The Passion Project FT. Brad Lokey

Discover the incredible journey of Brad Lokey, a leader in human performance, who shares his inspiring transition from a high school Division I athlete to a key figure in the United States Army Forces Command's Holistic Health and Fitness System. Gain insights from Brad's diverse experiences — from playing college football in Missouri to serving in the Marine Corps, and through pivotal coaching roles at esteemed institutions like Georgia Tech and the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. This episode promises an open window into the challenges Brad faced and the opportunities that shaped his path, offering listeners a chance to learn from his dedication to education and strategic career growth.

Join us as we unpack the crucial themes of discipline, sacrifice, and the power of a strong 'why' in achieving both personal and professional aspirations. Brad sheds light on the synergy between his military background and coaching success, emphasizing the significant role these experiences play in shaping his approach to teamwork, mental toughness, and positive culture. Explore how mental health and psychological training have become vital components of fitness programs, equipping individuals to face life's challenges with resilience and determination. The episode delves deep into the tangible impact of military discipline and organizational skills on athletic coaching and beyond.

Through a series of heartfelt reflections and anecdotes, Brad highlights the transformative power of mentorship. Listen to stories of gratitude and growth, as Brad discusses the reciprocal nature of coaching relationships, the legacy of leadership, and the creation of cultures based on gratitude and mutual support. Discover how these powerful connections influence personal development, leaving lasting impressions on both mentors and mentees. By the end of the episode, you'll walk away with valuable lessons on perseverance, leadership, and the enduring impact of dedicated coaching and mentorship.

Chapters

• 0:00 Brad Lokey Intro
• 13:50 The Importance of Sacrifice and Discipline
• 17:33 Building Mental Toughness Through Collaboration
• 26:13 Military Influence on Coaching Success
• 38:37 Impactful Coaching Relationships and Growth
• 48:10 Creating a Coaching Legacy Through Mentorship
• 52:32 Leadership Styles and Qualities in Action
• 1:02:17 Creating Separation and Perseverance in Leadership
• 1:07:41 Military Influence on Human Performance
• 1:13:29 Embracing Growth Through Failure and Discipline
• 1:20:44 Building Credibility Through Leadership Exemplification
• 1:23:59 Creating a Culture of Gratitude

Transcript

Kenny Massa: 0:09

Welcome to the Bender Continues podcast, introducing our guest for today's episode of the Passion Project Physical Health, brad Loeke. A seasoned professional in human performance, strength and conditioning and overall physical health, currently serving as the program director for the United States Army Forces Command, also known as FORSCOM, and Holistic Health and Fitness H2F System, brad brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table.

James LaGamma: 0:36

Brad's journey in the industry is marked by significant milestones, including his pivotal role in developing comprehensive strength conditioning programs for nearly 20 varsity sports at the Division I level. Notably, he spearheaded the establishment of a new program for Stetson University, their football team. Prior to his tenure at Stetson, brad held key positions at Cumberland University, georgia Tech and the University of Tennessee, chattanooga, where he honed his skills and knowledge in the athletic performance.

Kenny Massa: 1:09

What sets Brad apart is his unique blend of expertise, experience and having also served in the United States Marine Corps. We also thank him for his service. This background, coupled with his certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association, positions him as a remarkable authority in both collegiate athletics and military forces.

James LaGamma: 1:35

In today's episode, we'll learn about Brad's journey, learning moments and the keys to achieving optimal health and fitness. Join us as we uncover his insights and best practices for physical well-being and performance enhancement. Welcome, brad Loki.

Ryan Selimos: 1:53

Awesome. Well, for starters, coach Loki, first and foremost, just thank you. Thank you for being with us here today on the Vendors Continues podcast. Thank you for joining us. We've been together 10 plus years, so having you as a guest with us today is super exciting for me. For us, you played an integral part in our life at one point or another. So just thank you for being here again for a new path and a new journey for us. As we kind of get started, just for our listeners out there and people who aren't as familiar with you as we are, maybe you could take us through a little bit of your journey, through your career and where you're at today.

Brad Lokey: 2:36

Absolutely Well. First off, I'd like to thank God for the blessings he's bestowed upon my life and the opportunity and privilege I've had to be a coach and be part of all your journeys and multiple people's journeys that I feel like I've been able to have some impact on that and in terms it also had a lot of impact on me. So the cliff notes of my journey, really as I started as a high school Division, I, blue chip, coming out of the state of Florida, went and played some college ball out in the state of Missouri at a small school and didn't do too well my first year with academics and I ended up in the Marine Corps. I had a broken education. It took me about 12 years to finish my bachelor's degree and during that time I was always called back to training and always being around athletes and really just loved that process. So as I went back to finish my undergrad I was able to actually keep my scholarship by being a weight room assistant. They didn't have a strength program at the school I was at Got involved in that and went ahead and graduated. Then I had some broken time. I went out and just did all kind of trivial things and finally got my heart was called back to coaching. So I went back. I finished my bachelor's just to get my strength and conditioning certification. I loved being in the weight room at the time and training athletes. And then the ball started to roll. I got my first strength and conditioning job at Weber International. I'm extremely grateful for Coach Kelly and those guys down there for giving me that opportunity. I was actually hired as a true strength coach, then actually was given an invitation to do my graduate degree while I was there. So I got the MBA and at the time I didn't realize how trivial and how important that was going to be in my life. I couldn't see it at the time, didn't realize how important it would be not only just to be a director at the university level but also later in my career to promote more corporate opportunities and even the tactical field. So very blessed for that.

Brad Lokey: 4:28

And once from there I went to the University of Tennessee, chattanooga, as an unpaid volunteer assistant strength coach. I worked a lot of odd jobs because I sacrificed, and that's the path that I was chosen From there broke After about two years looking for opportunities. Looking for opportunities, I went to Georgia Tech and did my CSCCA apprenticeship, basically Got my 540 contact hours there, got that certification and then I was hired by Cumberland and that was the second time in my career I'd been actually hired as a director. So went to Cumberland University and I will tell you that was a very, very magical experience. We had a very winning culture there Not a lot of equipment, very small space, but a lot of great student athletes, very clean kids as far as the way they were raised, the manners, the mannerisms, and grateful for Ron Papp and for that opportunity as well. That was really amazing. That was a great transition time in my life.

Brad Lokey: 5:22

And then Stetson called, called, and it was really strange. When I came to Stetson for the interview, I was pretty much told in the interview I was the guy and it made me really nervous because I had been really happy at Cumberland and didn't know what I wanted to do. I had a fiancee at the time and we were having trials and tribulations of where we wanted to be geographically, so that was a challenge in itself. And, uh, you know, I made that decision and felt like I was called back to Florida. Um, and what was strange, what really made the decision for me, was the empty weight room. Actually, when they showed me the floor space and showed me the budget and told me I could build my own thing and I knew what the budget was, that was it.

Brad Lokey: 6:03

Uh, because for all this time I had been coaching and working, I had been doing it with very, very limited equipment in very small space and I'm like I've got a brand new weight room. I was like it's done, let's go, and that was the deal for me. So I signed and, plus, I was being back close to my family. I had my sister and my mom and dad at the time still living right there in central Florida, so it was nice to be able to reconnect with them. Both my parents are passed now, but it was really great to have those years back and be in that area for that period of time.

Jonathan Strahl: 6:35

Coach. Look, it's an incredible story. And it's interesting because, ryan Hintze, you know we first met 10 plus years ago and you are walking into Stetson developing a program, acting as the director of strength and conditioning and, you know, really taking over a program that was at the division one level but needed a pillar right, needed a foundation. And it's interesting your background, you've been part of that journey and you talk about walking through you know where Stetson's football facility is going to be in the blueprint. You know I got to ask, like what were you thinking in the moment, but also like during that process, what were some of the challenges faced during that? And then, ultimately, how did you overcome that?

Brad Lokey: 7:22

Yeah, ultimately, I had been very fortunate being at smaller schools to where we didn't have a lot of equipment or we didn't have a lot of access and there wasn't multiple weight rooms or weren't multiple strength coaches. So I had developed a few things that really helped me go through that process. One was the biggest challenge is always scheduling right. You got 500 plus athletes, 21 teams at that level and everybody's battling for priority of who gets in the weight room at what time. So I had developed a pretty efficient way. It wasn't, you know, great for everybody, but it did work. So what we did is we set up a tier system between me and all the other sport coaches at Stetson and the athletic directors, you know, kind of helped us gauge the tier. Somebody felt like they should have been in a better tier or worse tier. But what we did is we use Google calendar and actually we opened up the dates and they had like 30 days to battle for their positions and it was kind of first come, first serve. Now there were certain, there were certain sports that had priority right, and it was obviously your bigger sports men's, women's, basketball, football. As you knew at the time when I came in, baseball was really big at Stetson and softball. They wanted their piece of the pie and there were a lot of female sports that wanted female participation in part of the pie. And I think the challenge, one of the biggest challenges that really wasn't indicated to me. I felt like I really was hired to come aboard and be a director for the challenge one of the biggest challenges that really wasn't indicated to me. I felt like I really was hired to come aboard and be a director for the university, right, and I really feel like the football program looked at it more like no, we need an independent string coach to cater to us. And that did create some riff, right, and it created some trials and tribulations and I think we did the best we could to grow with that. But battling for those roles was the biggest challenge. I had been pretty well prepared for that.

Brad Lokey: 9:08

Like I said, being at smaller schools, we had grown a lot as far as the amount of equipment and space and the way I was able to organize my training regiment, whereas at smaller schools I had to be a lot more creative with my training methods. How many guys were in the weight room at one time? It took more groups to get everybody through, and there were a lot of smaller sports that didn't get that opportunity. So that was something I feel like for me, I wanted to create that equality.

Brad Lokey: 9:32

I really wanted to gauge more toward that title nine. I wanted everybody to have a chance at the weight room in that division. One experience, you know. I didn't care who it was, what sport it was, and that was really important for me and what sport it was, and that was really important for me. And you know, in hindsight that may be one of the fails, you know, because I didn't cater to one specific sport or really try to gauge myself as a football strength coach, and I also think it made me a lot better as a coach later, though, to have so much more diversity in my athletic approach and overall perspective of how to train athletes.

Kenny Massa: 10:08

That makes a lot of sense and I like that. You said diversity, because you have a lot of diversity, not only within the sports arena, but also within the armed forces arena as well, correct, and so there's literally dozens of different types of athletic programs that need strength and conditioning coaching, and then armed forces is a completely different angle. Are there similarities between building the programs and the structure for training athletic individuals with armed forces individuals, or are there completely different programs?

Brad Lokey: 10:43

There's always a fundamental and I think that a lot of coaches really overcomplicate things. Right, you can get really advanced. There's a lot of techniques, but I think if you've not built fundamentals and basic form and technique and some of your just preliminary cornerstones, I think it's really hard to build a solid foundation off of any of that right. So, dealing with athletes, here's the biggest two differences Athletes in general. Well, let's start here. Generally, most of the people you work with in armed forces and collegiate are about the same age same age, okay. However, there's two different types of maturity. With the soldiers or with the military personnel, they have gone through some type of indoctrination. It's kind of gauged them to a different level of discipline and their why is different. Okay, true, but they're not necessarily as athletically gifted. So a lot of those basic foundation movements are very important, Whereas with the collegiate athletes, I've had guys that I could have asked to do a hopscotch on their pinky toe and flip on their head and spin around with 400 pounds on their back and they could do it. It's like wow, you know, I've had athletes like that. And it's crazy because when you see people that really can't walk and chew gum versus, you know a great athlete, but it still comes down to. I love the. We talk about KISS method, right, keep it simple, stupid, and I don't mean the stupid part, but it's like the basic fundamentals squat, hinge, press, pull, you know, carry, um, those things are so instrumental, I think, in building great programs and having those aboard. Um, those are your similarities, but your biggest difference, I think, are different types of maturity and different types of discipline.

Brad Lokey: 12:28

A lot of people say that you know discipline is a trait that if you don't lose, you know you kind of. If you don't use it, you kind of lose it. I totally disagree with that. I think you learn it at some place in your life, going through hard things or challenges or trials or tribulations, and then I really believe, I think it's something you can turn on or off. I really do because, let's say, you change venues or lanes in your life of something that you want or something becomes more important, like so for me.

Brad Lokey: 12:58

I've been in a, I've been in a training, conditioning hiatus for about two years now, but I've been focusing on a different aspect of my life. I've been focusing on my, my business. I've been focusing on, focused on building a different financial portfolio and that has been the concentration. I put a lot more effort into that and guess what? It's been successful and it's developed. But yet in 2001 through 2004, I was getting ready for bodybuilding shows and I had to drop, you know, 25% body fat. So I lived in the weight room and you know the perfect nutrition discipline.

Brad Lokey: 13:28

So I think there are different types of discipline that you can use in your life, but I think ultimately you learn that somewhere in that, in that same timeframe, you know that that that middle teen years, high school, college, that that transition period, and and some people get it and some people don't. But I think it really comes down to what is your why and how bad do you want it? I hate people that make excuses for something they don't have. I really do, because if you decide that you want to go out and make an additional income, well, guess what, you might have to work a second job, you're going to lose sleep. But that person goes oh, I can't do that because I can't lose sleep. Well, guess what, you're not going to have that additional funds. Right, you got to be willing to make the sacrifices. Or it's like hey, I want to lose 40 pounds. Well, what are you doing to get there right? There's never a right time to have children. There's never a right time to get married. There's never a right time for a big purchase. There's always going to be life events in your life. So either a you live in the moment, do the best you can to be flexible around those things and try to get it as close as you can, or, b you decide to sacrifice and be a hundred percent in for what it is you're trying to accomplish. So I think that's the just to answer your question.

Brad Lokey: 14:39

The two big differences are just a discipline and maturity and how they're applied.

Brad Lokey: 14:47

It's not that one is more mature or less or one's more disciplined, but it's how they're applied. In the Y and the other, the similarity is just keeping it simple, right, like very, very basic. I think those become the staplier programs and then you can decide that you can do different things around that. Um, with some of my tactical guys, you know we do uh, we'll, we'll, we'll include some uh gear carry. So they're actually wearing their gear, you know, and then we're doing some weight training sessions with their gear on. Or you know we're doing a lot more rucking, where they're carrying gear for an extended period of time versus, you know, we're still doing tire drags, or, uh, maybe we're doing rope climbs, but in the weight room, you know, it comes down to still those same basics, whereas you know, uh, during the condition phase which you guys have been through with me, you know I get pretty creative from a tactical perspective, so and uh. So I hope that answers that question yeah, no, it definitely does.

Kenny Massa: 15:33

It sounds like there's, uh definitely, a um. There needs to be a thorough understanding of that individual person, because you need to understand the balance of their physical abilities against their mental abilities, because one could be the driving force, but it could shape the program or shape the direction of their, of their future, depending on on what they're looking to with their why agreed and I think the why is so huge.

Brad Lokey: 16:00

For number one, a team. There's a team why, and then there's an individual why. I think the team why will generally outweigh the individual, why you get that peer pressure, especially in a military setting where you know some people go away and they don't get to come home right, and I've been fortunate enough to be downrange and learn that experience. No-transcript gauge, um, you know so, for me, I think, when we look at the why, I think the individual athlete from a collegiate perspective has a lot stronger why. But as a mission requirement it becomes more prevalent with a military setting. But the one thing you always got to go back to too and it's really interesting, the guys that are extremely committed in a tactical setting. They're the people that are married, with families and with kids. It's not your young individual soldier. They may not be as cautious or as involved in the holistic health program because they're not thinking about that, but the person that's got the wife and the kids come home, they're a lot more plugged in. Yeah, that makes sense.

James LaGamma: 17:33

Now you kind of brought up a pretty important topic that has getting an increased emphasis in just general life, but as it applies to fitness and your expertise is mental health, and so we're talking about how these different professions in sports and military have different types of resilience, their why and stuff from the individual aspect. But from your coaching background, what kind of philosophy or psychological training do you integrate in your programs to try to build that mental toughness to use different strategies and trying to elevate these athletes and military personnel to be able to accomplish their mission, like you've mentioned?

Brad Lokey: 18:19

Younger in my career. I was able to do a lot more individually At this stage in my career where I'm managing strength and conditioning professionals and I have mental health care, professionals of occupational therapy and sports psych and just different tools. First of all, you know, I always think if you have the proper resources, make sure you're referring to the right professional. Strength coaches do not have a degree in psychology and I want to be very clear about that. And I think that you know there are times, uh, definitely, in our we talk about building mental toughness. Well, uh, I think that's different for everybody and I also feel like, as the dynamic of our culture has changed from the time that I coached you guys at Stetson to how I coach now is very different. Um, the the overall cultural barriers are very different. The social acceptance of that types of coaching is very different and the overall acceptability and it's going back to kind of just I'm just going to caveat back. You know that's another thing too, when you talk about the differences of training tactical versus collegiate, in the collegiate setting, it's absolutely mandatory you, you guys, come to weights. For the tactical athlete, it's not mandatory that they come to our program and work with us, they, they, they are pretty well encouraged, but it's not mandatory. They could go out and do their own physical training and there are other ways to physical train, so there's some options there. So you really got to have that buy in, right, and? But with that said, just to answer your question, for me personally, you know I took a lot of my style from the organization of the Marine Corps and I will be very, very open about that and the reason being it.

Brad Lokey: 19:59

Number one delineates chaos. I think and I will use Stetson as a reference you guys were probably the most disciplined team I've ever coached, and I say that across the whole school because the very first year coming in and starting a culture that never existed in an environment that had never existed, the very first thing I did with every team that came in there was the discipline of the weight room where things go, how the room looks, how it's set up, what's our timing, what's acceptable. Okay, we get to the end of the workout, there's 15 minutes or, you know, 10 minutes or whatever. Yeah, we start to laugh and joke and ha ha, ha, but when it's business, it's business, right, and we did that and I think we did a great job of being able to separate that, and that's a level of maturity in itself, too is being able to separate okay, it's time to work, or, hey, I'm gonna go over to coach's office and into sneakers and clown for you know, a few minutes between classes. Okay, cool, and we did that too, right? So, um, that that's my answer. With that, really, you know you got to refer the appropriate professional, but I do believe here's what it comes down to In order to be resilient, you have to do hard things.

Brad Lokey: 21:10

You have to do hard things. There is no way that you prepare for going down range, being away from your family for six months a year, eating different foods, not getting the right amount of sleep. You don't do that without, number one, doing those things to the best of your ability while you're home, and then, secondly, occasionally, through those evolutions, you're going to have to test yourself with those rigors to make sure that you are prepared, and that's also going to build confidence, and I think that's something I've always been able to do with a team setting. My goal was to get you guys to hate me more than you hated each other.

Kenny Massa: 21:45

I'm being honest right.

Brad Lokey: 21:47

Hey, enemy of my enemies, my friend right, there were points there were points. You guys hated me.

Kenny Massa: 21:53

That's right.

Brad Lokey: 21:54

But if I got to the point where you guys were like, man, forget Coach Loki, but guess what? I got to take care of my brother next to me and we got to get through this. We're brother next to me and we got to get through this. We're not going to let him beat us today. Let's do that because you guys are the ones standing next to each other on the line on Saturday, or you know, whether it's volleyball, basketball or whatever, that team environment is so much more important to me. And, yeah, you're going to dislike me for the offseason, you know, and and. But then there's a time that you come back the next year and you're like man, you know what? I didn't get injured, I didn't have this. You know I'm able to get up in the morning and take my test at 6 am because I had those hard sessions. Or, hey, I'm going through this trials and tribulations with my wife and my kids, and you know what? There was this day. I remember where Coach Lucky had us out in the rain digging tires and you know dragging, dragging a field with mud and ropes and everything else, and you're like, whoa, okay, I'm going to be all right today. So you know, whatever it is. I'm just giving some analogies, so I hope that answers the mental question. I do a lot less with that now. I refer to the perfect professional.

Brad Lokey: 22:55

We get a lot of input. We develop specific training methodologies or actual events that work around cognitive performance enhancement. We do a lot of puzzle challenges. You got this many pieces of gear you need to get over here. How do you use this? Who carries this? You know, just putting these plans together of the most efficient ways to get through obstacles and that's all kinds of different things.

Brad Lokey: 23:17

We do this thing where we got like this big loop of keys and only one key opens a lock and we'll lock somebody in a wall locker. It's like a caged open wall locker and your whole teammate. You're doing a workout but you can go free the guy. And then you got to switch partners based on your fatigue level. But there's only one key on like 50 keys, so is it worth taking the time to let that person out to change for the fatigue? And they got to make those decisions and we we coach them and educate them. You know, know, we do a lot of uh. We do a lot of injury uh, prevention type of drills. So like, say, you had a man down in the field, well, now somebody's got to pick him up or carry his gear or different things like that, and that's a that's an obstacle in itself. So it's definitely different challenges, but, uh, gotten a lot more uh holistic and and utilizing the resources and providing those accordingly, based on the scope of practice.

James LaGamma: 24:06

Nice, nice. Yeah, I think the innovation that comes with that collaboration sounds wonderful. Honestly, oh, it's pretty wild.

Brad Lokey: 24:13

You can get very creative and it's neat to see the cognitive performance enhancement specialists plug in, the OTs plug in and develop these schematics. And then you come at it from a physiology standpoint and all you want to do is you put them under duress. And then they got to think under that duress and you're like, oh wow, this is really cool. And some of the most simple tasks become just obliterating when you're fatigued. Oh yeah, it's crazy, Coach.

Ryan Selimos: 24:37

you talk about those moments where making us hate you more than we hate each other. I don't know what James or Johnny's or maybe even Kenny's reactions were. The first thing, kenny and me, all right, get outside, we're running to the fence, and then we're going to run to the fence again and again. Like that memory at six in the morning just popped in my head.

Kenny Massa: 24:56

Right the hell now because yes like middle of the workout, like I'm already tired.

Ryan Selimos: 25:01

And then y'all are fucking up In the middle of the workout Like I'm already tired, and then y'all are fucking up, get to the fence, and we all knew what that meant and how just the end of that fence run to paint. The picture was uphill and then you started to come all the way back. Yes, james, john, I don't know if that same memory came in but that just hit me.

James LaGamma: 25:15

I got the squad push-ups.

Brad Lokey: 25:17

That's another good one.

Jonathan Strahl: 25:20

Oh yeah, you took that right out of my mouth. I'm like here's the best part. I was always in the 7 am crew, so when I saw y'all running at 6 am, I was like, hey, we better be on top of what we need to be, doing because it's going to get ugly. So we always had a little bit of a grace that we knew what was maybe coming.

Brad Lokey: 25:39

Yeah, you already knew what was going on, right yeah.

Jonathan Strahl: 25:43

Oh, too funny. Um, yeah, man. Well, hey, coach, I think it's. It's very interesting because you shared a few points that I think is very relevant to to the next question that I have. But you know what I think about. You know making sure the locker room's clean. You know making sure the weights are where they need to be hey, how was it before you got there right? Um, the little details, paying attention, obviously, the culture piece that, the why and a lot of the things you've described. I'm curious, like how did your military experience kind of shape your approach to the fitness and performance training and would you say there's a certain percentage or a lot, or maybe less, currently where we are today?

Brad Lokey: 26:30

The biggest thing. I was always very disciplined as an athlete okay, whether it was high school or collegiate and I even tried some semi-pro stuff and was able to actually lift it up at a pretty high level in my career. But that was not the hard part for me and I enjoyed that training and part of that I struggled academically. I struggled really hard academically. It's interesting we talk about you know you talked about mental health and mental states and one of the things you hear in a lot of you know people coming up is not becoming a victim of their environment, and I can honestly say the environment the environment of my childhood I really don't think promoted the opportunities that I later was able to discover of getting a higher education, especially at the master's level. I think the military would probably have been seen pretty early, but not the collegiate route For me. My parents didn't take grades very seriously so I wasn't really pushed in that direction until the letters started coming and the recruiting started coming. Then it was too late. I was already late junior with a 2.3, and I'm like trying to get to a decent college Now. Fortunately for me, I tested well and had some good SATs. But you know there's a lot of other opportunities. I wish I would have looked back. You know it's hindsight, it's done, but I think if the grades would have been better, it would have definitely changed.

Brad Lokey: 28:00

The propulsion and number one level of school I played at. Number two is my investment in the education. I mean, like I said, it took me 12 years to get my undergrad. Now four of that was spent in the Marine Corps but it was just broken because I wasn't committed and I wasn't disciplined. But the Marine Corps itself really helped me develop some tools of time management, perseverance, the discipline of following through, getting through things that you started, regardless of how bad they were. Those are some tools that I got from the US Marine Corps that I didn't have and they're very, very important and I keep them very handy in my toolbox now. But as far as you know how I applied the Marine Corps or my military background to the coaching aspect, the only thing I really used from it was the team building.

Brad Lokey: 28:49

A lot of those challenges and a lot of those days, like I said, when my goal was to make you guys hate me more than you hated yourself. You got to realize I saw internal conflict. I would see two guys getting after each other arguing or this or that, or you're not focused on a mission, you're not here to live today. You're here to you know, mess around. No, that's not when I would use those tools and those disciplinary infractions at that time to just create that culture and that discipline.

Brad Lokey: 29:17

Now, if you guys notice, and if you think about this, think about your first year with me. Right, first year was by far the worst, right. But then think the next year after I didn't have to coach you guys, I mean coach, I coach you. But there was no, I didn't have to, I didn't have to really instill the discipline of of what the weight room looks like or where things go, or taking that time to. This is where you're supposed to be, this is when you're supposed to be there. And now, guess what? I got 75 returning guys and they're telling the freshmen this is not the place that we do that. This is not the place that we do that. And it's easy. It gets easier every year. So now I get to become softer and I get to build better relationships, but the discipline and the standard and the culture is already set in place and you know, I am, uh, slightly saddened. I didn't get to see some of you guys graduate.

Brad Lokey: 30:14

I was only at Stetson for three years and, um, the one thing that I do know, speaking to a multitude of athletes across multiple sports and I'm talking hundreds of athletes um, the coach that came after me very great coach, did a lot of good things.

Brad Lokey: 30:32

Um, but I can honestly tell you from every person I've heard, internally and externally, the culture was never the same as what brad loki set in standards and I am very proud of that. I'm very proud that I built the fundamental foundations that a lot of people followed and carried on. Yeah, they got coached, they went in, they did their lifts, they did all that. But it wasn't that staple to where I literally had other sport coaches send their teams to me for team building or for help in certain aspects of development other than just physical weight room, and I think that is a huge compliment to my style.

Brad Lokey: 31:12

But that overall style is just the organization and the team building aspect from the Marine Corps. But everything else was pretty much my own athletical development, different programs I had tried, different things I've been through. You know I never, ever put a student athlete through a workout or program of eight weeks or more that I had not already done trial runs on myself and lifted with and seen the progressions and certain things fit different. You know different squads better in different ways, but you know, that's what I think is just the. Those are two aspects. I really say military training was the team building, camaraderie, and then obviously the organization logistics.

Ryan Selimos: 31:49

I love that, that type of culture. I think for us it's helped all of us as we've moved on into our careers too, because we're all in team environments and we know what a strong knit culture looks like. So we, I think in a sense, you know, as we moved into the workforce we've been able to take some of those characteristics. You know it's not directly fitness training in our occupations but we're leading teams and we know what that tight knit group looks like and the foundation of it and how to get there, how to get there. And we can definitely look to you for that because, like you said, three years of that, day in and day out, you know we had the opportunity to work with you and experience that firsthand. So for starters, just thank you on that.

Brad Lokey: 32:33

Yeah, absolutely, and I appreciate you guys because you know it's. It's interesting and this is what we talked about earlier with level of maturity, right, it is hard to spend three years with somebody that has that high of a demand and expectation on you.

Ryan Selimos: 32:46

Yeah.

Brad Lokey: 32:47

Right and then look back and be like man, he really had our best interests in mind Right, and it truly did. But I want you guys to be at a level of success and understand that it does take sacrifice and it takes that type of work ethic to make something special for yourselves and whatever that is you choose to pursue.

Ryan Selimos: 33:08

That's awesome, Coach. You know everyone loves the genuine success story, right, and I know, I'm sure for you whether it was Stetson or something different you know there was that time out there from your coaching career where, whether it was a transformation or was that type of success story, something that carries with you, and it hopefully illustrated the impact of how proper training, how conditioning, you know, had that positive impact on an athlete's performance or even their well-being. You know so when you're, when you're talking about your career, you're talking about your history. Is there that type of success or that type of moment that stands out to you? Is that an example that you'd like to share with individuals? And, if so, would you be open to sharing that with us?

Brad Lokey: 33:52

Yeah, absolutely. There's a few things. So I'm going to touch on one really major event. I was an assistant coach in waiting at the University of Tennessee, chattanooga and I had been there for two years and I was definitely the vote to get the next open position as an assistant. And right as it was happening, there were some rumors at University of Tennessee, chattanooga about Title IX equality and I actually got passed over for a female to take that job and I had been grinding day in, day out putting that in and you know I could be salty about it, but I'm not. I'm really actually happy because at that moment that actually springboarded me to start putting in applications to go to a major division, one university we're talking power, five schools and you know do an internship or an assistantship or something of that nature.

Brad Lokey: 34:52

And you know I went to Georgia Tech and you know a lot of people don't know about the history of Georgia Tech, but there are some things there that are extremely special. It's a really special program. Number one, when you talk about Pop Warner football, the real Pop Warner coached at Georgia Tech. It is the oldest field still played on today in the National Collegiate Facility that's actually played games on. It's called Grant Field. Four national championships, you know, um, bobby dodd. Uh, just the history there is very rich. And I remember when we as interns we got walked through their history slash trophy room and their track and field stuff and their football stuff and just it was, I was like whoa and I remember saying to myself in an arrogant manner when I left I said you know, I really felt like if you can coach at Georgia Tech, you can coach anywhere in the world. I really felt that way. I had a great mentors Lewis Corrala, neil Paduzzi, you know those guys. They really invested in us and me.

Brad Lokey: 36:05

I was in a unique situation as an intern because I'd already built a lot of debt to income ratio and I had to work still, whereas a lot of interns didn't have that. So I wasn't putting in as many hours in the weight room as some other interns and I know that was frowned upon by some of the assistant coaches. But I remember very specifically Neil Paduzzi really understanding my level of maturity where I'd already been as a coach because I'd already had my master's I'd already been a head strength coach, you know. So he understood more my why right and kind of gave me that flexibility to do that. But he also gave me a little bit of additional trust. I mean, there'd be some star players that maybe couldn't make the standard workout times because they had tutoring and they would come in individually and I always ended up getting those personnel. I also worked with a few other sports. I got to see swimming and diving and cheerleading, as well as softball as well. So you know, at that level I think that was really important to be exposed.

Brad Lokey: 36:59

And then, obviously, man, there's not too many more places more magical on a Saturday night than right there, i-95, downtown Atlanta. Man, it's, it's crazy. So that's a big deal. And then you know that was very special. And then, obviously, the relationships that you know I've been able to build and I want to, I want to just touch with you guys a very special situation for me and specifically with you and your wife Ryan. When I came to the wedding for you guys, it was so strange because I was there to be there for you guys and be there as part of that celebration. But what was strange and I didn't mean this to happen. Uh, celebration, but what was strange and I didn't mean this to happen, but it turned into a amazing affirmation of the impact that I made because there were so many athletes there from so many different sports and the conversations and the thanks and the gratitude that I received, uh, really blew my mind.

Brad Lokey: 38:01

And and that was the first time I ever saw, uh, like my overall impact and, um, it was humbling, number one. But uh, number two, man, I was at a kind of a bad place in my life then anyway, and uh, it was just, I really needed that, that affirmation, and uh, you know, you guys, number one or two athletes that I had you know on but also had a great impact on me. As you know, morgan, she worked as an intern in the weight room and, you know, I think she may have had a bigger impact on me than I had on her because I learned from you guys every day too.

Brad Lokey: 38:37

And there's a different thing we talk about seeing through the eyes of the youth that you work with. Right, it keeps you young. There's different perspectives, new ideas, new ways of thinking. You start to question your methodologies on. Are you starting to be like a dinosaur? Right, you start thinking like that. So that in itself and the reason I just referenced that, because there have been other things like that in my life but, man, y'all were like 30 sets in D, like a wedding. You're like five sports and I'm like whoa, this was crazy because, like literally everybody from every sport just came up. Coach, I want to say thank you. I mean the parents. I've got parents pulling me to the side and just being like I'm so grateful for the opportunity, you know, or for what you've done with my son or daughter. And, man, I left that place, like you know, for the, for the wedding. But, man, that, that was this, that that was pinnacle, man, that was pinnacle.

Brad Lokey: 39:39

So thank you guys so much for that, so humbling and and just so grateful for those opportunities. But it is things like that that, no matter where you work and this always goes to the how much you know is your time worth when you talk about getting paid in a career, or you know what's your value and those are things I don't, you can't buy.

Brad Lokey: 39:59

I don't care if it's a $400,000 a year shrink coach job or you know $100,000 a year shrink coach job or you know a hundred or 33,000. I don't care what it is, cause I didn't make a lot of great money at Stetson. I mean it was decent for the time. But you, you can't buy that and there's no price that I can ever put on those, those types of experiences. Again, just extremely grateful for for being part of those journeys.

Ryan Selimos: 40:20

One of the best parts about that from our perspective, with it being our wedding. I can't remember, james johnny kenny, if we've shared it with you, but we were like we're not gonna tell anyone, like we're just yeah, everyone is gonna be we're not telling anyone that their coach is showing up, like we know he's showing up and we're not inviting you for the aha like we want you there as someone who's been in our life.

Ryan Selimos: 40:42

But we knew with the crowd what was going on, so just that is awesome. That that was kind of its own side story of the wedding. And james john again, I don't remember if we shared that with you or if you had that aha reaction and if so, I mean feel free to to just jump it to share that other side of the perspective. We got coach's perspective. So I know it's kind of a segue, but why not?

Kenny Massa: 41:08

Well, when you say that, when you said that that was your result of the wedding, it kind of gave me chills, because I think that when you go into a program and when we were so young I mean at the time we're what 18, 19, 20, 21, maybe 22 years old in some cases right, so we're young we don't look at it in any long-term beneficial aspect, but looking at the things more of the characteristics, the traits, the behaviors, the dedication, the determination, all of these, these characteristics and traits that are crucial but, unknowingly, seeing them and how they affect us today, at 30 years old, 10 years later, is very eye-opening. And when we're going through all these major life events with each other, we have an opportunity to see this in a larger perspective, because there's a lot of people in the room, like you said, but it's really impactful on what you could do to someone's life at that age and how much of an impact you make on their life for literally forever.

Brad Lokey: 42:18

And I just want to reverse that for reciprocal purposes too, because I don't think a lot of coaches realize, and then they do, because you always hear them like, oh, it's for the kids. But one thing that's really interesting to me, and this is every career, right, you always hear people talk about standing on the shoulders of the giants that came before them, right, you always hear that right, that's a big cliche.

Brad Lokey: 42:36

They're talking about the coaches and the mentors that they had, right, yeah, but what I found in my professional career that's even way bigger than that are the people that actually are under you, like your interns and your student athletes and your assistants. And I'm going to tell you why. I've had interns and assistants that were putting in their own time. They weren't getting paid their gas, they'reassed, they're driving from. I mean, I had a kid that was coming from Orlando, carlos Cabrera. He's spending his own money coming over to Stetson four or five days a week putting in his own time. And you know people that followed me. I mean Jared White came down from Tennessee to coach for me, and I'm talking minimal money, minimal, you know, to follow me on that journey, to be part of that.

Brad Lokey: 43:24

And I always kind of chuckle when I go to these big conferences and I see all these. You know, thank you, thank you for so-and-so. That was, you know, my mentor or my, you know my, my head guy and I. I I'm with that. I get that. But to me it's the people that believed in you and followed you that invested in your success, because there's no way I get to where I'm at and have the opportunities because all that work that they did, all those positive interactions they had, all those coaching methodologies they put on a floor and those basically went with my name. It just endorsed me and it helped me grow through their works and I'm so grateful for all my interns, all my assistants, all my student athletes and the people that put into those programs and invested in me. School. We're not talking about a program. We're talking about investing in Brad Loki personally to help me get to where I'm at now. Everybody's got their own why, but I am extremely grateful and attribute the countless hours and sacrifices those individuals made for us to be here.

James LaGamma: 44:36

Yeah, and honestly I think a lot of us we got to watch those uh, assistant relationships and things that you kind of developed in the weight room as we were being taught by them. I mean, I remember being taught by Morgan in the weight room. Right and I know I specifically kind of watched how those relationships were and how things kind of unfolded. I mean, look, we still talk to Josh out of that.

Brad Lokey: 45:03

Yeah, mr Roberts.

James LaGamma: 45:04

Yes, sir, and we've seen the relationships kind of foster over and the leadership that you gave them too is something that was eye-opening to me and actually something that I've taken into my work relationship and kind of seeing how you're training the person, even though they're underneath you, but you're training them to take your role Absolutely and instill, if I got fired.

Brad Lokey: 45:27

Tomorrow can you step up and do my job? Absolutely.

James LaGamma: 45:29

And there were some instances where you had to have them step up and take the reins on some of our workout sessions. So it was really impactful to see not only what you were instilling in us and in the program, but also how you were taking the program itself to the next level through the staff that you had brought on, and it was really, really impactful. I actually was reading some of your stuff on LinkedIn recently about talking about all the different assistants and coaches that you've worked with over the years and I'm just curious I mean, with some of these coaches, what are some of the most impactful things and relationships and how have you seen them progress in their career by just being able to be a part of it?

Brad Lokey: 46:14

First of all, it's just, it's awesome to witness, right, because you don't know what impact you have and people go on and they leave your program and you're wondering what seeds you planted or didn't, or you know, and, uh, you know I've got throughout my history. There's, there's several guys that have their own personal training businesses or working personal trainer, uh, physical therapists. They've gone on to just do a multitude of different things. Uh, very special young lady that used to play softball for Stetson. I'm not going to mention her name, but she is a. She is a, she's her own entity within the human resources world right now. You guys probably knew I'm talking about she's Central Florida, but she is a beast.

Brad Lokey: 46:59

I mean, you know, and I just I remember you know she had an injury that took softball away from her and it was a very impactful story for me. It touched me very deeply and I'll never forget the conversations and life lessons I got from that young lady where, on a dime, you're, like you said, 17, 18 years old and the one thing you've done your whole life, as long as you can remember, that you are definitely in love with, is just taken from you. How do you transition that? How do you transition that and I sat there and I thought about it man, if I lost my legs tomorrow, what would I do? Right, like you know, I'm a squatter, I like to squat. You take that from me. I mean, what's left now? But you know? But, uh, you know, and, and to watch her at that age be able to go through the process of changing her, why and it was hard for her there was definitely trials and tribulations. But to see that and know that mental resiliency and watch that and then also watch her utilize that story and that testimony to impact other athletes, to see her now and the level of success she's having is just like, yes, that's what it's really about, right?

Brad Lokey: 48:10

Um, uh, same thing, you know, with, uh, a few other individuals. Just, uh, they're doing number one, what they love to do. Uh, they're very happy in their careers. Uh, you know, and we'll talk about families too, for, like you guys that are, you know, married or have kids. You know, I think that's something that we all want is a legacy, right? Uh, there's, there's nothing that I can. Honestly, you're not there, right? So you got some kid that you coached or an intern or a assistant that you had at one time and they're sitting at the dinner table one day and their kids being a pain in the butt and they go. You know, I remember this, one time I had this coach and whatever story comes out of their mouth, you're like, you know, you know it's going to be good, but yeah, we went outside and we did squad push-ups 400 different ways till sunday. You know, and you're telling these stories.

Brad Lokey: 48:58

But I think that legacy, it's not even the mention of the name, it's just the reality of being so integrated at some small facet of their life and I think we all seek that as professionals as creating some form of legacy. So I think that's the biggest comment I'd like to leave on. That is just, you know, trying to become part of other people's stories and living through them vicariously. And you know, that might be your name might be mentioned, maybe not, but it's a story and it might only come up twice in their life. But how many people are you able to, you know, have that type of overall just residency with? You know? Just have that resonate, resonate, resonate. And that's the thing I love, because people always ask me you know, if you could pick your top 100 athletes that you've ever coached. Who would you pick? I'll be like I couldn't, because everybody has a different impact and it wasn't whether they're a great athlete or had different work

Brad Lokey: 49:56

I had athletes and I'm gonna be honest, I had to use the word but they, they were pretty much turds. What I mean by that I don't mean that they weren't. They were good students, maybe they were good athletes, but you know, they, they, they messed up for everybody. You know why can't we have nice things? Because this guy can't show up on time. This guy can't get he's showing up for the game and he didn't bring his cleats. You know the guy. He forgot his helmet on the bus, like you know what. You know what I'm talking about.

Brad Lokey: 50:21

They're out there, right, and it doesn't matter what organization you are in, there's always going to be that person. Well, you got to overcome that too, right. And how do you do it? Do you put your hand on their back and pick them up? You try, you know, but at some point not everything's for everybody.

Brad Lokey: 50:37

You can't please all the people all the time. I got people out there that don't like me. I understand that, and one of the most recent big leadership things that I can tell you guys that has come to me in the last year and a half what other people think of me is not my business, you guys. If you haven't heard it. You need to check it out because it's not my business. I do the best I can every day to make the most impact and have meaningful relationships, develop people. I am very demanding. I do have high expectations and, uh, you know, if that's not the environment you want to be in to grow and be driven to be better and be more successful, then you know I may not be the right fit for you and vice versa, and that's okay. But uh, that's kind of where we're at with that.

James LaGamma: 51:17

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing all those uh memories and stuff and I just want to say thank you just from my own personal perspective, because I like to say that you were actually one of my first mentors Just the coaching that you gave me in the weight room. We've had a lot of one-on-one sessions where I came to you and kind of just ask the whys on, why are we doing these certain things? What's the movement pattern supposed to look like? How can I improve? And you always open those doors. And because you open those doors as a leader, it made it easier for me to come to you. And now I try to emulate that and kind of search for other mentorship like that as well. So I just I just want to commend you for that and say thank you for for kind of opening that door for us and keeping that door wide open.

Brad Lokey: 52:01

Well, from you specifically and I hate to get off on another tangent, but you had a very, very specific situation with your injuries.

James LaGamma: 52:10

Yeah.

Brad Lokey: 52:10

Would you like to dig into that a little bit? Because, again, I know we had so many conversations, but you were in a situation that I felt was, I guess, at times, critical. Right, I wasn't worried about you being a great football player, I'm worried about you. Are you not going to be in a wheelchair at the age you are right now? Right, and that was way more important to me.

James LaGamma: 52:29

Yeah, and.

Brad Lokey: 52:29

I think we had those conversations.

James LaGamma: 52:30

We did, we did and you helped me through that. I know it was definitely a mental battle. Any injury that any athlete really sustains can be heart wrenching and just a gut punch. And when I broke my neck, yeah, I mean it was. It was the strength staff, the training staff, uh, the uh, you know, even the just coaches in general and the teammates. I mean everything came into play. But, yes, you helped me out a lot through that process.

James LaGamma: 52:56

We worked on some stuff that we had to get innovative. I mean, not many people go through neck injuries and how do you come back from that? And I mean, hey, we did a lot of neck workouts too. You know we, we definitely implemented. And I know we, we kind of expanded that process after the fact too, because obviously it was a learning moment. So the program gets better, even out of, you know, a glass half full, uh, mentality, there it's actually more glass half m or glass half, yeah, full, sorry, um. And and we kind of propelled forward there the, the silver lining. So, no, yeah, that was a fun one to go through. That was a crazy nine months.

Brad Lokey: 53:34

Yeah, and just to commend you, man, and the discipline and your commitment to be able to get through it. I think you know I watched you with trials and tribulations and questioning. You know, even at times we talk about faith. Right, you question your faith, why, you know everybody's like why is this happening to me? And I don't think you really went through those moments. I'm sure you did privately. But you know, I think you did a great job of just being a strong teammate and being a leader.

Brad Lokey: 53:57

By being there, I mean, what were you able to contribute? Well, you contributed the discipline of showing up. You contributed the discipline of showing up. You contributed the discipline of showing trust in your teammates and your staff and the people around you to still be part of that. You could have easily been like man, I'm injured and I'm not going to be at practice today or I'm not going to come to the weight room, and anybody would have given you that out. You had that out, but you showed up, man, and you saw it through and that work ethic is just absolutely impeccable, man. So thank you for that.

James LaGamma: 54:26

I appreciate that, thank you.

Kenny Massa: 54:28

That's something that James always had, though, and he keeps it. He's a hard worker, he's dedicated and he's got that, so it's instilled in him, it's in his blood.

Brad Lokey: 54:36

Yeah, do you miss your necklace?

James LaGamma: 54:41

I still have it. I've got it, okay, okay.

Kenny Massa: 54:43

Every Halloween, every now and then.

Brad Lokey: 54:46

Every Halloween. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, bad joke, coach. You know the story.

Ryan Selimos: 54:50

He got his wife with the neck brace, Like he doesn't get married, did he?

Kenny Massa: 54:53

He doesn't get married without the neck brace, I think, so I might have to have a shot of coffee there, nice.

Jonathan Strahl: 55:03

Yeah, I whip it out every now and then.

James LaGamma: 55:06

It's a personal possession that I will keep for the rest of my life. That is for sure.

Brad Lokey: 55:11

I got you Not always good, but sometimes good, and don't worry, I made sure to wash those pads.

James LaGamma: 55:16

It does not smell, okay, okay.

Brad Lokey: 55:21

That's funny man. He used a neck brace to get the water that's hilarious.

Jonathan Strahl: 55:24

That's funny man.

Brad Lokey: 55:24

He used the neck brace to get the one.

Jonathan Strahl: 55:26

That's hilarious, that's awesome, Coach. I think one thing that, for those listening and tuning in, I think the one thing that a lot of people can really see right from the bat is you talk about relationships. You talk about building culture of care and impact on others. I think you have much gratitude and you give a lot of recognition to those and the impact others have had on you, and I think that's a very strong leadership characteristic, right? So I'd like to ask if you were to talk about just leadership as a whole, it being important, of course, but what is your preferred leadership style? And then to summarize it like what do you?

Jonathan Strahl: 56:06

think are the most significant qualities, just in a leader, specific maybe to human performance, or just in business or as a whole.

Brad Lokey: 56:15

Okay. So in general, my standard style is actually laissez-faire with my teams. Now, with that said, here's how I kind of handle that. When we do an onboarding, I want to bring someone in. I want to tell them what the overall mission is right, whatever that is, in any environment business, football, sports, tactical, doesn't matter. This is the mission, this is how your performance will be evaluated. Right, these are your expectations and these are the demands that I will place on you. I let them try to. I try to be as transparent as possible in that laissez-faire and then, from then, I trust their professionalism and their scope of practice. First of all, I hired you to do your job I want you to be. If you're the physical therapist, I shouldn't be telling you what I think is physical therapy. That's not my job. I hired you to do that job.

Brad Lokey: 57:13

Now, when you don't meet the expectations, the demands, or you're not meeting the metrics of your evaluation, then we're going to have a different conversation and then I become a little bit more. You know, I go from a laissez-faire to a coaching right. So I go into the coaching. Where are you having deficiencies or discrepancies? What can we do to get them better? How can I help you get better, and then we literally go into that kind of autocracy, right, where now I have to start micromanaging you because you are failing. Uh, hopefully you never get to that and and in some cases, you know, when people get to the coaching phase, it's not for everybody. I'm going to be honest. Okay, I'll give a. Your team is a great, great reference out of that tweet, out of that team of a hundred and say 60 men that we had for three years, how many we had attrition, I can honestly tell you there's probably only, there's probably 50 men in that weight room, you know, or in that team that I can honestly say we're coachable.

Brad Lokey: 58:15

Right, are you coachable? Uh, I think that's the best compliment anybody can get at any age that you can still learn, that you can be open to new ideas. And and it is hard because when you can still learn that you can be open to new ideas and it is hard because when you have success too, you can have success from bad habits. Some people just get great luck. Well, why am I going to change what I'm successful at if it comes easy for me, right? Well, maybe you're doing it the wrong way, maybe you're doing it for the wrong. Why, I don't know, you know, but that's something I battle with because I have been pretty successful.

Brad Lokey: 58:47

One of the most interesting things about my career is I've actually never been a paid assistant, ever. I've always been the top guy Always. That's hurt me in a lot of ways because nobody's able to vouch for me until you get to your fourth or fifth position where you've actually people see the resume and know that hey, this guy is willing to step out and take a chance. So those are my two leadership styles. I really prefer is lazy, fair.

Brad Lokey: 59:13

In the coaching, however, I believe it's results driven right. So that's very important. I think we got to get results. I don't think you just go there to do nothing, nothing and I want to win, I like to win. So that's the hard part. You know I want to win, I want to be in a and I want my team to win. You know I want, I want the team to be on the stage getting the awards and doing their thing. So that's important.

Brad Lokey: 59:35

Um, life lessons as far as uh, what's really the most important things to leadership got a great mentor that I've known since I was at University of Tennessee, chattanooga. This gentleman by the name of Matt Poe. He's a strength coach up in the Nashville area and one of the things that he started to implement and really pushed on me early was create separation. Two words create separation. So what separates you from everybody else? Right? So what separates you from everybody else? Right, every strength coach, every professional's got the masters or has the education or the degrees or all those things are simultaneous. Right, those are entry level. You got to have those to get the job.

Brad Lokey: 1:00:28

But what makes you separate and I can tell you number one is be a leader. What does that mean to me? You got to do the hard things and you got to be there when nobody else wants to be there. And you know, I think it's following a way against the odds. Like I've had people in my own personal life I'll never forget when I went to Georgia Tech, my own family, my mom, my dad, my sister, some of my closest friends are like why are you going to do an unpaid internship? You already have a master's degree, you've already been a headstring coach. Why are you going backwards? And they think you're crazy. And you know it's interesting because in your mind you start to maybe question why you're doing it.

Brad Lokey: 1:01:02

But I'll tell you this that that's being a leader, being a leader, showing up when there's adversity, there's sacrifice and there's challenges, but going against what everybody else is telling you, because it's what's in your heart and what you've been called to go and do. You've got to listen to that voice. Sometimes it's going to cost you. It can cost you a lot of things. There's a lot of sacrifices. People walk away from money, people walk away from relationships, people walk away from careers or titles or stigmas to follow. You know what they believe is their why. And I think if you're able to do that, if you're able to just and separate yourself from others and not necessarily worry about what other people think, and create that mark on yourself to where it's like you know I'm going to do this and I'm going to follow through with it, no matter what, and you're able to do that time and time again, I think you do become and have great leadership skills. So, with that said, through all those things, those trials and tribulations to come, so the number one pillar to being able to separate yourself and being able to be the leader is definitely you're going to have to have strong perseverance, for sure You're going to have to go through some things that are going to be very uncomfortable.

Brad Lokey: 1:02:17

One of the jokes I make now and everybody laughs I go to these conferences every year and one day of every conference I show up in a really nice suit, really nice suit, you know shoes, pants, slacks, tie, whole deal. And there's not another single shrink coach at any of these conferences that you'll ever really see in a suit. You'll see some of the vendors, some of the, but you don't see it. And the coaches are always like man, why are you wearing a suit? And I'll literally look at them and say why are you not? Why are you not? Because I'm separating myself, right, like everybody in that room can be like, oh well, you're, you're inappropriately dressed because you're at this level. But I guess, guess what, everybody that I've run into, they remember and whether that's good or bad, right, maybe it's a bad thing too, but they do remember you have created a separation, right? So for me I don't do it. For them I do it because, like I said, what other people think is none of my business.

Brad Lokey: 1:03:18

But I know this, I know I work at an executive level, I know that I'm the person that's making those executive decisions and I feel like I need to be dressed in a business manner, appropriately to speak or deal with anybody, right? So in that suit, I can talk to the guy that's a strength coach, is moving 700 pounds, but I can also talk to the guy that's got the multi-billion dollar businesses that sell in barbells all over the world, and I'm very comfortable in either, and I think it's really hard too, because coaches they get to a place in their career. Well, how do you make the jump from the, from the weight room, to the boardroom? You're not ready for the boardroom because you won't even put on a pair of slack and a polo at a professional conference. That's my opinion, but that's something I've been doing for the last 15 years and it's funny. I have a reputation for it and, like I said, I don't care if it's good or bad or indifferent. But people always ask me you know, coach, why are you wearing a suit? You shouldn't be wearing a suit to this conference. You know, whatever you're overdressed, you're never overdressed, you can never be overdressed. So, um, that's a, that's just. Again, that's creating a separation.

Brad Lokey: 1:04:27

But uh, the perseverance, I think, is the uh, the key man. Uh, if you can't be rebuilt if you can't be broken. And the problem is, man, everybody's going to get broken at some point in life. There's going to be something that is going to humble you, that is going to break you, and you've got to be able to start from scratch. You've got to be able to start. You know, say you got.

Brad Lokey: 1:04:50

I'll use James for a minute. You know James is a strong guy. I mean his freshman year he definitely got into weights, got moving some weight, then to have that neck injury and then basically plummet back to an atrophy and a weakness, to have to start all over, maybe even weaker than he was before he got there. Man, you got to be a strong guy internally to do that and it's not about your physical characteristics, man, that's. That's something that is a totally different animal.

Brad Lokey: 1:05:17

And, uh, that that's the perseverance you know and I talk about, like we said, the other young lady, a softball player you know, had the opportunity where she can play again, and that's a different adversity. Man, that's something that, like I said, you got to be perseverant man. And I think all leaders good, bad or indifferent, I think if you get to that place of what does a leader do, I think that's the thing, man is being able to be at the very bottom of the barrel and get out. And don't be the crab in the barrel Right, don't don't step on anybody else to get where you're at. I don't have to talk bad about anybody, I don't have to, you know I that's, I don't do that, man.

Kenny Massa: 1:05:55

And and there's, there's been some people that you know have definitely uh, not been in support of Brad Loki, but uh for me, you know, I just keep moving because I'm going to support others and eventually, I think, it comes back to you. I like your thoughts on the topic of separation and what comes to mind is your current position and I think, debatably one of the most important areas, probably in the entire world, to create separation from the United States of America to everywhere else in the world, is our military, and how we create separation to become the best of the best is done with the programs that are instilled into innovations or initiatives are you most excited about in the realm of fitness and wellness within the military? And then, how do you see that landscaping evolving over the coming years? Because, as you said earlier, what you taught 10 years ago with us in college is drastically different than what you teach today. So fitness and wellness continuously changes and evolves.

Brad Lokey: 1:07:09

Well, first of all, it's the availability of scopes of practice and resources. So we have multiple professionals that are available. You know, we have the dietician, we have the cognitive performance enhancements, the occupational therapist, the physical therapist, you know, and all of those different venues, the strength coaches, the athletic trainer, so all of that being available. You know, you look at it and it's very much like a power five human performance system. Right, like you have all those resources. But what is amazing is I've been on this project since its birth and inception.

Brad Lokey: 1:07:46

Um, before it was actually called H2F, it was SRTP and SRTP2. And at the time I was not working for the government, I was actually working as a contract uh program management and, uh, we were able. You know, when we first started this it was only four strength coaches at four different locations geographically, and now we're at uh, 53 different h2f brigades in the united states army and eventually it's going to grow to 111. That's the projected program development for that uh. So I've been able to watch that growth come all the way through, from start to finish, uh, to where we are now, and, and continually, I mean we're about to go overseas next year with, you know, units overseas. So that's pretty awesome. We've been able to create so many jobs that never existed in space at decent salaries and life balances. I think that's one of the hardest things as a collegiate strength coach and athletic trainer there's no life balance you know, and I can tell you that that's a grind.

Brad Lokey: 1:08:44

You know, at Stetson and other stops. You know it's a lot of times 80 hours a week, legitimately. Your summer's taken up because you got kids in. You know you're not getting vacation. Your winter breaks are actually basketball. I remember sitting at, you know, basketball tournaments, literally on Christmas Eve. You know, not with your family, not with those things, and um.

Brad Lokey: 1:09:05

So being able to have that, that life balance, I think, in a tactical setting is very nice for our human professional, um, human performance professionals, and then, um also, you know, just, the availability of jobs. There's so many more jobs now than there was when I was coaching to where you know you can get a nice salary and good job through the tactical setting, whereas collegiately you may not be able to find that. And good news is, because of the advocacy and what we've been able to push, now the collegiate endeavors are starting to understand that and now that value is starting to become greater. You may have less numbers but the people that are competing are getting better salaries and better benefits with better life balances. So I think that's a big thing. You know I've really become an advocate of the human performance, but we've grown the program. Like I said, we're at 53 of 111 units right now. The biggest thing is reducing overall injuries, and this is the same for collegiate athletes. I think it's interesting. You know, we want to see people go through their military career, whether it's four years or 20 years or whatever, and when they get out still be able to go home and play, pitch with their kids in the front yard Right and go to the barbecue and be comfortable and move around, and those are the fundamentals that I think you know are really going to project this forward.

Brad Lokey: 1:10:22

Um, there's a huge crisis in the united states too, with, uh, disabled veterans, um, and the cost to the united states of being able to maintain their medical um when they get out, and, uh, that's going to make a huge reduction in those overall costs because they're going to be healthier getting out. Plus, it invades, or not invades, us at the work. It impacts the family unit too, because now the holistic stuff is being taught to the spouse, right, the nutrition is being taught to the spouse, or the um. The implications of exercise on the human body is being now more promoted in the house and everybody's kind of being able to get on board. So, um, I think that helps with that.

Brad Lokey: 1:11:00

It also helps with the mental health aspect. Right, you're not taking as home as much trauma. You got counselors, you got people you can talk to. That's still a tough stigma in the military. You know, a lot of times you're not tough if you go talk to those individuals and I think we're really now five years, 10 years later, getting more and more away from that and you know that causes less marital problems. Right, You're going to have a lower divorce rate. You're going to have a lower divorce rate. You're going to have lower crime rates, lower drinking rates. All of those things are affected in some aspects. So when you talk about just the overall growth, I think the biggest thing is reducing the long-term healthcare cost and injuries of the US soldier or military as a whole and then just better longevity for everybody. And then hopefully you know, I do hope that it does get to a place where it actually reduces the overall expense on the us government and the taxpayer.

Kenny Massa: 1:11:52

It makes sense. It's definitely a long-term vision for a lot of people to be a part of, but makes sense we appreciate that insight coach.

Ryan Selimos: 1:12:00

Just because you know kind of, as we said at the beginning, a a lot of our memories, a lot of our stories together are 10, 6 to 10 years ago. Right, we're not as aware as just the things that you're involved with right now. So that question was super important for us just to stay up to date with you on things and that's such. We know the military and just the Armed Forces in general is such a important part of your journey and for you to kind of be back in that realm and then you talk about, you know, disabled veterans in that crisis and that's something that we're maybe not as aware of. But to see that there are steps being taken in the right direction and you are kind of a focal part of it, yeah that's awesome. So just we appreciate you sharing that with us.

Brad Lokey: 1:12:44

Yeah, it's awesome to being a veteran and being able to get back on that capacity and it's really weird because my athletic career and my, my military career, you know, they never really were able to interlock or cross paths, intersect, and now it's just, it's great to be able to still be involved in human performance. But also around the military, there is something very special, you know, that is missed up on the collegiate realm and the one thing that you don't get is there is a place I think that all your military have already gone through by the time that we're working with them and, like I said, they kind of received that in their indoctrination and the bootcamp of choice of whatever branch of service they go in. But when you're working with a collegiate athlete, specifically in a weight room, it is extremely magical, because I love it when a freshman comes in and then this has happened. I don't care what sex, what sport, there's always some freshmen somewhere that literally they can barely pick up a barbell. And I'm not saying that in a bad way. They just had no experience, they don't know how to move their body, they're awkward, they're uncomfortable, they're unsure of themselves, they don't have confidence, uh, all of that, and they're somewhere in that path. You know, maybe it's the end of their sophomore year, the start of their junior year, and all of a sudden they're sitting there and they miss a rep.

Brad Lokey: 1:14:11

It always happens when they miss a rep and there's like this light bulb that comes on and all of a sudden they get it and their whole attitude changes. Now it's like a switch. It's just bam, now I've got confidence. You know what? I know how to fail. It's OK to fail. Somebody is going to support me and get my butt and come after me when I did fail and they're going to tell me to do it again. And guess what? That's going to be me, right there, right. So you cannot buy or replace that, and that's that's one thing I do. Level that you don't get to touch. At the tactical level, I think, uh, I love that moment and in someone's life and it's not about the weight room, but it's about that place where they decide that they are either going to commit to that process and get better or they do kind of give up. Right, and you got to be there either way. Either you're going to promote the uh, the development, or you're going to catch them on the failure and try to get them to return.

Brad Lokey: 1:15:16

But you know what? I had a lot of athletes. They come to my office and I mean I cried with them when they told me that that was their last day playing sports. I've seen phenomenal athletes want to pursue other things. Some of it was well, you know, my faith tells me I need to go do this, or I'm doing bad in school and I'm supposed to be a doctor.

Brad Lokey: 1:15:36

Or you know, I had an athlete one time come to me, literally had an invitation to the Olympic trials Female athlete, and she was pregnant. She had dreamed about the Olympics since she was a kid and she had to make a decision. And I can't imagine making that decision. That's not for me. But I'm gonna tell you what everybody at the school, you know, really wanted her to pursue the Olympics. That was the dream, right, that was the thing. She had the talent and the gift and, as you know, that's the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. I mean it is wow. And she, literally she took about I think it was about 30 days and she thought on it and I'll never forget when she made the announcement and she just walked away from sports completely. And you know what? It's probably the best decision of her life.

Brad Lokey: 1:16:28

I don't know I don't know the outcome, but you know you got a kid and you're content with that development, that relationship, and that's just a place in your life where you choose those things. But those are the moments that I think for me are awesome is when that light just comes on and you're in a better place of maturity and discipline to make those decisions. And I think it also is great to see someone fail and be in a place where they're safe to fail, right, like it's okay to miss that rep, we're going to come back, we'll get it tomorrow. Well, did you fail correctly? Did anybody get hurt?

Brad Lokey: 1:17:04

Did I teach you how to fall? Yes, did I teach you how to dump the weight? Did I teach you to spot each other and take care of each other? Do you trust each other? One of you gentlemen I think it was Ryan, I think you're talking earlier about it's either Ryan or James. You guys were talking about the interns and them running the program when I wasn't there. Do you know what that does for their confidence to give that amount of trust?

Jonathan Strahl: 1:17:24

Through the roof. That's a lot of trust, yeah.

Brad Lokey: 1:17:26

The liability there is ridiculous, right. And that's going back to what you guys asked me what's it take to be a leader? It takes that kind of risk to be a leader, to put yourself in that position of trust and liability and those that have believed in your program. How do you reciprocate that? You got to give them the keys to the car you got to. So that's about it on that, gentlemen, Coach, I think you might.

Ryan Selimos: 1:17:54

I don't know if this is occurring right now in your current role, but there might be one memory or one moment that you're missing. I don't mean to be blunt with that and I want to paint this picture for you. So I want to take you back to our wedding and that crowd of just Stetson alumni right, and this message comes from not just the four of us, but all those Stetson alumni and it goes something like this Excuses are the tools of the incompetent.

Kenny Massa: 1:18:25

Used to build bridges to nowhere.

James LaGamma: 1:18:28

Those who deal in excuses.

Ryan Selimos: 1:18:30

Make excuses Make monuments out of absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing.

Brad Lokey: 1:18:41

It was pretty impactful, I'll say that. But yeah, man, you know, that's just a small tool that I've used in multiple stops and I've always been a big fan of poetry. I've always been a big fan of classic literature. We talk about the protagonist and some of the great literature I really like to use the Odyssey, right. We talk about Odysseus going through the Odyssey there and just the trials and tribulations and the struggle, and I think that's the great representation of the perseverance and it's also the test of faith your why, your family, right, you've got to get home to the wife.

Brad Lokey: 1:19:25

I think there's so many things and that's just one illustration. There's so many different ones. You know, there's just a lot of classic literature, but with the poetry and those different things, that's also being a little bit more well-rounded too, right, like, how do you impact your students with not just physical, but what's the, what's the mental expectation? And you know why did I do that? So let me ask you guys that's going to be my closing question for you guys is why do you guys believe that that was indoctrinated upon you guys?

James LaGamma: 1:19:57

I'll jump in first. I think it's because we wanted to make excuses at the time and we were able to kind of sit there and realize as a team, when we're going through hard times and I think we've talked about it on this podcast as well that you got to go through hard stuff, you know, in order to be able to deal with it when it comes up again later on in life and you don't want to make excuses when it comes up, and so that mantra kind of stuck with us and we could call to it when we were going through hard times. We wanted to make those excuses and we were able to escape that and kind of move forward and continue on.

Ryan Selimos: 1:20:34

It's kind of we had every quote, unquote reason to make that excuse New program, all freshmen, no weight room, first year not playing, this, that, et cetera, et cetera. That there was the opportunity at every corner. If you wanted to come up with an excuse, you can, and you can do that in life too. There's always some an excuse you can cook up and every day it was instilling in us that you can. But here's the other side and showing that you don't need to.

Ryan Selimos: 1:21:02

And there is that other side, and I will tell you that we still say that to this day with, again, not just the four of us. So that quote is still said to this day, amongst all the boys and females too.

Brad Lokey: 1:21:17

Well, that's grateful man, that's powerful in itself, that's that legacy, that's that impact, and again, those are the things you can't buy and that's back to that's at impact. And uh, again, those are the things you can't buy. So and that's back to. You know, one of the things I don't get to make that kind of touch at the military setting, you know, it's just not there.

Brad Lokey: 1:21:32

Uh, the beauty for me, and thank god, uh, I see a lot of human professionals, or human performance professionals, excuse me, uh, struggle sometimes with buy-in in the tactical setting, but uh, for me i'm'm fortunate, you know, because being prior service and especially being in the Marine Corps, even though that has nothing to do with human performance, it's almost instant credibility. They know you've been where they are going through those rigors, those situations, and I think it gives a little bit less judgment from their eyes on who you are as a person. Like I said, it's just a little bit more instant credibility. And you know, I think that's a hard thing too when you come into a new program, especially like you guys at Stetson. How do I get that credibility? Well, it was easy for me Put 500 pounds on a bar and do a squat and everybody goes oh okay, this is why I want to follow this guy, because he can do what I want to do, right? How many times have you guys seen me do things of that nature?

Kenny Massa: 1:22:30

at that time, I ain't doing it right now, but back in the day, right right I mean to earn that respect and get that instant buy-in and credibility.

Brad Lokey: 1:22:40

Uh or or you know, I'll use a great example. What's our winter tradition is doing?

Jonathan Strahl: 1:22:45

a Grim Reaper.

Brad Lokey: 1:22:46

Who's the first person in in the morning. Go ahead and get in theirs in. Right Me Right, 100 reps. Let's go ahead, we're getting it in, and you guys saw that, and I think that's another strong leadership trait too is just, you know leadership by example. I think you do have to emulate what it is, the expectations and demands that you want to see from your team and your staff.

Ryan Selimos: 1:23:08

We appreciate that, Coach Awesome.

Brad Lokey: 1:23:11

I appreciate you guys. We're running up on the time, it's all good.

Ryan Selimos: 1:23:15

Just thank you, number one, for being one of our initial guests on this journey, you know, and just putting yourself out there with us. Thank you for dealing with all the technical difficulties that we had to start with.

Jonathan Strahl: 1:23:27

Hey, no excuses.

Kenny Massa: 1:23:28

I think that was on my end.

Jonathan Strahl: 1:23:30

I'm not a techie so no excuses.

Kenny Massa: 1:23:33

We got there.

Brad Lokey: 1:23:33

No excuses, we make it happen. I got two computers on here, let's go. Ears on one and eyes on another. We'll figure it out. We hit on everything.

Ryan Selimos: 1:23:41

We went back in the time machine and talked about stats and we talked about your career, mental health, right, military, collegiate, all those things. So just thank you for taking us on that journey with you. Thank you for taking anyone listening to this on that journey and we just appreciate you, coach. Thanks for always being there for us, even 10 years later.

Brad Lokey: 1:23:59

Absolutely and again I just want to reciprocate. I could not be more grateful. I mean, it's amazing to be just part of you guys' journey to see all of you, especially on this podcast. But you guys talked about some of our other fellows and the success that you guys are having in your lives, in your personal lives and careers. I'm so proud to be part of that, in whatever small capacity or large capacity, because I think you guys are great examples of leaders and strong young men and you know there's a little bit of just that patriarchal feeling to that. You know, regardless of how small of impact, you just feel like wow, you know, to see these guys and be where they are and be pursuing the things they have and what their whys are, and to have good morals and that integrity, that's definitely heartfelt and very humbling on my side to be able to create that legacy.

Brad Lokey: 1:24:58

Because you know I struggled for many years with my journey in faith. You know what I thought relationships were as far as a distraction for my career or different things, and there's some other podcasts, like I said, we'll link to this to talk about some of those other aspects of my journeys. But I just want to reciprocate that gratitude because it's very meaningful to me. You guys are a very special group of young men and women out there at the Stetson community and again, I'm just so grateful and I do you know, without a doubt, know that we created a culture I think will be forever unrivaled in that specific setting.

Brad Lokey: 1:25:36

You know, I know what came after us and, like I said, great coach, great methodologies, great scientific background, great administrative leadership, but the overall camaraderie, expectationship discipline and relying on your teammates while we were there, I think it was seen across the whole community. I literally can remember when we were coming in for like the winter workouts when nobody was, didn't have to be there, like finals week, and it was an open weight room and I would literally have somebody from lacrosse spotting a football player, or I would have a soccer player working out with a basketball player, because everybody was just taking care of each other and supporting each other as a team and it was a fun place to be at that time. So very grateful, thank you guys.

James LaGamma: 1:26:19

Thank you, thank you, bye.