself along the journey.
And for your own protection some people can disarm you. You chose not to answer the question.
And since you're no longer on the walk will you answer the question. The people want to know.
Heck yes. So in terms of self defense and safety measures that I took the very first thing was I don't know I asked the question a lot of people ask me did I carry a firearm.
Did I carry any kind of like handgun or anything. And the answer is no I did not have any type of pew pew on me at any moment.
I asked a few other walkers if they carried one and every single one said no. There's a book called How to Walk Across America and Not Be an A-hole.
In that book which is that's kind of like what I found is like the Bible for walking across the country like he goes over everything like the socks the shoes the weather the this the that the.
The route the strategy right. Yeah the main reason is it's heavy like firearms ammo main maintenance if they get wet if they get rusted like it causes issues and then if you are looking to depend on that that's it's going to cause issues right.
It's going to weigh you down. It's just going to be another thing to worry about.
Laws and jurisdictions are very different even by county let alone states or cities right. So I tried to look into it I tried to see if I could get some kind of like concealed carry permit but it was like it would take almost a year to get them all and by the time I started looking into it.
I was like basically a year out. So it was like everything needs to align and be approved in order to even be able to get one. So I decided to just kind of forego that and not focus on that.
And the other thing too is what was it if you are relying on a firearm it changes how you psychologically deal with issues right.
Some of the advice I got was there really aren't going to be any issues that you can't talk your way out of but if you rely on that firearm like if you are in the middle of nowhere and you know that the issue there would be more like animals right.
Not that big of a deal but if you are having interaction or altercation with the person if you pull that trigger no matter what like the walk is over.
Like you can't come back from that like if you whether or not you actually hit someone or like it it it changes it changes the game. So I decided to forego that completely and thankfully I was never in any situation where I even thought about even slightly needing to use one.
But what I did carry was pepper spray a stun gun a few pocket knives and at one point a machete.
So the pepper spray and the stun gun were things that I had from the very beginning. I always had the pepper spray in my little pouch and the stun gun it was like a little like a little hand taser thing right.
Like it wasn't maybe that's even though it doesn't shoot anything it just like very close quarters. That was always in the side strap of my backpack.
But the I didn't realize you have to charge it all the time so at one point like a few states and I checked to see if it still worked and it was dead so I was like well thank God I didn't need it.
So then I started charging every every few nights, just to make sure it was good.
But the pepper spray I just always had that there in case of dog issues and the only time there were there were two times when I remember I got very close to using it but what I ended up doing for both was a little bit different.
It also went through the wash a couple times so who knows if it even worked by the end of the walk.
But in Amarillo I was walking down the street I had already dropped all my stuff off at my buddy's house that I was staying at for a few days and I was just finishing up like the nine or 10 miles I needed to do to get from hit from where I stopped to his house.
And I was walking along and I had my pepper spray in my left pocket.
My phone was in my right hand and I had my backpack on.
And out of nowhere I heard this bark starting and a big like Rottweiler I can't remember what kind I don't even want to say what kind of dog it was because I can't remember after I just said some type of dog.
But it was like one of the big like the dogs that people are scared of I whatever I don't want to add to their bad name.
But again, he's not getting his house he's doing his thing.
But he like tackled me like at the fence and it was a chain link fence in the bottom of the fence wasn't secure.
So it came up and he was trying to bite my ankles bite at my feet but I had my left hand down pushing down on the chain link fence.
But like I said like if I had my pepper spray my right pocket I would have pepper sprayed him.
But it was in my left pocket so I couldn't even get to it.
Which again is probably a good thing because I feel like if I had pepper sprayed it it would have caused other issues.
Right. So I was able to kind of like push the dog away and like kick at it and like scared back just enough to run to the other side of the street and run down a little bit.
And as I was running the funny thing is it was wearing an emotional support dog vest.
So I was like it's supporting some emotions that's for sure.
But that was the closest I ever got to actually using it.
And again if I had sprayed it like there are repercussions like what if the owner was watching through the fence and to them they were like ha ha he tried to bite the homeless guy.
Right. Yeah.
And they came out and they're like why the hell do you pepper spray my dog.
You know like that could have caused issues.
It also would have hurt the dog like it could have caused long term issues which I wouldn't want to happen.
Right. Like ideal situation I don't want anything to get hurt.
And another time was another dog incident.
It was in the middle of New Mexico on Highway 60.
And I think I was on the phone with Julie at the time.
But like five or six dogs like ran up on me and started barking at me super intense and I was pushing my car to have my backpack.
But the main thing that I used to keep dogs away was I had a broken umbrella that I kept at the front at all times.
So what I did was I kind of had it like like dual wielding style like Call of Duty right. Like when you have your melee weapon and your your thing.
So I had like the stick. Yeah.
This and I had my pepper spray in the other hand and I was like kind of like swatting them away with the with the stick and like yelling at them like you know being like make myself big make myself scary and loud.
But that was the second time that I ever thought I needed to use it.
More than just kind of having it close by when I was walking through kind of a spooky looking place.
But other than that I never needed to use it.
The pocket knives that I had.
I don't even know where they were half the time.
I usually only use them for paracord or for opening things or fixing things right.
And then have you ever played the original Legend of Zelda game.
No. So in.
Okay so I'll kind of explain it through the story. So near the end of my time in Mississippi as I was walking to Arkansas.
I was stopped by someone and they were like oh like do you have any kind of self defense stuff.
Well he was he was a host so I was like more willing to tell him like yes or no.
It wasn't exactly on the border was it was close to one of the lines I can't remember.
But I was like oh no like I don't really have like I showed him everything I had.
I'm like this is all I got. Like to be honest he's like oh OK.
So then the next day he found me and he's like hey Ranger like I got something for you.
And I'm like yeah what's up.
And he like reaches into his like side thing and pulls out a machete and it's like sheaves and I'm like OK thank you.
And he's like yeah just in case you run into any issues with people or dogs or other critters.
And I was like OK thank you.
And in The Legend of Zelda I think in the very first game it's kind of like you get your first sword when when the when the main.
Like gurus or something is like here take this for protection you might need it before you start playing the game.
And I just felt like I was like given this like magical weapon from a sage like count like city town counselor right.
And I had that with me for again the duration of the walks about halfway to near the end.
And it was one of my buddies I stayed with.
She dropped me off.
And those last day that I saw her from from the walk she dropped me off and she was like helping me load up the cart and she like picked up the machete and was like this is super cool.
I'm like yeah do you want it.
And she looked at me and Steve I thought it looked like I just gave a little girl a pony right like her eyes lit up and she like grabbed it she's like are you serious.
And I'm like I kind of wasn't but yeah sure it's yours dude like I don't need it.
So she was like super excited it was it was adorable.
But I was like yeah sure take it like I don't I haven't needed it this far and it sounds like it looks like you would have more use out of it than I would because you know that her.
A little bit more like outdoorsy so I'm like I think that that's like her vibe is like cool things like that. And I was like yeah you can have it.
I don't need it anymore. I'm like I'm not going to take it on the plane with me in a few weeks anyway. So what am I going to do.
Right.
But yeah no it's almost like in the video games.
When you like see a merchant before the final boss or something like that and then you restock all your stuff.
Yeah. But except you like have to get rid of the weapons before you get to the final boss.
It's weird. I don't know.
But yeah so that's what I carried for self defense.
Yeah. The only other times weird things happened it was just like I had to talk myself out of it.
But again it's not like I even needed to use speech checks very often right.
So since coming back you've gone full force on some coaching opportunities.
Right. Yep.
You mentioned you were developing some workshops and and some programs.
Do you want to talk a little bit about that.
Yeah. Heck yeah. I want to take a chance to sell my stuff. No.
So really I started my company within range coaching before even starting the walk.
And I really wanted to have some way to really focus on what was it just the the purpose of my company in terms of how do I say this better.
I feel like I butchered that the.
The mission for my walk was very much designed around my coaching practice.
My coaching practice is let me make sure I say it 100 percent correctly.
So I might I've gone through so many iterations of my mission statement.
It's like mission. The mission has always been centered around helping people help people.
Right. Like working with entrepreneurs with nonprofit leaders with community members because I really feel like those are the people that are out there.
Making a legitimate difference in the world.
So my coaching mission is to help entrepreneurs grow their business by breaking through their own self sabotaging beliefs and aligning with purpose driven action.
Right. And my mission for the walk was to highlight learn from and work with people in the U.S. that are making a difference in their community.
Can you tell which one I've said more more often.
So it was really just focus around that. And that was really just the main thing to begin with was learning from these people so that I could be a more effective coach because I feel like our duty as Americans which spanning to whatever country you're from.
Right. Our duty as Americans is to make the best better. Right.
Help other people help yourself like just make an impact that's bigger than yourself. I kind of use it as like the ripple. Right.
So like when you throw a rock into a pond it makes that initial ripple. Right. But even the impact from that pop that pebble throws water in other directions and creates more and more and more and more of an impact.
So theoretically it goes on forever. Physics aside. Right. So that's what I want to kind of do with the coaching practice.
So a lot of the workshops that I'm doing and it's going to be all based around the walk. So I've already done a couple. What is it. The power of purpose and breaking through the noise which is the first one is focused on mission vision and values.
The second one is focused on defining your own sabotaging voice that inner critic and ways to deal with that voice so that you can move forward. So that's part of my walking towards success workshop series that I'm putting together right now is just five but I'm sure it's going to go up and up and up and up based off of the different lessons that I learned and everything that I learned from creating those workshops and the feedback that I get is also going to help solidify those concepts for the book.
And let me back up the reason that I centered everything around the coaching practice was because I heard a lot of times that when people finish a walk or something big they kind of go something through they kind of go through something called like a post blank depression like artists when they go on tour go through a post or depression.
A lot of walkers that I talked to go through a post walk depression. And the way that I kind of looked into and what I discovered was that it's because they centered a lot of their purpose like you know you're like prep for this thing for three years or two two and a half years I want to do it for four years before I was in the thick of it for five and a half months and then it's over.
Right and that's why a lot of people say you know it's more about the journey than the destination it's because like I was in the water I finished my walk across America in two seconds by hitting the water and jumping into it right.
But I was learning throughout that entire process and I wanted to make sure that in a way the purpose of the walk never really ends.
So I want to align to something that I could continuously do for the rest of forever.
So yeah what is it to highlight learn from and work with instead of focusing on those three now it's more so like teaching collaborating with and educating folks right or partnering with them.
So that's why the workshops come in because I'm taking those lessons I learned and I'm teaching them with the one to one coaching it's partnering with entrepreneurs nonprofit leaders and community members so that they can also make those leaps and make the impacts that they know that they want to create.
With the school community it's fostering a group that community of people that can learn from each other that can support one another to move towards a bigger brighter better America slash whatever country they happen to be from right.
So I think that's really the biggest thing is this is my experience comma that's great hyphen semi colon whatever what am I going to do with it to help others so I think that that is the corner some of the answer your question the light form.
Yeah.
What I think is really cool and I'm sure you plan this but you really utilize your experiences on the walk to teach these lessons to people who might be stuck in their own lives and you can say well here's what I did.
Here's what I experienced here's what I felt here's how I overcame these challenges let's see how you can overcome your challenge.
Yeah, no I think that's a that's really a huge thing and even in the few people like a couple of the clients that I have right now.
Which I try to make sure that they don't end up coaching themselves but you know they they start saying these stories out loud like oh I can't do that because of X Y and Z and then they stop you're positive like.
What you walk across the country I can't say that to you I'm like no no no like you can like say it out loud like bring these voices to light because that's what I had to do.
Right like I had to acknowledge the sabotaging voice that I had I had to acknowledge that I didn't have a clear mission or vision or purpose for the walk and that's like it's very much a.
These are all the things I learned in my year long coaching program. These are the things that I learned throughout college in my management courses.
The things that I learned in these podcasts about business or life or whatever.
And that now it's like the ultimate trial by fire to see if these things work and I think they work and here's how they worked for me and kind of putting my own spin on those concepts like the chunking thing with the frog in the pond or.
What does it pick up the cat which is the whole idea of accountability like certain things may not be your fault like when I found Walker that wasn't my fault right I didn't put the cat there I didn't leave him out there I didn't throw him I didn't cause that.
But now that it's in front of me like it is my responsibility to do something about it right right so I think that just those lessons and being able to break them down and showcase through like and like again let's.
I don't want to sound like I'm being very like self aggrandizing but like through very interesting stories be able to solidify these concepts and present them in a way like my brain works very much through metaphors.
And I think that being able to break these concepts down into those unique metaphors is one can help a lot of people and to already has been helping people.
So I think that's like you like to what you're saying is that this experience I think would mean a lot less to me if I wasn't trying to use it to help people in some way.
Right right so you've got the workshops you've got which the virtual so people can log into whatever platform you're using for watch those and they're free right yeah for right now the ones online are going to be free.
It might change in the future I don't want to make any promises but as of now what October 28 2024 those ones are going to be like I'm making I'm working on making it good right so it's more so like please give me feedback.
You you also have your online forum through the school community as SK OOL.
You also provide I guess independent coaching services as well and you mentioned a few times but you have more workshops coming up in the future.
Yep so I have the at the moment the free online workshops through zoom I have the school community never peak the first steps which is not what's going to be free forever that specific community.
I have the never peak project podcast which it's a podcast it's also free content.
And then the one to one coaching and the group coaching services those are different they're paid but they're also the cool thing about those is even if you aren't local to what the San Carlos or Half Moon Bay area like I can coach people from anywhere.
One of my clients is near Sacramento I've coached somebody in Florida.
I think I had a client in Texas.
Okay she lived in Texas and moved to Oklahoma.
But I can coach people from anywhere via zoom or phone calls. So that's also really cool thing is that I can I can reach anybody anywhere thanks to technology and everything else.
I have one last question for you.
Yes.
Obviously you did all that walking.
I'm sure your legs probably developed lots of muscling.
Mm hmm.
They're tree trunks.
How has your bot huh.
Yes they have there there's some tree trunks for sure.
How has your body adjusted to not walking 20 plus miles a day.
I'm glad you asked.
So what is it I finished on August 31st the month of September I was so tired.
I was exhausted.
Like physically mentally emotionally.
There were times where I was like I think I slept like 1215 whatever hours like a stupid amount that night.
And the next day I wake up and I'm like I can barely keep my eyes open.
Like I would drink coffee I would have an energy drink like way more milligrams of caffeine than I should have had.
And I was still falling asleep.
I went on a cruise with Julie's family to Greece and Turkey afterwards.
Like I think that we left a week after I got back and I dude it was rough.
Like we were there for I think almost two weeks and the amount of like caffeine and just like forcing myself to be awake at times.
It was it was intense and I messaged Mark and Andrew Mark Dudek and Andrew Kivett and they were the guys that walked before me.
We had a little group chat coast to coast crew.
But I was like hey guys like this is weird.
Were you guys also tired after your walk?
And both of them were like yeah dude for a whole month or two like it was hard getting out of bed.
We were just exhausted and we're kind of chitter-chattering for a little bit about it.
What was I think Mark was like dude not even sleep could touch.
It could come nowhere near fixing this tired.
And we think that a lot of it really stems from you know I was in this fight or flight mode for six months.
Like that became my baseline.
Even when I took a week or two off I always knew that I was going to get back into it like I wasn't done yet.
So once I got back and I was safe my body was like great you're not running on adrenaline anymore.
You're not dodging cars going 70 80 miles an hour at this point.
You're not worried about dogs running up on you.
Here's all your sleep hormones I guess right.
So that was rough.
I think the week after or so I mean I was kind of used to being sore but you know my legs and my body were just sore all over.
And that faded pretty quick.
But something that I did notice was my upper body strength and cardio were absolutely shot.
I tried doing a half Murph which is just like a workout thing that people do.
But it starts off with a mile run and I tried doing that with one of my buddies and I could barely make it even like a tenth of a mile before I had to stop.
And this was only a few days after.
Yeah like not that long after the walk.
So I kind of thought that my cardio would be built up because I was walking 20 30 miles a day.
But I guess there's a huge difference between what would that be like in like fallout stats like agility and endurance.
I guess I could go like he might be able to hit five or 10 miles way faster than I can.
But he's not going to be able to hit 40 miles in a day.
Right.
Like I could.
So I think that that was really interesting.
It's something that I'm still working on.
I hit my first full mile like a week or two ago.
So what a month month and a half after finishing the walk and the upper body strength thing before I left I could bench I think like two and a half plates.
So like what is that.
Let me see if I have my I want to make sure I say my numbers right because I'm a very strong boy and I want to make sure that everybody knows that you don't want the fitness community to come at you.
I don't want them to be like that's it.
Let me see.
I can bench more on a Tuesday.
Oh, so my bench was 275.
So 275 pounds, my squat was 365.
And my deadlift. Oh no I changed it. Oh, I got way better. Sorry.
My top bench was 300 for three squat was 405 for three.
And my deadlift was 450 for four.
So for all of those I haven't retried any of those yet because I don't really have the right equipment for it.
But I did try to do a plate, which is like 130 or so pounds on bench at Planet Fitness.
And I thought my arms were going to explode.
It hurt. So I'm in a rebuild process right now of getting my strength back.
And you know as I get more clients as I kind of build up my practice I'm going to get a better gym membership than Planet Fitness.
But for right now I'm just doing a lot of body body weight exercises to build it up.
But body wise the sleep and the upper body strength were the things that were so I wasn't expecting that really.
When I got that. Well I think that's all questions I have for you today.
Awesome. I appreciate it. Yeah. No that was solid. I think that we might end up doing more of these.
I think next time what I will do is actually put a call for questions from the community and then have you read those or maybe we can actually hunt down Ranger response to mean comments on 10.
And find the action that people have said. But I think that there's definitely I mean I'm not going to stop talking about the walk and the lessons and yeah I've been telling people by the way.
Are you going to edit. What are you going to edit this before you a little bit post it. Yeah.
Okay. So like the beginning part and this part you'll cut out.
I mean unless we say something really funny right now.
Oh I just thought of something.
What are your thoughts on it. If you put out a thing.
If you put out a thing on Instagram or whatever.
And maybe it can be like a coaching related thing maybe something that.
Might be something that someone might be struggling with. I don't know. That's just a thought.
What do you like almost like a like an ask like a thing like a.
Yeah like a helpline. Yeah dude.
Okay so something that you can do on Riverside is with this people that are spectating you can call people in from the audience.
And like pull them onto the show. So like if again if you and I did a show like I don't know like reacting to Reddit threads or something right.
We could bring someone on that has like a similar story or I could do like 15 20 minute coaching sessions from beginning to end and then bring in somebody else that has something.
So like that is something that you can definitely do.
Yeah.
They used to be.
I'm sure it's still a thing but.
Like there was a lot of advice columns in the newspapers and things like that.
Have you ever watched their show.
No.
But.
No I haven't. Oh my god you have to watch therapy Gecko. I'm going to send you a video.
Okay.
Thank you again Stephen for being a guest and for switching it up on me and making me the interviewee. I appreciate it.
Yeah absolutely. Thank you for having me on again and I always enjoy talking to you and figuring out what you're up to these days.
Yeah for sure. Like I said we'll probably have some more and maybe more special themed episodes now that I'm editing everything myself it's a little bit easier to get out episodes.
So but again I appreciate it. We'll see you in the next one. And for everybody listening right now thank you so much for all of your time dedication and energy in terms of your support of my walk across the country.
Like I said earlier the mission for the walk is never going to end. I'm always going to be looking for people that are doing good in the world and reminding you that if you are looking for the good people and you can't seem to find any all you need to do is to go look in the mirror and you'll find one there.
I appreciate you guys and remember to never settle never quit and never peak. I'll see you guys next week.