Shawn French (01:39):

(01:39):

What is up everybody? Back with another episode of the podcast and Determined Society. Today I have a special gift. I talk a lot about athletes and their development and I get really passionate and pissed off when kids are being overworked, burnt out, and having Tommy John’s surgery at 11 years old and all these types of injuries with their knees, ankles, you name it. Well, today I have with me some wellness experts, some recovery experts right here in Southwest Florida, and I’m super jacked to have them on. You may have been seeing me with needles in my arm. Well that was Apex Physical Therapy. So I have Angie McGilvery and then right next door, an amazing, amazing business called Live Resilient Southwest Florida, cold Plunge, infrared saunas, massage, all the things that you can think of. And quite frankly, guys, I think after the show Jason Wins is going to get me into that cold plunge that I’m absolutely scared of. I always talk about growth mindset, but I’m scared of cold water. So again, with me today, I have Angie with Apex Physical Therapy and Jason wins from Live resilient Southwest Forest. So we’re have a badass show today. Welcome y’all.

Angie McGilvrey (02:49):

Hey, happy to be here. Good morning.

Shawn French (02:50):

Good man. What’s up guys? I love the background. It’s a really cool, I mean dude, you got that shiplap and it says live resilient. I just love what that specific name, what it means, live resiliently, right? So thank you guys for popping on so quickly. I know we didn’t have much time to flip this schedule around, but you guys really bailed me out in a jam. I had a scheduling change and it’s very odd for me not to have four or five in the bank and you guys stepped up, so I just want to thank you guys so much.

Angie McGilvrey (03:27):

Our pleasure.

Jason Wyns (03:29):

Yeah, we were just talking about that as well. It’s like, alright, what’s more resilient than just going on less than 24 hour notice and let’s just see what happens.

Shawn French (03:41):

I agree with you and it’s so cool because actually like I said in the intro, I haven’t had experience with your side of the business yet, but I have had experience with Angie’s side of the business right there over at Apex. And I mean, I tell you what, you guys do great work over there. You have some amazing people, Danica and Ben when I walk in there and it’s just like, dude, I feel like I’m like Norm at Cheers. It’s really cool.

Angie McGilvrey (04:07):

That’s awesome. Thank you so much Sean.

Shawn French (04:10):

Yeah, no, it’s one thing to say about culture. So when you guys are building businesses and things like that, you and your husband Joe started Apex in Chicago back in 2005, and Jason, you’re a couple years in over here at Live Resilient, if my memory serves me correctly,

Jason Wyns (04:27):

Just probably almost a year and a half,

Shawn French (04:30):

Right? So I want you guys to warm the show up and kind of talk about culture. I think culture’s important when you’re building businesses and you’re building sports teams, I would imagine that you guys are so connected that you have the same culture over at Live Resilient that they do at Apex. But I got to tell you guys, when people walk in there, they’re not feeling like they’re there. Like, oh man, I got to do this damn rehab. I got to do this treatment. They’re there and people are friendly and it’s almost like I kind of want to go hang out there, right? I mean, so walk me through that guys. That’s a tough culture to build.

Angie McGilvrey (05:10):

Yeah, there’s a lot to unpack in that, Sean, for sure. And I greatly appreciate you bringing that up because it’s been something that probably around 2019 is when I really started digging deep on how do I create the best culture I possibly can. It was really when that became very apparent that that was a huge necessary ingredient for Apex success. And one of the biggest things is purpose is really making sure that you are leading with through your, well first defining it and then leading with and acting upon and just showing the behaviors and everything driven around what that purpose is. And interestingly enough, it was Jason who actually inspired the purpose to be written. It’s something that’s in your gut, right? It’s something that intrinsically, but because it’s such an emotional topic, how do you just put words behind it? And one day Jay and I were at Apex and he was training someone and something great happened and we were celebrating that client’s win. And Jay just casually said to me, changing lives. And that was just that moment where I was like, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly what we do here. And so we’ve really built our culture around that purpose and I think that’s really just been the most basic ingredient.

Shawn French (06:46):

Dude, I love that. Jason, what are your thoughts on that?

Jason Wyns (06:49):

I think you could say that Live Resilient was birthed out of the same place. And I’ve had this thought pretty recently and other people probably do as well is like, when should I start a business? And I think it’s when the alternative is more costly than not starting the business. And I think that because we have that vision of what we’re doing has a great purpose that we can go forward and we can do the sacrifices that come with it and we can encourage others. We can build up the team and create that culture because we understand that we have a vision moving forward. That’s purposeful.

Shawn French (07:41):

I love it. I love it. So I’m going to tell you from a consumer standpoint, I’ve already given you guys major kudos on the culture there, but I want to dive in a little deeper on it because it starts at the front, right? I call it the manager of first impressions or the director of first impressions. That person that when you walk into any business, especially kind of a physical therapy facility, you’re worried, you’re worried that they’re going to sit there and say, alright, dude, can’t help you go get shoulder surgery for the second time. And at 45, that’s not something I’m really wanting to freaking do because it’s going to set me back more. But everybody in there is having fun doing their job. They don’t look at it as, and you can tell I work with, I work with Ben and Danica would just throw knives in my shoulders.

(08:34):

And the thing that I love about it is just that everybody’s playful. And when you’re there doing it, it’s like that’s the last place conceptually somebody wants to be is sitting in a chair in a fricking tank top that doesn’t fit. Okay, by the way, can you get bigger fricking tops for Christ’s sakes? But it being so playful to a point where I’m sitting there having casual conversation with Ben and he’s just cranking up the electricity and I’m jumping and he thinks it’s funny, he thinks it’s funny, but he’s doing it out of love. He’s doing it because he knows if I’m getting comfortable with that threshold, then he needs to push it, right? But again, I go on tangents, my apologies. But the overall tone is people are there and it’s like they’re not working, they are playing. It is the most positive environment. I’ve been in a very long time. Guys,

Angie McGilvrey (09:37):

You’re filling my cup. It’s overflowing. Sean,

Shawn French (09:42):

I It’s like, are you crying? Do you guys like my Winnie the Poh cup? No, I think, no, it’s a dog, but it looks like it should be Winnie the Pooh resemble Winnie. I know, it’s cool. I’m manly. Go ahead. Sorry.

Angie McGilvrey (09:55):

I a hundred percent part of it also comes from a recruiting standpoint as well. I’m only looking for those that are a plus players and are looking for, again, more than just a place to come do their work. I’m looking for those who are 100% dedicated to changing lives and to sharpening their craft and to just being the best possible a plus high performance over achieving individual. And part of that is innate in a lot of us. Part of it, obviously we can teach and we can teach and we can grow those folks as well, but part of it, they have to have a little bit in ’em. So when we go through our recruiting and onboarding process, I don’t necessarily look for somebody whose resume shows that they have the best PT skillset or who, I don’t necessarily care about the letters behind the name and what they look like on paper.

(11:02):

I want to know what their core values are. I want to know what their soft skills are like I want to know. So we bring people on board who have growth mindset is one of our core values. It’s on the wall at Apex. We’ve been talking about that word a lot this morning. And so we ask those people about what does it tell us about a challenge you’ve recently overcome and how did that make you feel and what did you do about it? And those are the sort of questions that we really dig in. Tell me about a time that you served somebody else before you when you were altruistic. Let’s talk about that. And so building a foundation of folks who we have that common value set, it makes it just a players want to be around a players and then you just have fun all day.

Shawn French (11:50):

No, that’s the truth. I can definitely tell you, you guys have done a great job there, Jason. I’ve seen you roaming around there too. Everybody, you’re always smiling. I got to tell you, you got to work on your dance moves though, man, that dude, I dunno what you were trying to do like a seawalk or what the hell that was. But I know some dancers, we can get them in there to do some choreography for you,

Jason Wyns (12:13):

Which we’ve done. We’ve danced with dancers before. We need to step it up. We need to step it up again on that. We’re always trying.

Shawn French (12:22):

I’m just messing with you, man. The

Jason Wyns (12:23):

Figure skater in there and she was trying to show me how to do a double axle. I ate it, but I always try.

Shawn French (12:31):

Absolutely, man. And that’s the thing, dude, that’s the growth mindset. It all ties back to growth mindset. And like you said, Angie, all over the walls is 1% better, 1% better if we can just be 1% better every single day. It’s simple. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. There’s a lot of work that goes into becoming 1% better every day. So Jason, when you think about 1% better, what is it for you on a daily basis that you need to execute in order to become 1% better, to be the ultimate version of who you want to be?

Jason Wyns (13:10):

That’s probably like, and there’s a lot to unpack there, but I think going back to the previous discussion, the PT world, the strength and conditioning world, the recovery world, what so many people will probably miss is that the simple fact is that we’re in the business of dealing with people. And so to be people oriented I think is kind of what you get that feel from when you step into Apex. And although we continue to search for knowledge, ways to improve and the actual background of what we’re dealing with, at the end of the day, we’re working with how do we help other people improve their life? And I think for me, being able to provide that for someone continues to make me want to be better.

(14:15):

And so I think it all kind of ties in with the purpose as well. It’s like the alternative of not being my best self is not being able to provide other people that chance for themselves. We talk about this idea with resilience as well as you have to fill up your own cup before you’re able to effectively pour into others. And I think we both get really filled up when we hear the impact that we have through other people’s lives. Hey, like you said, I was able to work out, I was able to do these things that I wasn’t able to do and that continually fills up our cup. Just hearing those things and knowing that what we’re doing is making a difference. So for me it’s simple. It’s keeping my ear open, paying attention to the things that people are telling me, listening effectively and doing my best to keep that at the forefront of my mind. This is what we’re here for.

Shawn French (15:23):

It’s funny, most successful people have this ideology and it’s deeply ingrained in them. It’s a real thing. It’s authentic being outwardly focused. It’s never about the finger pointing back. It’s always about how can I be better so that I can give more? And what I’ve noticed in my journey in podcasting and building my business with my athletes is when I’m starting to struggle for my words and help them and I’ll get lower energy, I’m a human being. I’m not safe from all those things. I have my kryptonite as well. But the one thing that I notice is when I’m working on myself constantly being very intentional about everything in my day, man, when I talk to my athletes, I just light up and when I’m on the mic, I light up. It’s a lot of fun. So it’s about other people and sometimes, and I want the audience to really close their eyes and listen to this.

(16:24):

Seriously close your eyes. It is the fact that you have to be selfish. This word selfish has such a negative connotation to it. Break it down selfish. It doesn’t mean you’re a jerk or an a-hole. What it means is you have to dive into yourself. Guys. If you want the best for your children, you want the best for your employees, you want the best for the people that you work with on a day-to-day basis and with your business, then you have to be the best version of yourself because everybody involved with you deserves that. And if you don’t give them that, you are being entitled, in my opinion. To me, that’s the form of selfish that has the negative connotation to it. Someone who’s unwilling to do the work so they can pour into other people. And when you do that work on yourself, it’s amazing how you don’t get tired. You don’t get tired of giving, right?

Angie McGilvrey (17:21):

Yep. I love that you brought that up, Sean, because just this last weekend, it’s hard. We’re human like everybody else do. It’s hard for me to take time away from Apex and fill my own cup. It’s something that I struggle and again, try to be 1% better every day. In this past weekend, Joe and I went out to Texas for a conference and there was a lot that went around like, oh my gosh, should we go? But we got this going on. And then I was like, but you know what? We have not gotten away, literally stepped away since the hurricane and be space. We have to go for our team because we need to fill ourselves up to be better leaders. And we came back and I got to tell you, I’m just exploding with how we’re going to grow, how we’re going to expand, how we’re going to help more people who we’re going to collaborate with.

(18:22):

I just came back on fire, ready to go and spending that last day there, that Sunday just sitting. We took a five mile walk in Austin, Texas, and I mean, it was gorgeous. And just taking all of that in, it’s like, yes, that’s what we need to, there’s no place else I need to be than right here because this is what going to get us even further, change more lives. It was great, and I appreciate you bringing that up because that was on a little bit of a bigger scale. But with live resilient, we see that in our everyday folks who it’s like, man, I don’t have time to come in and float and salt float for an hour. I don’t have time to, oh, I feel selfish. I feel guilty about that. And we see our folks struggle with that sometimes.

Shawn French (19:13):

It’s a great point. And I think that we all at some point or another struggle with stepping back so we can move forward. And this is a good, that triggered something to me in a positive way. There was a four month time span right around February, I think it might’ve been, I don’t even really know what it was, it seems like eons ago. But I took about a four month break from recording the whole business part of the podcasting, the whole social media thing, feeling like I was less. And I started doing a lot of comparisons and I robbed myself with the joy of what I was doing to a point where I would still love to record, but I didn’t want to do show notes. I didn’t want to cut up the reels. It was just too cumbersome for me at that point because mentally I was just beat, right?

(20:07):

And I’m like, okay, well this is causing some arguments within my household with my wife. And because I’m just always upset and always sad. And so I decided one week I was like, yeah, I’m not going to do a show. Then it turned into another week and another week and in another week and another week, and quite literally it was I think three and a half, four months that I did not record a show. And for me it was done. It was done. I didn’t care anymore. And for me, I just wanted to pour into my family. I wanted to be there. And I was like, I’m not going to start back until I feel I have a good grasp on what success means in this space for me. And I had this author and resilience coach reach out to me, Taryn Marie Ste, big, big figure in the business that we all do.

(21:03):

And she asked me for help. She wanted to do an Instagram live to help promote her book. And without hesitation, I’m like, yeah, well, how about you just hop on my podcast? I’m like, oh, shoot. No, no. Please say no. Please say no. I didn’t know if I wanted to do it yet. But I respected the fact that she was so much bigger in her journey and reach out to me for help. So that kind of triggered one thing in my mind, like, okay, I’m doing nothing right now. This is the definition of selfish. You’re scum. Let’s go. Let’s get back at it. And we did the show and then I’ve grown so much since then and the show’s gotten better, and I stopped looking to the right and to the left of me and just started pouring into what I’m doing here and I feel better about it.

(21:48):

But to your point, I was thinking, I can’t walk away from this. I’ve got too much going on. People are depending on me because I would get a message on Instagram every single week. Hey, when you coming back? When you coming back? I go, when I come back, stop asking. Literally I was starting to get mad. I’m like, stop asking. It’s not about you. When I come back though, I’m coming back. It’s going to be full on. Right? Get ready, put your seatbelt on. And it’s been like that. So sometimes you’re in a place where you think you can’t step away, but you need to. So that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So let’s chat here about what we really do. So wellness from a resilience perspective, right? Resilience from all angles of wellness. It’s so important. When people’s bodies hurt, it can affect their livelihood, it affects how they act. For me, the injury has put, I’m probably 15 pounds extra right now. The injury slows me down. It puts me in a mindset. If I can’t lift, then oh, well then those Reese’s are up there. It is all connected, right? So let’s dive into what you guys feel. Jason, when you messaged me about coming onto the show, let’s talk about that actual idea that how we build resilience through wellness.

Jason Wyns (23:16):

Sure. I guess we’ll touch on a little bit of the birthing process of Live Resilient out of Apex. I was working over there. I still do as a strength and conditioning coach, training a lot of athletes. But what Angie and I saw is there’s so many more holes to plug for our athletes, for our everyday people that are coming in because pain is multifactorial. It’s coming from all different angles. So is your mood, so how can we attack this from a nutrition angle? What are some recovery strategies? How do we help people sleep better from a more holistic standpoint? We realize how intertwined these things are, and that’s kind of where Resilient was birthed out of Apex, is that if I have the goal of helping people to live better lives and not just get out of pain, there’s a lot of things to attack.

Angie McGilvrey (24:20):

 holes to plug

Jason Wyns (24:21):

Holes to plug

Angie McGilvrey (24:22):

Jay likes to say.

Jason Wyns (24:25):

And the broader scope is to plug as many of those holes as we can. And by doing so and being able to offer whatever that person might need or be able to listen to them as they’re talking, they’re going to be better for it.

Angie McGilvrey (24:44):

Just Jay, you said listen to them as they’re talking. I think that’s where the process starts, Shawn is it’s all about each individual that comes in. What is their journey with us? We’re saying not shoulder pain. I don’t really care about your shoulder pain. I care about the fact that when we first met you, it was, damn, I can’t lift my kid. What’s happening here with my shoulder? That was the piece that was like, that is what we do. No, no, I don’t care about Sean’s shoulder pain. We need to get Sean so he can lift his kid. He wants to dress his kid. He was dressing. I can’t get my kid dressed, my shoulder hurts. Well then how does that make you feel as a father? How does that make you feel as a husband? How does that make you feel now you can’t go to the gym. Okay, now you’re eating Reese’s. Okay, going on that whole journey. And now I’m probably not sleeping as well because I’ve got this sugar in my body. Now I’m becoming a little bit more toxic because I’m eating the wrong things. And now it’s this whole cascade and it, it’s about finding those little pieces. And as Jay said, just listening, just really listening to everything that person says when they come in and providing some type of strategy to really holistically move along that spectrum of living better.

Shawn French (26:11):

So funny because when you talked about listening, Jason, when you said that, I dunno if you saw my facial expression, but I lit up and then Angie starts talking about it because the one thing I can, amongst all the other amazing things I said about y’all’s businesses, I mean it right mean or else I wouldn’t say it. You guys wouldn’t be here. Big believer in what you guys do. And it’s needed. It’s needed in my life and it’s needed in these athletes’ lives and just Joe Schmo walking around that might be 60 and just wants to be able to walk up and down their stairs, I felt listened to when I walked in there. It wasn’t like, well, this is what we’re going to do. Ben listened to me. Ben’s getting a lot of airtime. Good Lord, I feel like he should be in the middle of you guys.

(27:03):

But he’s still amazing. God, I love that kid. He’s insanely amazing. So I was talking to him and I could tell he was listening. I’m like, you good? He goes, I’m just listening. And I sat there and I’m just like, huh, this kid is so young because sorry, Ben, your kid still, he was actively listening. There’s not very many people that actively listen anymore. They’re listening just so they could respond. So they’re not even really hearing what I’m saying. And it was almost like he was stoic just looking at me. I’m like, what’s going on with this kid? And he goes, okay, so what I’m hearing is this. This is what’s bothering you, so this is what I think we’re going to do, but I want to get Danica over here. We’re going to look at you. I’m thinking maybe some microneedling, but I don’t know yet.

(27:50):

And I can tell you whenever I’m there, I just feel like everybody is just tuned in. Everybody’s collaborating to help the people there, the clients, the customers, the athletes, and to a point where I’m sitting there and I’ve got the stem on me with the microneedling, and I think it might’ve been that or something different, but I got, then I’m like, Hey Ben, my outside of my elbows hurt really bad. I don’t know what’s going on. When I grip something, it hurts on the outside. And he goes, it’s tennis elbow. I was like, dude, I don’t play tennis. Why is it inflamed on both sides? And then he is like, well, hold on a second, dude, while we’re doing this, we might as well do some cupping. Let’s bring some blood to that area. And I’m like, dude, what a service man. I just really feel a long story. Long is just you guys are spot on with the listening to what your people are saying because it’s truly exercised.

Angie McGilvrey (28:50):

Thank you. We appreciate that. You said collaboration there and that’s another word that’s on our wall. That’s another core value that we hold. So thank you for bringing that up. Appreciate

Shawn French (29:02):

It. Hell yeah. I mean it’s part of your business plan. It’s part of my business plan too. So the only way to really go far is to collaborate and spoil alert audience. We were talking before the show. We’re going to do a follow-up call and we’re going to find cool ways to partner and blow y’all’s minds to give you the most value you could possibly get on social media and why I want to be hurt. I want to go there. But it’s funny because what I told them, I told Danica and Ben, I can’t reach back right now. This hurts. It’s starting to hurt again. That’s the labrum. So we have a sneaky suspicion that if I were to get an MRI, there’d be a tear in my labrum, but that would be the third tear, right? Because they confirmed two, 2%. Yeah. So there Is that what that is? Yep. Okay, well thank God. Hopefully it’s not a labrum. Yeah, reach

Angie McGilvrey (29:53):

Backseat can be subscap a lot of times too. Okay.

Shawn French (29:56):

So to do my daughter’s car seat so they can get out in the car line, that’s a thousand miles long every fricking day. But I hate it. I hate it. It’s just amazing. It’s not even easy to get your kid to school or pick ’em up, but for me now I can do those things. So anyway, it’s less pain. Speaking of pain, what are you guys seeing as far as young athletes, especially baseball players, throwing athletes with their injuries early on and where do you think it stems from and how can we fix it as a athletic society?

Angie McGilvrey (30:32):

Yeah, so typically I’m on the physical therapy side. I’m the first stopping point from the pain standpoint. So typically they’re coming to me hopefully first as a first primary care entry point for something musculoskeletal, right? I’m usually seeing an elbow or a shoulder. Those are my baseball kids, guys, gals. And because baseball and softball is considered a non-contact sport, a lot of times these injuries are repetitive overuse sort of situations. So it’s usually something that has just over time, over time, over time has been building up until finally pain has spilled out into that elbow or shoulder. So we look back at, well, what can we do now first to stop the process, but then what can we do proactively and preventatively to keep moving forwards and prevent as much of this from occurring? So that’s where we come in from a pain standpoint. And most commonly we’re seeing elbow ligament, elbow tendon issues, rotator cuff issues.

(31:53):

And typically the biggest thing is that they haven’t built up an athletic foundation to support the repeated movement patterns that they’re doing. So coaches are amazing at teaching them to throw and pitch and hit and do all of those things. But then this is where we kind of piggyback on what Jason is so great from a strength and conditioning standpoint is also if you are going to be playing, not only do you need to get really good at your sport, but you need to get really good at building that athletic foundation underneath to support those repeated activities. And that’s where as myself and Ben and Danica and my team get them out of pain and really hone in on some of those movement and balances, which spoiler alert almost always come from the shoulder blade back here. That’s typically upstream where we find a lot of the dysfunction, then we turn them over to Jason and our strength and conditioning team where they built that athlete foundation underneath.

Shawn French (33:00):

It’s incredible. It’s incredible. These two things work hand in hand. And again, this is the collaboration we’re talking about, right? And why not have it in-house? Because if you don’t, then they go somewhere else that may not understand what you’re doing as a treatment plan and these athletes can get hurt even more. The one thing that I heard is overuse. I got to tell you, it’s going crazy in soccer and basketball and more. So travel baseball, I see eight year olds playing 80 game seasons. Dude, my kid’s nine and no, I’m sorry, shoot, he just turned 10 in Halloween, but I don’t even haven’t been travel ball yet. I haven’t played little league. And I let him play fall ball this year under the condition that he was also going to play soccer because I don’t want him being a one dimensional dude. I want him to be able to do multiple things.

(33:52):

And with my daughters, they do gym, they do gymnastics, they do ice skating. I want them to experience the full flavor of sports. And my youngest is, I’m going to tell you right now, she’s going to be a dope soccer player. Yeah, dude. She’s very coordinated with a ball. And so it’s just one of those things where Lance Berkman, former major league baseball player, he’s a first baseman left-handed. Amazing. Spoke on this. And I actually put it on my, I reposted the video and Gary of credit where the credit was due for the original poster, but they talked about when he was little, they paid 20 games in little league and then they would play 10 games for all stars and that was it. Then you’d go play football to go play other sports. How has early specialization impacted injury so much?

Jason Wyns (34:47):

Well, I think what you have, you think, Hey, I want to get my child in multiple different sports, is you’re exposing them to a more variety of movement. You’re putting more stress in different parts of the body. And that’s kind of what I try to do as from the strength and conditioning side. If someone is coming in just playing baseball, well, what I’m trying to do is provide them with stimulus that they’re not going to receive from sport. So the more exposure that we can get to strengthening, to being under load, to stressing these joints in a strategic way, these muscles in a strategic way, I think the better these athletes are going to be for it. And so when kids are just playing one sport over and over and over again and now those sports are continually asking more of kids younger and younger, well that’s the same kind of movement patterns that they’re getting into on a regular basis without any other strength to help support that. I think that’s kind of where we see the overuse issues come in. We see it in obviously baseball, we see it in gymnastics, we see it in lower bodies, specific stuff, basketball and soccer as well. So I think having some sort of strength protocol is a good idea. And I think I would say as a whole, coaches are grabbing onto this a little bit more now, although there’s still room for improvement.

(36:35):

But the more strength and conditioning kind of stuff that these kids can do even at a younger age, I think is important.

Shawn French (36:42):

I think you’re right, man, when you said when are doing multiple sports, you’re putting different stressors on different parts of the body. And so therefore for the audience that may not truly understand what Jason is saying, the stress is what’s going to build things right? It’s going to tear it down, it’s going to give him strength. So if you’re a baseball player and you’re deficient at one area, but then you play football, you’re going to close those gaps. And I think it’s super important because what I’m seeing now is just these kids are playing way too much baseball. These kids are playing way too much soccer. They’re playing way too much football, not really football, but basketball. It’s nonstop, right? There’s a season, then there’s another season. It’s like, dude, what the hell be a kid? How important, and this is a great question, how important is just being a kid or a teenager in building resilience and wellness?

Jason Wyns (37:38):

I think that’s it. I see this is

Shawn French (37:42):

A big topic. This is a big topic.

Angie McGilvrey (37:47):

Again, when we go back to all of those facets, like the physical and the sport is one thing, but what about everything else? This might take a little bit of a turn, but what about building resilience in, obviously we know sport is, I think we’ll all agree that being involved in athletics and sports definitely builds you and carries into your adult life and into some of the foundations and some of the values that you develop in a very positive manner. However, it can also set us up for our identity as just being right.

Shawn French (38:28):

Dude, you guys are in my head. Keep going. Good lord. So

Angie McGilvrey (38:33):

What happens at 18 when we go away to college and we don’t get that soccer scholarship and we’re not that all-star soccer player anymore or that all-star baseball player anymore, and now who are we? What is our purpose? What do we do with life? And it really leaves that gap and we see a lot of young athletes, young kids struggle with that. And so again, have to develop all of those things outside, build that resilience, develop all of those things.

Jason Wyns (39:10):

Yeah. I want to touch on this as well because I think it goes back to what you’re talking about. Being selfish is first of all, can’t you do these things because they enjoy them.

(39:21):

And I think unfairly sometimes parents help to strip that away. It becomes so much of a thing that you have to do this because you want a scholarship to get into college and because you have a better chance at doing this in baseball, we don’t want you to play football. Maybe your kids, well, I actually just playing football. And so I think that’s a whole nother topic that we could maybe touch on another time. But it’s like have fun as a kid and you should do things selfishly because you enjoy doing them and don’t tie your identity to something so strongly because it’s going to die eventually.

Shawn French (40:10):

Dude, it’s almost scary how you guys are in my head because I was thinking it happened to me, right? Where I placed my identity is Sean French, the baseball baseball player. I didn’t know who the hell I was. And I’m thinking about this and I haven’t been very public about it, but I’ve talked about it in my broadcast channel to the people that are involved in that. I’ve said it on maybe one podcast now it’s about to be a second one. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people of Ted Talk and my idea, and I just did my first interview the other day, and I think I’m going to get it, I find out early December, but there’s a lot of synergy there that one of the interviewers actually a lacrosse player, a former lacrosse player that listens to my show. And so I had a leg up right there.

(41:05):

But the biggest thing was my idea, and this is something that I think that we’re all aligned with here in the show right now, is when you tie your identity to a specific thing that you do when it’s over, you don’t know who you are. So when athletes are for to retirement early, whether it’s from an injury or they just can’t play at those higher levels anymore or someone’s better than them and then they lose that part of their life. I mean so many mental issues, mental wellness after the fact, drug use, suicide, all these different things for these young athletes are just giving up on their lives because they’re no longer the baseball player. They’re no longer the football player. So for me, I’m passionate about, that’s why I do the athlete community every Sunday night. These kids pay to be a part of this.

(41:58):

And it’s like getting them to know and to work with them to know that, hey, this is just something that they do. I don’t care how good you are. And again, granted, I have division one pitchers in the group, division one athletes. I have volleyball players from the University of Notre Dame in this group. They’re not just slapstick athletes. They need to know that when they are done, they better know who they are. If you don’t know who you are when you’re done, you’re going to go spiral. And you know how I know that I spiraled, I spiraled. I was drinking way too much. I was womanizing. I was burning bridges to a point where my friends that I had when I was a kid, we don’t even speak anymore. I wouldn’t want to be friends with me anymore from that dude back in the day. Now they don’t know who I’m anymore. They’re missing out. I’m missing out on them. But the bottom line is, to your point, if you don’t know who you are, you’re cooked.

Jason Wyns (43:07):

Yeah, that’s so true. And I hope that my athletes take that away from working with me is that I enjoy their victories as much as they do. I’m so happy for them because it’s important to them. But at the end of the day, if they have a bad performance, I don’t think any differently of them. And they’re more important to me as people than who they are, how they perform on the athlete field.

Angie McGilvrey (43:43):

I love that you said that, Jason, because I have, so I don’t have kids of my own, but I have two amazing nieces who play softball up north. And one of the things that I try to do with them as much as possible is obviously support them, but support them from a place of not did they win or did they lose or how many home runs did they get? I always ask them, what did you learn today? Were you a good teammate? Tell me how were you a good teammate? How did you support your team? And what can you do better next time? These are the sort of things that I will, I constantly try to hone in on them and then praise them when I see their teammates struck out. But when they came back into the dugout, they were like, that’s all right. You get ’em next time. That’s the stuff that you praise, right? That was amazing. You are the best teammate ever. You are a leader there. Great job. Keep that up. And I think that’s a huge important part of what we can do in all of us together in this type of community is really praise and reward those behaviors that we look to.

Shawn French (45:03):

I love that because it’s funny. I never praise ability. Never, never. My son is very talented. It’s in his blood. He can run like a deer. I don’t know where he got that. I can’t. But he’s got a very strong arm. He doesn’t know how to use it yet. His swing is impeccable and I’ve never worked on it yet. He’s 10 and I’m not going to throw that on him right now. I want to see if he falls in love with the game. Truly loves it. But the one thing that I’ll always praise is attitude and effort. Like, Hey, I really love watching you compete out there today. Great job. That’s it. I don’t talk about the game on the way home. I don’t talk about, Hey, you’re second at bat. What were you thinking? Dude, that is the worst thing that you could do to a kid. That’s how you build the perfectionist complex. That’s why I’m all screwed up in between the ears because my dad did that to me.

Angie McGilvrey (46:03):

I was going to say Sean, though, but how many times do you see the opposite from, right? I think you are very much the minority percentage there from a parent, I would imagine

Shawn French (46:17):

1000% because I understand it. I know the outcome. I already know how the story ends. So I think that when we don’t take our experiences and give it back, that’s when we’re taken from society. We have the responsibility to bestow our knowledge and our experiences onto children and onto parents, to a point where most parents love me, but there’s some that don’t. Here’s the ones that don’t love me. Those little ones that come over the dugout and start coaching their kid from the stands or from the other side of the dugout, and they’re yelling at ’em because they made the air. Those parents don’t like me because I walk up to him after the game. Hey, love that you’re here. Thank you so much for supporting the team and your son, your son’s nine. Can you stop? Do you think he feels good when you’re screaming at him? Actually, you know what? He probably wants to cry because he feels unloved. It’s not about making there. He feels unloved, and you’re creating a very unsafe space for your child and you need to stop. I’m more than to work with you on the side so you can become a better sports parent.

Jason Wyns (47:33):

It’s incredible how very little encouragement these kids need and make the hugest difference. And just to have someone like you as a coach that can provide that for them, provide, maybe they’re not getting it at home. And that’s such a huge win.

Shawn French (47:53):

Dude, listen to this. So I coached a fall ball team here in Fort Myers. We did is the rec league is at Ruttenberg, right? Nothing crazy. We had one game a week and one practice a week. And the last game, one of my pitchers, and they’re young, this is the minors, right? They’re young. He started doing really poorly on the mountain, and I think he hit a batter or something like that to top it all off. And then he punched himself in the face.

Jason Wyns (48:24):

Oh,

Shawn French (48:25):

I called time to me. I’m like, oh my God. Oh my God. I called time and I went out there, and this is after he’s punched the ground and he’s almost through his bat. And I’m like, this poor young man is going through some tumultuous inner dialogue right now and it’s going to torpedo him. And so I went out to the mound, I called Tom, went out the mound, and I pulled him and I said, Hey, you know why I’m taking you out of the game right now? He goes, yes, sir. I go, why is that? Because I’m not throwing strikes. I just hit a batter and I’m doing terrible. I suck right now. I’m like, no, man, I’m taking out of the game because I’m concerned. You just hit yourself in the face. I was like, I love you. There’s no time for that.

(49:15):

You need to go to the dugout and speak to one of my assistants who is a clinical psychologist and says, Hey. I said, Hey, can you talk to him because this is more important right now. So his dad comes over and I was like, Hey, listen, I just want to talk to you while he took your son out. He’s like, no, he wasn’t pitching well. I was like, sir, I didn’t take him out because of that. Took him out because he harmed himself. There’s some things that we need to talk about. So after the game, I’m talking to the kid and of course he’s crying and all that stuff. And I just told him how much I cared about him and how much he helped the team during the fall and how his future’s bright. And listen, you are not the sum of your performance.

(50:04):

You’re allowed to have a bad day. You’re allowed to have as many bad days as you want. You’re 10 or 11 who caress. And at the end of it, he’s like, thank you. And I go, can I hug you? I gave him a big hug and his dad came up to me after the game. He’s like, coach, I just dunno what to say. I’m like, what’s up, man? He goes, I’ve never seen a coach. You actually care about these kids’ emotions. So I care more about that. I care about everything. And it was such a moment to where is a reminder, Jason, that in energy, the purpose of why I do what I do is because I could be their only line of defense. And that kid has a great family. He’s just going through some stuff. But that to me scared me because it reminded me of me when I was a kid. And that’s what they don’t get. And that’s what I didn’t tell them. And now everybody listening to this, thousand people are going to download this show, going to listen. I was that kid because I was so scared to go home if I did poorly, heavy man. Yeah,

Jason Wyns (51:18):

For sure. And there’s a balance to it too. Obviously you want to be able to expect greatness out of yourself.

Shawn French (51:28):

Absolutely. You want to do great things, you want to be successful, but god almighty, to what end and how much better can we be? How much healthier would we be if we just focused on the next play? Run the play, man. Everything’s a play. The show’s a play right now. This is a play in your day. It’s a play in my day. And we killed it, by the way. We killed it. Yeah,

Angie McGilvrey (51:54):

We did.

Shawn French (51:55):

Your first meal is a play. If you move, your body’s a play. So I just think that

Angie McGilvrey (52:02):

1%, right?

Shawn French (52:04):

1%, 1%. Atomic had Man, atomic had it. Well, listen guys, I really enjoyed having you on today. You’ve given the audience an impeccable amount of value, and not just wellness and rehabilitation for injuries, but just showing the community who you guys are and what your businesses signify. If you guys could just tell the audience for those that are local, where they can find you, how they can work with you, because I would imagine a lot of the local athletes here do know about you guys. But for those that don’t, talk to them a little bit right now, that now’s your time to say like, Hey, come work with us.

Angie McGilvrey (52:46):

Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, as Sean said, that’s what we do. Our goal is to help athletes save time and get better faster. So that’s what we’re here for. Apex Physical Therapy and Live Resilient are right next door to each other. McGregor, San Carlos Gladiolas, right near that big intersection there. You can find us. We also have a location in Cape Coral, but website, apex Physical Therapy or Live Resilient. And then on social, it’s Apex Physical Therapy, SWFL or Live Resilient. SWFL, right? Yeah. At

Jason Wyns (53:23):

Live Resilient.

Angie McGilvrey (53:27):

So you,

Shawn French (53:27):

I’m going to make it easy for these people. When they click on your name, it’s going to take ’em to your website. Perfect. Each one of your beautiful. And I’m going to put your social media handles in there, links so that they can click on it, go follow you, and just learn more about you. And so that way they can come see you when they need to. And

Angie McGilvrey (53:46):

Sean, super quick, you mentioned it in the beginning, but what some folks don’t know is you can come see us as your primary entry point as your primary care provider for all things sports, injury, musculoskeletal injury, pain, dysfunction, movement, balance recovery, all of those things. So we are your first point of contact and can be, obviously, if there is an issue that is greater than our scope, we collaborate with lots of great folks in this area too, and could get you in the hands of others that would help you too.

Shawn French (54:24):

Yeah, thank you for saying that, Angie. Because guys, I didn’t have a referral to go to ’em. I just called and I had an appointment the next day. I mean, it’s just amazing. So after one appointment, I felt better, and you can too. So give them a call. But listen guys, we’re going to close it out. I thank you guys both so much for hopping on. And for the listeners, I want you guys to take today and decipher what you want to do to become 1% better today. How to be resilient in your wellness, take ownership over it, and you know what? But give yourself a damn break. Find out who you are and take small steps in improving that person and have fun with it. And be a beacon of light to those that are around you. And until next time, guys, make good decisions and share this damn show. Alright? Share the show. If you haven’t already, go there and leave a rating for us and we’d love to hear from you. So peace out y’all.