In the second episode of the Student of the Game podcast, Nolan invites Josh Hash, the founder of Strength Side to discuss how he got started as a trainer, the importance of consistency, matching your lifestyle to your career, overcoming self-doubt, and the value of having a coach.
Josh Hash Socials:
https://twitter.com/StrengthSide
https://www.instagram.com/thestrengthside/
https://www.youtube.com/c/Strengthside
Nolan Smith Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/nolan_smith/
https://twitter.com/Nolan_Smith
https://www.instagram.com/studentofth…
Show Notes:
0:32 - How Nolan discovered Josh and his content
2:40 - The main message is using physical practice and what you do with your body to help fuel self-growth… “the thing is bigger than the thing”
- What are you doing currently that is pushing you past your limits
4:30 - Role that basketball has played in Josh’s life
- Played 3 sports in high school and played basketball in college
- Enjoyed the process of becoming better at basketball and putting in the work
- Finding his love of learning and having a “coach”
7:33 - Importance of consistency
- Posting a video a week on YouTube consistently for 4 years
- First 3 years still not having an audience
- As Josh grew as a leader and in self-growth so did the channel
- Still trying to grow and learn
12:20 - Reaching 250k YouTube subscribers
- A year ago at the same time being at 50k subscribers
- Reaching 15k subscribers around year 3
- You can make a living on youtube with a much smaller following
- Wishing he would have focused on Strengthside fulltime earlier rather than having it be his “side project”
15:40 - Going Viral, what was different about the video
- Instead of acting like an expert, he came from a place of being himself and people responded well to that
- Decided to make his ideal audience the younger version of himself
22:22 - Matching your lifestyle with your career
- The influence traveling played in changing his lifestyle
- Not being able to go to the gym while traveling taught him how to lift in other ways and
- Becoming more of a minimalist
31:40 - Diving deep into your passions
- Committing is the key
34:15 - Josh’s daily routine
- Every morning he meditates outdoors to get in a place where he’s inspired, he has a cup of coffee and journals to get into the right headspace followed by some movement
- Winning the morning
43:00 - Technology and being more connected than ever
44:30 - Social media, the great experiment of our generation
- Device addiction
- How Josh handles his social media usage
- The balance of using it and having someone else manage it
- The best ideas come away from devices
53:00 - How Nolan’s fascination with growth fits into the hip-hop industry
56:25 - Josh and Nolan’s appreciation for Big Sean and how he intertwines self-growth into his art
1:03:00 - Navigating collaborations in the music industry
- The simplest way to go about it is artist to artist
- Best way to do it is growing genuine relationships
1:07:15 - Creating what you know will be successful vs creating what you want to share
- The difference between going wide with an audience or going deep with an audience
- Perception is reality… once you hit it big once everyone expects it to keep happening even if it’s not what you necessarily want to do
- Developing that cult following
1:12:47 - What is your favorite failure?
- Josh used to have a youtube channel when he was in college where he would vlog his workouts called “Ball so Hard FItness”
- Realizing now it was a creative outlet
- The realization that once he was more aged as a person he could do this
1:20:00 - How to get over self-doubt
- It never goes away but you train that skill of sidestepping that self-doubt
- It’s like a muscle that you need to train
- “Fake it till you make it”
1:21:40 - Advice to other YouTubers and the critics
- One negative content at times can outweigh a thousand positive comments
- When someone is willing to reach out negatively, they aren’t in a good place, so the best practice is to just show love and compassion
- How you handle it is also a reflection of the place you’re in
1:25:51 - How the pandemic has affected KYLE’s album plans
1:30:36 - Things Josh has going on
- Lately, a lot of follow-along content to help people workout during these unprecedented times
- Move Strong Now Program, which is a 90-day strength and mobility program
1:35:00 - Advice for others who have fitness goals
- Write down a goal and list your “because”, list the reason why you want it and through this, you enter an interesting territory of finding out what you’re really looking for
- ex: wanting bigger biceps may stem to just wanting more self-worth, which you can find through other means
1:36:00 - Goal setting practices
- Recommend looking into Jordan Peterson’s course on goal setting
- It’s the practice on getting more clarity of what you may actually want
1:38:00 - Needing a coach
- There are people out there who have done what you want to and they can help you get there sop much quicker than on your own
- Having that objective point of view is so important
- It’s important to have coaches in various aspects of your life
- Investing in yourself is putting really good energy in the world
1:41:20 - Coach vs mentor
- A coach is being paid whereas a mentor donates their time
- Showing interest and willingness to learn is a great way of getting a mentor
1:59:00 - Nolan’s relationship with Mac Miller
- Started off as an intern on the Mac Miller tour with Pac Div
- This inspired Nolan to take management seriously
- Running into Mac Miller a couple of weeks before his passing
- Gave Nolan the opportunity to thank Mac Miller
- Testament of giving people flowers while they can smell them
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