Move Your Body With Others, Expand What's Possible, Compounding Relationships | FRLN 142

It’s Monday morning in Palm Springs, and I’m about to go play a couple hours of pickleball before packing up and making the long drive home to Santa Cruz.

One more morning on the courts.

Then home.

I’ve been on the road since September 4th. Santa Ynez. Santa Barbara. Huntington Beach. And since September 15th, Palm Springs for FinCon.

FinCon is a conference for creators in the money, personal finance, and investing space. This was my second year attending, and I’m leaving with new ideas, deeper friendships, and even more appreciation for what happens when you show up in person.

Last week, I wrote about keeping your fitness identity while traveling, using your money to create meaningful experiences, and leaving room for magic to unfold.

This week, that magic had a lot to do with people.

People who welcomed me onto their pickleball courts. Friends who generously shared what’s working in their businesses. And online friendships that became even more meaningful through time together in real life.

Plus three bighorn sheep. We’ll get to them.

Let’s dive in.

FIT — Build Connection Through Movement

One of my favorite things about this week has been finding the local pickleball community.

I’ve already played three times at College of the Desert Pickleball, where there are 12 courts. That’s where I’m headed again this morning before leaving town.

Everyone has been incredibly welcoming. By my second day, people were excited to see me and inviting me into their games.

My second day.

I was visiting a place where I didn’t know the local players, and almost immediately I felt like I belonged. It became a little home away from home.

That’s one of the things I love most about pickleball. Wherever I travel now, I look for the local community. I show up, play, meet people, and suddenly I have a connection to the place that I wouldn’t have gotten just staying at my hotel.

Fitness gives me a way into a community wherever I go.

And this past week, it also gave me a way to deepen an existing friendship.

My great friend and online business partner, Kevin Hood, has been my roommate throughout FinCon. We originally connected through Threads back in early 2025.

Before this trip, we’d probably met over Zoom 50 or more times. But this was the first time we’d ever hung out in person, as he lives in Michigan.

On our first full day here, we played pickleball. I gave him a one-hour intensive coaching session, and then we played some matches against other people.

Yesterday, on our last full day in Palm Springs, we went on an epic hike on the Araby Trail: more than two hours, four miles, and about 1,200 feet of ascent.

Then, on the way back down the mountain, we saw desert bighorn sheep.

Two females and a ram with massive horns.

Neither of us had ever seen them in real life.

It was so fucking cool.

Truly awe-inspiring. And now it’s a memory we share because we decided to spend the morning hiking together.

Kevin and I have had an awesome time going to sessions, meeting people, talking business, and hanging out this week. But there’s something especially meaningful about moving together. Teaching him a game I love. Playing matches. Climbing a mountain. Seeing something neither of us had ever seen before.

Those experiences add a whole new dimension to a friendship that, until this past week, existed through a screen.

We talk a lot about what fitness does for our strength, body composition, and health. I care deeply about all of that. But I also love what it does for my relationships.

It gives me people to play with, places to belong, and adventures to share.

You don’t have to play pickleball. Invite a friend on a walk. Join a hiking group. Take a class. Find something active that you enjoy doing with other people.

Your next workout could also be the start of a friendship. Or a chance to make an existing one stronger.

RICH — Get In Rooms That Expand What’s Possible

During one of my conversations with Kevin this week, I mentioned something I’ve now experienced at both FinCons.

I’ll learn something in one conversation that might have taken me 6-12 months to figure out on my own.

Sometimes it’s a tool. Sometimes it’s a strategy. Sometimes it’s an opportunity I hadn’t even considered.

Here’s a perfect example.

I’ve been watching creators share some ridiculous results from Facebook monetization. One creator’s reported earnings caught my attention: $40,000 a month from creating content on Facebook.

Facebook.

A platform that I, and plenty of other people, had started thinking of as almost old and outdated.

Clearly, there was something worth learning more about.

On the very first day I arrived, I ran into Deacon Hayes of Well Kept Wallet, who’s been a guest on the Fit Rich Life Podcast. I asked whether he knew the creator whose Facebook results I’d been following.

Turns out he talks to him on the phone frequently. This creator helps Deacon when he’s figuring out what to do next with his own Facebook monetization.

So I asked Deacon if he’d do a Zoom call with me and walk me through how I could get started too.

He immediately said yes.

That’s the kind of thing that happens when you get in the room.

I went from watching someone’s results online and wondering how it worked to having a friend offer to walk me through it.

I still have to learn, experiment, and do the work. Someone else’s earnings aren’t a promise of what I’ll make. But now I have a concrete next step and someone willing to help me take it.

That can save an incredible amount of time spent trying to piece everything together yourself.

And the generosity goes both ways. Whenever I can share an idea, tip, tool, or strategy with someone at FinCon, I’m pumped to do it. Helping someone who’s working through a challenge you’ve already faced feels freaking great.

That’s been my experience two years in a row. People are happy to tell you what’s working. They’re also willing to share what hasn’t worked, which can be just as valuable.

When you spend time with peers who are building, experimenting, and learning, your own thinking expands. You discover possibilities you didn’t know to look for and people who can help you explore them.

That’s part of abundance to me: realizing how much knowledge, experience, and generosity is available when you connect with other people and contribute what you know too.

You don’t need to be a creator or attend FinCon to experience this. Look for a gathering in your industry, a local business community, or people who are working toward something you care about.

Show up curious. Ask questions. Share what you’ve learned. And when someone has experience that could help you, be willing to ask.

One conversation can change what you believe is possible — and help you figure out your next move.

LIFE — Relationships Compound When You Keep Showing Up

Last year, at my first FinCon in Portland, I met many of my podcast guests in person for the first time.

We’d already had meaningful conversations through a screen. Then we finally got to spend time together in real life.

This year, I got to see them again.

And I could feel the difference.

There was already a foundation. We had conversations to pick back up, things to catch up on, and more of our lives to share. They were excited to see me, and I was just as excited to see them.

We talked shop. We talked life. We hung out and enjoyed being real-life friends.

Seeing these people two years in a row made it obvious how much returning can deepen a relationship. The time together builds on the time you’ve already spent. You get to know more of the person, and they get to know more of you.

It made me think about what these friendships could look like 3-5 years from now if I keep showing up.

More conversations. More shared experiences. More chances to support each other through whatever life and business bring.

You know I already bought my ticket for FinCon 2027 in Dallas.

And I’m already excited to see these friends again.

I’ve also lined up multiple upcoming podcast interviews with friends who have already been on the show, along with new guests. With prior guests, we have so much new stuff to talk about, and they were more than happy to come back and share their latest learnings, tools, and strategies with you.

I love that something that starts with a conversation between friends can become useful to everyone listening.

But even before another interview gets recorded or another business idea gets implemented, I’m grateful for the friendships themselves. For people I look forward to seeing. For the excitement of reconnecting. For getting to share this chapter of life with people on a similar journey.

And the same opportunity exists much closer to home.

Think about the second time you walk into a group. Or the fifth. Or the twentieth. Familiar faces become people you know. Conversations get easier. You start remembering what’s going on in each other’s lives.

I felt a little version of that on my second day at the pickleball courts. I felt a deeper version of that returning to FinCon for a second year.

Showing up opens the door. Coming back gives the relationship room to grow.

ACTION — Show Up And Come Back

Pick one below to build a better life this week:

• FIT — Invite someone to move with you. Go for a walk, play a sport, take a class, or explore a trail. Give yourselves something to experience together.

• RICH — Start a conversation that expands your thinking. Reach out to someone with experience in something you’re trying to learn, or attend a gathering of people on a similar path. Bring a thoughtful question and be generous with what you know too.

• LIFE — Return to a community you enjoyed. Go back to that meetup, group, or regular gathering. Reconnect with someone you met there. Give familiarity a chance to become friendship.

I’m heading home today with new ideas to explore, friends I feel closer to, and a memory of three bighorn sheep on a mountainside that Kevin and I now get to share.

That’s a pretty freaking great way to finish a road trip.

To your health, wealth, and happiness,

— Justin David Carl