On this episode of the Circuit of Success podcast, host Brett Gilliland interviews Marc Hodulich, the founder of 29029. Marc talks about his goals with his business, which are not to be the biggest or most profitable, but to have an impactful community, build a legacy, and have something that lasts. He also shares his journey to success, the importance of peak performance in life, and his experience as an entrepreneur. Marc encourages listeners to take risks and put something big on their calendars.
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Speaker Brett Gilliland: Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I’m your host, Brett Gilliland. Today, we’ve got Mark. Hodulich with this, Mark. How you doing, my man? Speaker Marc Hodulich: I’m great, Brad. How are you? Speaker Brett Gilliland: I’m good. I like those pictures back there. Looks like you got some, mountain maybe, mountains and a leg, get some kids, stuff going on, creating experiences. Speaker Marc Hodulich: Europe ski trip, dog, kids, all the things. Speaker Brett Gilliland: A white picket fence. You got it all, man. Well, cool. I am excited to have you today. So you are an avid adventurer, your accomplished entrepreneur, father of two boys, married, founded and exited multiple companies. One of them, which I’m assuming is what that red hat is right there, is the two 09:02 nine. And, we’ll look forward to talking about all that stuff. But before we do that, I’d like to dive in and kinda learn about the past, man. What’s the background? What’s the story you’ve got that’s made you the man you are today? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Well, thanks for having me. It hasn’t been a linear journey. I’ll tell you that. But, But briefly, yeah, look, I had a great childhood growing up. My dad was a runner. I got to be a competitive runner in late middle school to high school or in tracking college. And I think, you know, for the basis of just discipline and commitment to a goal, didn’t achieve my goals at all as a college runner. I ran at Auburn and as much as I love the school. I probably shouldn’t have been running in the SEC. I was good enough to make our travel team and ass kicked at every race that we went to. So, you know, it was a humbling experience, and then always just kinda dream big. Right? Kind of felt like I knew what my life would be like if I moved back to Burring him out, Pamela, where I was originally from. And right after school moved up to New York Gilliland, you know, it’s kind of knowing what the goal is, but having no idea how you’re gonna figure it out. I knew I wanted to live there. I knew I wanted to be in consulting or work in finance. It was a tough market. It was right after two. And, yeah, it was just a really tough time to find a job in the world of finance. And so I did everything from sell payroll door to door at ADP to work at Thomas Pinks, telling luxury clothing goods to, working at caterer, and it took me about four months to find a really good management consulting job, but I wasn’t unwilling to put in really hard work that maybe I felt like my degrees and my background and my skill set maybe weren’t aligned with. I was just willing to put in the work to try to find the Gilliland, yeah, you know, I kinda just, met my wife in New York. We have married seventeen years now. And pretty quickly in the world of management consulting. I know it’s not what I wanted to do a long time. Still had always that side hustle mentality and had founded a business off to the side and eventually was able to to kinda leave my consulting gig and do that full time. And that’s kind of change into the world of event production, a lot of live events, community building, and finds me where I am today, which is, you know, running a company that I founded with my partner that we sold and bought back called twenty nine and twenty nine. And, that stands for the height of Everest, twenty nine thousand, twenty nine feet. And we built a really cool community and endurance concept really gives people a story to tell. You know, o over a course of a weekend, you know, you’re gonna go to Sun Valley or Whistler or Jackson Hole, and we’re gonna present a challenge of can you hike up a mountain and take a gondola down? Continue to climb it until you hike twenty nine thousand, twenty nine feet. So kinda very quick transition to where I’m at now, but Yeah. Never it’s never easy, and I think a lot of people don’t see all of the challenges, failed businesses, jobs you didn’t wanna work to kinda just see the lifestyle that you have now or or the position you’re in now. And, I’m only able to be here because this learning from my mistakes, but also having really great trusted relationships along the way that finally found the right way to leverage all those in this current business that running out. Yeah. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Well, it’s awesome to see. I mean, that you you talked about the community. I mean, the the twenty nine zero two nine is amazing. I mean, I watch through Jesse’s, social media stuff, Jesse. It’s with social media stuff. That’s how I originally got turned on to it and then through your stuff. It’s just amazing. It’s an amazing community. And Gilliland it’s something that people, I think of all walks of life can try to go accomplish. And so my question for you, if there’s a thousand people that do it, how many people are finishing it? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Depends on the location, but, I’d say, on average, around sixty eight percent, right, sixty eight to seventy percent finish it. Well, compare that to a marathon where you get about a ninety eight percent finisher rate. A lot of people are surprised by that. Marathons have an tremendously high, finish your rate. And then compare that to something that I’ve done as well, the leadville trail one hundred, which is one of the most famous, the kind of mountain ultra marathons, hundred mile run. That’s Hodulich a thirty five percent finisher rate. So I don’t wanna say we’re we’re in the middle. It’s it’s really hard. It takes a long time. But, it’s so approachable. We had a participant Jim Fisher who finished our event last year in whistler, eighty years old. Right? Oh, wow. And he said that it’s from that is frustratingly doable. Like, you just moved slowly walking for thirty five straight hours. Right? And so if you’re willing to forego sleep, or a little bit of sleep, it’s amazing what you can accomplish if you just keep moving. And, you know, most people do get to sleep three, four, five hours. Right? But we’re talking about one night of your whole life versus being able to say, hey, I win to Jackson Hole or Whistler or Sun Gilliland and climb that mountain 12:15, seventeen times until I climbed the height of everest. I sacrifice one night of sleep, you know, almost once a month. I do do that. I do I do them all. Right? And it’s, to be able to tell that story, but learn about yourself and the skills that you learn and the patience to discipline the commitment that the compassion, the empathy, all those things that happen because it’s not a race. It’s self scored. And you have thirty six hours to to keep track of your own hikes up the mountain. And, and be really rewarded with a a a pre turnkey experience. So not a not a super high finish rate, but at the same time, You don’t have to be an accomplished endurance athlete. And for most of our participants, they’ve never done, ten k, ten k, or even a half marathon before before set up for the event. Wow. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. And what you talked about there is the mindset, man, the the to being able to do that, because I think so many times that little space here in our heads tells us we can’t do this. We can’t do that. It’s dangerous. No sleep. Or maybe you got a condo there. Maybe you’re sleeping outside. Whatever it is people are doing. The negative self talk is used. Right? And that’s in business, that’s in just anything in life. So what have you done throughout your life to to kind of flick that guy, that negative self taught guy off your shoulder and and compete and accomplish anyway. Speaker Marc Hodulich: I mean, look, I think it’s it’d be wrong for me to say that I got it all figured out. But what I tell you is I’m constantly putting myself in a position where, I’m gaining confidence through completing things. And I think that’s the only way you really figure it out is that the voice inside your head that’s telling you you’re not good enough. You’re not fast enough. You’re not strong enough. You’re not smart enough. You’re not working. Whatever that is, as you actually accumulate these small wins. And those wins happen a lot in training. Right? I mean, you don’t You get this red hat if you finish. Right? If you’ve gone twenty nine thousand, twenty nine feet, you you earn this red hat. And, you earn that red hat through five or six months of training. Right? It’s getting up in the morning when you didn’t want to. It’s going for a hike in the rain. It’s doing the workout in the gym for your hip flex. It’s all of those little things that add up to the finish line, and most people only see the finish line. So I think you’re able to do it on a consistent basis. Look, today I finished my run, and I was in a little bit of a rush for a call, and I would normally go in cold plunge. And I’m gonna plunge up my house for well over a year, and I do it every day. It’s gonna be a mental challenge to do it later today. I’m not hot after a run gonna be dark by the time it’s a chance to do it. You know, it’s it’s it’s gonna be out of my routine. But you get a small win from doing something like that. Right? You start developing that set. I think you just if she constantly put yourself in a position, where you have an opportunity to quit on yourself, and you realize that you didn’t, you sharpen that tool. So when you’re doing something really big like a twenty nine and twenty nine, you’re able to rely on some past experience there. And even if you haven’t done a big amount, or you’re you’re sharpening that tool through training. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So let’s we’re gonna divert here for a second is this cold plunge. So everybody talks about it. I’ve had the guy Ryan Dewey, the founder of Plun John, and and there’s a lot of great ones out there. He’s the one I know. But talk to our listeners about that, man. Because everybody that’s anybody that’s doing peak performance type stuff now is talking about this cold plunge. So is, is it a game changer for you like it is for a lot of people? Speaker Marc Hodulich: I mean, look, first of all, I have a plunge. So I’m not plugging it. I don’t get paid this whole thing. I’ve just had it for a while. I love it. I recommend it to a lot of people. So tell Ryan has made it a great product, and and I love it. It’s awesome. Right? Look, I I don’t know if all the longevity things are true, but it certainly does hurt anything. It it helps tremendously with recovery. And for me, it’s as big as a mental boost. It’s a physical boost. There is the very practical nature of just tend to be working out right before I have to go do something else. And I can’t cool off. I live in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s hot and humid. You know? And then it and it’s a wonderful thing to be able to hop in something for three, four minutes and bring your core body temperature way down. I sleep better with it. So I’m a huge proponent of it just because I see no downside. I think the mental toughness aspect is key. How I’ve learned, about breathing and breath work and control and and not panicking. And this helped my kids My boys are eleven and thirteen now and watching their friends come over. And and the the people who just can’t commit to it, make it way worse. And those just kind of surrender and just lay in it. You get the vagus nerve, and you just calm down. And, there’s a real trust and learning process there. So become part of my daily routine and just something that I feel like, if you have access to one, there’s really no reason not to be doing it. And and I think there’s potentially a lot unbelievable reasons to do it. Health benefits, longevity, recovery, and sleep. Sleep being a big one for me, I think. I sleep with a chili pad, and I I notice I sleep better. And you have to be able to moderate. Right? I wear a woot not sponsored by any of these companies not paying me to say this stuff. But, yeah, any day to be able to show you. Right? And I think, I see a big difference in my sleep and recovery from using those products, so they’ve just become a main setting. In my training and in in my life. And and honestly for my family as well, my wife does this stuff now. My kids do too. So I think you’re teaching them really good habits. It should benefit them for the rest of their lives. Speaker Brett Gilliland: What’s your temperature? What do you keep it at? Speaker Marc Hodulich: So that that was a big point of contention. When I originally got out of my clothes, I kept it at thirty nine to forty. And now we’re about forty five degrees, and it it it kinda works in the way as I’m sure you have one as well. It keeps it in a three degree. Period. Right? The chiller turns on once you get two degrees away. So mine’s typically forty five, forty six degrees, which Speaker Brett Gilliland: you Speaker Marc Hodulich: get all the same benefits according to the podcast that I listen to. And it’s much more approachable than thirty nine forty was, which was honestly brutal. Yeah. Yeah. So I Speaker Brett Gilliland: don’t do it every day, like like you. So I mean, are are you so you’re an everyday guy. No miss. And, which that’s a big deal. So that’s but but it doesn’t get easier. Does it? Speaker Marc Hodulich: No. Not at all. I mean, look, I I will just and I’m away at an event or a scouting new location or in a partnership meeting or whatever it is. You’re gone for four or five days. It’s really hard get mentally ready to be like, okay. I can do this. I gotta go back into it, but it’s never easy. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Are you a sonic guy? Speaker Marc Hodulich: I am as well. I have a sauna, and I’ve been doing that for a while. I used to have a seam, but I like the sauna a lot more. Yeah. Just able to stay in there longer. And, actually, it’s funny. It’s become a lot more social. Right? I know my partner Jesse used a lot for social, but it it it is. It is something at night. It’s nice to do after dinner. And, it’s just become a little bit not an everyday routine. I had a wood burning sauna for a while. I just got a new electric one, which, is being installed next week. It’s not infrared, actually. No. Okay. But, it’s got one of those hive, home heaters, the rocks Okay. That, really, really beautiful, modern looking. And, yeah, it’s just become it’s become something that, I feel like that, the coal plunge, And and then a few just kinda daily supplements have really been a game changer for me. So Yep. Speaker Brett Gilliland: And you say the feuds or you say that’s huge? Speaker Marc Hodulich: It’s huge. Yeah. No. It’s just been huge in terms of my, you know, daily oh, the few supplements. Sorry. Yeah. The few. I only take a few things, but I I just realized I lose, way too much sodium when I work out, and I used to only take salt pills or electrolytes, when I was actually doing a race. And that’s just been part of a daily program, and I’ve been taking athletic reins for a few years. And, really just enjoy that. I just feel like if I didn’t do anything healthy for my body that day, at least I at least I took some athletic greens that day. Right? And and got some greens. And, it’s a simple thing that has become, very easy when I travel to. Right? And, those types of things, making sure I drink enough water, get the electrolytes in and take my athletic greens. I feel like I’m at least doing a baseline of something that’s good for me. If I’m out of my normal workout routine. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. What, what’s someone do you use for the salt or the the electrolytes? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. So I’ve been taking precision hydration for a while. I just like that they have, the milligrams. So the total amount of sodium, they have tubes that are five hundred a thousand or fifteen hundred milligrams. And, that was very helpful for me when I did, like, super ultra endurance events, like, hundred mile runs, just I knew how many I knew how many milligrams I needed an hour, and it just made the math really easy. Right? Yeah. Rather than taking all pills and trying to figure out how many did I have or was, I could just take a fifteen hundred tablet and know I was good for an hour, and then take another one the next hour. Right? And, so I’ve been taking typically take their thousand milligram and drink that about twice a day. And it’s just a dissolvable tablet that I put in water. So Okay. It’s easy to travel with. And I just I lose a lot of salt when sweat. So I did a sweat test and just figured out how much salt I was losing. And and it’s just learning about your body. Everybody’s different. But I just realized one of my big fears in doing ultra endurance events was either over hydrating or not having enough electrolyte the way you fix that is just figuring out how much you sweat and realizing how much you need to replace not only of actual liquid, but the the salt the sodium, the magnesium that you need to get back in your body. So that just became a system that’s worked really well for me. And, I really liked the product. So Speaker Brett Gilliland: So what do you find as a business guy? Right? You’re a businessman, you’re a husband, you’re a father. But you wanna you wanna grow a business. Right? So what do you find that keeps you in peak performance? Is it just daily action every single day, everything we’re already talking about, or how do you continue find that extra gear to do all this personal stuff and the family stuff and yet still grow a kick ass business. Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. I’ll tell you, there’s no such thing as balance. I had a Speaker Brett Gilliland: I agree. Speaker Marc Hodulich: So I better realize that you just have to optimize for certain things at at a point in time and then figure out, you know, what your kids need, what your wife needs, and actually make communication about this thing. So I did an Ironman in twenty seventeen. My wife has always been supportive, whatever I wanna do, and she said, not another one. Right? Is it the training Speaker Brett Gilliland: We’re tapping out. Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. She said, I look, it was too much on her. I was just I was gone too much and, I was too tired when I was home. The amount of training that I was putting in. And, really, because it’s the multi discipline, right? You guys spend all the time in the pool, all the time, like, and then run. Whereas, you know, doing something like Leadville, your body just can’t run that much. You just break it down. So, where you can be on the bike for a couple hours a day, you can’t run that much. So what I realized is, like, when you start a business, it really needs all of your attention. And putting signing up to to launch a business, being an entrepreneur, whether you’re taking in capital or you’re bootstrapping it, and then signing up for an Ironman or a hundred miler, and then having a kid at the same time is probably not wise. Right? So you can’t always time everything in your life, but I feel like when I’ve had these periods where I’ve had a little bit of a lull, it was an it was a it was permission for me to say, okay. I’m gonna put something really big personal that I wanna go and do. Right? And maybe that’s an adventure, amount I wanna climb, a hundred mile or I wanna run, but I know that I’m in a season of life where I have the time to do that. My non negotiables always kinda been my kids. Right? They’re only gonna be in my the house so Gilliland and that’s why my wife said not another Iron man, because I didn’t miss time with my kids. I didn’t miss their sporting events. You know, when they were at baseball games, I was running in between in between games or running from one part to the next, but then I wasn’t with her. And so what I realized was after I did that, I needed to do something to support her. So she actually signed up into the the second twenty nine to twenty nine we ever did. And she never even done a ten k. But I went from having the support of her doing Ironman and then flipping it and supporting her in really her first race ever. And and that felt really good. It was really good for our marriage. So I don’t know if it’s advice. I’d say my lived experience is you have to go really deep when you’re an entrepreneur, but you don’t have to do that forever. And it depends on what your goals are. My goals with twenty nine and twenty nine are not to be the biggest company out there, not to be the most profitable. My my real goals are to have an impactful community to make to build legacy to have something that lasts. But maybe not maximize the profitability or the growth of the business. And that allows me to spend maybe some of that time that would may you may be spent on expansion if that was something that, was a success metric of mine. I can spend it on other things. Right? So I think it’s being very self aware. And also, honestly, just realizing you can’t do everything at once because other things are gonna suffer. And I’d rather do one thing or two things at an a plus than six. A b minus or a c plus. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. Don’t you agree to, like, putting things? Like, for me, it’s in my calendar. And so it’s self management putting it in your calendar. Like, if you wanna be there for your kids or for your wife, whatever it may be, like, write it down on your calendar and then fill in the work spots around it. Would you agree with that? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Hundred percent. And and look, also, I think it’s just to be honest with people. Like, last night, I had a couple Gilliland I only didn’t wanna miss my son’s football So I just told him. I was like, look, I can hop on the phone, and I can watch a football game while I’m on the phone. My son only plays defense. I’ll talk to you when he when the offense is on the Right? It was just it was a way to say, look, I can talk to you tonight or I can talk to you on Friday. But if it’s urgent, I’m happy to get on the phone. Just understand there’s gonna be cheerleaders and abandon the background. Right. But you can be flexible, work from a lot of places, and and I think where we’re at. This is unbelievable. Gilliland it’s also a curse if you can’t put it down. And so finding that quiet time, we’re gonna get some real structured work done. And really Gilliland and Orion holiday way be still, right, and and honestly make some good progress. And then also you can work from anywhere. And and so I I kinda take that liberty to be able to work from a bunch of different places, and it allows me to spend more time with my family or friends or doing other things, adventure related. So long as I carved out that time to get the real work done before I get on the road? Speaker Brett Gilliland: So let’s talk about the, the idea stage. Right? A lot of people have ideas, and and I’m assuming I don’t know how the the twenty nine zero two nine came, about. But you have an idea, and then let’s say, you know what, man? Let’s go make it happen. Like, nobody’s doing this. Nobody anywhere was doing anything like this to my knowledge. How do you take an idea and then turn it into a business model? Sell it and then buy it back. Let’s unpack that. Speaker Marc Hodulich: I’ll start with, have really good people around you who will tell you what a bad I is too. Right? And and I’ll say that lightly. Like, I have a few people that I’ve worked with for years and I really trust, and I can go to them. I’ve been in YPO, young president’s organization for a while. Now, you know, I’d go to my forum and say an idea that we beat it up before I spend too much time on it. And sometimes that’s just me having to defend my idea first, and get more conviction in it before I go and do something. Other times, it’s battle testing something and being like, hey, maybe this isn’t as good as studying as I thought. But I think the thing that that stops most people is just action. Right? And most of the time, you think the initial idea isn’t really that good, but by going out there and actually starting it, doing it, hosting the event, launching the podcast, writing the book, once you get started in the process, you get feedback, then you’re iterating to figure out what the what the public wants. What the right product is, what the right placement is, what the right price point is. Right? If you think about the four ps of marketing, you really can’t sit in a room for months and figure it all out. And how many successful companies have been founded had a pivot. Almost all of them. Right? And, with twenty nine, I don’t know that there was pivot, but if you looked at what we did, event one, how we sold it, how we positioned it. It was really positioned as like farm to table food, great bands in a cool hiking challenge. And after the first event, Jesse and I looked at each other, Colin, and we’re like, This is really all about the story of climbing the height of everest. Why are we spending money on farm to table meals and getting these bans from your city to come in. They’re these wonderful no one wants to listen to them. People wanna spend all their energy on the mountain. Let’s take those dollars and invest it in training. In coaching and mindset talks and and speakers and actually do everything to to not rip out components of the event and and replace it with margin. But let’s figure out ways to actually reinvest those dollars in a way that supports what we think actually people are looking for. And in helping them achieve their goal better. So that led to really refining a product. And I think what we really did at the very beginning We had two rules. I think it’s very important to, hey, if you’re a business by yourself, it’s important to kinda know what your vision and values are and write them down. Yeah. That’s a business one. I wonder a lot of people don’t do it. The second thing is it is really important if you have partners to make sure you have alignment there. But, like, what are your goals? Right? And our goal was very simply to care the most. And I know that sounds ridiculous, But, like, it’s really true. We just say, hey, look, if we want to really build community, we don’t wanna have something that stands out as very different from the whole world in the Derek sport and the adventure sport. We’re gonna care the most. And and how does that play through? That plays through in the the people you work with, the people you hire, the vendors work with. And then We’re now in year seven, and, we had no pay partners. Any. Right? And and so you realize, like, I didn’t want our participants to be the product. Right? I I wanted the product to be hiking the mountain. Well, yes, we could have had a cheaper ticket if we had allowed people to come in, like, BMW Land Rover and sell their cars to this audience. Right? Because it’s an expensive ticket. And I didn’t want that because I’d be servicing the sponsor and their needs and not servicing the customer. So we were very customer centric and caring the most, and that that led us to build something It was very authentic. And anytime we had an opportunity to chase dollars and sponsors and we focused on the customer, it was easy to go back and say, what do we wanna initially do? And is that still in alignment now? So, you know, how did that lead to showing a company and buying it back. Well, at the end of the day, selling the business was something that There are just gonna be points in time, and I and I think a lot of it just has to do with timing. There was a time period in twenty one where evaluations were absolutely crazy. Across all sectors, you had companies looking to go public. Companies going public. You had unbelievable amounts of private equity and VC cash, flossing, flossing around. And there was opportunity that may not exist again. Now, look, that’s a little bit hindsight, but you knew at the time there was a way of being built. And in buying the company back was, It’ll an realignment of goals. Right? I stayed on a CEO, when we sold the business. My whole team came with me. So it was a strategic kind of partnership and acquisition. But when I realized that, like, long term, the company that acquired us, didn’t really have a plan that married once they had to pivot their business model, they became like, well, I’m a buyer. I love this. I wanna continue to do it. And and being mature enough, I think, impatient enough for that opportunity to happen and not forcing it. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Well, and and I think too, staying involved in seeing some it’s not hitting your passion and your mission. Right? I mean, I think the the clear we are is entrepreneurs as business owners. I mean, there is a clear passion and mission for what we’re doing in our firm. And I would assume if I got displaced from that but could still see, you know, kinda like the goldfish looking or looking at in at the goldfish, I could see this thing not going down the path I want. I I I don’t want that. Right, man. I want my baby back. Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. And look, some of it’s just I became a lot more self aware. Right? Like, I had a business partner buy me out of a business. I had, a business go under. Right? And so I’d had success, some success had some failure, and then you have a big, a big win, like, selling the business. And I think a lot of that as an entrepreneur, you think it’s gonna provide some validation for what you’re doing. And what I realized was like, this is my passion. It wasn’t a mistake to sell the business. It was just that I wanted to buy it back almost more than I real thought I wanted to sell it. Right? And that’s because there was such an alignment in my purpose, in my passion. And and look, The acquisition was great. My whole team stayed with me. I continued to do the same job. And I just realized I’m a really bad employee. I’m an entrepreneur. And Right. You know, I I thought, oh, I’m gonna get through on a business unit. I’m gonna get to acquire other businesses like this and put my business model on Gilliland I realized that I’d rather just only have to answer to myself or my partners, collaboratively than than have a bot Right? I just realized there’s a reason I left as an entrepreneur in the beginning and, in recognizing that, I would be much happier going forward maybe even less financial opportunity, but more controller in my day to day was, it was much more valuable to me at that point of, that point of my life. And still, that’s Speaker Brett Gilliland: Well, great learning. Right? It’s a great learning to know you just can’t work for somebody. I’m I’m not an employee myself. So it’s, it’s it’s good to know. So I saw one of your posts. You said there’s growing old versus growing up. Talk about that. Yeah. I mean Can you recall that post? Speaker Marc Hodulich: My dad is super close. I’m close to both my my my parents, and they’ve been married for fifty plus years. And all I see, my dad is, like, He still has fun all the time. Right? He’s still very fucking hard. And, like, yeah, you you’re gonna have to grow all at some point. That doesn’t mean you you have to to to mature too much to a point to not be able to laugh at yourself to try new things. And, so, yeah, it’s super important to me to stay young at heart. And, you know, I say to my kids, I hope this comes across humble, but we were at a a football game last week, and the the the steps on the bleacher are pretty big. And I’m I’m forty three. Like, I’m not thirty three anymore. Like, I think I am. And I myself in really good shape, but I looked at my son, and my my, my older son, because my younger son was on football field, and I was like, you know, look around, look at these dad’s, like, gingerly walking down these steps that are like my age around the same age. And I was like, I jumped down those things. Right? Right. I don’t wanna get old. Right? Like, I’m gonna try new things, but you have to work hard for that. Right? You have to You have to say no to some bad meals, not drink as much. You gotta get in the gym. You gotta do things, but I wanna preserve the ability of me being not only kind of young at heart and maybe even a little immature with my sense of humor or my ability to laugh at myself the way I approach things, but also physically just be able to do stuff for a longer period of time than most people my age are able to. I realize forty three still really young. But I wanna be able to do the same stuff when I’m seventy three. And I really do believe that’s possible, but it takes a mindset of kind of, like, staying staying young at heart to, I think, be able to achieve that. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I I was just, last week. I went and, we played thirty six holes of golf per day out of bandon dunes out in Oregon. So if you’re a golfer, it’s phenomenal. Highly recommended to anybody listening. It’s a golfer, but we talked about it. You know, I’m forty five, and I’m like, man, this is a young man’s game. We’re walking because there’s no there’s no golf So it’s thirty six holes a day. We’re walking fifteen to seventeen miles a day. Thankfully, we had a caddy. But but it’s a lot. Right? By the end of the, you know, the first couple days, you’re you’re hurt So we did that for four straight days. And, but it’s but I had the exact same thought, man. Like, I don’t wanna not continue to be able to do this stuff because I’m quote unquote too old. And my actual long term goal in life is to play golf on my hundredth birthday and and, you know, shoot shoot under a hundred. You know? And so, that’s that’s Speaker Marc Hodulich: the goal. Speaker Brett Gilliland: So, yeah, I think I think having that stuff, but it’s important now. So what does that routine like for you? I know you said you’d like to run the cold plunge and the sun and all that, but kinda break that down for you, your food choices, and even your exercise. What’s that look like in a busy world today? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Look, I’m not as regimented as what people think. Right? Okay. I’m really regimented when I have a goal. If I’m training for an Ultra, a big race, whatever it is, I don’t mix a workout. Right now, I think it’s about finding some some way to move every day. I don’t know that these are, like, really amazing life hacks for people, but, I take a lot of calls. I’m on the phone a lot. My team’s remote. I walk constantly. Right? Now my friends will tell me walking’s not working out. So on one of those calls a day, I put on a thirty pound rucksack. You know, and and you walk four or five Gilliland thirty pounds when you’re back up and down hills, you build a lot of strength, core strength, back strength, leg strength, And I don’t consider that a workout. Right? So my workout typically is I run five miles a day, four days a week. And, I lift weights two to three days a week. And then, hopefully, somewhere in there, and depending on travel and what’s going on, there’s one long workout, whether it’s a long bike ride, whether it’s a long run, something of the duration of, you know, an hour and a half to two hours. Right? But food just through my nature of kind of trying to maximize as much time in the day, I don’t sit down for lunch. Today, the first thing I ate was through the clock. I realized I was intermittent fasting years ago, not even knowing Right. So, you know, I take my kids to school every day. That’s a non negotiable for me, and my wife has her time in the morning, and I take the kids to school. And then I’m working out. Sometimes before I take them, sometimes after, I’m really flexible, but I make sure I do something active every single day that I would consider a workout. And I don’t consider taking a conference call with a rucksack on a workout. It’s just I’m being active rather than sedentary. So I think for me, it’s always been about having enough hydration I don’t drink soft drinks. Like, these are simple things. Right? I don’t snack a lot. And I try to eat as healthy as we can. We try to cook in you know, three to four nights a week. But there’s no, like, super strict diet. It’s more or less just like a little bit of moderation. And a lot of activity. And I’ve just found, like, I haven’t gained weight, in probably thirteen to fifteen years, unless I was trying to to gain weight, but I’m really active. I’m on my feet constantly. I’m playing with my kids a lot. And, I’m only really in a routine where I’m tracking every workout and all that type of stuff. If there’s something big on my calendar. Otherwise, I’m just trying to be six to eight weeks away of hard training, be ready for almost anything. Right? I try to stay in good enough state And that’s something I learned from the, an amazing endurance coach, who works in our staff, Chris Howe, who’s rich roles, personal coach, and two time Olympic. He’s like, look, all my athletes are six or eight weeks ready from almost doing anything. Like, if you wanna go run a hundred mile run and I’m coaching you, six weeks from now, you could be ready. If six weeks of heart training. And while I’m not on that caliber, I’m pretty close to where if I put my head down for six weeks, I I maintain a level of fitness that could have me ready for almost anything in the six to week period. Speaker Brett Gilliland: So what’s the next experience, man? What are you doing with your kids? And because that’s something I’m thinking about. My oldest is a senior, and I’ve got a, you know, senior a sophomore eighth grade, fourth grade, One of my first, college visit with my son, sorry Auburn, it was at Old Miss, another SEC there. And, it was fun. We went to the Grove, did a little tailgate before the ball game is incredible. But, you know, I’m looking for those those experiences. So what what do you have out there that you think would be cool with the kids, whether it’s adventurous, running, riding, swimming, hiking, whatever it may be. Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. So, two things that I learned each independently from someone else, not my own ideas. One, when each of my boys turns thirteen, I had one turn this year. They get a pick anywhere in the United States, they wanna go on a trip. It’s just the two of us for three I had an opportunity to to go to London, and go to some Premier League games, and my thirteen year old super into that. So he said nice. Yeah. You can the US in London. So I gotta hop the ante for my eleven year old, when he turns thirteen. And then when they turn eighteen, you get to pick anywhere in the world they wanna go. And my wife and I, the four of us will go on a family trip together. And that’s been something that gets talked about a lot. And I want them to be really invested in it. They’re gonna have to plan it but it’s already being talked about in our family. So those are, like, two things at thirteen and eighteen, kind of, like, going into eighth Gilliland then going into college. I feel which is a really important time. One for me to just do one father, son, one to do as a family. As far as other adventures, you know, I found for me, the things that we enjoy most of the families if we get out of our comfort zone. And so I’ve really enjoyed going to other countries and immersing ourselves in the culture. And, experience that I’ve loved, you know, we we went to Patagonia. We’ve gone to Costa Rica. And they’re super, super active vacations. Right? Like, you want a vacation afterwards to just rest. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Right. Speaker Marc Hodulich: But I want my kids to see the world. And I think, you know, even in the United States, you know, we tend to spend our summer We spent a few weeks in telluride over here. This last summer, because I had events in Jackson Hole and Sun Valley, we spent time in those locations. And, like, getting out in the mountains, There’s something to do every day. And I’ve really enjoyed adventures where my kids had to put a decent amount of effort into something. So the big hikes, staying up paddleboarding down rivers, the mountain bike riding. That stuff’s been very rewarding, even taking them up their first, like, thirteen or next year, probably, like, I’m a fourteen or with them. You know, safe routes, but, like, a lot of work. Right? And then you get to pay off of a view I really enjoyed those experiences where they kind of complained at the beginning. I did a dirt bike adventure, and I never ridden a dirt bike. We all had to learn how to ride dirt bikes together, camp out. I don’t like camping. Right? It ended up being something that was amazing. I did it with another entrepreneur and his son there were there were actually like four dads and four sons. So I found stuff like that to be really gratifying too. You have to come on and be able to go together. And then you’re doing it in an adventure where it’s not easy, but I I also think that the memories are so much stronger from doing those types of activities that we’ve done together. Speaker Brett Gilliland: It’s incredible. Yeah. We do the thirteen and then they’re, the summer after they graduate. So it’ll be our first one finally, not finally because it went so damn fast, but our big trip, but They’re they’re they’re thinking a little bigger, man. Our our our first one when he was thirteen, it was a COVID. So we kinda got, you know, screwed in We ended up having a staycation here in Saint Louis, but it was nice. It was fun. And then, the next one picked Chicago, and then the the last one we just did in April was, he picked California. So makes us to see in a in a few years what our next one does. So, last couple of questions here, man. You you talked about earlier about dreaming big, and And we’ve really kinda been dreaming big and talking big this whole time. But what is that process for you? Because, like, for me, it’s it’s this black journal here. It’s setting down. It’s spending time myself. Thinking, it’s dreaming, it’s strategizing. Do you have a process like that that you could share with our listeners, or what is that dreaming big process for you? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. So I found works really well for me is I need to be moving, and I need to be outdoors. And I gotta get in a place that inspires me. And look, I Atlanta’s a beautiful like it, but it doesn’t inspire me. So what I’ve found works really well for me is to go to a beautiful place, spend time in nature, without any distraction. Anytime I run, I don’t bring my phone. I don’t wear an Apple Watch. You know, I wanna be away from devices. I think I’d be really good thinking there. And then You know, look, Jesse and our partners in a few businesses, and and and Jesse, for those little gnomes, a credible entrepreneur, super inspiring person, but if you think you have a big idea, Brain is someone who’s had ideas for ten times. Speaker Brett Gilliland: It’d be bigger. Yeah. Speaker Marc Hodulich: And and and and get pushed in that sense. I think that whether it’s related to twenty nine or twenty nine or not, when I’m thinking about something that I think is a game changer and you you you have a circle of friends and peers that are thinking big, and I don’t always think that that big means more money. Right? But just challenging yourself, a big adventure or whatever it is. Right? Having people there that you really look up to challenge today, are you thinking big enough or are you limiting yourself? And sometimes you’re starting really big and then refining on the way down, but I think that, that who you surround yourself with matters so much? Because when I’m thinking about adventures I’m gonna go and do, I’m comparing adventures I would do to Colinor Brady, who’s one of my partners, who’s got ten world records, and is he only with the first person to pull a sled across Antarctica for sixty something days self supported. Right? So think of an adventure as something no human has ever done before. And therefore, when I get ideas from him, it’s because we get training routines. Right? And that’s not diminishing what I’m doing, but I’m also not going to a circle of friends that are so impressed with what they’ve done. Yeah. They’re gonna think anything I do is outstanding. Surrounding myself with peers who have done such impressive things. I mean, I I personally have two close friends that devrode the Atlantic. I mean, that’s nuts. Right? I would never stop growing. Right? But when you start talking to them, they’re like, oh, did you know you can do this between Antigo and this? And that’d be really cool for, like, two days. Right? Or did you know you can Speaker Brett Gilliland: ski different? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. You can ski across Finland. Right? It’s eight day cross country skiing, and they set up you know, tend for you to sleep in it. So now me and my friends are kind of considering how is that something we do for our next guys trip. Right? So it’s kind of expanding who you speak to around these things and not not being nervous around sharing your ideas because a lot of times my friends are actually challenging me to think bigger And I’m probably a little too focused on something that is probably too attainable. And and, you know, they’re pushing me to think bigger because they’ve had such big experiences themselves. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So, seaside was on your, location thing for your deal. So watercolor seaside, you love thirty a down there? Speaker Marc Hodulich: I do. I really do. My parents started going down there in, like, the early two thousands. And that’s been changed Speaker Brett Gilliland: a bit. Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yes. Changed a lot. And I think, you know, it’s easy to look back, but Gilliland say, oh, I should’ve bought real estate. I should’ve looked at this, whatever. It’s it’s interesting to learn from those moments too. Right? And and the people who did and the companies that invested there in the vision that they had to see what transpired to. To me, like, I I don’t look back and say I missed an opportunity to look back and say, what can I learn? From that area? What could I learn from what those people did? Because they took a lot of big risks. And, it’s I I cheer them for winning because, yeah, that area loaded It’s become a great family place for us. We’ll be down there for thanksgiving this year with my parents and and I’ll love it down there. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. We go there a couple times a year. I’ll be down there. I go in two times for the family and one time with a buddy’s golf trip down there. And I I had the same learning moment, man. I made an offer in a house in nineteen, went back and did the head scratcher in this summer and I saw what it sold for. I’m like, wow. That’s that’s a humbling moment. What do I learn from that one? But, hey, you live and learn. Right? Where do our listeners find more of you? Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. I mean, look, twenty nine and twenty nine. I mean, just Google two 09:02 nine, just the numbers. And then my Instagram panel is Mark, m a r c two 09:02 nine. So I’m pretty synonymous with our brand. Yeah. I couldn’t breathe it. And and, yeah, we’d we’d encourage anyone whether you’re gonna check out our event or something else. Like, put something big on your calendar. Right? I think it’s, putting something big on your calendar gives you, the opportunity to to be more interesting. And and you’d be surprising how much people just really care. About you doing something different, whether that’s running a marathon, whether it’s, you know, starting a podcast, whatever it is. I think, you know, putting something big on your calendar, allows you to be part of a conversation that you’re not starting with other people. They’re starting it with you. And, and not to be egotistical, but I just think it it’s it’s very interesting how that then leads into business and other opportunities because you’re just doing something that people find of interest. And, you’re continuing to challenge yourself or something all too often people think about doing it, but don’t do. So I would I would just encourage people to find something no matter how scary surround yourself with people that will support you in doing it, and that’s really what we’ve been trying to do at twenty nine and twenty nine since the beginning. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Also, creates a sense of urgency for your training, man, to stay in shape. Speaker Marc Hodulich: Yeah. I need that. I need that for sure. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Awesome, man. Well, Mark, thanks so much for being with me on the circle of success. Hang with me when I hit finish here. And then, but man, really appreciate you being on the show.
