With Brian Hanna

Samantha Bauer(00:01.392)
Welcome everybody to Sisters in Law of Attraction podcast. I'm Sam. And we're so thrilled you're with us today. We're super excited to introduce a guest today. He's an incredible young man. name is Brian Hanna. But before we bring him bring him in, I want to sort of nest this conversation with the concept that Michael Easter, who wrote Comfort Crisis.

Christine Goforth(00:05.438)
And I'm Christine.

Samantha Bauer(00:26.788)
this whole idea that our ancestors sought comfort for survival, hunger and the weather and safety and all of that. And in today's modern conveniences, us being comfortable actually is making us weaker, sicker, and actually having more anxiety. So it's really interesting evolutionary concept.

Samantha Bauer(00:26.788)
So with that, I'm super excited to introduce Brian Hanna. So welcome, Brian.

Christine Goforth(00:58.7)
Hi, Brian!

Brian Hanna(00:58.937)
Samantha and Christine, yeah, pleasure is mine. Thanks for having me on the show.

Samantha Bauer(01:02.484)
Well, we're so thrilled you're here. so so so Brian actually wanted to break free of this comfort and set and he set out on a journey to challenge himself both mentally and physically. In fact, well, actually, Brian is a professional in college athletic development is currently finishing up his MBA. And, know, he's an incredibly strong young man mentally, physically, spiritually, but he wasn't perhaps always that way.

Christine Goforth(01:02.926)
Thanks for being here.

Samantha Bauer(01:32.196)
And one day, Brian decided he was just gonna start running. And so, so far, he has done six marathons, two ultra marathons, and countless half marathons. So welcome, Brian. So I think, Brian, perhaps for our listeners, maybe you could let us know, what is the difference between a marathon and an ultra marathon?

Brian Hanna(01:53.55)
Yeah, that's a great question. So technically the ultra marathon is any race longer than a marathon, which is 26.2 miles. If you were to ask me on a more emotional level, you know that the difference is wild. Marathons for me at least ended in tears of joy. Ultra marathons end in a whole different type of tears where you're conquering pain and grit and just sheer willpower where every step forward seems like.

Brian Hanna(01:53.55)
a small little victory in and of itself. yeah, it's not just about running longer. It's running deeper. You you go some places that you've never been before when you pass that 26.2 mile marker. I like to think of the, yeah, the marathon is kind of just the party. The ultra marathon is the after party where more of the crazy and stubborn people stick around. So.

Samantha Bauer(02:34.954)
incredible.

Christine Goforth(02:44.769)
Ha ha!

Samantha Bauer(02:45.69)
Well, so admittedly, I have only done a half marathon. I did that when I turned 40 and Christine has done done the marathon. And so she we know just a very, very small. We can't even remotely, you know, under understand it. But talk to us, Brian, a little bit about, know, your journey. Yeah. Right. It's just yeah, it's it's yeah, you like like Brian said, you have to go. You have to go.

Christine Goforth(02:59.714)
Yeah, people called me crazy for a full marathon.

Christine Goforth(02:59.714)
Only imagine an ultra.

Brian Hanna(03:06.521)
It sucked.

Samantha Bauer(03:12.988)
somewhere totally different in your mind, right? It's not even about your body at that point.

Christine Goforth(03:15.293)
yeah. yes.

Christine Goforth(03:15.293)
And I love that you said it sucked and then I did it again. Right.

Brian Hanna(03:23.462)
Yeah, absolutely.

Samantha Bauer(03:23.85)
Yeah, yeah. So Brian, talk to us about your journey. Why did you decide to start on this running journey?

Brian Hanna(03:34.445)
Yeah, I mean, if I had to pinpoint it, I'd say the spark came from watching my older brother, Kevin. I was in middle school when he ran his first half marathon. And I remember thinking, why would someone want to do that to themselves? But then I saw his transformation. wasn't just physically, but just mentally. kept pushing the needle. He ran his first half marathon and then did it again, then ran a marathon and then the Leadville 50 mile ultra marathon out in Leadville, Colorado.

Samantha Bauer(03:48.074)
you

Brian Hanna(04:03.396)
and that race was incredibly emotional. you know, he overcame a lot to get there, just to the starting line of that. and when I saw him cross that, I think something kind of shifted in me where I thought, you know, Kevin can do that. think I can too. So, yeah, I just started dabbling with, with running, kind of toward the end of high school for me. it was mostly as just an excuse to eat a little bit more. I was a big dessert guy. So,

Samantha Bauer(04:09.118)
Yeah.

Samantha Bauer(04:28.5)
Yeah.

Christine Goforth(04:29.038)
You

Brian Hanna(04:30.998)
Yeah, if I'm being honest, I wasn't really a committed runner. was more of a passive runner and didn't really understand the why behind the miles that I was logging. you know, when college hit, drifted away from it. And by the time I was a sophomore, I was 19 and just kind of tired of feeling low energy and just stuck. So just kind of started to educate myself a little bit more about nutrition, training, you know, just the right mindset to have.

Samantha Bauer(04:57.482)
Sure.

Brian Hanna(04:58.316)
you know, and drop a little bit of weight towards towards the of my sophomore year and then then COVID hit. And the world slowed down quite a bit. So I decided that was going to be my time to try and speed up. You know, it was it was an interruption that that I saw as an incredible opportunity for me to just ask myself, what am I what am I made of? Everyone in this everyone in the world has this this time on their hands. And, you know, what what kind of person do I want to be on the other side of all this?

Samantha Bauer(05:02.984)
Yeah.

Samantha Bauer(05:16.873)
Yeah.

Brian Hanna(05:25.784)
I'm gonna use this global interruption as an opportunity. yeah.

Samantha Bauer(05:25.972)
Yeah.

Samantha Bauer(05:30.578)
It's definitely better than what I did. I sat in the corner, I pissed at everyone. There's that.

Christine Goforth(05:36.002)
Yeah.

Brian Hanna(05:36.484)
yeah, yeah, there's a lot of that too. There's a lot of that.

Christine Goforth(05:39.221)
Ha

Samantha Bauer(05:41.578)
So talk to me, I mean obviously running, it's physical initially, but how do you train your mind and particularly when you're doing these ultras, like you said, you gotta go to places that are totally new. Talk to me a little bit about training the mind and perhaps where spirituality comes in.

Brian Hanna(06:02.05)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I started listening to a podcast over COVID. was the Nick Bear podcast. You know, he's one of the most respected hybrid athletes in the health and wellness space. But he has kind of coined this phrase, it's better to be consistently good than occasionally great. And, you know, I just kind of started

Brian Hanna(06:02.05)
to shift my mindset from what motivates me to I'm just gonna be a disciplined person and show up for myself every day. that was kind of my turning point for me. Not really just one moment, but just a series that stacked up for me. And I'm gonna show up for myself every single day. So yeah, and then kind of where spirituality plays into it, my body is just a vessel for myself to.

Christine Goforth(06:39.671)
nailed it.

Brian Hanna(07:01.816)
honor God. I want to honor the body that God gave me and continue to push myself past points of comfort and just continue to push the needle and see what I can accomplish.

Samantha Bauer(07:16.318)
And that's where the comfort crisis comes in. So Brian and I have connected on a lot of different things. But when I found out that he was reading the comfort crisis, I kind of dug into it a little bit myself. So talk to me a little bit, or talk to us about what was your biggest takeaway with the comfort crisis? And what did you discover? Or what did it kind of spur in you?

Brian Hanna(07:45.165)
Yeah, there are a lot of takeaways from that one. The biggest one is just continue to do hard things. I think in our society right now, we are almost programmed to never have to leave the house. We have entertainment at our fingertips. We have food and groceries delivered to us. We live with the people that we love. never really have to, we can work from home. There's really no reason to

Brian Hanna(07:45.165)
have to leave the house anymore. I think what that book connected was that, you know, anxiety, depression, suicide rates are at an all time high. And a lot of what is contributing to that is our lack of, I guess, initiative to push ourselves and do hard things. You we let you mentioned our ancestors, you know, it was a life or death situation to, you know, seek comfort and they had to.

Samantha Bauer(08:32.457)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Hanna(08:43.094)
gather food they had to look after, had to defend. And just reading Michael Easter's testimony of him traveling throughout Alaska, former alcoholic and just kind of totally shifted his mind after he started doing hard things and became healthier and happier than he's ever been.

Samantha Bauer(09:03.198)
Right, right. And I think that mental toughness is, you know, I mean, quite frankly, it's lacking. I remember telling both my kids, said, my job is actually to give you angst. You know, because, you know, if you're comfortable, you're not pushing yourself, right? Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I like how he starts the book that, know, rule one, do hard things. Rule two, don't die. And, you know, it's about pushing yourself and

Christine Goforth(09:27.042)
Yeah

Brian Hanna(09:28.065)
Exactly.

Samantha Bauer(09:32.222)
You know, Christine and I have talked about this before, you know, in her journey and, know, we called it, you know, kind of her awakening, you know, just, you know, trying to insulate yourself from anything bad that happens in your life. And so you retreat and you just seek out that like the comfort of your couch, the comfort of your own family around you, because, know, you just don't know when the other the shoe is going to fall. And, you know, I think

Samantha Bauer(09:32.222)
Again, know, Easter makes the point that, you know, being comfortable makes us weaker, sicker, and more anxious. And I think perhaps, you know, when you're in a state of comfort, you don't really, you've missed out on life's purpose. You're like, what am I here to do? You know, I'm here to do something. And like you said, Brian, life is so comfortable now that we don't, we really don't have to do anything. We can kind of just hang out in our houses and order food and.

Samantha Bauer(09:32.222)
and just be comfortable. So I think that that was one of the biggest takeaways for me is this sense that we've gotten so far away from discomfort and angst that we are so disconnected from our purpose, you know, and bringing light to others and, know, and lifting others up. so anyhow, that's why I think that your

Christine Goforth(10:59.374)
That's.

Samantha Bauer(11:00.934)
your story of, you know, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna jump into this physically. And then you saw you reap the rewards, you know, mentally and spiritually through this experience.

Brian Hanna(11:12.384)
Absolutely.

Samantha Bauer(11:14.344)
So Christine, you did this little thing called a marathon too.

Christine Goforth(11:15.701)
Yes.

Christine Goforth(11:15.701)
I did. I did. Although I was going to say something that I was thinking about when you were just talking, Sam, is that going back to how we, everything is so easy. We don't have to leave our homes. That also means that we aren't out there helping our community or building. What's with the thumbs down? We're not out there building our community.

Christine Goforth(11:15.701)
people aren't making themselves uncomfortable and then needing other people's help to where people who are the helpers can step in and go help. There's just a whole piece that kind of starts to become missing, if that makes sense. When, okay, if we're not leaving our homes, then we're not seeing our neighbors, we're not seeing the grocery store clerk, we're not seeing whoever it is.

Samantha Bauer(12:01.556)
Right. Right. Yeah. And it just.

Samantha Bauer(12:14.057)
Right.

Christine Goforth(12:14.826)
then you're not able to have those exchanges of energy in terms of being the helper or needing assistance for something small or big. so being able to help people through their discomfort is also being taken away. And I think as a helper myself, that's also hard, right? Like we don't want to get to the point where we don't need each other. That's sad.

Samantha Bauer(12:25.47)
Right. Right.

Samantha Bauer(12:42.228)
Right, right. Well, and it's all about that human connection that we're all not only are we connected to something larger than ourselves, but we're all connected. Right. And so that we live a life of comfort and, you know, disconnection, you know, from each other and that we are to your point, Christine, we are meant to exchange energy. Right. And to bring light, you know, to each other and lift each other up. That's what this is all about. And so then, you know, I mean, I COVID is a perfect example for everyone retreated.

Samantha Bauer(12:42.228)
And they were treated in fear and it was darkness. Right. And so COVID did more than what it did. mean, I said it killed humanity because it completely took away our connection to each other as as human beings and, know, sort of, you know, giving us like you said, you know, anxiety or depression is not the absence of happiness. It's the absence of purpose.

Christine Goforth(13:11.682)
Yeah. Right.

Samantha Bauer(13:41.002)
And so for you, Brian, you became very intentional, obviously, with your life and making changes and working towards something actually really hard. And then the byproduct of that is you came out stronger, more resilient, and more intentional with your life and what you were seeking.

Brian Hanna(14:06.593)
So I think that without purpose, we are just kind of in a hamster wheel. If you don't have something that you're working towards, something that you're trying to get better at every single day, I think, yeah, to your point, you're missing the point of life. mean, one kind of life principle that I try to adhere to is thinking to myself, what's the hard thing to do right now? What's the easy thing to do?

Brian Hanna(14:06.593)
If you consistently choose to do the hard right over the easy wrong, hard is a relative concept. but, but if you think to yourself, like, you're faced with a really difficult situation, this is why I love running so much because sometimes in order to get a big run in as part of a training block, you need to wake up before the sun rises. and sometimes your, your bed can feel like a cloud and you don't want to get out of bed. might be cold and raining outside, but if you don't.

Brian Hanna(14:06.593)
get up out of bed and do what you told yourself you were going to do the day before, that's gonna have a trickle down effect on the way that you live. How you do anything is how you do everything. So for me, yes, running does suck sometimes, but it gives me a pursuit of something that is hard and gives me a why. And then also to Christine's point, I feel like I'm able to be a bit of a role model.

Brian Hanna(14:06.593)
not just for my friends and family, but also a community. It gives me something to talk about and it's not the most relatable thing. People always ask, like, why do you do this? Why do you always torture yourself in these long runs? And on the other side of lot of hard things is beauty and growth.

Christine Goforth(15:54.735)
There's not, there's no feeling like crossing that finish line. And whether it's, it's, uh, to your point at the beginning, Brian, about how the, the marathon is now like the party and the ultra is the after party. So my neighbors wanted, knew that I had gotten into running and they were like, Hey, we're doing this half marathon, come do it with us. And so I signed up for the half marathon. This was years ago. I was 28, 27, something like that.

Samantha Bauer(15:54.792)
Yeah.

Brian Hanna(15:58.999)
That's right.

Christine Goforth(16:24.374)
And it's like, I signed up for the half and a couple of weeks later, I'm like, why am I doing the half? If I'm to do it, I'm going to do it. And so going from running in my garage on a treadmill a couple miles a day to now having a training plan. Right. And it's like, everybody was to your point, why would you do this? Why are you like, you weren't a runner until recently. Why would you now? Well, because here's the thing. If I can run a half marathon,

Christine Goforth(16:24.374)
which seems completely crazy at the time, then why can't I do a full marathon, which is also crazy, right? Like, so, so then you do it and then the half marathon seems so easy, right? And props to you for going on and doing the ultras and, and training for a triathlon, right?

Samantha Bauer(17:09.13)
You

Samantha Bauer(17:16.276)
Yeah.

Brian Hanna(17:17.576)
Exactly. That's that's you're just going to keep pushing the envelope and see what's possible. you know, as

Christine Goforth(17:21.646)
Yep. Watch your knees and feet in like 15, 20 years. Protect those.

Brian Hanna(17:27.836)
gosh. Yeah. I've only got so many years in these knees, so let's just see what I can do. but yeah, no, as, as proud as I am of, all the metals that I have in my basement and the PRs and all the finish lines that I've crossed, I don't think that's necessarily the point of everything. cause you know, just because you cross a finish line doesn't mean that you're done. And then you get to be the, you know, high school quarterback that, that peeked back in the day and just talk about all the accolades that you've done in the past.

Samantha Bauer(17:28.554)
Hahaha!

Christine Goforth(17:31.692)
Yeah!

Brian Hanna(17:57.463)
It just means that you're, you know, you've proven to yourself that you can endure a process and cross the finish line. And then what are you doing now to continue to better yourself and, you know, be a role model, set yourself up for being a good friend, a good family member, a good father down the road. And then, yeah, eventually you'll come up stronger, not just physically, mentally, you know, emotionally and spiritually. And that's kind of the point of.

Brian Hanna(17:57.463)
pushing past the point of comfort and just seeing what all you're capable of doing.

Christine Goforth(18:31.406)
proving to yourself that you can do it over and over again, right? And I think, I believe it was Eddie Panero, one of my favorite people to quote that was talking about how, and now I'm totally lost my train of thought completely. goodness.

Brian Hanna(18:35.861)
And.

Samantha Bauer(18:51.754)
That's all right. That's all right. was actually going to do what you think about that, Christine, because I was going to jump in. The the other thing that kind of blew me away with with Brian is years ago, I had put a quote on the refrigerator and it was Theodore Roosevelt, man in the arena. And it it says who? Well, I'm just going to start at the top because I think it's just so powerful and.

Samantha Bauer(18:51.754)
Anyhow, this the man in the arena is actually framed and hung at on Brian's wallet in his home. And I just I couldn't believe it when I when I saw it. And so anyhow, so that so the quote is this. The credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errors, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and

Samantha Bauer(18:51.754)
who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. The cold and timid souls. The whole point is, is get into the arena, folks, right? Get out there, push yourself, challenge yourself, and you're gonna grow in ways that you never knew you would. And I think, Brian, you're a perfect example.

Christine Goforth(20:05.774)
Try.

Samantha Bauer(20:16.712)
You know, I met Brian through my daughter. think he's an amazing young man. And obviously, you know, an inspiration can be an inspiration and is an inspiration to a lot of people. So, Brian, I'm so thrilled that you came and joined it. Like, it's like this happened like like two seconds, right? I mean, this is like this time goes way, way too fast. But we appreciate you coming and sharing your journey and your message of, you know, just showing up, you know, your best self, you know, for others.

Samantha Bauer(20:16.712)
and living the life that you were meant to live. And so we're so thankful that you're here. And we've had a lot of great other conversations on other topics. I would imagine, Brian, that I will be, or we will be inviting you back.

Brian Hanna(21:04.114)
I can't wait for it. This has been an absolute pleasure and anytime I can just share any experiences with like-minded individuals and have an opportunity to help people, all for it. So thanks again for having me on.

Samantha Bauer(21:17.726)
Well said, thank you so much. Okay, well that's it for us for right now. This is Sisters-in-Law of Attraction, I'm Sam. Thanks for joining. Bye.

Christine Goforth(21:17.944)
Thank you, Brian.

Christine Goforth(21:25.419)
and I'm Christine.