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Brandon Steiger, President, 2120 Creative
You start the day with the best intentions. You’re determined to go for a run, take a walk or head to the gym. But then a big meeting comes up, or family things, or you’re just too tired. And after a dinner of takeout or chips and salsa, there’s no time left, so it will have to be tomorrow.
How do you keep yourself healthy? In the tech industry, we’re mostly sedentary creatures. And the harder we work, the more we can pay for it in terms of losses to our physical and mental health.
As the President of 2120 Creative, Brandon Steiger knows how this goes. Emerging from college as an athlete, he traded two-a-days running and playing soccer for nights sleeping on a cot at a dot-com. Then one day, he found he hardly recognized himself in family photos, and knew he had to change. Inspired by the book Atomic Habits, friends and trainers, he committed to prioritizing his health, even if it was just lacing up his running shoes. Hear how Brandon is putting health and family first while balancing the demands of owning a business.
Carl: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Bureau Briefing. It's Carl and with me today I have a good friend who has been around the Bureau for a while, he's part of our Founders Club, attended numerous Bureau events and is the president of 2120 and a former college athlete. It's Mr. Brandon Steiger. How are you, Brandon?
Brandon: Hey Carl, I'm good. How are you doing today?
Carl: I'm good, man. I bring up the athlete thing because we were talking a few days ago and that's what brought this episode up, which is basically what this industry can do to us physically as well as mentally. Talk a little bit about you, and being a college athlete, and how your life changed once you went into the workforce.
Brandon: Yeah. Strangely I can remember it vividly. I will say nowadays though, my mind hasn't changed, so I believe I still have the body of a college athlete. My body doesn't agree with me.
Carl: I-
Brandon: Go ahead.
Carl: I never had the body of a college athlete, but I still thought I did. I just want everybody to know that. I have nothing to lean on there.
Brandon: Oh Carl, you're good, you're good. It was fascinating because I got out of college, or I should back up first to say in college, I remember we'd run six miles in the morning and then we'd have three hours of soccer practice in the evenings. You could eat anything that you want. You can drink whatever you wanted and you could still lose weight. That was the awesome thing. Whole pizza? Not a problem. A second pizza? Sure, why not? The only regret was the occasional and the burp when you're running. You're like, "Oh that was gross."
Carl: That was not good.
Brandon: No, not good. But I remember the first job right out of college, I was fortunate enough to work for a dotcom, they're on Silicon Valley. The nights were long, the days were long because we would be there at 6:30 in the morning, sometimes even earlier. There's all the stories of the dotcom. You'd have all the food, the drinks, they wanted to keep you there. There were some nights that we would literally sleep there, and they had cot rooms so you could just go straight from your desk, get some pizza, get some food, go up to a cot room, catch a couple of winks, and start all over.
Carl: Oh my God.
Brandon: Your life went from being literally miles of running every day to now I'm sitting in my chair all day long. They never tell you this when you're an athlete, is when that happens you have to also change how you eat. I didn't, and you could say, many, many pounds later, that was the result. It was quite the impact, as you could say,
Carl: Definitely. I remember when I went from college. Now the thing was, I was never in great shape, I was always in okay shape. I remember going from college and a tremendous amount of drinking. I went to UF, there's nothing I can deny here.
Brandon: Sorry.
Carl: No, no. It worked out fine. Then-
Brandon: I'm talking about UF.
Carl: I know you are, and I'm saying it's going to work out fine except for this whole Auburn thing. We'll be fine.
Brandon: Okay.
Carl: But I went into advertising, which had even more drinking with less activity, except now I went from not really eating a whole lot to eating really rich foods.
Brandon: Oh yeah.
Carl: It was the same thing. I remember in early 2002 stepping on a scale and was the first time I'd ever been over 200 pounds. I'm just a little bit over six foot. That was terrifying for me because I wore it all straight in my gut. Even though it had been years, I was like, "How did this happen?"
Brandon: Right. Oh, exactly. It takes some toll on yourself, both psychologically and emotionally because you just don't feel as good as you want to.
Carl: No. How long were you at the dotcom and was it at some point there that you realize, "Whoa, things are changing? I don't feel like I used to."
Brandon: Strangely enough, it's actually a pretty vivid memory because literally right after I got out of college, I got married.
Carl: Heather.
Brandon: Yeah, Heather. Heather accepted me always for who I am and I've always loved that about her. As most wives do, they love us with [crosstalk 00:04:47]. It was great. I remember I would come home at night, we used to joke around, our favorite dinner was chips and salsa. Time went on and stuff and I remember gaining weight, but it wasn't until we had our second kid, who was a girl, little Nadia Joy. She truly became that joy in my life. I remember, I happened to be looking at some pictures. This is now maybe seven or eight years, so a long time has gone by, and I just started seeing some pictures of me interacting with her and I'm like, "Who is this slob?"
Carl: Aw.
Brandon: It was actually disgusting. I was like, "I don't want to see that picture." If it wasn't for my daughter, I'd want to burn all those pictures.
Brandon: I remember I went to a wedding and it was probably one of the most, I think almost eye opening moments. I went to a wedding where the dad had passed away from heart disease. The husband's dad walked her down the aisle and it was such a sweet thing. I just remember at that point, Carl, this was [inaudible 00:06:03], I was almost 300 pounds at this point in my life. I was like, "This is ridiculous. It's got to change." I said, "I want to watch my daughter graduate."
Carl: Yeah.
Brandon: I want to give her away on her special day. That was the first instance for me. I went down this road, I remember this was, I don't know, I think it was April, because her birthday's in April. By May I was like, "Okay, I got a plan. I know how to do this." I've been an athlete, I've been in harder situations. It's just training. So I did, I started literally on Memorial Day. I remember it was the worst day to start because we had a big friends and family picnic and there was amazing food. I remember I literally got a plate full of broccoli.
Carl: Oh, dude.
Brandon: I'm like, "I'm going to eat broccoli. No beer, nothing." I cut out everything, I went cold turkey. Then I started the run. I had some friends, remind you, I'm close to 300 pounds and I had friends that were running a marathon. This was end of May and their marathon's in November. One guy's an FBI agent, but all of them were on great shape. I'm like, "You know what? I want to start running with you guys." I'm talking with them, I said, "Yeah, I've been going to the gym. I'm running." They're like, "Well, why don't you come run with us?" I was like, "Sure, why not?"
Brandon: The first run-
Carl: I can see this coming.
Brandon: Six miles.
Carl: Okay.
Brandon: We get three miles in, and I have always said this about myself, I am not the fastest person in the world. I just never was built with speed. I'm more like an ox, I'm slow but I'm steady and I'll go the long haul. Literally I ran with them for the first three miles and I kept hinting, "Yeah, I kind of need a break. I'm kind of dying here." Again remember, just under 300 pounds trying to run six miles.
Carl: Dude, that's insane.
Brandon: But I did. I ran the three miles, it hurt. Then they said, "Fine, let's take a break and then we're going to run again." So we did. Fast forward, I signed up to do a half marathon probably around ... This was around, what time was it? About August. In the three months I went back to playing soccer and I joined two different teams. I would hang out at the soccer field and anytime another team needed a player, I would volunteer. In a week I could be playing four to five games. Then I was running and then I started training for this half marathon. By the end of August I was now down to 230, so I'd lost 60 pounds already.
Carl: What?
Brandon: Yeah.
Carl: That's crazy fast.
Brandon: Yeah.
Carl: That feels unhealthy fast.
Brandon: Oh yeah, it was. It was. By October I was down back to 200. Literally almost 100 pounds. The problem with that is I loved how I looked, but as you know, we've talked about it a lot in that Slack channel about health and wellness, is I wasn't doing it right.
Carl: Right.
Brandon: It was frustrating because I was still eating the same way, but I was just basically working myself out.
Carl: Yeah.
Brandon: Really what happened, I started reading a book. I blank on the guy's name, I think it's James Clearly, it's called Atomic Habits. It recommended by a couple of guys in the Bureau and is more about their businesses. I did that earlier this year. That's probably about December-ish. Reading it, it was all about these micro moments and habits and how do you really break it? Basically, since I did that first half marathon, I went up and I went down, up and down. I'm like, "Man, something has got to change. It's just not right."
Brandon: The whole book was about really making micro adjustments. For example, it talked about the neuroscience in your brain. It said, for example, you really only need two minutes of a day or every day to build a sustainable habit, a lifelong habit. He goes, "For example, if you can't run, it's okay. But put your tennis shoes on, your running shoes, because it tricks your brain into thinking I'm doing the habit," because you're going through the motions.
Brandon: I started that process, actually I'd probably say it's almost, it's probably earlier than last December I read the book. Anyway, I started doing that and I literally put a calendar up on our refrigerator because I'm like, "You know what? I need to see it." I also needed to change how I was eating, what I was eating, drinking, et cetera. On the calendar, literally I'd just highlight the day, if I worked out then I would literally just say what I did. It'd be like 30 minutes of running, 20 minutes of walking. The goal was you had to do 30 minutes, that was my goal.
Carl: Of whatever it was, it had to be 30 minutes?
Brandon: Whatever it was, yeah.
Carl: Okay.
Brandon: Whatever it was, some type of exercise. It really started that simply and even to the point where it's like, "Man, I can't work out today. I've got a business meeting, I've got this." I literally got to the point where I wouldn't highlight those days, but I'd write on the days if I put my shoes on. Literally that's kind of what started the journey just under a year ago.
Carl: That's amazing. The whole calendar thing, I'm not great with that. I think that's awesome, I was never able to do it. One thing I started doing, and I know we're talking about this micro habits, is sometimes I'll sleep in my running clothes if I know I'm supposed to get up early for a run.
Brandon: That's actually a good idea.
Carl: Because I hate getting up early. There's really no reason. I mean fishing, okay. Maybe we're going on a trip, okay. But yeah, so I would just, I'd wake up and I go, "Oh, I got my running clothes on," and then my brain is suddenly thinking about the route I'm going to take. Then the next thing I know I'm out before six and that's really rare for me. It was funny, I never thought of it as forming a habit. I just thought this will give me an extra two minutes to sleep.
Brandon: Right. It's funny you say that because I think the challenge is if I think back over the last year and in my journey, it'd be little things like I would almost find an excuse to do it or not do it. For example, and you can relate, it's like, "Wow, it's dark. I don't really want to go out running in the dark." Or the bigger one that I'm afraid of is I don't want to wake up my wife.
Carl: Oh.
Brandon: Then I'm like, "Well, I'll just lay here in bed because I want to be respectful of her, I want her to sleep." I've done the same thing. I don't do the clothes on, the running clothes that is, but what I do is I'll put it right outside our bedroom. I'm like, "I don't have an excuse."
Carl: Yeah. Where are you now and where are you headed? Not just in terms of weight, but just overall you.
Brandon: Yeah. We started the conversation around the weight conversation and running, but one of the things, I'd say there's actually something else that really happened. I was trying to get back in the running and there was this runner, his name's Tommy Riggs, an ultra marathoner. I've got this treadmill and of course it's got to be tacky. It's got a big screen on it. What's cool-
Carl: I'm so jealous right now.
Brandon: I know, it's great. What's great, it has this big screen and you could say, "Well, I want to run in Portugal." The treadmill goes up and down to match the terrain that you're on-
Carl: That's so amazing.
Brandon: As you're running. They've got these programs where you could run with a trainer. His whole thing was about what was going on in the body and how you're growing it. One of the biggest things that I learned was run to your heart rate. I've always been one, I have a really low heart rate. My resting heart rate is in the 50s, low 50s.
Carl: Yeah, same.
Brandon: An accelerated heart rate for me it could be 80 and I can tell you when it gets to 80. I'm like "Oh, something's going on." His whole big thing was if you run to your heart rate and he's like "Run to your low or medium." They said the actual average, big time athlete when they train, they're actually training at low intensity. They're just doing a long time of it. I got to this place of running, of not caring about how fast I went or how far I went. It was more about just," Hey, monitor my heart rate and start. Just go and just do."
Brandon: There'll be days I'm like, "Man, that heart rate go sky high running." I just stop and I've given myself the permission to be like, "Okay, I'm going to stop and I'm going to walk."
Carl: Yeah.
Brandon: "Bring my heart rate back down and I'm going to start again." I found that I've really enjoyed that process. Because of that little training I was doing, I actually took that a lot into other parts of my life. I was like, "I need to give myself permission to stop. I need to give myself permission to slow down and not worry about what my peers are doing." Our peers are a lot of business owners. I was talking with my wife this weekend, and we've got some peers, they're in their late 50s, early 60s, and they're on the downhill cycle, and their businesses have been around for 30 years. I compare myself and I'm like, "Man, I want to be that." I'm like, "Oh, you know what? It's okay. You'll get there, just take your time."
Brandon: I think with that, that little bit tied together with the atomic habits really forced me almost to be okay with slowing down. Okay stopping and knowing that there are moments where the analogy of your accelerated heart rate, where you're really busy, and there's other moments where you step back and just enjoy. For me, one of the biggest things that I enjoy is I enjoy my family. I have a virtual assistant and we've been playing around with letting other people in the company have virtual assistants because her main job is to help protect me and let me know it's okay.
Brandon: My son plays football and I was like, "You know what? I need to be at all of his games." I said, "They're every Wednesday, they start at 3:00, and I just need to be out of the office by 2:30 so I can make it to the game." Because that's what's important, that's me taking my rest and making myself healthy. She does it and there's a part of me cringes, like, "Am I missing the next big deal?" I'm like, "You know what? It's all right. It's totally fine."
Brandon: I think that's kind of been the biggest, almost change of my life. When you brought up the the Slack channel about health and wellness, my first thought was health. Am I running? Am I working out? I was like, "I don't want to join this channel. I don't want to do that." Who wants to be reminded of how slow or how many times they're not working out?
Carl: Oh man. It was funny, when I opened it up I was just like, "What's this going to be?"
Brandon: Exactly. I'm like, "Great. This is what I need, someone else telling me how bad I'm doing." But it was great. One day it was a Saturday and there was nobody around, nobody around. I'm just like, "You know what? Let me go look at this channel." Don't know what sparked. I just started reading people's comments. I was like, "Wow, this is actually really healthy." But not a sense of like, "I feel guilty because I'm the not running a marathon every weekend." It was just how do I take care of me? Because when I take care of me, I'm a better person for my wife, and for my kids, for my team, ultimately for our clients. That's been, I'd say one of the most satisfying things in reading that channel, is just people's stories and people's struggles. I think is kind of the coolest thing is, "You know what? I'm not alone there. I get it."
Carl: Yeah. For me, that channel became such a catharsis of just people talking about how they were. Yeah, there was a lot of talk in there about running, or yoga, meditation, journaling. There were little things that came through there, intermittent fasting, I think a little bit. But what you really realize was everybody's just talking about whatever tools they're using to try to get themselves okay. What I think was great about what you just said, about giving yourself permission to take those breaks. I know people who run marathons, and ultras, and all this and when they take a short break, like two or three minutes every three miles, they've increased their performance, taking 10, 15, 20% off their times. If that's the thing you're into. That was one of the things I liked that you said as well, because for me, I basically run to the amount of time I have.
Brandon: Mm, yeah.
Carl: It's never been this idea of a certain distance, a certain speed, because I would hate that and I would rebel against it really quick. Whereas it's just about, I have this time to get away from everything. So much you were just talking about in there that just absolutely resonated. I think the biggest part is just taking that time for ourselves. Taking the time, like you said, to go to your son's football games. Have you ever heard, there's a runner, I can't remember his name, but his nickname is the Penguin?
Brandon: I've heard of the runner, but I don't know who he is.
Carl: He finishes last in everything he enters. What he's become well known, in the different larger races, because when he comes up to the water station, he always asked the same question, "Have any fast runners come by yet?" Everybody always tells him, "No, you're the first." They will just grab the water and thrust it out. There a thousand people coming at them, but it's just him and he's still five minutes away from getting there. They asked him about it and he said, "Well, for me, I've won every one of those runs. I win every one." He goes, "I'm that kid that you see out in the ballpark who just hit the home run, or just won the swim meet, or just whatever it is because in my mind that's where I live and so I can just be the best at this every single time."
Brandon: Oh, absolutely. I think the challenge by nature, as being business owners, whether it's of a digital shop or a some manufacturing plant, by nature we're competitive. Otherwise why would we be in business, first off.
Carl: Because we thought we could do it better. That's the competitive thing.
Brandon: I know.
Carl: "I can't believe I worked for this person, what do you doing?"
Brandon: I know.
Carl: It's like, "I could do so much better than this guy."
Brandon: I think that's the challenge, how do you ... This is my deep thinking that I always think about. I'm like, "Do I want my kids to be like me? Do I want them to see a role model of a guy always working?" It's that whole adage that people talk about. When you die, you're not going to bring a U-Haul with you. I always think about this way, when I die, I really doubt my kids are going to say, "I wish my dad would've worked more."
Carl: Yeah.
Brandon: They're not. Same with our employees, and our team, and other people around me. They're going to remember the stories, the times we laughed, the times we cried. If anything, it's what can I role model to them, and the people around me in my life, and go, "How can I just show almost health in my mind." Now I'm starting to do it with my body. It's a fascinating world because if you think about it when you go to school or if you don't, a lot of times people don't say, "Take care of you." When you go to business school, they don't say, "Take care of you." They're like, "Take care of the numbers. What are your numbers? What are your numbers?" It's like the Shark Tank. When was the last time you ever heard them say, "What are you doing to protect yourself?"
Brandon: It's a challenge, I'll tell you what. I can tell you there are good days, and there's bad days, and there's good weeks, and there's bad weeks. Literally on my calendar last week I had four days I didn't do anything. It drove me nuts. I literally wrote on the calendar in a big Sharpie, I went, "Boo" across the whole week. It wasn't to beat myself op, it was just more to say, "Man, I messed that up." I was like, you know what? When I realized what I had done, I was like, "You know what? I just got to put the shoes on and I'm going to go tomorrow." And then I went the next day. This whole weekend I was at a retreat and every day this week I worked out multiple times, and I had a blast doing it. I was like, "Eh, that was last week."
Carl: Yeah. There are always going to be things that knock you off the course. There are always going to be things that cause you to make a mistake, but it's the resilience in us that keeps us standing back up.
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Carl: That's a part of it to me that I love when you were sharing your story with me is that you really got down, and weren't in good shape, and all these things and now you're so far back. That's a gift to your family, that's a gift to yourself. When you keep yourself in good shape, I tell my kids all the time, "You know what? I'm going for another run because I don't want you to have to worry about me when I'm 75."
Brandon: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think the most encouraging thing that I heard was it's okay that I don't have to be in peak physical fitness tomorrow.
Carl: Yeah.
Brandon: It's a journey, it didn't take me a day to get to where I'm at. Take the time, relax, do 30 minutes, don't be insane about it, and just take every day. If you have a bad day, it's like, "Oh well." Take mental breaks, take physical breaks, like you said. I remember when you came up to drop off your daughter for school, you could see that you were just into that moment, and enjoying it, and loving that moment. That's what was important for her.
Carl: Yeah. Well Brandon, thank you so much for being on the show today, man. You got me all excited again.
Brandon: Oh, yeah.
Carl: I was already excited, but it's just the reality that we have so much control over ourselves and what we can do. Your story shows that. Thanks for being on the show, man.
Brandon: Thank you, it was an honor.
Carl: Everybody listening, thank you so much and we'll be back next week. Between now and then, take a break, do something nice for yourself. Sheesh, were you listening?
Show Notes
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