Do Hard Things™ with Siegfried Tiegs

Do Hard Things™ is the podcast for driven people in their 30s to 50s who are done drifting, and ready to get focused, energized, and clear. Hosted by Siegfried "Sig" Tiegs, CHPC, MBA, MSc — Major, U.S. Army (Ret.), Amazon Best Selling author, and high-performance coach. Each episode delivers raw conversations, real stories, and practical strategies to help you stop performing and start building a peaceful, powerful, and productive life. Expect episodes on: · Running, Rucking, Cycling, Adventure Racing & Endurance Sports · High-performance habits and identity · Breathwork and mental resilience · Life transitions — military, career, relationships · Fasting, energy, and physical discipline · Leadership, purpose, and the Peaceful Warrior path This isn't just motivation. It's a blueprint and tactics to help you win. Start Here – Coaching, Join the Do Hard T

Do Hard Things™ with Siegfried Tiegs is a education podcast hosted by Siegfried "SIG" Jay Tiegs, with 248 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Siegfried "SIG" Jay Tiegs hosts Do Hard Things™ with Siegfried Tiegs, a education show with 248 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #248

  "Why Him and Not You?" The Untold Stories of 9/11

  Sep 24, 20261 hour

  Send us Fan Mail On September 11, 2001, Chris Meek was on the 19th floor at Goldman Sachs. He heard what sounded like a garbage truck hitting a pothole. A colleague looked out the window and thought it was a ticker-tape parade. Then they saw the paper was on fire. Chris and ghostwriter Dave Jarecki join Siegfried "Sig" Tiegs to talk about their book, Keeping Our Nation's Promise: 9/11 and the Stories That Still Shape Us . They interviewed close to 60 people for 38 profiles: a soldier who personally tagged more than 60 bodies at the Pentagon, two fighter pilots prepared to ram Flight 93, a mother still carrying the story of her son, the man in the red bandana, and two brothers who worked their way onto the pile to find their father. One became a West Point graduate. The other is now a lieutenant in his father's firehouse. Chris also shares how a Marine's request for tube socks and baby wipes became SoldierStrong, which has now donated 31 exoskeletons that let paralyzed veterans stand at eye level with the world again. The conversation turns to PTSD, veteran suicide, and what separates people who find hope from those who don't. Sig shares his own fight through depression, and Dave shares what finally pulled Port Authority officer Will Jimeno back from the edge. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:46 Chris on the morning of 9/11 05:00 Dave watching from Milwaukee 06:35 Sig at Fort Leonard Wood that day 08:28 Twelve families on one cul-de-sac 09:46 What 9/12 felt like 13:50 A nation united 15:15 Inside the book 18:14 Chris Braman at the Pentagon and Col. Marilyn Wills: "Why him and not you?" 20:16 Alison Crowther, the Dowdell brothers, and Flight 93 23:00 38 profiles and 44 voices 23:35 How the book was built: leadership, resiliency, legacy, remembering 28:09 A sign in a Pittsburgh bar 29:09 Ambassador Nicholas Burns and NATO's Article 5 31:37 The Dowdell brothers 35:02 How 9/11 changed the Army 36:25 Tube socks, baby wipes, and the start of SoldierStrong 38:22 Exoskeletons and being eye level again 40:37 BraveMind: VR therapy for PTSD 42:36 Army Sgt. Dan Rose 43:23 Why some people find hope and others don't 45:08 Will Jimeno's story 47:57 Did telling their stories help them heal? 50:30 Writing the book 52:27 The 9/11 Legacy Foundation's national curriculum 53:25 The boatlift: the largest maritime rescue in history 57:24 Only 14 states require 9/11 education 58:43 Where to find Chris and Dave Links Keeping Our Nation's Promise: https://ournationspromise.com Buy the book at Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/keeping-our-nations-promise-chris-meek/1150424729 The 9/11 Legacy Foundation: https://the911legacy.org Share your 9/11 story: https://the911legacy.org/mystory/ SoldierStrong: https://soldierstrong.org Dr. Chris Meek on Substack: https://drchrismeek.substack.com Mentioned: Saved at the Seawall by Jessica DuLong and the documentary Boatlift Support the Show The Do Hard Things Podcast is listener-supported. If this episode meant something to you, become a supporter and help us keep bringing these stories to you. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1981380/support If you're struggling: Call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Veterans, press 1. Connect with Sig Coaching, the Do Hard Things Nation, and Life on Offense: https://linktr.ee/dohardthingscoaching Join the Do Hard Things Nation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/developgritdohardthings Email: sig@dohardthingsnation.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jaytiegs Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.  Support the show Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us. Want more support? Join the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a member here: skool.com/dohardthings/about Our book, Life on Offense , is now an Amazon Best Seller ! Grab a copy and leave a review. Get the book on Amazon Grab Your Do Hard Things Gear and Apparel. Show the world you Do Hard Things with high-quality apparel! Gear — Do Hard Things Nation And don’t forget—the Do Hard Things 5K, 9.11 Mile Run, and 9.11 Mile Ruck is happening in September. There’s even a virtual option—so no excuses. Sign up here: dohardthingsnation.com/events

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  Episode #28

  Conquering Castlewood: Inside the World of Adventure Racing

  Sep 17, 202621 minS3

  Send us Fan Mail Embark on a quest to conquer the wild and unpredictable world of adventure racing with us, your guides, through the rugged terrain of the Castlewood 8-Hour Adventure Race. Feel the rush of adrenaline as we reveal the crucial strategies and uncharted paths that make this sport an electrifying challenge distinct from triathlons and obstacle courses. With Lacey Teiggs by my side, we dissect the sport's multidisciplinary nature, from trekking and biking to canoeing and orienteering, delving into the essence of teamwork and the pivotal role of navigation skills that elevate adventure racing to a game of endurance and wits. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or a curious newbie, this episode serves as your entry pass to the adventure racing community, proving that anyone can get their start with sprints before graduating to the big leagues. We lay out a treasure map of essential gear—much of which you can rent to avoid breaking the bank—and share insider tips on how to sharpen your navigation prowess through local orienteering clubs. Be ready for our next episode's race report from Castlewood, but for now, stash this comprehensive gear checklist and prepare to lace up your shoes for an expedition that could redefine your limits and ignite your passion for adventure. Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.  Support the show Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us. Want more support? Join the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a member here: skool.com/dohardthings/about Our book, Life on Offense , is now an Amazon Best Seller ! Grab a copy and leave a review. Get the book on Amazon Grab Your Do Hard Things Gear and Apparel. Show the world you Do Hard Things with high-quality apparel! Gear — Do Hard Things Nation And don’t forget—the Do Hard Things 5K, 9.11 Mile Run, and 9.11 Mile Ruck is happening in September. There’s even a virtual option—so no excuses. Sign up here: dohardthingsnation.com/events

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  Episode #246

  Be Impeccable With Your Word - How to Have the Conversation You've Been Avoiding

  Sep 16, 202618 min

  Send us Fan Mail I got invited on a podcast with a significant following. Real show. I was excited about it. Ten minutes before we go live, I get a message. Feeling under the weather, need to reschedule. Fine. People get sick. We reschedule two weeks out. This morning, ten minutes before the show, another cancellation. No explanation this time. I'm not outing anybody. He's just the example that showed up on my calendar. And once I got past being annoyed, I realized it wasn't a character problem at all. It was a difference in standards. He was operating exactly to his. I come from a world where if you're on time, you're late. So this episode is about your word — what it's worth, what it costs you when you break it, and how to call somebody out when they break theirs. ------------------------------------------- THE FIRST AGREEMENT A lot of you have read The Four Agreements. The first one is "be impeccable with your word." Most people read that and hear "don't lie." That's not what it says. Ruiz breaks the word apart. Impeccable comes from the Latin for "without sin," and he defines a sin as anything you do against yourself. The first agreement was never about the other guy. Being impeccable with your word is about what breaking it does to YOU. ------------------------------------------- THE TWO COSTS Every broken word costs you twice. OUTSIDE YOU, and you never see it. Most people won't tell you. They get annoyed, they write you off quietly, and the invite doesn't come back. The referral goes to somebody else. Nobody sends you a bill for a broken agreement. Your reputation is a pile of decisions other people made about you and never told you about. INSIDE YOU, and this is the one that compounds. Every time you say you'll do something and you don't, some part of you files it away. Then you go set a real goal — the business, the race, the hard conversation — and some part of you won't buy in. You'll call it fear or bad timing or lack of motivation. It's none of those. It's an accurate risk assessment. The man making the promise has a track record, and you've read it. ------------------------------------------- YOUR WORD: HONOR IT. OWN IT. CLEAN IT UP. HONOR IT — starts before you say yes. Most broken words start as a yes you should never have given. "I can't commit to that" is a real answer and people respect it more than a yes you don't mean. OWN IT — when you break one, name it in one sentence with no "because" in it. The second you add traffic or the kids or how busy it's been, you've stopped owning it and started defending yourself. CLEAN IT UP — an apology is free, so it isn't a cleanup. Do something that costs you. Reschedule on their calendar. Deliver early. Eat the expense. The cost is the point WORK WITH ME If you're good at what you do and can't figure out why it isn't compounding — if you keep making promises to yourself in January and quietly renegotiating them by March — if your team says yes and you can't count on it and you suspect it starts with you — that's not a discipline problem. That's a self-trust problem. And you don't fix that one alone, because you're the one who's been keeping the record. Coaching: https://www.dohardthingscoaching.com Speaking: https://www.dohardthingscoaching.com/speaking ------------------------------------------- Siegfried "Sig" Tiegs is a keynote speaker, high-performance coach, and co-author of the Amazon best seller Life on Offense: A Tactical Guide to Dominate Life and End Mediocrity. A retired Army Major with 27 years of service, he hosts the Do Hard Things™ podcast and coaches high performers at dohardthingscoaching.com. GRIT. PURPOSE. PEACE. Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.  Support the show Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us. Want more support? Join the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a member here: skool.com/dohardthings/about Our book, Life on Offense , is now an Amazon Best Seller ! Grab a copy and leave a review. Get the book on Amazon Grab Your Do Hard Things Gear and Apparel. Show the world you Do Hard Things with high-quality apparel! Gear — Do Hard Things Nation And don’t forget—the Do Hard Things 5K, 9.11 Mile Run, and 9.11 Mile Ruck is happening in September. There’s even a virtual option—so no excuses. Sign up here: dohardthingsnation.com/events

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  Episode #245

  Getting Skunked - I Was Certain I Was Right and I Was Dead Wrong

  Sep 10, 202621 min

  Send us Fan Mail At 2:03 in the morning I woke up to the light on and the shower running. Our dog Koda had taken a direct hit from a skunk. My first coherent thought, standing in the hallway in my shorts, was that we didn't have any tomato juice. Because that's what you do. Everybody knows that. My grandmother knew it, your neighbor knows it, and Google will still tell you so this morning. It doesn't work. It never has. And what got me wasn't being wrong. It was how sure I'd been. Tomato juice wasn't a guess I'd have defended if you pushed me — it was a fact I had, the same way I know a stop sign is red. I couldn't tell you where I picked it up or when. And in forty-some years it never occurred to me to check. So this episode is about the things you've never checked. EVERYTHING YOU DO IS EITHER INHERITED OR CHOSEN. Inherited means somebody handed it to you and you never checked it. Chosen means you tested it and kept it on purpose. From the inside, those two feel exactly the same. That's the whole problem. Three questions to tell them apart: SOURCE — Where did I get this? If you can't name the source, you inherited it. MECHANISM — How does it actually work? Walk the steps out loud. EVIDENCE — What has it actually produced? Left column what it was supposed to do, right column what it has done. Then give it a verdict. Keep it. Kill it. Or test it — set a date and a number and go look when the date comes. There's no fourth option where you keep doing it and don't think about it. That's the one that got you here. ------------------------------------------- THE SKUNK FORMULA (Paul Krebaum, 1993) 2 cups of 3% hydrogen peroxide 1/4 cup baking soda 1–2 teaspoons Dawn dish soap Mix it fresh in an open container. Never seal it in a closed bottle — the reaction releases oxygen and a capped container can burst. Keep it out of the eyes. Work it into the fur, let it sit five minutes, rinse, repeat as needed. It works because skunk spray is made of compounds called thiols. The peroxide and baking soda oxidize them into something odorless — the molecule itself changes. Tomato juice never touches the thiol. It sits on top of it and waits to wear off. ------------------------------------------- WORK WITH ME If you're running a life you didn't actually pick — the career you fell into, the routine you inherited, the version of yourself somebody else decided on — that's not a motivation problem. That's a life full of inherited defaults nobody ever audited. That's what The Forge is. Twelve months, a rope team of men doing the same work, and somebody in your corner asking you question two about the things you can't see by yourself. Coaching: https://www.dohardthingscoaching.com Speaking: https://www.dohardthingscoaching.com/speaking ------------------------------------------- Siegfried "Sig" Tiegs is a keynote speaker, high-performance coach, and co-author of the Amazon best seller Life on Offense: A Tactical Guide to Dominate Life and End Mediocrity. A retired Army Major with 27 years of service, he hosts the Do Hard Things™ podcast and coaches high performers at dohardthingscoaching.com. GRIT. PURPOSE. PEACE. Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.  Support the show Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us. Want more support? Join the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a member here: skool.com/dohardthings/about Our book, Life on Offense , is now an Amazon Best Seller ! Grab a copy and leave a review. Get the book on Amazon Grab Your Do Hard Things Gear and Apparel. Show the world you Do Hard Things with high-quality apparel! Gear — Do Hard Things Nation And don’t forget—the Do Hard Things 5K, 9.11 Mile Run, and 9.11 Mile Ruck is happening in September. There’s even a virtual option—so no excuses. Sign up here: dohardthingsnation.com/events

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  Episode #244

  Why It Gets Harder Before It Gets Better - The Emotional Cycle of Change

  Sep 1, 202629 min

  Send us Fan Mail Two months before the Missouri River 340, we lost the boat. High water, a headwind we hadn't planned for, and a log. My partner Joe and I spent forty-five minutes in the river swimming for a dike while my canoe went downstream with my sunglasses and my Bose speaker. We walked back down the Katy Trail covered in mud with paddles in our hands and nothing else. That night we were done. Not weighing our options. Done. This episode is about what happened next, and about the curve that explains it. The Emotional Cycle of Change was mapped in the 1970s and it has five stages, and stage three is where almost everybody quits. Not most people who fail. Most people, period. I've taught this curve for years and it still put me at the bottom of my own diagram. Knowing the name of it didn't take an ounce of weight off. What it did was show me the decision point. In this episode: • Why day one feels great and why that never lasts • The five stages of the Emotional Cycle of Change, and how to find yourself on the curve • The bullshit belief that takes more people out than the difficulty ever does • Why flow feels like ease but never is, and what inspiration actually means • Scoring lead indicators instead of lag when the results have gone silent • The one test for telling a valley from a dead end • Five tactics for getting through the part where it gets worse before it gets better Stage three doesn't end with a feeling. It ends with a decision. Here's how to make that call on purpose. Do Hard Things Coaching: www.dohardthingscoaching.com BLOG on this topic: https://www.dohardthingscoaching.com/blog/%2Fwhy-it-gets-harder-before-it-gets-better Life on Offense on Amazon: Amazon.com :Life on Offense GRIT. PURPOSE. PEACE. Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.  Support the show Big things are happening inside Do Hard Things Nation, and I want you with us. Want more support? Join the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy. Four coaches. Weekly mindset training, movement, breathwork, meditation, book club, and challenges. Join as a member here: skool.com/dohardthings/about Our book, Life on Offense , is now an Amazon Best Seller ! Grab a copy and leave a review. Get the book on Amazon Grab Your Do Hard Things Gear and Apparel. Show the world you Do Hard Things with high-quality apparel! Gear — Do Hard Things Nation And don’t forget—the Do Hard Things 5K, 9.11 Mile Run, and 9.11 Mile Ruck is happening in September. There’s even a virtual option—so no excuses. Sign up here: dohardthingsnation.com/events

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