Mark: Alright Michelle, I'm going to say a name: Cameron Hanes. What's the first thing that comes to mind? Michelle: The only man on Earth who considers running a 200-mile race a 'light jog' and thinks a balanced life is for quitters. My muscles ache just thinking about him. Mark: That's a perfect summary. And today we're diving into his book, Keep Hammering: A Geared Up Life. What's wild is that Hanes isn't some trust-fund athlete; he worked a 9-to-5 at a local water and power company in Oregon for over two decades while doing all this. Michelle: Wow, okay. That changes things. He's not just a professional 'sufferer.' He's one of us... just with a much, much higher pain tolerance. Mark: Exactly. And that's the perfect place to start, because this whole book is built on this radical rejection of a normal, balanced life. It’s a philosophy forged in the mountains but applicable to anyone who feels like they’re capable of more.

Michelle: Okay, let's get right into that, because the central mantra feels so aggressive. He literally says, "Average sucks." In a world where most of us are just trying to find some stability and happiness, that feels like a personal attack on a quiet Tuesday afternoon. Mark: It does, and he'd be the first to admit it's not for everyone. But to understand it, you have to go back to his beginning. He describes his early life as aimless. He was a self-proclaimed 'small-town loser' in Marcola, Oregon, working a dead-end warehouse job, feeling totally directionless. He wasn't just average; he was unhappy being average. Michelle: So this wasn't a judgment on other people's lives, but a rejection of his own state of being. Mark: Precisely. And then he gets this phone call from a guy named Roy Roth, who just says, "Dude, you need to bowhunt." This simple invitation becomes his 'call to adventure.' It gives him a target, something to aim for, literally and figuratively. Michelle: And he was immediately good at it, right? A natural talent? Mark: Oh, not at all. And this is the crucial part. His first real hunt is a total disaster. He's out with an experienced hunter, a massive bull elk walks out just 20 yards away—the kind of moment hunters dream of their whole lives. And Hanes completely chokes. He's so nervous he can barely draw his bow, and the arrow just flutters harmlessly, missing by a mile. Michelle: Oh, that’s brutal. I would have sold the bow the next day and taken up knitting. Mark: Most people would! But for Hanes, this colossal failure was the opposite of a deterrent. It was the spark. He writes about how that embarrassment and frustration ignited an obsession. He quit his job, quit college, and hunted for eighteen straight days until he finally killed a small bull. Michelle: Eighteen straight days? That’s not a hobby; that’s a vendetta. Mark: It's a complete rewiring of his purpose. And this is where his philosophy is born. He learns that the average success rate for bowhunting elk is about 10%. That means for most people, it's one elk every ten years. Hanes hears this and his reaction is visceral. He writes, and I'm quoting here, "That’s never going to be good enough for me. Never was, never will be. Average sucks." Michelle: I see. So the rejection of 'average' isn't about looking down on a 9-to-5 job. It's about rejecting a 10% success rate in the thing you've chosen as your life's passion. Mark: Exactly. He decided that if he was going to do this, he would defy the statistics. And the only way to do that was to outwork everyone. He couldn't control the weather or the animals, but he could control his physical and mental preparation. So he started running. Not just jogging, but running marathons. Then ultramarathons. He started lifting weights with ferocious intensity. All to close that 90% failure gap. Michelle: So it’s like he found a problem so difficult—ethically and skillfully hunting one of the most elusive animals with a primitive weapon—that it required him to become a different person to solve it. The goal wasn't just to hunt, but to transform. Mark: That's the perfect way to put it. The suffering of the training—the pre-dawn runs, the aching muscles, the mental grind—became meaningful. It was an investment in becoming the man who could succeed where 90% of others failed. He wasn't just training his body; he was training his mind to endure, to be comfortable with discomfort. He was chiseling away the 'average' parts of himself. Michelle: It's a powerful idea, but it also sounds incredibly lonely. To define yourself so completely against the norm, against what most people would consider a successful, balanced life. Mark: It is. And that loneliness, that feeling of being an outsider even when you're at the top of your game, leads us directly to the most fascinating paradox in the entire book. He becomes this legend, this 'Ultimate Predator,' but inside, he's battling something else entirely.

Michelle: Okay, you can't leave me hanging there. How can a man who dedicates his entire existence to becoming the "Ultimate Predator" feel like anything but? Mark: Because he calls himself the 'Invincible Impostor.' It's this deep-seated feeling that he doesn't truly belong, that he's a fraud who's going to be found out at any moment. Michelle: Wait, an impostor? The guy who carries a 130-pound rock up a mountain for fun? That doesn't compute. Mark: It's the engine of the whole machine! He tells this incredible story in the book. He's giving a seminar at a Cabela's, and to demonstrate his training philosophy, he invites some guys from the audience to join him on his daily run up Mount Pisgah. But to make a point, he decides to carry a rock. Michelle: As one does. Mark: Right. He picks up what he thinks is a 70-pound rock. The hike up, which usually takes him 15 minutes, turns into a two-hour ordeal of pure agony. His body is screaming, he's bleeding, but he gets it to the top. Later, out of curiosity, he weighs the rock. It wasn't 70 pounds. It was 130. Michelle: One hundred and thirty pounds. That’s not a rock, that’s a person. Mark: A video of this feat eventually makes its way to Joe Rogan, who is so blown away he invites Hanes on his podcast. That appearance catapults Hanes into a new level of fame. It’s a defining moment. And yet, his internal narrative isn't 'I'm a beast.' It's closer to, 'I got away with it. I fooled them all.' Michelle: That's wild. It's like the more external validation he gets, the more his internal voice says he doesn't deserve it. Is the 'Keep Hammering' just a way to outrun that voice? To work so hard that the impostor feeling can't catch up? Mark: I think that's exactly it. He has this powerful quote: "I don’t have talent. I have tenacity." If you genuinely believe you aren't naturally gifted, that you're just an average guy from Oregon who got a lucky break, then the only possible solution is to outwork every other human on the planet. The impostor syndrome becomes his fuel. Michelle: So the fear of being exposed as average is his ultimate motivation. He can never rest, because if he does, his own self-doubt will catch up and tell him he's not good enough. Mark: It's a perpetual motion machine of achievement. Think about his solo hunts in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. His partner moves away, and he can't find anyone else willing to endure the hardship. So he goes alone. For years. He faces down fear, solitude, and failure, all by himself. He says those trips forged him, but they were born from a place of having no other choice if he wanted to continue his pursuit. He had to prove to himself, over and over, that he could do it. Michelle: It reframes the whole 'Beast Mode' persona. It’s not just about being tough. It's a defense mechanism. The relentless work is the armor he wears to protect himself from his own sense of inadequacy. Mark: And he knows it. He's incredibly self-aware about it. He talks about his father, an athletic legend in his own right who struggled with alcohol and never reached his full potential. You can feel Hanes's terror of ending up the same way—a story of 'what if.' The 'Keep Hammering' mantra is his way of ensuring his story has a different ending. Michelle: So he’s not just running from the bears in the woods; he’s running from the ghosts of his past and the fear of an unfulfilled future. Mark: And he's inviting you to figure out what you're running from, or better yet, what you should be running towards.

Michelle: So when you put it all together, the book isn't just a 'work harder' manual. It's a really complex portrait of a man who built an empire of discipline on a foundation of insecurity. It's both inspiring and a little terrifying. Mark: Completely. And that's the deep insight here. Hanes shows us that for some people, the greatest strengths are forged in the fire of their deepest perceived weaknesses. He weaponized his self-doubt. The book has a polarizing reception for a reason—some see it as a toxic, obsessive lifestyle. But Hanes would agree. He says a balanced approach leads to mediocrity. Michelle: Which is a tough pill to swallow for those of us who enjoy, you know, sleep. And hobbies that don't involve potential hypothermia. Mark: But his message isn't really 'be like me.' It's 'find the thing that demands you become more than you are, and then never, ever stop hammering.' It’s about the process, not the destination. He quotes this story about a stonecutter who hits a rock a hundred times with no result. But on the hundred-and-first blow, it splits. And he knows it wasn't that last hit, but all the ones that came before. Michelle: It really makes you ask yourself: what's the 'rock' you're avoiding carrying up your own mountain? And what could happen if you just decided to pick it up? Mark: That's a powerful question. We'd love to hear what our listeners think. Is this mindset inspiring or insane? Let us know on our socials. We read everything. Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.