Leadership, Communication, and SOPs with Devan Gonzalez

Ready to lift entrepreneurial wisdom? Join Devan, owner of Strive 11 International, and Phillip, a fitness enthusiast turned speaking coach, in a gym-tastic journey. From personal trainer to franchise owner, they highlight the role of effective systems, communication, and processes in the fitness industry.

Learn to adapt language to your audience, master mental note-taking, and ask impactful questions. Gain insights into team expectations, issue resolution, and successful franchises with top-notch Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Devan and Phillip share routines for drafting effective SOPs, creating engaging onboarding, and the importance of public speaking skills. In the cool-down, Devan emphasizes perseverance in achieving dreams. Lace-up for an entrepreneurial run in the fitness world with Devan and Phillip.

NOTABLE QUOTES
"Some people are listeners and they learn from listening. Some people are visual learners and then some people have to do it to understand it. You have to understand where they're coming from." – Devan
"Explain in a mid-range tonality and vocabulary, but then also paint it with an analogy." – Devan
"Trying to ask questions, trying to get them to think for themselves helps empower the people on your team to actually make a decision" – Philip
"You've mastered a skill when you start teaching it." – Philip
"Every time you talk with [a client] you should be extracting some form of lesson." – Devan
“When someone takes an action and they had a piece of that solution and they're contributing to it, they're going to act a lot more in-depth and they're going to feel more rewarded once it actually gets accomplished." – Devan
"Setting expectation also helps me to be a little bit more hands-off instead of constantly having to follow up and check in and see." – Philip
“We also have to be open to hearing what our team or clients are saying.” – Devan
“If you're technically micromanaging all the time in super micromanaging, then Really, your team doesn't have any room to grow, you're not letting them grow.” – Devan
“I'd rather hurt one person's feelings than hurt the whole team.” – Devan
“Hurting one person's feelings at the moment is better than having the whole culture damaged.” – Philip
“You have to adapt as you go and learn as you go and constantly be evolving and molding [your SOP] to fit your current model.” – Devan
“If you're struggling with communication, you need to understand yourself.” – Devan
“Understanding perspective and perception of others allows you to communicate better.” – Devan
“Don't doubt yourself.” – Devan

RESOURCES
Devan
Website: https://www.strive11fitness.com/ 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/devan.gonzalez 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devangonzalez/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/devangonzalez.official 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devan.gonzalez 

Philip
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Philip Sessions: 0:15

What's up guys. Welcome back to another episode of the speaking sessions podcast. I'm your public speaking coach, phillip sessions here with Devin Gonzalez. He is the owner of strive 11 fitness, which is a gym, and he also has strive 11 international, which is a franchise company that he is developing for those gyms. He is the owner of a crm company called the lead pyre and he has a podcast which I'm excited to be on his shortly. We're kind of doing a podcast swap here called the mindset cafe podcast, formerly known as strive try podcast. We met a couple months ago at the real business owners live Mastermind event and I ended up joining the mastermind after that. But Devin is just a really good guy. We had a lot of great conversations. I'm really looking forward to diving in with him. But, devin, before we get into the episode, tell us a little bit more about yourself.

Devan Gonzalez: 1:13

No, thank you. Thank you for the awesome introduction. No, it's definitely getting great getting to meet you and everything in in Dallas and you know I definitely look to get into meet you even more. You know, as the the months go on, a little bit about myself. I've been in the fitness industry for a little over a decade. You know, start off as a commercial gym personal trainer. You know, got my kinesiology degree and and went the whole. You know traditional steps. But I ended up creating my own personal training company and realized that, you know, I just wanted to be my own boss, grew that six figures and Then, you know, got a business partner and we opened up strive 11 fitness and we've been growing for the last couple years. And now we actually just launched strive 11 international, which is the franchisor of strive 11 fitness, and that was only a couple months ago. So we just started selling the franchise model of our location as well.

Devan Gonzalez: 2:06

And then lead pyre it's something that's kind of in the works. It's been built out mainly for the franchise system, as well as some other products and stuff that we've developed To aid our franchise ease as well as our business. So it's one of those things where, even like the podcast it's now. It's the mindset cafe, where it used to be called the strive tribe, and the reason for that switch was the podcast still has the same core values and same concept behind it, but it's one of those things where it's meant to build value for the members and build value for the community. But trying to bring people on when there is that brand tied to the franchise or it did make it a little bit harder to Get other people that were either in the industry or had their own brands that didn't want to intertwine Too much with the franchise and stuff, which I completely understand, and it allowed me to open up that podcast to Not just fitness related stuff but to what actually you really Like is the mindset and the personal development side behind things man.

Philip Sessions: 3:06

Well, that's really cool. I can't wait for us to dive into that. Actually, I got a degree in electrical engineering in my Second of three semesters I took for my senior year. I really as I really got into fitness and I thought about changing to that and then Fast forward probably about five years or so, and that was actually the first business that I started trying to do. Online Personal training found that I loved it for myself. I didn't love it for others, though. So it's cool, as you followed this passion of yours and you really developed it out, and really taking it to a franchise model Is a whole another level. So I really want to kind of unpack all of this, but, before we go into the franchise itself, kind of take us through this journey a little bit more in, a little bit more detail Of what that looked like for you, and then talking with your partner in the business about how y'all develop the systems and processes for your own business, and then we'll get into the franchise in a minute.

Devan Gonzalez: 4:05

No, definitely. So I mean, I guess, before you even go into the business, kind of backstepping Entrepreneurship it's not always for everyone, but I also knew it was something for me, you know, even from like a high school standpoint. You know, years and years back I had a t-shirt company and I just like seeing the growth of the company more, more so than my financial standpoint, and kind of like you in college actually, I started off in business and I was going to be a business major because that was what everyone else is doing. Math and those kind of things just kind of came easy to me and it wasn't really fun. And then I learned about kinesiology and I was like, wow, you can actually study and get a degree in this. This is crazy. So I actually liked going to school, actually enjoyed doing the homework versus just trying to get by and doing the test.

Devan Gonzalez: 4:51

Fast forward to my personal training and everything. My business partner now actually we met through His ex-girlfriend but I actually was his personal trainer for his bodybuilding show, right. So I helped him in his first physique competition. After his first physique competition he enjoyed it so much he actually became a personal trainer and was starting to build his own brand out While he still had his career, which was in physical therapy at Kaiser Permanente. But when I saw that I was like, okay, well, I liked his energy and I saw his dedication and stuff.

Devan Gonzalez: 5:29

So I basically brought the idea to him and I had already came up with the concept of strife 11 and how we were going to be different. So I sold him on the idea and I was like, look, you're trying to build a brand, I've already built a brand and I've. Let's just join forces and let's hit this together. So Now him not being in that entrepreneurial mindset or even knowing much about business, it's one of those things where I had to realize that everything I know isn't always common sense, even though it might be common sense to me because I learned it years back, right, and I think that's one of the things where I had to learn to communicate with him. Especially being my business partner was like, hey, if you don't know something, like let me know, because maybe I already have the answer and I just might not have told you because I thought it was common sense, when in reality, like, my common sense and your common sense are completely different, because it's a perception and perspective of what you've gone through in life so far.

Philip Sessions: 6:23

Right, yeah man, and that's a great point. I really want to kind of stop there real quick and dissect that. So, because I know I've done it with people, I've led some of my team members and everything like that, where I started thinking some of this is common sense or I've already said it in my mind, and so therefore I've said it to him, even though I didn't, because it was just something I thought in my mind I need to tell him. So, so how did you really go about navigating that? Because you're saying, oh, I talked to him, like, okay, I get it, you need to talk to him, but what are some of these things you did?

Philip Sessions: 6:56

Because I know for myself personally, I thought, man, if I, if I talk to him in a way that I'm trying to like explain this to a five year old or something, then it's going to sound like I'm talking down to them, but then maybe they already know a little bit more. So I also don't want to talk that low level, if you will. So I try to talk a little bit higher level, but then, yeah, I confuse them or they're just, they just end up saying nothing, and so you're not sure if they understand it or not. So how do you kind of navigate those things where you don't want to talk down but you also don't want to talk like above them either?

Devan Gonzalez: 7:28

No, definitely. I mean. That's something where I think it's a case by case scenario To the person that you're talking to. Right, like, some people are our listeners and they learn from listening. Some people are visual learners and then some people have to do it to understand it. But what I've learned through having employees and a team and as well as a business partner, is that you have to also understand where they're coming from. Right, and you have to learn what, instead of just being like, is this common sense to you? They're going to say yes because they don't want to be embarrassed either, right?

Devan Gonzalez: 8:00

So, with you asking if it's already something that's been done or if they don't know what the answer is, I tend to ask the question first, like what do you think the answer is? Or what do you think the right course of action is, and see where they come up with in. They might not be that far off, or they might. I can understand if they don't know anything now. Right Now, I can judge where I'm going to be speaking. But I think with communication, it's also important to realize that, while talking in layman's terms can help everyone in general understand it, it can also be kind of degrading, and you know, when you're talking down with someone and they're thinking that you think they're stupid, when that's not the case, right. And then if you go the opposite way and you're talking way above them and trying to use professional terms, you might be going over their head, or they might just be thinking that you're trying to be Mr Smart Guy or you know, whatever the case is. So what I like to do is I like to actually explain in like a mid range tonality and vocabulary, but then also paint it with an analogy, right?

Devan Gonzalez: 9:07

So, for example, if you're talking about, you know, setting up a game plan, right? Or you're talking about the structure of the day, I'll relate it back to okay, before you do this, I know you were. This is normally what you would first do. If we're building a house, right, we need to lay down the blueprint. The blueprint would be something like X, y and Z. You know, these are the tasks related to that. And then, after those tasks are done and that blueprint is laid, then we'll decide, okay, how many rooms are going to be in there and how many floors are going to be in it, and then the next level from there is going what kind of appliances, paint and all that stuff, right? So those details in our business it's going to go okay, we need to do this first, then this, then this. Do you understand the importance and then kind of gauge it from there?

Philip Sessions: 9:49

Yeah, and that makes a lot of sense. I know I've done this with some people at work, so my full time job right now where we're going through and hey, we have a software update and we've got about 50 devices we have to do. And I asked them, rather than hey, let's do it this way, it's like how would you go about doing it? And they're like well, we'll just grab some and do some of them. I was like all right, well, we've got different sets of numbers, we've got them in a couple of different areas, like what do you think? And try to pull it out of them. And then once they kind of, they just look like all right, I don't know where you're trying to go with this.

Philip Sessions: 10:21

I can't think of it, because they don't typically think in this manner, because of course in their mind they're like well, we'll just start updating them and then the guys have to deal with it on a day to day basis, because it was going to be a change that would cause some things for the team, because we're basically in a change in the password and everything. So then they'd have to know the password, but we want to make sure they were just like oh, they're just figured out. When they get in, one password won't work, so they use the other one. I'm like, well, okay, I mean yeah, but how can we make sure that they go into it kind of knowing that it's going to be this new password and everything? So kind of really explaining that to them, like here's what we can do? And then they're like, well, we're just going to start doing it. I'm like, all right, well, let's put an email out there as well to communicate that way also, so it's written somewhere, not just kind of putting a text or you kind of say it and then people forget about it and everything.

Philip Sessions: 11:11

So, yeah, you're right, like trying to ask questions, trying to get them to think for themselves, and I found as well that that really helps empower the people on your team to actually make a decision to, and then they're going to kind of talk through it together, and then also helps you to be able to train them later on, like, okay, you know they need some work with problem solving or thinking outside of the box or whatever that may be. So I like that you're doing that. And then, yeah, not using industry terms too, that's a huge thing, even if you are, and this goes kind of more of a public speaking perspective. If you are in a group of people in the industry, you still shouldn't use the industry terms or the acronyms, because and sometimes even the terms themselves because people may not truly understand it. They've heard about it, they kind of get it if it's in context, but they may not get it, so it's best to just really over explain. At the end of the day, do you feel that would be the case?

Devan Gonzalez: 12:04

No, definitely, I mean going into exactly that as well. It's like trying to give the definition of something but using the word in the definition, right, yeah, you know that doesn't really doesn't really work. If you're trying to explain something, you can't use the same terminology or the same word to explain what it is, right, you have to be able to break it down, and it also allows you, because you're going to end up having to do it different ways with different people, right? So my analogy for one person might click, but it might not for the next person. So now I've got to think of a new way which helps me understand it even better and being able to speak about it better, right, which is only a strength skill for myself.

Philip Sessions: 12:40

So, yeah, and I usually say you've mastered a skill when you start teaching it. So, like you know the skill you're really good at it for when you can do it yourself, but you've truly mastered it when you can teach others, and so so what does that look like? Is I mean saying that like, okay, it makes sense. You talk to one person, you're going to talk one way. You talk to another person, you're going to talk a different way. But how do you figure that out? I mean, are you getting to know these people? Like what's the way that you figure out besides trial by fire, if you will to figure out what way works with one person versus another person?

Devan Gonzalez: 13:14

I mean in my opinion, unfortunately. I mean there is some trial by fire, like you know, because you're not going to know someone off of just your first conversation or first sentence with them, right, but the more you talk with them, and especially if you're leading them and you're, let's say, onboarding them onto a team, or if it's a client, you're bringing them on, every time you talk with them you should be extracting some form of lesson. How did they receive the last message? Did they do the things that needed to do? If they didn't, why Did they not understand the task? Did they not understand it? What did they not get enough resources? Or did they not get the resources that you know made it work for them, was it?

Devan Gonzalez: 13:49

You know, whatever the case is, and you take mental notes and I mean, if you need to write it down, write it down. But you start to ask them questions. So I mean, when I'm explaining something to someone, I'm not just going off on a rant and then be like okay, go do it as I'm doing it. I'm like, does that make sense, you know? And if it doesn't, let me know so we can, you know, talk about it. Or what I'll do is I'll tend to ask them, like how you were saying, about the software updates. I'll ask them, you know.

Devan Gonzalez: 14:17

So this is what the goal is, how? What do you think the most efficient way to go about this is? And then they'll be like, okay, well, we're just gonna start updating it. Okay, so is that the most efficient way to do it? Or is that the most efficient way for you to do it? Because, remember, we saw these people, these people, these people, right?

Devan Gonzalez: 14:33

So if you just update it, what problems do you see that's going to the next tier is going to run into? Oh well, they're going to have to do, you know, this with the passwords. And so what can we do before you spend the time updating it? Is there anything that we can do to solve that problem? And basically, conquered, you know, killed two birds with one stone, and then let them come up with the answer. If they don't, then I'll start to guide them from there. Right, but allowing them to have that piece, like you said, is important, because when someone takes an action and they had a piece of that solution and they're contributing to it, they're going to act a lot more in depth on it and they're going to feel more rewarded once it actually gets accomplished.

Philip Sessions: 15:12

Yeah, and they'll probably take ownership of it as well, which is a good thing. And so, with trying to get these tasks and trying to teach and everything, have you found that you need to set expectations for people when it comes to, like, the work that they're going to do? Or do you just kind of say, hey, here's the work, and then that's kind of it, like you teach them what they need to do and then good to go, like what does that look like?

Devan Gonzalez: 16:28

So I mean, if that's the kind of like you know, thought process and you're the kind of boss or coach that's basically like, okay, this is what you need to do, in letting it run, you know You're not really giving them the follow-up that you need. Right in in business, it's the KPIs, right, it's the. You're tracking the performance, right. Whether it's numbers, whether it's performance, whether it's responses. If it's a survey, what are the answers? How many people answer this? You know that.

Devan Gonzalez: 16:55

So, even with my business partner Not as much as as now, but when we built out the franchise side, right, and I, when I was creating the franchise side, I had a step away from the gym, right, so I'm barely even in the gym as much now and in the beginning it was one of those things where that communication also wasn't there, because he wasn't relying to me as much. And I'd realized it Because when I went to look at the numbers, I noticed there was some questions. So then it allowed me to realize, okay, I need to make sure I'm checking in with him if there's a problem, you know, coaching and also finding a solution together, but then following up on that solution. How did it play out? What happened, what was the result? And then basically going through that again together, because now they get to learn not only once, but twice and in more depth on what the answer actually meant and how to Perfect it for the next time.

Philip Sessions: 17:46

Yeah, man, that's. That's great and definitely something I've had to go back and do with leading teams is set that expectation to, because, as an entrepreneur-minded thinker, somebody who will just go and do the task you have a task and You're just gonna go do it and you're gonna figure it out. You don't necessarily need every single step. I've noticed more and more as I've led more and more people that More people actually, while you probably hate micro management like I hate micro management a lot of people actually want that.

Philip Sessions: 18:19

They want somebody Just telling them what to do. They really it's almost like they don't want to really think, they don't want you to be like literally right over their shoulder doing it, but they want you to tell every single thing that they should do. And setting that expectation and I found that Setting that expectation also helps me to be a little bit more hands-off instead of constantly having to follow up and check in and see, hey, do this. Hey, here's the next step, now that you're done with this. If I just set the expectation of pretty much where that road map, like, hey, I expect this to happen, and then every time the thing comes up, they start doing that instead of me. Every time we have a new task, I've got to assign it to them. So I don't know if you you've kind of noticed that yourself or could elaborate on a story that you have for that.

Devan Gonzalez: 19:04

Yeah, no, definitely. And I think that's where you start to notice how we were talking about the differences in people. Right, some people want a step-by-step play and, as entrepreneurs, like you know, obviously we like to just run the play. Sometimes you know that half written out, but it's because we don't really know what the play is and we have to adapt as we go. Right, it's, you're gonna hit hurdles and obstacles that aren't known to you yet until you would get to them.

Devan Gonzalez: 19:33

But as an employee or as a team member, they don't want to be in trouble for something like that happening. So they want to know every possible case scenario. They want to know basically, like the, you know the instructions on how to assemble from a to z. But then you'll have those people that have the capability of Having a few of the instructions or just understanding the task or the goals that you want from them and Understand that you want the results and you know, so you guys can go over it.

Devan Gonzalez: 20:05

But then those people that are willing to basically go beyond just the list given to them or know that they can grow, or basically the entrepreneurs of your company, and those are the people that will end up Becoming, like the managers or the team leads, because, at the end of the day, I don't necessarily have an all the time of the day to give every single person, every single instruction, step by step by step by step right, but there's gonna be those people that understand Okay, this is the goal, we want to make this efficient here, this efficient there, this is what the results that need to be tallied. And then, okay, so how are we gonna do this? And then they relate to the team, and then they'll give a step-by-step instruction to the team, and then that just starts to build to a scale.

Philip Sessions: 20:48

Yeah, and it definitely finding those entrepreneurs is a hard thing for sure. So you're right that you'd have those entrepreneurs that can think like that entrepreneur, but they don't have that desire Necessarily to go out and do their own thing. And then you have the other people that, yeah, you kind of need to set those systems. And I think that really goes into you also Communicating, because I've recently had to have a couple tough conversations to talk about that, like, hey look, maybe I didn't explain my Expectations, but like here's my expectations, here's what I want from you. What have I missed? That maybe is the reason why you're not Performing the work at least to my expectation.

Philip Sessions: 21:27

So I can make sure I'm communicating that with you and everything, just really having that I Don't want to call a stern talk, but very direct talk about that and then really setting those expectations in place, but then also letting this person know as well, because then of course they're like, oh crap, am I about to get fired? And and that wasn't the case, but I also had to address that like, hey look, you know I'm just I'm letting you know that this is an issue we need to correct this. This is not like I'm gonna fire you one strike, you're gone, kind of thing. So how do you go about that? Because that's that's definitely something that's a tough conversation as a crucial conversation to have, because you do have people and really comes in with emotional intelligence at the end of the day for that kind of conversation too. So how are you navigating those tougher conversations like that?

Devan Gonzalez: 22:16

I mean, I think the tougher conversations you know, before going into that, like, I want to kind of touch on what you're saying there too, about when, when you're talking to like the staff, or talking to your team or your clients and and you're going back to the beginning, you know, asking them the questions and having them give you the answers, it starts to allow you to realize who those separating enterpreneurs are, because also, as a lead or as a boss or, you know, business owner, we also have to be open to hearing what our team or clients are saying as well, right? Because if we're not willing to listen to them, why are they gonna give us answers? Why are they gonna actually contribute? So if you're technically micromanaging all the time in super micromanaging, then Really, your team doesn't have any room to grow, you're not letting them grow, so it's it's also important to make sure that, whilst, yes, some might like the micromanaging, you can't assume that they're gonna like that style either, right, because then they'll outgrow you.

Devan Gonzalez: 23:18

But the tough conversations and stuff, it's one of those things where I take responsibility as the business owner and as the entrepreneur, and Sometimes it's one of those things where it's like maybe it's my fault that I didn't explain this to you and this is why we got this result right. It's that dichotomy of leadership and Realizing that, yes, while I could shift the blame and put it on someone else, but also I did have some former fashion in this result. So, whether it was me not explaining it, me explaining it wrong or just not laying the game plan out clearly enough, but if it's a tough conversation, it usually goes back to our core values. Right, our whole team knows the core values. It's literally on the wall, but it's something that, wait, basically we hire by, we fire by.

Devan Gonzalez: 24:03

It's, if you're, if it's something that's going against this, it's like, okay, this is now we're gonna have a serious talk, like what's going on, right. But if it's just, is someone being lazy? Again, it's one of our one, goes into one of our core values and they're just not fulfilling their role, right, they're not contributing to the team, which hurts the team as a whole. So for me, it's like, yeah, it sucks to have certain conversations, but also it sucks more for the team if I just let that go right, I'd rather hurt one person's feelings than hurt the whole team.

Philip Sessions: 24:34

Yeah, and going back to what you talked about with the values and everything, like you're, you're killing the culture when you allow that just to Kind of happen. You let that one person slip like, oh you know, it's alright, it's just Becky, or whatever. You know, the things happen. We love Becky, she's great, we're just gonna ignore it. Well, eventually it's gonna get very toxic because Becky gets wavered everything, even though it may well it could even only be one time, but that one time could leave a nasty taste in everybody's mouth. So yeah, definitely Hurting that one person's feelings in the moment is better than having the whole culture Damage, because you didn't. You wanted to save somebody's feelings from having that tough conversation.

Devan Gonzalez: 25:17

So yeah, so sometimes you got to cut the finger to save the hand. Yep, yep, you're exactly right.

Philip Sessions: 25:23

So I know we talked a lot about kind of like inside the team, internal communications and everything. But as you're building off this franchise, I mean I just imagine you have to have like SOPs on SOPs on SOPs, like at all these standard operating procedures in place that I go saying just SOP, assuming everybody knows that. I corrected myself there. But that's the thing. You and I, we know what an SOP is. There's a lot of people that don't. So if you're listening to this, you're like, oh, I knew it, there's plenty of people that don't. So make sure you don't just say the acronym, you actually say it out. But anyways, so you've built all these standard operating procedures out to build out this franchise and, by the way, I thought it was really cool that you have a CRM for that. I think it's a great value add for somebody picking up the franchise and deciding to franchise with your company and everything. But what did you do to get those systems and processes in place, as I'm sure that was not easy at all.

Devan Gonzalez: 26:21

It's one of those things where it's the systems and processes are there and, for those that don't really know it, like the SOPs are.

Devan Gonzalez: 26:28

Sops are basically like your instructions of a task or your instructions of a position, right, and laying out what has to happen if a happens or B happens, and it basically gives you a detailed layout. So it's one of those things where, since the franchise company still is newer and is still being built out, some of the SOPs are being developed as I go so that we could have had a general layout of the SOP. But that's just a theoretical SOP and then, once someone's coming on board, I might have had to add to it or take away from it or even change some of the SOPs and some of the procedures for that, which I mean we've done already in our process of just bringing someone to the last step of the franchise partnership. So it's one of those things where it's ongoing, but it's realizing that nothing is in theory. When you're just writing it out on paper, it might look good, but realize that you have to adapt as you go and learn as you go and constantly be evolving and molding it to fit your current model.

Philip Sessions: 27:33

Yeah, and that makes a lot of sense. So I think a lot of people think, when they put these systems and processes in place and the standard work practices, if you will, all these different little formats and these different forms and everything that it's like, oh, it's good to go, it's set in stone and yeah, it's definitely not the case. You definitely have to keep these living document essentially, at the end of the day. So that's definitely, yeah, it's interesting. So, when it comes to the SOP and I haven't been in another group and it was funny somebody put in there, like I know this sounds stupid, but I've created an SOP on how to make SOPs. So what did you do to like, really put yourself in that mindset Because I know I've had a creative view and it's a pain in the butt, especially when it's something that you're doing all the time. So you're in the really go back and think about, like, what is exactly everything?

Philip Sessions: 28:29

And I think of the analogy of like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Well, hey, you go get bread, you get the jelly, you get the peanut butter and you just put it on there. Well, do you open up the jar? Do you use a knife? Do you use a spoon. What are you using? Do you just like literally and it's a video of like a dad having a son explain how to do it, to tell him how to do it, and he like literally, just puts the peanut butter on top of the bread? It's like, well, I put the peanut butter that's in the jar on top of the bread. Well, no dad says like going through and explaining that, how do you really break that down so you can like write out all those details that are needed in that standard operating procedure?

Devan Gonzalez: 29:09

No, that's a great question. I think, going back to like, using analogies like this would be the definition of like building a house from a blueprint, right, you know so. Or even like, how do you write a book? If you just start writing, your story is going to take tangent after tangent after tangent, right? So for the current SOPs of the gym, and now with the franchise company, because I mean I had a write in operations manual when I first joined the group actually, I was trying to finish it so that I could submit our franchise disclosure document to the state, because you needed the chapters, right, the sections of what you're going to have, which essentially is a booklet. The manual is essentially just a booklet of all your SOPs, right?

Devan Gonzalez: 29:48

So I first started off I was like, okay, well, where do I start? And then I was. Well, I realized, I was like I'm going to take this, like if I almost about as a writing a book or breaking down the system, and just do it by chapter. So first I wrote out all the sections, right From whether it's sales, whether it's onboarding a client, whatever the case is, break it down and then, in each one, in each chapter or section, then I was like, okay, is there any subsections in here? And then I would list out all the subsections first, right, it might be one, there might be none, there might be five, but from doing that, it allowed me not just to start just writing in a never ending paragraph or sentence after sentence. Right, it allowed me to think okay, first you get the bread right, or first you open the fridge, for then you grab the bread, then you untwist the bread thing, then you take off the, so it allowed me to take the macro and then take the sub macro and then go into the micro details and then into, like, the finishing touches, right?

Devan Gonzalez: 30:46

So I think that's the way to, when you do SOPs is not to overwhelm yourself, because you're going to forget stuff, and that's why it is a living document. Like you said, there's going to be things that you forgot, there's going to be things that need to be changed, and you don't need to change the whole SOP. You might need to change one or two parts of a certain procedure or a certain title, or even add a subsection to an SOP, right, not write a whole new one. It's something that's just. Again, you add, you subtract, you move, you mold.

Philip Sessions: 31:16

Yeah, and yeah, it is definitely a tough thing and I know, like I said, I've had to write some and something I've done and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this. So obviously you can go write it yourself, because you know all the things. And so what I've done actually is I've written things and I've thought like, okay, I need to write this in a way that it's somebody who's coming in they don't really have a lot of knowledge on this system, and then I write it out that way and explain a lot more details. And then what I've actually done is then I hand it to the operator and I say use my SOP and do the work, and then see if they can do it.

Philip Sessions: 31:57

And if they get stuck somewhere, we make a note like, okay, they got stuck here, why did they get stuck? And then do I need to highlight something? Do I need to add something? And I go through that. And then but I've also heard the other way, which I haven't done this before, but it's like, hey, operator, you create me an SOP of what you do and list out every single thing that you do. So I don't know if you've tried those ways or what, but I would like to hear how you kind of tested these SOPs out, if you were able to.

Devan Gonzalez: 32:26

No, definitely. I mean I haven't had someone else to write them out, one just for kind of efficiency, because I mean having someone else write it out would be more for in my opinion, at least in my position, would be to almost just test their knowledge, you know, for of a position or of a subject. But what I've done is that I've written it out and stuff like that, and then I've had my business partner look through it, like hey, that's the first step, like hey, did I miss anything? Like you know what? What do you think?

Devan Gonzalez: 32:56

And then he'll either add, take away whatever, and then we actually have team meetings monthly, which our onboarding process basically breaks down our SOPs in a, in a 12 week process and, you know, depending on the position and stuff, so that we teach people.

Devan Gonzalez: 33:12

And then when we get questions or someone's not understanding something, it allows us to also realize that that section isn't clear or that we didn't explain it or teach it right, which means that we need to go back to the SOPs and, you know, restructure or revise it. But with the monthly meetings the whole team gets together essentially and we cover one of the sections or one of the SOPs and we basically go about it and I'll create like a lesson around it, or my business partner will create a lesson around it, and then we start to listen or for questions, or listen to examples or pain points and then see if we even had that in the SOPs or had anything that was addressed in our SOPs to solve that, and if not, we make a note of it so we can go put that in and revise it. So it's like an indirect way of, you know, testing it out.

Philip Sessions: 33:59

I like that. I think it's a great process as well, and especially in your spot, you're trying to just get these SOPs taken care of and get the booklet together. So, yeah, it makes more sense for you to do that, but I've heard people where it's more. They're probably trying to update them. They've already kind of been established and, rather than trying to rewrite it, they'll give it to an operator to do it. So I should have mentioned that part, but so I think that's kind of smart there. But, yeah, totally get where you're going with that.

Philip Sessions: 34:25

I think that's really cool, that you get your business partner to look at it and then bring it up in the meetings and everything which is really important, which goes back to what we've been talking about having the team own things, having the team feel empowered, feel like they're actually contributing more than just the job that they do, which that's a huge help for business owners, for sure, but the more they can get involved, the more they feel bought into the company, which makes them want to stay at your company even more, because there's a lot of companies out there that I mean you're just a number, you're essentially almost like a widget, like if you do this job, I don't care to show up on time, don't cause me any issues and I'll leave you alone, like you don't have to worry about me, and that's just a terrible wave and it builds no culture at all there.

Philip Sessions: 35:12

So it is sad to see that, but I do want to transition us now. We've talked a lot about internal communications, obviously a lot there on standard operating procedures, but I'm curious because this is a public speaking podcast, so I'm curious to know are you getting out there and speaking in front of groups or anything like that, and if you are, what does that look like?

Devan Gonzalez: 35:33

no, I haven't currently. Honestly, just my days right now is non-stop. Like with the business. Would I be opposed to it? Definitely not. And you know, do I plan on doing the future? Yes, but have I actively been, like, looking to go and speak in front of groups and stuff of that?

Devan Gonzalez: 35:51

I can't say that I have, I would say, before the gym and before the franchise company and the mastermind and everything like that. I definitely wouldn't have been comfortable saying that I would be willing to do that because I'm not an extrovert, you know, by nature. But also through the podcast, through the business, through the franchise and through the mastermind and everything. It's one of those things where, like, I have definitely gained a lot more confidence in just speaking to random strangers. So I mean it would it be nerve-racking, obviously, but same time would I have a problem doing it? No, so, like in Dallas, if they would have told me last minute like hey, like one of the guests backed out, you need to speak about something like this, but you're gonna talk about all right, let's run it, you know. So it's one of those things where, again, it's a level that you end up kind of growing yourself to, in my, in my case at least you know. I know some people want to get out there and speak and just start speaking, but that wasn't me, you know.

Philip Sessions: 36:48

Yeah yeah, and it makes a lot of sense. I think there's a lot more people out there that they're more nervous about it or just don't want to do it at all than people that are maybe crazy and actually want to go out there and speak for sure. And I'm a little surprised that you said you you were introverted. I guess I can see it a little bit, but when we talk, man like you're very well spoken, very good at conversations even this conversation has been really well, you've spoken really well and everything like that. So I'm a little surprised you were saying like you're an introvert, because I don't necessarily pick up that vibe from you or anything, but totally get worried at right now not doing those public speaking events or trying to get on stages or anything. But it's cool that you're like I could definitely go do it if somebody wanted me to. But so how has getting your communication better helped you?

Philip Sessions: 37:35

As a business owner and leader that feel like communication is one of those things that actually impact us tremendously and actually there's a HR study that says poor communication costs for every employee. You have about $4,200 a year due to poor communication, which can be a lot of money. Man, 100 people, that's $420,000 a year. You lose as a business if you're a 100 person team because of poor communication, so it adds up after a while. So how have you been able to get good at communicating and how has it helped you?

Devan Gonzalez: 38:12

so I mean communication pretty much is my business right? Yeah, it's. I think why I say and naturally I'm I'm an introvert is because if we were to go to a party I wouldn't be the person who's walking around saying hi to every single random person to start in conversations. But in the case of like RBO at in Dallas and stuff, it's something that I was in a comfortable environment in business, like I can talk about business, I could talk about communication, those kind of things. So I'm not like an introvert in terms of like I like to be behind a desk, like I'm a people person, but I'm just not that loud person at a random event.

Devan Gonzalez: 38:47

But communication is super key, especially, I mean honestly, in any business and in life. You're not going to get the girl or the guy that you want to date or marry right if you don't, if you're not able to communicate your feelings. You're not going to get clients or or customers if you can't communicate your product. You're not going to build out a team if you can't communicate what you want them to do. And being able to communicate is different than just telling someone what to do right. You have to be able to, especially coming from a fitness side and what's allowed me to grow. It definitely stemmed from my personal training experience and especially when I had to go from like a corporate personal training to running my own personal training company and now I didn't have a sales team selling personal training clients for me. So now I had to communicate how I was going to solve their problems and my pricing and all that kind of stuff with random people that you know just saw me on the gym floor as well as just walking up to people and trying to correct them, which is not always the most comfortable when you're telling someone they're doing their form wrong. But that's definitely gotten me more confident in talking about fitness and talking to random people and stuff.

Devan Gonzalez: 39:56

I mean, I've always been a self confident person, but like just randomly speaking to people is definitely different than just being confident, right, yeah, but now with like the business and having employees and a team and a business partner, I've realized that my communicational skills have definitely developed over time and they continued to develop because it is a skill and it is something that through reading, through you know, listening to podcasts and doing podcasts, you start to develop that skill and actually build that skill just like any other muscle.

Devan Gonzalez: 40:28

So I think that if you're struggling with communication, or if you're struggling with, you know, developing a better understanding of communication, you need to also understand yourself, and to do that, you have to understand. Okay, so if I want them to do this, they're not doing this and I don't understand why. Like, what are the things that? Why did I just yell at them? Why did I go off on them? Okay, I was upset, like you have to understand the reasoning because that's not always going to come across the way you meant it. So understanding perspective and perception of others allows you to communicate better, in my opinion.

Philip Sessions: 41:02

Yeah, and that really goes back to emotional intelligence, like we talked about earlier really understanding somebody's emotions, how they're they're reacting to the way you're acting and how you are reacting to the way they are Reacting as well, and keeping your emotions down, because when you let those emotions go out, you go high.

Philip Sessions: 41:23

All your actual thought process just goes out the window, like it's right like a fight or flight Essentially, at the end of the day, with all that. So emotional intelligence is super important. But so let's go ahead and get to our last question here. I definitely you know I appreciate all that you shared. It's been really cool, kind of talking about internal communications and everything vast knowledge on that, clearly, or you've done a lot of it and you're continuing to do a lot of that. But the last question is if you can only share one message for the rest of your life, what would that message be?

Devan Gonzalez: 41:55

That you could do anything that you put your mind to. If someone else has already accomplished it, you can accomplish it as well, right? That's? I think that's the biggest like message, that, even like now, taking it my perception or my perspective of that franchise, why do I want to? Why do I think I can create a franchise? Because other people have done it. It's not impossible, right? So don't doubt yourself. Is it going to be an easy path? Probably not. But is it a doable path? Yes, you, just you can't feel it something if you don't give up.

Philip Sessions: 42:28

Man, I like that in that that is so true that if somebody else has done it, you definitely can do it. And yeah, don't give up on that dream. Don't give up on that goal because it's in you for a reason. So go after it for sure and devin. If people Want to follow you, want to see what you got going on, where's the best place for them to follow you at?

Devan Gonzalez: 42:51

I'd say probably instagram devin Dot gonzalez on instagram and I believe on facebook as well.

Philip Sessions: 42:58

Okay, awesome. Well, devin, appreciate your time. I appreciate you sharing your vast knowledge and coming on the show, and everybody, make sure that you go on social media and follow devin everywhere, as well as subscribe to the podcast and Share it, so we can continue to grow and be able to share these great messages with so many other people. I appreciate it, thank you.