Coach Kub Podcast

Our guest for today's Friday Discussion is Mr. Todd Anderson. Todd works for the global luxury fitness company Equinox, serving as a Personal Training Manager at their New York City facility. Prior to his current role, Todd worked for Equinox in similar capacities in both Chicago and Miami.

Prior to his fitness coaching career Todd was a fullback for the Michigan State Spartans for 2007-2011 and was signed by the St. Louis Rams as an Undrafted Free Agent going into the 2012 season.

Should we continue to move forward and be surrounded by those who have similar pasts as us, or break off and seek out others who have a future that we are longing to find?

Aaron Babicz is a graduate of Hillsdale College where he was a 4x letter-winner and three year starter for the football team, while also majoring in Marketing. The happily married father of two (Brooks and Beaux) has been the Athletic Director at his alma mater Detroit Catholic Central High School since the fall of 2009.

I challenge us this week to identify the parts of our lives that are already maximized as well those that need work in getting up to speed. When searching for these answers, maybe an area that we are maximizing can afford to be shown a little less attention in exchange for placing that care and effort somewhere else.

"The first and hardest step is just doing it. Get up, find a way, and go do it without concerning yourself over the opinions of others"

Today's guest for our Friday Discussion is AJ Troup, current actor living in Los Angeles, California. AJ was born and raised in Plymouth, Minnesota before heading east and attending Michigan State University. AJ was a Wide Receiver for the Spartans, who joined the team as a Walk-On and eventually earned a scholarship, capping off his senior year with a Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff appearance. He graduated from MSU majoring in Advertising, with a minor in Theatre.

After college AJ moved out to Denver, Colorado to pursue his dream of acting, where he spent 8 months before making the transition to Los Angeles to further that dream and is engrossing himself in an environment that will allow him to grow his brand as well as life experiences.

“When you get yourself into nature – in all its majesty, volume, and power – you are put into a position of insignificance very quickly. As you’re now at the bottom of the pecking order, you’re able to properly assess what you are doing. There’s a certain level of humility that nature demands of you, especially when you’re fully participating in it.”

Nick is a native of Novi, Michigan and attended Oakland University on a soccer scholarship, where he played for the Golden Grizzlies from 2010-2013 and won the 2013 Senior CLASS Award for Men’s Soccer as the most outstanding senior student-athlete in NCAA Division 1 Men’s Soccer. Upon graduation he continued his playing career and played two years of professional soccer in both the United States and Australia.

After completing his second season Nick decided to embark on a new journey and start his company Fleece & Thank You with the goal of providing much needed comfort, support, and connection by giving handmade fleece blankets to children facing treatments in hospitals all across the Midwest. In addition to this endeavor, Nick has also started and runs three other companies:  Empathy 313, which makes technology solutions for social impact organizations, Crate of Good, a social impact subscription box, and Flockets.com, an apparel site that funds micro-loans for families with a child battling cancer. 

Through self-awareness and emotional intelligence, we can begin to identify when there are aspects of ourselves that need to be addressed or fixed.  It is when this realization takes place that we have to choose whether to use a Band-Aid to cover up the shortcoming or perform the necessary surgery to truly fix the problem.

Chris Friend has worked with Ohio State since January of 2018 as a Strength and Conditioning Intern, then transitioned to the Strength and Conditioning Associate in October of 2018. In this current position, Friend is responsible for designing and implementing all assets of S&C for Women’s Ice Hockey and Novice Rowing as well as assisting with the implementation S&C for Men’s Ice Hockey.

Friend graduated from Eureka College where he majored in Kinesiology and Exercise Science and was a three-time all-conference linebacker. He is currently enrolled in the Master’s of Sport Coaching Program at Ohio State. Previously, Friend worked at Mississippi State University as a football strength and conditioning intern, working under former Buckeye strength intern and current University of Florida Head Football Strength Coach, Nick Savage.

Friend is from Washington, Ill., where he attended Washington Community High School.

“Leadership is the ability to uncover the best from your team by removing the obstacles that prevent them from accomplishing that task.” This definition of leadership was provided on our podcast a couple of months by Mr. Adam Powers, and perhaps it may seem as if it is just another meaning of leadership that likes to get thrown around often. However, if we are to take a few extra minutes and look deeper into the context of that definition, there is something profound that is frequently overlooked when it comes to leading, and that is adding value to the lives of those around us sometimes means taking away things that inhibit real growth to be found.