Britton Barbee, former D-1 athlete for Texas Tech, touches on his experiences as an athlete and father. He talks about the importance of being authentic, understanding, and being willing to put your ego aside to connect with people. Britton discusses his experience with 29029 Everesting on a hike equivalent to climbing Mount Everest and the endurance and mindset it takes. Following his experience, he has applied his insight to his life to be his most authentic self.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH6OutNDJdc&list=PLbvB0kVmlTP7mo99UtYan6rAaz5uNOzyN&index=1
Brett Gilliland: Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I'm your host, Brett Gilliland. Today I've got Britton Barbee with me. Britton, what's up man? How you doing?
Britton Barbee: Man, I'm doing outstanding. I'm just happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Brett Gilliland: Awesome. Well, it's good to have you and, uh, you're coming to us, uh, from Dallas, Texas. Right? 
That was all Dallas, Texas treating you today. 
Britton Barbee: It's good. The weather's been cold enough to, uh, cold plunge in the pool without having to worry about too much. And, um...
Brett Gilliland: There you go. 
Britton Barbee: Yeah. So, so no complaints, uh, you know, hot enough during the day. Cold enough in the morning. 
Brett Gilliland: Yeah, that's perfect. That's perfect.
We got, we're lucky here, man. It was, uh, let's see, A week ago it was five degrees here, and today it's gonna be 60. So this only in St. Louis can we go from five degrees to 60 degrees, all in about seven days. Pretty...
Britton Barbee: That's a pretty strong swing. Pretty strong.
Brett Gilliland: It's a strong swing. It's a strong swing. It literally, we will have, well we had snow on the ground yesterday and now today I look out and there's not any snow on the ground anywhere, so pretty crazy stuff here, so. Well, hey man, uh, you are a former Texas Tech football player. You are an endurance athlete and a performance coach with Jesse Itzler and his programs and, uh, so doing some awesome stuff today. Before we get dive into all that, man, I'd love to just dive in and talk about what's made you the man you are today..
Britton Barbee: Yeah, no, I mean it's, um, it, it, it's a lot really. I just, I went to my parents. Um, I grew up, I'm the youngest of three. Um, so being the biggest, but being the baby, it was always kind of fun. Um, but, you know, my, my parents were division one athletes. Both my brother and sister played college, uh, sports as well.
And, um, you know, I've said up before, man, my, my parents gave this idea to us of just growing up to be excellent and everything that we did. And uh, that was instilled to us from an early age and it's something that I've tried to carry over, uh, into being a father now a three myself, and just applying, um, everything that we can with all that we can into everything that we do.
And so that's, uh, my parents laid the foundation for us and we kind of took it from there. And that's kind of what's led us to some of these crazy adventures that we go on, that we seek out now. 
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So I think, uh, if I remember correctly in my research, you uh, and your two siblings and your mom and your dad all played division one sports, is that correct?
Britton Barbee: Yeah, so both my mom and uh, sister played basketball, college basketball. My brother and father played football. Um, and then I was the, um, you know, the, the last one. And it was, um, it was a good time. I like to say I went to the best school I went to, you know, Texas Tech played for, uh, the late Mike Leach. I was fortunate for that man to trust in me, uh, when I was 17, 18 years old to pay for my school.
And, um, I owe him a lot to, to the man that I am too. You think about how, uh, just in the, you know, all the things that you've seen about him since his passing, it's how unconventional he was. And I probably could say the same thing. I don't know that I have a normal path just describing what I do day to day, uh, for working for a guy like Jesse is, uh, not necessarily a, um, a normal path.
You know, when somebody wakes up for work, it doesn't typically include going to bed at two or 3:00 AM from the cold plunge and the sauna the night before to hiking or, you know, waking up and going on a hike. And that's, that's work, you know. So, um, just that unconventional approach, um, through athletics and just through the lessons that I've been taught by my parents and my coaches, has really, you know, shaped who I am and, and, and what I see and, and what I feel is possible.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So what do you, what do you think your parents did right? You know, there's a lot of wrong that parents do with kids sports these days, right? So what do you think those advice for us, I have four kids and most people listen to this, have multiple kids, and, but, but what, what advice would you have for them as parents of what your parents did, right, to make sure, one, you loved the sport you were playing, that you chose to play, you were passionate about it, you put in the work, but yet you also wanted to do it versus them making you do it. What advice would you have there? 
Britton Barbee: I think that that's key right there is that you, you know, they have to want to do it. You know, I feel like I now, my daughter plays travel volleyball. She's 10 years old and I know so much about the human body and performance and recovery and I wanna like give her all that, but I have to let her want to do it.
When given the opportunity, um, cuz you know, I mean, ha having kids, I mean, the window for when you can mesh is really, really small. And, uh, for my parents, you know, my dad parents never forced me to play football. I grew up, I played soccer, I played hockey, I played, you know, I did track, I wanna say I ran track, but I, I, I did the field part of track.
Um, and so we, we, we tried everything and whatever that we were gonna do.
Brett Gilliland: alright. We got cut off there for a second, so you can continue on that. 
Britton Barbee: Yeah, no, so, so really it it's the fact that my parents never, you know, forced us to do anything. It was always a choice. And, um, my dad being, you know, my dad's bigger than me, it was far more athletically gifted than me. Um, but he let me come to my own when, you know, seeking out, you know, sports, seeking out football, it was never, this is how you need to be.
If you want to be great, this is what you gotta do. It was me asking those questions and them being, you know, ready to answer because they both knew what it took. They knew what, you know, they knew what it took to be successful. Once I decided what success was to me. Meaning I wanted to go to college, um, you know, to graduate, but also I'd like to go there for free, for athletic ability, and they just told me what the path was and if that's where I wanted to be, they didn't let me deviate from that path.
They would just simply, you know, kind of a small hand in the back nudge of if this is what you truly want, this is where you need to go. And I think that oftentimes you see too many parents, especially, uh, so I live in South Lake, Texas, and, um, it's pretty, uh, pretty, uh, strong on the youth sports front.
Um, you know, if you're 5, 6, 7 years old and you're not in private lessons for baseball, football, or lacrosse, you're behind. Um, but I don't really subscribe to that. I want my seven year old son to be my seven year old son, you know? He wants to play video games and then in the snapshot when he wants to play sports, I'm ready.
And, and that's what it has to be. They have to learn to want to do it, otherwise they won't ever wanna do it. 
Brett Gilliland: That's right. I couldn't agree more man playing sports my whole life is, my parents never forced me to play, right. It was always me wanting to go out there and even if I wanted to impersonate somebody on the basketball court or a golf course or whatever it may be, it's, it's, uh, you gotta want it, man.
So, back to, uh, Mike Leach, the late Mike Leach great football college, football coach. Lots of stories that come out about him, uh, since his passing here the last month or so. Um, tell us maybe if you could, one, one thing you learned from him that sticks with you when you heard the, when you heard of his passing.
You know, I'm sure you put a lot of thought into it, but what's some of the things you learned from him? 
Britton Barbee: Just, um, I mean, just a, a, a tremendous amount of gratitude, um, for a guy like that. I was fortunate to hold a relationship with him long past, uh, my playing days. I finished in 2010, you know, he was, he was outta tech in 2009 my junior year.
And, um, always kept a relationship with him. And all the stories that you hear about Mike calling you on the phone and just talking about anything and everything is, is, is true. I remember he called me one time to ask, you know, what really happened to our 2010 team? He said, y'all should have been a 12 and 0 team.
You know, what happened? You know, all the tools were there and the entire time I'm talking to him, it, it sounds like he's in a wind tunnel and, and it's really hard to kind of understand what he's saying. And, and then finally, um, he says, well, hold on. Um, you know, I have a flat tire. I said, oh, okay. Like, in, in your car?
He said, no, I'm riding my bike. I'm in Florida. I said, okay. So we had been talking for about 45 minutes and he was just on his bike outside. It was just something that he loved to do, and that's just kind of the, the man that he was. And for, for Mike, um, I think really what he taught us was que question everything.
You know, when someone says, well, you can't do it this way. He'll basically say, well, why not? Can we not or do we not? And um, that's where his offense came from. He said, why would I go 50 50 run pass if more of my players aren't running backs that can,

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