This week I had my friend Andrew Wilhelm on the podcast and we spoke about death, dying and how to live.

This is something that happens to all of us and it is a conversation that most of us do not have.

In this episode we discussed:

Andrews dream about being ritually sacrificed

The power of solitude.

The problem with men not talking about their emotions

Being precise in your speech.

Doing tasks for the sake of doing them.

Why leisure does not make us happy

The power of being grateful for your life and appreciating how lucky you are to be alive

Benjamin Riddle is a former Marine, a Geospatial Scientist, the Co-Owner and Co-Head Coach of Charlotte Strength and Legion Weightlifting. In this episode we talk about:

-The transition from coach to business owner

-Most challenging part of opening his first gym

-SABOTAGE!

-Being an outsider in the sport of weightlifting

-Owning a gym is not the same as being a leader

-Why weightlifting is the best

-Being vulnerable to grow stronger

-Competing to grow stronger

Benjamin Riddle is a former Marine, a Geospatial Scientist, an Olympic Weightlifting Coach/Athlete and a mighty fine writer.

In this episode we talk about:

-How to build a community of likeminded people.

-What it means to have a Warriors Mentality

- Why you NEED to COMPETE (especially if you don't feel like you are ready) -

The benefits of having a coach. -

What it feels like to shut your mind off and let your body take over.

I hope you enjoy it!

Alan Thrall is the owner of Untamed Strength in Sacramento, California. He is a former Marine, a coach and educator on all things strength, a husband and a father.

Today we talked about how to be a great husband and father while also running a business, an online empire, and fitting in training as well.

Today you'll learn:

- The importance of BEING where you are

- How to overcome the feeling that you need to be doing something all the time

- How Alan trains when he has limited time

- Would Alan train if he was the only man on earth?

- The greatest lesson Alan learned from his parents

- How to be a new dad and stay jacked and strong…kind of

- How to gain a sense of control in your life

Thanks for listening!

Alan Thrall is the owner of Untamed Strength in Sacramento, California. He is a former Marine, a coach and educator on all things strength, a husband and a father.

What I love most about Alan is his hunger to learn and to share what he has learned with other people. (You can hear more about this in the podcast).

Alan's passion for learning and teaching others led him to start a YouTube channel which now has almost half a million followers. (You can learn how he grew his channel in the podcast).

We talked about negative self talk in the gym, why he now has a coach, his greatest struggle in starting a gym, the roots of his disciplined nature, and how you can grow stronger.

Joey is a National Champion Strongman, the owner of 'Lions Den Elite Training Facility', and a prolific creator of amazing content on YouTube and Instagram.

Today we are talking about how he does it all and why sometimes it looks easier than it really is. We also talk about training, how to get out of your own way in order to train for life.

In this episode you'll learn:

-Where he gets his best ideas for creating content

-How to learn more faster

-The importance of being a student and training with other people in new locations

-What it's like to train with the Mountain Dog John Meadows

-How To Remove distractions and embrace boredom to create space for creativity

-Why It is important to share your unique message

Here's another throwback!

Since we last talked on this podcast Joey's following has blown up and rightly so.

He consistently puts out amazing content on social media, has won multiple national strongman championships, has built and amazing gym, and travels all around the country to train with some of the coolest people in the strength training community.

In this episode we talk about:

- His start as an athlete and strength sport competitor

-How he started his gym with zero money and no location

-The importance of putting culture first when running a gym

-Why the little things are the big things

-Why you should do more curls

-How listening to the LOTR Soundtrack increases your endurance

-Why having fun is integral to getting your best results in the gym and in life

Chris is the owner of Overtime Athletes and a strength and speed coach to professional, college and high school athletes.

In this episode we talk about:

- The effect of social media on young athletes

- How having a child changed his approach to business

- Why he traded in his Range Rover for a Pickup Truck

- The benefits and dark side of Social Media

- My solo canoe trip and lessons learned

- Why solitude is critical for creativity

Chris Barnard is the owner of a gym franchise, a successful online entrepreneur and trainer of elite athletes.

In this episode we talk about his origin story, how he lost it all as an athlete, how to build up a massive online presence from nothing, and what keeps him motivated and creating on a daily basis.

Chris is one of my favourite humans and I really enjoyed talking with him and I know you will enjoy listening in!

Welcome to the first season of the Mark Novak Show!

Listen to this episode before you get started to get a breakdown of the framework of this season including: my vision for the podcast, who I will be interviewing, special segments, and more!