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Speech Transcript

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L. Scott Ferguson: [00:00:00] To Shine Today, podcast Varsity Squad. It’s Scott Ferguson and I got my, my Netherlands, my guy, my good friend, Christiaan Hofman. He’s from

time to Shine Today, podcast Varsity Squad. It’s Scott Ferguson. I have my guy from Sport Nall, my Netherlands friend, fellow coach. Just the most playful, awesome gentleman you’ll ever meet. And again, his coaching is above reproach. His name is Christiaan Hofman. And we had such a awesome, blessed conversation where we talked about really kind of being blunt and, Gently playfully pushing our clients buttons when it comes to coaching and you can sometimes Look at coaches like they shouldn’t be blunt And they should really just kind of lean into what the the coaching client needs and whatnot But sometimes to get them that leveled up to get them to really kind of open their eyes and say what the hell did you just Say to me sometimes the bluntness comes in and And Christiaan shares how he [00:01:00] does that, but from a, , a very playful manner, we’ll just call it that.

Cause I call him like my playful coach, buddy. He’s just fantastic. He’s an author of a fantastic book, which I do have a giveaway at the end. So make sure you listen. And. Just I’m so blessed that you there’s going to be somebody out there that needs to hear this. So please share it with them. If you like it, please subscribe to it or, , punch that alert button for the next episode that comes on or my sponsors and affiliates absolutely love that.

So without further ado from sport natural, my good friend, Christiaan Hofman, let’s level up.

 Time to shine today podcast varsity squad. This is Scott Ferguson. I have a really good friend that I immensely respect. He’s from the Netherlands but he’s here in not here. We’re actually where i’ll be this afternoon in the nice cool state of texas My good friend Christiaan Hofman. He’s He’s a martial artist.

So we have that in common. And we, we talked probably, I probably talked to zero off, asking him a bunch of questions. I’m probably going to reask him in during this interview, [00:02:00] but he’s an author and a deep thinker. Yeah. He’s the author of a fantastic book, which I have a giveaway at the end. So make sure you stick here called to meet yourself.

Think for yourself. He’s also the founder of sport. Natural. His work dives deep into the mind. He’s not just obsessed. He’s not passionate about it. He’s obsessed. He’s a playful button pusher, as he says, as a personal trainer and coach, Christiaan loves to push boundaries, but in a playful, meaningful way.

He’s all about shaking things up to unlock that potential. Again, he’s a martial arts master. Christiaan’s martial arts journey started at the age of four and never stopped. Over the years, he’s practiced and taught various forms, combining discipline and flow. And he’s also, , A counselor turned coach.

He’s worked with troubled teenagers and counseling in the counseling field has shaped young minds as a physical education instructor in schools, his experience runs deep from the mental game to physical fitness. And I don’t know why he’s this kind of fan, but soccer fan, or like they probably call it over there, a football fan.

No, I’ve actually been turning into a fan [00:03:00] as my squad knows out there. I do watch the premier league now. And but have a lot of fun. So Christiaan, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself. The time to shine today, podcast, varsity squad, but first what’s your favorite color and why?

Christiaan Hofman: He instantly asked me a good question.

Orange, orange, and orange is stemming from the Netherlands.

Orange and black and white, right? Yeah, red, white, and blue. Okay.

L. Scott Ferguson: Oh, that’s right. Why am I thinking orange?

Christiaan Hofman: Okay. Sorry. Orange is our color for our jersey. What we gotcha. That’s what it is.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yep.

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah. Excellent. And and I think with orange. We invented the, we made the carrot orange. A lot of people don’t know it.

They think really. Yeah. A lot of people think the carrot is orange. Well, we, we, we crossed some things and we made it all really now knows it as orange. Gotcha. What color was it

L. Scott Ferguson: before brother?

Christiaan Hofman: Oh, it’s like what you normally see, like the, the red Bordeaux, red, white. Gotcha. So yeah, we combined those things.[00:04:00]

So interest. Go ahead, buddy. Yeah. The orange is also I think it. It has some vibrancy to it, some energy, and I think I like that.

L. Scott Ferguson: Orange is a fun color. That’s what it literally, , the reason why I asked kind of the colors, cause I build a lot of your marketing my team will build. I don’t, they’ll yell at me.

If I say I do, my team builds a lot of the, the marketing around your favorite color. And also there’s a personality behind, , every person’s favorite color, which helps me when, when I get to know you. You know what I’m saying? You are a fun person. So, but Hey man, so let’s get to this journey.

Like, I know like both of our fathers were bouncers. We were both put into martial arts when we were super young ages. It’s like, you’re my brother from another mother. Right. You know what I’m saying? So. Like, tell me about this journey, man. Like how you started in, in, in the Netherlands and made your way to kind of middle state, Texas.

Christiaan Hofman: Right. I started in the Netherlands. Of course, my parents are living there. And through all the circumstances that I was in, I thought I’m going to do something else. So [00:05:00] first I went from a school project. I went to England and I was 16 years old. I went on the bike and we had to go on a boat. And eventually you immerse yourself in a different culture.

With the words you don’t always understand, or you, you’re not speaking it correctly.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Christiaan Hofman: And it’s always a challenge. So I Like,

L. Scott Ferguson: like housekeeping that we talked about earlier.

Christiaan Hofman: Right. That thing. Yes. And I, I write a little bit on it in my book because I really remember it was a day that I was laughed at.

So I had long blonde hair and it was like, okay, you’re 16 years old. You’re a little bit, you, you put yourself in a circumstance where it’s like it’s not comfortable for you and they start laughing at you. So at that age, it’s a little bit awkward. So the inside of my, I think I always had something that wants to go against something just to, to mess, mess up [00:06:00] or to try to measure up.

And that’s challenge yourself. Yeah. Challenge yourself. I think it comes from my father too, but he also comes with a just a justification about themselves. Like what I say is law, like as a bouncer that it goes that way.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. Right.

Christiaan Hofman: So when I was laughed at and I didn’t know what they meant, but they called me sissy the whole day.

I didn’t know what it meant, sissy. Gotcha. So, so I asked the guy who was teaching me at that time, I said, what does it mean? Oh, it’s a good word. Don’t worry about it. I said, if it means something bad, because everybody was laughing, then I’d take my hammer. And I make sure like I’m going to hit something and I say it a little bit better in the book, but the thing is like, Hey, if you are not honest with me and we cannot have a trustful relationship, there is a consequence to that.

And I’m holding you. So I’m holding myself to that consequence. I can deliver. So I always grew with consequences and deliver. Upon those consequences. [00:07:00] So that makes me in my, my work function functional because in a lot of ways, if I set a certain, let’s say goal and I think, okay, I have to get that goal.

And how do I get there? It’s with a certain consequence. Sure. If I said, I’m going to do it and there is no way it’s not going to happen. So I fulfill on it. And I think that propels me because later on in life, I went to Australia. I think who am I, what am I doing, what I stand for? So I’ve, I’ve been in Australia for a year, backpacking and all around.

And I found out basically what I was made of in a lot of difficult situations. I’ve been robbed, I’ve been beat up, I’ve been lost, a lot of things happen. It’s all good. I mean, that makes you a little bit stronger because you’re not always in a comfortable setting. Right. Now, and if you try to grow in a, an uncomfortable setting, eventually you have to grasp on something that’s comfortable with inside of you and not that comes from outside of you.[00:08:00]

Right. When I got that right. When I found out what that was that made me strong, I guess, into difficult situations. Wow.

L. Scott Ferguson: So you’re saying that to kind of grow in kind of an uncomfortable situation, you dig deep inside you for a piece of comfort that helps you grow and overcome the uncomfortableness.

Is that what you’re kind of saying?

Christiaan Hofman: Right. And there’s a lot of I think it’s easy to make a mistake with that. Why? Because what you are grasping at and what are you trying to scratch at is your, your own identity and an identity is, is still fluid. Now if you look at identity and this is where it goes off with a lot of people too, because you want to mix it with character, with personality and all what it’s not.

It’s not your motivation. So if you identify yourself with a certain role, like I am a bouncer, or I’m a teacher, then eventually you become that role [00:09:00] set. But below that, if you can’t stress that. really to what you are. And that is what I’m doing with my clients. This is where your strength is, but the strength is also your identity.

All also means that you can always change. You can always like be more and widen yourself if you can. If you can widen yourself, you become a little bit more narrow, but you’re also going to focus on the narrow path. Of every role that you take on. So, hey, I am a podcaster. And what does a podcaster do?

Now, X, Y, and Z. Right. But you never get out of that little realm. But a podcaster can also do from A to Z. Gotcha. Or even alpha, delta, and omega, , you can expand even more. And if you understand that principle you, you, you always want to grow. And that’s what I try to do because I didn’t have it before.

I didn’t have a growth mindset. Right. I had a fixed mindset. Right. It’s how you, how I grew up. Right. It’s a blue collar family. You do what is told and you [00:10:00] execute because that eventually you earn money with that. Right. If you believe that you can you probably earn some money with it, but is it to your best.

Yeah. To your own growth.

L. Scott Ferguson: Are you leaning into your ultimate human potential, right? I mean, are you actually doing that? I have a question for you. You mentioned consequences a few times. Can consequences be looked at in both a good and a bad light? Always. Okay. Unpack that a little bit. Like, tell me what you mean by that.

Cause that’s what I was hearing, right? So there’s good consequences and bad consequences, but let’s go a little deeper on that, man.

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah. So if you set a consequence, that means you have a certain rule and routine set in place that you follow up to. And if it is not done how you want to follow it up, then eventually there’s a consequence.

Now there’s of course, then the normal life consequences, like you don’t get what you want. Sure. You don’t get what you strive for. But also if you, if you be a little bit harder on yourself, Hey, if I cannot [00:11:00] get this done, I’m not meeting the deadline, then my consequences. And I did it to myself. I’m not going to park anything close to any grocery store or wherever I need to be.

I will park at the end of the end. So it was my consequence for myself. So I make myself walk. Yeah. So there’s a consequence in place for me to like, okay, get things done. Now the consequence in this case, walking the distance is not a bad consequence because it’s, it’s, it’s also good for me. Serves you.

Yeah. So in, in that what I just said, it’s like, it’s a negative consequence with positive attributes on it. It will it helps you in that way love that

L. Scott Ferguson: And each one of them has its own little nugget of good inside that you can use to grow and expand That’s amazing, man. Thank you for dropping that so What do you feel then Christiaan makes a great coach?

Christiaan Hofman: Well if I think about my own expertise and that’s, this is the expertise without the [00:12:00] labels, I like to push, to play, to dig around, to arouse a little bit take by the hand standby and next, and also teach. And that’s what I do with the clients to develop a tangible aspirations and come up with strategies and implement this behavioral structures, routines, and habits to get them what I, or where they want to be.

Sure. So providing with that a little bit of motivation and inspiration. That is necessary to kick off all the good stuff.

L. Scott Ferguson: And a lot of accountability too.

Christiaan Hofman: Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: You got to hold the mat. That’s for sure. Yeah. So,

Christiaan Hofman: and if you, if that’s without the label, and if you say, okay, I slap a label on that, it’s like, I, that will be me as an instructor or a personal trainer, coach, a father, a friend.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. So if you’re kind of like meeting with somebody and they’re like, oh man, I’m super interested in work with Christiaane, you might have like kind of a, A one on one kind of like talk with [00:13:00] them. Is there any like secret sauce or something that you use to help them identify their initial blind spot that they’re really, they’re really working against that?

Christiaan Hofman: Well, Scott, there’s a couple of people that I, or behavior that I recognize. So you have people says like, I’m really interested in, are you? That’s the first question. Are you really, why would it be interested in that? Yeah. It sucks. It’s not always fun. It’s not. Are you really interested? Do you really want to?

Where does this want come from? So if you establish a little bit, the how and why, and you can go a little bit deeper on the questioning of that. What, what, what. The difference is, is with me is like, okay, yeah, I want to be motivated. I want to be in great shape. I want to have a good body right in, in fitness stuff.

Then yes. Okay. That is all what everybody wants. There’s no different than anybody else that I, I train. What makes it so different for you? [00:14:00] Why do you really want it? What’s your why? Right? Yeah. Yeah. What’s your why? And a lot of people, they develop a why because all the way it’s pushed by their Yeah.

Wives, like, Hey, you need to do something you go fast or because of pain, like the constant pain, like, Hey, I need to get over this or the effect that Hey, I ran to the behind my child. And all of a sudden I was already tired before, before he got tired.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Christiaan Hofman: Like I don’t want, I don’t want this. So there’s a lot of examples why people start to do things, but it doesn’t mean they can hold on to that thought.

So the moment that that thought disappears, their motivation and want disappears too. Now I will always think that motivation is something that you need to be doing daily, like bathing.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. Yeah.

Christiaan Hofman: Accumulate. And so if I take the motivation away, is it still something that you want?

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Christiaan Hofman: Like, right.

Without the motivation that you now have talking to me and you come up to a different level. Now if [00:15:00] people are not aware and this is where it becomes interesting to me, people not really aware yet. Like I want to work out. Yeah. Still like 30 years old. They can get away with a lot of things in their body.

They can still drink bad stuff and eat bad stuff without having consequences yet. Right. So you don’t think about it because there’s no consequence. Right. Consequence again. So for me, it’s like I poke and I tease and I play, it’s like, Hey do you really think you can hold onto this? And let’s go for a run.

See how far you can run. Okay. Challenge a little bit. Yeah. But also focus like is it still going well with you or how do you feel about yourself? And if you go deeper with that and depends who you have in front of you. I mean, if I always did. I did with I did this with my brothers and yeah, they developed, I think a certain tight skin or thicker skin in a way of like not only like I can maintain myself against a [00:16:00] certain force that tries to poke at me, get me where they want me to be.

And I don’t want to get there. Right. So it’s, it’s, it’s. It sets you more into your identity. So it all works together. Gotcha. So if you, the more you poke, the more and the closer you come to a certain identity. And this is where you are feeling like people try to lash out, get angry, get emotional, go internally, become quiet.

And this is where. These are the tools or the behavior that you can do something with. Yeah. This is where it starts. You can grow from that. This is not where it stops. Yeah. Right? So, and a lot of people stop there. It’s like, Oh, he’s, he’s now emotional. He’s, he’s in pain. Or he’s, he’s. Mm hmm. This is where it starts for me.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, that’s excellent, dude. No, I love it. You said you’re kind of playful with it, , with, with it. I mean, some personalities might be like, what the hell, but I’m obviously as coaches we can adjust, but I love that you stick to [00:17:00] your, , your guns, if you will. That’s, , it’s an expression where you stick to what you’re convicted about to be playful, at least at the start.

And that that’s, that’s a beautiful thing. So if you start working with. Somebody or you’re about to start working. They’re still making the decision Is there any good question that you wish they would ask you but never do

if I was? If you if you were talking to me and I’d be a common client, what would you want me to ask you?

Christiaan Hofman: Right eventually what does it entail? What does it really entail? Yeah

L. Scott Ferguson: What do you expect to me? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That’s exactly it, man. That’s beautiful. So what do you feel your strengths are then when it comes into your coaching and your profession?

Christiaan Hofman: Right. My strengths. First of all, I’m relentless in playing. I play and and I had this when I was a child and I think it comes from [00:18:00] if my mother, mother’s going to hear it, I don’t know. She doesn’t speak that English that well, so, but she’s more controlling. And because of her control, it, it did something to my self esteem, right?

You always look out, like, am I good enough? Am I doing a good enough? And with that, you try to establish your own control. And I did that by poking others. So I had control over them and it is, it was a negative attribute of me. And eventually I understood what I was doing and I tried to redo this in a, in a positive way.

Sure. And what changed? That for me, that position was when I was like 14, 15 years old. And I did this to my brother. And eventually I thought my brother could handle everything and anything. He started to cry. , it’s like, Oh this is what I want, right? This is ultimate control. This is exactly what I want them to be.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Christiaan Hofman: And at the same time, it’s like, this is exactly what I don’t want. This is not what I want. It makes me feel very bad. Right. [00:19:00] So instead of it was feeling good, all of a sudden it was very bad. And this is where I had to make that change. But I’m relentless in that. I go that far. I can go that far if I want to, and I think that’s sometimes needed, especially with some clients, you need to be relentless.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, I’m, I’m blessed to, , coach a billionaire three comma guy. And, I know it pushes his buttons, right. And I’ll go there, , I’ll get playful with them and playful. And, but when it’s time to dig in, cause what it does is it brings to the surface, the shit that’s really going on that we need to work on.

Right. , so your playfulness is, is fantastic. I might use a little bit of that analogy in mine too. Thanks, bro. I appreciate it. But. Let me ask something. So your, your journey is very unique. Okay. And have you seen the movie back to the future? Yes. Okay. Let’s get in that DeLorean with Marty McFly, right?

Let’s go back. You told me how old you are. Let’s let’s [00:20:00] cut that in half. Let’s go back to the double deuce, the 22 year old. Okay. What kind of knowledge and I guess your tips or advice, would you drop on the 22 year old Christiaan? Okay, not to change anything because your journey has been pretty awesome.

Okay, but to maybe shorten a learning curve a little bit Or maybe level up blast through a little bit quicker. What would you tell him?

Christiaan Hofman: I would say first of all read more Okay, and everything that is within your interest because that one that gives you the ability to read more If you do that, you will come into contact with the things that you don’t know And this is where your comfortability comes in You are comfortable and where it’s also a little bit out of your comfort zone and you start to learn right now, if I was 20 years old right now, I will definitely make an effort to solve the problems of the minute I don’t [00:21:00] know, and something of what I want to learn, because if I solve that problem by myself, First of all, I create momentum.

I create the self esteem and self worth and self confidence to go on and be stronger with solving problems in the meantime. But also what you create is a certain experience that in this economy, and maybe it’s now becoming the creator economy, is that you can. Teach this and sell this as well. So more like, okay, I overcame this problem and let me show you how, and you can see it now with a lot of chat GPT when it first came out.

L. Scott Ferguson: I

Christiaan Hofman: mean, a week later, a lot of people that were already the teaching people in chat GPT.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Christiaan Hofman: They probably did not know the full extent of chat GPT at that time,

L. Scott Ferguson: but they

Christiaan Hofman: knew enough To get prompts out of it and it worked well enough for them, but they can [00:22:00] teach that. And I think that is more and more becoming important because if you want to say like, I’m going to make a website, I don’t know how to do it then.

Okay. First. I would say like do a little course on the internet. And so, and I, I think that is the best thing.

L. Scott Ferguson: It’s like inch by inch. It’s a cinch, right? Slow, like, , by the yard, it’s hard. Everybody wants this now. it’s like, it’s one of my, , canned speeches is inch by inch. It’s a cinch, , it’s like everybody, but you got to take the steps.

And most important, you got to take the first step, right. And get it done. So. Christiaan, how do you want, I like to ask my client, or my, my interviewees, , how do you want your dash to remember? Like that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life date and your death date.

If you ever look at a tombstone, it says the year you were born, the year you died, and there’s a little dash. There’s a lot that happens in that dash. Okay? Yes. How do you want your Dash to remember?

Christiaan Hofman: I think something like he played, he [00:23:00] tried, and he persisted.

L. Scott Ferguson: He played, he tried, and he changed lives. I love it, man.

I can just hear, I can hear the genuine in you, right? , it’s like you’re not afraid to To push the buttons, but you don’t want to make them feel terrible about it. But at the same time you want to challenge them and that’s such a fine line as coaches that we have to walk sometime Sometimes i’ve been i’ve been fired.

I’ve i’ve tried to push buttons and frankly in full disclosure I fired clients too that wouldn’t like do it or i referred them to somebody else which is great about this podcast. We’ll be interviewing 400 coaches. I can refer some to anybody anytime. Right. But yeah, I’d say I love that, that, that line that you walk and you’re not afraid, like the, the courage that it takes to do things from a playful point of view is big bro.

That’s big.

Christiaan Hofman: Right. And for me, it’s also if you You [00:24:00] say you stop sometimes at like, I don’t want to hurt someone unless it’s effective, right? If it is effective, then I will do that. I think it’s effective at a certain point and I will go there. And I had a little experience when I was 15 years old, it was one of my first jobs, probably my third one at the time.

But I was I had to wash a certain I said, not the cars, but the people that were in the workshop. I had to clean that up, tighten up and wash the floor and everything. And I was hired by a person that I knew from soccer, playing soccer. He says like, Oh yeah, I got a job for you. You go over there, wash this thing and be done.

You earn this much. Okay. I will do this. And one day when I was working, the boss of the car company at the time, he was for Opel and that’s not a big brand here, but it’s a brand in Europe. He came, parked his car in the middle of the door, garage door, and he says, I wash my car. And I was like, all right, no.

[00:25:00] So and he said no. I said, no, I’m not hired to do that. I’m going to wash the workshop over here, but I’m not going to wash your car.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right.

Christiaan Hofman: I’m not here to do that at home. You’re going to do that now. Otherwise I’m going to fire you. I said, you have no say so in the matter. You didn’t hire me. So why should I listen to you?

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. So

Christiaan Hofman: that is that little, maybe a little bit of bravado that you need to have. First of all, establish the situation, give yourself time to negotiate. Right. Yeah. Because if you don’t have that, then you just follow the cue of someone else. Right. Giving you the time a little bit and also come with a counter action.

L. Scott Ferguson: We call it growing balls. , get in the balls, , make sure you’re not disrespectful, but stand up for yourself. Right. , I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s

Christiaan Hofman: difficult because you say self not disrespectful because in the eyes of someone else, you are already disrespectful.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. 100 percent you’re 100 percent right.

And so again, it’s a fine line, but , if there [00:26:00] was a third party, somebody else there that they would see it and be like, no, the boss is wrong. Or that dude’s wrong. You know what I’m saying? So it’s like everybody’s ego gets involved in, , stuff like that. And. No, but I’m happy that you have conviction, man.

That’s huge.

Christiaan Hofman: Right. And that, but the, what I tried to say is that it’s, it’s so difficult to have conviction because where does it come from? And for me, it was a type of the monster that I can be, that I control. So I know that if it comes to shove I have no problems to, to grab you by ear or flick you in the face, like, Hey, calm down.

Relax. This is going to be worse for you. Right. And if you have that background of like, Hey, I can manage myself no matter what circumstances you put on me. If you have that. Because you need a little bit of that. And if you’re a little bit more having self esteem problems and everything else, self worth problems, you cannot go to that stage.

[00:27:00] You’re not willing to make someone else upset or even say, be disrespectful. I mean, you give respect to people that deserve it, not to ones like, Hey, Wash my car. Yeah, exactly. My respect level instantly drops.

L. Scott Ferguson: 100%. I respect everybody. That’s the one thing that, I’m 6’1 I’m 230. I’m pretty well put together.

I told you a little bit about my, I told you a little bit about my background earlier. And it’s like, I will respect everybody. But brother, I expect. The exact same in return, , not to say that I’m the toughest dude or whatever, but it’s just like, don’t just, just don’t and respect other people. I have a hard time watching other people get disrespected.

I just, I, it bothers me and I might even speak out and there’s consequences to that. Sometimes, , let me ask you something. Is there, what do you think people might misunderstand the most about you?

Christiaan Hofman: Well, if you take things in very black, white scope, but then it didn’t [00:28:00] instantly, I get misunderstood very quickly.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Well, it’s a the disconnect between, , our different humors are different ways. We talk just ethical or culturally, sorry. Culturally. Right. Right. Yeah.

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah. So I’ve been seen a very blunt and straight to the point and that’s Dutch. Right. And even my my friends say like you were blunt for Dutch.

That might be so, that might be so. But I think if you are very black and white thinking and you are adhered to a certain identity that you have, and you cannot let that go because you feel attacked. And I think it’s a more of a certain survival. Basic instinct, because in our survival instinct, we reproduce.

So we have children, but also you can reproduce on a metaphysical level. And that is like, we share our ideas. That’s how I reproduce. So the more that you listen to me, the more I reproducing myself into you. And that is very important [00:29:00] because if someone has an identity and is very strict with it, black and white.

He doesn’t let themselves grow or reproduce for someone else. Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that is the case. And if they are not aware of it, yeah. Then I’m looking liking the strains and the weight one. Yeah. But I think like, okay, there is no growth there. So it doesn’t matter to me, but I love it. I love that.

L. Scott Ferguson: You talk about growth because we are the only species on the planet that does not grow to our capability. Only species. A tree will grow as high as the roots are deep, right? , a, any, any, you look at any living animal, people will say, well, your dog’s fat, or, , but if the human wasn’t fat, the dog wouldn’t be fat.

 What I’m saying? The dog would want to run and be a dog, a monkey, be a monkey. As humans, we stop our growth. Through programming, right? And how we’re taught and like how your mom was kind of with you and how my dad was with me. It’s [00:30:00] like we took a different path with our growth mindset, , to adapt, to overcome, to try new things, understand that there’s consequences to both things.

I think that’s why you and I really jive a lot in our coaching philosophies with that, man. I love that, Christiaan. So I have to ask you. Mm hmm. What is your definition of a life well lived?

Christiaan Hofman: I think and that’s something that I write in my book. It’s like to obey your best self. And and that’s the, I think the basic of discipline and this case self discipline because discipline can lay outside of yourself. So I’m going to the self discipline part of it. I think yeah,

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that man to obey your best self.

That is the strong, because again, As humans, we don’t grow into our best self. We let’s, if we can find that, we can obey it. And so many people, right? I don’t know if you agree with this. I think you would, [00:31:00] but so many people obey the little version of themselves instead of what it actually can be. Do you agree?

Right? Yes. Okay. Yes.

Christiaan Hofman: And and that way it’s like eventually you don’t matter anymore, and Exactly. And if it is because you don’t matter for yourself. Right? It doesn’t matter for you. Thank you. Enough. Perfect. So you don’t matter in a general sense of things. Yeah. And well, everybody’s will be crossing the line while you’re still behind because you don’t put emphasis on like your self worth and self love.

You don’t

L. Scott Ferguson: value yourself. Right. , I see so many of like some of my clients, I’m blessed to coach professional athletes and sometimes they value. Things that don’t serve them, like instead of putting extra reps into something, they might value that video game more, , and again, I’m not judging them, I just asked them, is this going to get you to this, , and then [00:32:00] I’ll ask it enough that their value goes off and say, look, I value my time more to go take extra reps, , instead of doing this.

But I also understand that their level, they have to have their downtime, but there’s certain times that they run into slumps or they’re not performing at their. Ultimate potential that sometimes you just have to get back to the basics and their basics was the reps that they put in Right, so we get them back to the reps and they start valuing their best Thank you for putting it that way to obey your best self.

That’s awesome. And Go ahead, brother, please.

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah, I because you say some words that I familiarize myself with it’s like first of all, let’s come back to the discipline self discipline because I think we are educated in that way, trained that way to focus on obeying societal norms and regulations and instead of focusing on following a set of values and rules that you set for yourself.

I mean, that is not like really the norm. So in judgment, because that’s the word that you said [00:33:00] judgment is a very good thing to have because from judgment you can start to understand each other. The difference that I’m using is not being judgmental. Yes. Thank you. A little bit difference. If you’re not aware, because I say that sometimes.

Yeah. And people say like, oh, you have a, you’re judgemental now you’re

L. Scott Ferguson: judging me. Yeah. I, yeah.

Christiaan Hofman: Well, I have to. Right. It’s

L. Scott Ferguson: right.

Christiaan Hofman: Heuristics

L. Scott Ferguson: in a sense. Yeah. So I have to, I’ve been told that too, brother. I say, you might think I’m judging you, but I’m loving you because I know that your best self isn’t here or else you would not be paying me what you’re paying me.

Okay. Right. Sorry. But it’s the truth. And that you’re not following your rules or the values. That could be there for yourself and they kind of switch them off the judgment path because they’re like, oh you’re judging me that’s why in In my coaching. I never use the word why unless It has to be used like I would not say hey Christiaan.

Why did Christiaan? Why did you do this because it [00:34:00] sounds like i’m judging them, but i’ll flip it to say what were you thinking? In this situation that this was the outcome You know what i’m saying? And so they get it. So i’ve been better at that in 14 years It took me to not use why too much but that’s awesome That’s a

Christiaan Hofman: very interesting point you say because I sometimes deliberately do that and I says like what’s wrong with you?

Yeah, I

don’t think they’re stupid at all. No, no, no. I know you don’t. A reaction, right? To get a reaction because where is your self worth? Where’s your self love because if you don’t have that self esteem you will not revolt to those words You should be revolting like I’m calling you stupid right now. I guess it’s something needs to come back from you Yeah, dude, I love then I know where you are

L. Scott Ferguson: that button push right there one.

It’s ballsy is all hell I’ll tell you that but what you’re coming from a place of love, bro You’re not coming from a place of judgment, , I do remind them when I go down [00:35:00] that path with clients, , I’ll be like, listen, man, this has come from a place of love, brother, your, your mindset right now is wrapped around.

You feel I’m judging you, but I’m not, I’m loving on you right now. And I love your gut so much that this, I have to ask this, right. , and just please, , work with me here, throw me, throw me a bone is another American thing we might say, right. ,

Christiaan Hofman: I think it’s, it’s really, it’s a resolving the class of the ones or wills from within.

Yeah. Right. And that’s what we always have to, it’s, it’s about the do or die, the action or the distraction or the surviving or the thriving or the creating and the destroying. It’s always that. And if you, if you, if you can’t see that anymore. I mean, because you are so in the comfortable, comfortable position that allows you to be like, okay.

Oh, I don’t need to be doing this. Then yes, it’s not about getting you somewhere anymore because you don’t have set the proper goals. What is your goal during the day? Yeah,

L. Scott Ferguson: absolutely. It’s as simple [00:36:00] as that. It is. It can like, as a coach, if we can just dumb things down another term to use for them to their language.

And again, like. So like high level people will talk about ideas like you and I might rap about, okay, , talk about, okay, what we do to level up people, , kind of mediocre people. They talk about events like what’s going on around them. Low level people. Or losers, , talk about other people is generally when they’re not there.

And those are the people, like, those are the people that people listen to the most. Does that make sense? Like people will listen to that person the most because it matches kind of what they grew up with. It matches their past. And you and I are there trying to help them lean into their ultimate human potential and to turn off that noise, , in, in a sense.

And I love the way that you’re playful about it. I’m going to actually probably start being more playful or [00:37:00] Christiaan. I’m going to actually be, call it being playful. And I’ll be like, I blame it on my, one of my coach buddies, but we do have to move on brother.

Time to shine today, podcast, varsity squad. We are back in Christiaan, one of these trips I’m in Texas a lot. So I’m going to definitely meet up with you at least for lunch or a coffee, or maybe you’ll talk me into coming out and training with you, which please don’t. I’m kidding. No, actually I will. I will.

I promise. But we’ll talk about some of these questions. For 10, 15 minutes each, but today you got five seconds to answer them.

Christiaan Hofman: Oh my goodness. Okay. And they can all be

L. Scott Ferguson: answered that way, brother. I promise you. Okay. Just answer the question. Don’t give explanations. That’s the easiest way I can say it. Okay.

I promise you, they can all be answered that way. You ready to level up?

Christiaan Hofman: Hold on. Yeah, very known for saying like if this, or if this isn’t like, , this, so I’ll just, I hope I can be very good.

L. Scott Ferguson: Listen, you use the B word earlier. You remember what that was?

Christiaan Hofman: I know

L. Scott Ferguson: blunt so just be blunt with your your [00:38:00] answers.

All right, brother. Here we go Christiaan what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received

Christiaan Hofman: read more?

L. Scott Ferguson: Yes Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success

Christiaan Hofman: work an hour on my lofty goals Every day and listen to a podcast and read

L. Scott Ferguson: hell. Yeah. Love it So you see me kind of walking down the street and you’re like, oh man Or maybe at a networking event or something and you’re like man fergie looks like he’s in his doldrums a little bit Other than your book which we’ll get to in a little bit What book might you hand me that maybe like shifted your mind a little bit?

Christiaan Hofman: Oh That’s a couple of the latest one. I guess is called positive Thinking a positive having a positive thinking mindset by phoenix bloom.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Love it Donnie put that in the show notes, please. Awesome. You have a most commonly used emoji when you text

Christiaan Hofman: Probably fist

L. Scott Ferguson: this. Love it. Love it. Nicknames

Christiaan Hofman: growing up.[00:39:00]

Didn’t tolerate them.

L. Scott Ferguson: No. Okay. Gotcha. Do you have any hidden talent and or superpower that you have that nobody knows about until now?

Christiaan Hofman: No, I don’t think I said already. Like my talent is really like I

L. Scott Ferguson: got you headline for your life.

Christiaan Hofman: That’s a good one. Yeah. I always go back to work hard and and and smarter. Yeah. And recreate.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love, that’s awesome. That’s, that’s legit. Go to ice cream flavor. Whiskey. No one’s ever said that. There’s the, a sandwich called the Christiaan. Build that sandwich for me. What’s on that sandwich?

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah, that’s an old regular sandwich with bread.

And then we put butter on it and [00:40:00] then I’m

L. Scott Ferguson: going to give you a time on this. You just said a word. I have no idea. So what is that?

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah, that’s a chocolate sprinkles. Real chocolate. It’s not the sprinkles that you can buy in the

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, yeah. Like is it bitter chocolate or is it semi-sweet or,

Christiaan Hofman: yeah, you can have a bitter, you can add the milk chocolate, so that’s always the

L. Scott Ferguson: thing.

Awesome. Makes happy favorite. Do you have any charity and or organization you’d like to give your time and or money to?

Christiaan Hofman: Looking at hard organizations. Okay.

L. Scott Ferguson: Very good. I know you donated to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline, so thank you for that, brother. Really, a lot. And last question. What’s the best decade of music?

60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s?

Christiaan Hofman: I love Elvis Presley. So around that 60s, 70s area.

L. Scott Ferguson: Nice. My mom got to meet Elvis. She has a picture. I’ll send, I’ll text you a picture. Yeah. It’s when he was getting to be fat Elvis, but ,

Christiaan Hofman: yeah,

L. Scott Ferguson: yeah. It was great music, dude. It’s it’s, it’s, , it’s funny. He’s in Vegas. , they, like you told me the story off Mike [00:41:00] about your friend.

There’s an Elvis impersonator. If you go to Vegas, there’s a show called legends, right? And it has the Elvis guy up there and they have the Elvis from young days, Medium days and his fat days, dude, the women in the audience that are older than us. Okay.

Christiaan Hofman: I can tell you stories about this.

L. Scott Ferguson: They cry, dude, they, I’m sure your friend dealt with it or not dealt with it, got to experience that, but they’re like, we

Christiaan Hofman: had a groupies of 60 and 70 years old women coming to our hotel door.

At that time, so Wow. I know how it is so cool, . How crazy. It’s it’s real. It’s real.

L. Scott Ferguson: Well, you said, you told me where you met your wife. She’s not one of them. Is she ? No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding, dude. I’m totally messing with you, .

Christiaan Hofman: She’s a little bit younger than 50. I just messing with you.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s awesome, man.

That’s awesome. Christiaan, how can we find you, my friend,

Christiaan Hofman: on our website sport net.com.

L. Scott Ferguson: And [00:42:00] that’s a squad is spelled S P O R T N A T U R E L. com. It’ll be in the show notes as well. Be that so we can find you there.

Christiaan Hofman: Yes, of course. On LinkedIn X Facebook, but I have yeah, I’m trying to do Pinterest, but it’s not like I think it, I’m not sitting well with it yet.

Maybe I will grow into it later.

L. Scott Ferguson: Good deal. Yeah. Make sure you do it. So I get a little bit off of Pinterest. I also get a lot more off of sub stack now, and I’ve never, if you’ve heard of sub stack, it’s kind of a new platform, but it’s for people like us that like to put out good content and I’m going to take a note right now just to send it over to you.

You don’t have to write it down. That is awesome. Yeah. All right. And your book, my man. In the book and squad, I, I full disclosure, I’ve only read the first chapter. But I love parables. I love stories. I love fables. And that’s what my guy Christiaane [00:43:00] writes here. It’s called the meet yourself. Think for yourself, love the cover.

It’s awesome. Tell us a little bit about it, man.

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah, it was a long time in the making. I did six years really research on a lot of topics and then two years of writing it generally because of course I’m Dutch. I lived there for 36 years. So to re to write in another language, it’s always a little bit

L. Scott Ferguson: you did good, brother.

I’ll tell you. Thank you. Yeah, no, I like it a lot.

Christiaan Hofman: It took me a little bit to get that all construct. But I have to ask you, is

L. Scott Ferguson: it Cian or is it pronounced Chian or like, how’s it pronounced?

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah, that’s a good question. It’s a Kian.

L. Scott Ferguson: Kian. Okay. Because Squad, it’s spelled, one of the main characters, his name is spelled C I A N.

And now that I know it’s Kian, that’s what, when I’m reading, I’ll be able to know that. Yeah. What I’m saying? So again, I was saying Cian. , which Americans that’s the way we’re kind of, , well, okay, cool. I’m sorry. I cut you off. Go on.

Christiaan Hofman: No, that’s good. My editor [00:44:00] actually cut that out because I explained it’s, it’s pronounced CM and she says, no, don’t do that.

I said, all right, just let them in their own world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got you. You didn’t want to break the fourth wall. That’s how they say it. Right. Right. Yeah. All right. Won’t do it. So Kian Kian Christiaane the Hudson that’s the last name. That’s actually the the name of my son. My son is Hudson.

Oh, okay. I put that in there. There’s a lot of things in that. If you look at the how do you say that? We call it in house of Java. Uh, how do you call it now? Lost it. But where you see where where every chapter is. Okay. The index. Yeah. The index. If you look at the index, it’s really, um, if you take every first letter of every subject, then it forms a certain sentence.

So, that’s a little thing, neat thing in there. There’s a couple of more things in there, but it’s just there. I, I’m going to do a video one day about the book and explain, Oh, please do,

L. Scott Ferguson: man. Thanks. Yeah. [00:45:00] Please, please, please, please do, man. Cause I will like, yeah, cause I’ve, I’ve already like, I’m going to, I got a flight and I’m going to probably have it read by the time I get to, , to where I’m going tonight.

But let me just, I’m going to share the screen. So you’re saying that let me see here. This is kind of each one of them kind of spells something. Is that what you’re saying?

Christiaan Hofman: Yes. Okay. Yeah. That’s fair. I guess.

L. Scott Ferguson: Gotcha. Okay. I see. Yeah. Awesome, man. Yeah. I’m looking, I’m looking forward. Cause again, I love, I love stories, that have lessons, , parables.

Right. And it’s like, again, that first chapter of only, blasted through actually this morning. I ain’t gonna lie to you. Blast through it this morning. And it was, it was entertaining and I love to read stories when I’m flying, what I’m saying? So, yeah. So the story

Christiaan Hofman: is it’s related to all the things that I’ve been through.

So it’s kind of a it was first a memoir and then I changed it up because my coach said, unless your name is Elvis Presley. Or a president, something, something, but he’s going to read your [00:46:00] memoir, right? And I think it is probably true. So I added a fictional person and that’s Sifu Fong. Sifu Fong is a fictional person.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay.

Christiaan Hofman: And a lot of things in there besides that. Real thing.

L. Scott Ferguson: No, I love that you did that because I mean I did the same thing with mine where it’s a hero’s journey Right kind of something like that where something i’m very familiar with within the real estate world , he kind of loses it, but then he’s introduced to five different people for those five different Disciplines or, , knowledge nuggets that he picks up in those.

It, it, and it’s what it is. It’s a homage that people even like you, because I picked up a nugget from you today, that it’s an homage to those people that I have, that’s allows me to lean into others and help them level up. Right. That’s what the whole book’s about, , and I’m thinking that a lot of yours is to the lessons that you’ve learned from others and the stuff you’ve picked up along the way, right.

Christiaan Hofman: Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Awesome. In, in Squad, I am going [00:47:00] to send out two copies. I’m going to do two copies for the first person that puts in the, into any of our social. I don’t care if it’s LinkedIn, Pinterest Instagram, our Instagram page, Facebook page, any of it. First one that puts Hudson. Let’s say Hudson’s dad, first one that puts Hudson’s dad in there.

I will send out a, a free copy on time to shine today’s dime and get that out to you. So, and if not, it’s very, very affordable. I’m a Kindle guy mainly. It’s very affordable on Kindle, it’s nine bucks. Go, go pick it up. And if you would like it rug on Kindle instead, let me know and I’ll be happy to email the it to you through Kindle.

So, but. , this was super fun, man. I, if you could do me one last solid and leave us with one last knowledge nugget, something that we can internalize, take action on and get going with.

Christiaan Hofman: Yeah, when you are comfortable, but the understanding that you never will fully understand where you come from, why you are [00:48:00] here and where you are going, well, fear will lose its strength.

L. Scott Ferguson: Oh dude, so it’s where you come from why you are here and where you are going. Yes The fear will lose its strength

Christiaan Hofman: if you are comfortable with that understanding that you will never fully understand that Dude,

L. Scott Ferguson: that is badass, dude. That’s amazing. And squad, I just had a super fun conversation with my good friend, Christiaan, who he likes to immerse himself, , in different cultures.

He likes to learn. He likes to get out there in experiences. He loves to challenge himself to him. Trust is paramount. , trust is, is very important to him. And he also realizes that he taught us that consequences can have good actions or good consequences and bad consequences. , in For us to be able to grow, we must be become uncomfortable because inside us is that seed and if that gestation period of that seed, like if you, if you throw an acorn on the ground squad, [00:49:00] an oak tree doesn’t pop up.

If that was the case, there’s tens of thousands of, acorns on the ground. The one that gets water, the one that gets the right sunlight, the one that gets the right food is the one. Is going to grow and that’s that what somebody like my good friend Christiaan does he helps you grow He does it in a playful manner, , but I also see him listen listening intently He doesn’t just listen with his ears.

He listens with all his senses, which I call listening with your neck He really leans in he really wants to get to know you and and to see the path that we’re going to go on together right and He said about motivation, , if you take motivation away, is that still what you want? You That that hit home with me, that if you take the motivation out of it Is it still what you want?

That’s really a choice that you’re gonna have to make to lean into , he’s relentless again in playing, he used to overcompensate the plane, But now he finds a way to use his plane as a servant to really lean into to help you , and he’s he remembered [00:50:00] somebody that played That changed lives.

He’s going to slide across home plate bumped and bruised But he knows he’s going to change your life if you really work with him And no matter where you come from why you are here or where you are going lose the fear dude, it’s we we can come to what we Whatever we want, especially if you let me introduce you to a good friend and coach Christiaan Who loves up his health?

He loves up his wealth. He’s so fun. So well spoken. Thank you for coming on brother I absolutely love your guts

Christiaan Hofman: Thank you very much. And I’ve got one more for your audience. It’s a question. If you are not your thought, like Dan, who is your thoughts, then who is what I asked myself.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s awesome, brother.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Christiaan Hofman: Thank you very much. And great summarization of me,

L. Scott Ferguson: brother chat soon. Thank you.

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