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Episode transcripts below.
You are listening to MX Prep School with Byron TGI Friday.
And MX Prep School is a home of the well-prepared athlete.
Today, I’m going to do what I’m going to call the writer’s meeting.
And it’s going to be an audio journal.
It’s not going to be a highly structured discussion.
It’s just going to be me talking behind the mic.
I have some thoughts that I want to discuss about regrets and kind of the impetus or the catalyst for me to talk about the subject and want to talk about the subject is because I, a while back I read a article, I’m pretty sure it was in Sports Illustrated magazine.
And actually it was online.
It was an online article from Pete Sampras titled, I believe it was a letter to my younger self.
Yes, that’s what titled, I believe it was, A Letter to My Younger Self.
Yes, that’s what it was.
And it was written by Pete Sampras.
And the purpose of this was he was sharing his life experiences, and he was, I would say say the primary emphasis of this article and why pete wrote this is that he was reflecting back at done differently if he knew differently.
So in other words, sometimes when I was reading through this article, here’s a couple takeaways, is that he had disappointments and regrets because he made bad decisions and there was complications of the bad decisions and that outcomes in different situations both in competition and out of competition could have gone more favorably and he would have been more fulfilled and more satisfied.
So essentially, he’s talking about how to avoid regrets and disappointment.
And that relates to me, and that’s one of the reasons why I got inspired by this article to come and share this audio journal, which I’m going to call the Writer’s Meeting Podcast, and talk about some regrets.
So we got two situations that I’m going to tie this into.
One is going to be BMX, and one is going to be mountain bike development.
At the heart, at the highest level, this is the main emphasis, the message that I want to talk about is Um, I had developed deep regrets 20, 30, and even 40 years, 40 years after my, my athletic, excuse me, after my athletic career was over.
And there was disappointments.
I was guilt tripping because I looked at certain situations that sometimes had a negative effect on my career outcome.
And in some cases, there was a catastrophic effect, catastrophically bad effect on my career.
And when you look back at your career and sometimes, oftentimes you’re very fulfilled, but sometimes at the same time, when you’re older and you look back and you can see how, man, I was foolish.
Sometimes I was a knucklehead sometimes.
And a lot of the reason for that is because I just simply didn’t know any better.
And so when you don’t know any better, if you were not trained or you weren’t mentored, if you didn’t have a coach, if you didn’t have a talent development and athlete development process to follow, if you don’t have that, it’s more than likely that you’re going to make a lot of mistakes.
I essentially guided my career, um, from the beginning to the end of my career.
Uh, my father and mother weren’t that involved in my racing other than, uh, you know, taking me to the races and supporting me.
So I have no disappointments with my parents really.
But so let me segue into, into wrapping up what I want to talk about here.
So essentially here, what I’m saying is that I was not a well-prepared athlete in the scope of being, I would say, like a complete athlete.
I was not a well-prepared athlete, therefore I was not a complete athlete.
There were so many things I didn’t know, there were so many things I didn’t know, but I would eventually learn later.
So here’s my situation.
So in BMX, I did not reach my potential because I was not well prepared and I didn’t have a coach or a mentor.
And so I didn’t achieve the level of, I didn’t achieve the level of success that it could had, had I been more prepared on how to be, um, how to rise above from being a local competitor to a national and world-class competitor.
And so later on in life, 30 and 40 years ago, 30 and 40 years later, I would have regrets and disappointments.
And for a while, and sometimes I had some anger at myself and I had some anger at some people that were involved in my life at that time.
I’ll be honest, I did have some disappointments with my parents, but that’s water under the bridge.
I’ve totally accepted the situation.
You know, sometimes your parents mean well, but things don’t work out like maybe they should and because they didn’t know any better so um so anyway when i got when i trans when i transitioned to mountain bike racing that was adult bike racing and a complete different circumstance and complete different setting it was because it was a completely different industry.
So I look back, and just like with BMX, so I had talent, and I was beginning to have all the support that I need.
And in some cases, I had more support than I actually needed.
than I actually needed.
But as far as becoming a, as far as developing into being a professional cyclist in the adult bike market, I was very inexperienced and I was very unprepared.
And so my prosperity, unprepared and so my prosperity um i had i had i would say above average good fortune so because when i trans when i transitioned from bmx to mountain bikes um my position in the industry opened up doors of opportunity very quickly and And before I knew it, I was immersed and heavily involved in the mountain bike industry, working, getting sponsorship.
And so I had, I had what I needed in alignment, but where I wasn’t in alignment was, alignment, but where I wasn’t in alignment was I didn’t know how to be a professional athlete.
You know, in BMX, for sure, I didn’t know how to be a professional athlete.
And so, because I was not well-prepared and a well-prepared, let me rephrase that.
I didn’t know how to be a professional athlete because I was never taught.
I was not educated and I wasn’t trained on how to do it.
I never had a coach.
And so anyway, so I had associates like I had actually close friends, John Tomac, who I spent, you know, hundreds of hours riding with and traveling with.
Um, also, um, my good writing buddy that I, and my classmates, John Yomera became a supercross champion and a mountain bike champion and a motocross champion.
and a mountain bike champion and a motocross champion.
And I look at my situation and I had sufficient talent and willingness and dedication to sacrifice to become a much higher level and more successful athlete, both in BMX and mountain bikes than I achieved.
And so later on in life, when you get older and you look at and you’ve kind of put the pieces of the puzzle together, when I talked about having um disappointments and uh regrets sometimes i felt like a knucklehead but you know i got to uh give myself some cut myself some slack because you know if an athlete doesn’t know any better if an athlete wants to be a high level professional and they have talent but they’re not groomed and they’re not taught the process, it’s not likely going to happen.
So that’s the primary takeaway of what I want to say, but I’m going to segue into this.
of what I want to say, but I’m going to segue into this.
And that is the reason why I’m, because I look back and I have regrets and disappointments that things could have been my outcome of my career.
I could have been much more successful.
I’m still grateful and I still say that I did exceed my wildest expectations because I never expected to be traveling the world and work in the industry and have a job in the bike industry for decades.
So, but because of these negative emotions and these disappointments that I have and had, I decided that, you know, I used to do riding schools around the country and also in Europe and in the UK and doing camps in the UK and America and also Europe.
I felt that, you know, with technology now, I can come back and share my life story and share my life experiences, both the positive and the negative, and share that with the current generation of parents and athletes.
And I had different names for the program at first.
I just registered the name BMXteacher.com and mxteacher.com, and I eventually came up with the idea that, you know what, I was not well prepared, so why don’t I do a prep school for BMXers and for motocross school and for motocross and call this the home of the well-prepared athlete?
I was not well-prepared, but now I can use technology to record these audio journals.
If you want to call them lessons, you can.
And so what we’ve got here is an athlete coming back to share with the current generation of parents and athletes both the good and the bad and the life lessons and the bad, and the life lessons, and the positive life lessons, and what I’ve learned about success and failure.
So here’s the idea.
If I share with you how to avoid the pitfalls and how to avoid making mistakes, and I share with you how to be well-prepared, okay, this is for the athlete and the the rider and if you’re an athlete and not a racer um so essentially it’s a successful former professional successful inducted into the united States Cycling BMX Hall of Fame, is very grateful, and he wants to come back to share with the current generation of riders and parents what he’s learned along the way about success and failures.
And so because of technology, now I can create these lessons and distribute them online on the website.
So right now, I’ve got two websites.
This program is in development, and so right now, it’s divided between two websites, mxteacher.com and bmxteacher.com the there there’s probably 25 posts on bmxteacher.com um but i what i, um, I realized that, uh, the method that I was using to discuss the content and what I wanted to share was maybe a bit too long winded.
So, um, I’m kind of, uh, what do I want to say here?
I just revising the methodology.
But so there’s two or three different ways I’m going to be communicating my messaging and what I want to share.
Number one is going to be these audio journals, the writer’s meeting.
the writers meeting and then i’m going to have a more um structured curriculum or lessons if you want to call them that will be aligned with what i call the well-prepared athlete and so those will be dripped out um, September, October, 2026.
What I’m doing is I’m creating, I’m not creating the entire program and then releasing it.
leasing it.
What I’m doing is dripping out lesson by lesson and building on just one lesson at a time, prepare it, do all the marketing materials for social media and post it.
And after a year or two, there will be a full on BMX school and motocross school, and it will be home of the well-prepared athlete so it’s basically i’m building and sharing along the way so the website right now if you went to the websites mxteacher.com and bmxteacher.com it’s not not a complete school, but as I create more content, as I create more lessons and audio journals, it will become more complete over time.
So one thing is I got overwhelmed because there’s so much work to do.
So I came up with the idea that because there’s so much work to do.
So I came up with the idea that I suggest create lessons, create auto journals, share what I want to share, and then just post it and go from there, okay?
You can leave a, if you’d like, if you’re a parent, you can leave me a question at TGIF at DMX teacher.
Excuse me.
Let me say that again.
TGIF at MXTeacher.com.
You can leave me a question and I’ll either answer it.
And I’ll either answer it, I’ll answer your email, or I will use it for a upcoming audio journal or lesson.
Okay?
And, by the way, this program, all the teachings are going to be free.
And one of the reasons why I’ve created this program, why program, why I’m creating this program is, uh, it’s expensive to go racing and some parents may not be able to afford coaching and mentoring.
So this former successful athlete and BMX hall of fame inductee coming back to share, and it’s kind of a no athlete left left behind kind of situation um i kind of feel necessary for me to come back and get pay it forward because of my good fortune and prosperity over many decades all right um and you can follow me on i’ll the, my social media information on this post, wherever you’re, you’re listening or watching.
Um, but on Instagram, um, MX prep and that’s MX prep.
And then on social media, on Facebook, I’ll leave the link.
I’ll leave the link on this post, wherever it’s at.
All right.
So thanks very much.
And this is going to be posted on the website, okay?
If you got to the end here, leave a comment on the website, mxteacher.com, and say, hey, Friday, I got to the end of the episode.
And you can leave that comment in the comment section, okay?
And also, I’m a rookie.
I’m not a broadcaster.
I’m not a trained educator, I’m not a trained educator.
Just a racer, athlete, knucklehead sharing what he learned.
So I will get better behind the microphone.
You know, when I start these audio journals, I’m very ambitious, and I got some ideas.
But here’s what’s weird.
You have ideas that you want to share, but when you fire up the recorder and you’re talking into a microphone, you don’t get stage fright, but it’s totally different than, say, if I’m writing what I’m talking about right now, it just flows effortlessly.
I guess that’s because the process is slowed down.
But when you’re recording audio behind a mic i got a road podcaster studio it’s much different so um i feel i got better the more i the farther i got along with this audio journal so tell me what you think are we good or we’re just idiot all right thanks so much for listening.
Let me know if you got to the end.
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