PJ Crescenzo 0:04

Welcome to the High Level People Podcast with your host, PJ Crescenzo. This is the show where every week we go inside the minds of modern market leaders. These are world-class entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and ministry leaders who are making a generational impact on the world today. The question is if you're gonna compete, why not compete at the highest level possible? And that's what this show is designed for, to give you a playbook for your life so that you can continue to climb levels week after week. This is the High Level People Podcast, and welcome to today's episode. Welcome to the High Level People Podcast. Today I have JD Tremblay who ran 10 Ironmans in 10 days. He's also an advisor at the Hunger Warrior Academy, the Hungry Warrior Academy, and I am excited to go deep on mindset, endurance, faith, stamina, fitness, all of the things that allows men to become better men and humans to become higher-level humans. So, JD, welcome to the show, brother. Yeah, thanks for having me, PJ. Yeah, my pleasure. All right, so tell me the first time you got inspired to get into endurance sports. What was the moment where you decided, hey, this is gonna be a good idea and this is something that I should pursue?

JD Tremblay 1:21

Yeah, I uh I was in um I was going through a divorce, and uh it just fell just into my life because uh one guy was saying, Well, you know how to swim because you are a diver in the military, you are uh a runner, clearly, because the standards for running in the military are higher for these types of positions, and then you know you're you're cycling to work all the time. So uh he said, How about you just go and do a uh triathlon? And I said, Yeah, I've always wanted to do that. So I I did my first sprint and uh it was quite uh I I was I I gotta say it was uh my pride was in the way, definitely. So yeah, my pride was in the way because I did not want to do a triathlon because I would not finish first, somehow of the Ricky Bobby mentality of you're not first in your life.

PJ Crescenzo 2:27

He's a he's a he's a wise prophet. How has your relationship with pride developed as the years have gone on? Because I feel like pride in the heart of a man is one of the biggest battles we fight constantly. Like, how has your relationship with pride evolved from where it started in the military to where you're at today? And how do you view it?

JD Tremblay 2:46

Yeah, now I can do any race at any moment. Uh I understand it, and I don't have to finish first uh because I understand that I am not a um an Olympian. So I just have to understand where my position is. I'm an ultra-triathlete and I swim, bike, and run long distances, I enjoy it. I don't have to finish first to inspire others, and I have to be content with where I am in where God has placed me. So some of the difference between comparison and contentment, and I had to really um understand that I was content where God is placing me.

PJ Crescenzo 3:37

How important is contentment in the journey of a man's development?

JD Tremblay 3:43

Oh, it's huge. It's the one of those primary uh goals that someone has to aspire, understanding that you have the capacity and you are in the position that you are called to be. There's a lot of men that are now numbing that position, sometime based on comparison, and sometime based on God has told them to leave that job, to leave that place and move to another one. And then there are other times where you are comparing yourself with others and you want to move prematurely, but God hasn't called you. All the doors are closed, and you're trying so hard to just push these barriers by yourself, uh, and by doing that, you're not using um by quoting um Dr. Hawkins when he talks in his book about uh power versus force or force versus power. Uh again, you're using force to change everything where contentment is a power.

PJ Crescenzo 4:54

Wow. That's so good. You seem well quoted, even though we're four minutes into the conversation. Are you a reader, personal development guy? How have you found the balance? This is something I struggle with personally. I don't want to say struggle, but from a spiritual posture of the heart. It's something I constantly have to evaluate, the learning versus the surrender to Christ. Am I getting you know fed from the Holy Spirit? Am I getting fed from Tony Robbins' motivational videos? How has your personal development journey developed? When did it begin? Kind of walk me through some of the influences that have impacted you as you've become you know kind of a thought leader and somebody that's committed to adding value in the space.

JD Tremblay 5:35

Yeah, at first I I was prevented from moving any anywhere higher. So in the military, um they want you to be fitting inside of a cage, and which is it it's part of the job. So I was not allowed to read. And I remember one guy showing up to work with a book, and he said, I'm hiding this book because we're not allowed to read here. And I started reading it. It was about finance. I don't remember the book, but I remember that it opened my mind to something far greater that I really wanted to aspire. I really wanted to just read. I really wanted to grow and uh I remember the military was was too um it they were putting too much constraint on me. So I started again developing in other areas, and it's really until after the military uh it was difficult because again, after the military, you don't have that structure that holds you, but you're more of a free flower, you're you're allowed to do whatever you want. What do you want to do? You just just become that, and so uh I really had to go back to the basic and understand the difference between motivation and discipline. That I am that motivation has its place, it's not more or less important than discipline, but you can't just go off based on a feelings or based on motivation. Motivation is a great tool, I use it all the time, and those motivational videos are great, but discipline is also important, so I had to go back to it.

PJ Crescenzo 7:28

So if I'm somebody that's listening to this today and I struggle or I have a challenge with the relationship with discipline, I find that my feelings are often overcoming my standards, or even I'm somebody that's interested in the Hungry Warrior Academy, and I say, Hey, I have an aspiration to do war with my to do more with my life, but I just find myself not executing at the level that I'd like to execute. What does that journey of developing discipline look like? How does one start to honor more commitments that they make to themselves?

JD Tremblay 7:56

Well, first we have to understand the mindset that it takes for the word discipline. And I understand that it's really pragmatic, but there's a lot of people that when you tell them about discipline, they automatically attach um this unrealistic uh morning routine that Ashton is doing where he's uh uh cold plunging and then uh made his face into three workouts before eight o'clock and then reading five books and then journaling, and that that's not feasible. So many people attach this mindset of discipline, where as soon as I say discipline, there's a negative trigger inside of our brain. So first you have to break that barrier and understand that discipline can work for you and can also be positive. So just that in of itself is something that people are already struggling with. Now, to do so, one have to understand that it can be fun to be disciplined, and so the word that I use is non-negotiable. Okay, so once you're able to understand what is your non-negotiable, then it becomes fun to be discipline. For me, it just so happened that it's fitness. That's that's the way that I look at discipline. When I think discipline, I think, whoa, this is gonna be fun because I'm gonna go for a run, I'm gonna go for a workout, I'm gonna go swim or bike, or I'm gonna go rock climbing. Why? Because I understand that my non-negotiable within a 24-hour period, I don't even have to tell you first my body speaks for itself, but again, I will within 24 hours do something that has to do with fitness, which is my non-negotiable. It just so happened that it's uh fitness. For many people, it can be like uh cooking, yeah. Uh I have a client that's uh building cars, so he has to do something that has to build an engine, or he loves working on cars. So within a 24-hour period, he will either do some form of research on cars or uh work on a car, and then his partner also understand that during that period of time is somewhat of a a sacred space where you don't want to see anything uh negative that would come from the outside, which a lot of sometimes partners do, right? They walk into the garage and start yelling at the men, where sometimes it's just that peaceful moment, like a peaceful, quiet place, and that's part of their non-negotiable, which now they're building discipline, and then I understand that we're looking at one part of their life, but once you're able to build that phase, and one you're building creativity, and once you're building that creativity, that's how you can beat AI, by the way, because you can't beat AI on content on the amount, so based on quantity, but you can be um you can uh um obliterate AI in terms of creativity, which is based on the quality of the content because that that's up to us to do it, right? So come on, you're just doing this, and then the best part is that yes, you're building one aspect of your life, which might not seem like it correlates with all the other parts, but what it does is now you're building discipline, it's a positive discipline, and it trickles down to other parts of your life, whatever it may be, where you're now you're inside of uh a board meeting, or you're uh at a courtroom and you're a lawyer, and now you understand I am disciplined in that area, therefore I'm also able to be disciplined at work.

PJ Crescenzo 12:05

How, especially with the level of competition you've endured, or the type of stamina that's been required, how important has nutrition and the overall hydration or what you're putting into your body been versus the actual activity itself? I feel like even this is a personal and selfish question. I've gotten into a very good rhythm of working out, training, running, lifting, and I still am looking to discover how important is the nutritional aspect of fitness. I'd be curious for somebody that's done 10 Iron Man's in 10 days, from either your research, your peers, your even your personal journey. What is the relationship between physical activity versus nutrition in the terms of peak, peak performance and health?

JD Tremblay 12:48

It's higher on the hierarchy. So it's higher, higher, much higher. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I have a client who came to me and said, I don't want to work out. I hate working out, like hate it with a passion. I cannot stand going to the gym or and uh he said, I still want to be fit and healthy. But uh see, again, I'm an engineer, I'm also a natural path, so I under I I want to to make a plan for your life, but you're putting so much constraint. We have the guy walking three times a week for 20 minutes, and he is in all of his biomarkers, we test him all the time, not just on uh blood testing, but we have all sorts of machines. We test the person multiple times, and we've evaluated it where we've uh put more into his nutritional needs than and and for him it would be more smoothly based on caloric intake and on the task that he has to do. So uh energy regulation is at the forefront of what you have to put in in uh in inside of your system, yeah, for sure.

PJ Crescenzo 14:09

Do you have any do you have any non-negotiables for men that are looking to pursue peak performance and energy, just some basic habits or routines or best practices they should have for that guy walking into the boardroom? What should be some basic best practices with just overall fitness for the everyday man?

JD Tremblay 14:27

Yeah, well, the Hungry Warrior Academy, we use an acronym called BRAIN.

PJ Crescenzo 14:31

Okay.

JD Tremblay 14:32

And so the acronym for BRAIN, the B is blood chemistry, okay, the R is recovery, A is attention, I is inflammation, and N is nervous system. So once you're able to really optimize for your own uh personal sake, the each and every system, then you're able to uh optimal peak. Definitely. So when you're looking at blood chemistry, um you're looking at glucose swing swings. So when are you eating sugar? It's not necessarily if you need sugar or if you're gonna have, but like when are you going to eat that those types of carbs? Or um like there's a lot of people they go into um these um comparison with social media influencer. So they grab their phone, they start looking, and they see, well, this person is doing a shake in the morning. Well, the shake is is is good. Let's look at it from the perspective of a naturopath, right? Or even the the influencer, uh some strawberries, blueberries, and you add something sweet to it, like maybe maple, because you want to be healthy. Well, okay, so you eat that in the morning, and uh uh as soon as you wake up, cortisol level is high, so that's the stress hormone. That's for everybody, that's across the board, and then depending on your fitness level and then your resiliency, then your cortisol either goes down, um, or it just stays higher if you're not if you're constantly stressed. So, what if you just stressed your system with with sugar? Now insulin is high, so now insulin is high, cortisol is high, you're just a ticking time bomb, and then you're sitting in traffic in your nice car and you're just waiting to explore it. Yeah, it would be similar to that guy who just takes a free workout and then walks into a boardroom. Like, how do you think that's gonna end?

PJ Crescenzo 16:38

No.

JD Tremblay 16:40

So again, the glucose swings is important, but again, that's just the part of the blood chemistry, right? We're talking about uh hydration. Are you hydrating properly? I had a client that said, Yeah, I eat drink all the time. And then I was still seeing some changes, but they they were affecting his organs, and uh we were we were saying like why why is it? And finally he came uh with uh one of his drinks. I say, How about you bring one of those drinks, right? Because we were saying it was part of the some of these mineral water, like with the bubbles and blah blah blah, and he brought pop to to one of the apartment meetings, and I said, So there's there's a pop version, and then there wasn't already a mineral pop. And so I said, Okay, well heck here, you have to go to swing. So we had to talk to that person about this. So some people think they're really hydrated, uh, or what about electrolytes, uh, the inflammation inside of your blood. So that's just blood chemistry. You can go into all the details for all the letters, but again, once you're able to say brain, blood chemistry, recovery, uh, um attention, inflammation, and the nervous system for your own, then you're able to really cater a step process that is personalized.

PJ Crescenzo 18:08

So good. All right, so walk me through the Hungry Warrior Academy. Where was it birthed? How'd you get involved with it? What's its mission? Who is it helping? What is the Hungry Warrior Academy?

JD Tremblay 18:19

Yeah, we um we started it after uh the book came out, which the book came out because of the Epic Decca. So the Epic Decca uh that you mentioned at the beginning is uh there's only three people in the world that finished it and the only thing.

PJ Crescenzo 18:37

Wow, come on!

JD Tremblay 18:39

Yeah, 10 Iron Man in 10 Days, six different uh Hawaiian islands, and um uh after the Epic Decca, a lot of people came to me and said, Well, how did you accomplish this? And apparently just saying to people, uh, it's natural or it doesn't match. Like you need a system, you need to be able to uh provide it to people so they can follow it as well. And uh so we created the book. The book is called Hunger for More in Life, it became a bestseller in French, English, and Spanish. And then um after the book, then we created the academy uh out of the uh out of the book, which is the Hungry Warrior Academy. So we have some online classes, uh we have some uh we have some workshops, we've done a lot of guest speaking uh for companies and uh for uh churches as well. Let's go now we have a uh fundraising also and uh a side where we are also in five different countries providing for thousands of children around the world. Uh so we we don't just make money, but we're also uh fundraising, and then we're helping create other courses as a result of all of the uh fundraising. Our target market are men, and uh we have uh worked with a lot of men, uh Olympian CEOs. We've helped a lot of people uh build that resiliency, that clarity in their life. Come on, and uh physically, mentally, and also spiritually.

PJ Crescenzo 20:23

What do you see is the biggest blind spot most men have when you connect with them through the academy?

JD Tremblay 20:30

That they connect, oh pride, pride is definitely the uh yeah, because they they think that they have it all figured out, but it's pride that is in their dead angle, and they're just trying to switch lane, but they're just trying to do it out of pride, they just don't know about.

PJ Crescenzo 20:52

What's the healthy balance between having resiliency and confidence, but also being surrendered and humble? Like, how do you find that delicate art to being, if you want to call it an alpha man, right? Hey, I'm a leader, I'm strong, I'm fit, I'm capable, I'm clear, but at the same time, I don't have pride, I'm surrendered, I'm humble. How would you articulate or kind of walk a man through that journey? Because I think most men or some men probably think they're doing what they ought to be doing by having the pride and white knuckling their way through life because they're trying to be a strong leader, but really, as you just said, it's their bigness weakness. So, what does that development look like to having the good of the strength, but not losing the wisdom of the surrender?

JD Tremblay 21:37

Um, well, it's based on capacity. Like aren't they really built for the but it's pain versus injury? So are they injured or is it just pain? And how are they perceiving pain based inside of the capacity umbrella?

PJ Crescenzo 21:59

Wow. All right, get deeper with me on that because I love that, especially from an endurance athlete. Injury versus pain. What is the misconception people have when they experience pain? Walk me through it, or even give me a practical example, right? I'm running a race and my legs hurt, I'm injured, I need to stop. Versus I'm running a race and I'm injured and I'm in pain and I and I need to keep going. What have you seen in your own journey, the difference between the two? And what have you learned about the ability to push through and endure with that same dichotomy you just talked about, injury versus pain?

JD Tremblay 22:31

Yeah, we had a guy that came in to see us, and I said, uh most people, okay, can, and I say most as in a general statement, most people can do a half marathon without training. And so he said, Well, that's impossible. And uh he so he had this.

PJ Crescenzo 22:55

I'm one of those people. I did a half marathon with no training.

JD Tremblay 22:58

And I can tell you with your body shape, yeah, definitely you can do a half uh marathon. Like tomorrow you can do it. I could just fly to go see you. We would do a half marathon, not even be injured, and then on Monday you're back to work, there's no problem, right? It's it's just based on perceived pain. So at first, we're pushing that pain inside, and we're saying, Well, I'm I'm going to be in pain, so I'm not going to partake in that activity. A lot of guys nowadays are not even getting into relationships. Why? Well, because they see on social media that uh, well, the women can leave with more than half your money and everything that you've built, or I'm going to be in pain, or yes, but there is also a beautiful power to be married with another individual in front of God, and it is where God is really showing um his true connection with people because you are to be one with your partner, right? So that's just just uh a side note. Now, for a person going into a race, there's the perceived pain, so the understanding, well, the the business is gonna be painful, uh, going into that race is gonna be painful. I see all of these guys, they're finishing their race, they're barely able to walk. So definitely it's really painful. And then when you have somebody, like a coach, a mentor, someone who has gone through it to an extreme that is telling you, no, I've gone through it, it's not that painful, and you can do it, then you can make that initial step. But then when you get into the race, which you can correlate it with relationships, business, anything you want. We're just doing it out of a race, the person goes to the first kilometer, and the first kilometer it's all fun because now you've done the push, you you have the loan from the company, or you have the beautiful wife, everything is fine. But then all of a sudden, after the first kilometer, things get somewhat out of a routine. You're seeing the same scenery, people stop cheering for you, and then it starts to get not just physically painful, but it's mental toughness that you need. Then you have other barriers, and a lot of people are just calling the wall. But there are multiple steps to that. Uh, well, for me, and I'm I I live with the metric systems with 21 kilometer, but uh in the Imperial it's uh it's 12 uh 12 miles. So when you're looking at uh a race, there is a painful moment at each step, and then you just have to understand which steps they are gonna be painful, and um the difference between pain and injury is that an injury will stop you entirely from your purpose, okay. So you have to put the purpose in front as the uh hierarchy. So uh, if for me the greatest purpose is finishing the race, then I will do whatever it takes. Even if I have to finish. Uh, there was a race I was hit by uh Ultraman Canada. I ran, I I went, it my light was green, my team in the car was right behind. I'm riding my bike, bam, I get hit by a truck, and I I flew off my handlebar, bike broke, and wow, I have some blood, I I stand back up, I'm definitely on adrenaline. I stand on the side of the road, the truck is gone, never saw the guy again. I wipe everything, all the scratches, I take care of my body. Uh I patched my bike with electrical tape, and then uh I looked at my team. The organizer just so happened to be in the car behind my team at that race, which is a very, very long race. We were going from city to city and these Ultraman races, and I asked the organizer, can I go? I have 200 kilometers left of cycling and then a double marathon tomorrow. And he said, Uh, well, it's it's up to you, but you seem fine to me. And I said, Yes, of course. And I hopped on my bike. Why? Because I understood, yes, I was injured, yes, my bike was injured, but again, was I able to continue? Yes, because I had placed it on the hierarchy of importance so high that I wanted to finish it, and that race alone propelled me to Ultraman Mexico, and then after this, I ended up in the Epic Ecco. So, so again, if I did not have if I had not finished that race, I would have been at the same level before. So, all right.

PJ Crescenzo 28:06

So, two things that I want to extract from that. One is the power of momentum, how maybe you don't see the opportunity cost of the momentum that could be created if you don't endure. And I don't know if that's a question or a comment, but I just wanted to extract that from what you shared. But more importantly, I want to get your hierarchy of priorities. So if I'm a kingdom-driven man in 2026, what should my priorities be? And remove the ear, it doesn't even matter. If I'm a kingdom-driven man and I'm sitting next to JD Tremblay, what should my priorities be in the right order?

JD Tremblay 28:37

Definitely God is at the forefront because once all of your actions are driven uh with God, once you have God inside of that placeholder, you lose your job, God's gonna provide. You lose your wife, God's gonna provide. There are people that lose their kid. Ah, that's your blood. You have God, and when you have God in the the in the he see, we tend to see it more as a Christian where well he's in the driver's seat. He's a guy, he's a lighthouse. He's he he's omnipresent. You're still in the driver's seat. You're the one who can turn left and can turn right, you're the one who can take your eyes to the storm or at a crash on the side of the highway, and then get in, or you can look at Jesus, right? So definitely at the forefront, people need to understand and need to see that Jesus is in the driver or in the omnipresent in your life. If if he is omnipresent in your life, I need to know by your actions, and it doesn't have to be by your word. Yes, preaching the gospel is part of it, it's part of being a Christian, but at the very least, you should have your action matching what is in scripture.

PJ Crescenzo 30:12

So come on, we are a king of God's work heartily into the Lord. Let's go.

JD Tremblay 30:17

Second is your your wife, and that's because this is the one that is going to create the home. As many would say, the man builds the house and the woman builds the home. Well, if you want a healthy home, you have to take care of your wife, and so a lot of people are putting their children first. Well, because that's my blood. Those are the people that will take care of me if my wife leaves me. Well, what you're doing is you're just telling your brain that you might get divorced. You're already thinking about it, you're already preparing for the worst. What you should be doing is focusing on your walk with Christ because that's exactly what your wife is looking for. That's what your community, that's what your church, everybody is looking for a Christian men. But they will test you, and they will, definitely. I that's my personal belief. I don't know if it's Christian, but that's why God created women and children. It's to test the men to see what's going on.

PJ Crescenzo 31:24

Or they say it's to bring out who God called you to be. I mean, I feel that I'm I'm in a fire season right now, and I listen to that worship song, Purify Me, Refiner. You're gonna find anyway. I'm not gonna start singing because I'm a better podcast than I am a vocalist. But I think about it, right? Three-year-old son, one-year-old daughter, wife's pregnant, the testing, the patience, the discipline to not raise my voice and to teach and to coach. And I heard this as a book, I love Habits of the Household. And he says, discipline is the gap between when your kids have a need and you don't have the resources available to give them what they need. Like you have to literally bridge the gap in the moment where they're trying to bring something out of you that's actually empty in the exact moment you need to deliver it. And that's where the capacity gets scratched. I love this. So, God number one, wife number two. I also love what you said about wife. You literally was talking to one of our young guys who's in the office today, early in his career, just started with our company. And that fear of what if she leaves me? What's a scarcity mindset? Why are we gonna say what if she leaves me? What if she stays with you? What if you have an amazing life together for the next 80 years? So anyway, God. All right, what's next? What's number three?

JD Tremblay 32:38

Then, well, before we jump to the kids, right? Which is the good one, there are guys that are single that are listening to this podcast and thinking, well, what if I'm single, right? Behave in the same way as if you had a wife. Come on, and if you did, then how do you think you're gonna attract the woman that you want by behaving in a completely different fashion? What you're doing is you're just living like the world, you're living God first, and then if you are single, you live just as if you had that partner.

PJ Crescenzo 33:18

Come on.

JD Tremblay 33:19

My wife is gonna love that I am an electrician, my wife is gonna like that I am an entrepreneur, my wife is going to love that I am and there is See I'm not the match for everybody. Like I I'm not. I am hated, disliked, uh, cancelled. I am um I have received way more negative positive from finishing the epic deca and trying to inspire men and just to say you have a Christian company, boom, non-profit, right away.

PJ Crescenzo 34:00

You're getting the ways of God are foolish to the world.

JD Tremblay 34:04

What about for men? Um, no, no, no, no, no. You should be inspiring women as well. What about women? I've heard that so many times. You get hated. That's it. My wife will love that I am a Christian man, that I am an entrepreneur, come on, that I live that way, that I am not a an electrician, I'm not a I am so many other parts, but I'm not that. So try trying to fit in with other parts and fit in where you want God to uh place you. So that's for the single guys out there. Third one, children. Definitely your children, and then you say, Well, what if I don't have children? Well, here's news flash, and then you alluded to it earlier. There are guys that are empty and can't deliver, and that has a lot to do with when they were kids that they did not train for this time. So you're not gonna be taught. There's there's not a there is the Hungry Warrior Academy, but not everybody has to go through it to learn how to be a decent father, to be a decent husband, to be a and I say decent as in I should use the word godly, as in a godly husband, a godly man uh of faith. So since you don't learn it in traditional schools, where else are you going to learn all of these valuable skills on how to treat your kids? Because it's not in the middle of a storm that you really want to learn how to buy an umbrella. When you have a kid, right, you you have your wife that just looks at you and sees how you're going to react, and you have your kid that just pooped in a diaper, uh put it on ions all over the wall, uh broke your favorite um video game console, or what do you what are you gonna do? Like, how are you going to react, right? But by understanding how you should react, it might not you might not react in the same way, but at least you will have learned how to react, and so it will become more natural when you are in that store because it will happen.

PJ Crescenzo 36:41

So good. All right, so god wife kids. If we had two more to fill, what would they be?

JD Tremblay 36:46

So there is a community which branches off into two. Okay, community there's one which has to be tested. Okay, but both have to be tested, but one has to be tested as in this is your close friendship with individuals with men, women, okay, people that you can trust, people that you can be vulnerable with, and that's not everyone, so don't start sharing or oversharing your entire life to everybody. I see that way too many times. Or try to expect certain things from people that are not meant to be in that position. How many times have I I've done this before where I've I've said, Well, I'm in a financial struggle right now. Can you lend me some money? And then that person, and I got angry at that person too, right? So guilty, this is a sin. So I got angry at that person because he did not give me that money, but meanwhile, not understanding that that person is not financially secure.

PJ Crescenzo 37:57

So I'm getting angry at a person that can't even have the resources to give you what you needed in the first place.

JD Tremblay 38:03

So you need that small type of unity, and for the majority of men where we are in society, uh, and that has been for throughout society when you look at it. Okay, the male loneliness is not something new. We look at Adam, why Eve was created, because he was lonely. So that male loneliness is it's not new. It's right from the birth of creation. So we are to test those individuals based on the the difference between a vulnerable vulnerability and a weakness, and understand who can provide based on their skills, on their skill level. Because a lot of men out there right now uh we ask that question uh during our um our our intake, and uh very, very often we get that response where we ask the guys in the event it's three in the morning and you are having some really dark thoughts and you think you're not gonna make it until the morning, who do you call? And the majority of men, and we're talking sometimes to CEOs, like I said, elite athletes, like professional athletes, and the majority of them say, I have no one, and some of them are even married, and they can't talk to their spouse about it, they can't talk to the people that are you own a company and you have a hundred workers that work for you, you can't who are you gonna go?

PJ Crescenzo 39:47

So I I totally agree with that. I think the when you hear that gets lonely at the top, I don't think you understand the right paradigm because it's there's a limited availability of people who can relate to the situations you're in, and therefore it's lonely because you don't have a community of people who can relate to the challenges you're facing.

JD Tremblay 40:08

Yep. And you want to be able to talk to someone who's able to give you a step process, yeah, not necessarily just listen to you, especially as men. I I have wasted so much time. Now, again, there might be some great psychologists out there, but I've wasted a lot of time and hours playing uh again, they're professional in the mental health realm, but for me, just going inside of an office and talking about my feelings for five, six hours is not going to solve the issue. I need someone who understands what I'm going through, is gonna give me a clear step process on how I can fix that issue and get me going with my life. So I'm not running on an empty tank, or I'm or worse, just running on motivation uh or or listening to these motivational videos, trying to make it another day when really all they needed was a brainstorming session inside of the Hungry Warrior Academy.

PJ Crescenzo 41:17

Come on. Where are you located? Where's Hungry Warrior based out of?

JD Tremblay 41:22

So we have uh uh in person in Quebec, in Canada, in the mountains, uh right near Maine. So we have Maine right now, uh in the mountains. Cool, and that's where we're located. But we have online sessions, and if we have some courses for people that have less money, uh if if it's really, really at the lowest base, then we have the book that is on Amazon, Hunger for Moran Life, if they want to get it.

PJ Crescenzo 41:52

Uh yeah, we'll we'll share the book for sure. All right, so we have God wife kids community inner circle. Give me the second pillar of community, and then cap me off with number five.

JD Tremblay 42:03

Yeah, it's uh it's definitely your uh your neighbor. It's your neighbor, and that's what Jesus was saying in the second commandment.

PJ Crescenzo 42:14

So good. And then and then what's number five? So if I'm if I'm committing myself to Christ, I'm loving my wife, I'm raising my kids, I'm investing in my community, what should my fifth priority be as a kingdom-driven man?

JD Tremblay 42:27

Well, that would be it, right? Your community, which is your inner circle, and then your outside circle, which is everybody else, everybody that is not inside of your inner circle. That can be sometimes your your pastor. Your pastor might not be inside of your inner circle, that might be the person that you go and speak to. The um person that takes care of the kids at at the church, that might not be the person that is inside of your inner circle, but that might be the person, and sometimes, and that's what I've seen, even in my region, there's no good churches at all. And I've said it to the pastor uh many times, and um so it's not because people are in church that they are necessarily saved or they are necessarily going to heaven, uh so those people have to be reached, and I've seen the most amount of pride in churches right now uh with people because they think they're saved, they think they're holy, but really those are the people that must be reached. So before we we say those should be in our inner circle because they are in church. Uh sometimes the doors we need to knock on are the people that are inside of our church to know if they are saved, because there's a lot of people based on pride that are hiding their sin inside of the church.

PJ Crescenzo 43:58

Wow, what a powerful Statement and I don't disagree with that at all. Alright, let me ask you two final questions. So one, what did doing 10 Ironmans in 10 days teach you about human potential?

JD Tremblay 44:09

I thought that we're capable of so much more. Like my favorite uh quote uh is uh if your goals don't scare you, set the bar higher. And so I always set that bar higher and much higher. And oh yeah, sometimes we had this discussion like a meeting uh with everyone uh uh the other day, like a few months ago. And uh and I said at the meeting we're only in five countries for fundraising and helping children. And then there's a couple of people that just started laughing and said, Yeah, just yeah, just JD, like just calm down. And I said, Yeah, we need to we need to do this and 300 countries tomorrow.

PJ Crescenzo 44:55

Let's go. We definitely share that energy. I think like I heard this yesterday from a from a wise mentor. He said, Your greatest strength usually has a weakness tethered to it in the same attribute, and it's like the speed, the hunger, the ambition, the drive. I love it, bro. It's incredible what you've accomplished, and I love your mindset. All right, so so final word of advice. If I am a man, I'm 20, I'm 25, I'm 30, I'm lost, I'm looking for clarity, I'm looking for motivation, and I'm listening to the high-level people podcast because I aspire to learn from high-level people. I want to become a higher level person. What's one thing you wish you knew when you started this journey of growth when you got out of the military? And what's one word of encouragement you would give to the man who's just aspiring to become a higher level person?

JD Tremblay 45:38

The best advice I could give anyone and that I would give myself at a younger age is values before goals. So if you have your values set, any other goal that you do that is within the realm of what Christianity is calling, if you chose your values system with Christianity will be for the glory of God. There's nothing inherently wrong in becoming a military member. But if your values are not, you're not serious about your values and following them, then what you will end up with is you're you're gonna be an undisciplined military member. There's nothing inherently wrong in becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, uh, an entrepreneur. But if your values are not set, you will uh falter in in places that um are not godly.

PJ Crescenzo 46:34

Amen. Bro, if you don't mind, I'd love to pray us out before we wrap. Dear Heavenly Father, I just want to thank you so much for this day of fellowship. I thank you for technology and the opportunity to connect with amazing men all over the country, all over the world, Lord. Uh Father, I just ask that for both myself and JD, you give us supernatural wisdom and understanding as we guide other men, as we guide other humans to ultimately pursue your truth. Uh, Lord, I pray for blessing and favor over JD so that people can continue to be curious about what makes him spark and ultimately he can reflect your glory. Uh Lord, we just thank you for today. Uh, we thank you for our daily bread. We love you, we praise you, we honor you, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's go, bro. Thank you so much for the time. I'm excited for this to come out. I will put a link for the book below. And I hope you have a blessed day, brother. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the High Level People Podcast. If you've learned anything from today's content or if it made a positive impact on your life in any way, please feel free to subscribe on your favorite platform. More importantly, if you think there's somebody in your life who would benefit from today's episode, please shoot them a link. Encourage them to do the same. Encourage them to subscribe because every week we're committed to adding value. I look forward to seeing you soon. Hope you guys have a blessed day, blessed week, and let's go.