Josh Bridges: SEAL, Athlete, Dad and Payer of the Man

Sean (00:00):

Hi everybody. Welcome to another edition of Two-Brain Radio with Sean Woodland. On today’s episode I speak with six-time CrossFit Games athlete Josh Bridges. Over the years I’ve covered dozens of fitness events all around the world and I’ve seen the best of the best work with coaches to find success. Yet many business owners don’t think coaches can help them. If you want to hit a revenue PR, visit Tw-Brainbusiness.com to book a free call and find out how a business coach can help you. Josh Bridges has been one of the most popular CrossFit athletes since making his debut at the Games back in 2011. He is also a former Navy SEAL and father of two young sons. We talk about his career in the military, how he found CrossFit, some of his more memorable moments competing on the tennis-stadium floor in Carson, California, and coffee. Thanks for listening everybody. Josh, how you doing man? Thanks so much for joining me.

Josh (01:01):

Thanks Sean. Thanks for having me on, brother. Appreciate it.

Sean (01:03):

Let’s go back in Josh Bridges’ life. What sports did you play growing up?

Josh (01:08):

Oh man. Everything as a kid. But like organized sports. I played baseball and then soccer, pre-high school. High school hit, I started wrestling and then baseball, did a little cross country just to stay in shape for wrestling, played rugby. Yeah, I mean, but then like, you know, like back on the streets as a kid, you know, roller hockey, basketball, football, everything.

Sean (01:41):

I know you have a pretty extensive wrestling background. What do you think it was about wrestling that hooked you?

Josh (01:47):

You know, I don’t know. I just loved it. It was a love-hate relationship. It’s a sport that is easy to not love. But it’s, you know, if you actually have a little bit of success in it and you realize like it’s just the hardest sport there is. And so, I dunno. I mean, I loved pushing myself and I loved like seeing what I was capable of doing and, you know, so wrestling is just a great sport and it builds a lot of character.

Sean (02:21):

What motivated you to join the Navy?

Josh (02:25):

In the Navy, you know what, at that point in my life, I was a loan officer and so I wasn’t really doing anything competitively. So that was, I think, a big motivation for me. I’d always had this little bit of interest as a kid wanting to like, see if I could push myself through, you know, what I thought at the time, like boot camp, oh, the toughest thing, boot camp, you know, any boot camp. And so, now after, you know, going through college sports and then getting out and not being really like, involved in anything competitively, losing that, you know, like thing that I loved the most was competing. So, you know, a buddy told me about being a Navy SEAL and what it was. I started doing some research and I was like, Oh, this sounds like cool. And it sounds like something pretty fun and something cool that I could, you know, go and try to push myself to do. And so I gave myself a year to train for it and then went in.

Sean (03:24):

What was that experience like going through BUD/S?

Josh (03:29):

Amazing. Awesome. Really fun. You know, BUD/S was, you know, it was a kick in the nuts and it was tough and it was hard, but loved every second of it. You know, enjoyed the process of it and then enjoyed once I, you know, getting through it, you know, and then realizing that Hey, OK, like the confidence you get from it, you know, being like, this is the hardest military training there is out there. And I just went through it. So, it was a lot of fun, though. I mean, you get to shoot guns, you get to run and we get to exercise. It’s tough. It’s hard, but it’s also really cool.

Sean (04:07):

How did going through wrestling prepare you at all for that experience?

Josh (04:14):

Yeah, a lot of people actually ask me, you know, about like that, like, Oh, did you get, you know, your toughness from the military or whatever. And you know, for me, I always go back to wrestling. Wrestling is where I felt like, built my mental toughness from. Wrestling is the most demanding physically and mentally sport there is out there. You can’t have a bad day; if you do have a bad day, you get your ass kicked. So it’s not like a team sport where you can hide in the, you know, in the outfield or you can hide in, you know, and just not be involved in the play where you’re always involved in wrestling. You’re always the person. It’s only you. You have no one to rely on but yourself. And you know, like wrestling is the sport where I feel the most like you can outwork your opponent, right? You might not be the most talented, but if you outwork them, there’s a possibility you can beat these guys. So, yeah, I felt like that really helped lead into to the Navy where, you know, I wanted to be the best for my teammates and you know, never wanted to let them down.

Sean (05:18):

How did that lead you to CrossFit?

Josh (05:22):

So I started CrossFit in 2005, really early January, 2005, and it was from the same guy who actually told me about the Navy and Navy SEALs. You know, interesting story. I told the story a few times, but his name was Mike and he was like, Hey, I’m going to go be a Navy SEAL. And this is how some of those guys train. It’s called CrossFit. And at the time, you know, I was really not doing anything physically. After college wrestling, I kinda like let myself go. I was like, I’m gonna take some time off and get fat and drink beer, you know, eat pizza rolls every night. So, at that point it was like, OK, let me check this out. And like immediately fell in love with it. I was like, wow, this is really fun.

Josh (06:10):

Like, it’s intense, hard workouts, just like wrestling, you can push yourself, it can actually be competitive. Which was weird, like how quickly you realize how it was competitive before it was even a sport. And so, yeah, like that was—so January, 2005, Mike was like, Hey, let’s give it a shot if you want to work out with me. Great. And I was like, OK. And I did. And fell in love with it and used it to train to put myself, you know, get prepare myself for BUD/S.

Sean (06:42):

When did you realize that you wanted to be a competitor in CrossFit?

Josh (06:47):

Pretty early. You know, actually, so I enlisted in January—in March, I’m sorry, March of 2007. And so they had already sent out like the flyer or whatever for the 2007 Games. And I was like, Oh man, they’re actually turning this into a sport that’s really cool.

Josh (07:08):

Or they’re doing a competition. And I used to post my times and scores on the main website and you know, there was like a few people that you would look and see their times to see like how comparable you were with them. And one was like James Fitzgerald, the guy who, you know, won the first CrossFit Games. And so we used to email back and forth and stuff actually, after like, you know, looking at each other’s scores and knowing we were looking at each other’s scores, it was like, oh, we started emailing and talking and you know, and he’s like, yeah, you see that they put out the flyer that they’re going to do the CrossFit Games or a competition out in California. And I was like, Oh, that’d be really fun. Needless to say, I couldn’t go to that one.

Josh (07:53):

And I enlisted in the Navy. My first few years, obviously there was no chance of me being able to compete, you know, going through BUD/S and getting into my first platoon. And, you know, as a new guy in a platoon, you’re doing all the extra work so you’re working even longer than everyone else. And so in 2011 I remember looking at the dates of everything, of the Open, the Regional and the Games. And I realized that my schedule really wasn’t—it wasn’t that bad cause I was actually at home at that point. I wasn’t on a deployment and it was a workup, but our workup schedule just allowed me to compete in 2011. And so I always wanted to compete throughout the years. I just couldn’t. And I had a different goal in mind. And so I was, you know, doing that and then asked my chief and I was like, Hey, I think I want to go try and do this CrossFit Games, you know, they put up this huge prize purse now and it’d be kind of cool if I could do it.

Josh (08:52):

He’s like, well, what’s your Fran time? He knew very little about CrossFit, but he, you know, he knew enough to ask that question and then I was like, Oh, 2:02, and he’s like, OK, you can give it a shot. So that was how I began competing.

Sean (09:11):

what were your expectations when you showed up to the Games in 2011?

Josh (09:15):

I wanted to win. I wanted to win everything. I remember my goal was to win every workout and win the CrossFit Games and, you know. I remember people always ask me like, what’s your goal? I’m like, to win everything, you know, like I set my standards really high. I thought I could do it. You know, I should have won the Open, Dan robbed me. Got 13 times and I put my score on a little too early, you know, won the Regional and I was like feeling really confident and happy and excited for the Games and when the Games showed up, I mean for me, like I don’t even remember having nerves that year. Like I was just like excited to be there, excited to do the competition and excited to be on the floor with a lot of these people that I’d watched their videos and seeing how well they’d done in the previous years past. And for me, I was just like, I know I can beat these guys. I knew I could. And so, obviously Rich, you know, had something else to say about that, but yeah, so it was fun. But my goal was to win it.

Sean (10:15):

You finished second, which was impressive. How did that result motivate you moving forward?

Josh (10:23):

It was a big motivator for me. I remember being like angry, you know, when I got second. I was sitting in the back with I think Rich and Ben and you know, being like, your medal looks so much better than mine does. And I remember like feeling really good and I continued to train and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to be at the 2012 CrossFit Games due to I was going on deployment later that year, in 11, I think I left actually in 11 before and so it was supposed to be like a longer deployment. I think it was supposed to be a nine-month deployment that time. So I knew I was not going to be able to compete in the 2012 Games, but I was still continuing to train and like everything was doing great. Numbers were going up and I felt better and you know, then I dislocated my knee in April, so that put a hold on everything.

Sean (11:19):

What was it like having to watch that competition from the sidelines knowing that you were probably the best version of yourself at that point?

Josh (11:27):

Yeah. You know, that was interesting. Well at that point when the Games had come around, I had already injured myself. So it wasn’t really that big of a deal. For me it was just like I actually got to go, I got to come down. Cause I was home obviously at that point. So I injured myself on deployment, came home, flew home, got my surgery and actually when the Games was happening, my second son was being born. And so, I want to say the day that they did the Camp Pendleton triathlon, I was in the hospital watching it online while my kid was, you know, like being born. So that was really cool. And then we had a bunch of family in town and so I got to come, I drove up to LA for a day, just for one day, but you know, got to actually see a little bit of the 2012 Games and then came home.

Josh (12:20):

So, yeah, you know, it was tough. Obviously I wanted to be out there and knowing that you know, if this injury hadn’t happened, you know, who knows what would’ve happened. But, you know, either way it is what it is. And the fact that I came back in less than a year after that, or a little over a year and took seventh in the 13 Games was super—for me, it’s one of the things that I look back on, like damn, I can’t believe I actually did that. Like, it’s a tough thing to do. And that was probably one of the things I’m more proud of.

Sean (12:52):

You had to compete in that Southern California Regional and the California Regional at one of the—it was one of the marquee Regionals in Southern California. What stands out to you about the years that you spent competing in Del Mar against that field?

Josh (13:07):

It was just really fun, you know, and I felt like every year, new guys were coming or it was getting tougher because they kept expanding our region. It was like, Oh, this region isn’t like, I dunno. It’s not tough enough. So we gotta keep making it bigger and bigger and bring more guys in. I want to say the final season, the final Regional season when it was the West, you had all of California, all of the Northwest and then half of Canada and you’re like, this is half a continent. This is insane. And so there were, I want to say it was 16 individual CrossFit Games competitors at that Regional and knowing that only five were getting to go to the CrossFit Games. It’s like, wow, 11 prior CrossFit Games individuals will not be going to the Games this year.

Josh (14:04):

So it was crazy. It was cool. Yeah. I always loved it. I loved the competition. I loved, like Del Mar is just like hands down, you know, besides the actual home Depot Center or whatever—SubHub, you know, besides that is like by far my favorite venue. I mean, it’s an amazing venue. It’s, you know, open, it’s kind of outside, kind of inside. The crowds are so big and so loud and so it was, yeah, it’s a great place to compete.

Sean (14:41):

Dan Bailey once told me that he thought that Regionals were more pressure-packed than the Games. Would you agree with that?

Josh (14:50):

I would agree with it in the sense that it was a qualifier. And so you had—and you knew there was only six events and the fact that if you made one big mistake there was probably a good shot you weren’t going to the Games. So yeah, in that aspect, yes. Personally for me, you know, like whenever I went to the CrossFit Games, I wanted to win it. And so the pressure was there anyways. You know, going through Regionals was always tough and exactly like, you know, I had the year, you know, a year where I stumbled and I didn’t qualify, 15, where you know, I didn’t deserve to be, I wasn’t fit as I should have been. So, but yeah, you know, in a way, definitely more pressure. But for me, I put so much pressure on myself anyways at the CrossFit Games it was pretty similar, you know. And so for me, the Regionals was just a stepping stone to get there, to my ultimate goal.

Sean (15:41):

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Sean (16:30):

You mentioned you make it back to the Games in 2013 after missing in 2012, finish seventh, you win three events including two in the tennis stadium. What was it about that setting that brought the best out in you?

Josh (16:44):

Yeah. I don’t know. I just loved it. I mean, it was amazing. It was at night, the under the lights. You know, hopefully I was in the final heat. You know, there was a couple of times where I wasn’t, but it didn’t even matter. You know, and I think that those, I don’t know if it was so much like where it was at or if it was the workouts that Dave program for those evenings that just really suited me or I just really enjoyed it, it was typically more organic CrossFit and more like grassroots CrossFit. And so I love those, you know, style of workouts and it was just so loud and so packed and you’re like, it was a bowl, right? And you’re like, all the eyes are on you. And it felt a lot like a wrestling match where like, it’s you against these, you know, other athletes, these Goliaths, and you know, I just wanted to prove everyone wrong that, you know, you don’t have to be this big huge guy to be fit. So, it was fun. It was like, I wish, you know, I hope one year it goes back and some these other athletes, these younger athletes get to get to feel that, you know, because it’s nothing—like Madison’s awesome in its own way, but it’s nothing like, you know, that setting.

Sean (17:58):

Yeah. That tennis stadium is something special. After your performance in 2013, how are you feeling about your chances of getting to the podium in the coming years?

Josh (18:09):

Yeah, I felt good, you know, 13, I was happy with where—you know, I wasn’t—obviously at the end of the day I was, I wasn’t happy with seventh, but looking back on it, I was. I knew that if I trained the right way, if I put in the work, I could get back to the podium. And then 14, you know, I mean going into Sunday I was only, I want to say 17 points behind first place, behind Rich. And so, and Mat was like nine points ahead—nine points back. So sitting in third, going into Sunday, I felt really good. I was like, I could win this, you know, like this is, you know, I’m in the podium position. That’s great. But obviously the ultimate goal was to win. So yeah, I felt good about it.

Josh (18:50):

Ended up losing it on the last day, didn’t have a great Sunday. Some events came up that I should have done well at that I struggled at because I didn’t put the right work in like, GHDs. Oh yeah. I didn’t really do a lot of those. And then Sunday morning it’s like, we’re going to do a lot of GHDs and then lunge, and then, yeah, the overhead squat event at the end. And the double Grace just didn’t go the way I wanted them to go. And so, you know, fell back to fourth, in 2014, but, you know, it is what it is. And that was a learning lesson for me. And, I felt like my fitness was there. I knew that I was, you know, I could taste it. I knew that it was reachable again. So that was a good feeling,

Sean (19:34):

You had, I think to me what was one of your most memorable performances in push pull that year. It’s still one of my favorite events of all time. What do you remember about what transpired on the tennis stadium or that night in that event?

Josh (19:48):

Yeah, that event was awesome. It was, I mean, people always ask me, what was one of your favorite events? And obviously that’s one of the first ones that always comes up because it was such a battle and was such a fight. You know, I remember going into that workout being like, man, that was like a lot of weight on those sleds. Like I have no idea how that’s going to go. And we didn’t get to touch it. We didn’t get to feel what it was gonna feel like. So I just remember like being down there and being like, OK, let’s just go. You know, I knew I was going to do well at the handstand push-ups. And I didn’t know how the other guys would hold up with it. So, I loved that the fact that it was strict handstand push-ups, there was no kipping yet, which was amazing.

Josh (20:28):

And so, yeah, it was great. I mean, and then I just remember on that last pull just kind of like, I didn’t come out hot. I just kinda, I wasn’t in the lead for a while. I want to say Ben was in the lead for a little bit and then maybe even Rich. And so I just remember coming off that final handstand push-up quite a bit ahead of everyone and I’m just watching and pulling and I see Rich come down. I’m like, OK, here we go. I know he’s gonna pull the sled a little bit quicker than I am. So I’m literally, I wasn’t even looking at where my sled was at I was looking and watching Rich’s the whole time and just being like, why is his moving? I just kept pulling and pulling, and I wasn’t going to let it go because of some heavy weight. So it was that—the feeling that went through my body after that, like nothing about that celebration was orchestrated. It was just like this pure rush of like adrenaline that like hit me cause I was so fired up. So, yeah, that was such a great moment.

Sean (21:35):

Yeah. It’s still one of my all-time favorite moments in the tennis stadium. You go from taking fourth and then you mentioned failing to qualify in 2015. What was going through your head at the California Regional when you realized, all right, I just took sixth and I’m not going?

Josh (21:49):

Yeah, it was, you know, it was a humbling experience. It was something I needed at the time. Looking back, I kind of I started to rely on like, oh my past accomplishments and not realizing like, Oh, I still need to put the work in. And that was the first year, 15 was the first year where they put the super Regional and, hey, go, go, go lay down, go lay down. Ah, sorry. My dog just wants to be petted. Yeah, I just need pets, man. Go, go, lay down. Go. And so I started to rely on my past accomplishments and really wasn’t putting in the work that I knew I needed to put in. And, I just remember reading an article about someone saying, you know, it was a professional, I think, I want to say it was Jeremy Shockey and I’ve read this quote where he said, you know, “I remember after losing a football game, I went home and ate dirt because I wanted to remember that taste in my mouth.”

Josh (22:49):

And, you know, I kind of had that same feeling. I was like, yeah, all right. I never want to feel like this, like I’m feeling again right now. And someone had a video, I want to say it might’ve been Sevan, of like the moment I actually like looked up at the screen and realized I was in sixth place, and I snapshotted it and I kept it in my phone and I like looked at that picture a lot so I could see like, Hey, remember that feeling right there. And so I don’t think I’ve ever trained as hard as I have—the volume, the work that I put in from 15 to 16. And so yeah, it was, you know, 16 was a fun year. Getting back to the CrossFit Games and going through that season, the Open and the Regional and you know, getting to the Games, I kind of fell short of what I really thought I was capable of doing. I don’t know what happened. But yeah,15 was a good eye-opening experience and it was a great, you know, like for me it was a great motivator.

Sean (23:44):

Yeah. You answered my next question, which was how did that affect, you know, going forward the next two years cause you smashed the Regionals of the next two years in California.

Josh (23:51):

Yeah. It felt good, you know, I mean 16, there was nothing stopping me. I was going to go through any brick wall that was there. 17 felt good, too. 17 was the year of all the dumbbells too, right? Was that the year where the region was all bells I think. Yeah. So yeah, that was fun. It was interesting year and so no, it was great. Yeah. And again, like nothing will teach you more in life than failure. Right. It was a great motivator for me.

Sean (24:23):

Are you done competing?

Josh (24:23):

Never done. Not until the wheels fall off, Sean.

Sean (24:29):

What are your plans moving forward now for competition?

Josh (24:31):

So, yeah. I had two surgeries this year. Knee surgery and elbow surgery and you know, starting to come back, starting to feel good. And so, I’m gonna, you know, make a run at trying to go to the Games again. If I could sneak in this year and get in a late Sanctional, then that’d be awesome. But if not, you know, I’ll move on to 2021.

Sean (24:57):

Let’s say you make it this year. Realistically, what would be your expectations in Madison?

Josh (25:02):

You know, right now, like I think I’m in the stage of my career where like my expectations are—I’m trying to be realistic with myself and so I’m not going to say I don’t want to win cause I do, but, you know, I’m trying to be realistic, especially coming off two surgeries and things like that. So, you know, just getting there would be a big accomplishment for me right now. But I wouldn’t want to go there just to participate. I’d go there and you know, I’d put the effort in and you know, see what happens, but I don’t think I’d have any expectations on myself to be honest.

Sean (25:34):

Your sons are getting old enough now to start to understand what you did during your CrossFit career. What do they think about you as an athlete?

Josh (25:44):

My boys are awesome. They’re great. They’re both athletes themselves. And so, you know, we have to have a lot of discussions when things don’t go the way that they want it to and things like that. And so, but they’re awesome, you know, and I don’t push them out in the gym. They don’t like train with me or anything like that. But sometimes I’ll come out there and there’ll be like their barbell out and stuff like that. I’m like, who let the barbell out? And it was like, Oh, you know, I did. And I’m like, ah, there we go. I like it. I like that, you know, like, it’s cool and it’s been a fun experience. And, they’re starting to realize, yeah, like Dad was a professional athlete.

Josh (26:21):

Oh, Dad was on TV. And my younger one will come out and actually he’ll like, you know, I’ll see him out there and I’ll kinda like come out and kind of watch him without me knowing and he’ll be doing like CrossFit-style workouts where going from like different things to different things and so it’s really cool, but they’re hard. They’re not easy on me, you know, we were at Mayhem, they were like, they were like, like I want to say we came back to Rich’s and we’re watching the video just to see how it looked of the first night, I didn’t do it. It was the dumbbell snatch one. And my oldest looks up and he goes, oh Dad, if your knee wasn’t hurting, you would be out there and you would have kicked their butts. And he goes, but in real life you’re a loser.

Sean (27:04):

Thanks son.

Josh (27:06):

I like it. Keep me on my toes. Good. I appreciate it. No, they’re awesome.

Sean (27:11):

You offer some mental prep courses on your website, Joshbridges.com. What are the main things that people need to know in order to have a strong mental game?

Josh (27:23):

Yeah, that’s tough. I like to give people just like things that I use in certain instances in life where it gets like things get tough and like where it would be easy to be like, Oh, this isn’t worth it. I’m going to give up. Right? And so, I don’t know if you can actually, like—I can’t make you be mentally tough, right? I can give you the things that I have used in my past to help people be mentally tough. And so, you know, that’s kind of what that is. It kind of gives you my story. And then the things that I’ve been taught from other people, right? Like, I mean, one of my favorite things was when an instructor looked at me and he’s like, he brought us into a classroom and we had this great mentor and who was just like lesser men than you. And you know what? The fact that he said lesser men, it didn’t even really matter. He didn’t have to say lesser men, but I think it was more of an impact on us, was lesser men than you’ve come through this programming and gotten through it. Either way you, other men have gotten gone through this program and done it.

Josh (28:26):

Why can’t you? And so for me in my life, that’s something that I’ve always used is like, if someone else could do this, why can’t I do it? And so I think that that’s helped a lot and you know, mentally being like, why do I need to give up? That guy’s not giving up. Why do I gotta quit? That guy’s not quitting. So, you know, for me that’s always been huge. And just and knowing that, and then another thing is knowing that no one can stop time. So whatever it is that you’re doing, whatever moment you’re in, no matter how bad it sucks, how bad you hurt, like it’s going to come to an end. That pain will go away. And whether you’re there or not, if you’d quit or didn’t quit, then you have to deal with those consequences right. With your decision. So, I kind of take that in stride is where it’s like no one can stop time and no one can make me quit. And so if I can use that in life, then that’s great. And so I, you know, that’s like, that’s the kind of stuff that you get on that, you know, mental prep course that I put out there.

Sean (29:32):

What does it mean for someone to be mentally tough?

Josh (29:37):

You know, that’s a great question. It can mean lot of different things. It doesn’t have to be in the physical aspect. It can be in, you know, your everyday life, right? Life’s tough. Life’s hard. It’s not easy. You know, just getting through day to day, it can be a grind sometimes. I mean, there’s a lot of things happen in life. Life’s not challenging. It’s going to knock you down no matter what it is that you’re doing. So, just being able to push when you don’t want to push or getting up and doing the things that you know you have to do, even though you maybe you don’t want to do them, I mean that’s mentally tough. So, there’s a lot of different meanings to it and each person has their own.

Sean (30:18):

How did Good Dudes Coffee come about?

Josh (30:20):

Good Dudes Coffee. Here we go. Very serious talk to let’s talk coffee. So coffee became something of a passion of mine ever since I was in the military. I needed it in the military. I didn’t drink coffee prior to, so when I had to start using it on, you know, using the caffeine to keep myself awake at night and things like that, I was like, OK. And whenever I get into something, it’s like we’re going full throttle, we’re going pro in this, I don’t care what it is, whether coffee or CrossFit or whatever, we’re going to go pro, we’re going to go all the way. And so when I got into coffee, I started looking up, you know, like, Oh, what’s the best coffee? And started ordering that. And then one time, so I’m over in Iraq and I’m in my room and I’m in my trailer. We lived really rough over there, let me tell you. I had a full trailer to myself with wifi. So, I’m ordering coffee offline and like to get shipped over there. And I hit this drop down box and I was like, OK, I can get five, 10, 15 pounds of coffee and then there was this had little print that said green next to one of them. And it was like on the cheap, it was the one of the cheaper sides of it. And I was like, OK, I’ll get that one. And it shows up and it’s unroasted coffee beans. And I was like, what the hell? I’m like, OK, what am I going to do with $150 worth of unroasted coffee beans. Obviously I’m going to buy a roaster, Sean, and I’m going to sit it over—roasting my own coffee in Iraq.

Josh (31:56):

And so that’s exactly what happened. Bought an air roaster, which is like, basically it’s like a popcorn popper that you put your coffee beans in and, you know, fell in love with the passion of coffee at that point and like, thought it was really cool and I enjoyed it. And, later on down the road, you know, like Rich, Dan and myself are in the barn at you know, at Rich Senior’s and we are just coming up with an idea to like, you know, us go do these seminars, or not seminars, but athlete camps where, you know, people get to train with us. And then we’re like, well, what else could we do with Good Dudes? And I was like, well, I’ve always wanted to open up a coffee shop or some sort of coffee, you know, whatever brand or whatever like that. And so that’s really how it started. And then it just kind of, I kind of figured out logistics of it over the past couple of years and finally launched it this year. It’s going great. And yeah, Gooddudescoffee.com. It’s amazing.

Sean (32:52):

Are there plans to possibly open an actual physical brick and mortar location?

Josh (32:58):

So we’re going to launch—so Mayhem is going to be the first actual like Good Dudes Coffee shop and so it’s going to be only Good Dudes Coffee there and it’s going to called Good Dudes Coffee. So yeah, that’s the first location. But yeah, we actually, you know, we want to get in and like, you know, get a location and have like a roaster and everything like that. So yeah, that’s all coming.

Sean (33:24):

Oh, I can’t wait. You will always be remembered not only for your ability on the floor, but also the fire and the passion that you always showed during competition. Where do you think that came from?

Josh (33:38):

I just, I don’t know, to be honest. You know, like, I mean I’ve always been a pretty outwardly emotional guy. Like, I don’t hide my emotions in anything, in any aspect of my life. When it came to wrestling, when it came to other sports, when it came to, you know, just anything. So, it’s just who I was. It was just who I am. Like I’m not, you know, I put myself out there. I don’t pretend to be anything I’m not. And so competing was just something I loved and it, you know, it gets me more fired up than competing in anything. So like, I, you know, my kids beat me in sports and so, cause I know there’s gonna be years down the road where they’re going to beat the crap out of me at a lot of stuff. And so I’m getting my W’s in right now. And it’s just, you know, that emotion just came from years of, you know, hard work and just enjoying it, you know, just enjoying it so much. Like, you know, I love sports. I love all of them. And that fire just comes from within, I don’t know.

Sean (34:45):

Final question. What are you the most proud of when you look back on your career?

Josh (34:52):

That’s a great question. There’s a lot of things I’m proud of, you know, just, the work that I’ve put in, you know, the hard work and the sac— don’t even like to comp sacrifices. I don’t feel like I was sacrificing cause I wasn’t doing anything that I didn’t want to do. Like I loved doing all of it and but yeah, you know, just going out and competing and putting in the work in and enjoying the process and trying to do it right, so I would say that’s the thing I’m most proud of, not at any single like event or anything like that. It’s just the years of sacrifice, or not sacrifice, but the hard work and you know, and so, yeah, probably that.

Sean (35:41):

Josh, I appreciate your time. Best of luck with everything with the kids, with Good Dudes Coffee. Hopefully I’ll be walking into one of those establishments soon.

Josh (35:48):

For sure. Thanks for having me on, Sean, I appreciate it.

Sean (35:49):

I want to thank Josh Bridges once more for taking the time to speak with me. If you want to follow him on Instagram, he is @bridgesj3, and his website is josh-bridges.com. This has been another episode of Two-Brain Radio. If you’re a gym owner and would like to add $5,000 a month in revenue, visit TwoBrainbusiness.com to book a free call. We’ll tell you how a mentor can help you level up fast. Thanks for listening, everybody. I’m Sean Woodland and we’ll see you next time.

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