Episode #1 with Jean-Luc DeCoster

Dive into the world of self-improvement and peak performance with Coach Jace Riley and his guest Jean-Luc, a former 1stPhorm associate, in this first episode of the "6am Practice Podcast."

Explore how Jean-Luc transformed his athletic background into a successful career, emphasizing the significance of discipline, high expectations, and the right social circle.

This episode is perfect for those interested in athletic training, personal development, and learning how to balance work, study, and fitness. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that provides practical tips for students, athletes, and professionals alike.

Jean-Luc Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeanlucdecoster
Connect with Jean-Luc https://stan.store/jeanlucdecoster
1stPhorm https://1stphorm.com/
Coach Riley Instagram https://www.instagram.com/6am_practice

https://www.instagram.com/6am_practice/

Transcript

Choose the Right People, Surround Yourself

Coach Riley 0:33

Take one episode one, it's all good. Welcome to the 6AM Podcast with your host, Coach Riley. That's me. It's been a long time coming up, but on Instagram for about six years, and I've always toyed around with the idea of having a podcast. And this is the first inaugural podcast, and it's all because of my host, my guest. I'm the host. I'm already a little nervous who I've been following on Instagram forever. He walks the walk. He is not somebody who's just out there motivating, saying stuff. This guy gets it done. Jean-luc, you're a 1stPhorm athlete. Is that the correct term that I would use?

Jean-Luc 1:07

Not an athlete. So I worked there actually for six years.

Coach Riley 1:11

What's that experience like, being part of that family?

Jean-Luc 1:14

Yeah, man, absolutely yeah, and those guys are all left to do my own thing. So it wasn't bad terms or anything like that. Those guys are all still my brother's, really good friends with Andy and Sal and been working with them for years and we still keep in touch and everything like that. But yeah, man, it was one heck of a ride. I started there fresh out of high school and learned a heck of a lot, worked my way up and had been there for six years and being surrounded by those kinds of people that just push you and motivate you, it does something to you.

Jean-Luc 1:46

You know what I mean and I come from an athletic background so I was used to the pressure and things like that. I think that's why it kind of resonated with me. But it was brought to a whole another level in that kind of context, you know, within those walls, and I'm forever grateful to those people for the man that they helped mold me into and the path that they helped set me on. Now, obviously, I'm not with them anymore, but of course I owe so much to them for helping inspire me and give me some direction and the courage, a skill set that I can take with me for wherever I go in this world, so it was an awesome thing to be a part of. It was hard for me to leave, but ultimately I wanted to chase my own thing. But I'm forever grateful for the opportunity that I had to work with them and maintain those friendships with all those guys. It's a super cool community. There's nothing like it.

Coach Riley 2:35

Well, and that's what I was going with, that is, when you surround yourself with people, right? So you were an athlete in high school, you know. I believe you played some soccer I mean for quite a long time, 15 years and so how important is it to have the right people around you to surround you, whether it's on your team or your friends, or who you're hanging out with at school. How important is that to come to help you be successful?

Jean-Luc 3:04

Yeah, great question. And well, I'll kind of start chronologically, right. So, yeah, you hit it around the head. I played soccer for about 15, 16 years, dabbled in a couple other sports baseball, jiu-jitsu, ultimate for his B, things like that but soccer was definitely my main sport and one of the lessons that kind of stuck with me in terms of like surrounding yourself.

Learning Time Management and Discipline

Jean-Luc 3:23

This wasn't actually like a choice of mine, but I think there was a reason my parents kept me on this team cause they probably solved, when I didn't, but one coach that I had, specifically when I was in probably fifth or sixth grade maybe we were warming up for soccer game and I'll never forget this. We were just like pretty good team and we knew the team we were playing against was not that great. We weren't really taking our warm-ups that seriously. We were kind of goofing around and not really doing what we were supposed to be doing. And my coach I was one of the higher skill level players on the team. I was just goofing off and he blew up on me for it, rightfully so he like he handed it to me you know what I mean. And after the game I told my parents like I was really upset about it and all that kind of stuff. Like it was like unfair because these players weren't getting treated that way and I was, and they kind of like put it in perspective. They're like well, jean-luc, like look like you're one of the better players on the team, like the reason he snapped at you is because he knows you have the potential to do better and you're just wasting your talent and your skill by goofing off. And I never forgot them saying that. And then, forever since then, I kind of looked at the coaching and all that kind of stuff different for the rest of my life. And that was like I said, like I was a young kid, maybe even not even a teenager yet, and it's gone with me literally to this day and I'm sure it will stick with me forever.

Jean-Luc 4:42

But in terms of like your peers and everything, yeah, it's really important because, like everybody says, you hang out with five people, you become the sixth and I went through that in high school. You know there was actually at a time there was a group of kids I was friends with and I recognized that wasn't a good crowd and I didn't have another friend group to kind of jump ship to, but I was like I'm not going to be treated this way about this group anymore. So I just said like peace out guys. Like I'm out for a couple of months there over summer Like I didn't hang out with anybody because I didn't have a friend group, but I just knew I didn't want to be surrounded with a bad group and sure enough, I mean I got new friends, kind of that scooped me up and I am still friends with those people and it's helped me kind of delineate who I kind of give my time and energy to. Without sounding arrogant, I don't want to sound like it's the most precious commodity, but time is our time is the most.

Coach Riley 5:36

You can always earn more money. You can all write vacation, you know, but that's. I wanna go back to one of the things you said about the coach young, really who had high expectations for you, right, and when people have high expectations for you, they come down on you hard when they see that wasted potential Totally. If they don't see anything in you, they're just gonna leave you be right. They go, oh, Jimmy's, middle of the road like they just they're okay with it, right, right. And as an athlete, you wanna worry when the coach stops talking to you. Yeah exactly.

Coach Riley 6:10

If they're not paying any attention to you or they're just kind of like you know overlocking your playing around you, right, and so, so that the fact that you learned that lesson so young is such a huge thing and I would have managed, and that's helped form who you are as a person in all things, right, yeah, how you do anything is how you do everything Totally. You can't be a high level athlete who's successful in school and studying and all this other stuff and then yet do the total opposite in another area of your life Rare. So high expectations. There's a lot of pressure, and so that, how? So there's a lot of pressure with student athletes when it comes to schooling grades, right, and so how did you balance, I mean, even as an adult, right?

Coach Riley 6:58

How do you balance? You only have so many hours of the day, right. You sleep a third of them, you work a third of them and then you have another third to do whatever you're gonna do, right, yeah? So how do you? What is the best? Whether it was something you learned back in high school, whether it was something you learned last week, what is the? What would be the one thing you would tell yourself 15 years ago or 10 years ago? What would be the one thing you tell yourself about managing your time and how to be successful at time management. What would you tell the younger you?

Jean-Luc 7:29

Yeah, good question. Well, let's see. Well, I think when I was still a student athlete, I was very fortunate to be in an environment and in my home. I had very loving parents and they were very supportive and they helped kind of make sure I understood my priorities because I love it or hate it, parents pretty much always know best and even though I didn't necessarily want to agree with it, they always kept me on a good path. That helped me understand to prioritize things like school and my athletic career, I guess you could call it, which kept me out of trouble and it kept me busy and stuff like that kept me healthy because I was active and all that and I wasn't like a straight A student.

Jean-Luc 8:13

I wasn't 4.0 GPA, I was 3.5, I got good grades. That's good. 3.5 was good. I was kind of coasted through school. I was fortunate enough to be like a pretty bright kid. I would say it served me and allowed me to spend time playing soccer and all that kind of stuff.

Jean-Luc 8:30

But now I would say I've really started to learn this lesson as I have grown up and now I have my own home and I live by myself so I don't have people keeping me on it holding me accountable. I kind of hold myself accountable, so I could tell myself 10 years ago a way to do better about that because I'm by no means great, I can always do better with my discipline and all that kind of stuff. I would say really kind of, start to build habits and build your discipline as young as you can, because then the younger you do that, the more it just becomes a part of who you are. The older you are and the more cemented your bad habits are, the harder it is to get out of them. So it takes a lot of pedaling.

Coach Riley 9:10

And so you get on something there about. You become who your habits are right. So one of the things I used to like to say, and I still say not me, but as an athlete you'd say I don't play basketball, I'm a basketball player, right.

Jean-Luc 9:26

It's an identity, not an action.

Coach Riley 9:28

Exactly and that is something that is so key that so many kids, I believe, don't touch on nowadays is like well, I'm gonna study for the test, right, Okay, you could say that. Or you could say I'm the guy who always prepares for my tests, and that's who you become. And there's this the brain is very, very strange and magical and does these things, and people are like self-talk Well, that's just, that's just hocus, pocus and all that other stuff. The brain is so amazing when you flip your what you do to who you become. You know, I don't work out, I'm the guy who never misses a workout, even if it's just putting my shoes on and going for a five minute walk. You become that person, and so that is such a critical thing to learn and your spot on the younger you learn it, the more you can refine it, Cause it's a talent. You can figure this out when you're 45,. You can figure it out when you're 14. And the sooner you figured out, the better your life is, because, again, how you do anything is how you do everything so successful at your job, successful at school, successful in relationships and managing enough time to have entertainment, right.

Coach Riley 10:37

People are always like I have no social life. Yeah, yeah, you know what do you? You gotta have balance and everything. You can't just be you know 24 seven grind. There's gotta be some entertainment in there.

Coach Riley 10:48

Because if you say I'm not gonna look at Instagram at all, the first thing I wanna do is go look at Instagram. Go look at Instagram because I can't right. So if you're like, listen, I'm gonna allow myself 15 minutes of Instagram and it'll allow us to say 15 minutes is plenty of time. I'm the first. I'm the first, but I'm the first guy to be like, hold on, I'll look at the, I'll see what time. It is All right, 15 minutes. And then like 45 minutes later, you haven't even. You're still going, you. So we both rather you and me both Everybody is how it's set up, it's how the game is played, and so that's another thing that we won't delve into.

Coach Riley 11:24

But once you know how phones work and treat you and like mentally, and how you become relying upon them and did it, there is no fear. Like you're where's my phone? Tap, Like when you tap in your pockets where's my phone, you could be your wallet. Your wallet doesn't even cause that much panic, Right, yeah, it's very strange. So the fact that you look at, you know setting up themselves disciplined, and as you get older and you refine that, you know it's just like a muscle the more you flex it, the stronger it becomes. That's everything, everything to do with humans.

Jean-Luc 11:56

And I think it's worth noting that this doesn't just encompass like sports and like fitness, but discipline is like every area of your life, because it's just the disciplined muscle. It's not like the sports discipline muscle or like the workout discipline muscle. It's like, hey, I just need to practice discipline, whether it's not hitting snooze or putting my phone down when I say I'm going to, when I hit that 15 minute mark, or reading 10 pages a day, like whatever. It is like keeping those promises to yourself, no matter how big or small they are. And I always tell people, like, start small, but exercising that discipline muscle in all areas of your life.

Jean-Luc 12:34

Because you may struggle to go to the gym. You tell yourself you're going to go and all this kind of stuff, so you can't keep that promise to yourself yet. But if you can keep the promise of reading or eliminating phone time or something like that, you start to respect yourself a little bit more because you're like, yeah, I can do what I'm, what I say I'm going to, I can keep my promises, I can, I can keep my word. And then soon enough you say, hey, I'm going to go to the gym. If you're a person who keeps your word, as you just said, you are the identity you're going to find yourself in the gym, and it's not going to happen necessarily overnight. It can for sure. But building the habit takes time and it's just worth noting that discipline is in all areas of your life. We're not expecting you to be perfect and and me and you are not out here pretending we walk on streets of gold or anything, but we're. We're just speaking from our own experiences, you know.

Coach Riley 13:23

Yeah, and I wonder you know you said start small, promise yourself something that you know you can do, right? I wonder if, when you tell yourself, like I'm going to go to the gym, you set up a big goal that you're not going to do you didn't you just know you're not going to do it. If you tell yourself that you're going to do it and then you don't do it, I wonder if that plays in later on when you tell yourself you're going to do other things, and if your brain is like, well, you're just lying to me, bro, totally. Yeah, sure, that's Friday night talk, okay. Yeah, you're going to drop 60 pounds in six months, okay, good, yeah, you know what? Okay, and it just goes on like you don't call yourself on it.

Jean-Luc 14:01

Totally. They absolutely has a reverse effect. You either get better or you get worse. There's not really a maintenance.

Coach Riley 14:07

Yeah, and it is. We probably lie to ourselves. There's two things that most people can't stand you in. One of them is usually a liar right, because lying is so deceitful and goes across so many things Trust issues, all kinds of stuff right. So when you lie to yourself, when somebody lies to you, that trust is well, you know, respect them all. So we're interested to ourselves when we're lying to ourselves. That is very interesting. I'm glad we hit that note off there. Do some research on that. But yeah, it's totally true, you know, and so I think you're spot on. You have to start with the small step. I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna do five minutes today, whatever it is, I'm gonna like one.

Consistency and Action Are Important

Jean-Luc 14:49

I'm gonna read one page, one PS and you know what the best part is. Most of the time, if you start reading one page, you're like well, I'm already here, the momentum will carry you into more Right. Like it's literally like and now I'm glad that you just said that, because I know, like guys like Chaco and David Goggins, like there's, that phrase was like oh, getting started is the hardest part. Like the hardest part is driving to the gym, and Chaco and David Goggins and all those guys are like F that, like that's not true, like that's it's like sure, okay, it's not. But those two figures are talking about like elite performers and it's like okay, well, how do you get to that elite performer status? You got to start somewhere. And so if you cannot jump from zero to 100, start by going zero to one and then go from one to 10 and work your way up there. And just, you're not expected to be David Goggins and Chaco overnight, but you have to start somewhere. That's what we're getting.

Coach Riley 15:42

Well and that's. And so I'm so glad you said that, because people see these guys, like I mean, these guys are huge. You know, andy, all these guys, right, oh yeah, and you're, you watch them and you get fired up, you get run through a brick wall and like you're ready to go, and then you know something happens and you slip up and then all of a sudden you're like, well, I'm not there, okay, but it's, every journey is one step at a time, right, and I'll go back to myself today. And this podcast was like you know, okay, I'm not a hundred percent ready, I had some questions, it didn't work out, like I went, went through these Obstacles, you know, just to get us. I mean, zoom was giving me a hard time, like you know, it was cool and so, but when I'm done, I will never regret that I did it. One right and it's I'm done, I'm done with it.

Coach Riley 16:29

I said I was gonna do it and again I thank you because I told you, I said listen, I said I'd be honored if you're my first guest on the podcast. You gladly accepted and and so in the back of my mind I'm like, did I lie to this guy? Did I try to do it. I gotta do like I gotta do, and the sooner the better, right, right, you look into it and it's like, okay, just, it's gonna be clunky, it's gonna be whatever, and you just do it, you just start, you just, yeah, half, you just have to start. And and that's another thing about social media, is you? You see these guys on like day 3000 and you're all day like six, right, so you have thumbs here and I saw, saw a picture once and it was basically was like it's not, this is a podcast, so you can't see, but it's like successes, that like a straight, like a 45 degree line. Right, it's actually a bunch of up and downs, but when you zoom out after enough days, it's a continuous climb of improvement, right, so you're gonna have good days, you're gonna have bad days, and it's just. It's so.

Coach Riley 17:29

The fact that and I'm gonna talk about your Instagram right here Consistency wins, that's right, man, every day, bro, you're posting years when I'm eating for breakfast and it's like every day and somebody like, so what dude, you're eating it. No, I am consistent, and if I'm consistent of this and I'm consistent of this, I'm consistent in this, you're gonna achieve those results, because people say you can't predict the future, but I know, if I do a, b and c every single day, I get this result. So, you kid, you can predict your future. If it's, I'm gonna, you might not be spot-on like, might be like well, I don't, you know, I'm not 185 a solid muscle, but you're 180 or whatever. You're better, you're almost there, right?

Coach Riley 18:11

Because being average is just as much of a choice as being excellent is. I choose. I choose to play fortnight three hours a day. I choose to eat fast foods, I choose not to get an exercise, or I choose to play fortnight an hour a day and I choose to take those other two hours and one of them go to the gym and one of them is reading or something like that. But yeah, there's enough. There's enough calm in the day.

Jean-Luc 18:40

There's a thing too, like those small habits that add up to big results, like reading one page or like doing a five-minute meditation or whatever it is. Like those seemingly insignificant things, like they are very small and they're very easy to do, but they are also very easy not to, and the problem is we don't like crash and burn by missing one day, but the problem is we don't build momentum, we don't keep those promises, and One day becomes a week and it becomes a month, and sure enough, you haven't worked out in a month. You lost a month's worth of time to progress because that little thing that you're gonna just knocked out first thing you put off and then never got to, because it was easy not just as much as it was easy to just do that was so full-proud, dude, that was the golden nugget of this whole talk right there.

Coach Riley 19:29

They'll clip that a little bit. I'm gonna have to go back, because what did you? You said it's just as easy to do it, or and it's just as easy not to do it, like that is so, and I totally, which are the quote there. But that's all good, that's 100%, though. You are so spot on with that. Just, you know, and you're right, you don't stop going to the gym all at once. Yeah, it's not gonna get too long One day, let's get next day. Miss a meal, right, you know? But a lot of people like well, I miss one, I might as well miss two. Well, you know it's like, yeah, exactly.

Jean-Luc 20:04

Oh, you went a little off your calories, so you're just gonna bomb the rest of the day. It's like you know you're right back on track, like, look, accidents happen. I'm not asking you to be like robot and be 100% perfect, but when you fall off the horse, get back on. It's that simple. It's not always easy, but it's that simple.

Coach Riley 20:19

Yeah, yeah, I think Vinny Paz said that. I don't know who said it, but it's, we have somebody. That's the thing, man. Somebody probably said it like 500 years ago, right, yeah, and we're still talking. We're still talking about it, right, that's. You know, that's what I want my legacy to be. I want somebody to say some 6am quote in like 30 years or 50 years or something like that.

Jean-Luc 20:39

Why they can clip this podcast and then there you go, there you go.

Coach Riley 20:42

Well, listen, I just want to thank you so much and taking the time and we could. This is the thing that I love. I get all these calls and I start talking to guys who are like-minded, like myself, like you. It's about success. It's about you know putting in the work and you know it's. You're not going to get rich quick, and you know, I mean like, success doesn't happen over, Right, and it never, ever happens by accident. Success never happens by accident, Right, Right?

Coach Riley 21:07

So the fact that you're willing to share some of your experiences and some insights that you have because one of the greatest things you can do is share your experiences and if somebody hears that and they're about to do the same thing, but they know that that might not be the right choice, like who you hang out with, right, you can save years off their lives. You kill, oh my gosh. Yeah, you can put them so far ahead of the curve that's a term I like to use. You know standing on the shoulders of giants and you know my son told me once that you can learn anything from anybody, and I'm a, I'm a 100% believer in that. I mean, even it doesn't matter who they are, what their life circumstances are. That person can teach you something, Even if it's don't make these mistakes.

Jean-Luc 21:47

Yeah, don't do what I did. Yeah, right, yeah, exactly. Firm believer in that man. That's why I love books so much, because I read a lot of nonfiction and that's taking other people's knowledge and experience. And then, boom, I can just apply that lesson. Now I don't have to go learn and crash and burn, but I just take what they put into words and apply it. You know what I mean. I'm not perfect about it, I never am but it's nice to be able to soak up those resources.

Coach Riley 22:11

Books are the world's and it's all every since it's not. And so I read a ton and, like you said, nonfiction, autobiographies, anything like that. Right, because if you could look at somebody who had the same struggles as you and look at what they did in the pitfalls, that is such a huge thing, and a lot of people are like you know they'll read a book. I'm like I just got like one thing out of it, dude that one thing could save you like six years, like if it's life changing.

Jean-Luc 22:35

That's what you need.

Coach Riley 22:36

All right, that for 20 bucks or whatever Right Right. Another thing I'd posted this carousel about, you know, cleaning your room right, increasing your GPA right, and some moms sent that forwarded in the comments right to their daughter and the daughter is like man, I ain't reading all that. I was like what it's?

Jean-Luc 22:56

only 10 slides. That'll be a nomination of social media. That's how it's been.

Coach Riley 23:02

It is so, and so that is why, figuring out how to play the game when it comes to social media and all that other stuff, say I could delve into another.

Jean-Luc 23:10

I know we're about to get away. I know.

Coach Riley 23:12

Well, listen, listen again. Thank you so much. Where can people find you? I know you're on Instagram, so drop your handle there and then you know what services you know are you? I know you've got you got like a cookbook. You know some recipes, some things like that. If I'm a parent or I'm a student athlete and I'm looking to increase my muscle mass or get basically just get stronger in all times, where can they reach you? And you know what services do you provide? Yeah, for sure.

Tips for Podcast Show Notes

Jean-Luc 23:41

Man, I feel like this half hour flew by and we barely scratched the surface of things. We could probably talk for hours. But yeah, people can find me. I'm all over social media. It's just at Jean-Luc DeCoster, that's J-E-A-N-L-U-C-D-E-C-O-S-T-E-R. I know that's a mouthful, but they can rewind and go find it. But mostly I'm primarily active on Instagram. I've got a bunch of information kind of about myself, certifications, kind of what I do all it's all in the bio there and the links and all that. But yeah, I mean I run a fitness coaching business and work with a lot of great people and it is awesome, I love it and we help out a lot more people and it's just been a blessing man. It's super cool and that's where I connect with people most on social media is Instagram. So that's my main main life.

Coach Riley 24:32

Okay, and so I'll take. I'll take a hint from all the podcasts I've listed. Do I'll put his links down below in the in the in the show notes. Yeah See, I'm learning right. I was like, oh yeah, I'm supposed to put those in the show notes. Oh, there you go. So I'll do all that and again, thank you so much.

Coach Riley 24:49

I want to thank everybody for joining us today. It's been a little rough. I promise they're going to get better and and I want to have you back on as a guest because again we could do, we could talk for two, three, four hours. This happens all the time Is like I get up talking to somebody and then you end up with like three hours of, you know, audio to edit and video and stuff and you're like what am I ever going to do with all that? But there's so many nuggets in there, so I can't wait to have you back, you know. Thanks again so much, and I just want to thank everybody for listening and you know times are most valuable assets, so let's not waste it, let's get it. Amen, brother, all right.

Jean-Luc 25:29

Thanks everybody.