Drew Taddia traveled the world as a professional athlete coming from Canada, through the US, and overseas into Australia and Germany following his dreams and passion of baseball.
He quickly became the ‘go to’ guy regarding fitness and nutrition as he continually experimented on his own body to find out what foods would help recover quicker or build muscle more efficiently, how to exercise that would help him jump higher, run faster and help him stand out on the field.
He soon found out stress played a vital role in what he was putting both in and on his body, and how by reducing stress through a plant based diet and avoiding toxins both on and off the field, he could improve as an athlete and stand out from the competition.
Drew wrote a best selling book called Detoxify Yourself, which is a 30 day plant based meal plan teaching readers how to avoid toxins, which foods will help heal and recover, and how to prepare the meals with recipes and grocery lists.
Because of the toxins on the market regarding conventional protein supplement he designed his own plant based protein powder made with quinoa and hemp hearts.
Drew has also been on air for 5 years as a radio host (96.5 CKFM) where he interviews world renowned experts in health, fitness, nutrition, lifestyle and more.
Key Points from the Episode with Drew Taddia:
Drew runs some businesses from home, including a podcast and protein supplement company.
That allows him to live life by his rules, taking time to be on the beach or doing some sport, choosing who he works with when, etc. That freedom has always been a life dream.
His success has always been about putting in the work, having the work ethic to be there.
He’s seen people not have that ethic or commitment, and they haven’t succeeded, despite having the raw talent.
Having been a professional baseball player, he’s gotten to see the outcome of the combination of raw talent and hard work first-hand.
Growing up, Drew was always very athletic, and had a dream to play college sports growing up.
He played football, baseball and basketball in high school, but was better at baseball, so he focused there.
He sent out hundreds of letters to schools with baseball programs to try to get an opportunity, and all of them were rejection letters.
He didn’t give up, though, feeling determined to play.
He found a school in Northern California that let him walk on and try out, and he made the team.
Growing up, he was no different, for example shooting basketball in the freezing cold of Canada.
He was raised by his mother, with his dad not really around. While no one told him his dreams were undoable, no one was explicitly pushing him either.
While he made the team as a walk on, he was a ‘red shirt’, meaning he was only good enough for the practice team.
Coming back for sophomore year, he expected to make the actual team, but found himself cut.
That left him lost as to what to do next for his life and how to keep playing given how hard he worked to be there.
He immediately got on the phone, and called every school within driving distance, not worrying about what position they might have an opening for.
He found a school looking for a Centerfielder. Despite being a second baseman, he said he could play centerfield, and immediately changed schools.
Not knowing the intricacies of baseball, I didn’t realize how different the positions are, and how much work it would take to develop the skills and muscle memory to be a successful Centerfielder.
With his hard work ethic, Drew made the team, made the All-Conference team despite it being a tougher conference than the first one he was in, and actually went on to beat the team he had been cut from.
Making All-Conference means all of the other coaches in the league voted him as the best in his position, even though he had never played the position before.
Being cut actually made Drew’s career, despite how it felt at the time.
Being told, “No, you’re not good enough to play on this team,” pushed him harder to play for someone else.
Coming out of his college career, he did not get signed into a professional league, so he joined various leagues and kept practicing for hours every day – throwing and hitting balls, doing sprint drills and more.
He did it all day every day until someone would take him.
Drew also developed the skills to live minimally in this process. In professional sports and as an entrepreneur, you never know when your next paycheck is coming.
So when he could make money, he worked as much as he could and saved every penny.
And when he spent, he spent as little as he could, living a spartan life focused on training.
He finally landed professional opportunities across the US and the world, having to drop everything for an opportunity on the spot, wherever one came up.
Anything could change in an instance that could change your life in either direction.
Someone could be injured on a Major League team that gets bumped down to the minors and takes your position.
Or someone could get moved up that opens a door for you.
Drew found himself between contracts at one point, which meant he unpacked the suitcase he was living out of and found that it was actually not so bad.
The normalcy and stability of it was kind of nice.
He got into training people at a local gym, and started applying to a local radio station to do a show.
The show finally said yes when his next baseball contract was to start, and he also released a book at the same time called Detoxify Yourself.
He said he’d do the show and book signings for another season, and then go back, but instead he launched a protein supplement when the next season came around, putting baseball off again.
The pattern repeated itself with more and more stability in his life pushing the instability of baseball off further.
It’s interesting in pro sports where you’re all one the team together, but people are also looking for you to fail so they can step in and get their shot. It’s a real contrast to what I talked about with Ryan Stratis in the American Ninja Warrior space.
Today, Drew and his wife work in their holistic health business, helping people live a healthy lifestyle in different ways.
Links:
Website: trueformlife.com
Book: Detoxify Yourself
Podcasts: Transformations Through Running
Exploring Mind & Body
Facebook: @trueformlife
Instagram: @drewtaddia
Pinterest: @trueformlife
Twitter: @trueformlife
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