Alex Weber's Intro

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Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast, we welcome Alex Weber. You've probably seen him hosting American Ninja Warrior.

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But what makes Alex stand out isn't the obstacles he's overcome as both host and competitor. It's the ones he's faced in

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life. From battling self-doubt and loss to rebuilding after hitting rock bottom, Alex has become a voice for what it

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really means to lead with passion, empathy, and grit. Join us as he unpacks

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what it means to be unstoppable. Not by never failing, but by setting goals and

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refusing to quit. Alex, thank you so much for being on the Servant Leadership Podcast.

Welcome Alex Weber

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Yeah, Chris, thank you so much for having me. Your content on Unstoppable was so moving. I saw just you speak and I was

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like this is one of the most moving talks I have ever heard. Uh and I was so pumped when you said you

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would be willing to be on the podcast. So you've had the opportunity to go talk about this unstoppable concept now

Backstory of Alex's "Unstoppable"

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around the world and to many sea suite and people how did you come up with it?

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Tell us the backstory. Yeah and and first off thank you so much for saying that. Truly, it it means a

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lot and I feel so grateful to do this work of keynote speaking and and and joining leaders and organizations to

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exactly what you said, be unstoppable. And you know, that was a word that at first I kind of wrestled with it at

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first because I thought, is this like is this delusional? Is this uh even cocky in a sense? And and then I fell in love

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with it because and and I think everyone has their own version of this over these last years. the changes and the

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challenges, they're not stopping. That that is not uh going anywhere. So then

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the answer is that we must be unstoppable. And truly to me, it's a it's a real

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brave and honest commitment to the people, to the goals, to the causes, to

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ourselves, you know, these things that matter so much irregardless

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of what the world might throw our way. So, uh, yeah, it's been truly a blessing to join amazing organizations in all

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different industries and, uh, talk leadership. Well, and you've had a ton thrown your

American Ninja Warrior Experience

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way and and we'll get into a few different questions I have, but one is on the professional side. People

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probably know you from at first just being a host on American Ninja Warrior, right? And I know people are like, "Oh,

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I've seen you on TV and like all that kind of stuff." I think people know maybe they don't know you also participated in it.

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Tell us how did it even come about where you were even ended up as a host and participated. What was that journey

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like? Yeah. Uh pretty pretty interesting kind of nutty. Um such a such a amazing

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experience from top to bottom. And that whole world American Ninja Warrior, I can't say enough amazing things because,

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you know, it's changed my life in so many different ways in all the years I've been involved with it. And uh it

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began when I was doing entertainment as my full-time dream. I left my hometown in New York, moved to LA, paid my dues,

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and there's a lot of stories there, took leaps of faith, and I was like, you know, my sports days were were done.

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that chapter closed and I was doing full-time entertainment and I got hired

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to host for NBC American Ninja Warrior to be a new host for a digital series they were doing and it was the biggest

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opportunity by a long shot. Like I had had some other opportunities leading up to that that were cool or one day on a

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TV show or things like that, but it was the biggest opportunity. Uh, so over the

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moon and part of the job description was they thought it it would be kind of an

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entertaining joke if I were to try these crazy obstacles and just kind of fail

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and we'd all have a laugh. And so we did do that for the first season. Uh, but

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then heading into the second year of filming, I was informed uh that the job

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description had adjusted a little bit and it actually would work better for the series if I was an expert at this.

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Most hosts know what they're talking about with uh with sports stuff. So that

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has been a really uh a really I would say you know it sounds almost ironic

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because what I was going to say is it's been a really relatable moment to connect with audiences because in one

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way it's this absolutely high octane oneofone competitive series American

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Ninja Warrior but I think this human moment of everyone's job description has

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changed in the last couple years or whether it's your duties or your roles or who you're working with or what's

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needed or what you need to deliver even with less resources. So there's just a very honest moment of connection that

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I've been able to have with audiences especially with uh battling negative

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thoughts and uh that's been a journey in my whole life is negative selft talk

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battling that battling the doubts and so yeah in doing it um and I there's kind

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of a system that I share with audiences but in doing it it ended up I got to keep my job and we actually won an award

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uh for NBC and then that unlocked to the goal of becoming a competitor. So, uh,

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yeah. Talk about this a little bit more because I think when people look at you, they see like you were a host. They

Self-Doubt Battles

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actually see you ended up being somewhat successful as well athletically on on the show, too, right? And and they saw

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this journey of like, oh man, everything's coming together for Alex. And you talk about this self-doubt and I

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know you talk about this uh to many large crowds, but share with us what that looked like in your life and maybe

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what you've learned through a lot of the self-doubt talk. Yeah, and such a good question. I mean, I think I've battled it the where it

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really came to a head in my life was I battled it all through uh middle school and high school, but sports were really,

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you know, I'll talk with parents and then oftentimes after it, they'll come up and talk with me about their sons or daughters. And you know, I I just think

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for young people growing up, um, the best thing in my life was a positive

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outlet. And that positive outlet for any young people growing up or parents of of of, you know, teens or kids, that can be

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a band, that can be a sport. That's what it was for me. That can be like they start a business or whatever it is. But

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for me, it was this kind of whole other world that opened up to me because of

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committing to the sports of hockey and lacrosse. It gave me confidence. It gave me friends. It gave me opportunities. It

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gave me a place to feel like I mattered. Um, and so, yeah, I just kind of offer

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that up because I'll often be asked by by parents um after, but lacrosse was my

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dream. It was my dream to go off and play division one college. and I did. But when I got there,

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I was so brutal on myself that when I

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would make mistakes, I would just beat myself up so mercilessly that what ended

Dangers of Staying In A "Comfortable Safe Box"

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up happening was and and this is often what I share with audiences is I never

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quit the team or anything like that, but what I did was I stopped I I quit being the fullest version of myself. I kind of

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relegated to this comfortable, safe version where I wouldn't took chances. I

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wouldn't put myself out there because I knew I had this like pretty good version of me if I just stayed in this

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comfortable box. Um, but that's the most dangerous place to be. And so I I ended

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up losing my starting position, lost my dream. It was really devastating to me.

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So that was a moment where I share with audiences I quit on myself. And I still

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think about that. I had a dream about my college lacrosse team last night. Like that's what regret does. You you it

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gnaws at you. It just never goes away. It's always there. Um but then all these

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years later with American Ninja Warrior, I remembered that feeling of quitting on myself. And so even though this seemed

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impossible to try to get good at this sport of American Ninja Warrior, I was like, you know what? I can if I give

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everything I have and I fall short, literally I fall off these obstacles, I get fired, it's embarrassing, I can find

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a way to live with that, but I just I don't think I can handle quitting on myself again. Um, so I I I I really

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think one of the most powerful moments that can happen for any human being is this deep internal decision of are we

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going to keep holding ourselves back or are we going to take a leap to go after the goals and more so be the version of

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ourselves that we really feel called to be. Yeah. I mean it sounds so good. But I

Steps To Being The Best Version Of Yourself - Empathy

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think a lot of people can relate to just not being the best version of themselves, right? And that's that

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immediately I know draws so many people into listening to your content, right? And and it's hard because you're just

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stuck there. What were some steps that you took or that you you help people through right now in trying to get out

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of that place where they're showing up, they're doing the thing, but they're not giving the best version of themselves.

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Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's such a testament to what this podcast is, servant leadership. You know, after graduating college, uh, college

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lacrosse, when I was in Hollywood, my first couple years, my side job was coaching lacrosse. And I was honestly

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kind of burnt out with lacrosse. It was just something to pay the bills. But this was the amazing moment is as the

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athletes that I was coaching as they started to go their through their negativity and self-t talk and doubts

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and limits I could go there and serve them because I just know so much what that feels like. And so you know I often

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share with audiences how powerful empathy is. And I think that that can

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sometimes be misunderstood, you know, maybe uh viewed as okay, we

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have to have compassion for other people. And we do, but I think empathy is more active. And I think it's really

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our humanness connecting and relating to that person's

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humanness. And so that's what ended up being one of the most transformative

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experiences in my life was coaching this lacrosse team. and we ended up winning championships and I was fortunate to win

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coach of the year and the kids won awards and it was honestly a healing

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experience for me because all of the things that I kind of wished I had had

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in my college lacrosse experience I could now give to some of these

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athletes. Wow. And yeah, becoming coach of the year in lacrosse too, right? Like you

Hollywood Experience - A Big Opportunity

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you had some major success. So, it's funny to see how that trajectory just your excitement level and just the way

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you were able to serve serve athletes was just so cool. When I think through

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you were in this world and you talk about it a little bit uh this Hollywood world and I mean it's like every kid

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that's born basically it's seen a movie is like I want to be in a movie, right? And it's like uh you went through the

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grind of Hollywood and and you talked about getting this big break like best opportunity of your life

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as you're navigating that. How did you see leadership in Hollywood show up?

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Because really it's a cutthroat environment where everyone's kind of just looking out for themselves. It's what it seems like from the outside.

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Sure. Uh, and we talk a lot about servant leadership. Were there people that that really stepped in and helped

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you get the next break uh in in your journey? Yeah, I I mean, well, one thing about

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American Ninja Warrior, which is just so cool, is that it is this iconic massive

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TV hit and it's also a sport. It is a

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real deal elite sport where kids have a dream. They start going at six years old

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and they train and train and train and there's teams and leagues. And so I say that because it was this really

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beautiful. It was like no other experience that I'd ever had in entertainment, you know, because

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entertainment was all about you you're producing uh a show or you're trying to,

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you know, increase drama or anything like that. But this was this really beautiful world and it is a world uh

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where it was really positive and there's a lot of heart and there's a lot of camaraderie. I mean truly and and and uh

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all the team who puts on American Ninja Warrior are just phenomenal and and truly for me changed my life. Um,

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and I remember, you know, kind of having that first meeting um, with the creator who's an amazing guy and the producers

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and we're all awesome. And uh I kind of I remember being in the waiting room and

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I couldn't like allow myself to I don't know what the right word is

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focus on or accept how big of an opportunity it was because I was like

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I'm going to get like either too nervous or too like jittery jazzed up like I got

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to just like stay focused here and just uh and at the end of the day I was like you know I'm just going to really try to

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be authentically me And uh they were just such good people and uh yeah I I

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mean in my experience that's that's really the best thing I can say is that it was it's so unique from the rest of

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entertainment because it's not just a TV hit. It's also this really beautiful

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positive sport. Yeah. I mean to the sport aspect and I they show a little bit behind the scenes

Importance Of Showing Up

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of people training and gym setups and and leagues and stuff like that a little

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bit but I don't think the audience knows how much work goes into like actually

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showing up on that stage because like before American Ninja Warrior I I think people saw Wipeout and immediately might

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have thought oh this is like Wipeout and it's nothing like Wipeout. It's not a joke. This is like serious competition.

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Uh, oh yeah, you were surrounded by great leaders in that environment who had trained their whole life for things and

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right in front of your eyes, you're watching people's dreams just be shattered and you're trying to be with

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them. How do you show up in those situations when they've been training their whole life and and it might not have gone the way

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that they thought? Yeah. Yeah. I I guess, you know, there's kind of two two parts of it. One of them

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is sometimes people will come up to me after and be like, I've always thought like maybe I could try American Ninja

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Warrior. And I'll always say, you could do it. The thing is, what part two of it is is

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if you decide to show up to the gyms and train your butt off for three to four

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days a week and do that for six months to a year, you can absolutely do it.

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Just like if you were to decide that you wanted to get really good at the cello and you prioritized it and you trained

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three to four days a week for six months or a year, you could get really good at the cello. So I I think you know for so

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many people and this American Ninja Warrior proved it to me because I'd played D1 lacrosse. I played in the

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world championships of lacrosse. It was this really interesting thing where I'd risen to be an expert in a sport and

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then had to boop go back and start as a beginner in the sport. But what does

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parallel is, you know, you know what it takes to become good at something. And

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man, what American Ninja Warrior showed me, especially in the beginning, was just, you know, you just got to show up.

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You just got to do it. And if you if you are whatever this is, you know, I'll

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talk to audiences doing different things. Maybe they're doing sales, but they have to learn a new operating system or a leader just got thrown into

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a position or people come up and they say, "I want to get more, you know, better my health and my wellness.

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We just got to commit. And you're not going to be perfect, but if we commit

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and we just show up and we just do it and we let consistency compound,

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enough good things are going to happen that if we pick up our head three weeks from now, three months from now, that

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wave of momentum and growth, it's going to be sizable. I think that what happens

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so often and I've experienced this of course too is we start out doing something new and it's not perfect and

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it's a little frustrating or painful and so we just would rather avoid doing it

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and we just kind of block off that thing or we try to just get by without it even

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though we need this. So um I would just say you know in my own journey showing

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up and I kind of had a mantra where I would say if the athletes are training and that was a big it's funny I had to

Mental Switch - I Am An Athlete

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make a big internal mental switch because for my first like two years I my

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identity was a host and I also believed I am a host I am not an athlete anymore

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and so I would say oh the athletes are training but then it took me a while to then be like I am an athlete. I am a

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competitor. Um, and that's powerful. Like the internal switch of what we believe about ourselves. But as I was

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getting going, I would just say if the athletes are training, I'm going. Even if I'm tired, even if I'm sore, even if

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I'm beat up, I'm showing up because I knew that if I didn't, it would make the

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fog, the wall around the goal get bigger and bigger and bigger and more scary and

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more imposing and more cryptic versus if we just go and we start doing it and

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yeah, we're not good at it and maybe have a bad day or it wasn't a great experience, it's still okay because that

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wave of momentum and growth and information is still growing so much.

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So, uh, and and I guess the last caveat that I'll say or not even caveat but just note is

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the athletes were so and are still so encouraging and inclusive.

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Um, and I think it's because these obstacles in this sport is very unique and it's really hard. So, I was just

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always so impressed by the openness that truly some of the best athletes in the

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sport, you know, I'd say, "Hey, can I come train with you?" And they're like, "Absolutely. Come on out." And they'd give me pointers. I'd train with them. They're like, "Cool, man. We're going to

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train Tuesday night, too. Come again." I'm like, "All right, let's do this." You know,

What Happens When It Doesn't Work

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I mean, I I feel like you have so many good things. If people start following your content and reading the stuff that

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you've written, you have a lot on goals and chasing performance and like helping people figure out what's the next step,

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right? And a lot of it, and you talk about it some here, is just showing up. But what happens when people show up,

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they set the goal, they show up, and unbeknownst to them or things outside of

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their control happen and it just doesn't work. you know, how do you think leaders and servant leaders are supposed to show

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up in those situations supporting each other and just how do they keep showing up when it's not going their way?

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Yeah. And it's so it's such a great question and I think you know I can only reflect on my own journey with lacrosse

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and and one thing that pained me was there was a period of my lacrosse journey where I felt like I was being

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viewed as a deliverable as a product rather than a person. And

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the thing is is we can't underount how much the deliverable and the product

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matters. Like the results matter and if we say they don't, we're just being dishonest to ourselves or other people.

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So they matter a lot. But in terms of our focus, we all need to understand,

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especially as leaders, that that product is a byproduct of the person. the person

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doing well, performing well yields the byproduct of a great result. And so it's

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more of a change of where are we pouring in that time, that energy, that focus, that grit, that cultivation. And if we

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really view that as okay, let's say se let's say uh Steve isn't, you know,

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doing great at this performance job, whatever, not delivering, not hitting the mark, rather than just making it

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about like Steve, you're not hitting the mark. Like next month we need this higher. Yes, of course. But Steve, why

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isn't this what is limiting you? What could be better? How can we better set you up for success? We value you. You

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matter here. We're better because you're involved here. So, what can we do to be on your team to help you succeed? Now,

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I'm not going to say that after a certain point of doing that, if you if still Steve isn't bought in and doing it

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and growing, then that's a different conversation. But I think what we're doing is we're letting that individual know, hey, we're not just uh fly by

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night. We're not just here for the good times and out for the bad times. We value you. We appreciate you. We want

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you to be a part of what we're doing. In fact, we want to do anything we can to lift you up to succeed. So, let's do it

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and let's do it together. And I think that energy is it's an inviting energy

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of now that person can step in and say, "Cool. I'm going to meet you and I'm going to go above and beyond and let's

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do this together and we'll figure it out together." So, it's I'm not going to say an oversimplify situation and say it's a

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cure all. However, that energy of we're in this together is so much more

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powerful than this passive aggressive energy of hey, you didn't meet your mark

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this month, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, really, it's that caring about the person if and if it is the

Gotta Have Brave Honesty - Going After The Goal

21:53
person, it's putting yourself in situations where it's like the person is being cared for, right? I mean,

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that there's so much uh that I'm curious about. I know you have many different talks and things you do,

22:05
but you also started documenting stuff in books that people can read, right? And so I even see like failp proof

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behind you like talk about how you went from this professional journey and also there's a ton of stuff personally that I

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know you get into as well and it's like uh how did you go from that to now man

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I've realized that my story can help all these people and the willingness to put yourself out there and what should other

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people be learning from it and be like man maybe maybe I've got a story to tell. Yeah. You know there was a few different

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steps in it. I'll say one of the steps was I I say you got to have brave honesty and I was hosting I was doing

22:45
standup comedy and there was a part of me that was thinking okay this is the path that I'll do you know like uh I'll

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be like a slightly more broy Ryan Serest like this will be my my path and then I

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couldn't shake this part of me that missed being Coach Weber that missed

23:05
being inspirational and motivational and really connecting ing with people and after enough time of just being honest

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with I I just I really want to do this and that what I think happens is if we

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know those feelings and so many of us do we know we want to go after this goal

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but we because it's hard because it's unpromised because there's often not the

23:31
accountability around us that says hey go out and go do it what happens is time

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goes by the desire to have that or realize it or accomplish it doesn't go

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away, but time just goes by and one of two things happens. Time goes by, time

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goes by, time goes by and we finally say, "Okay, enough times goes by. I'm going to go for this." Or time goes by,

23:55
time goes by, and we build a little resentment towards either other people or ourselves because we've never gone

24:02
for this. The desire never goes away. It's just one of those two things. So, I

24:08
had the honesty of like I got to go after this. And so, I just took leaps of faith. Uh just starting to speak

24:14
anywhere that I could and just give positive messages. And that started to grow. And then more opportunities. And

24:20
then a real pivotal moment for me was I was really becoming a full-time speaker

24:25
in the beginning of 2020. And to the point where I'm like, this is my full-time career, passion, pursuit.

24:31
Like, this is my job. And I got to do it for about two months and then it went off a cliff. And that was a dark period

Going Off A Cliff

24:41
um for about two years for me. 2020 and 2021 was a dark period. And yeah, there

24:49
was good moments and friends and I tried to make the best and all that stuff that we can do, but there was a deep internal

24:56
sadness that occurred in my own life and there was other things that later on to that. I mean I broke my hand. My mom was

25:03
going through cancer treatments because of the pandemic. All my work and passion got wiped. Um I had substance issues. So

25:11
there was two years where it was a darker period. And then just like I one

25:17
of my thesis is you either quit or you commit. I just had that honest moment of like this is not who we want to be. This

25:22
is not the life that we want to lead. And you know made decisions and then consistent action to change those. And

25:29
so super grateful to these last three years just be uh doing the speaking, be

25:37
sober, be, you know, be able to support my mom as she's been getting better. And um a pivotal moment for me is uh two

Henry Cloud Impact - In The Battle But You're Winning It

25:47
things. One, a mentor of mine and just a friend, Dr. Henry Cloud, great guy,

25:52
phenomenal author. Um, I was sharing with him and he said,

25:58
"You're in the battle, but you're winning it." And I I really remembered that especially as I've because right

26:04
before 2020, I was starting to fall in the trap of I'm a leadership speaker and

26:09
here's polished answers and and and I I think, you know, there's a trap of that.

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And after that stuff in 2020 and 2021, I just said, "Okay, if I'm going to do

26:20
this path, if I'm going to do this path of keynote speaking, the only way that I can keep doing it is if I'm honest and

26:27
real about what it's like to be a human being leading and achieving." And that

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has been the path that I started doing in 2022 and then these last three years. And it's had such a deeper resonance

26:42
with people because it's honest and people in that room are going through things and are challenged and are

26:48
wondering about things. And so yeah, that was my, you know, biggest takeaway was

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I really think about that quote that Dr. Cloud said, in the battle, but you're winning it. People, especially people we

27:02
lead, they want to see our humanity. So us sharing about a challenge that we're going through is humanizing. It's

27:09
vulnerable and people will want to connect with us. The the nuance to it though is we want to be winning it. We

27:17
don't want it to be concerning. You know, you can put up your hand if you're going through something hard and people

27:22
can rally around you. That's life. But if we want to make sure we don't if we're being leaders who are vulnerable

27:30
and we're doing it often, um you are in a position of authority. So people do

27:35
need to know that that you're doing okay. Um or else I think it can fall into this trap of

27:42
concerning for people. Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. We had Henry Cloud

27:48
on the podcast. Oh, amazing. Few episodes ago and yeah, just absolutely love his content. So that's

27:54
so awesome from guy from your standpoint. Uh

What Happens When You Hit A Speed Bump

27:59
and just add a little bit more to this because you talk about like people have this idea and they want to

28:05
they want to conquer this goal or this thing that they've been dealing with and they just know they need to and and you shared your own journey and I think a

28:12
lot of people have that mindset. It's unbelievably relatable. And you talk through either

28:18
like just deciding to fix it or deciding to just like be better, you know, like

28:23
that's not your wording exactly, but that kind of gist. A lot of people I see start working on

28:29
it. Like they decide today is the day that I'm going to get healthier. Today's the day that I'm going to learn this

28:34
skill or today's the day I'm going to change my family's life forever. And they hit a speed bump. You know,

28:40
something goes wrong. they're a month in and it was going great and something happens and just derails them. And then

28:46
what I find is so many people move into that second bucket of bitterness and like just sure give up at that point. How do you

28:53
help people think through failure like that and then just being able to lean

28:58
back into that was great the progress you made or how how do you talk to people about that? I I love that question. I mean, I think

29:05
again there's this deep internal decision of are you in or are you out?

29:11
Meaning, does this really matter to you? And if it does,

29:17
you know, in the years when American Ninja Warrior has been really like highest priority of my life, every

29:24
year I would kind of make a decision. I'm like, is this something that I want to go after? And because I love it so

29:31
much, yes. But what that means is, okay, then three months from now when it's a

29:38
Tuesday night and you don't really want to go train, you're going to go train

29:44
because we already made this decision, you know? And if you're having a bad day or having a bad week, like, we're in.

29:50
We're in because the honest, really brave, truthful version of ourselves

29:56
said that this matters and we want to see this through. So, I think it's kind of freeing because it also takes out

30:02
this wiggle room where it's like two weeks later you can't be like, I don't want to do this. A and we we need to

30:09
honor ourselves with it because that's where at the end of the day, it's our own we're our own accountability. We

30:15
need to be honest with ourselves. Um, but I also just think giving yourself

30:21
grace. And that's why I say just keep showing up because you're going to have days where like you are rocking it. You

30:29
are just feeling it. You're in the zone. You're amazing at whatever this thing is that you're doing. Then you're going to

30:35
have days where it's just kind of a day and it wasn't the best day ever and it wasn't the worst day ever, but you know,

30:41
you did pretty well and it's a day and now let's go get dinner and let's go to bed. And then you're going to have days where like, woo, that was did we even

30:49
get out of the car? like that was horrible, you know. However, if we just

30:56
keep showing up, the net of all of that is going to be positive. And especially

31:03
if we give ourselves grace on the down days, saying, "Okay, man, that was

31:08
really bad, but I'm glad we showed up. What can we do better next time?" Okay,

31:14
right. We got to get there early and stretch out. I didn't listen to anybody who gave me advice. That happened a

31:19
bunch of times. I would get so intense and caught up in, oh my gosh, that thing is really high up and I would realize

31:25
like I'm not even listening to the people who are trying to give me advice because I'm so involved in my own head.

31:33
Okay, next time let's listen to the advice. Great. Well, let's let that one go and let's get back to it on the next

31:38
one. So, I just think our ability to experience one of the down moments,

31:44
learn from it, get back to what matters, that is what becomes a competitive advantage because somewhere in there,

31:52
most people are going to stop. They're going to have a few of those bad days and then just decide, I don't want to

31:57
keep going after this. Or more likely, I'm not going to keep giving my best to

32:02
this. Wow. I I love that concept of giving yourself grace. Uh that that's just an

Giving Yourself Grace

32:10
amazing concept for people to think about and and I think some people might hear and be like, "Well, don't give

32:16
yourself too much grace, but you have to give yourself grace, right?" And I think that's where some people have been so fed into like you can't fail that then

32:24
they just get so discouraged. And and so being able to take on that like grace uh

32:30
and be okay with failing, but know like I also made this decision and I owe it to myself, you know? I I love that

32:36
concept. Yeah. Yeah. And I I I I think you said don't give yourself too much grace. I mean, I I come from a background that's

32:42
very uh you do it, you accomplish it, you get it

32:49
done. And I have both of those in me because I when I say grace, I don't mean

32:56
like it's not okay to not uh to not

33:02
honor our commitments or our responsibilities or do our best. That's not okay. It's not. What I do mean

33:08
though is if you are giving your best and you screwed up or you made a mistake,

33:13
not dwelling on that to the point where it really becomes a negative. Use it as

33:18
firepower. Man, I don't want to feel that way again. I want to learn from that. I want to do better. I'm not screwing up like that again. Use it and

33:25
then go on to the next one. But don't camp out there and beat ourselves up till 1:00 a.m. because there's not a ton

33:32
of value in doing that. Yeah, I love that. Okay, Alex, I want to hit you with 10 rapid fire questions

Ten Rapid-Fire Questions

33:39
that let us know. Say the first thing that comes to mind. No right or wrong answer. Okay.

33:44
Who's the first person you think of when I say servant leadership?

33:50
Oh, uh I mean honestly, uh Jesus. That's like that's um

33:57
gave us the definition of it. Love it. Five words that most describe you?

34:02
Gosh. Uh, I would say positive, energetic, intense.

34:08
Um, I hope kind, passionate.

34:14
Love it. Favorite favorite book or movie?

34:19
Oh man. Um, movie. Forest Gump.

34:25
That's a good one. Book? Gosh, there's so many good ones. Um, I mean, I gotta go. Let's go Dr.

34:32
Henry Cloud. Let's go. Boundaries. Very popular one. That's a good one.

34:37
Favorite food. O. Okay. My mom's chicken parm.

34:43
Oh, that sounds good. I'm hungry for that now. Yeah. Favorite thing to do in your free time.

34:49
Honestly, I I got married uh September 1st, so we're coming up on a year. Thank God. And uh just hanging out and doing

34:58
fun things with uh with the misses has been such a great time. Love that.

35:03
What's a surprising fact about you? You know, I I think this is kind of fun.

35:08
There's um things lead to things and because of the commitment with lacrosse

35:14
and playing and coaching and the ups and downs. I got invited to play with the Argentinian national team. So, I played

35:21
on the World Cup of lacrosse, which occurred in Israel, and I played with

35:26
team Argentina. So, that was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. That's amazing. I had no idea. That is

35:32
amazing. All right. Favorite place you've been. Oh man, there's so many good ones. Um, I

35:40
went in college, I studied abroad in Florence, and my wife and I are supposed to go in about a month. So, I would say

35:48
Florence, Italy. All right. Where's somewhere you want to go that you haven't been?

35:54
I would love to go somewhere where just life is lived very different than uh

36:00
here. Whether that was maybe somewhere in Africa or even Japan or uh Southeast

36:06
Asia. But yeah, I think that'd be pretty cool. All right, final two. What's the best

36:11
advice you've ever received? My mom would say if you're gonna do it,

36:16
do it. And I think that has a lot of truth. Um,

36:22
man, that's great advice. Yeah. Well, Alex, thanks for your willingness to be on. We're going to put a bunch of

Closing

36:29
stuff in the description for people to go check out as well. Maybe even a blooper reel, uh, because I've seen a

36:34
couple of those from the early days, but so much good book content that people should be checking out. And thank you so

36:40
much, Awesome, Chris. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Servant Leadership Podcast. If

36:48
you enjoyed what you heard, please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment below. Don't forget to subscribe and hit

36:55
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37:00
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