Red Hawk Essentials #52

Trusting Your Skills, Daring To Be Great, Podcasting

Tim Welch

Nov 02, 2023

It’s been 1 year since we started this newsletter. Fucking crazy.

Appreciate you for reading each week. Way more to come.

Now let’s hop into this week’s content.

Trusting Your Skills

Bellator Fight Masters was an interesting experience.

There were 32 guys there. And we had no clue who we were fighting until the weigh-ins.

But one of the guys I became friends with there saw the producer sheet. The sheet had all the first-round matchups and he told me who I was fighting.

Chip Pollard.

I had no idea if he was lying or not. So when we all went to this gym to cut weight, I snuck into a room that had a computer.

We didn’t have our phones on us. We weren’t supposed to use the internet. But the producers didn’t see me and I didn’t have much time.

All I wanted to know was if my opponent was a southpaw or orthodox. And if he’s a striker or wrestler. That’s all.

Saw that he was orthodox and a striker. Perfect. I’m gonna wrestlefuck this guy.

I only had a few seconds. So I didn’t see that he was a Lion Fight champion and an 8x world champion at Muay Thai.

And I’m glad I didn’t. I was already nervous about the fight.

If I got sent home, I would’ve had $0 in my bank account. So there was a lot on the line for me.

When the fight came around, I kept hearing Chip’s corner telling him that all I wanted to do was wrestle, throw a hook, or a big overhand.

Fuck. How did they know that?

It was probably coincidental. But it was messing with me in real-time.

I just had to get out of my head and stay present. Stay composed and wait for the right shots.

I ended up walking him into that right-hand, left hook combo that KO’d him. And that was that.

If I knew he was a super accomplished kickboxer beforehand, maybe I would’ve wrestled earlier. And who knows what the outcome of the fight would’ve been.

That’s why you gotta trust in your skills. Trust in your training. Know that you’re going with good guys at the gym.

Know that you’re not gonna see anything you’ve never seen before.

If you’re competing, you’re always gonna run into someone who’s more accomplished than you in something. It’s inevitable, especially in MMA.

But you shouldn’t let that shake the belief in yourself or prevent you from training hard.

As long as you’re realistic and not delusional about your skills, you’ll be fine.

There’s a guy in the Red Hawk Academy Patreon who got offered a debut fight against a really accomplished jiu-jitsu black belt.

Of course, you want to challenge yourself. Of course, you can get lucky with a punch.

But that’s just not a good fight for our Patreon brother. There’s a higher chance that he gets fucking ran over.

So imagine you take that fight and get smoked. Fuck it, take the next best guy. Get smoked again.

Now your confidence is gonna be in shambles and your biggest opponent will be yourself. You’re gonna have to deal with all that insecurity and mental trauma and worry about the next guy you’re fighting.

It’s too much. You gotta build your confidence early in your amateur career.

If your coach is looking out for you, he would decline that fight immediately.

So be realistic. Don’t give yourself Dunning-Kruger.

Always trust yourself and your skills.

Daring To Be Great

Fighting is fucking unforgiving.

It doesn’t give a fuck how hard you train or how dedicated you are. What happens on fight day is out of your control.

But if you want to make life-changing money and get opportunities that many don’t get…

You gotta take risks.

Sometimes it doesn’t always work out. Best case scenario, you lose but your stock still goes up.

For someone like Volk, who has never been knocked out, that’s a tough one. It might even affect his next fight at featherweight.

There aren’t many positive things to take away from that besides betting on himself.

It’s high risk and high reward. Yeah, people will talk shit about it. But imagine if he won?

That would’ve been fucking epic. It would’ve sent his career to new heights.

Usman took on Khamzat on 10 days' notice. Khamzat was a guy that was just running through people.

Usman survived the first round and made it a close fight. 2 more rounds, I think he probably wins.

But Usman showed he can compete at 185. And at that weight, he can train harder. He can eat better, not cut as much weight, and feel stronger.

So I definitely think that performance puts him in a good spot for his next fight.

Then we have Francis who dropped the heavyweight champ of the world. And in a lot of people’s eyes, won the fight. Francis’s stock is 100% skyrocketing after that. Good for him.

To be great at anything in life, requires risk.

Bet on yourself. Even if you don’t accomplish what you set out to do, you might be surprised at where you’ll end up.

Thorne

It just takes a little discipline to get great health. Another thing that helps is a good supp.

A lot of UFC fighters use Thorne as part of their daily supplement routine.

Thorne is third-party tested for the best quality ingredients so you know exactly what you’re putting into your body.

I personally use magnesium before sleep, fish oils, amino acids when I’m training hard, and their VeganPro complex protein.

If you’re in the market for some good supplements, Thorne is the brand I trust. You can feel safe and good about what you’re putting into your body with Thorne.

Use the link below and Throne will hook you up with a 15% discount on your order.

Get 15% Off Your Order Here

Podcasting

It’s so easy to get started today. Most of your guys’ phones have the capability to record a decent pod.

I think the one thing you do need to nail is audio. But it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to sound crisp and clear.

It took Sean and I 100 episodes to get the audio to where we wanted it. 100 episodes.

We didn’t wait until everything was perfect. We just created and sent it. Learning and improving along the way.

For me, Tim Ferris was really helpful. He talks a lot about podcast equipment. He’s made videos and listed out what he uses in books.

And it’s not that expensive. A podcast is something you’ll be doing for a long time hopefully, so it’s worth investing in some decent equipment.

Most people never make it to 10 episodes. Podcasting is a long game.

We started with a Logitech computer and 2 USB mics. We recorded episodes in my spare room.

Now we have our own studio. We use a Zoom H6 and XLR mics. But we upgraded our equipment along the way.

We definitely wasted thousands of dollars on stuff we didn’t need. But we didn’t let that stop us from recording the first 100 episodes.

I was always trying to improve our quality little by little. That could mean getting a new desk. New lights. Some nice paintings for the background.

These are things you think about along the way while you're creating, not before.

Today, there’s opportunity everywhere on the internet for people who have the guts to be themselves.

If you can be a little creative, all the social media platforms are open to you. YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, whatever.

Don’t wait. Just go create.

Quick Hits From This Week

Red Hawk Recap Ep. 112

On this episode of the pod, I sat down with Love is Blind star Josh Demas to discuss some inside juice of the show.

Getting Casted For Love Is Blind

You submit a written and video application. Talk to a psychologist beforehand and then they’ll fly you out.

How Josh Was Portrayed On The Show

I remember Josh being portrayed as the bad guy. Josh ended up rizzing some other guy’s girl and got a lot of backlash.

Pressure Of Being On Camera

There’s a lot of pressure being on camera. Josh had doubts about getting rejected on camera in front of everyone watching. But he sent it.

Life After The Show

Josh has been pretty reserved after coming back from the show. Now he’s got more recognition and gets stares everywhere.

You Need Luck To Be Successful In MMA

You can do everything perfectly, but still won’t go your way. There’s a lot of luck involved. You really don’t get what you put in when it comes to fighting.

TimboSugarShow Ep. 258

Francis Drops Tyson

Sug thought Tyson won the fight even though he got dropped. To me, Francis was landing more punches and doing more damage. I’m really impressed with Francis for going 10 rounds and pacing himself.

Devin Haney Calls Out Suga

I heard of Haney when he boxed Lomachenko. Got more familiar with him on Bradley Martyn’s pod. But he’s not really a superstar outside of boxing.

Better Friendships

Don’t waste time with people who aren’t happy with your success.

Don’t waste time with people who refuse to take responsibility for their own lives.

Don’t waste time with people who don’t make efforts to improve themselves.

Don’t waste time with people who only reach out when they need something from you.

If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?

Smart people tend to invent problems to solve. They have a hard time accepting things the way they are.

Red Hawk Academy Patreon

Welcome to all the new Patreon members and shoutouts to all the OGs!

On Patreon, we’ve done a bunch of giveaways, podcasts, and vlogs.

We’ve been going 4 years strong with our Patreon. There are hundreds of videos on there, with new content going up all the time.

You can get exclusive access to technique videos, extra podcasts, and general healthy living videos.

I reply to everyone on Patreon, so if you have any questions, hit me up there!

Join The Patreon Brotherhood Here!

That ends it for this week’s Red Hawk Essentials.

Hope you enjoyed this one. Give me a like/comment/subscribe below.

If you’re new here, welcome to the fam! We’re dropping gems like this each week.

Luv ya, talk next week.

Tim

Red Hawk Essentials