Creating Life After the Game with Cory Camp

 You're listening to the Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast.
 If it's radical, we cover it.
 Here's your host, Ryan Alford.
 Hey guys, what's up?
 Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast.
 I'm Ryan Alford, your host.
 We save this radical.
 We cover it.
 Well, today we're talking about radical sport.
 We're talking about recovery.
 We're talking about mental health in a lot of ways.
 We're talking to the founder of forever athlete, Cory Camp.
 What's up, brother?
 Ryan, man, thanks for having me.
 I like that intro a lot.
 I'm just going to take that with me ever I go from now on.
 There you go.
 You are our guest on Apple podcast number one marketing and business show.
 We appreciate everyone listening.
 We're excited to tell Cory's story and we're always brought to you by VK V.A.Y., C.A.Y.
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 Cory, man, it's fascinating learning about you.
 I'll say this so to bring it.
 I have four boys and they all have played in their daveling sports.
 They're all young, 14, 12, 11 and seven and I play basketball through college.
 My wife was a college athlete and so there's a lot of things that I think are related to
 kind of your story.
 I will say this.
 My two oldest are really gravitating towards swimming.
 They're badass.
 I was like, that was a good swimmer, but I'm tall.
 I'm 65 and I played basketball and I swim too.
 I was a good swimmer, but I stopped it.
 You do the swim team thing.
 I was probably 11, 12 and that's when you start getting into the camps and all that
 further sports.
 I just went the total basketball route, but my two boys are into swimming.
 So there's a little side thing there.
 So I like the swimming stuff.
 I want to hear about all that.
 Let's tee that for everybody, Corey, talking about your background.
 I know swimming will be involved, but I had to do that little intro with my boys.
 I'm excited about that.
 But let's tell everybody a little bit about Corey Camp.
 Yeah.
 One love to hear it.
 I think you should just forewarn them like being on the swim team.
 Not as much like street cred as you're going to get in a lot of other sports as just
 the way it is.
 I remember going, I spent at the University of Delaware.
 I remember walking on the campus freshman year, the captain sat us down.
 They were like, all right, first rule.
 Don't ever wear any of the swim team stuff to bars, parties, go out with it because whether
 you believe it or not, it's not going to help you luck with anyone.
 Just leave it at home.
 It's okay.
 I know what it's sad.
 I guess I've seen them myself at sad because of how work and how good a shape is as
 please go.
 Swimmers are pretty bad ass, so I like, but it sucks that maybe that stigma is still there
 or he's not even a stigma as much as just not at no attention.
 Yeah.
 You're working on the shadows, right?
 I grew up, so for context, my dad, Sam in college, he's Sam at Towson and I got involved
 at a pretty early age as you can imagine because of that connection.
 I grew up not really the fastest, not really the best, but just loved it, man.
 At home, at peace in the water, I remember, it probably wasn't until like eighth grade
 or so, it was when probably about your oldest age where things started to really click where
 this dream of, oh, I could be a college swimmer, started to become a reality, had some major
 time drops, started to get some interest in where I was going and it was interesting
 now looking back, the swimming pool and just water and general view as my playground for
 just self-discovery of who I was and I know a lot of athletes can relate to that where
 it's just, you felt at peace, you felt safe to express yourself and to try new things
 because of the context of the environment that you were in and so up until when I retired
 at the end of my senior year, 22, I view myself as a swimmer, everyone that knew me as
 Corey Campus Swimmer and that kind of laid the groundwork towards the work that I do
 now with forever athlete of understanding who are we beyond just that first title that
 we gravitate towards or that first identity, but yeah, for a while, I was like, no, this
 is me, this is who I am and I never wanted to embrace any other title because I happened
 to be good at it. It's funny how that fascinating. I always, people talk all the time like about
 following your passion. You got to follow your passion. You know what? You follow the
 passion of what you're good at and you get good at stuff that you work at and so there's
 this misnomer in business, I think in life sometimes that she's going to naturally come
 to you, but like you got to get yourself out there and try things and do things to see
 what you're good at, then it becomes somewhat natural for you to follow that path.
 Yeah, I even take it a step further back, right? Like before you can even discover passion
 or what might even potentially be passion, you have to be curious.
 Yeah, so I look at, I try something was the one that I gravitated towards over time,
 but played baseball, played football, played soccer a little bit, played a little bit of basketball,
 I'm 5'10", so it didn't quite get the height gene there to continue on. So you're kind of,
 you got to be curious to explore the hand that you're dealt and then play it in the best way possible
 from there. That curiosity is what breeds passion and then with time, I think when you continue
 to add curiosity to passion, that's when you get to that ultimate purpose that we're all
 like running around like chickens with their head cut off trying to find. That's really right,
 but if you didn't, if you waited to start the company or whatever it may be and tell you
 were crystal clear on the purpose, you'd be waiting forever. It's just not happening.
 You got to be curious first to take that first step. Yeah, I love that. Your wife is born,
 your years. The curious thing is in my, people ask me, naturally, I go on a lot of shows too,
 and it's like, what's the key to success? There is a total correlation to every successful person I
 know is this natural curiosity. I think you have to because you're curious how things work so
 that you can either create something better or something different, but it seems to be just so
 port it with, I don't know, with, and I think athletes that way too, they're curious,
 like, can I push myself this far or how are they doing that? Like, how are they that good?
 And I think it comes in a lot of different forms, but I think it's the Uber imported.
 Shoot, you want unlimited motivation. You want something that you can tap into at any given time
 to get through those days where you're like, that's a drag. I don't want to do it. Find a way to
 be it curious and now all of a sudden you're willing. It doesn't make it any easier, right? But
 it now makes it attainable. It makes you actually want to go proactively towards this fight.
 And I'll never forget my freshman year at Delaware was funny. The coach that ended up coaching me,
 he didn't, was the guy who recruited me, but I was really grateful that he was the one that was there.
 And he and I started to play this game where we were both getting curious how hard can he make
 a practice to the point where I would miss an interval. And they got to the point where I think
 it was like five, six months into the season. And I was the only kid on the team that hadn't missed
 an interval as freshman. I wore it as a team collectively. And he just threw me for a loop one day
 where he was a distance freestyler. And I am, but breaststroke is my worst stroke. I remember getting
 a practice one day and I look on the paper of the workout and I see six 100s breaststroke on
 one 10 or something. I was like, dude, I can't do this. And the head coach kicked us out of the
 25 yard part of the pool and sent us over to the set, became a 20 yard. And because of the double
 pullouts, I was able to make all six of those 100s. And I turned him. I was like, I guess we'll never
 know if I wouldn't have made those or not just made the most of the cards I was dealt. But it
 began a really fun game. And it made pushing myself every single day that much more exciting and
 enticing because I was just getting up to be like, all right, can I beat Koop at this mind game
 today? And he would probably be waking up doing the same thing because I beat Corey down to a point
 where he can't make this interval anymore. And thankfully, I prevailed.
 Do you want swimmer at Delaware? Couple of questions. So number one, what was your stroke? Did you
 have a certain one? Or was it like all around? And then explain for people that might listen.
 Swimming's not, if you talk about American football, most people kind of stuff. And swimming
 is not in any way complex per se. That's your four major strokes. But I don't think people comprehend
 just how in shape and just how hard swimming is. So let me talk about your stroke and how
 truly tough it is. Yeah. So I swam, I swam everything from the 200 free up to the 1650 free,
 which is a mile and that's in yards. And then I would do the 400. I am do a little bit of 200
 or fly. I could do a little bit of everything, which was a blessing and a curse because then I
 became that like versatile Swiss army knife of sort wherever they needed me, they would throw me in.
 And for context, what that means is the shorter end of the stick, I'm going for about a minute and
 40 seconds, maybe a little faster, a little slower depending on the day for the 200. And then for
 the mile, I was just over 15 minutes was my best time. And that's just that's continual. You're
 just going, you're going, you're pushing that pace as fast as you can to like hold on for that
 amount of time. I'll never forget I used to coach swim for a while as well. And I remember a family
 came that I coached to come watch me swim the mile and to put it in the context. And they were like,
 it was crazy. Corey, you were going. And then I realized that I needed to put money in the
 parking meter. So I went and I went back and put money in the meter. I came back and you were still
 going. And I was like, yeah, like, how do you think I felt? Like, I felt like I was still going.
 Like it was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think they say, you know, what the exact actual energy like
 one to one. It's not a one to one with running. It's like a one to three. So one mile of swimming
 is about the equivalent of running three-ish miles. So like, my mile swim is using the same
 amount of energy that your body would use to run like an all out five K. Well, let me tell you
 you, I don't care what they say. I'm six, five to 60 pounds. If I go swim a mile in the water,
 that's 10 miles, brother. That is not, I don't even think that's maybe for trained swimmer or
 something, but I don't know that shit's hard. I always joked with earth people. I was like,
 envious now of the people that are in that not great swim shape. So to speak, quote, unquote,
 because I was like, you have to swim way less to burn the same amount of calories that I'm going
 to have to swim like three X four X that. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just not a fish in it. But I
 I swam growing up and I was like, man, I'm just gravity's hurting me to the bottom of the pool,
 I think that body position and inefficiency is everything. It's, it's bringing it back to me,
 though, watching like Olympic swimming or watching professionals swimming or something.
 Like you said, over 15 minutes, how close the times are and how shaving time. I would think
 there'd be these gigantic, depending on the day and like certain things, there'd be like 30
 seconds difference or a minute there. But on these 15 minute one mile, you're talking shaving,
 like a second or two and it's even minutes like point one point zero zero one seconds. Man,
 I had a great day. I say point zero one off my time. But how close it is and how consistent
 it becomes when you're professionally trained. I never, I'll never forget. So my dad swim
 college. My mom very much did not. She knows how to swim, but that's about the extent of it.
 And mom, you're listening. I love you. I'll never forget leaving a meat one time when I was in
 high school. And I absolutely ate it. It was so bad. I've added a minute in my mile. And my mom
 just is the one who took me to the meat. And I can't skew things for it's just a minute.
 In my head, I wanted to be like, you don't understand how bad a minute off your best time is.
 But in her heart, I was like, I know she loved me one way or the other. I was like, I needed to
 hear that in that moment because it was like, yeah, it's just one performance. It's one me. It
 doesn't really matter. The grand concept of things. Yeah. So what did the struggles set in for
 you? Like you swam. What were like, I know though everything you're doing is around this
 athlete. Where did you struggle the most? Was it because of how much structure there was?
 Like the structure of sport and everything else. Like you said, it's one day it's gone.
 Yeah. For me, it was, I had a subconscious backup plan or had thought of future beyond swimming.
 And I never really gave it much more thought than that. So I planned to be physical therapist,
 got my like PT hours and as an intern, my senior year of high school events so that I had like
 the resume ready to go. But by the time I was in college, I just took, I took swimming so seriously.
 Like that was my major and everything else was like, if push came to shove, it would get to 10 pm.
 I was like, my study for another two hours. Maybe I get another like 5%, 10% on this exam.
 Or I show well rested for practice and can rock it there. I'm going to go to bed and wake up
 and go cross practice. And that unfortunately led to 2.9 GPA where then going to try to go to grad
 school, I just got denied from every single program that I applied to. So where it really took
 a turn for me, I would say was my senior year, I going into it, they brought in a freshman that was
 there to replace me and my events. And that was the first time that there was like a doubt in
 my mind of who maybe I'm not the best in my events anymore on the team. My role was called into
 question. And I started to really realize, okay, this is a legitimate business. Like they're just
 turning kids out every four years as it makes sense, right? Like I'm running a thing out of eligibility.
 They want the program to keep going. But it's natural. You need that. But it was feeling that
 on a interpersonal level. And then when it ended for me my last race ever, I was slower than I was
 my junior year of high school. So it was like the slowest mile I had done in about six years time.
 And that was it. That was like hand touch the wall. It's written. It's now history. I can't change it.
 I was really upset with it. I remember just turning to my coach and just being like at least I'm done
 now. Like I can walk away from this thing. And then I didn't really realize how much
 that last performance impacted me until years later. I didn't realize how much that like
 rejection from the grad school a month later played into it. And then the girl that I was
 dating at the time, her and I ended up breaking up too. As a result of me not having my
 shit figured out of where am I going post grad? And I was like, okay, I was already feeling
 kind of down on myself of I don't have the thing that I've always relied on to define myself as
 the secondary thing that I always thought would be there is not there. And my support system is now
 not there either. And that was where the heavy drinking started to come in. That's where the
 heavy party started to come in. I was just like, you know what? Like I hate how I feel on a day-to-day
 basis. Let me escape it because this feels better. At least if I'm dumb, I'll wake up and I'm still
 young enough where I don't really get that hungover. So I can just wake up and do it again the next day
 and the next day. And as you probably know, that doesn't work. No, snowball downhill.
 And you know what happens to snowballs that run downhill? They have mutually hit a brick wall.
 Yeah, I feel like coming like a snowball about it hit me in the face.
 Yeah, it was, thankfully I never had like a rock bottom moment where like my life was in total
 shambles and I needed to make a change. But it was just that slow burn of the self awareness started
 to really kick in. And I started to look around and I was like, dude, I am really unhappy with
 what it is I'm doing. It felt like I was on just this like rabbit hole repeat groundhog day every
 single weekend, going on vendors, staying out way too late, spending time with too many girls,
 and I was unhappy with my Monday through Friday, but I was not doing anything to change it.
 Eventually at the start of 2021, I'm just like, I'm going to take a step away from this alcohol
 thing. And we're going to stop drinking cold turkey 30 days. Let's see what happens in 30 days.
 And 30 days later, I was like, whoa, I feel like I unlocked a superpower a lot of ways. Let me just
 keep going and see what happens. Yeah, I have older than you, but I have a lot of friends that have
 gone that path just becoming enlightening for a lot of people that like, whoa, that's how I feel.
 Like I think it's their life back and then so. Yeah, I think what I learned,
 truthfully, I'm still figuring out what that relationship looks like, right? Like I don't,
 personally, I don't see myself as sober for the rest of my life. I would love to be able to
 introduce, I'll call back into the, as it's intended to be, as like a celebration, as a bonding
 experience, but not over the top point of diminishing returns. And that's where I noticed myself
 really struggling was I had no idea where that point of diminishing returns was. I just would
 start and I wouldn't stop. I was telling my roommate last night, and I was like, can I have
 reminiscent of there's a bar right when I graduated college and moved down to Baltimore.
 There's a bar around the corner from me that did Friday, seven to 10 all you can drink for $10.
 And I was like, the hack was to give the bartender $20 and say, keep the change because you're a big shot
 22 year old, right? The $10 tip goes a long way and you feel pretty wealthy. And I could drink
 like a fish in that place because the bartender, I would be like six, seven people back from the bar.
 I just raised my class and they'd pass me another one because I tip so well and quote unquote,
 so well. It's like, yeah, just, I don't remember if it started putting myself in for $10, man,
 I would have definitely been in trouble if I'd have had those in grade school. Great deal,
 great business or maybe not. I don't know. It was not I had the drinkers. We had school. I don't
 know. They were made money of that. It's interesting to look back on that time and I'm actually really
 grateful for all of that. That might sound weird, but I needed to get all of that out of my system
 to learn that, okay, when I'm feeling certain types of way, I can't turn to these things that are
 escapism that are suppressing that are of allowing me to continue to just side-step the problem
 and just feel good in this moment. It's okay that I've learned now. It's okay to actually feel
 anxious. It's okay to feel angry. It's okay to feel depressed sad and the way you actually
 address them is actually sitting in it for a second and like setting up your system around you
 under support team that they help like you can tug on the rope and they're like, okay,
 cool. Ryan even sitting this for a while. We'll pull you out of this. I didn't have that. I didn't
 know how to talk about that. I didn't the guys in my life, what we talked about was sports and
 how much we're drinking at that. All you can drink on Friday nights. That was the social currency.
 It wasn't, hey, are you unhappy at this job because this thing is miserable for me? Or if it was
 that talk, it was just like screw this job. Screw this job. What are you quitting? I was like,
 I don't know, but when you do it, let me know so I can leave too. But that was like such surface
 level combo. When did you have the epiphany or realized that you're self-aware to recognize the
 struggle from leaving the sport and then developing thoughts and mechanisms, the playbook and the
 business that you're developing now? When did that moment take place and it's formulated for you?
 Yeah, so we'll open a quick picture. Graduated, completely lost, drinking a ton, took a sales job,
 refinancing mortgages outside of Baltimore, doing V.A. cash out, refi loans and a call center.
 Definitely not what I expected myself to be doing with an exercise science degree with
 the concentration biomechanics and a coaching science minor. But here I was. It was the highest paying
 job that I could land out of school. I was very money and monetary driven at that point because I was
 like, I'm going to be the first of my teammates to make $100,000 a year. If I couldn't be the first one,
 I wasn't going to get into grad school like some of the other ones. And I was telling myself like,
 that was what I wanted. That was success for me. I had a breaking point about eight months into that
 role where I just was like, and I feel super, super lost and I don't know what it is.
 So without really any answers, I quit that job and I'd say, okay, summer swim coaching
 job at a country club back in the DC area. And that turned into a swim clinic where we had a
 four lane indoor pool at that club. And I turned to the operations director and I said, hey,
 this pool is it used year-round? He goes, yeah, about four people. No one really swims in this thing.
 And I was like, oh, what have I started year-round swim program? I learned to swim clinic and
 teach private lessons in there. And he was like, sure, come up with a business plan. So I go on
 Google and I say, what is a business plan? How do I write one? And come back like the next day.
 I was like, here is my business plan. That thanks for taking the time to hear me out. I've been
 thinking on this one for a while. He had no idea that I just wrote it up the night before.
 He liked it enough where he was like, all right, this space is yours. We won't take a percentage of
 it. You just run the thing. And I was like, oh, this is weird. That wasn't in the business plan.
 I was expecting some sort of rev share or something. But he just let me run with it. So much so
 to the point where a year and a half later, he turned to me, go, hey, so I met that like no revenue
 share thing. Can we like re-discuss that? Because you're making way more than we thought you
 would be making. So sorry, man. That's the track that is the original terms. I didn't do the fitness
 outside. I have a kids are in that thing. I had about about 120 kids and it was me and one
 assistant. And the learned to swim clinic, kids were paying. We had as many as 40 kids a session
 paying about 20 to $30 a drop in. And then the year-own swim program, we did in
 three different sessions. And we had probably about, honestly, we had about 60 kids in that. And
 they were paying anywhere from 1,500 to 1,500 for that session. So it ended up doing fairly well.
 A lot better than see or eye or anyone else involved anticipated it doing. And then of course,
 that was talking about time for money. It was great because my living factor was just like how
 many kids I could work with at once. But instead of introducing more sessions because of pool time
 caps, I started to explore what would it look like to get in the personal training, got in the
 personal training on the side. Thankfully, at the same club, they had a gym. And before I knew it,
 I was assistant fitness instructor running this swim program. And then COVID hit. And I was like,
 oh, everything crumbled, gone in a second. And that whole time, what I noticed was like,
 I was starting to feel more and more like myself again as I was getting back into the coaching
 role as I was walking with other people through their fitness journeys as I was walking with kids
 through this. Like to this day, some of the best joint in my life is being able to help a kid go
 from absolutely terrified from the water, just swimming their first lap across. And I know like
 the confidence that instills in that kid and the relief that instills in that parent as well.
 I was like, oh, what if I can instill that same feeling again now with former athletes? What would
 it look like to sit with someone who's 22 or 23? What did I wish I had at that age where
 someone actually understood me and what I was going through. And I can provide them that confidence
 boost that they don't even realize they need and provide their parents and their loved ones that
 relief that they don't even know they need to be like, okay, I can stop worrying about Corey.
 Like he's got it somewhat figured out like he's going to land on his feet. I can trust that.
 What do you think? Are there like common signs? Obviously with yours, you had such
 the trifecta hitch all at once and led you down path that you knew was not sustainable and then
 kind of waking up. But like for other former athletes that are out there and are parents of
 athletes. So they're like these telltale signs of the struggle. Yeah. So what ends up happening is
 what's very common. We actually see this in military as well. It's a concept called identity
 foreclosure. So when an identity that you've always embraced and viewed yourself as forecloses
 unexpectedly or even expectively, we see this in later generations as we age and we retire
 right and that sense of meaningful purpose is now removed or it's not as apparent. So
 what you'll see oftentimes if you're looking for warning signs and someone's going through this
 looking at any change like subtle changes in behavior. Are they have they always eaten well and
 now they're willing to grab a little bit more junk food. They're turning to sweets a lot more.
 That's a warning sign for me still to this day is if I'm grabbing ice cream three to four times
 a week like I know okay something deeper is going on. I need a book of therapy session or I need to
 sit and open my journal and actually just give myself an hour to unpack what is that I'm actually
 feeling. So changes in diet are huge changing and sleeping patterns. If someone who is always
 up early going after it like I was as a swimmer if all of a sudden now they're
 sleeping in or they're snoozing multiple times that's a pretty easy tell-tale sign to say okay hey
 something a little bit deeper is going on and really just subtle changes in mood. If they're
 really quick to be irritated or just don't want to be bothered they're really quiet oftentimes
 especially guys like if we're really quiet oftentimes it's something's there we just don't
 know how to articulate the words around it. It makes a lot of sense it's a lot of different
 whatever there's like tragedy or any kind and that's what it is almost it's like loss on some level
 when you've had that structure it's not just a crutch but just like losing part of yourself
 and it sounds like a lot of the same type of thing. Yeah I was about to say the structure can
 be viewed as oh it was a crutch but really that structure was what was needed to be in place
 for you to succeed at that level so it's not the structure that's tough you just have to look at it
 with a grain of salt right you're learning social skills at 22 35 like whenever it is that people
 finishing up and walking away from this sport that most of your peers learned a lot earlier because
 they didn't have to navigate this like I look at the biggest thing is community and teammates
 right friendships as you get into an adult you never had to really worry about who your teammates
 were because they were just assigned to you you showed up to the team and they were there and then by
 default you're like I see you guys every single day I might as well just call you my boys and like
 we'll be friends outside of it it's given to you it's easy now when you get out you have to be
 proactive and actively seeking out those relationships and while that can be challenging it can
 also be really freeing because if you were ever like me it's like I didn't get along with every
 single teammate that I ever had my life now I get to choose who is making up my team who are my
 selectively surrounding myself with we start to shift viewpoints like that you're like oh okay
 yes there's a lack of structure but now it's on me to become the general manager of my life and I
 can build the structure that serves me now in this season and it's way more personalized than any
 system that you found yourself in that inevitably it's especially at scale college athletics pro
 whatever they can't serve the individual needs of every single person on that team but now you
 have the opportunity to do that in your life after sport and that's a really cool and exciting
 opportunity it's I wish someone framed it for me that way rather than all right all the things that
 you had gone good luck but it's true it's I'm listening to you talk about that and I'm thinking
 about my own kids like back to that like they have I want to think they're more resilient but like
 looking at it they do have these teams and things that they're naturally teed up to be around and
 just being aware that it's true like they show up and they have 40 people on their swim team
 or whatever and that's who they practice with every day so they're not that they're forced but it
 just creates that natural situation to become talking and becoming friends and doing all these things
 where in the rural you might have to try harder to make friends and like they learn it earlier
 so that's that's an interesting insight yeah it's the consistent cadence right like you look at
 even now like the challenge of community building and where I think a lot of companies get it wrong
 when they're when we're talking about oh I got a community it's out to you or as an audience is it
 like are they actually connecting outside of the thing that you're doing anyone can have a one-off
 experience where you bring like-minded people together and form connection that's the first level
 of any form of human connection how many first dates did you have before your wife that you were like
 oh I felt connected to that person that was good but obviously they didn't progress any longer
 because of a whole bunch of different variables the challenge if you're truly wanting to build a
 community it's about consistent cadence of how often are you able to bring like-minded people
 and how are you able to diversify experiences enough where you're getting them to actually learn
 and trust one another where they feel safe in that environment with one another so the same
 way the teams championship teams were developed in sport is yeah that consistent practice cadence
 right but within practice you didn't do the same workout one day through Friday for the entire
 season the experience got diversified and then if you were a part of a really great team you did
 team building activities outside of that whether that be something as subtle as you went to the
 dining hall and shared meals together or you watched the fight on Saturday night together or you
 went to the trampoline park and played dodgeball against one another all of those different
 experiences diversify and add layers to the interconnectedness and that's ultimately the goal
 if we're talking about and that's what I'm trying to do with forever athlete is just adding to
 this level of diversified experience to deepen connection among people that happen to have
 this similar background of sport and so as core forever athlete is you're bringing together people
 that have shared this experience of being high level athletes were just athletes at some level
 doing and having that structure for an extended period of time giving them a community obviously
 giving lessons but also the community with which to help one another am I summarizing that right
 that's exactly it it's the way I like to say it is we want to be able to honor where you've been
 in your life because I think everyone's past experience plays a vital role in their present day
 future and the future but we also want to be able to support you in that current season as you
 progress through these different seasons of life the original slogan I came up with
 to end it up scrapping was we want to be there for when the NCAA kicks you out the door we want
 to help you land on your feet that's like yeah probably doesn't sound too great but essentially it's that
 yeah when they've gotten all they can get out of you yeah those pre-NILGs right like now at least
 you got these athletes that are able to make something but you can talk about pay gaff that exists
 in that right and I held the wouldn't have changed my college experience as a summer yeah and it
 doesn't change most football players experiences but now you have guys that are making seven figures
 in the same locker with those guys that aren't making anything that's tough to continue to mesh
 this team together with game tougher I don't know it might be the equitable thing to do but it's hard
 to I think for the coaches to navigate all that I think that's what they get paid a lot of money
 to it but it's tough nonetheless is that is the an ideal L stuff entering into your discussions with
 what you're doing with forever athlete I think there's such a long way to go in that and there
 needs to be more athlete education on how to pitch yourself how to actually show your value the
 amount of messages that I get that are somewhere along the lines of I'm an athlete what can
 forever athlete do for me in terms of NIL and I'm like all right let's show me your roster show me
 something here and most of the kids that are sending me these messages and it's not to shame them
 love the ambition I love the courage and the confidence to go out and pitch but they're like a fifth
 string player at their D3 school and I'm like I think the question is what can you do for me like
 why would I give you that's why in Z what where's the value add here there needs to be a system in
 place that teaches these kids because quite frankly they're like 18 years old just thinking oh NIL
 now I can make some money teach them how to create win wins in business and that's going to be
 actually helps them I think on the flip side as they transition out more one of my favorite
 guys that's done a really good job at this is that's got Todd Washington out of USC he's not he's
 a starting receiver but he's not like their number one guy but they've done a really good job
 of showcasing how he has this passion for cooking and spending time in the kitchen outside of
 football and it's like now brands can see that they can look at that and say okay I can see how
 we can work with touch because if we're a kitchen company we have anything to do with cooking
 he's a value out there and he happens to be a solid player on a top 10 team in the country that's
 a win-win for both sides yeah I tell people I've counseled a few athletes that they've got to be
 willing to lean into their past outside of sport and showcasing it so that whether it's baseball
 cards or tennis shoes or cooking or whatever it is you got to demonstrate something that has
 interest that a brand or someone might work with yeah yeah I'll tell a quick story like I
 a client of mine she swims at the University of Texas and a few years ago she was really struggling
 with just from the mental side like feeling really burnt out wasn't performing well she's a top
 swimmer in the nation in her vets and she was just feeling like basically borderline like wanting to
 quit and she just don't understand it like I'm on a full ride I should be excited for this thing
 and when her nice hat down I was like what else do you enjoy sign joy horseback riding or joy like
 arcade games all the stuff I was like okay so how often are you doing that she's not because I'm
 swimming so much I was like yeah I get that that's like then they've done that I understand but if
 you don't prioritize these things you don't proactively seek out your interests that you're
 curious about outside of the passionate thing the passionate thing quickly becomes so worship that
 you lose the passion in the first place that brought you there I was like I know you're not
 scheduled out busy all the time you think you are but if we reduce time here and here and now we
 add in an arcade session or finding a time to just go ride horses watch what this does and
 sure enough in six months time she was able to turn around and being in such a renewed headspace
 as she was going in which is a shame because it's I wish that could have been a month turn around
 if we were more proactive about this but because it was a reactive I'm basically ready to quit
 I'm ready to step away it took more time to build back up the analogy that I like to give it's
 like a bar stool in our identity like as we start to embrace that we can be multiple things actually
 it's like another bar stool actually implanted on the ground so the more identities that you're
 willing to embrace the more you're able to withstand one of those being taken away so if that
 identity as an athlete forecloses yes what suck for sure will there be a grief period for sure
 but will you be completely off balance and toppled over if you had three or four other things that
 you felt grounded and rooted that this is who I am as a person at my core no you'll just be
 balancing a little bit differently and that's the name of the game when we're talking like proactive
 mental health and proactive identity building it's how can you encourage people in your culture
 in your immediate circle to start to embrace this concept that you can be multiple things
 each thing that you do is an expression of who you are but it's not an entire definitive like
 this is the box that you're placed in yeah makes a lot of sense good counsel I think you know what
 you're doing no wonder I appreciate what's it been like building the business and finding clients
 and doing all that stuff on the business side yeah truthfully as you probably know in the business
 world comes and goes in waves for sure I would say it's had spotters start stops it wasn't
 and probably until earlier this year that I got really clear on how we're actually building this
 concept and how we actually want to grow things and the focal point of it is this Wednesday
 morning idea that we come together for like cone drills agility work in a field and then partake
 in just fellowship of just dropping in and saying hey what's going on your world what do you
 got going on this week how can we support one another that has transformed into a platform where
 we're starting to keep athletes here in Austin connected in between these experiences like I said
 like we want to inspire initial connection but then allow for constant communication to be
 available to them if they choose to after the fact which is huge so it's been a slow build but
 now we're really hitting the cadence where I've gotten some bigger sponsorships partnerships
 in place started to secure more venues here in Austin where that are allowing us to do what I
 want to do and get really creative with the things like our September event gel blasters it's like
 toy gun company they saw what I was doing they loved it they sent me 150 guns and I said great we're
 going to do 16s of 25 we're in a building obstacle course out of a gym here and we're going to go
 all out work 25 on 25 people for tournament style and then do some taco trucks afterwards and
 those things have been really fun but it has come with lots of late nights lots of sitting here being
 so what am I doing after I talk to Ryan today like I don't know but there's no clear roadmap
 right there's not the boss that I can report to anymore so it's come with it a lot of periods of
 okay if I embrace the what am I doing after this and actually sit with it to get clear on it
 that actually speeds up the process rather than just trying to go like meeting to meeting and then
 as far as you ask to like how are we getting people aware of this it's just your social media
 was fortunate about two years ago was able to grow a pretty sizable audience over on TikTok and
 that kind of cultivated awareness around what the brand represents and spark enough curiosity
 where people are like oh you wrote a book what's that book about I'm going to order that but
 they'll message me afterwards and be like oh your book really made me think or like that thread
 or tweet that you put out if we're still calling them tweets I don't know really made me think
 like my favorite like yeah a friend of mine was like dude you put something up the other day
 and I like couldn't not stop thinking about it for two hours so I got I guess I got you pretty good
 with that thought provoking thing that's the whole goal is just to get people to second guess their
 experience and start to question like oh can I maybe be doing this better or what would it look
 like if I did this slightly differently is what was the name of the book
 for my life forever athlete yeah forever athletes happen to your true identity daily
 where can people find the book that might be interesting
 amazon or website is forever dash athlete dot com
 there it is what's in the future brother I'm here in symbols like if you paint the picture
 next five or ten years like what's what's the success road map look like for you
 yeah the goal is really right now this year in particular just hammering home on building a
 legitimate rock solid community here in Austin of former athletes it's a hotbed of there's
 a ton of them here it's the city to do it building that out and then essentially franchising out
 that model into other cities I want I see this being a concept that is in every major city across
 the world where when an athlete retires they just simply go to forever athlete social club and
 they're like oh shoot like this is pretty cool I never knew this world existed beyond sport let me
 get plugged in and now all of a sudden they have mentors they have peers that they can turn to
 and now they have council that they can trust that was the hardest thing for me was I once that
 sales job and I was trying to express to colleagues and co-workers how I was feeling
 but no one could really relate no one even related to the fact that I was like yeah I still go
 up at five and go to the gym because that's just like part of who I am all right you're crazy dude like
 why would you do that you were in the office until 10 30 last night I was like because that's what it
 takes it's like I want to be around people that like challenge me in a way that's hey are you still
 taking care yourself but also understand me and don't pass judgment and just write me off and that's
 the goal in the next five 10 years is to make that accessible at scale yeah I want it to be bigger
 it's bigger than me it always has been bigger than me I don't want to be the face of the brand I want
 it to be telling other people's story and just helping people one day at a time I got an idea for
 you on your evolution it's in your thinking athletes and high level athletes have the mindset and
 the skill set to be highly successful in almost anything now it doesn't come with guaranteed like
 roadmap but if you are correcting and helping these athletes get some baggage out of the way
 you're building a database and a set of highly desired individuals for companies and otherwise
 because you're bringing together extremely good athletes they're mentally strong already on some
 level they have the discipline for what it took to get there so if you're getting hurdles or you're
 getting the baggage out of the way you suddenly become the source so tying that together with
 some recruitment or something I think there's something there yeah now I love it yeah a little bit
 of head hunting connecting opportunity yeah I 100% see that in the future of whether it just be a
 job board being able to go to these higher level countries we control to you yeah like helping get
 jobs and the people looking to hire get the best the closest thing to assure bet exactly and it's hey
 here's this model of you want to talk about corporate wellness that actually work it can't be it can't
 be directly tied to wellness initiatives like from your work it's got to be somewhat separate so
 like they already have that in place yeah and it's one less thing for that company to worry about
 yeah yeah 100% it's win-win-win all around all three parties involved hey brother I love your
 spirit I love what you're doing working everybody keep up with learn more about everything Cory
 camps doing and everything that's happening with forever athlete yeah Ryan for something thank you
 for having me this is fun just jamming with you I really appreciate the time and if anyone wants
 to connect more Cory camp your YCMP on Instagram you can shoot me an e-mail Cory camp at forever
 athlete LA calm super confusing I have a whole bunch of domains but that's the one with the email
 address you can find that on the websites and we just go to Instagram that's probably the
 platform on most active on would love to connect further yeah man I love it everybody go check out
 forever athlete go follow Cory camp on Instagram and see what everything's got big things coming
 hey guys refined us the radcast.com search for Cory camp you'll find the highlight clips from
 today the full episode the short episode and refine me I'm at Ryan Allford on all the platforms
 you'll see the blue check before I can buy it we'll see you next time on the radcast
 or at Ryan Allford stay radical