E43 | Martin Rooney: Into the Roar

[00:00:00] Donnie Maib: Welcome to the team behind the Team podcast. I’m your host, Donnie Maid. This is the monthly show focused on building conversations around the team-based model approach to ethic, performance, strength, and conditioning, sports medicine, sports science, mental health and wellness, and sports nutrition.

[00:00:24] Donnie Maib: Hello and welcome back to the Team Behind the Team podcast. I’m. Donnie Mabe, and we are well into Spring 2023. This month, coach Joe Craic is out and I’m solo in the studio, but not completely alone. I have a special guest today that this is a dream come true for me, and happened to find out he was in.

[00:00:49] Donnie Maib: Presenting at a Perform Better Summit, one day Summit, and, uh, reached out to him and he is in the studio. Coach Martin Rooney, welcome

[00:00:57] Martin Rooney: to the show. My pleasure to be here and the trip so far seeing the campus, it’s been a dream for me too, so I’m excited to share with everybody today. Well, man,

[00:01:07] Donnie Maib: coach, again, you, you’ve been more than gracious and generous with your time and expertise.

[00:01:12] Donnie Maib: When I saw you come to town, I could not pass up the opportunity to reach out. So thank you for

[00:01:16] Martin Rooney: being here. My pleasure. And hey, a lesson to everybody listening, my mom always used to say, don’t ask, don’t get right. So I got a text from Donnie. He said, Hey, I heard you’re gonna be in town. Would you, could I pick you up and show you around?

[00:01:29] Martin Rooney: And. One he asked. And then number two is, hey, opportunities are everywhere, but they’re only good if you take ’em. And I took the opportunity, said yes, and man, we’ve already had an amazing day and I can’t wait to see what we’re gonna cover on this podcast. Awesome. Good

[00:01:44] Donnie Maib: stuff, coach. So true. For our listeners, uh, this is the team behind the team podcast and you’re talking to sports med, strength conditioning, sports science, nutrition, and mental health.

[00:01:55] Donnie Maib: So just for our listeners, take a brief moment and just give us a little bit of your background up to, I mean, what 30 years in the profession. . There’s a lot there. I, I know it’s a big task, but I think you can do that. Coach. Just quick background of your, what you’ve done. All right, well, I’m

[00:02:09] Martin Rooney: gonna go really quick here.

[00:02:10] Martin Rooney: I grew up in New Jersey originally and ended up really falling in love with the sport of track and field and track and field. Uh, Got me my opportunity to college. I was, I went to Furman University in South Carolina. I was a school record and four-time all conference performer in the Javelin. And when that ended, I had a degree in exercise science.

[00:02:31] Martin Rooney: My mom was a phys ed teacher, so I was always interested in health and, but I didn’t know what to do with it. And so many people told me, oh, You can’t just go be a a coach, which is so funny cuz that’s what I became. They said you should do physical therapy, physical therapy’s hot and upcoming, you should do that.

[00:02:46] Martin Rooney: And so I applied to therapy school, went to the medical University of South Carolina and with only a semester left in a weird twist of fate I made the US bobsled team. So I was still in shape cuz of track make the bobsled. And, uh, take a semester off, compete for the us, come back, finish my degree. And then for the next few years was on the US bobsled team, living at the Olympic Training Center, representing the stars and bars and, and got my taste of traveling the world and high level training.

[00:03:16] Martin Rooney: And at the high, you know, highest level of athletes I could be around. When my Olympic dream ended, I became a, the. And I gotta tell you, for everybody listening, this was a big crossroads for me where I liked it, but I didn’t. I, I, I liked helping people, but I knew I had a bigger passion, and that passion was still fitness and exercise and athletics.

[00:03:37] Martin Rooney: And I wanted to figure out how I could fuse that physical therapy background and all the experiences that I’d had and help other people that wanted to reach their dreams. And I started going to courses. So every weekend I. I would go to courses. Now, this is almost still pre-internet. This is the late nineties.

[00:03:53] Martin Rooney: It’s kind of pre-internet. You could barely get your hands on a book. And I’m going to courses and on one of ’em, I’m sitting next to a guy named Bill Parisi on the plane. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And by the end of the trip, we’re best friends. He says, man, I, I’ve got this company. You gotta come. Move, you know, move and work for me.

[00:04:09] Martin Rooney: And I did it. And it was, uh, probably, you know, after 17 years later of doing that, best stuff I ever did, got to work with NFL teams, N F nfl, combine all these different fighters and that experience. We ended up having a hundred locations across the country, millions of kids being trained with the systems that we created.

[00:04:27] Martin Rooney: And it led to my adventures around the world, which then led to. Training great fighters and my other company training for Warriors, which at it Zenith had 300 and something locations around the world with 10,000 people a day doing the training. And now that takes me to pretty much here where Covid was a really tough time.

[00:04:47] Martin Rooney: I didn’t get to be me and on the road and doing what I do, but I did get to spend a lot of time with my kids. I have four daughters and uh, and in that span too, now I live in, uh, outside of. North Carolina. And so guys, that might’ve seemed long, but that was 30 years. I just covered as fast as I could.

[00:05:03] Donnie Maib: Super fast. Yeah. Great. Good stuff, coach. I think one of my, one of my favorite, we share a common bond. Coach Rooney, not, we both have, we’re obviously married and we have four daughters, so we have been commiserating today in a good way. So, uh, coach, what have you been up to lately? Anything? I know you’re back on the road.

[00:05:19] Donnie Maib: It looks like Covid was tough for a lot. Not just in, you know, the private sector and public sector, but also college and the pro. I mean, everybody went through a tough time, but looks like you’re coming back and just strong. What

[00:05:32] Martin Rooney: have you been up to? Yeah, so the, the world is opening back up, which excites me where for a period of time, like I’m definitely not the guy you lock up in the basement and don’t let me go anywhere and, and I really got tired of just doing meetings over zooms.

[00:05:44] Martin Rooney: But during Covid, where I did use my time wisely, I wrote two books, uh, one about coaching called Coach to Coach, and another one about how to coach for culture called High 10. They’re both stories and each one is linked together, and those books have become like a passport, where now I’m getting a lot of invitations, not just talking to say, Sports complexes and universities.

[00:06:07] Martin Rooney: But the last few weeks I’ve been presenting at uh, uh, one organization called the Y P O, which is, uh, really powerful business owners. So to be in that organization, I think you have to be under 50, but have a company that’s like worth 50 million. But then I’ve also been, uh, Sharing this concept of culture with individual businesses as well, so, so that has kept me busy, but now this year’s getting pretty loaded.

[00:06:30] Martin Rooney: So I got Australia on the board, Germany on the board, Northern Ireland on the board. Besides just all the travel that I usually do between perform better and the fitness stuff. So I’m excited cuz after a few years off, I’m raring to get back to it.

[00:06:44] Donnie Maib: I wanna circle back. You said something there that struck a chord with me For sure.

[00:06:48] Donnie Maib: That I’ve noticed a trend. at the end of the day, right? You and I we’re, we’re dealing with human behavior and how do you modify and change and influence that so that it’s at a higher level and you’re seeing it. It’s not just in sport, but there’s a hunger and desire to change cultures because if you can go in, whether you’re a consultant, a coach, or just an observant, and you go in and do something to positively change the culture so that it’s better and people work together as a group.

[00:07:16] Donnie Maib: You can win and people are just, they’re hungry, hungry to win right now. AB

[00:07:19] Martin Rooney: Absolutely, and, and I guess the, the, the similar term is team, right? Like, so whether you’re a business or you’re a sports team or you’re a university, you’ve got this group of people and if, and whenever there’s a group of people, there’s a culture.

[00:07:32] Martin Rooney: And what I really did, which I think was unique is having built two businesses that had a, a combined 500 locations and was dealing with ultimately millions of people. I really learned. Ins and outs of what I call the blueprint of culture. And that’s what the book was about. And it really hit a nerve where it really showed people whether they had the culture they wanted or not, and that it could be engineered.

[00:07:57] Martin Rooney: And that’s, I really do enjoy going in and helping businesses and teams do that.

[00:08:02] Donnie Maib: That’s, yeah, that’s good stuff. Um, He, uh, coach Rooney talked to our staff today for those listing and did an incredible job. He’d said something today that kind of resonated. Kind of to piggyback on what you just said, coach, that if you allow a culture, if you, if you, if you see something, you know it’s not right, you know it’s not right.

[00:08:22] Donnie Maib: Other people. No, it’s not right. But you allow it to continue, then you kind of give it a halfway, that’s a halfway culture. You’re just not committed. Yeah. Maybe speak to how do you, yeah.

[00:08:32] Martin Rooney: So what we were talking about there is I was challenging everybody. So, and I, and maybe everybody might not want to hear this, but you need to hear it.

[00:08:39] Martin Rooney: And coach and I were just talking about it, that, hey, if you wanna be in the strength and conditioning field, then you gotta kind of live the strength and conditioning a little bit, right? Like, so you’ve gotta sell, Or do what you are selling. And what I was trying to get across was say you don’t get enough sleep, but yet you know it’s hurting the performance of all your players, but they know you don’t get enough sleep.

[00:09:01] Martin Rooney: They’re not doing it well because you tolerate that your entire culture will lower itself to the lowest thing you tolerate. So that’s why I think the standards of an organization or how high they are set will determine everything. So it’s almost like, Hey, what’s the Texas Way? Right? Is the Texas way.

[00:09:19] Martin Rooney: Our kids don’t get enough sleep and they don’t eat right and we’re just winging it. Or we hope for good recruits or is the Texas way, like this is how we do it here. This is how we live it, and if you wanna be part of this team, this is how it goes. And that’s the power of culture when you have it either working in your favor or working against.

[00:09:36] Martin Rooney: That’s

[00:09:36] Donnie Maib: good. And uh, definitely when you, you say you, you holding that standard accountable, but also I think kind of to your point, uh, I’ve seen over the years is making sure that you not only. Set a standard, but then when you recruit, when you hire people and you onboard somebody for a business or for a team like we do here at Texas, like they gotta be the right fit.

[00:09:58] Donnie Maib: Yep. Right? Because if not, then you’re not gonna be

[00:10:00] successful.

[00:10:01] Martin Rooney: Well, and, and that’ll kill your culture. Right? So the worst thing you can do is try to set a standard and then bring somebody in that isn’t. On that, or even worse, allow somebody just because of either time served or uh, seniority, get away with things that hurt your culture.

[00:10:17] Martin Rooney: So I always say that, that in my organizations, I will not be held hostage because somebody was there a long time or. Because they’re my friend or anything else. And the, and the book, the book really covers it. It, it’s pretty neat how it doesn’t, and it tells a, it’s a sports story, so it’s a football story, but it’s also a business story too.

[00:10:35] Martin Rooney: So it, uh, you know, it gives people little wiggle room, but it’s almost, when I go into businesses or teams, I’ll say, Hey, do you have a culture? And you know what they say, A lot of times they say No. The answer is no. No. You have a culture. You just didn’t design it like you didn’t decide what it is, but everybody’s, there’s an onboarding process when the kids come to Texas, whether you set it up or not.

[00:10:56] Martin Rooney: Right? And so I think it’s almost this layer. That we sometimes don’t look at that, Hey, what do we stand for? What are our beliefs? What’s our mission? What’s our vision? We talked about it today, right? Hey, I believe the mission of every sports team at the University of Texas should be to win a national title, right?

[00:11:12] Martin Rooney: Or the vision that’s true. And then in order to do that, then the mission every day, what do we gotta do to get there? Well, then that should be eight hours of sleep, or that should be using sports science correctly, or that should be, uh, using rehab if necessary or, or how I have to do it. And. That being all understood.

[00:11:27] Martin Rooney: Do you see how the path becomes real easy to get

[00:11:29] Donnie Maib: there? So kind of, this is a good topic. I want to kind of peel back another layer. You got me thinking now when you’re building a business or a team, um, and you’re, you’re interviewing people, like how, what are some things that you’ve learned? Whether it’s mistakes or things you’ve seen that’s made a big difference.

[00:11:49] Donnie Maib: Interviewing, you know, recruiting somebody to come beyond your, your team, your staff, your organization. Kind of speak into that for a moment.

[00:11:56] Martin Rooney: Yeah. Well, well, I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make is hire for, uh, aptitude instead of attitude. And, and what do I mean by that is, oh, this person has three PhDs, right?

[00:12:09] Martin Rooney: And oh, this person, uh, had a four oh, at this school, or, and. , you meet ’em and they’re not a nice person, or it doesn’t seem like they get along with anybody agree. They, they can’t affect anybody. But a lot of times it’s almost like we’ve created so many standards. You do have to check the box. But I think that only gets to the interview.

[00:12:28] Martin Rooney: So, uh, you know, in my process now I care more about who you are as a person and, and do you, are you really? About what you’re doing versus how much school you had. Right. And I learned that one from my dad. He, he ran businesses and said, Hey, the Harvard degree gets you at least a second interview, but a jerks a jerk and we’re not hiring him.

[00:12:49] Martin Rooney: You know, so it was, you know, and you’re not gonna make, you’re, you’re not gonna make a bad person into a good person, but you can teach a good person the stuff you need, ’em.

[00:12:58] Donnie Maib: Coach, one of the funniest. I love what, thank, thank you for saying all that. One of the funniest quotes I’ve ever heard, and I kind of use it occasionally, but you can’t send your ducks to Eagle School.

[00:13:07] Donnie Maib: Yep. I don’t know where that came from, but it’s like, it’s always stuck with me, you know, so . Anyway, it’s good stuff. Uh, coach, you have a a saying that I love. And it’s called into the roar. Yeah. Coach,

[00:13:19] Martin Rooney: what does that mean? well into the roar, and here’s a great story on it. So, in a few weeks I will be cornering a UFC fighter named Jim Miller.

[00:13:28] Martin Rooney: He is, he has the most fights and most wins, most submission attempts. I think he’s top five in all time in the octagon. Uh, so he is, you know, future hall of Famer and one of the most storied fighters in the history of the sport. I’ve been training him his entire career, even before he was in the u f. And uh, hey, in the fighting there’s ups and downs, right?

[00:13:49] Martin Rooney: And as I was mentioning to the staff today, remember I said, man, sometimes to find the right thing at the right time and the right way to the right guy to say it could change everything. Right? Right. And with Jim in particular, cuz he’s such a close friend, I’m always trying. to find that. And one of the hardest things in the world, I think, to deal with, but some of the most valuable is when, when your, your athletes lose.

[00:14:11] Martin Rooney: Right? See, I, I say you rarely learn much when you win, but man, you learn a lot when you lose. And, and Jim had had this really tough loss. I knew he was down and it was almost like we had to start the next camp, you know, the next training cycle and what’s gonna be our. and Jim is a hunter and avid hunter loves animal, you know, just into animals.

[00:14:32] Martin Rooney: And so I was looking for stories there and I found this powerful motivational story. And I guess I, you know, I dub it into the roar. And what it is, is the short version, is that the lions of, uh, the jungle, they, you know, the females. The ones that do all the hunting, the male, you know, the, the guy that runs the pride does less, right?

[00:14:55] Martin Rooney: But the females, when they’re trying to chase a gazelle or something, they will drive them towards the lazy males and let the lazy males at least do this one particular job. And what it is, is when the gazelle’s get very close to the male, the male jumps up and roars as loud as he. and what, uh, the people, the researchers found studying these animals is that the gazelle’s, that even though there’s a roar and there’s this giant thing to be afraid of, the ones that run at that lion survive because that lion isn’t there to catch ’em.

[00:15:27] Martin Rooney: It’s just there to scare ’em. But it’s the ones that man, when they’re in the face of that roar and they turn and run the other way, they run right into the waiting clause. Run to their dead. Yeah. To the female lions and. The mantra became for us, Hey, it’s, we know it’s scary. There’s noth, there’s probably few things scarier than stepping into an octagon against a, a guy that wants to kill you, who’s so trained and the door closes and no one else can do anything about it.

[00:15:55] Martin Rooney: But yet I said, Hey man, but we gotta move forward. We gotta go into the roar, right? We can’t turn and run now like that. That’s not gonna work for us. We gotta go into this hard and, and. He won that next fight and Right. You know, and then, you know, and then we just started typing into the roar to each other, into the roar back and forth.

[00:16:12] Martin Rooney: And then the lion became a symbol of the training for my training for Warriors, where that became this big logo and symbol on our, our facility and part of our culture that everybody, every day at work is hard. You gotta go into the roar every day. There’s always a challenge. And then that became the name of my podcast.

[00:16:27] Martin Rooney: And, you know, so it, it just became a bigger and bigger thing. But the ultimate gist, now, the long story short, is, Every day there’s gonna be something that scares you. Right? Like it’s scary to eat right. Or it’s scary to say the right thing. Or maybe it’s scarier to go against what everybody is saying for what you know is right and to do it.

[00:16:44] Martin Rooney: Yeah. Stand up. Yeah. But you gotta stand up and you gotta go into the roar and the, and if you do that often enough, long enough, great things are gonna happen.

[00:16:50] Donnie Maib: I love it, coach. That is, uh, that is a powerful, not only story, but you can just picture that and how to apply that in your life too. It’s very practical.

[00:16:58] Donnie Maib: Um. Going back to, you know, the, the thing that I love hearing you talk about, you’ve worked with MMA fighters for how long now? 25. Coach. What, what has that been like training the fighters? You kind of touched on it a little bit, and then, uh, what are some lessons you’ve learned? Uh,

[00:17:16] Martin Rooney: well, hey, hey. I, I already gave one out, right?

[00:17:18] Martin Rooney: So how I got involved with the fighters is this buddy of mine took me in his backyard, right? I was fresh off the bobsled team. I was 215 pounds. 10, 80, 100 meter strong fast. And this kid that was always weaker than me and whatever else, he said, Hey, I bet I can beat you up. And I said, what? Beat me up.

[00:17:36] Martin Rooney: You’re not beating me up. And we went in his backyard and guess what happened? You got beat up . He beat me up a little bit. I was, I said, what’s going on? He goes, Hey, those Gracie guys, one of those guys just moved near here, right from Brazil, and I’m going there and this is where I’m learning that stuff.

[00:17:50] Martin Rooney: And I said, man, if you’re learning this stuff, then I’m, I’m gonna learn some of this stuff. , I went, it was in, uh, downtown Manhattan on the top of a methadone clinic. It was a scary environment. I go in there. My first training partner first day ever was Matt, Sarah. He went on to win the UFC championship and title.

[00:18:09] Martin Rooney: He’s in the Hall of Fame. He ended up tearing my head off a bunch of times. And you know what though? After the first few sessions, I could barely. But I was into it and I kept going back. So like first lesson is, hey, you gotta take your lumps. Here’s one that Henzel says a lot. He said, Hey, you gotta be the nail a long time before you ever get to be the hammer.

[00:18:27] Martin Rooney: Oh, I like that. I’ve never heard that. And that’s a good one. Yeah, he said, you gotta be the nail a long time before you get to be the hammer. So I kept showing up. So I think maybe guys, hey, for everybody, listen, that’s in strength and conditioning. The pushup is not as important of an exercise as the.

[00:18:42] Martin Rooney: Right. Mm-hmm. . So you gotta, you gotta keep showing up whether it’s tough or not. And then they took a liking to me and they saw that I was this strong guy and, and they said, what do you do? And I said, I was a therapist and I’m into training. And then they said, Hey, how about you train us for free and we’ll take you around the world as part of the team.

[00:18:59] Martin Rooney: Right. And what would you say? Sign me up now. Yeah. See, but see, when I ask most people, they say, I don’t know what I would do. I’m scary. Wait, it’s not for money. I got a family. I’m trying to build a business, but I said I’ll do it right. Like, so again, going back to that idea about opportunity, there’s opportunities every day.

[00:19:17] Martin Rooney: It’s just a lot of people don’t take them. , right? Like they’re all around you. Opportunities in any direction. And I took it and, but when I jumped in, I didn’t know anything. I was the first, there was nobody training MMA fighters for in the nineties for physical conditioning. It didn’t even exist. And there was no time limits on the, the rounds there, there was no weight classes.

[00:19:39] Martin Rooney: It was a free for all. So can you imagine, how was I supposed to prepare somebody for that? It’d be like saying, Hey, we’re gonna get, uh, ready for a football game. The football game. There’s no time. It never ends, and who knows what’s gonna happen, right? How do you train for that? But made a lot of mistakes, but ended up developing a system through it.

[00:19:57] Martin Rooney: And, uh, but ultimately, I think the, the bigger, you know, you said about lessons is the reason I’ve stayed in it so long though, was the personal relationships. And I think by them always knowing that I cared about them more than I cared about me. If that, and I talked about that today in the group. So for everybody listening, if you wanna be great, uh, in coaching somebody else, you gotta learn to get more excited about somebody else than you.

[00:20:23] Martin Rooney: And I was just always that guy for them. And that led to the greatest adventures around the.

[00:20:29] Donnie Maib: the thing I love coach about everything. Just hearing you today and now is like you just, no only do you love your trade or profession, but you care about people. And I mean, I think today, you know, we work with a very specific population of kids, 18 to 21 with Covid kids.

[00:20:46] Donnie Maib: They’re 22 now, so they’re a little one year older, but they can tell, like if you really care, they can tell one, do you love your job? You talked about enthusiasm and being infectious today, like kids picked that up today. And they also can tell authentically, do you really care about them? And if you can get those two things down, you can really make a difference.

[00:21:06] Donnie Maib: And so I love that. About, about the core values you talked about.

[00:21:09] Martin Rooney: Well, those are, they’re the holy grail and, and hey, maybe this podcast becomes a. checkup point for everybody listening. Are you in this job because you’re passionate about it? You care about people and you want to help ’em? Or did you just kind of, you’ve just been doing this a long time and, and it’s okay.

[00:21:24] Martin Rooney: Either answer, but I would challenge you then go find what you’re passionate about, but don’t, don’t either steal or hurt the passion of somebody else or somebody else’s future cuz you’re not. Into it enough. And I think that is, uh, that was a big message that I had for everybody today, was not, you know, like you said, one was developing that trust.

[00:21:42] Martin Rooney: If you don’t have that trust, everything else is built on that. But there’s also that authenticity, right? Like they saw it. Remember I said, I said to the group today, Hey, do you think I’m enthusiastic about coaching? You know, and, and, and, and who do you think I’m enthusiastic about? And they all knew it was about them, not me.

[00:21:58] Martin Rooney: And when you do, That’s when the real magic happens. And uh, you know, that’s what we were talking about today. It’s the, it’s the stuff you can’t see, but you can feel it that that’s where the rubber meets the road with coaching. So true,

[00:22:12] Donnie Maib: so true. Circle back on, uh, you were talking about this earlier training for warriors.

[00:22:18] Donnie Maib: Can you take a moment? Where’d that vision? I love it. I mean, it’s, it’s a global brand. Uh, it’s world. You, you’ve traveled all over, you’ve built this brand. There’s a system behind it. But I love, I love it from just kind of like was creeping on you a little bit, right. Checking out where everything’s at.

[00:22:35] Donnie Maib: How’d that vision and tell us a little bit about that story.

[00:22:38] Martin Rooney: Well, well, it’s interesting that as we were building the Prey speed school, I think that gave me an incredible. Education on building an organization, building a team, having a system, how to systemize it all, how to replicate it and, and, and, and that was an incredible experience and something I’m still so proud of to see how Parisi is still to this day helping it.

[00:22:59] Martin Rooney: Where we moved in Charlotte was to at where they had a training for Warriors and a Parisi in the same spot so that I could be around both. And with training for Warriors though, what was interesting. How it all started is I wrote a self-published book called Training for Warriors, and that thing took off.

[00:23:17] Martin Rooney: It, it, it was just this hot idea at the right time. I think in particular, the warmups and the metabolic conditioning that was just, you know, the CrossFit movement was in its infancy, but these were very similar style workouts that I was developing for the fighters. Hmm. And that started, something got popular and then I got a phone call one day from one of the largest publishing houses in New York City, Harper Collins.

[00:23:40] Martin Rooney: And they said, can you come down for a meeting? And I was like, yeah, I trained Judo right near the building. How about this day? So I went over and I meet the publisher and he’s got the book on his desk, the self-published one, and he said, Hey, we’re watching this thing. We wanna know you wanna do this thing for real?

[00:23:56] Martin Rooney: Like you want to, you wanna do it, you wanna do this thing? Make this thing. That’s so cool. Great. But get it around the world. And uh, same thing. What do you say when somebody says that? ? I was like, sign me up. Yeah, yeah. I am in. And uh, so I became, I got this big advance. You know, it’s funny, I called one of the NFL agents that was such a good friend of mine, he still is today, that cuz I called him, I said, Hey man, they gave me this contract to write this book.

[00:24:17] Martin Rooney: What should I do? He goes, what should you do? Sign it. You’re nobody right now. Like, what are you nuts? Like, Do it. And so we did the book for real, and then that became a passport around the world. So when the original book called Training for Warriors with Harper Collins that published it, man, it was this beautiful full color 400 page book and it really encompassed the warmups and the training and pe.

[00:24:40] Martin Rooney: But here’s what’s interesting. I started. Invited around the world to speak on training for Warriors. Oh, okay. But it wasn’t fighters in the crowd, it was coaches, fitness enthusiasts. It was, and then I realized, wow, this isn’t, you don’t have to be a fighter to do this. This doesn’t have anything to do with, yeah, punching people on the face.

[00:24:58] Martin Rooney: But it works. So what’s really cool about what I always say about turning for Warriors is it’s organic meaning I found something that worked for help to help people lose fat, build muscle, and feel better about themselves. And, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. I was looking to try to help my fighters win more fights, but instead I found this.

[00:25:18] Martin Rooney: And at those seminars, people would start to ask, Hey, could, could we run this program here? Hey, could we do this when you’re gone? And I didn’t that, so here’s the, the crazy twi plot twist. It was never my idea to have. Training for warriors all over the place. Wow. That’s crazy. It was organic. It was, people wanted it.

[00:25:34] Martin Rooney: They said, C, could we do this? And so then I had to figure out all that and you know, how do you, how do you set up the company for that? So at that point I didn’t have any of those things. Mm. Then we started selling licenses and now a decade and a half later, you know, there was a point we had 350. The pre covid around the world.

[00:25:50] Martin Rooney: And some of them, like we met the guy today, right? Like there was a kid at my talk today, he’s like, oh, I was in Denmark this year and I went to a really good one there. And so it’s become this incredible joy for me now where it’s something that grew cuz people wanted it. But now one of the things that really keeps me going and kept me going during Covid was the emails that I received from people around the world that are being impacted by.

[00:26:15] Martin Rooney: Program that it’s not me training them, but they’re impacted by it and their lives are better because it got created. And that’s still an incredible feel. Good. And, and and to be clear, these aren’t, I mean, you know, again, I call everybody an athlete, but these aren’t college athletes. These are, you know, people that are 20, 30, 40 pounds overweight or people that just wanna get their fitness back or, you know, drink a little less or get control of their sleep or have a stress release.

[00:26:41] Martin Rooney: These are the people. It’s, it’s helping so many more than. And that’s what I found is, hey, there’s only so many fighters, right? UFC fighters. But man, there’s a hundred million people out there that need help and I’m glad that the system is helping them.

[00:26:55] Donnie Maib: Um, take a moment and. Talk about your books for a minute, cuz that, that that’s the part that you’re married.

[00:27:03] Donnie Maib: You got four kids. Four daughters. That’s a lot. You’re, you’re a speaker, you run a facility, you’ve worked with all the, how did you find time, like go into the process? How do you write books, coach like? Yeah. Well,

[00:27:16] Martin Rooney: well here’s what I, here’s what I would say. 24 hours is a really long time if you do the math.

[00:27:23] Martin Rooney: And here’s what I mean. Hey, eight hours of sleep, it’s a non-negotiable for me. I gotta get it. But that means, hey, eight hours minus 24, there’s still 16 hours in a day left. Right now, let’s say even, I really dedicate myself for a couple hours working out, so I still got 14 hours left cuz that’s another non-negotiable.

[00:27:42] Martin Rooney: I’m gonna get my sleep, gonna get my training in. Mm-hmm. right now, let’s. Like an average workday. Even if you did, somebody got it, is eight hours, right? Even if I got that, well, boom. I’ve worked a full day, I’ve slept the full night. I got my workout in. For my, myself personally, there’s still four or five hours free every day, right?

[00:28:01] Martin Rooney: That if you use it wisely. Now what I think happens is we all have that. Window. But what do we do? We watch Netflix or we, we zone out. Zone out. Get on social media, look at other people’s lives, and what my secret was is I. Hey, I missed a lot of movies and don’t ask me what I watch on Netflix cuz I don’t.

[00:28:23] Martin Rooney: But what do I do? I write and I read. And in those, in the, that span of time I was, every time I would read and somebody else watches a show, that was how I continued to move forward. So I read for many, many years before I ever decided to write. And then when I started writing, man, a little bit adds up, right?

[00:28:42] Martin Rooney: Like you write a couple pages a day, which I bet people do that in just texting someone else. Oh, yeah, yeah. Now imagine you devote it to, you know, that could be say 15, 20 pages a week, man, in a month you got a 200 page book, you know? Yeah. If you were writing, so I, so what does it come down to? I was just very, very disciplined for a very long time.

[00:29:01] Martin Rooney: And now, Those books are there and they’re helping a lot of people. And, uh, but yeah, and it’s deciding on your non-negotiables. Like you see how I, my sleep is not expendable. My workouts are not expendable. My time with my family is not expendable. Those are all things that I are gonna happen. Yeah. Those are big rocks.

[00:29:19] Martin Rooney: You’re not moving them. Yeah. And then, right. And then see where and, and where the other stuff fits.

[00:29:23] Donnie Maib: The thing, the thing too, I keep, this has been for the season, we’re, we’re both, I think we’re the same age, like we’re in our early fifties obviously, but. As the world has grown and changed, especially coming through this pandemic and social media’s changed so much in so many people’s lives.

[00:29:42] Donnie Maib: I mean, with kids now, like. What they said, screen time went up 200% over the pandemic with, with young people. And you’re seeing it in, in the workplace now too. Like in, I dunno if you’ve ever read Cal Newport’s book, uh, deep Work Deep, yep. But that’s what I’m hearing you saying today more than ever. It’s so hard cuz really what we’re talking about, you wanna do something that changes the world.

[00:30:08] Donnie Maib: that makes a difference in somebody’s lives. It makes, but you can’t really do deep work right in these little 15, 20, 30 minute, you’ve gotta get the distractions aside. Doesn’t mean you can’t do some of that eventually, but you’ve gotta get locked in and focused where you can do this and it build that rhythm consistently, consistently in your life to do something that’s world class.

[00:30:28] Donnie Maib: And so,

[00:30:28] absolutely,

[00:30:29] Martin Rooney: and, and think about it, it’s, it’s the truth for anything. If you wanna be great at anything. I say a lot of things like, Hey, before you can stack dollars, you gotta stack hours is what I, you know, I say that one. And then, uh, what you just mentioned there, whether you, some people call, call it the 10,000 hour rule or whatever else.

[00:30:46] Martin Rooney: Like, where are you gonna log your time? Like what are you logging it on? No one’s gonna pay you to watch Netflix, right? Like, or no one’s gonna pay you to scroll through other people’s social media. So, and here’s a biggie and you’re gonna like this one. As I’m getting older. I am worrying way more about my lifts and way or way less about my lifts and way more about my legacy.

[00:31:08] Martin Rooney: And that one hit me when I was just talking at the N S C. I said, you know what? I remember when like how much I lifted was like a big deal in my life. Now you know what I’m worried about? How when I’m gone, what did I did, what difference did I make, whether it was through the writings, the businesses, through my children.

[00:31:25] Martin Rooney: And so everybody listening, if you’re in your twenties or thirties, take that as a, if you know you’re gonna think like that later, start thinking a. More earlier like it, you know, like, Hey, what, what are you gonna do that says you were here? What are you gonna do that you will be remembered by? How will you have left this place better than you found it?

[00:31:44] Martin Rooney: And, and you know what? I feel pretty confident already the body of work that I have. Put together, which is, you know, now as I’m looking back, as prodigious from, you know, there were these DVD series we did and, and hundreds of podcast episodes, a dozen books, a thou, you know, whatever, YouTube video. There just so much content that I’ve put out there just to help people that I know.

[00:32:07] Martin Rooney: You know, I, I did my part. Mm-hmm. and, and, and, and I’ll keep saying it. I’m not any more talented than anybody listening. I just put in more time maybe, and that anybody could do so you could do it too.

[00:32:20] Donnie Maib: That’s good. I, I think too, the, the one way I’ve kind of, I love how you said the leg, the lift and legacy.

[00:32:25] Donnie Maib: I’ve never heard that, but I kind of always. Because it, it is so true. Like in my life, you’re speaking my language now. Like as you get older, it’s funny how you just, your perspective changes, but your priorities, what you deem as valuable, as important to you as a coach and as a, as a dad, as a husband, um, as a leader, right?

[00:32:45] Donnie Maib: What’s important to you changes. And so you start thinking about when you’re younger, it’s all about success. It’s about. It’s about your platform, your, your influence, your money, your title, right? But as you get a little. , it’s about significance. Like, how can I help others come to that next level? And that’s so important, uh, especially as you get, you know, a little older in your career.

[00:33:06] Donnie Maib: So, and

[00:33:07] Martin Rooney: I’ve, I’ve thought about it a lot and you just took us on a, a, it, it is a journey, right? Like when I was in my twenties and thirties mm-hmm. , what I say is, Hey, in order to log all that time, you gotta be selfish a little bit, right? Like, I’ve worked with Olympic athletes, you wanna know who the.

[00:33:21] Martin Rooney: Selfish people on earth. There are Olympic athletes, but they have to be because if they’re worried about everybody else, then they cannot achieve. Achieve. Yeah. They can’t achieve that. So for everybody listening, there’s a path here, but eventually, Whatever it is you’ve garnered, you have to become selfless and give it back in, in to the point.

[00:33:40] Martin Rooney: So when Donnie said, Hey, can you come talk to the team? I was like, yeah. And I think I even wrote like, man, it cuz I, I, I want to give back. Like, it’d be really cool to give a quick talk that I wish I would’ve had 25 years ago. . Right. And, and ultimately, Hey, we gotta all learn through our mistakes. But yeah, eventually you’re not gonna be measured by what you got.

[00:34:00] Martin Rooney: You’re gonna be measured by what you gave. Mm-hmm. . And, and that’s the challenges. And you can start that now versus, you know, who I was, I was the kid that I’d get a new technique or I’d find a new exercise and then like keep it to myself. Think, think I’m stronger by not sharing it. And then when I really started sharing everything through the books and the DVDs, That’s when everything grew with the opportunities, grew with it resonate the people that could help it with.

[00:34:25] Martin Rooney: So just saying that to everybody, Hey, no matter what field you’re in, you didn’t invent anything. You didn’t invent. Maybe innovate something a little, but we’re all dying to be inventive or creative. No, go out there and help peop coach people with the stuff you got. You

[00:34:39] Donnie Maib: know? Good stuff, coach. Coach. You are a master motivator.

[00:34:43] Donnie Maib: for sure. How do you motivate if you know the unmotivated? Yeah, I mean, how do you give us a little wisdom on. Work cuz I mean I, I work with teams still at Texas. Our, my staff does, you know, a lot of coaches in the field. How do you reach those kids, those athletes that just don’t maybe like training or whatever, speaking to that

[00:35:05] Martin Rooney: for a moment.

[00:35:06] Martin Rooney: Yeah, well I think, you know, and it’s funny, right? If anybody is listening that’s not at Texas, they might say, wait a minute. There’s athletes that are so great, they could be at the University of Texas and. And they’re not motivated and, and the answer for everybody is yes, you’ll see it a lot. Oftentimes, one of the biggest curses is to be born with such natural gifts and talents that you never had to actually really work that hard, that then you never develop that habit.

[00:35:30] Martin Rooney: But to answer it, so the word motivate, really look at the two words in there. There’s motive. An action, right? Like, so, so you’re not gonna be motivated if there isn’t something that you want. So what it, what I always say, motivation starts with, uh, yeah. Three words. You ready? So this is the, the start of motivation.

[00:35:52] Martin Rooney: I want that. I want that. So what I always found was my initial meetings with athletes or ongoing meetings. I gotta find out what they want. Like what is it you want, like what is important to you. And then all I do is take the steps to either help them get there or make them better that they get there themselves.

[00:36:12] Martin Rooney: And I think it’s an important question that maybe we don’t do that enough that. Oftentimes we might just say, oh, they’re on this team, and oh, of course they must just wanna win a national title. And, and, well, no, that might not be any personal driver for a kid, but maybe there’s something they want. Right?

[00:36:29] Martin Rooney: And, and if you could help them reach it, then you’re on their side and that’s how you build that trust and you really know ’em. And then they maybe don’t wanna let you down. Right? So, so I’d always say one of my secrets was, in particular, I always tell the story with the nfl. Because you get these kids, right?

[00:36:46] Martin Rooney: I might get 25 kids a year. Every one of ’em wants to make it, and every one of ’em wants money and every one of them. And I would say, okay, none of those are enough. What do you want? Like, what do you really want? Why do you need to make it? Why? Why? And they would always come back First, I want money. Nope, not enough.

[00:37:04] Martin Rooney: I wanna play in the nfl. Not enough. Oh, it was my family’s dream. Not enough. And then you would start getting the real. You know, the real ones like, Hey, uh, I, I grew up in the murder capital of my state. My mom and sister are still there. My dad’s been killed. If I don’t get ’em out, they’re never getting out.

[00:37:19] Martin Rooney: Then it would be, Hey, I just had a child and it was the holidays and I had no money for gifts. I, I’m never gonna be embarrassed like that again. I’m never gonna let that happen. I have to be a good dad, better than a dad. And I was, you know, meaning the deep stuff. These real, these real visceral answers, one that always sticks in my head.

[00:37:35] Martin Rooney: It was, He said, my brother just committed suicide and, and, uh, no one saw it coming and I wanna make sure I make it so we can create a foundation. This never happens to somebody again. And, and you know what? Number one, now I understood him and they were showing the real. Now that’s something real like that.

[00:37:52] Martin Rooney: Now, hey, you’re gonna, you’re gonna slack at your workout now, you’re not gonna eat right or you’re gonna miss out on your sleep. And I’ll remember it and I could use. To help them, not as a technique, but to help them. So then if they were slacking, could say, Hey man, you’re letting your like family down right now.

[00:38:07] Martin Rooney: Like, didn’t you say this was important to you? Like, come on, like you, you said what? And then get ’em right back on course. And I’ll tell you what, the three stories that I just shared, every one of those guys made it and played for a long time. And then there were guys that were more talented than them that either made it or didn’t, but didn’t stay long because they didn’t know why they were doing it.

[00:38:25] Martin Rooney: So, so the heart for everybody listening, the heart of motive. Is I want that. Like what is it you want? And most people when I ask. They don’t know. Like, that’s what’s so crazy. If you say like, what do you want? They’ll just give you some a, you know, oh, I wanna, you know, like, yeah, let’s win a national title.

[00:38:42] Martin Rooney: Or Hey, I wanna, I wanna be a starter. Oh, I wanna, you know, and it’s like, no, like, what’s the real stuff driving? Yeah. And that’s so good. Yeah. It’s, it’s deep. But that’s, that’s what I think coaching is, right? Like make that connection, I think

[00:38:55] Donnie Maib: too. Coach, this is, uh, you, you’re getting, you’re sing, you’re kind of singing my language here, but.

[00:39:00] Donnie Maib: Like, what is the dream? Right? And I think today, oftentimes, again, we have kids, I work, we work college kids. They don’t always have a dream, you know, they don’t know really what they want, to your point, they really don’t. But if you can find and help a kid find a dream like that just changes. I, I mean, my, in my own house, I’ve seen it, you know, coming through Covid.

[00:39:23] Donnie Maib: Uh, one of my daughters really struggled through that. But then, Coming out of it. She’s found like what she wants and coach she’s come alive and she’s completely

[00:39:34] Martin Rooney: transformed that I want that. That’s what a dream is. And I’m telling you, it’s so cool to see it, you know? Yeah. And you know what it is too, for everybody listening, cuz we’re doing, you know, we’re talking about athletes 18 to 21.

[00:39:45] Martin Rooney: remember what that is in brain development and the development of a person in those years too. And a lot of times the dream changes, right? Because remember when we’re young, the parent, you know, it’s, I think a parent’s job or a coach’s job help, they gotta help form the dream At first. And you know, I’m speaking from personal experience.

[00:40:03] Martin Rooney: My one daughter, there was this dream like, hey, be a college track and field athlete. And, and, and we did everything in our power and she did it. And then I think once she got. The dream was hollow. You know, it wasn’t either fun anymore or it wasn’t okay. I, I, she achieved it and it was almost now what, you know, and I think we have to also make sure when we’re, when we say those dreams, I guess I’m cautioning everybody.

[00:40:30] Martin Rooney: Even I made the mistake, oh, national title Earl, I want this body fat. Hey, remember there’s gonna be a day. Sports is, Like sports is gonna end for everybody. I don’t care who you are. Husain bolt, it ends, right? Like, you know, like you can be on top of the world for a very long time. For everybody it ends.

[00:40:45] Martin Rooney: And then what is their identity or what’s their dream then, right? And I think it’s our job to also. Start having those conversations. Mm-hmm. , right? Like, now with my daughter, as she’s transitioning out of sport, it’s kind of like, well, now we’re having those conversations. Well, what do you want? What’s the dream?

[00:41:04] Martin Rooney: You know? And, and, and I would’ve never saw her coming. She said, I wanna, I wanna go to dental school. And I’m, you know, in my head I , I don’t see that one. But now she’s, so, she’s applying the school, she’s making these changes. She’s really excited and happy. So again, to your point, the dream or the, I want that stimulates everything.

[00:41:22] Martin Rooney: No, for everybody listening, the dream changes like the dream just doesn’t have to be sports, and that’s it. Because that is hollow. It eventually ends. Or if somebody has an injury or, or something happens, there’s got, eventually they have to have other dreams too and And we can also help them with those.

[00:41:38] Martin Rooney: Yeah, it’s

[00:41:39] Donnie Maib: crazy. I remember years ago we met with a guy on retirement and I’ve always. I’ve never, I don’t know, just, I dunno what your thoughts on it. I think I know what your thoughts are, but just, I’ve never thought of like, I don’t know if I ever, ever wanna really retire . Um, cuz I’ve just seen too many people that it doesn’t go well for him.

[00:42:00] Donnie Maib: Yeah. And I remember this guy, we were sitting across the table and this, you know, this financial investor goes, he asked a question and it, it threw me for a loop. He goes, how long do you wanna live? And. , that’s kind of a market question, and I never had thought about it. But now when I walked outta that meeting, I go, you know, he’s got a point like, what’s your goals?

[00:42:21] Donnie Maib: And like, what do you wanna achieve? And he’s, he, he basically told us people are living longer now. Yeah. Technology, more awareness, getting health checkups. People are just healthier. And he goes, you need to think about like what kind of lifestyle you want, yada, yada, yada. My point being too, My go switch it over to my, my, my father-in-law, he told me this true story when he retired.

[00:42:45] Donnie Maib: He worked for the US Postal Service for 30 plus 40 years, and he had a supervisor that when he retired after several weeks, he showed back up at the parking lot. Early, this is four something in the morning. And he looked over one morning, he pulled into a lot in his supervisor. He goes, what are you doing here?

[00:43:00] Donnie Maib: He goes, ah. I just was in the neighborhood going, knowing you weren’t in the neighborhood at four in the morning, , this guy didn’t have nothing to do. Nothing to do. And sad story ends up like they end up having to talk with him cuz he would go inside and distract everybody. Didn’t know what to do and then they had to kick him out because he didn’t have nothing else to do.

[00:43:17] Donnie Maib: He is retired and he ended up, I think, committing suicide. And my father-in-law looked at me one day and he said this, he goes, , you need to have something that you’re not retiring from. You need to have something to retire too. Yeah. And he’s that guy, you’ve, you’ve met him. Coach, coach Rooney. He’s Hunter.

[00:43:34] Donnie Maib: He is a fisherman, but can’t, he’s getting older now, now he’s into like, uh, gardens. And like, he goes, if man, if I’m gonna be a gardener, I’m gonna be the best gardener. His food is so good. But to your point, you’ve gotta have in these seasons of your life, right, especially in coaching and half, you gotta have a dream.

[00:43:49] Donnie Maib: You gotta have something you’re,

[00:43:49] Martin Rooney: you’re reaching for Well, well, the, the one you’re talking about, and I agree a hundred percent. We were talking before I was the personal training, you know, guy with Phil Sims for a long time, where Chris, his son, played at Texas. That’s how I got here for a while, which was cool.

[00:44:05] Martin Rooney: And uh, I would ask Phil, I’d say, why do you work so hard? You know, cuz once his Super Bowl MVP career was over, he went to work as a sportscaster. And if anybody knows anything about it, it’s not like you just show up and call a game, you’re. Days before the event, Stu studying and memorizing everything.

[00:44:22] Martin Rooney: It’s so much work. It’s so arduous. And I remember he told me, he said, Hey, 24 hours is a long time. To have nothing to do, you know, 25, 4 hours, can’t play golf 24 hours a day. And so for everybody listening, I think my personal philosophy is the idea of retirement is a, it’s a sham actually. It’s, Hey, work at some job you hate till you’re 65, and then, then go enjoy yourself, which never happens.

[00:44:48] Martin Rooney: So instead, it should be work at a job you love that you’re passionate about your whole. and kind of never stop working, right? Always have purpose. So I think instead of now, we would replace that word dream with purpose, and. Today, I’ve always said, what is my purpose? And mine is like, I believe I’m, I’m out there to educate and, and entertain while I do it.

[00:45:11] Martin Rooney: In particular in the area of exercise, right? So I create enlightenment, empowerment, encouragement. Like that’s what I say, like my personal mission statement is, and today you saw it, right? Like so today. So I was right on purpose. So you keep, you know, so for everybody listening, Donnie will keep saying, Hey, are you tired man?

[00:45:26] Martin Rooney: Hey, do you wanna take a break? Hey, you know, maybe we don’t have to do this. And I’m like working, no, no, I’m. What? What I’m saying is I’m, when you’re on purpose, you got boundless energy. Wait a minute. I could share ideas that can encourage somebody or empower ’em or fire ’em up. That’s what I do. Like I figured out that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.

[00:45:44] Martin Rooney: That’s through the book. So everything is an extension of that. The books, the podcast, the speaking, any of it that I do, my coaching, that’s what I understand is my purpose. So if I get to do that, let me do it. Now, if you take me to Ikea, you’re gonna see a pretty sluggish me because I don’t wanna be there.

[00:46:00] Martin Rooney: Yeah. With my wife checking out window treatments. But the I until you’ll know. But the the, but so what are, you know, again, I think the big lessons, everybody should be here and there, and these are life lessons depending on what stage you’re at. Find something you’re super passionate about, figure out a way that you can spend your time doing it and getting paid and then do it forever because, hey, I’ve seen some crazy studies where if you look at the number of people Yeah, how long they live after they leave their career, it’s not good.

[00:46:26] Martin Rooney: Yeah. It is not good. It’s not good because their career was what they liked or, or it is something good. So why, why get out?

[00:46:33] Donnie Maib: I mean, I’m, I echo your, your, your words there. I just don’t have any dream or passion to retire and sit and watch tv. Yeah. Like that’s

[00:46:42] Martin Rooney: not, or do, yeah. Or do what? Go to the coffee shop

[00:46:44] Donnie Maib: or to your point, like there’s, I heard one guy say recently you can only sit on the beach and look.

[00:46:49] Donnie Maib: I mean, I love the beach and I like going there, but I don’t wanna like just be there and that’s it. No worries. For the rest of it, I

[00:46:54] Martin Rooney: would lose my, yeah, I would lose my mind. And it’s actually interesting. I wish I could remember how he said it, but I met with, uh, James Lair, the, you know, the guy that wrote powerful engagement, he, you know, the father of Oh yeah.

[00:47:06] Martin Rooney: Sports psychology. Yeah, father of sports psychology. We spent a day together and uh, and he was talking about these concepts cuz he’s older now, I think he’s in his eighties, and man, still going. And, and I was impressed by that and asked those questions and he almost had a physiological explanation for it too, that it was something about, it was almost.

[00:47:27] Martin Rooney: He equated it. If I can remember, like imagine if we were tribal, like, you know, if you go, if we’re trying to explain this with a, you know, a DNA n a model, you know, or something, and he would say, Hey, when in the tribe you became ineffective anymore. You got so old that you were just not effective, or there was no purpose for you and you, you couldn’t help anymore.

[00:47:46] Martin Rooney: Mm-hmm. , it was actually advantageous to the tribe for you to pass away because now they don’t you, you are. Wearing ’em down or bringing them down in some capacity. And I think it was almost as if that maybe there’s this mechanism that when you would just have nothing, something with your energy levels or you know your health, all of it just deteriorates.

[00:48:03] Martin Rooney: Cuz it was almost like he was trying to explain that concept of why, why is it that somebody retires and then man, within a handful of months, you know, somebody that was healthy is now, you know, their health is in jeopardy. So, you know, regardless of whether you subscribe to the idea or not, what we cannot, uh, Not agree with is that purpose fills you with energy, right?

[00:48:27] Martin Rooney: It doesn’t steal your energy, it fills you with it. And so you gotta figure out what that is. So here’s a great line. Another, we’re we, there’s a lot of knowledge bombs today. You, you, if you’ve ever heard this one, it’s you’re, the purpose in life is to find your life’s purpose. . So really the purpose of life is to figure out what your purpose is.

[00:48:46] Martin Rooney: Yeah, yeah. It’s gonna take your time. Everybody’s gonna go through different jobs, careers stuff, people, but man, when you find it, you know it. And I’ll tell you from experience, you’ll have boundless energy. It’ll lead to great adventures and there won’t be a day that you’re laying around wishing you had nothing to do.

[00:49:04] Donnie Maib: Yeah. Good friend of mine, coach to, to kind of jump on that. He coaches at Florida State still, and he had developed, uh, a decent relationship with Bobby Bowden. Of course, Bobby Bowden is, he passed away, uh, not too long ago, but one of the things he got, he took away from Coach Bowden was like what you just said, like he always was.

[00:49:25] Donnie Maib: in the coaching profession and always helping kids. It’s like pouring into them, mentoring them, being around these kids and giving back. And it kept him young coach. Yeah. Because he found, he knew his purpose. And one of my favorite quotes on, um, on kind of your purpose is like, your career is what you get paid to do.

[00:49:44] Donnie Maib: What you’re calling is what you were made to do. And that’s, that’s something I think that resonates. I hear you saying that resonates with me like, Coaching is a calling like you’re, it is not something like, I’m just, y’all wanna get paid, I gotta pay bills, but man, it’s something I was made for.

[00:49:57] Martin Rooney: So, yeah.

[00:49:58] Martin Rooney: And, and everybody needs to find out what that is. Cuz oftentimes either our parents or society pushes us into something or we just find ourselves somewhere. Right? Like, look what happens. Hey, you gotta get a degree in something, huh? But I’m not sure what I want. Well, I’ll get it in this. Well now I gotta get a job.

[00:50:12] Martin Rooney: Well, that’s what my degree’s in. I’ll get it in that. Hey, so everybody should be happy that. Coach MA’s not, uh, teaching art right now. He’s coaching . Because I saw that in your bio. I know, right? And I was, yeah. That’s funny. I

[00:50:25] Donnie Maib: was like, whoa. Yeah. Funny story that I got. You talk about being coaching and being a football player in at S E C

[00:50:32] Donnie Maib: They did a story on me one time at Georgia back when I was, this is back in the. Early nineties, Picasso and pads. I was so humiliated coach. He was terrible. .

[00:50:40] Martin Rooney: No. Well, it, well, and it’s, Hey, but you see I’m doing the, uh, I was just showing off the chainsaw card. I loved it. And it, and it goes back to your point too, of how you were saying find an outlet or, or you know, like the, what you were saying about your father-in-law, in the gardening and stuff.

[00:50:55] Martin Rooney: I said, man, if I’m gonna learn to do this thing, I’m gonna try to be great coach.

[00:50:58] Donnie Maib: You go visit my follow law in Atlanta and he will give you. Two hour lecture, gardening, what kind of food. But do you see how that’s keeping him going? He’s

[00:51:06] Martin Rooney: so passionate about it. Yeah. Yeah. You, you gotta find, see, my dad, my dad’s thing, he’s just this avid reader.

[00:51:10] Martin Rooney: And I’ll tell you, both my parents were business owners and when they both retired, I’ve watched their help. Health deteriorate and man, it’s almost been like my job to find things to keep him interested in. So I’ll find authors my dad likes or books that he likes or whatever, and I’m constantly feeding them to him to give him a reason to have something to be doing because, yeah, so the message guys, don’t get seduced by the idea that you’re working so hard to someday have nothing to do.

[00:51:38] Martin Rooney: A wealthy person is not somebody that has nothing to do. It’s the person that has the whole day to do the stuff that they like doing. They enjoy doing.

[00:51:45] Donnie Maib: Yeah. That’s good, coach. Almost done with the show today. You have been so awesome. Want to touch on one of my favorite topics here? Talk about family for a minute.

[00:51:54] Donnie Maib: coach, how do you balance? Um, one, one of the big trends that I’m reading about hearing about inner profession right now, people are leaving in droves, tons of hours. Burnout pays low. You know, how do you manage your job, your career? You seem like. Awesome. Uh, , beautiful wife, marriage, girls, super busy. How do you do that?

[00:52:21] Donnie Maib: Coach, speak to

[00:52:22] Martin Rooney: that. And it, it’s funny, coach, I get that question a lot and it’s the same and it’s worded the same way. They always say, how do you balance everything? And I’ve learned to give this answer. You ready? The short answer? I don’t. I knew it. You know, so, so here’s what it is. Life is a giant balancing act.

[00:52:37] Martin Rooney: Now from, for everybody listening, this is the perfect audience to tell it to. My theory on this, if I was, even if I’m walking, . In order to move forward, I have to first put myself off balance. Mm-hmm. , then the foot’s gotta get under me. I’m sort of balanced, but then because my momentum and inertia is going forward, I’m off balance again.

[00:52:54] Martin Rooney: And I’m on balance. And I’m off balance. And if you pictured it as if I were on a tight rope and now I’m a little to one side and a little to the other side, sometimes I’m gonna be on the left. Sometimes I’m gonna be on the right and. Here is what I would say. In order to have built my career, there was stuff I had to sacrifice.

[00:53:10] Martin Rooney: There have been things I’ve missed, different events, uh, from a little daddy daughter dance to, you know, that I wish I, you know, man, they don’t let me forget about to, it could be games or something else, but there were things that in order to provide for my family or to, to allow us to do those things, I had to do some of that.

[00:53:28] Martin Rooney: And, uh, definitely what I would say though is, but when what I learned was the. Even though you’re gonna be off balance and you have to do these things. So when you’re at work, be at work, but man, when you’re at home, be at home. And the concept that I think, I think I still have, I battle with all the time is being present.

[00:53:47] Martin Rooney: Right? Like I I say in the future, cuz you’ve already talked about the distractions, the screen times in the future focus will be a person’s real superpower. Like you said before the deep work. Like we’re, we’re, we’re saying those same lines, that when what I have. Really honed is my ability to focus on whatever I’m doing right then in that moment.

[00:54:08] Martin Rooney: Like if you notice today, like today, we’re, we’re enjoying our time together from the podcast to walking out there. Everything else, the speech that I, you know, everything, whatever I’m doing in that moment, I’m trying to always hone in on being able to be great in that moment, right? So that when I’m with my kids, I’m with them.

[00:54:25] Martin Rooney: I’m not sitting on my phone and not paying attention or something else, and, and it takes discipline, right? It’s hard, but what I would say, There is, there is no such thing as balance, right? Right. It’s, it’s gonna be making decisions at the time, but whatever you decide, go be great right then cuz the worst mistake you could make is you’re at work worried about.

[00:54:45] Martin Rooney: Home. And then when you’re at home, you, you’re not with them because you’re worried about what didn’t happen at work. And, uh, then you’re just distracted everywhere. So definitely for anybody listening, it’s, Hey, how much, you know, how much are you focusing? Maybe a little meditation or journaling or doing a little of your own writing.

[00:55:03] Martin Rooney: But then, or put the tech away and really spending the time and, and you know what’s funny? You reminded me today. With our girls. We take the phones every night at say a certain time, and they plugged in in our room. So we just got ’em away from them cuz we don’t know how to control this. This is uncharted territory and that’s a boundary.

[00:55:20] Martin Rooney: But yet now, yeah, it’s good they’re getting older and you know, now it’s like they have ’em again. And you know what I’m, I’m seeing it. That man, it’s, that’s where they live like that. So we’re gonna have to figure out how to overcome that

[00:55:33] Donnie Maib: in the future. The phone thing, right? I mean, I know that’s kind of like everybody rants about that, but it’s like,

[00:55:39] Donnie Maib: I heard a guy say one recently, I listened to a book and he was talking about phones. How is a device that’s supposed to make our lives so much better has taken away from so much of life, you know? And so if you, to your point, if you let that become a master versus a tool Yep. It can, it can not be good for your life, but if you use it as a tool, it can definitely enhance.

[00:55:57] Donnie Maib: Yeah.

[00:55:57] Martin Rooney: Which we did today. We got some really good pictures. . I know we, Donnie had, Donnie had my phone in his hands a lot of times today. I did. I got, but you see how that’s how we’re using it? Like, hey, I, I have not, it’s a tool checked email or social media or anything today that it’s, it’s learning how to carve it out.

[00:56:10] Martin Rooney: But you know what it is, no one’s teaching us how to do it. Like we’re in, like I said, unchartered waters where there’s no education. That comes with how should you use a, how should a teenager use a phone or a college kid use a phone or not? And I’ll tell you what the sad part is though. There’s gonna be studies that you watch in five years or 10 years showing what we did to ourselves by not knowing.

[00:56:31] Martin Rooney: Right. You know? That’s

[00:56:32] Donnie Maib: good. Coach Rooney, it’s been awesome. If, uh, our listeners wanna reach out and connect, well first of all, if you have not picked up his book, the, his latest two books and it’s coach to coach in high 10, correct, you can get that on Amazon. And so check those out. Where can our listeners, if they wanna follow you, connect?

[00:56:51] Donnie Maib: What’s the best way, coach? Yeah.

[00:56:52] Martin Rooney: So, uh, social media is usually the best way for me. So if you go to Instagram, I’m listed as the Martin Rooney, and you’ll see some of my adventures. And I always put some, I always try to put a, a great, if you liked some of the stuff you heard today, I’ve always got something, uh, to read that goes with the photo.

[00:57:09] Martin Rooney: And same thing on Facebook. I’m just Martin Rooney on Facebook and you can, you know, they’re all interlinked so you can find it.

[00:57:14] Donnie Maib: Good stuff. Also check out training for Warriors if you have not. Super awesome, cool. Uh, not only, uh, brand facility, but purpose changing lives. So thank you for doing that, coach.

[00:57:25] Donnie Maib: But it has been a pleasure to have you here. I’ve already gotten them some breakfast tacos. Hopefully we’ll get you some barbecue or TexMex before you get outta here. . Uh, but again, What a privilege. What a, uh, what an honor to have you here today. So, hey,

[00:57:39] Martin Rooney: my pleasure. And hopefully if somebody did get something great out of it, let uh, coach Mabe know about it and hook ’em,

[00:57:46] Donnie Maib: hook ’em.

[00:57:46] Donnie Maib: Horns. Well, hey, that’s it from Austin and the team behind the team podcast Coach Rooney. So awesome. Hope you have a great weekend. We’ll catch you on the flip side.

[00:57:58] Donnie Maib: Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the team Behind the Team podcast. For future episodes, go to iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, or Stitcher. We definitely want to keep having great guests on the show and great content. So if you have a moment, please go to iTunes, leave a rating and review and let us know how we’re.

[00:58:20] Donnie Maib: I’m Donnie Mabe, and thanks so much for tuning in.