Ep. 46. We're Building More Than A Podcast

Ep. 46. We're Building More Than A Podcast

We built Rising Tribes because we kept watching solid men with faith and families lose the same fight quietly and alone. We share what finally changed for us and how we’re building a structured network so you’re ready when life gets hard, not scrambling after it does.

• why strong men still feel broken at their “peak”
• choosing your circle on purpose instead of by default
• rebuilding community after seasons change like sports, marriage, and kids
• the four pillars: faith, family, fitness, and leadership
• the bar graph problem: one area rises while another drops
• preparing for darkness, blind spots, and hard seasons
• how the platform works: monthly themes, weekly challenges, cohorts, and coaching
• creating a space for real talk, high standards, and no judgment

This is your invitation.
Sign up for the wait list.

Transcript

Preparing For The Hard Seasons

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And that's where we want to fill the gap is say, like, hey, you can still be really good at what you're good at. But we need to prepare for when it's gonna get hard. We need to prepare for where there's gonna be some darkness that comes in. And who are you around when that happens?

Why Rising Tribes Exists

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Welcome to the Rising Tribes Podcast. I'm Nick Urankar with Braxton Cave, and today um I guess I'm just gonna start with this. Uh we didn't start this podcast because we had extra time and wanted to talk. We started it because we kept watching the same thing happen. Good men, solid men, men with faith, with families, with everything to fight for, losing the same fight quietly, alone, and nobody was saying anything about it. So we did. That's why we started Rising Tribes. And the more that we keep talking openly and without judgment, the more men feel open enough to be honest and start asking for help. That's why this August is such a big month for us.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

It is a big

The August Platform Launch

SPEAKER_00 1:19

month. So, you know, behind the scenes, you know, for about the last almost a year now, Nick and I have been having a million conversations, uh, building out structures and what this could look like and just how, besides the podcast, how could we help more people? And it's not because Nick and I have everything figured out, it's that we have realized what has helped us and the people we surround ourselves with and the network and and the help that has helped us get to where we're at today, and seeing so many other guys like ourselves that would want to do better in all aspects of life, but just don't know what that next step looks like. Or I don't have a group of dudes around me that I can lean on to help me or that are on the same path or that want the same things. And so Nick and I looked at each other and like, hey, look, we can do this, we can create this network, and you know, we're we're not doing anything different than what we're trying to do in our own lives. So we've spent, you know, the last 10 months or so building out platforms, trial and error, meeting with people. Uh, you know, we have failed on some things, we've learned a lot, and we feel like we're now to a point where we're ready to bring to the table a new version and uh and an opening of what Rising Tribes is going to look like. And so this August, we are going to be launching our new platform. And the hope and and the promise through this episode as we explain it is that by the end of the episode, you'll know exactly whether this is for you or not. And that that's the whole goal. So to kick things off, I'm gonna I'm gonna pass it to Nick and let him explain or at least get into why why does rising tribes exist?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah,

Nick’s Breaking Point And Choosing People

SPEAKER_01 3:15

I'm I mean, like you said, we've been talking about this for a long time. And uh to be honest, really, I'd say our first conversation that we ever had when we sat down and first met, uh, we started realizing like, dang, we kind of both have this passion for not just self-improvement and for us to get better in all aspects of our life, whether that's faith, family, fitness, leadership, um, but that we want to see others succeed as well. And you know, for us, it's easy to look outside. I think a lot of us look outside at other people and we just think they've got it all together. They've got and we all think that. You probably look and like, yeah, you say that because you have it all together. No, just we all have this painted picture of the world is just better off than we are, and it's I think from people that have succeeded at a high level or reached close to where some of their goals were, like I know you have, um not to the extent you wanted, and same thing with me, I've reached high goals, but not to the extent that I wanted. But getting high, you realize you're still the same person. And if you haven't really put the focus in where you should, you're gonna be struggling somewhere in your life. And for me, I would say 2018, probably at the peak of where people would be like, dude, he's the fittest he's ever been, he's super successful in his businesses, his family looks amazing, his kids love him, you know, he's got it all together. That's the moment I looked at my wife and I was like, I feel broken. And I had no answer why. But I know that I went to alcohol as a reward for all of my hard work. Um I was struggling and didn't know why or how or what I was struggling in, but I knew I was trying to figure it out by myself and I wanted to find other people. And it wasn't until about 2020, 2021 when I realized I need to choose the people that I surround myself around. I think a lot of times by default, we just we go with our coworkers, we go with people we see in passing, we go with our spouse's friends, we we just allow life to put people in front of us rather than go out, pray about it, and figure out how I can be in the place to be around the people that I need to be around. So I started going out and trying to find people. And eventually for me, it ended up being like, okay, yeah, I'm finding great, awesome people, but I need to choose even more. And you were one of those names. And I've said this before, but I would hear your name all the time. Nothing, I didn't know anything about you. I didn't know the details of who you were. But it was like, wait a minute, the the but the common things I'm hearing are like this guy loves his wife, he's big into the church, he's you know played at a high level in football, and now he's at a high level in business, you know, and he transitioned his body from this huge lineman to like this fitter, smaller guy. Uh and it was one of those where like I just kept hearing it and hearing it, and I'm like, why have I not reached out to that guy? And that's what I did. And once I did that, it was like, okay, now I'm gonna start choosing. And I think that that's where a lot of times we see guys where they just they say they're stuck, but the choice is they just or the the reason is they're just not choosing to step out and start making their own choices. So for me, just connecting with you has opened up to meeting new people for myself, for my wife. I mean, the stuff that we've done that we've talked about, that you just like I always say with my wife, my wife has made me such a better person because she is strong in areas that I I am weak, and I've seen her push and strive, and it makes me want to. It's the same thing with being around guys like yourself that I want to be better. Not only do I want to raise my standard, but I want to, I want to, when anybody sees me, say they want to raise themselves as well, while also saying I'm still broken, I'm still not perfect, and I'm never gonna do this alone. That's why being around other men, especially who are looking at that and to strive and to to push, I want to be around that. And I not being around it is why I felt broken. Because I think the more we realize that we are all just trying to figure this out, why are we trying to do it alone? And I want to be a resource to not say, hey, I'm perfect, follow me, but to say, like, hey by following me, you make me want to be better. By by and I don't mean following in you know what I mean. Not in a hey, I'm awesome or perfect, but that I know what it's like to feel broken, and the more that I can talk about that, the less broken I feel.

Braxton On Losing His Built-In Team

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's you know, I come at it from a different angle, you know, growing up and and playing and being involved in team sports. It's like you always had that built-in tribe, you had that built-in circle. And it wasn't until you know, I my football career was over and I basically had to like reinvent, remanufacture myself and my circle. And you know, I think as we built this this platform out, it was building out like, man, I wish I would have had this as I was going through that season of my life. And it was just that. I mean, I had to, I was searching and seeking for guys who would, you know, hold me accountable and push me and encourage me and you know, call me out in different areas where I wasn't meeting the mark of setting the standard of who I said I wanted to become. And so, you know, for for years I kind of had that and then I lost it all. And so it took me a long time, you know, to rebuild that within this community. And what's interesting about it too is that like it as you grow and you mature and you have you get married or you have kids, like that circle changes. And and I see a lot of guys, you know, because I was in this for a long time too, is like you kind of get stuck in these groups, and you're like, it just kind of is what it is. Like these are my people, and you're sitting there like, but I I know I'm capable of so much more, but I don't know, like I don't have that person now in this circle. And so it was constantly just looking for, you know, people always say, like, who do you admire? Like, who do you want to be like? And I'm like, that's there isn't one person, right? Like, as a man of faith, like Jesus is the example. But when you talk about like an actual human in front of me, you know, there's aspects of different people that I admire the way this guy leads business. I admire the way that this guy trains, I admire this guy and the way he is as a dad and a husband. But you're never gonna find like that perfect one person. So you have to have these tribes of men, this circle of people around you to where you're constantly pushing and pulling on each other. And we we talk about it, you know, as in the the bar graph of life. You know, there's your faith, your family, your fitness, and your leadership. And when you give more to one, one comes down. And it's just this constant revolving game. And if you don't have anyone there to push you, you're gonna end up doing kind of defaulting to I'm gonna pour all my time, you know, depending on the season, I'm gonna spend all my time in fitness. Well, then family time goes down, or I'm gonna spend all my time in business and then you let your fitness go like it you if you don't have though that constant accountability, it's very easy as a man to let things slip. And so, you know, again, not perfect now, but I feel like I'm I'm surrounded by guys who challenge me in all areas of my life. Because again, alone, I'm I'm not that guy. As much as I want to say, like, I can do this on my own. I think all of us, all of us guys want to say, I can do this on my own, I can be the most disciplined, I can make a million sales call and do I can do all the yeah, like you can for maybe a period of time. Um, but when uh the storms of life come and you don't have anyone there, um, that's where we see a lot of guys wreck their ship. And so, you know, as we we build this thing out, it's you know, at the end of the day, as I told you before, it's built on our four pillars faith, family, fitness, and leadership. Um, some people will look at leadership and they'll call that business. We didn't want to, you know, pigeonhole it into the business sector. At the end of the day, it's leadership, whether you're leading people, you're leading yourself. Um, those two can coincide, just depends on what angle you're coming from. But at the end of the day, the leader gets better, everyone gets better. And so that's one one area that we're gonna highlight. So I think it's creating a framework. I think most men love, like, hey, if you just show me the way, like I can I can do this. And so it's building out a framework, surrounding yourself with other like-minded individuals and helping each other achieve the goals we want to achieve. I mean, it's we can boil it down as simple as we want to, and it ultimately always comes back to who's in your corner.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yeah.

Blind Spots Darkness And Default Mode

SPEAKER_01 13:34

So and I think inside of this, I'd say all of us have some strengths, and I think that's eventually what becomes the downfall for many of us is we default to what we're good at. And if that's work, it consumes you, you build you go up and but you let your family go, you let your health go. And then I mean, I know for us, I've gotten a lot of messages, a lot of emails um from just guys that people would think have it all. Everything's together, they're crushing it, and they're saying, like, yeah, there might be this area of my life that looks awesome, but like it's because you don't see everything else. And that's where we want to fill the gap is say, like, hey, you can still be really good at what you're good at. But we need to prepare for when it's gonna get hard. We need to prepare for where there's gonna be some darkness that comes in. And who are you around when that happens? And I think that's a question that we need to be asking ourselves is when when when things get hard, and I'm not saying the stuff that you're good at, but when the things that you're you're ignoring that you're not looking into, or that you don't have somebody checking your blind spots, when that gets hard, what's your default then? Because if we default to what we're good at, when what we're not good at calls for our attention. Example, you have a bad health scare. You your wife or your kids put an ultimatum in front of you, or you realize you've neglected areas that you shouldn't have that you don't know how not to. What are you gonna do? And that's where it's having guys to lean on where you, like you said, you don't need to have that one person that has everything, but you need to have those people where you're like, I look up to that guy and I want to strive to be more like him. I'm not comparing myself to him, but I want to strive to be more like him. So how can I be closer to him? Right? Somebody's has this amazing, simple understanding of leadership, and they've got these core themes that they go off. You're like, man, you make it so simple. Yeah, I want to learn from that. So for me, I think rising tribes is a lot more about how do we lift each other up in the in the success and in the the darkness and in the despair and in right? Because I think there's some of us, I'll put myself in this category that even some of the hardest times aren't really as bad as we make them out to be. We just we aren't prepared when we get into the the hard seasons of life.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Yeah, I think it goes back to proximity, right? People always say the cliche of, you know, if you hang out with four millionaires, you'll be the fifth, right? That's always the kind of the example, but it it's anything in life. You want to be more fit, hang out with fit people. You want to be smarter, hang out with smart people. Like it's it is simple, it's not easy. Correct. So going forward, I think we want to give a little bit of a sneak peek of like what's to come and like a little bit of what the structure is.

Monthly Themes And The Sharpen Reset

SPEAKER_00 16:46

And so, you know, with a launch in August, you know, every month is gonna have a theme. So we're gonna break this thing down into four-week segments to where we focus on a theme for the month. And to give you guys a little inside preview here, the the month of August is gonna be around the idea of sharpen and why sharpen. Because it's a seasonal transition. Uh, kids are starting to go back to school, summer's winding down. It's like that second half of the year reset, kind of when everyone starts to let their foot off the gas. And so this isn't like a month of you know breaking people down and figuring out, like, you know, calling people out on this and that. It's building guys up. Yep. And, you know, continue to keep the pedal to the metal. If you don't use your your sword, it gets dull. That's right. And so it's um, look at it as a like a tune-up. Um, we're going to, you know, dive in, it's gonna be a great kickoff. And every month going forward, there will be a theme to that month that fits with the season of the year. Um, and so we've we've built this thing out, and we're currently you know, creating content a quarter at a time um so we can stay ahead of the game for you guys. And I'm just really looking forward to you know, helping guys through that month of August as a kickoff, like you don't sharpen on accident. And so, you know, creating, you know, an opportunity with purpose, again, with like-minded people, just want to be on the same path, same track.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Yep. And being in, like you said, being around like proximity, we want to be, we want to fill this with people that are ahead of you, alongside you and behind you, because ultimately you being able to pass off what you know to somebody who needs your guidance is huge. Being able to see somebody walking with you and help each other, and then seeing somebody who's gone through what you've gone through and that you can aspire to be more like or to learn from, that's what we want is to fill the space with people that can constantly be helping keep you closer to where you want to go. And just like you said with the the month, you know, sharpen, it's gonna be around a yearly theme, broken out into quarters, broken out into months, and then every single week there being specific challenges and and teachings inside of our core pillars.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Yeah, I mean, because I think we all know if we're not, if it's not constantly front of mind, we easily put on the back burner and forget about it. So having something that's structured and laid out for you and having a process to follow, I think it that's that's how you make real change. And so, you know, moving forward, you know, this this is gonna be an entire ecosystem of what rising tribes is gonna look like. And so everything from, you know, kind of we look at it as the front door to rising tribes is the podcast, uh, where everyone gets, you know, it's uh an opportunity to listen, what's going on, it's for anybody. You know, the rising tribes network is that next step where you know, guys jump in, they become part of the network, um, they're they start to get to interact with the group. Um, you know, and then from there, we're going to take it to the next step, would be creating, you know, smaller groups of accountability cohorts. You know, you'll kind of find start to find your people. And that way, when you when you go from, you know, I look at it like my high school was 4,000 students, and you walk in, you're like, oh my goodness, like 400. How am I ever going to like meet anyone here? Right. Um, but very quickly, it becomes really small because you find your pockets of people. And that's what we want to be able to to create. And then the next step of of all that, the the next tier, if it it's the right thing for you, would be to get into one-on-one coaching. And, you know, that's that's really for guys who want to go deeper, who want that next level of accountability, uh, maybe have a project or something going on in their life where they really need some one-on-one mentoring, and we want to be able to create that as an option for guys as well who feel like that's a good fit for them. So, you know, the podcast, the I think the easy way to break it down is the podcast tells you like what to think about, but the network tells you what to do. And I think any of us just we love that framework of knowing like what is the next right step for me. Yep.

Real Accountability Without Judgment

SPEAKER_01 21:30

And we want to create that space and truly make it to where you can open up and be exactly who you are, your authentic self, and know that there isn't any judgment. That it's you know, doesn't mean it's not gonna be hard truth. Like, I actually had a talk with somebody today who just randomly reached out and was like, I want to work with you. Um said pretty raw stuff, and I basically emailed back and I was like. You gotta expect, like, I'm gonna hold you to a high standard if this is something you really want to do. This isn't just I think a lot of times we think people are gonna tell us what we want to hear, but in a real tribe, you're gonna hear the things you know, but you wish no one saw. Right? Like you the things you say to yourself internally, where you're just like, man, if only you should be hearing the person outside looking at you going, here's what you need to do. And inside you're like, man, they see me. Like I think sometimes as guys, we think no one actually sees us. And I think we want to open that up to where you can be seen and be okay with being seen.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Right. Yeah, it's it's just we talk about this on the podcast all the time. We live in the social media era where you show people what you want people to see, and we all know the majority of us not real.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

I I think we were at the gym, and I was we did like a long workout, maybe, and I joked to you, and I was like, everybody used to always message me, you live too much, like all these things, and they would try to tell me because of what they see on social media, and I was like, but this stuff's boring to look at. Like I one time posted a long video of me running. So even myself, people will people who see me on Instagram, you can have an idea of like, well, I already know what Nick does. Like, you've seen me enough to know like what you see online, you probably don't even see most of that stuff. You're like, the stuff I see is not that. Like, we're going on long runs. We're you know, like you hear about the bike rides and you these crazy workouts, and yet online you just see me doing like a three-rep lift.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

I mean, I'll be at the gym with Nick in the morning, and then all of a sudden I see him doing something in his driveway, and I'm like, what the hell is going on right now? I'm like, there's no way he's working out right now after what we just did.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

But that's a part of it, is like we can all pretend we're anybody. But who are you?

unknown 23:56

Yeah.

Waitlist Invite And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 23:57

And that's the, you know, we you and I have been meeting with a couple other guys recently and talking through, you know, some a community project that we're working on. And it seems to be the number one theme that keeps arising, and that's you know, this is something that we all know that that guys want, but we'll never say it out loud unless the opportunity is given to me. I'm not gonna seek it out unless someone, you know, for lack of better words, invites me first. So this is your invitation.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Um and we actually will have a wait list where you can just put in your information if you're interested in learning more, because we'll be sending out um stuff periodically as we get closer to August. And if you just go, should be in the show notes, click, um, put name, email, and phone number. My guess is you might get a phone call from one of us, not saying any guarantees, uh, but you will definitely be getting information. And if this is something for you, we would love for you to at least um step in, keep listening to the podcast, get information. Because as we get going, we'll be also communicating through email, letting you know what's going on in the podcast, letting you know what's going on inside the tribe, um, letting you know what's going on just in general on a on a deeper level than even what we do here.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm really excited about it. I think we've really created something of value. And you know, I'll leave you guys with this. It's you know, you can keep doing this alone, or you can let August be the month that you stop doing that. And you join a tribe of of men that are on a path that just wanna be better for our for our wives, for our kids, for our business, for our own health and longevity. Um, it's on us to take those steps and do that. So I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

I hope you are too. And sign up for the wait list.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Links in the show notes, right? It will be. Yes. See you there. See you guys.