Choose the Hard Way

Saul Martinez is a former Army Infantryman, a Purple Heart recipient and the Chief Program Officer for Warriors & Quiet Waters, a nonprofit that empowers post-9/11 combat veterans to find peace, meaning and purpose through outdoor experiences and community. A George W. Bush Institute Veteran Leadership scholar and a subject of President George W. Bush in "Portraits of Courage," Saul is a fine artist, a husband, a TEDx speaker, a philosopher, an actor and a father. We discuss Saul's childhood, his service, the EFP IED that took the lives of two of his close friends and both of his legs and explore what he has learned on his journey. You can find Warriors & Quiets Waters at warrriorsandquietwaters.org. If you enjoy this episode, please give it a five-star rating on Spotify or Apple podcasts, subscribe and forward it to a friend. That helps the show surface higher in search so more people can find the inspiring stories of my guests, and I really appreciate the support. Go to www.choosethehardway.com to sign up for the newsletter. To suggest a guest or be in touch, reach out to choosethehardway@gmail.com or @hardwaypod.

The relationship between humans, bikes, cars and streets is polarizing, but it shouldn't be. Humans are the original autonomous vehicles. UK-based Adam Tranter is working to build a world where people can get around safely and efficiently without fear of a vehicle running them over. Adam is the West Midlands' first Cycling & Walking Commissioner. Appointed by the Mayor of the West Midlands, Adam works with policymakers and the government to steer the region's cycling and walking policies and plans. A former national-level elite cyclist, Adam grew up training and racing with riders who have competed in (and won) the Tour de France. He is the founder of the communications agency Fusion Media and co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast on active travel. Find him on Twitter @adamtranter.

Matt DeCoursey is a serial entrepreneur, podcaster, author and Forbes Next 1000 recipient. He's the CEO and founder at Full Scale and the Startup Hustle podcast and the author of three books including Million Dollar Bedroom, Balance Me and The Realist's Guide to a Successful Music Career which he wrote with Umphrey's McGee member Joel Cummins. Full Scale enables companies to quickly and affordably build their development teams. Find them at fullscale.io. Startup Hustle tells the real stories of startups and entrepreneurs and you can find it at startuphustle.xyz and everywhere you listen to podcasts. To learn more about Matt, his books and his other businesses go to mattdec.com. Matt and I went to high school together in Kansas City, Missouri and I hadn't seen him in a few decades before I ran into him at an event while I was back home in Kansas City where the heart of rock and roll is still beating. The story of Matt's rise from piano sales to tech kingpin blew me away, and when I heard it, I knew I had to have him on the show. Please leave us an iTunes review (even one word is great) and subscribe and give the show a five-star rating on Spotify or iTunes. I love bringing you the stories of my guests and I really appreciate you taking a second to support the show which helps more people find it. Go to www.choosethehardway.com to sign up for the newsletter and if you have feedback or would like to suggest a guest DM @hardwaypod on Instagram or reach out at choosethehardway@gmail.com.

Dr. Gil Blander is the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Inside Tracker. Inside Tracker brings together blood biometric data, DNA insights and fitness tracker data to create science-backed action plans for people to manage their health and performance. Dr. Blander has a PhD in biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. He's an expert in nutrition, performance, biochemistry and aging research. You can learn more at www.insidetracker.com and find Dr. Blander on Twitter @gblander1.This episode is part of Life Cycles, a new series I've launched within Choose the Hard Way. Conversations in this series cover the territory you've come to expect from Choose the Hard Way--lessons learned at the limits of human experience and the obstacles people overcome to do great things--with guests whose lives and careers have been shaped by cycling or whose lives and careers have shaped the world of cycling. Since I launched this podcast in 2018, there have been many episodes that fit into this loose framework and I've gotten great feedback from you about them, so it felt like it was time to go deeper in this direction. Cycling has always been an important part of my life as a method of exploration, expression and connection and I'm excited to share these conversations with you. I'll still have regular episodes that have nothing to do with cycling at all and whether you like bikes or not, I think you'll find something to love in every episode. Please leave us an iTunes review (even one word is great) and subscribe and give the show a five-star rating on Spotify or iTunes. I love bringing you the stories of my guests and I really appreciate you taking a second to support the show which helps more people find it. Go to www.choosethehardway.com to sign up for the newsletter and if you have feedback or would like to suggest a guest DM @hardwaypod on Instagram or reach out at choosethehardway@gmail.com, all of those links are in the show notes.

In a land before YouTube and TikTok, a producer I knew introduced me to award-winning filmmaker Eric Matthies who shared my passion for cycling. Together, we created a TV pilot about cycling subcultures in Los Angeles. The show didn't get picked up, but the experience paid dividends we couldn't have imagined at the time. You can view the full pilot episode here. To see The Warriors alleycat film from the Bicycle Film Festival mentioned in this episode, go here. The Beastie Boys, Spike Jonze, Doug Aitken, Public Enemy, Soundgarden, a Tribe Called Quest, the Matrix, Man of Steel, 300, Nike, Converse & Vans are but a few of the artists, films & companies who have leveraged Eric's creative talents. He has made numerous award-winning documentary films with his partner, Tricia Todd including End of Truth, Killing The Messenger: The Deadly Cost of News, and Agile Mobile Hostile: A Year With Andre Williams. Eric is also the creator of Defy Apathy, a 'zine and creative movement. You can learn more about Eric at www.ericmatthies.me and access the creative output of Defy Apathy at www.defyapathy.net. Cycling has transformative power for people and the world. Life Cycles is a new series within Choose the Hard Way that explores peak performance and the obstacles people overcome to do great things with guests related to cycling. Please leave us an iTunes review (even one word is great) and give the show a five-star rating on Spotify or iTunes. I do this show because I love bringing you the stories of my guests and I really appreciate you taking a second to support us. Subscribe to this show wherever you listen and go to https://www.choosethehardway.com/newsletter to sign up for the Choose the Hard Way newsletter.

In the early 2000s one of the freelance journalism gigs I enjoyed the most was writing Tour de France commentary for Fox Sports during the Lance and Floyd Landis eras. I love cycling and cycling journalism, and today my guest is Spencer Martin who is one of the hottest creative and business talents in cycling journalism today. Spencer is the founder of Beyond the Peloton, a freemium substack and podcast that analyzes pro road racing at an unprecedented level of depth. I had a blast appearing on Spencer's podcast a while back and always enjoy hearing his take on what's happening in pro cycling. If you love bike racing, too, I highly recommend you buck up and treat yourself to a subscription to his exclusive content at https://beyondthepeloton.substack.com/. You can find that link in the show notes. Whether you're a pro cycling fan or not, you're going to dig this conversation. Spencer and I go deep on the business of sports, the future of content, the Tour de France, rim brakes, growing up in the midwest, his journey from elite junior runner to entrepreneur, things that motorists have thrown at us while we're out riding our bikes and much more. Thank you to everyone who has left us an iTunes review. If you haven't left us an iTunes review, please go here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/choose-the-hard-way/id1441900901 and leave a one-word review and hit five stars. I do this show because I love bringing you the stories of my guests and I really appreciate you taking a second to support us. Hit subscribe on Spotify, iTunes or wherever you listen and go to https://www.choosethehardway.com/newsletter to sign up for the Choose the Hard Way newsletter. High performance is for everyone. You are what you overcome. Choose the Hard Way.

Neil Tolaney is a General Partner at TCV, the storied Silicon Valley investment firm that focuses on private and public high-growth technology companies. Notably, Neil balances his career with being the dad of four young children. With over $24 billion of assets under management, some of TCV's investments have included NetFlix, Spotify, Zillow, LegalZoom, and Strava. In this conversation, we discuss leadership, building high-performing teams and Neil's learnings from his vast experience supporting companies through their journeys to become category leaders. You can follow TCV @TCVTech on Twitter. Please hit subscribe / follow wherever you listen and if you listen on Apple podcasts, please take a moment to give this show a 5-star rating. It helps the show rank higher in search so more people can find the powerful lessons my guests share. Thanks to everyone who has taken a moment to subscribe, follow and hit the stars. If you have feedback or want to recommend a guest, email me at choosethehardway@gmail.com. You are what you overcome. Choose the Hard Way.

Hector Guadalupe is a serial entrepreneur who builds businesses at the intersection of wellness and social justice. Hector is the founder of Unibody Fitness NYC, a fitness and training company that uses wellness to achieve physical transformation, provide second chances and bridge communities. Hector is also the founder of A Second U Foundation, a nonprofit that educates and trains formerly incarcerated people to help them start careers in the fitness industry as certified personal trainers. Hector spent 10 years in federal prison for drug trafficking charges, including 31 months in solitary confinement. While incarcerated, Hector got hooked on working out, lost 120 pounds, became certified as a personal trainer and got passionate about helping other people transform their minds, bodies and lives through fitness and the fitness industry. What he has done since then is nothing short of incredible and has caught the attention of outlets including the New York Times and CNN. In this interview, Hector and I talk about leadership, entrepreneurship, mindset, opportunity, the importance of second chances and much more. A Second U Foundation has trained over 200 formerly incarcerated people with a 0% reoffending rate and Hector has even bigger plans for the future. Also, a heads up that at the time of this recording, Hector had recently welcomed a newborn baby to the family. Congratulations, Hector! Towards the end of the episode you'll hear some contributions in the background from his new arrival. To support the powerful work Hector and his team are doing, go to https://asecondufoundation.org and find them on Instagram @asecondunfoundation. You can find Unibody at unibodyfitnessnyc.com or @unibodyfitness on Instagram. Please hit subscribe and if you're on Apple, take a moment to give this show a 5-star rating in Apple podcasts. It helps the show rank higher in search so more people can find the powerful lessons my guests share. Thanks to everyone who has taken a moment to listen and hit the stars. If you've got feedback or want to recommend a guest, email me at choosethehardway@gmail.com. You are what you overcome. Choose the Hard Way.

Neil D'Souza is an entrepreneur at the intersection of tech, education and human potential. Neil has lived, traveled and worked in 40 countries and is an Ironman Triathlete. Originally from Mumbai, India, at an early age Neil set an unbelievable swimming record that involved spending 79 hours in a pool and landed him on MTV. Neil started his career in tech at Cisco where he was part of a team that spearheaded the 4G/LTE protocol. During his time at Cisco, Neil developed a strong passion for helping underprivileged communities and sought to bridge the education gap for children in remote regions of the world. Later, Neil was the Founder and CEO of Zaya Learning Labs, a disruptive educational startup that brings affordable education solutions to low-income communities around the world. Most recently, he's the founder of GetSetUp, a place for active older adults to learn, connect and share with peers in small intimate classes. We recorded this interview during the early days of GetSetUp when everything, including the company's name, was evolving. You can learn more about GetSetUp at https://www.getsetup.io. We recorded this episode in a WeWork way back in the pre-pandemic times, and you might hear a few footsteps on the creaky boards in the hallway outside our room. One day I'll have a hermetically-sealed, soundproof room for recording, until then, enjoy the amazing lessons that Neil was gracious enough to share. Please hit subscribe and take a moment to give this show a 5-star rating in Apple podcasts. It helps the show rank higher in search so more people can find the powerful lessons my guests share. Thanks to everyone who has taken a moment to listen and hit the stars. If you've got feedback or want to recommend a guest, email me at choosethehardway@gmail.com. You are what you overcome. Choose the Hard Way.

As a journalist, Tom Taylor has covered the intersection of science, technology and sports at Sports Illustrated and SportTechie. He has a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. Growing up, he dreamed of being an astronaut before discovering a passion for storytelling that took his life and career in a different direction. Through journalism, Tom has learned and written about topics as varied as disability and data privacy, nutrition and degenerative brain disease, the future of the NFL combine, equality and entrepreneurship, genetics and the Vietnam War. To learn more about Tom, read some of his favorite stories or contact him, go to www.dailytomtaylor.com. If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and give us a five-star rating in the iTunes store. If you'd like to suggest a guest or send feedback about something new or different you'd like to hear on the show, please email me at choosethehardway@gmail.com and you can also catch me on Instagram @hardwaypod. See previous episodes and sign up for our newsletter at www.choosethehardway.com. There aren't shortcuts or hacks on the road to becoming the best. You are what you overcome. Choose the Hard Way.