Ep. 151: Board Meetings | Thanks a Milli

ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS!

Thanks so much for the continued and growing support.

In this episode Nate and I sit down to discuss where it started, where it’s going, and why we keep doing this. Thanks again. Really, it means a lot.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Kris Hampton  00:31

What's up everybody? I'm your host, Kris Hampton.

Nate Drolet  00:34

And this is Nate Drolet.

Kris Hampton  00:36

And together, we have 1 million downloads. 

Nate Drolet  00:40

Boom. 

Kris Hampton  00:41

That's crazy. 

Nate Drolet  00:42

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  00:43

 Freakin million. MFing million. I'm trying not to curse for at least the first three minutes of the podcast. 

Nate Drolet  00:49

Okay. No promises on my end.

Kris Hampton  00:51

Just to make people with their children happy. But I can't promise that will last past minute three. Because you know 

Nate Drolet  00:59

They need all the happiness they can get Kris.

Kris Hampton  01:01

These things are real. So I'm just not a happy dude all the time. Sometimes I got a curse, you know what I mean? Yeah, man, a million downloads. It's a it's kind of strange to even think about, you know. When this when this thing started, it was like, I mean, you remember what the first episodes were like?" I don't know if I'm gonna keep doing this."

Nate Drolet  01:24

Yeah, the intro to every episode: "Well, we're just gonna see what's happening."

Kris Hampton  01:27

Yeah. And it just seemed like, a lot of work, which it is. It was and it is. But I just really valued having these conversations, you know, and I think it's cool to see other people valuing them and latching on and getting excited about it. 

Nate Drolet  01:46

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  01:46

 So somebody out there, I don't know who, is sharing this thing. Because it's it's continuing to grow, like our monthly average has doubled in the past four months, five months. 

Nate Drolet  02:00

Which is rad. 

Kris Hampton  02:01

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  02:01

Thanks to all of y'all. 

Kris Hampton  02:02

Yeah, super cool. And Nate and I kind of wanted to sit down for the millionth download party. Here with our, our tea and water.

Nate Drolet  02:12

Haha.I was gonna say, "Big party". We've got our laptops, been working all morning. Drinking coffee and water.

Kris Hampton  02:17

We just had a wasabi KitKat. That's a party.

Nate Drolet  02:20

Big day. Yeah

Kris Hampton  02:21

Yeah. shared a miniature wasabi KitKat. Because we're both on that send grind right now. 

Nate Drolet  02:26

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  02:28

But we wanted to sit down and just tell all of the new people and the people who've been here for a while, like, what this thing is, why we do it, and what else we do and how you can support and how much we appreciate you. Because like I said, it's kind of crazy. We just do this thing because we want to hear ourselves talk a lot. And people also want to hear us talk a lot, which is crazy.

Nate Drolet  02:54

Yeah, yeah. And you know, we've never really stopped to take the time to really discuss this. It's something, you know, you started and you're like, "Hey, I'm just gonna keep going till the wheels fall off."

Kris Hampton  03:04

Yeah. And I assumed the whole world just knew. But then our listenership doubled. So I'm like, oh, there were at least twice as many people who didn't know.

Nate Drolet  03:12

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Kris Hampton  03:16

No, really, the whole thing started because I was like, I had a background in audio, so I had the equipment. And I was getting to have these cool conversations. I was going to these festivals and these events and talking to people, having really cool conversations. And I'm like, "Why don't I record this?" And when I first started, I was like, "I need to figure out how to record this over the phone." And then I'm like, "This sucks. I hate trying to figure out how to record it over the phone." So I just decided, I'm going to do them all in person. And I liked that about the Enormocast, which was already happening. I like that Chris did all of his conversations in person. They just seem like a much nicer, more organic conversation. You're not like waiting to for the other person to stop talking so you can talk, you know. You can read each other.

Nate Drolet  04:11

Yeah, no, I think it really shows. Yeah, and, you know, I really appreciate these conversations too. Because, I mean, obviously you have a lot of these conversations when I'm not around 

Kris Hampton  04:25

You're always in my heart Nate.

Nate Drolet  04:27

Perfect. 

Kris Hampton  04:28

Haha.

Nate Drolet  04:30

But yeah, you know, we all kind of live in bubbles to some degree. And, you know, up until the other night, I had never met Lantien Chu. I was like, fangirling so hard.

Kris Hampton  04:39

Right

Nate Drolet  04:40

We were at the Thai food restaurant and she showed up 

Kris Hampton  04:42

Yeah

Nate Drolet  04:43

But because I love that conversation. That's a conversation I never would have had or experienced. So I thought that podcast was amazing. And so it was pretty cool to finally get to meet her but with so many of these I mean, you know you got to go sit in Dan John's house and talk with him

Kris Hampton  04:59

I know! That shit's crazy  

Nate Drolet  05:00

Yeah!

Kris Hampton  05:00

I already cursed. I don't know if three minutes are up or not.

Nate Drolet  05:04

But yeah, like, it's really cool because these are, you know, we all live in our own little bubbles. And there's a lot of things we can gain from that. But it's really cool when you get to kind of see outside of that. 

Kris Hampton  05:15

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  05:16

So yeah, even, you know, as someone... I'm a part of a lot of these podcasts, but with all the others, I'm super appreciative that these conversations are available. 

Kris Hampton  05:25

If you had to strike the Lantien Chu and Dan John episode from the records, what would be your new favorite? And the Board Meetings. Board Meetings don't count.

Nate Drolet  05:36

Okay. Um, Board Meeting, Board Meeting, Board Meeting. Um, Trevor, would be pretty high. 

Kris Hampton  05:42

Uh huh. 

Nate Drolet  05:44

Um....man, Ravioli Biceps.

Kris Hampton  05:46

Fantastic one.

Nate Drolet  05:47

He's a homie from back in the day, and it was really fun getting to hear all about it.

Kris Hampton  05:51

Yeah. Yeah, that one was cool. And that's one of the things I really love about this is being able to have the unexpected conversations. You know, like, I knew I was going there to have a conversation and and part of what makes that possible is the support from everybody out there. Because I can't justify driving, you know, 12 hours round trip to Denver to get to the airport to buy a ticket to fly to Vegas, to have a conversation.

Nate Drolet  06:27

To stay in a really sketchy hotel haha

Kris Hampton  06:28

To stay in a really sketchy hotel and invite Bill Ramsay over. There's no way I could justify doing that if it weren't for the fact that people are supporting, and people expect me to come with cool conversations. And so I went into that episode, not really knowing what I was going to get. Like I had never met him and all I knew about him really was he's the only person to do all the Moon Board benchmarks. 

Kris Hampton  06:59

 And I'm like, "Okay, well, I mean, I think that's probably a, an interesting place to start. So let's see what's up with this dude."

Nate Drolet  06:59

Yeah

Nate Drolet  07:03

 Yeah.

Kris Hampton  07:03

 So being able to go into those conversations means a lot to me an the support that provides that, so and I'm glad people find it interesting.

Nate Drolet  07:19

Yeah. And hopefully helpful as well. Yeah. Like, I know, a lot of these episodes have helped shape my training and my climbing and just perspective in general. 

Kris Hampton  07:28

Yeah, I don't I don't know if I could pick a favorite, actually. 

Nate Drolet  07:31

I thought of another one. The Miguel one is pretty high. 

Kris Hampton  07:33

Oh, yeah. The Miguel one's great. 

Nate Drolet  07:35

And that one's like, I mean, you and I have both been known Miguel for I mean, I think I've known him for 12 years. And so that one definitely holds like a special place for me.

Kris Hampton  07:44

Yeah, totally. I don't I don't know what would be my favorite man. There's so many, so many cool moments. Like the Brian Antheunisse episode was amazing.

Nate Drolet  07:58

Ooh, the Mina one, her talking about her dad. 

Kris Hampton  08:01

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  08:02

Man.

Kris Hampton  08:03

 And the pictures her mom drew?

Nate Drolet  08:05

 Yes.I forgot about that. 

Kris Hampton  08:07

Yeah, just too many. Like, I feel like I'm, like, hitting one of my kids in the face with a hammer if I don't say it. So

Nate Drolet  08:16

Let's start with our least favorite right now. Say it. Let's go on record.

Kris Hampton  08:20

Hahaha. Least favorite..... Board Meeting, Board Meeting, Board Meeting....No, I'm kidding. No. And those are, you know, those are another thing, the Board Meetings. Like where did those even come from? How did we...?

Nate Drolet  08:32

I really liked the name "Board Meeting" and I was like, "We have to do something with this." And I think maybe you came up with the idea?

Kris Hampton  08:39

And I remember the night.... was it after we recorded our first one or was it after we talked about the concept that I made the logo in the middle of the night? Because I was like it

Nate Drolet  08:50

It may have been that. Yeah. It may have been

Kris Hampton  08:53

We were staying at my daughter's house in Cincinnati. I remember laying on the couch at like 2am working on the logo. Because it was exciting. 

Nate Drolet  09:05

Yeah. Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  09:07

And I think the Board Meetings are a cool contrast, juxtaposition..... we get to, we get to dive into a topic pretty deep and talk about it from a coach's perspective. You know, what we're seeing, instead of trying to tease out the things that make people an expert at what they do, or that have informed people's experience. We get to just dig into these topics.

Nate Drolet  09:35

Yeah, I think it's great because we can kind of, I mean, because you can learn so much from other people. And I mean, a lot of what we apply in the Board Meetings is what we learn from other people as well. But this kind of lets us say, "Hey, here are some actionable bullet points". You know, we're going to get just pretty much right to the point and really dig on topics that we enjoy. And it's in a way that we can subliminally force all our clients to do what we want. 

Kris Hampton  10:02

Yeah, totally. 

Nate Drolet  10:03

So yeah, if you're one of our clients and you think a Board Meeting is speaking to you.....it is.

Kris Hampton  10:06

It probably is. Yeah, we probably talked about you for 20 minutes before we recorded the episode. 

Nate Drolet  10:13

Exactly. 

Kris Hampton  10:14

And after most likely. Do you know how many Board Meeting topics we have listed in the... like our shared folder? 

Nate Drolet  10:24

Oh god. How many we have ahead of us? 

Kris Hampton  10:26

Yeah

Nate Drolet  10:26

A lot. I don't know. 

Kris Hampton  10:28

Yeah, I don't either. It's a lot. 

Nate Drolet  10:30

I feel like it has to be over 60. 

Kris Hampton  10:32

For sure. We, it's something like early on, we were like, "What are we going to talk about? I don't know." and the ideas were slower to come. But now that we've got this shared folder, we can both just like drop in ideas whenever they pop up. And it's just getting longer and longer and longer and longer. And I used to be afraid that I would run out of topics to talk about or interesting people to talk to, you know

Nate Drolet  10:59

Same

Kris Hampton  11:00

But with our list of Board Meetings, and just last night or two nights ago at dinner, my wife asked us, you know, "Who was on the dream list to talk to?"  And we just kept naming people. There's so many interesting people with interesting stories. who are who have some expertise in some area that I really want to learn from, that it could go on forever. 

Nate Drolet  11:29

Yeah

Kris Hampton  11:29

Top of the dream list, though. Mike Tyson.

Nate Drolet  11:31

No question.

Kris Hampton  11:33

Gotta get Mike on hahaha. Mike Tyson, Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen. Those are like the the three big dream guests. 

Nate Drolet  11:42

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  11:43

 And then there's lots of climbers too. 

Nate Drolet  11:44

Mmm hmm. And them.

Kris Hampton  11:45

Hahaha. And, and one of my, one of my like, big...one of the guests I really wanted to talk to I'm not gonna say it was a dream guest necessarily, but somebody I really wanted to talk to will be the next episode coming out Monday. 

Nate Drolet  12:02

I'm excited.

Kris Hampton  12:03

 Yeah. And, and it wasn't the conversation I imagined having initially. But I think it did go a long way toward building a rapport that will lead to future more in depth conversations. And this was a great conversation, don't get me wrong. But it didn't go into him as much as a film of his that's coming out. 

Nate Drolet  12:32

Okay. 

Kris Hampton  12:33

Yeah, so, and that's one of the reasons I, I do this thing, because there's so many aspects of people to talk about. Like, I don't want to have Mina on the podcast, and talk about her entire history as a climber, everything she does, and then not have something to talk to. Mina about the next time I see her. You know, I would rather be able to have 10 episodes with Mina

Nate Drolet  13:01

Totally 

Kris Hampton  13:01

Are you listening, Mina? Nine more to go. Eight, maybe technically. So

Nate Drolet  13:07

No, and I think that's a great way to do it. Like really dive into these individual facets. Because yeah, everyone I mean, it doesn't matter what level someone's climbing at, everyone's got unique stories and really cool things that they can contribute.

Kris Hampton  13:22

Yeah, you have any climber dream guests that you would love to see on here? 

Nate Drolet  13:26

Oh, Mikey Williams.

Kris Hampton  13:27

 Oh, yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, I think that was a good suggestion.

Nate Drolet  13:30

 Yeah, Mikey's on it for sure. 

Kris Hampton  13:32

Mikey's.... I hadn't even really thought about Mikey as a guest, partly because he's so thin that he's invisible. I just can't see him. But yeah, I think he's a fantastic example of like, really pushing to the edges of your capabilities. 

Nate Drolet  13:50

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  13:51

What I'm trying to say there, Mikey is that you'll probably never get stronger.

Nate Drolet  13:54

No, not a chance. I'd like to have a Drunk History episode with Jerry Moffatt. 

Kris Hampton  14:01

Oh, man, that would be amazing.

Nate Drolet  14:02

Like that would be maybe a whole series

Kris Hampton  14:04

We should get all the Brits together to do just a bunch of drunk drunk British history. 

Nate Drolet  14:10

Yes

Kris Hampton  14:10

Or even better drunk American history drunk. 

Nate Drolet  14:13

Told by them. 

Kris Hampton  14:13

Yeah, told by the Brits.

Nate Drolet  14:15

"So tell us, Jerry and Ben, like, how do you perceive progress in the United States going with climbing?"

Kris Hampton  14:22

Haha. I would love to hear that answer.

Nate Drolet  14:23

 Please don't hold anything back. Yeah, so those are, those are my two highest on the list. 

Kris Hampton  14:28

It could happen

Nate Drolet  14:29

 Drunk climbing history and Mikey Williams,

Kris Hampton  14:31

It could definitely happen. And you know, like I mentioned already, the support from people. Not only the listening and downloading it, but people have obviously told other people about it. You know, people aren't just finding it in the ether. And I and I, and I want to let people know that that's, that's probably the best way to support this thing. We have other options too but if you can share it with your friends, like it doesn't matter if it's social media, mention an episode at the crag you know, turn it on in the car on the way to the crag with your friends, whatever. Grab their phone and subscribe them. You know, whatever it is, sharing it goes a really really long way.

Nate Drolet  15:23

Also, I don't know.... I wish I would have looked up who this was, but shout out to the guy who was competing in a finals. 

Kris Hampton  15:30

Oh yeah. With the Ravioli Biceps episode

Nate Drolet  15:32

In a competition and had the Ravioli Biceps episode come on for his finals song. 

Kris Hampton  15:36

Yeah, amazing.

Nate Drolet  15:38

Legend. Yeah, I don't know. We'll have to look up his name at some point. But yeah, I gotta say everyone else who thinks they are a fan, like you got tough competition.

Kris Hampton  15:47

Yeah, he pretty much took it to a whole other level. I think that's a Ravioli Biceps fan though. 

Nate Drolet  15:52

Yeah. I mean, but who isn't?

Kris Hampton  15:53

 Hopefully we won him over with the podcast and he listens to the other episodes. But you know, if you're gonna be a fan of a climber, Ravioli Biceps is a pretty good one. 

Nate Drolet  16:01

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  16:02

Yeah. Yeah, that was cool. And, you know, the sharing of a podcast like for, for me, as someone who puts out the podcast, is really difficult. It's not it's not easy on social media to share a podcast like it is a blog post. You know, you can't just click it and go read it, click it and go listen to it. You have to go through some other channels like get on your podcast app and download the thing. So it's, it's a lot of work to share it around. So you telling your friends about it is for sure the best way to keep this thing moving.

Kris Hampton  16:41

Yeah. And a lot of people have been apparently so I appreciate that massively.

Nate Drolet  16:45

 Thanks to all y'all

Kris Hampton  16:46

Yeah, you can also leave reviews. I know that's also a time consuming thing. It used to be a nightmare to do. It is easier in your, your podcast app. IF you have an iPhone, now you can just go to the show and leave a review. So that's that's nice.

Nate Drolet  17:05

 That's nice. 

Kris Hampton  17:06

Either five stars. We don't do that four star bullshit around here. No, actually leave as many stars you want. You know some people are haters on the reviews and I'm totally fine with that. It's some of them are good, constructive haterisms. 

Nate Drolet  17:21

Totally. 

Kris Hampton  17:22

You know, I remember years ago, this was pre podcast, this was back in just the blog days. I happened across and I don't even know how I happened across it...maybe it was after I did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. And somebody on Reddit had mentioned that the Power Company Blog was just becoming a place for product reviews. And, and it was.  I had, I had told a bunch of companies that I would review their stuff. They had all sent them and then I just didn't have time to post blogs. So like six in a row became product reviews and the dude called me out on it, you know. And as soon as I read it, I was like, "Whoa, this dude is right, like no more product reviews." And since then I haven't really done any, one or two over the last like six years or something. So you know, sometimes I appreciate the the haters. 

Nate Drolet  18:21

Yeah

Kris Hampton  18:22

Some of you are just haters and what you're saying is ridiculous. Haha. But but some of you are constructive. And I appreciate that.

Nate Drolet  18:29

Yeah, we're always looking to get better. Yeah.

Kris Hampton  18:34

Patreon. That's the other way. 

Nate Drolet  18:36

Yeah

Kris Hampton  18:36

Like this thing, partially runs, I can go have these in person conversations, because it's hard, frankly, to buy tickets to travel to places, to schedule the time with somebody for us both to be able to sit down for an hour and a half or two hours, and have these conversations. That's made almost entirely possible at this point, because I have to convince my wife that it makes sense for me to go travel for two days to have an hour long conversation, that partly happens because of the people who are patrons. You know, and, and frankly, I've said this the last five episodes, so I know, rings very hollow. But we haven't done a good job of keeping up with the patron only podcast. But there are a bunch of episodes over there. We do have more planned. I use the word "plan" loosely here. But we do appreciate everybody over there who's patron and you know, you guys you guys are the reason this thing continues to run frankly. 

Nate Drolet  19:39

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  19:40

Otherwise I'd have to say, monetarily, it's not worth it, to keep trying to have these conversations. And then it would be all Board Meetings, which a lot of people be totally fine with. But lastly, all the other things we do here at Power Company. If you're new to this and you just found us through the podcast, we're not just a podcast. We do lots of other things and that stuff helps support this. Whether it's our products, apparel, or our coaching services, which is kind of the heart of what we do here.

Nate Drolet  20:14

 Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  20:15

And that's how you came on board. 

Nate Drolet  20:17

Yeah. I came in as a coach. 

Kris Hampton  20:20

Do you remember the conversation?

Nate Drolet  20:21

We were having pancakes.

Kris Hampton  20:23

We were, haha.

Nate Drolet  20:24

 I was looking to start a similar type business and I had been working on it for a few months. And it's funny...so I think you had started Power Company like two months before we had this conversation. And man, I just completely stopped working on it. Because at that time, I was like, I didn't think anyone else was doing a good job in that in that industry. So I was like, "Cool. This is what I want to do." And I remember you announcing that that's what you were doing and I was just like, "Fuck, man."

Nate Drolet  20:55

"There are only six people out there who want this."

Nate Drolet  20:57

Haha Yeah, exactly. It was one of those things that like, I was like, "Man, I have a lot of respect for Kris. And this is someone who, if someone was going to go out and do a really great job, this is it." And I pretty much told you that exact thing on that, when we were eating pancakes. And you're like, "Man, I already have more people than I can handle like, just basically from day one. So if you want to coach..." and yeah, it's kind of all downhill from there.

Kris Hampton  21:24

Yeah. In the Miguel's parking lot. 

Nate Drolet  21:26

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  21:26

Where all sorts of downhill ideas get spread around. 

Nate Drolet  21:29

Haha Yes. 

Kris Hampton  21:32

Yeah. And I mean, it's been, it just has kept growing. Like, which is kind of cool. We now have three other coaches, besides you and I. So shout out to Blake and Paul and Jess, all in Chattanooga. And we have Dale, doing data work and and that's gonna explode pretty soon, I think.

Nate Drolet  21:57

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  21:59

And then I've also got Lana, who if you've, if you've sent in a contact form on the website, you've talked to. A lot of you know Lana through email correspondence. And then also just recently hired another girl, Brittany, who's helping me with some projects. First of which is a book that's coming out either end of this year, beginning of next. We're almost done with it. Just created the cover the other day, which is amazing. 

Nate Drolet  22:31

He's very excited about it. 

Kris Hampton  22:33

I'm very excited about this cover. So So yeah, we've got a team here. And it's cool to cool to see it growing like this. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. You know, we're just kind of making all this shit up as we go. But it seems to be working and, and I think that's cool. Coaching wise, what's been your favorite moments or biggest takeaways from the last several years of coaching?

Nate Drolet  22:59

Oh, man, I've had so many. I get really excited when my clients like succeed, like to the point to where I sometimes I feel more invested in them like in than in my own climbing. 

Kris Hampton  23:12

Is that something you expected?

Nate Drolet  23:14

 Oh, no. Like, not really. I mean, like, I knew I would be invested in them and be excited. But like, yeah, I had one year where I had a client named Kat who she sent her first 5.13. And I was like, busy climbing and having like a great day of climbing when I got the text from her. And man, that was like, put me over the moon. I was like, "This is awesome."

Kris Hampton  23:38

 Yeah,

Nate Drolet  23:38

Like so so psyched. And I was more excited for her to do that than I think for like any of my own sends that year.

Kris Hampton  23:48

Yeah, that's one of the most surprising things for me, about this whole thing has been, I get, I get as much, at least, joy out of watching other people succeed, or seeing light bulb moments in people at workshops, you know, when something clicks and I see their face light up, and they're like, "Now I get it. People have been saying this for years, but now I understand it." Those moments are really cool.

Kris Hampton  24:19

Yep. 

Nate Drolet  24:19

Yeah. You know, and also like, getting to meet all these other people. You know, through consultations, workshops, and personal clients, like, I've gotten to work with three different people who've swam in the Olympic trials. Like, I may think I have a few things to offer when it comes to climbing progress, but these are fucking elite athletes. Like they have a whole life before this. And that, like, I love getting to pick their brains. I'm like, "No, please like, tell me more about this" like, and it's great. And it's cool, like so many people that I get to work with have these really unique stories and backgrounds that you know, I get to learn just as much from them as they do from me. So I think it's really really cool with that. And you know, and we meet people at workshops, who they're like, "Hey, I drove in from across the state, like, I've been listening to you forever. I used your ebook. It worked great for me. You know, I just want to come out and like, get to meet y'all."

Nate Drolet  24:20

And that's rad, man. Like,

Nate Drolet  24:22

It's very cool. Yeah,

Nate Drolet  24:27

I feel really, really fortunate.

Nate Drolet  24:28

Yeah, and I have to say that, you know, you just brought up doing these workshops. And, you know, I think that was one of the coolest things we've done. It's not a it's not a super sustainable model.

Nate Drolet  25:36

 No

Kris Hampton  25:37

Because it's really hard. It's hard on us. It's hard on our people, you know, and, and it's just tough to pull off. But doing these like, we're just gonna drive state to state to state

Nate Drolet  25:52

 Load up in the car. Drive for a few months. 

Kris Hampton  25:54

Yeah, hit a bunch of gyms, all along the way, do workshops. Meet a bunch of people. I really love that. I think that's super fun. You know, it's you and I got to really know each other in the car.

Nate Drolet  26:07

Oh, yeah. I mean, that was pretty much. You know, it's funny. I tell people all the time that like, we pretty much like kind of knew each other. 

Kris Hampton  26:14

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  26:15

And then it was like, "Okay, like, let's go on this huge road trip together." And we both just like loaded in your car. And that was kind of us really getting to know each other for the first time. And fortunately, it worked out great.

Kris Hampton  26:26

Yeah, we both can eat the same meal over and over and over again.

Nate Drolet  26:28

It's what I tell everyone as well. For anyone who hadn't heard the story, like I was cooking breakfast for this whole trip. And first day, I was like, Hey, Kris, I'm gonna make some veggie burritos with, you know, some meat in it. You want... like is that cool with you?" He's like, "Yeah,". I'm like "Okay." Next day, "Kris. I'm gonna make some burritos again. Is that cool with you?". He's like "Yeah." I'm like, "Okay." Like, third day, I was like, "Kris, I'm gonna keep making these burritos until you tell me to stop." I think we ate burritos for two straight months.

Kris Hampton  26:58

Yeah. Like, I could still eat them every day.Doesn't either me in the slightest.

Nate Drolet  27:01

Still do. But yeah, I feel like that kind of set the tone for a lot of the trip. All right.

Kris Hampton  27:08

Yeah. And you know, those trips, we spent a lot of time in the car talking. We listened to an audio book and would stop it after every chapter and discuss the chapter and you know, that's, that's continued throughout the whole thing. There are a lot of times this morning, for instance, you know, I'm in there cooking breakfast, and you're over here working and, and three quarters of the way through the conversation, I'm like, "We should have had the fucking microphones on this whole time." You know, we have so many interesting conversations, like digging into our own personal ideas about coaching, or climbing or progression or training or whatever. And playing devil's advocate, asking each other questions, you know, trying to trying to make each other think more about these ideas we've already settled on, you know, yeah. And I find that super valuable. If it was just me in my own little vacuum, it wouldn't be what it is for sure.

Nate Drolet  28:11

I feel the exact same. I mean, yeah, like that conversation we had this morning. Like, I feel so fortunate that I can say, "Hey, here's something that I think is cool and valuable." And like I can trust you enough to say, "I want you to try and poke holes in this idea." And I know that if you're going to critique it, it comes from like, a good place of wanting to help me make my thoughts better. 

Kris Hampton  28:33

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  28:33

And that's really cool. Like, I feel really fortunate for that

Kris Hampton  28:36

And it mostly just comes from me wanting to be right.

Nate Drolet  28:38

 Mm hmm. 

Kris Hampton  28:38

But, you know, that's how it presents itself.

Nate Drolet  28:41

Yeah, I'm glad I have this illusion in front of me.

Kris Hampton  28:44

Haha. No, and, you know, that's, that's sort of carried over into working with clients too. Like, they hear us on the Board Meetings talking and they hear the podcast, and they, then they feel okay, asking these questions, or challenging assertions or whatever. And I find that incredible. 

Kris Hampton  29:07

You know, just yesterday, we're talking about the cover of the book, I sent the cover of the book to one of my longtime clients, and the cover, the subtitle had the word "easy" in it. And he's like, "Is it easy or is it simple? Because I've always known you to give simple ways to progress. But I don't find them very easy." And I was like, "Ohhhh. You're right" 

Nate Drolet  29:07

Yeah

Nate Drolet  29:34

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  29:35

You know, so we switched it. Like, being able to get that feedback from people is massive. And I think it starts with us both being open to it on the podcast, you know, listening to other people listening to each other. So, and you know, what else that that's just brings up another idea before we move on here, but the fact that a lot of people have trusted me to have really tough conversations on this podcast means a lot to me. You know, whether it's Shelma or Savvy or Brown Girls Climb or Mina, you know, talking about tough to discuss subjects isn't easy for me. And they allow me to come in uncomfortably and we can both be uncomfortable together, trying to have these conversations. You know, that's, that's been a huge win that I felt like, "I don't know if I should do this. I don't know how the people listening are gonna react." But it's something I want to do, so ultimately, I'm going to do it and the reaction was great. So, so I appreciate that. 

Nate Drolet  30:50

Yeah, that's super awesome. And actually, this is mildly tangential, but, uh, as far as podcasts are really enjoyed, but Lee Smith and Dru Mack one

Kris Hampton  31:00

 Oh, yeah. 

Nate Drolet  31:00

They talk about mentorship. I mean, there was I kind of got a little teary eyed at one point in that.

Kris Hampton  31:05

 Oh, yeah, I did, for sure. 

Nate Drolet  31:06

Got pretty heavy.

Kris Hampton  31:08

 Yeah. I don't know if it was in the podcast, or after the podcast. Dru was like, "Dude, you're crying!"  And I was like, "Shut up, Dru!". 

Nate Drolet  31:16

Yeah, no, it was like, it was good. Like, I I feel super fortunate. You know, I've known both of those guys for a long time. But it was really cool for it to have them, like, open up and share that. Yeah, cuz I mean, there were some kind of like intimate things with that. Like, I mean, shit, some things I wouldn't have shared...or I wouldn't have been comfortable sharing.

Kris Hampton  31:37

 Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  31:38

So yeah, I thought that was really great. That was awesome. Like, that's amazing that they were willing to share that.

Kris Hampton  31:43

Yeah, totally. And those dudes are both good friends, you know, and shout out to both of them. And Dru, Dru and I are starting up our second round of the Red River Pump Prep program. It's really hard to say still.

Nate Drolet  31:57

Yes

Kris Hampton  31:57

 I haven't gotten any better saying it. Pump Prep Program. Starting that up on Monday, as well. And we're just excited about how that thing went the first time. The people who did it were really, really stoked. Dru was stoked. I feel lucky to be able to help Dru out. Like, I think he's one of the most inspiring young athletes coming up, you know, really, very willing to engage with the community. At at Rocktoberfest this year, that dude signed posters for like seven hours straight. 

Nate Drolet  32:33

Oh, man

Kris Hampton  32:33

Just a line of people constantly. And people love the dude. And, and it's for good reason. You know, he's a super genuine human. So I feel lucky to be able to help him out a little and to partner with him in this thing. You know, he's had some really great input and insights in it. So 

Nate Drolet  32:51

Yeah, I'm excited to see how it keeps continuing. 

Kris Hampton  32:53

Yeah, that that runs Monday. So buy in people

Nate Drolet  32:56

Boom. 

Kris Hampton  32:58

You know, you've got some clients who've been having some big wins. 

Nate Drolet  33:02

Yeah.

Kris Hampton  33:03

 Let's talk a little bit about that. Give a shout out to our clients. We don't do that. nearly enough. Things just get so busy here. People don't want to spray.

Nate Drolet  33:12

That's a big one. Like a lot of people are like, "I'm super excited. I just smashed this thing." And I'm like, "Cool", like, and they're like, "But don't tell anyone tell anybody".

Kris Hampton  33:20

"Don't tell anyone"

Nate Drolet  33:21

" Like I'm not even telling anyone." Like, you know, there's this...I don't know. Yeah, there's this like, kind of weird humility thing in climbing. Like, this idea that

Kris Hampton  33:31

 I lack that entirely

Nate Drolet  33:32

 Mm hmm. I, you know, was it I think it was CS Lewis, who said, "Humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less."

Kris Hampton  33:41

 Hmm. I like that

Nate Drolet  33:42

Yeah. And I think in climbing, I feel like it kind of is a little bit backwards. Like, a lot of times people are just like, "Oh, you know, I was put three years into it, but it's whatever. It's not a big deal."

Kris Hampton  33:52

 Yeah.

Nate Drolet  33:52

 And it's like, "Hey, man, like, get excited!"

Kris Hampton  33:54

 Totally

Nate Drolet  33:54

Like, and only that, a lot of people want to be excited for you. 

Kris Hampton  33:58

Yep

Nate Drolet  33:58

You know, I mean, it's like when some of my clients like will send me a text and be like, "Hey, I just one-hung the route." And I'm over here, just like dancing. I'm like, "Yes, this is awesome!"  Like, you know, people love like, the people in your life like supporting you. 

Kris Hampton  34:12

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's that's advice I got from Dan Chancellor from SOiLL, a long time ago about about Power Company. You know, I had put something out. I don't even remember what and he sent me a text and was like, "Keep giving people ways to support you. You know, they'll, they'll keep supporting." And, and I think you have to do that as a climber too. And shout out to the guys is SOiLL for supporting us hugely through all this. 

Nate Drolet  34:39

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  34:40

That community has been amazing. But I think you have to do that, like people want to support you. They want to see your accomplishments. They want to hear the hard work you've put in to reap the reward. And if you don't tell them, you're not, you're you're giving them less, you know?

Nate Drolet  34:59

Yeah. Absolutely, you know, I don't think it's necessary....like, just because you did something and you said you did it, that doesn't make it spray. 

Kris Hampton  35:07

No, not at all.

Nate Drolet  35:08

 You know, you're allowed to be proud of your achievements.

Kris Hampton  35:10

Totally. That's why we work toward things. 

Nate Drolet  35:12

Yeah. Hell, yeah, dude

Kris Hampton  35:14

Because we want to do them. 

Nate Drolet  35:18

Yeah. And even if you're doing it for yourself, like don't be selfish. Other people like being happy for you.

Kris Hampton  35:22

 Yep. 

Nate Drolet  35:23

So yeah, I'm gonna give a couple shout outs. We normally don't do these because when we record Board Meetings, it could be months or 

Kris Hampton  35:30

Years 

Nate Drolet  35:31

Years until they come out. So it'd be kind of weird and out of order if we did. But a shout out to Chris and Brian both for sending their first several V10s. Sean Patton for doing his first two 13bs in the same month. No knee bars either. Real ones.

Kris Hampton  35:48

No kneebars. We're gonna have to do an episode on kneebars and kneepads

Nate Drolet  35:52

.Oh jeez. Erica for sending her first 7B. 

Kris Hampton  35:56

Nice

Nate Drolet  35:57

Obviously outside of America because we don't have 7bs here. 

Nate Drolet  36:01

7b boulder?

Nate Drolet  36:01

Boulder. 7b boulder. Thank you. Arrack, Caleb, Brian and Nick, all for their first 5.13s. Dana, for their first 5.14 and Patrick, first V8, which was huge for a guy who he spends most of his year up in Alaska, just like plugging away and training man. It's just like, no

Kris Hampton  36:23

No excuses man.

Nate Drolet  36:24

 Just him. His first year we worked together, he just had a hangboard and weights. Yeah, he was like, "Can you train me for eight months?" I was like, "I mean, I can. Are you gonna...I wouldn't want to do that."

Kris Hampton  36:33

"You're gonna bored"

Nate Drolet  36:34

Like man, but what a boss for sticking it out. 

Kris Hampton  36:36

Yeah. 

Nate Drolet  36:37

And very last one. Shout out to Eddie Avallone, my very first client. Yeah, I don't work with him currently, but you know, we're good buddies and I like to think I changed him for the better. 

Kris Hampton  36:49

You definitely did. Haha

Nate Drolet  36:50

But he's had, he's had just an amazing season. Busy guy. He's a doctor and, you know, had a nice little window of time off and weather and smashed. Sent two long term projects, Swingline 13D and Omaha Beach 14A.

Kris Hampton  37:05

Yeah, you know, and his wife Rachel's just about to crush her rig too.

Nate Drolet  37:09

So and we give her enough training advice. I'm pretty sure we get, we get credit for that.

Kris Hampton  37:14

We just had a funny conversation this year at the Red, at Solar Collector, because there were several Power Company people there. And Rachel was there wearing a Power Company shirt and I'm like, "Well, we don't really train Rachel."

Nate Drolet  37:29

Hahaha...I mean, we tell her what to do. 

Kris Hampton  37:30

We tell her what to do. I don't know that she believes any of it.

Nate Drolet  37:35

No, she gets angry with us. 

Nate Drolet  37:36

But yeah, and actually, I guess just shout out to everyone who like, works hard and busts their ass. Like, man, I've gotten to work with so many awesome people. And frankly, like sometimes life gets in the way, whether it gets in the way, like, you know, and hard work doesn't turn into performance. Like you can go to the Red for two weeks and get rained on every day. You could have been in the best shape of your life and done everything right. And you know what, sometimes you don't come away with a win.

Kris Hampton  37:36

Haha

Kris Hampton  38:03

Absolutely. So yeah, in fact, I have a I was gonna say shortlist but it's not really a shortlist of people who've had some of those experiences. Whether it's life experience or a weather thing happens or trips fall apart or whatever, but they keep plugging away, keep..... they're just super dedicated all the time. You know, and frankly, I think that's the hardest thing to do if you don't have big giant wins.

Nate Drolet  38:35

 Oh yeah.

Kris Hampton  38:36

You know they have lots of small wins along the way. And they allow those to be the motivation and the momentum to keep going. Meg, who's been longtime client, you know, 

Nate Drolet  38:50

Early morning grinder 

Kris Hampton  38:51

Early morning grinder and you know, she's she just keeps at it, no matter what. Doesn't get much time to go outside but keeps at it. Michelle Thierry, Lucas Shawk, these are all people who just keep grinding no matter what. Tyler, Becky Yasmeen, just grinders, absolute grinders and and I appreciate that massively. You know, there have been there have been some big wins too. My friend Scott has been winning massively this season.

Nate Drolet  39:29

It's been a great season for him

Kris Hampton  39:30

Just crushing. It's cool to see. Herman climbed his first 5.14 

Nate Drolet  39:35

Nice 

Kris Hampton  39:35

Crushed it. Out of state, you know just taking trips to mini traction the thing by himself

Nate Drolet  39:41

That's rad 

Kris Hampton  39:42

And did it. Relatively new client, Senya, recently crushed some things. I've got to Abby's that are crushing 

Nate Drolet  39:52

Nice. 

Kris Hampton  39:53

Matt has been a client for a long time crushing rigs all over the world. I think he climbed on...I don't even know how many countries last year. 70 different countries last year, something ridiculous. 

Nate Drolet  40:05

Whoa

Kris Hampton  40:05

I think he climbed on every continent last year. That might be wrong

Nate Drolet  40:09

Like all seven?

Kris Hampton  40:10

 I think so. Something like that. He travels a lot. 

Nate Drolet  40:13

Okay. 

Kris Hampton  40:14

So so it's cool to see that you can keep up that travel schedule and still climb harder. 

Nate Drolet  40:19

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  40:20

And when I said, "Hey, maybe we need to buckle down and just do some training for a little while instead of constant sampling.", he went right for it. So that's awesome. It's cool to see. And then I've got two that are kind of special shout outs. Hmm.. three. So Kim and Graham, who, Canadian crushers, I'm not working with them currently, but we worked together for a long time and they've moved on to some cool opportunities. Just big supporters and really dedicated. It's tough to find high level climbers who will allow you to change their whole approach and just be really dedicated. So it was cool to watch that. And then Teal.

Kris Hampton  41:07

Who is... I think she's 28 weeks pregnant right now....27 or 28...something like that and still crushing like. Her max hang weight has gone up consistently.

Nate Drolet  41:07

 Oh, yeah.

Nate Drolet  41:20

Weird. 

Kris Hampton  41:22

While she's, you know, in the midst of a pregnancy and yeah, she's still crushing boulders. And I mean, the belly starting to get in the way of things, but she's still doing pull ups on the six millimeter crimps. 

Nate Drolet  41:35

Oh man I saw that. That was kind of wild.

Kris Hampton  41:37

Crusher. You know, every she's got every excuse. Every reason.

Nate Drolet  41:42

I'd be taking them. 

Kris Hampton  41:42

She could she could just sit there and eat ice cream and be fine with it. But she's crushing. Yeah. And then Chris Kalous. Who...Chris "The Enormocast" Kalous. 

Nate Drolet  41:52

Okay. 

Kris Hampton  41:53

He reached out to me and was like, "Hey, I think I might want to try this training thing. I've got a kid. I'm busy." And I'm like, "Yeah, but you hate gyms. Yeah, you know, it's gonna be tough." But he's really embraced it. And 

Nate Drolet  42:06

Oh, cool

Kris Hampton  42:06

Getting into the gym a lot. And he gets excited about like, Moon Board projects. And, you know, he's, he's embracing this new thing. That's tough to do when you're as old as he is, which is approximately the age of dirt. So I think it's super, super cool to see. 

Nate Drolet  42:23

Yeah, no, that's really cool. 

Kris Hampton  42:25

Yeah, and I just dig, I dig, getting to see all these wins from people, you know, whether it's process-based, in the gym. You know, I've got a guy, John, who is just a gym climber. It's all he wants to do. He's not really interested in going outside. He moved to a new gym, and a new country, and just picked right up where he was. Embraced bouldering because he was wanted to be a sport climber in the gym, and is having these big wins bouldering you know, super cool. Yeah. So yeah, I love I love seeing it. And, you know, we would love to hear more about what kind of big wins, little wins, small progressions, whatever everybody's having, you know,

Nate Drolet  43:13

Yeah, no, that's one thing I love whenever people reach back out to me months later, and will say, "Hey, like, you know, I felt" like, one of the most common ones I'll get like, six months later, people will be like, "I was rooting on my project. Like, I felt it"

Kris Hampton  43:26

 Totally

Nate Drolet  43:27

Like, you know, we may have worked together for three months, but like, everything they continued to do afterwards, they were like, "This, like, set the stage for me". Man. I love getting to hear like progress stories later on.

Kris Hampton  43:38

Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And it, frankly, it doesn't matter to me whether that progress, achievement, whatever is gym, outside. 

Nate Drolet  43:47

Yeah. 

Kris Hampton  43:48

You know, just in your mindset. I don't care. Whatever it is. 

Nate Drolet  43:52

No totally

Kris Hampton  43:53

That's a win. Yeah, it's cool. You know, tag is on the Instagram photos, and I'll happily spray for you, so you don't have to do it. You know I'm a spray machine.

Nate Drolet  44:03

 Yes.

Kris Hampton  44:03

 So. So yeah, I think we should just wrap this up and get out of here because we're just taking up a bunch of time talking about ourselves. But one more time, man, I appreciate the support from everybody and keep sharing this thing along, you know, the more people the better. And I watch those damn download numbers. Anytime we're getting close to a big number or a big you know, milestone, I started watching the numbers and crunching the numbers and seeing how much we're averaging and it is just cool to see that line keep going up and up and up and up and up. Like our our monthly average right now is four times higher than it was two years ago, which is dope. 

Nate Drolet  44:50

Yeah. That's super cool.

Kris Hampton  44:52

Yeah, I attributed all to Dru Mack, bbut you know, Look for us support us however you can, however you want to. Share it. You can find us at powercompanyclimbing.com if you're interested in training programs or apparel or any of other products, books coming out. You can find us @PowerCompanyClimbing on the Facebooks and on the Instagrams and you can tag us on there and we will share your wins on our posts. And you can please mention us on Twitter. Share the podcast around Twitter. We will appreciate it but I will not be able to say thank you because I won' tknow because we don't tweet. We scream like eagles.