The Science of Sustainable High Performance with Cory Chadwick, Founder & Mental Fitness Trainer at Lyceum

In this episode, Martin Hauck chats with Corey Chadwick about the journey of creating Lyceum, formerly The Mental Gym, a platform dedicated to proactive mental health and leadership development. They explore personal stories, habits, the importance of intentional growth, and how small, consistent changes lead to lasting impact.

1:43 - Welcome & unexpected Toronto encounter
3:29 - Rapid-fire openers: music, snacks, and first jobs
13:37 - Cory’s story: mental wellbeing, loss, and finding a path
18:49 - From personal practice to helping others thrive
21:39 - Building Lyceum and the realities of entrepreneurship
25:31 - Mental wellbeing beyond crisis: moving from good to great
29:29 - Learning through iteration, failure, and refinement
31:38 - Who Lyceum is for: intention, growth, and self-selection
36:28 - Why standards and shared commitment matter
43:21 - Whole-person development in the workplace
46:35 - Why we struggle to do what we know is good for us
51:30 - Closing thoughts

Creators and Guests

Host

Martin Hauck

Co-Founder of The People People Group & Host of From A People Perspective

What is From A People Perspective?

A podcast about fascinating professionals, how they got to where they are and where they’re going from the lens HR, Recruitment and People Operations hosted by Martin Hauck.

Martin Hauck (01:43)
All right, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of from a people perspective. Today we've got Corey Chadwick with us. Welcome to the cast.

Cory Chadwick (01:51)
Thanks, Martin. Great to be here.

Martin Hauck (01:53)
Yeah, no. I'm going to start off with the Toronto is too damn small. Like

Cory Chadwick (01:59)
Yeah.

Martin Hauck (01:59)
there is no reason that either of us should like, I thought I was just going for a chill nature walk. I don't even know where you live. And

Cory Chadwick (02:08)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (02:09)
we bumped into each other on a nature walk and that was super pleasant, but it's also just like, aren't there 3 million people here? Isn't the likelihood of this happening? Like

a one in three million or something like that.

Cory Chadwick (02:24)
Yeah, you can probably narrow it down a bit to people who live a little closer to that, but it's such a great spot. It draws people. I love walking there.

Martin Hauck (02:31)
It is. Yeah. The, is it the dawn now the Don Valley parkways, the, the super clogged thing, but it's

Cory Chadwick (02:38)
Yeah, don't like that

one as much. Is that like the Taylor Creek Park Trail? Yeah.

Martin Hauck (02:42)
Taylor Creek Park trail. Yeah. Yeah.

No, that's, well, I guess, we just made it super easy for people to find us if, if necessary and come join us on a, on a chill, chill walk. But no, was really, it's, it's always just, always fun to bump into folks. We've bumped into each other a bunch of times in, in the, in the community.

Cory Chadwick (03:06)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (03:07)
and got to know each other and met at a couple of events.

which is the whole purpose of it and always just loved your vibe and your mission and what you're up to. It's been through a couple of iterations. you've been an awesome member of the community for such a long period of time. So wanted to just take some time, get to know you, let the listeners get to know you a bit more. but before we get into all the nitty gritty, we got to start off with some shenanigans. If you were left with.

one album that you could listen to for the rest of time or one musical artist if that feels like an unfair question, then what musician would you listen to?

Cory Chadwick (03:50)
Way to put me on the spot. Okay, think the first thing that came to mind was the Beatles' White Album. And it's

Martin Hauck (03:57)
Okay.

Cory Chadwick (03:58)
not even one that I've listened to that much recently, but when I was a kid, I was like, this is just a fantastic album. And I was never a big album guy. I liked songs, I liked artists,

Martin Hauck (04:09)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (04:09)
but I don't know, I'm sure if I thought about it more, I'd come up maybe with something a little bit different, but I'll go with that one.

Martin Hauck (04:17)
Yeah, rest of time white album, which which songs are on that? Like, what? Is that the psychedelic one? Or is that Sergeant Pepper?

Cory Chadwick (04:26)
No, neither. I mean, they're all, you know, a little bit psychedelic in their own way, I

Martin Hauck (04:31)
That's true.

Cory Chadwick (04:32)
guess. Sergeant Pepper's a fantastic album too. I could pick that one. I really like Blackbird. was a, I don't know, it just a really great song in our family. And Rocky Raccoon was a song that we listened to a lot. And I don't know why birthday's on that back in the USSR is on that one. There's a lot of fantastic songs on that album. And I'm sure anyone listening right now is like, you're missing some of the most important ones, but

Martin Hauck (04:53)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (04:54)
yeah, just a really

I mean, I feel so cliche saying the Beatles, but they're fantastic.

Martin Hauck (05:02)
It hasn't come up a lot. It's come up once, but it wasn't that album. I forget which album it was. But, I think, think, and it felt like a bit of a cop out. I think they said like the greatest hits. I'm like, that's,

Cory Chadwick (05:15)
Mmm.

Martin Hauck (05:16)
that's tricky one. But, no, no, cool. moving over to midnight snacks. What, what, where are you going for? Should you not be able to fall asleep and you're like, I gotta, I gotta head to the fridge or head to the pantry.

Cory Chadwick (05:32)
Yeah, I'm not gonna give you a good answer on this one, because I try not to do that.

Martin Hauck (05:36)
Okay, smart.

Cory Chadwick (05:37)
If I did, it's going to be something boring like carrot sticks, cucumber, possibly some nuts or some peanut butter on a healthy cracker something like that. That's something I might eat later at night.

Martin Hauck (05:53)
Okay, we gotta

double click on this. Have you always been this disciplined?

Cory Chadwick (06:00)
no, I, I, I'm a big believer in, in incremental growth, right? Like just really

Martin Hauck (06:05)
Mm-hmm.

Cory Chadwick (06:06)
manageable, small manageable changes and making them consistently. So you're

Martin Hauck (06:10)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (06:11)
kind of pointing yourself in a direction. have this, this version of yourself that you want to become. And rather than biting off a whole lot and making these big giant changes that we know that they don't stick, right? Like anyone who's ever tried overhauling their exercise routine or their diet or.

I'm gonna read two books a week when you're not reading any books, like none of that stuff sticks. But if you just kind of point yourself in a direction and start moving in a direction, you recognize there's like an opportunity to make a little tweak here, a little adjustment there, things like that. I there was one time, at one point in my life, I used to bartend way back when and really late nights, right? And so I'd leave the bar, be like.

three in the morning, I'd stop at McDonald's drive through, I'd get three Big Macs, I'd eat them all, and then I'd go right to bed. It was disgusting. Different time of life, different metabolism, and things like that for sure. But yeah, I think as you get older, or just as you kinda keep moving in direction, you make some different choices. I don't eat immaculately, I don't have one of those immaculate diets. I just, you know, balance. Just eat more good stuff and less bad stuff.

Martin Hauck (07:22)
smart, smart. I, I never hit three Big Macs. But I

Cory Chadwick (07:28)
Good.

Martin Hauck (07:29)
definitely, I definitely hit there was a time like 1819 to 20, 18 to 25. I could easily crush two Big Macs and I was working at a hardware store. And like, for all the information that was like,

Martin Hauck (07:47)
and they didn't really have podcasts at the time, like everything about eating two Big Macs was like, this is unhealthy. You shouldn't do it. That

Cory Chadwick (07:55)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (07:56)
what my brain told me, but because I was working such like a physically demanding job, I was hungry all the time and McDonald's was the closest thing to us. So I would go there for lunch and I would be like, I've been working here for three years. I have, you know, two Big Macs every day and I'm like,

Like this doesn't, and so like, what a, what a crazy harsh reminder when, metabolism started to fade and

Cory Chadwick (08:24)
Right?

Martin Hauck (08:25)
stopped working that physically demanding job. Like it was such a, such a shift in like wake up call, but like, yeah, too big Max isn't gonna, I miss those days.

Cory Chadwick (08:35)
Yeah, I mean, they were fun. I definitely had fun then. did, you know, certain lifestyle choices that just wouldn't, wouldn't click today. But I love that that was a time of life that was so much fun.

Martin Hauck (08:50)
I was joking with Tim this morning because I didn't get much sleep last night. I'm like, I had a wild night last night. I had the wildest of nights. I had a Dr. Pepper at 9 p.m. and I couldn't go to sleep until 4 a.m. Like I was just ripping. Like, it's just like, man, getting used to the changes for the younger listeners listening.

know that things change. it's just been wild.

Cory Chadwick (09:28)
Yeah, there's, it's wild that you consider like the wild night a Dr. Pepper at nine o'clock, right? Like imagine telling your 21 year old self that this is what a wild night looks like.

Martin Hauck (09:38)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (09:39)
But no, I mean, things have definitely changed. It's funny you're saying that. I had a friend over last night and he like, I usually try to be in bed pretty early. I usually try to be in bed around 10 and you know, I'm up before six and so.

He stayed till about 10.30, 10.45 and he's like, he knows, like, this is past your bedtime. I'm like, yeah, it's cool though. Like we're having a good time. We're just hanging out and we haven't seen each other in a couple of months. And I went to bed, it was like 11 something when I was in bed and I'm just like, this is way too late. Like this is crazy. Again, times have changed.

Martin Hauck (10:20)
Yeah, no, I,

you're just like, yeah, why I've, I've had those, I've had those moments where it's like, yeah, let's keep the night going. And then I've also had those like, all right, guys, I wanted to be in bed an hour ago. You're still here. Like

Cory Chadwick (10:36)
Yeah.

Martin Hauck (10:37)
what, what other subtle social cues do I need to be like doing in order to like slowly massage people at the door here? yeah, fun, fun times getting, getting old.

I guess the last question for you, and it's a nice segue into kicking the meat and potatoes of things off, is what was your first gig ever?

Cory Chadwick (11:01)
My first gig, like my first job?

Martin Hauck (11:03)
First job.

Cory Chadwick (11:06)
I think the first one that I consider a job, I don't know if you consider a camp counselor, one where I was like, okay, like I'm committed to this job, I'm doing this. I would say the first job that I had that really started, no, I worked in a back shop at a golf course in high school, that was fun. My first restaurant job was the one that stands out to me, because I spent a bunch of time in the restaurant business. So that was a lot of fun. Yeah, serving tables.

at Jack Asker's restaurant. That was a good time.

Martin Hauck (11:40)
You got any like menu, anything come to mind? Like, does it all just like come swirling back to you and you're like, I know the menu off by heart or like, this is the one thing that people ordered or like got any behind the scenes, Jack Astor things.

Cory Chadwick (11:55)
I'm sure the menu has changed a lot. way the restaurant looks and how they operate, I'm sure has changed a lot. It was a different time then. You would serve tables, you'd be wearing a bright colored tie-dye t-shirt or something and pajama pants. And that was just the look. And you'd draw on tables with crayons. I don't think they do any of that stuff anymore. But there was something, mean, this is fitting for that younger version of yourself. It was called Buffalo Chicken Fingers, and I'm sure...

Those have become more popular now, but at the time, I think they were the only place I knew that did them. Maybe everyone did them and I just didn't know, but man, those can take a toll on your insides.

Martin Hauck (12:36)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (12:38)
If you're eating them too much, at the time it was fine, but I don't know how well I can handle those now, but I used to eat those like two, three times a week.

Martin Hauck (12:49)
yeah, no, that sounds delicious. That sounds exactly like what I would order. And I took my girls to the Jack Astor's recently at the young and Dundas and, yeah, they're still doing the like crayons and the,

Cory Chadwick (13:03)
Oh, they are, yeah? All right, nice.

Martin Hauck (13:04)
like the, the brown paper, mache type paper or whatever. That's the

Cory Chadwick (13:06)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (13:09)
thing. was, that was a great, great entertainment for them. They were, they were all jazzed up to, go to the movies. So let's, let's dive into things here. So

Working Jack Astor's how right now your current state you are founder of lyceum and formerly known as the mental gym the gym gyms kind of like a great metaphor for a lot of things that we've been talking about today but yeah how'd how'd

Fill in the gap, how did you get to where you are today?

Cory Chadwick (13:49)
Yeah, so this started for me, you know, kind of planting the seeds really early in life. You know that feeling, I can be really young, but you've, it's like you've got potential, but you don't know what that looks like or what it's going to mean to realize it. Like you really don't have many answers. You don't know what direction to point yourself in. You don't know how to get there. You don't know who's going to show you the way, but you know, you've got something in you and, and you want to figure out what that is and how you can show up like that and, lead that way and contribute that way and things like that make an impact.

So that was something that was on my radar and I recognized early that school serves its purpose, but it's not really gonna help you reach that level. The other thing that was front and center for me, especially as a teenager was mental health and wellbeing. My mom suffered from mental illness. She had something called bipolar disorder. And she did a good job of trying to hide it, I think. People do that and we get really good at

trying to hide things and presenting an image of ourselves we want other people to see. And I get that and in part she was trying to protect us from it. But as I got a little bit older, as a teenager, her situation was getting worse and worse and it became very clear that she was having a really tough time. And things just got really bad. So bad that it ended badly for my mom and unfortunately we lost her to her illness.

I was devastated. I was crushed. I was heartbroken, like all the things that you would feel. And also scared. I was scared. There was this feeling the whole way through that there was nothing I could do to help her or to save her. And that was a really tough thing to kind of deal with and process and just feel so helpless in that.

And then I was scared her situation was genetic. Like what if it was coming for me too? And that terrified me. At the time when my mom passed, I was a psychology major and I recognized that I could cross my fingers and just hope for the best, but that really wasn't a strategy. I could wait until maybe something happened and things started getting bad. And then if they did, then I could be reactive and try to

get some sort of help when maybe it was too late and I'm like, that doesn't make any sense either. Or I could just be proactive with it. I could just like an athlete like trains their body, I could train my mind and just like an athlete would get super like healthy and strong and fit, like I could do that, right? I could get mentally healthy and fit. And so maybe it is coming for me, maybe it's not, but like I'm not gonna take any chances. And so I started on this journey of just making, I'm very similar.

Lita, the way we talking about before, just making tiny improvements, like a shift here, a change there, connecting dots, and putting together this process that really just evolved into this simple, incredibly powerful process that pretty much anybody can use to elevate their mental wellbeing, to think and make decisions at a higher level, to show up and perform at a higher level, to feel great. I'm really proud of how that's all evolved, but at the time, it was just for my own benefit, just...

trying to prevent going down a road that I was scared to go down. But as it continued to evolve, people paid attention and they started noticing it and they started asking questions about it. Like, what have you figured out that we haven't figured out? I mentioned working at Jack Aster's, so I actually ended up staying in the restaurant and bar business for a while. I'll kind of fast forward in that story, but I own my own place and things were great, but I was working really long taxing hours.

And I wasn't burning out. actually felt great. And people were like, how are you not burning out? And I'm like, I don't know. I feel, I feel really good. Um, and I was just able to like build great teams and great cultures and, know, think and make decisions at a higher level. And all of this was happening. And again, people were noticing my relationships were fantastic and, and there was this theme. So it took a little while of a couple of mentors that I had who were kind of in my ear saying, you've developed something that you really should be sharing with other people.

It actually wasn't until my first son was born, so he's nine now. But you know, do you remember that feeling when you're kind of in the delivery room and your kid just like enters the world and everything changes like in an instant, right?

Martin Hauck (18:32)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (18:33)
And there's this feeling like, it's like you know you've got a kid on the way, you know you're gonna be responsible.

for this other human life and you're like, hope I do a good job and I hope I don't screw this up.

Martin Hauck (18:43)
fingers crossed.

Cory Chadwick (18:44)
right, fingers crossed, right? You have no idea what you're getting yourself into. But there was this feeling of, I want them to grow up in a better world. And then this, so then I'm just thinking like, how can I somehow contribute to that? How can I do my part? And then just the dots started connecting and that's what.

got things started with this work and sharing it with other people. Actually started out working with high potential student leaders, high school and university age students, just trying to help them really show up at their best, perform at a higher level, feel great doing it, not burn out. And then it just kept evolving, educators, athletes, teams and team coaches, and then into the business world and working with leaders and teams and high performers.

the idea for the mental gym originally, it came to me, it was in the middle of a group exercise class. And I just, it's just, I was looking for the better way. How can we impact more people? How can we have a bigger and deeper impact? you know, mental health and wellbeing is just like physical health is not the kind of thing that you do once and you're done. You know,

Martin Hauck (19:59)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (20:00)
it's, it's an ongoing process. You're always interacting with life, dealing with life at work and at home and

how you show up matters so much and not just when it's easy but also when it's hard and especially when it's hard. And was in the middle of that exercise class and the light bulb goes off just like we're doing this for our bodies. We have these gyms for our bodies. Why aren't we doing this for our minds? We need this for our minds. And just a recognition that people, especially growth-driven people, smart growth-driven people, so we're talking a lot of leaders, high performers, high potential types, life's a lot and they've got a ton on their plate.

but they don't just wanna cope, they wanna thrive. And so they need a solution that's designed for them that helps them do that consistently. So that's how the mental gym came to be and then evolved into lesium. And here we are now.

Martin Hauck (20:53)
Elysium I butchered it my bad

Cory Chadwick (20:57)
that's,

you know what? The ancient Greeks called it lyceum. So you were, you were actually bang on about that. We call it lyceum. Yeah.

Martin Hauck (21:02)
Okay, nice.

I feel so nice distinguished now.

Cory Chadwick (21:10)
Yeah, right. You and Aristotle

hanging out together.

Martin Hauck (21:15)
No, I mean, yeah, like, thank you for sharing that story. that. Yeah, it's a big, it's a big journey. So many interesting places to sort of like double click on, but rarely do you, you don't meet many folks that are moved.

to build something for a very specific reason, right? And so you're like, hey, this is the most important thing to me. And you build something around it that's, think, like.

the start of something new like that. mean, like, forget, we're just glazing over the fact that like entrepreneurship in the first place is, is a grind and coaching is a very, that's a big space to be in. There's a lot of, competition. There's a lot of people putting their name out there. I think you've done an amazing job, just like distinguishing yourself and what you stand for and the things that.

that you teach having participated in some of your work and your workshops. I guess, like, lots of questions there. I would say this has evolved a lot over the years. Like, how long have you been doing this?

Cory Chadwick (22:47)
Officially, think around the time my son was born, about nine years.

Martin Hauck (22:50)
Nine years.

Cory Chadwick (22:51)
Unofficially, a lot longer. Right?

Martin Hauck (22:53)
Yeah, yeah.

And you were talking about that moment. What's interesting is like the world changed for sure when when my daughter was born and when your son was born in the world, there was definitely a shift and there's definitely like a lot of feelings in that moment.

But it didn't really, it didn't, like I talked to other people and I mean, at least for me, the moment hit differently with my girls in the sense that like, I heard so many people talk about like, once you, like, I've got, like, it wasn't until I had, you know, my kid that,

that like I shifted into overdrive. had one person was like, I was always a high performer, but when my kids were born, that's when I kicked things into full throttle. And I don't know, I feel like I've had those moments, but it didn't stem from like the part that stands out for me was more and like just when I ended up connecting more with my daughters was like,

love them. I was so blessed to be a dad and a dad.

Cory Chadwick (24:08)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (24:09)
But things didn't really kick in for me like in terms of like impact until like the six to 12 month mark where like, there's like you go from potato to like, actual person and interact.

Cory Chadwick (24:20)
person. Yeah.

Martin Hauck (24:22)
And they go there's there's there was definitely a moment where like, there's something behind the eyes, like there's a fire

Cory Chadwick (24:28)
Yeah.

Martin Hauck (24:28)
and a curiosity behind the eyes that shows up like in the six to 12 month mark. And it was just like, holy shit.

and that's when I was, that's when it kicked me in the face. And I mean, of course things are different for everybody, but, in you've been doing this so, so long and your default state was to like, when, when did that moment in the gym happen? Like what, what was sort of like the next, did it happen right away? Like, I'm doing this. I'm going to make, I'm going to start working on things from,

a mental health perspective and coaching people and training people and doing workshops like just like as soon as that moment hit you or was it more of like a slow burn you're like slowly I'm gonna put the pieces together and make this happen.

Cory Chadwick (25:20)
Uh, yeah, it's a great question. I, maybe I should clarify something first. Cause like when we talk about mental health, we, the conversation on mental health tends to be in almost entirely about illness, right? Um, people who are in some form of crisis. And I absolutely believe it's important, incredibly important that there's more awareness about it and more resources helping people in situations like that. Um, it's just, it's, it's not relevant to everybody that part of the conversation. Like if you think about

mental wellbeing on a scale from one to 10. And every single one of us is somewhere on a scale from one to 10. A lot of people are just kind of somewhere in the middle where they're stressed and they're anxious or some level of anxiety and they're just feeling tired and they're not burnt out, but they're edging towards it and they can feel that. And so they're not looking for kind of like a traditional reactive solution.

that I'm not in crisis, so I don't need that. And I also don't just wanna tread water at like a five out of 10. I wanna show up at my best. And so what we're talking about here is more of like whole person development. We really blend authentic leadership development and personal growth with a proactive, not reactive, but a proactive approach to wellbeing. So we say it's not therapy. This is about moving from good to great. So that was so important to me. And that's really...

was inspiring. You go back to your question about being in the gym. The gym I was in. So I used to take CrossFit. I used to go to CrossFit classes. don't, I haven't done CrossFit in a while, but the thing that I loved about it was the energy, the community. you, you, you're being pushed to do something that you want to do, but you're not going to do on your own. You

Martin Hauck (27:01)
Hmm.

Cory Chadwick (27:02)
just know that you're not, but these, these other people who come together to support you.

and push you and you have your trainer there and they just make you better. And it's also an hour in and out. That's important, right? Like people are busy. We got a ton on our plate. So give me that hour in and out. And I really loved a lot of that model.

Martin Hauck (27:18)
Hmm.

Cory Chadwick (27:19)
so previously in my work, I was doing a lot of workshops or even like 10, 12 week engagements, which were incredibly powerful. We'd still offer that. Leaseium phase one, for example, is a 12 week program and it's incredible.

But recognizing that there was so much more and that if we could create something that really get in like one hour a week, if you show up and take care of your mind, prioritize your wellbeing and your growth and yourself, just take a break from all the noise, take a mental reset and set yourself up for the week and set yourself up for more than the week, for the month, the year and your life.

You can do that for one hour a week. You just get so much out of it. just like physical health, there's a compounding effect to that, right? And so if you can stay in kind of like a practice of it, like a routine, if you will, then you just get so much out of it. So it's not like the light bulb went off. Well, the light bulb did go off. I remember I was doing a deadlift and I dropped the barbell because the light bulb went off. It was like that eureka moment.

But what I did was I went home and I started, you know, mapping this out. What would this look like and how would this work? And started by inviting some people that I know either past clients or people who had shown an interest in the work and said, hey, I'm starting this. I'm putting a group together. I'm a believer. I'm a believer that just, just start, you know, you learn so much more by starting something and doing it than, you will like planning it all out and try to make things perfect. So just start. And that's what happened. Just, just got started. And, and,

saw some really incredible impacts in a pretty short period of time and just ran with it from there.

Martin Hauck (29:02)
I think of YouTubers and even actors or musicians and they're being asked about like, hey, like go back to your first album or your first video that you ever recorded because it sounds like you've gone through a bunch of iterations and like it's always kind of like a cringy moment for them, but not in a way that's like, I don't want to share it, but it's just like, like you've gone through so many iterations. Like what's that?

cringy moment for you where you're like look back and you're like oh this is this V V 0.5 for

Cory Chadwick (29:37)
Hmm.

Martin Hauck (29:38)
for what you do like what did that look like in comparison to what you're doing today

Cory Chadwick (29:46)
It's interesting. I don't know that I would call it cringy. Like there's certainly stuff, you know, you put out on social media that you watch, you you look back and you're like, man, that was terrible. But there's a recognition when you start, and I think everyone just kind of needs to get over this, that you can't be further ahead than you are. Like you're just like, you're starting and everybody starts somewhere. I think about it like, like, so my boys, they both play hockey. They love hockey. They're obsessed with hockey now. But my seven year old,

It wasn't long ago, a couple of years ago where he didn't want to play because he was learning to skate and he couldn't skate. It was really hard and he wanted to quit. And we, I remember learning how to skate. was the same thing. I wanted to quit. And I remember my dad told me, and I love this piece of advice was stuck with me. Even I was like from five years old, he said, if you're not falling, you're not trying. And I think for entrepreneurs or anyone else in life, if you're not failing, you're not trying. Right. And so there was a recognition that yes, some stuff you put out there just isn't going to be good.

and your work's gonna be only as good as it is, but keep learning and keep growing. There's certainly some times earlier on leading Lyceum sessions and workouts where I've probably said something or responded to a question in a way that I didn't like, or you allow something to happen in the session that you're like, that's not what the mental gym's about, or that's not what Lyceum's about. We gotta improve that. I wouldn't say anything overly cringy.

Maybe some other people would disagree, I don't know. But fortunately,

Martin Hauck (31:13)
No, no.

Cory Chadwick (31:14)
nothing stands out as like, I'm, you know, total cringe, but I would say a whole lot of minor cringes probably.

Martin Hauck (31:20)
What's a fair play? What's something that you were doing early on that you just absolutely don't do anymore because you're like there's a better way or it just didn't serve its purpose?

Cory Chadwick (31:31)
Yeah, one of them was getting like right now, Lee seems a lot more particular about who it's for than

Martin Hauck (31:38)
Hmm.

Cory Chadwick (31:39)
originally. Originally, it was like this could be for anybody.

Martin Hauck (31:41)
Come one, come all.

Cory Chadwick (31:43)
Exactly. so you there was something really special about having very different types of people from very different walks of life, different experiences, different everything involved, because there is something really magical about different perspectives of different people. But

There is something to be said about everybody being smart and growth driven and ambitious and not specifically career ambitious. Certainly a lot of people are, but ambitious in life. I want to be a great parent. I want to be a great partner, great friend, and I want to impact people in a really positive way. And I know there's this version of myself that I want to be. And as leaders, you know that you want your people to be this way too, right? And so when you get those people,

It doesn't matter if they're like, it's actually great when they work in different industries and different companies and things like that. We'll work within, within a company as well. Or the other option is working with people from different companies. That part's really great. And that's made, think the overall offering just so much better. even working inside a company, making sure that everybody self-selects to join the cohorts rather than mandating how you have to do this. And, we don't want anyone there doesn't want to be there. So getting really intentional about.

look, this is who it's for, and this is, know, it might not be for you, and that's okay if it's not, because not everything's for everybody. That change has been a really important one, and one that has definitely seen the experience for everybody and their growth elevate even further.

Martin Hauck (33:15)
You can't be everything to everyone and

Cory Chadwick (33:18)
But you want to be, right? I mean, you want to be, but you're right, you can't.

Martin Hauck (33:22)
definitely. Yeah, there's definitely a part of my DNA so to speak that says like you want to be able to to to be of service to to everyone and that's just not scalable. That's not

It's not humanly possible. It's not, and there's also just like, yeah, at the end of the day, you're not always going to get along with everybody or the message you're putting out isn't the thing for everyone. I've seen that more and more with like scaling and growing the people, people group.

Cory Chadwick (34:00)
Mmm.

Martin Hauck (34:00)
Like the, interesting thing for me is like, yeah, we've got 6,000 members and we've got the Slack group and we've got events and we've got.

webinars and all that fun stuff. And I'm like, well, only so many people like use the slack group and there's really

Cory Chadwick (34:19)
Hmm?

Martin Hauck (34:20)
vocal ones and there's people that have never said anything but still show up on a weekly basis and are just like reading all the things and they're consuming and lurking and whatnot. But that doesn't discredit the fact that they're they've like jumped in and they want to be a part of it in

in some capacity, but at the end of the day, we do have our criteria. You have to be in the people operations world. and that's pretty broad in it in itself, but to your point, right? Like what I like most about the criteria that you have is it's not, you're moving away from the, Hey, this is the status side of things of like where you work or the seniority level, so to speak.

but it's more about the individual's core beliefs and principles that they have, which at the end of the day is the thing that guides everything. Was that a hard choice to make or was it an obvious choice to make?

Cory Chadwick (35:22)
No, wasn't, was, it was as soon as I allowed myself to make that choice, it was quite easy because I always knew it. Deep down, I knew it. I knew that when I really challenged people in these workouts and in these, through these workout programs, when I really challenged them to think differently and explore different perspectives and dig and reflect, that's when they loved it the most and that's when they got the most out of it. But if you, if you, if you,

lessen that to maybe make it easier for some other people who it's not for, or you make it less challenging than the people who want it to be challenging. Like if you make it, it doesn't challenge them, then they don't get enough out of it. And then the person that you're trying to kind of accommodate or the people who trying to accommodate, it's not the same short answer as once I just said, just make this decision, then it was easy and it felt right.

Martin Hauck (36:16)
Just reminded me of one of, my first gig, but I, I, the one time I had a second job, I was working full time selling nuts and bolts and just got a house, new mortgage payments, all that fun stuff. So I started working at a call center in the evenings. And I think my job was to collect feedback on like Canadian tires, car batteries, which is probably the most engaging thing leveled

Cory Chadwick (36:40)
Yeah.

Martin Hauck (36:40)
up cold calling skills and my,

Cory Chadwick (36:43)
Yeah,

yeah.

Martin Hauck (36:44)
ability to like keep someone on the line because I wouldn't get credit. I'd get paid but I wouldn't hit my targets if we didn't complete the survey. And so like it's a long survey

Cory Chadwick (36:54)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (36:55)
about car batteries.

Cory Chadwick (36:57)
Yeah.

Martin Hauck (36:58)
That's that's tricky. But we were in like full on cubicles. Almost like what's that show where they're all underground and like Severance, Severance style.

and like super close to each other. And I, for some reason, just like cared a lot. I like I wanted to do good. I wanted to hit my numbers. I'm very like,

Cory Chadwick (37:22)
Yeah.

Martin Hauck (37:23)
you give me some you give me a bone to chase after I will. And there was this guy beside me like one like one diagonally one seat away from me behind me. And by nature of being in a call center, you hear what other people are saying.

And I started hearing his talk track and we were all doing the same thing. And he was just breezing through the questions. I was like, this is what's going on. And, and, uh, what I had found out was he was faking calls. So

Cory Chadwick (38:00)
wow.

Martin Hauck (38:01)
he would just pick up the call and he would fill out the form and it would be complete BS. And he would just be talking and, and, and,

my mind exploded from like, I just couldn't get like, had to leave the job because like, who am I to rat this person out? Like I just

Cory Chadwick (38:23)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (38:23)
started like a couple months ago. Like I'm not like this person, maybe this person's been there for five years. Like, why am I, I don't want to be that guy. But I just, had to leave because my brain is kind of like going, I guess this is a very long way of kind of.

saying like, yeah, there's something to be said about getting a bunch of people in the same room or in the same practice that all care at the same level and

Cory Chadwick (38:50)
Yeah.

Martin Hauck (38:51)
they want to be there. I had to be there, but

Cory Chadwick (38:54)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (38:55)
because I had to be there, I also wanted to do a good job so that,

Cory Chadwick (38:59)
Sure.

Martin Hauck (38:59)
and then to see someone right beside me completely, literally phoning it in, which was

Cory Chadwick (39:05)
Literally, yeah.

Martin Hauck (39:07)
beyond me and

it, it like, just couldn't pro like, was such a demotivating thing. Like I was like, if he's doing it, then, technically I get to do that too. And like, that doesn't raise the bar for me. That doesn't keep me engaged. That doesn't keep me motivated. And it's just like funny how that thing pops up just naturally in almost any environment.

Cory Chadwick (39:29)
yeah. you see that all the time is, is kind of the environment that you're in and the standard that that environment holds is the standard that you're going to rise to or fall to.

Martin Hauck (39:40)
Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (39:40)
Right. and I'm a big believer that, that people, people want more out of themselves. And it's not like grinding harder, working harder, burning out. I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about, you know, we, we, mentioned the scale from one to 10 earlier.

There's another scale from one to 10 that we were very focused on. And this is like our personal, am I living at my 10 or am I living somewhere else? And you know, are you consistently or as consistently as you can showing up as that 10 version of you and 10 does not mean perfect. There's no perfect. It's not a destination that you get to and you're done. It's none of that. And again, it's not about grinding harder, burning out or anything like that, but it is recognizing that you, you've got to point yourself in a direction.

And as you point yourself in that direction and you move in that direction, just one small step at a time, one manageable step at a time, but you build momentum. And if you're around other people who are also moving in that direction to their personal 10, you realize how much you have in common. You want a lot of the same things. You aspire to a lot of the same things. There are a lot of things in your lives that are really important to you. Again, not just like.

you know, money and career titles and things like that, but about who you are and how you show up and in your family. And you also run into a lot of the same challenges along the way. And so you just get to really normalize that experience for people where they're just like, like you, Martin, you think that way too, or you have that challenge too. And it's like, yeah, like kind like we all do. But then you get to just like drop the, I don't wanna say the act, it's not the act, but I think we all recognize that there's this like perception.

that other people have of us and we try to maintain that, know, I got to present this image of myself. Here's how I want other people to think of me and perceive me. But you can just kind of drop the drop it a little bit or a lot and just be real with each other and grow. And so you are holding yourselves and each other to there's a level of accountability in there about show up, put in the effort, take this time for yourself and really show up at your best and lead at your best, feel your best, perform at your best. And we're all better for it. So,

There's an old saying that a rising tide lifts all boats. I'm a big believer in that. Certainly at work with our teams, if you're a leader and you're showing up at a five, I mean, you're creating a ripple effect that's a five, which means you're helping your people show up at their fives and nobody wants that. People

Martin Hauck (42:06)
Hmm.

Cory Chadwick (42:06)
want to be challenged to grow and they want relevant growth opportunities and they want to know that they feel valued and appreciated and they want to be led by someone who's showing up.

much closer to their 10 and helping them do the same. So there's a ton of power in that. And I'm a big fan of like-minded people getting to learn from each other and grow and go on a journey together.

Martin Hauck (42:31)
You have this really interesting vantage point that I think most folks in your space don't really get in the sense that I imagine a lot of the work is done one on one, whereas your format is one to many.

Cory Chadwick (42:46)
Mm-hmm.

Martin Hauck (42:47)
And it's specific to the mental health side and like, yes, you can take a workshop and learn about mental health, but nobody really focuses on like the actual tangible stuff. guess I'm curious.

from your perspective, like what's the most interesting thing that you've observed over the years having done this, like just from maybe like from people in the workplace, like focusing in on the workplace and the impact the work you do has on the workplace.

Cory Chadwick (43:21)
So again, I think of it more like whole person development, whole human development, right? So you're helping them develop as leaders in a way that's authentic to them, which is, so something that I've heard so many times over the years is people saying, you know, I've been a part of other trainings, be it mental health, leadership, team building, like all these things, but especially the leadership or the managerial training, it always feels like it's the company who's

doing this so that I'll be better at my job to help the company make more money. And it's not like they're not being naive about it and they're not being ungrateful about it. It's just, it's very transparent that that's what it is. And Elysium, it's for them. Who do you wanna be? How do you wanna show up? What kind of leader do you wanna be? And because it's for them, they resonate with it so much more and they grow so much faster. And they apply it to their lives personally and professionally so much more.

And then when you, so there's that recognition that this can be for me and here's this version of myself that I can become and show up as that's huge. that like, wow. Like I really can be like this. I love seeing that in people. I love it when they find what we're working on. They're like, wow, that's going to be challenging. And then they do it. And then they come back the next week and they talk about how awesome it went for them when they actually tried that, that decision-making technique or applied that tool.

actually integrated into their lives. And I think another thing that's huge is again, we go back to talking about mental health and wellbeing and not talking about it in a reactionary way, but talking about it in a proactive way. If you wanna show up at your best and do it consistently, like imagine a pro athlete trying to perform if their physical health is at a five. Like it's not like they're in the hospital, but they're not able to show up at their best. But when you can...

can get your mental health up in that higher end of that scale, that eight, that nine, that 10 range. You think about it entirely differently. It's not about help, I'm in crisis. It's about, feel great, even when it's hard, even when I'm going through hard things. And it doesn't mean like I feel the best all the time every day. We're human, we're not robots, but we handle adversity so much better. We're so much more resilient and adaptable. Under pressure, we perform at a higher level.

We're better communicators and stronger that way and building trust and connection with our families and with our teams. And so there's this recognition that this is who I want to be. And it's exciting when you help people really tap into that and then show up that way and share it with others, especially at work with their teams and then their entire organizations, their families, their communities. So I think that's a really, it's really exciting when all of those pieces come together.

Martin Hauck (46:11)
I've got one more question before we sign off, but it feels like a doozy. So I'd be curious to get your hot take version of it. And maybe if folks want to hear the longer nuanced, experienced answer, they can tap you on the shoulder and find you on LinkedIn or

Cory Chadwick (46:34)
Yeah, anytime.

Martin Hauck (46:35)
Lyceum's website.

We kind of all know the things that we should be doing. shouldn't

Cory Chadwick (46:43)
course.

Martin Hauck (46:43)
be drinking a Dr. Pepper at 9 p.m.

Cory Chadwick (46:46)
Right? We know that.

Martin Hauck (46:47)
Especially knowing like my sensitivity to caffeine. I know that like I make all these micro and I love double click on that later, but there's so many tiny little decisions we make every day that like, well, maybe we're out of five today.

but if I make a bunch of five choices, I'm not gonna get to six and things feel better at six, not maybe meaningfully, but so what is like the one core thing that gets in everybody's way of like, hey, we all know what we need to be doing. We're just not doing them. why, Corey, why aren't we doing these things?

Cory Chadwick (47:27)
Yeah, great question. So let's really look at that because if, like you said, we all know we need to exercise, we all know we need to eat well, we all know we need to sleep well, we all know, like all of these things, we know this stuff. And it's not like we don't know how either. You can Google anything.

Martin Hauck (47:42)
No. Yeah.

Cory Chadwick (47:43)
You can ask GPT, like, tell me exactly how to do this, and it will tell you exactly how to do it. So why don't we do it? And I think more importantly, why don't we do it consistently? So there tons of, think about New Year's resolution, right? Everyone changes what they do.

and it lasts for about three weeks, it's not sustainable the way they're doing it. There's a number of reasons why I know you asked me kind of for one big thing here, but what we're trying to do so much is we're trying to focus on what we want, what we want, what we want, and we're not nearly focused enough on who we want to be and why it matters so much to us. So if you're just trying to do what, what, what, and then how do I do it? We're doing that in the wrong order. We really got to focus on who do we want to be, like who is that 10 version of me and why does that matter?

so much to me. What's the impact that I can have? What could I accomplish? Why deep down does it just matter? Right? Like, why is this important to me that I'm not showing up at a five or a six and then I am showing up much more like my 10 self? I think a lot of the time, in fact, I know a lot of the time we're making decisions without a clear direction on those decisions. So we're kind of making like random isolated decisions. And that can be from anything from career choices to what we choose to prioritize in our day to day lives.

Something I love asking people it's just such a simple question, but it's amazing how many people Have never really given it the thought that it needs Is I'll ask them. What do you want out of life? Like what do

Martin Hauck (49:07)
Mm-hmm.

Cory Chadwick (49:08)
you really truly want? What's the most important thing in life to you you had to pick one thing? And then inevitably getting them to kind of boil that down into like a word or you know What sentence or that kind of thing because people throw a whole bunch of things at you. This is my work's important My career is important. This is important. What do you actually want?

And it almost always comes back to some version of I want to be happy and I want to feel fulfilled. Okay, well, how important is that to you? And then they recognize that's the most important. Okay. Is that actually a priority in your life? Are you prioritizing that? And then that alone creates such a shift that now your decision-making goes through a different framework. Also a really simply, what would my 10 self do? What would my not 10 self do? And a recognition that I'm a big believer in 10 or not 10 thinking.

that you mentioned five, six, seven, eight, you call it, that's just not 10. So what is 10? And don't drive yourself crazy trying to be perfect or make 10 decisions, just can you make a few more 10 decisions? Because what you're doing is you're building a mental muscle there, a really important mental muscle of recognizing what is 10 and what isn't 10, and then allowing yourself to choose no judgment, no guilt, no shame, nothing, just what feels better to you.

Choose that a little bit more and choose the other thing a little bit less We complicate it. We over complicate these things It's actually really simple when we learn how to make it simple when we be when that becomes a habit and a routine and a Lifestyle you see remarkable change and it's sustainable. So It's not just one thing. There's a few things, but they're all related they're all connected and we got to take what we know that we should be doing and these things that we probably want to be doing and

do them in a way that is manageable, sustainable, and is actually gonna stick, and we're gonna feel great about it. That's when things really start to change.

Martin Hauck (51:01)
So listeners, now is the time. Make that 10 decision and...

Yeah, so make that 10 decision and reach out to Corey.

Cory Chadwick (51:14)
Yeah, reach out, say hi.

Martin Hauck (51:17)
Yeah. Thanks so much for making time today. I really appreciate it.

Cory Chadwick (51:21)
Yeah,

thank you. This was great. Really appreciate you having me on. And you you gave me such a nice intro at the beginning there and it's absolutely mutual. I think you're a great guy. I love what you've built and what you're continuing to build. I've met so many amazing people in the community and it's all because of the work that you're doing and the vision that you have. So thank you for that and thank you for including me and letting me be a part of this and having me on the show. Yeah.

Martin Hauck (51:49)
Thanks, man. All right.

All right, take care, go.

Cool.

Cory Chadwick (51:56)
Good.

Martin Hauck (51:58)
That is it.