From humble beginnings in Bowie, Texas, to becoming a full-time gym owner and entrepreneur, my journey has been nothing short of an exciting rollercoaster ride. Join my wife Kim and me as we share the story of how I discovered my passion for fitness at Tomlinson's Fitness Center and transformed it into a thriving business. We'll take you through the early days of juggling the food industry and factory jobs, the nerve-wracking open house of our gym, and the lessons we've learned as we built Synergy Fitness from the ground up.
Balancing family life and entrepreneurship is no easy task, but it's been a rewarding journey for our family. We'll explore how I managed to complete my bachelor's degree by the age of 40, showing my kids that age is just a number when it comes to achieving goals. We'll also delve into the challenges of owning a small business gym in a small town and how my wife and I crafted the business into something that works for our family.
Our gym, Synergy Fitness, has not only made an impact on our lives but also on our local community. We'll discuss how our gym has grown over the years, embracing technology and providing a supportive, loving environment for our clients. Ultimately, our venture has shed light on the importance of making an impact in our hometown, both through our business and beyond.
So, tune in and listen to our story of resilience, hard work, and dedication, as we share how our passion for fitness and our love for our hometown have shaped our lives.
www.aarondegler.com
Music by: Kim Cantwell
Bowie Mural: Located at Creative Cakes
Connect w/Aaron: www.aarondegler.com
From humble beginnings in Bowie, Texas, to becoming a full-time gym owner and entrepreneur, my journey has been nothing short of an exciting rollercoaster ride. Join my wife Kim and me as we share the story of how I discovered my passion for fitness at Tomlinson's Fitness Center and transformed it into a thriving business. We'll take you through the early days of juggling the food industry and factory jobs, the nerve-wracking open house of our gym, and the lessons we've learned as we built Synergy Fitness from the ground up.
Balancing family life and entrepreneurship is no easy task, but it's been a rewarding journey for our family. We'll explore how I managed to complete my bachelor's degree by the age of 40, showing my kids that age is just a number when it comes to achieving goals. We'll also delve into the challenges of owning a small business gym in a small town and how my wife and I crafted the business into something that works for our family.
Our gym, Synergy Fitness, has not only made an impact on our lives but also on our local community. We'll discuss how our gym has grown over the years, embracing technology and providing a supportive, loving environment for our clients. Ultimately, our venture has shed light on the importance of making an impact in our hometown, both through our business and beyond.
So, tune in and listen to our story of resilience, hard work, and dedication, as we share how our passion for fitness and our love for our hometown have shaped our lives.
www.aarondegler.com
Music by: Kim Cantwell
Bowie Mural: Located at Creative Cakes
Connect w/Aaron: www.aarondegler.com
What happened to my hometown. It seemed so different. When I look around, it's funny how things have changed since I was young.
Speaker 2:What I wouldn't give to go way back and take a long look into my past.
Speaker 1:I remember this town the way that it used to be.
Speaker 2:Welcome to my hometown, our little town on the map and home to the world's largest Jim Bowie Knot. To show you around our beautiful town is our tour guide, erin Degler. Erin has a love for road trips, taking the opportunity to stop along the way in small towns across the US, just like our very own Bowie, texas. We spend a little time with Erin each week as he takes you around Bowie, sharing the value of the small businesses, the organizations, the history and, of course, the people that make up my hometown. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like, a share, and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce to you your tour guide for today in my hometown, erin Degler.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to my hometown. thanks for taking the time to join us today. Today we have a little bit different format than normal Today. I have my wife Kim with me today and she is going to introduce our guest for today, kim.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Please welcome our guest for today. He started training clients part-time just to make some money while trying to finish up his college degree. The part-time gig turned into a full-time career and for the last almost 13 years he has owned and operated Synergy Fitness, where results are never guaranteed, always earned, and he meets you where you're at. Please welcome personal trainer. Gym owner, writer and founder of the Mind Body Project podcast and my hometown podcast, my husband Erin Degler. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Kim, welcome, thank you. So this is a little different. When you first started doing the My Hometown podcast and you went to all the different businesses that continued to ask, when do you get to tell your story? And you would just laugh it off and say I don't know. And here we are, here we are. So it's a little different, and so I'll be asking the questions and he's going to be giving all the answers today, so I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 1:So it's a little different being on this side versus that side holding the paper It is, it is, it is Okay.
Speaker 2:So my first question for you is share just a little bit of your background and how and where you came from.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, depending on how far we want to go back.
Speaker 2:Well, are you from Bowie?
Speaker 1:So I'm from Bowie? Well, not really.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So I was born in Pennsylvania, okay, but we moved here. When I was four, my parents were missionaries. We moved to BBTI Bible Baptist Translator Institute. Basically, it's a place that teaches missionaries how to translate the Bible into other languages. So that's what brought us to Texas. We actually came to Texas on my parents anniversary of my sister's birthday in August 31st of 78. I've been four, yeah, 78. So that's how we landed in Texas. But I consider myself this is my hometown because I've always lived here. I've only lived in a couple of houses since we moved here, so it's pretty much my hometown And your hometown, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so if people have listened to some of the other podcasts, and maybe your mind to body podcast, they would know that you grew up not living a healthy life. So Right.
Speaker 1:So you know I have shared on the mind body project my other podcast that you know I was always you know we don't like to say the word, but I was a fat kid, a little roly-poly fat kid, always joke that my parents allowed me to have a little dorm size refrigerator in my room. I was the youngest of four, so I got the best of both worlds. I got, you know, the best of having siblings, but yet by the time I was in high school really then to junior high was just my sister and I, and so I got to have an only, basically the only child at home. So my parents allowed me to have a little dorm size refrigerator in my room. I could keep ho ho's coax, whatever I wanted, and so I could, you know, get it anytime I wanted. So hell, being healthy was never a thing for me.
Speaker 1:When I was 14, mom and dad, we joined here in Bowie Tomlinson's fitness center For those of you now would know it as silver strings silver strings dance over there Dance hall. Dance hall is where Tomlinson's fitness center was started and where I first went to the gym at 14 and my parents we all joined together and they dropped me off. They went for a while and then they would just drop me off and take me.
Speaker 2:Go ahead. So would you say that's where your love for fitness started, or your love for health, or would you just say, maybe your love for lifting weights started?
Speaker 1:I would definitely say just love of lifting weights because Donnie Tomlinson if Donnie listens to this, at the time I thought he was an old guy, but as I look back I think he was probably early twenties, okay, so old Mid twenties, because I was 14. Yeah, and I try to remind myself that at the gym now, that when young kids see me I think that old guy at the gym, yeah, but it would definitely be a love for lifting weights because, donnie, he was nice. I still have the three by five card that he wrote the exercise out for me. You know it's all fits on a three by five card How many sets and reps I have at frame sitting on my desk. And he wrote that out for me and that's what started me at 14 and he allowed me. When he was gone he'd let me work the desk, which I mean wasn't much. He just sat there. But he paid me and said you know, you can have free Coke from the Frideros.
Speaker 2:I said okay cool Free Coke to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had Coke at the Thomas and fitness center. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't ever knew that story. There you go, so so at what point? because you didn't. you didn't graduate high school and think that a job like owning a gym was going to be what your career was. You, you came from several different jobs until you finally landed in the fitness world. So where? where were those and what, what? how did that all come about?
Speaker 1:So, at a high school I was working at McDonald's. It was all my, only my jobs in high school. as a food industry Got out of high school I'm still working at McDonald's. I didn't like working, so my, my, i deal with my dream as McDonald's manager, operations manager, the here and buoy. I started right after they opened and worked my way from you know manager trainee to operations manager. My dream was to own a McDonald's. I mean, that was the dream because you know you go to hamburger, you get a ring that has McDonald's. That was my. that had the emblem on it. That was my goal. That's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:Hamburger, you being hamburger university for McDonald's, yeah.
Speaker 1:I didn't, i didn't, i didn't, i didn't, i didn't, i didn't, i didn't, i didn't, i didn't, i didn't get the ring. But just after three years it's just not what I wanted to do. So I applied at a factory job, worked there for five years at Boeing, got laid off because of 9, 11 and, and then went back to school for a little bit and stopped going back to school. Then I went to another factory job and got laid off once again. And when I got laid off that time I made the decision that I would never be laid off from a job again.
Speaker 1:They, they said you know, hey, you know, i was a week away from being laid off. They said you can come back to work. I said no, that's okay. I decided you know what I've always enjoyed lifting weights. So I'm going to, i'm going to start doing personal training. And so I decided I was going to get my certification, get the equipment. but you know, we can back up a little bit. And really, when, shortly after you and I got married we've been married almost 20 years I ballooned up to 314 pounds and very uncomfortable, very just the I still lifted every day.
Speaker 2:So you're saying you can lift weights every day and still be 314 pounds and unhealthy Still, yes.
Speaker 1:Because I lifted six days a week, right, and so we. You know, my parents had gym equipment right behind their house, so I'd go lift there and still extremely unhealthy, i'd still eat. I'd come home from working at the factory job and have hot dogs and cheese and Dr Pepper's and all that kind of stuff. And you actually said, hey, i need to lose about 10 pounds. Do you want to join Weight Watchers with me? Okay, i'll support you. And so I joined And the first week thought I was going to die because of starved to death.
Speaker 1:Starved death And I remember calling you from work.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is not going to work.
Speaker 1:Second shift said I'm going to die, it's not going to work. But I think the first week I lost five pounds and the next week I lost three or four pounds, and so that journey continued in and after a month or two you stopped going. I kept going. It's when we had a Weight Watchers meeting. It's prior to Zooms and virtual meetings, right, and we had the one on one. So I went to group meetings every Tuesday and did that for the whole year, for a whole year and worked on losing weight and lost 100 pounds. It was about a year, right.
Speaker 2:It was about a year, It wasn't. it's not a quick thing.
Speaker 1:No, i mean there was weeks where I gained, but for the most part every week it was half pound, three pounds, two pounds, and I continued to lift. And I said, when I stopped, when I plaited to him, we started doing cardio. And then I started doing cardio when it kind of plateaued.
Speaker 2:And so, from there, did you start big and go straight into a gym atmosphere of owning a gym after. So, say, once you got laid off, what, what was that decision? at that point, i'm going to go open a gym, or.
Speaker 1:So when I got laid off from the last job where I said you know factor job, which was 16 years ago, i said I'm never going to get laid off again. Never going to happen to me. Nobody's going to be in charge of whether or not I have a job. And so I decided I was going to go back to school. I was going to go back to school be a teacher. I had gone. It took me until, well, i was in my 30s to decide what I wanted to do with my life Right.
Speaker 1:And really, you know we back up and it was all bowled down to even before that, when we were sitting at the T-ball field in in Bowie at the at the ball field.
Speaker 2:While you were working a factory job.
Speaker 1:I was working a factory job and that was 30, 31 maybe, and I remember us having.
Speaker 2:You were 29. You were going to be 30.
Speaker 1:Because I was having kind of a hard time turning 30 because I thought I'd never be that much overweight. That broke and that down at 30.
Speaker 2:And working in a job that you didn't want.
Speaker 1:That didn't like, and so when they laid me off, i decided well, i'll go back to school, i'll work, i'll start becoming a personal trainer part time. So I did that behind my parents' house, little metal building. Some of my clients back in the day may remember that metal building. I still train some of those clients this very day, 16 years later.
Speaker 2:Yes, the building was not heated and it had no air conditioning and just opened the garage door for the breeze, but during the winter we had a little kerosene heater that we put in the middle and then between sets you'd come over and everybody'd warm their hands while the bird flew around, and you dodged it.
Speaker 1:And that's where it started. Clean poop off the bench.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't clean.
Speaker 1:And I mean my dad still kept all his lawnmower and stuff around there. We need all this stuff.
Speaker 2:It's all parked all around, had some rugs laid out.
Speaker 1:And when it would rain, it would flood.
Speaker 2:Yes, so it'd have to dry them all out.
Speaker 1:And people came, and people came.
Speaker 2:And that's when you realized there was a need for fitness.
Speaker 1:For fitness.
Speaker 2:That people wanted that because they would with no restroom. There was no restroom.
Speaker 1:If they came, they knew they. if they were a little bit out of town because I had some that come from out of town they'd have to stop at the McDonald's and use the restroom. I mean, if it was dire needs and you know, they could go in the house, but typically if it was early in the morning or whatever, you know mom and dad might not be up or decent Right. So, and in the summertime we couldn't train past 10 o'clock because it was too hot. Middle building would get up to 110, 115 in the summertime.
Speaker 2:And so you went from that to then. you needed a bigger space, and maybe not even necessarily bigger space, but your own space.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That wasn't with the bird.
Speaker 1:Well, because my life was always start and stop college, start and stop college, go to college. All this is what I'm going to do. Something better comes along, i stop. Bless my parents heart. They're very patient with me and they'd always encourage me. They'd encourage me to start back, they'd encourage me to stop. They always encouraged me. So you know, after being there two years, i decided once again tinker around with going to college. For those two years I said okay, i'm going to go into the fit personal training business, all in full time, full time. And so once again, i quit college so I could go do personal training full time. Moved uptown, you might go movie theater.
Speaker 1:Yes, i don't remember what it used to be called, but maybe the majestic the majestic Yeah, it's the one uptown that has the bars on it. Yes, but that's where I went. I mean, you know, i had a little, probably 5,600 square foot place that mom and dad's moved up to 800 square feet, had AC, heat, bathroom. At home we had a bodywy chorii on a bouquet of flowers子生花 so I had a fish ball on it. And then that's when I started doing upstairs. I started doing spin classes and T-Rex classes.
Speaker 2:Because so the lower part was in enough room. Then you went ahead and leased out the top part to add in some different classes that you brought to Bowie.
Speaker 1:That had not been done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we didn't have any spin classes. I was the only trainer in town at the time. There's another lady out in sunset. I was really the only you know one that had actually started something prior to my gym being. I had opened a gym before, in 2004. I was only open a year and it didn't. It was one of those things I thought you just unlock the door, people would come in and but it didn't work that way. When I started out with you know, the peak that year was maybe 160, 170 members. We closed with about 30.
Speaker 2:So you found out quickly that coming in opening the door, sitting there all day and then locking the door and leaving at night was it was going to require more than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know I'd be sitting behind the desk eating my McDonald's that you might bring me, because I was there all day long, right? Or at the time we had KFC. So you know, bring me KFC. You know so I was. Even then I really wasn't, i mean, i'd lift weights but I really wasn't healthy, right.
Speaker 2:So I was at all at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so. So then we were downtown for about a year and a half And at the peak with our spin classes and TRX classes. I was teaching probably about 10 spin classes a week every day of the week. Two to three a day, and then TRX classes, you know, three or four a week. So it could be even more than that.
Speaker 2:And then on top, you're with your personal training class. Yeah, so I was working 12, 13 hour days between And so at what point did you decide to make the shift from downtown with the smaller, just personal training studio to I'm going to open a gym, a full-fledged gym.
Speaker 1:So that you know that became Synergy Fitness. Right And Synergy had been around Synergy's name. My first gym was called the Muscle Connection Synergy. That name had been around And I'd had that since probably 2003, 2004. Synergy really means that some of the parts are greater than the whole. It's a mathematical term And I'm not mathematical at all, but it's just that that we can be greater, just that some of us can be greater than the whole, and I forgot where I was going with that.
Speaker 2:So where? how did you make the shift from being there to deciding I'm going to open a gym?
Speaker 1:So that, so that. so really I was still part time really when I moved down there, Still really wasn't full time, didn't have enough clients to be really full time. I still had plenty of time to do all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2:Plenty of time on your hands.
Speaker 1:Yes, Yeah, those were the days And so we had gotten bikes. I had had a bike for a while, had been doing bike riding and half marathons and that kind of stuff, and we got you a bike. I think we only had a what two days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, about two days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we went riding with some friends. We were just about done.
Speaker 2:We were done. We just decided to take the back road. One little turn.
Speaker 1:One little, one little turn. You might say that one turn changed, changed our life.
Speaker 2:It changed our life. It was a left turn. We turned left instead of turning right.
Speaker 1:We turned left, we hit a little gravel. You hit some gravel, your bike went out, slid out from underneath you And you landed on your elbows And wrist.
Speaker 2:And wrist.
Speaker 1:You got kind of nauseous and almost passed out.
Speaker 2:I think I lost some. Maybe I hit my head. I had a helmet on.
Speaker 1:I had a helmet on. We were being safe.
Speaker 2:I think I might have knocked myself out.
Speaker 1:And so you're in pain. So we go to the doctor The next day. I think I don't even think we went that day. No, we didn't go that night Turns out, you fractured both elbows, you broke your wrist, and so you were in wrist cast and two braces, and so you're at 90 degrees like that You're doing hair, and that was the beginning of the summer, and then, basically, you-.
Speaker 2:I was out of commission. You were out of commission all summer long And I was full time. We were depending on my income at that time And because you were part time, i was part time.
Speaker 1:So I was blessed. We were blessed that clients started coming and went from working part time to full time And clients just kept coming.
Speaker 2:And so that then-.
Speaker 1:So our conversation was what if something happens to me, something happened to you and your income stopped? So my thought was well, with the gym, at least if something happens to me, there's still revenue coming in. There's still something coming in on a monthly basis If something happens to me and I can't train. So that's really how synergy fitness began. We had talked about it and we found a space. We found the space we're in now. So we started out at about 400 or 500 square feet. We moved downtown. Combined, we had a couple thousand square feet. We looked at the space where synergy fitness is now, which was the old bowling alley, if anybody remembers it, i remember-.
Speaker 2:But that was called doobol lanes. Doobol lanes, we might not have known the majestic, but we did know that.
Speaker 1:And so we took, we looked at the back part of doobol lanes because it was in better shape. Then the front. The front was really deteriorated. The back was just pretty much concrete and some studs. And so you and I came and looked at it and Terry Gunner showed us around and it had a leak because the sprinklers had leaked. There's water everywhere. It's in pretty rough looking shape And we said, yeah, we're going to go ahead with it. Shortly thereafter, maybe a week or so, we went on vacation. On vacation We talked about now that we don't think it's a good idea, it's a bad idea, let's not do it, and my hesitance for confrontation and telling people no. When we got back I never got the courage up to tell Terry, no, we didn't want it.
Speaker 2:Did we turn it on?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then Terry probably doesn't even know this. And then as we, you know, i said, you know I got to tell him. I got to tell him because he was, you know, again, we were blessed once again because Terry and Gunner and John Swofford, they did all the remodel for me. They, i mean, they were great to us, they helped us out tremendously.
Speaker 1:Without them synergy wouldn't have never been started. So you know, i got too far into it and I thought, well, i can't tell them now because they put all this money into it. And you know I just can't tell you what a blessing those two gentlemen were to us to start it. And so I couldn't tell them. And so we didn't say we owned a gym And we were two weeks maybe away from opening when we had our open house. And if you come in synergy fitness, if you can imagine, we had sheetrock laying there where we didn't have a sheetrock up, we didn't have it painted, we didn't have it tape embedded. We'd have to take people around potential members and say, if you sign up now, you know you get a free T shirt. The T shirt had guaranteed spelled wrong.
Speaker 2:We were. I mean nothing, but first class, First class.
Speaker 1:And so we had to explain to people as well, from room to room. Okay, if you can imagine this, this is what this will look like. This will be the spin room. This will be the TRX room. This will be that You know serving cookies. Serving cookies? Yeah, we served cookies there at the open house. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes And but how did that turn out go? I mean, how, how was the open house? Was it success? It was a success.
Speaker 1:We had tons of people show up.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it was for the free T shirt or just to look around, but again, there had been no gym in town since 04. The lat, when I closed down in 04. And this was 2011, when we um getting ready to open here, and then it all happened within three months from the yeah, three months from the time we looked at to the time we X open. There was so much work to be done, so much work to be done.
Speaker 2:And so a question that I have about owning your gym, owning your business, um, is that do you do that full time?
Speaker 1:So when I used to what's your other job? So when I became a personal trainer, i'd tell people I was a personal trainer and they say Oh yeah, but what do you do for your real job?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's my real job, And so now you know that is my full, it's my career. Um, it's not really a job. Maybe I would say it was a job the first couple of part time when I was part time. Um, but it's my career. Health and wellness and fitness is is my career. The gym is my career. My personal training is my career. Um, always, you know what do you do, um, you know, if somebody asked me what do I do, then I say I'm a personal trainer, i'm a gym owner.
Speaker 1:Um, if somebody said what do you do now? My answer is I change people's lives And um, that's what I do. Uh, and it may be through exercise, it may be through coaching, it may be through a podcast, it may be through something I write. Um, my goal is to, as, as you mentioned in the intro is, it's meeting people where they are, and over the years, i've found that we have to meet people where they are to be able to help change their lives. Uh, and that may be. It may be meeting with them where they're at. If they're reading something that I've written. Um, it may be meeting them where they're at, on social media, when they just hear a snippet of what I might have to say or write.
Speaker 1:It may be, you know, in this podcast, um, my hometown, it might be in the mind body project, meeting them, maybe, when they walk in the door, um, i'm meeting them where they're at in their life, um, whether it's their 314 pounds and the interlupes weight, they are depressed. They, you know, have an eating disorder. They have, um a show. They, you know, a bodybuilding show they want to do. They just want to be more functional, fit. They want to get up and down off the floor, they want to play with their grandkids. Where they're at is is that. You know, that's, that's my business is changing people's lives, and I'll do that, you know. Whatever, however, i can reach them is what I'll do.
Speaker 2:Good, nice. So uh, follow up question to did you ever get that college degree?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:With the starting and stopping And this is two part question. You said your parents were always super patient with you about starting stopping. They would say, yes, i think you should go back to school or yes, i think it's probably time for you to quit for a while. Do you carry that same patience for your kids and supportiveness as as it applies to their life, about starting back to school, not going to school? So those are my two questions.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'll address that. Did I ever finish my degree? So, off and on, went to college, you know, and work on it. Um, at 38, um, i decided that I had two years till I was 40. It was also two years till our oldest, kobe, graduate high school. So I made a decision that, still working full-time and you know my I had chosen to get a degree in in teaching, all-level certification, pe with minor and special education, because I really, my parents were teachers, i know what else to do with my life, and so I thought, well, i'll do that and so so, at 38, i said I'm gonna, i need to finish. So I decided I was gonna finish by the time I was 40, which my 40th birthday was in in June.
Speaker 1:I'm Kobe graduated in the end of May and so I said I'm gonna get a degree, my bachelor's degree, by the time he graduated, by the time I turned 44. Two reasons one, it wasn't gonna change my job any. It's a bachelor's of science and kinesiology. Moving to the body, that's what I do. It's not gonna change what I do. So why do it? because I need to show my kids that, no matter the age, that you can reach your goals. And it was hard work, because now we had a family, we had four kids, a full-time job. You're working, kids are going to school, we have sports, all the stuff. I want to show them that it can be done. and so I graduated from Texas Women's University at just shy of two weeks before Kobe graduated high school and just a month before I turned 40. So I want to show them that when you set a goal, you have to work hard to achieve it and and and so does that carry on with with my kids, with our kids, it does.
Speaker 1:Because you know, i didn't really find what I wanted to do in life until I was what? 16 years, 32, right, i didn't find what I want to do with my life until I was 32 and I really haven't found, i really didn't find the purpose of my life until the last couple years. And so, when it comes to the kids, i encourage our kids to do the same. We have one that has finished college, finished with a bachelor's, finished law school. We have another one that has gone to a trade school to be a cosmetology and barber. We have our oldest, kobe. He just lacked probably about a year left. Morgan, she has a couple years left of college.
Speaker 1:I encourage both of them to stop going to college because they didn't know what they wanted to do. And it's okay not to know what you want to do, is it you know? is it gonna be harder when they go back? yeah, it will be. They'll have life, they'll have kids, they'll have everything. But if they want it bad enough, they'll do it. But it just because you know. I encourage them don't go just because you think that's what you're supposed to do. Do what you feel is your purpose.
Speaker 1:Now, when we talk about Kobe, he quit going to college. We encourage him to quit going to college. He became a personal trainer at a gym. He was a personal trainer. He was personal trainer Cindy for a little while and then they moved. He was a personal trainer at a, at a chain gym that worked into. He started doing personal. He was doing personal training, doing sales, sales, memberships, and then that turned into he was all in sales, stop training and then from there it's turned into what he does now, which is his career, which is which is sales. I mean, he loves it and and he's really good at it, so so I encourage him to do those things, because you never know where they're gonna lead. You know, it's our belief that a college degree isn't gonna make or break you. For me, it wasn't gonna change my life any, but it's something I wanted as a goal. It's what's something, an accomplishment that I wanted to have, and I wanted to show my kids that that accomplishment could happen very good.
Speaker 2:So your hours at synergy fitness is that just when you started? synergy fitness, was that just Monday through Friday, nine to five, gig and home, you know, weekends and nights, or how did that look in the beginning?
Speaker 1:so if if you're opening a small business and a small business, our community, the synergy fitness, you know you have big hopes and dreams and I'm gonna do this for a little while, i'm gonna work this hard for a while, cuz it's gonna get better. It's gonna get better. And so our hours were 5 am, yeah, 5 am to 9 pm. Monday through Friday. Saturdays were open half a day.
Speaker 2:Sundays were closed and I worked all those hours.
Speaker 1:I was here open to close a breakfast, lunch and dinner here. Got home, went to bed, was in bed by 9 30, got back up at 4 o'clock the next day to do it all over again because we didn't have really money for employees, didn't have employees. We had birthday, our kids birthday parties up here. We had all kinds of different things for kids. I missed out on sporting events. I missed out on 10 years of their life to put into my small business well, that was one of my questions.
Speaker 2:Was there lots of kids activities that you had to miss?
Speaker 1:yeah, and I mean, and you can test that that you know at where you'd go places and and they thought I was single yeah, i was a single lady because it was not.
Speaker 2:My answer was always he's at the gym, that's where he's that all the time. So with you, have done any of that? looking back now and knowing what you did miss, would you have done that differently?
Speaker 1:for my kids sake. Yes, i should have been. I don't know how I would have done it differently, but I should have done it differently. The business now is is is different because you know the business then you know when we talk about 16 years ago really couldn't be done like it's done now, because now we have technology, we have a lot of great things that have come about that we can do business differently than I did 16 years ago. I definitely should have done it differently, but I think every year I'd say it's gonna get better. These are the plans and it's kind of like losing a hundred pounds. If I had to do it again and go through all that, i don't know if I would just like when you know the work that's gonna be required.
Speaker 1:A hundred pounds. You just okay, i got losing another pound, i gotta lose another pound, but then when, if you have to do it again, it's like that's a lot of hard work, that's a lot of cardio, that was a lot of running, walking, that's a lot of food restriction, that's a lot of hard work then to do it again, i don't. I don't think I do it again. I would do something different. I don't know what that is, but but again, all of that has gotten us where we are now. The lesson I think our kids learn from it is that to work hard, to be hard workers, and if you want something, then then go for it. Our kids were very supportive and, you know, very understanding. So, but it definitely looks. But over the years I have created and crafted the business more the way I want it right and more that is better for our life, right, right.
Speaker 2:So with that, what have been some of your biggest challenges in owning synergy fitness a gym, a gym in a small town one of the biggest things.
Speaker 1:So, back in, you know, 2016, years ago, 2011, our community was not as fitness and health minded or thinking forward, so it took a lot of education. What are spin bikes? you know what's TRX? what's rip training? you know how do I, how do I work out? you know, because that was really before Pinterest, instagram, facebook I mean, you had my space, but my space wasn't on there. You know where you could just pick up workouts or anything like that. So there's a lot of teaching and education on everything, jim. I mean, how many times we had tons of people come in say I don't know what to do. I've never been in a gym. I have no idea what to do.
Speaker 2:Show me what to do how do you turn on the treadmill?
Speaker 1:how you turn on treadmill and because of social media and those things, now we don't really have those issues now because now we're, you know, now we can be 24-7 right and, and you know, when people ask me for that, say no, never.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm never going 24-7 and I said that all the time. You know in what? three, four years ago we went 24-7 again because of technology, because of the things we can do differently. Now, you know, i can operate everything for the gym, all for my phone. I can be gone, i can go on vacation. I don't need employees. One of the challenges was employees, you know, and I found over the years that they're just that's a challenge for me. So I created my business that doesn't need employees and he's very. You know the gym to keep it running, you know, on a day-to-day basis, takes very little manpower to actually do.
Speaker 2:Because of technology, because online signups, all those things okay, and so what would you think have been some of your business? wait, let me back up. When you said that some of your biggest challenges was just teaching people about fitness in a community that wasn't super health and fitness oriented, i will say I think that, as you said, times have changed to where it. They see that more and people are just more conscious of how they they I mean, they see that it's better for their life to to work out, to be healthy.
Speaker 2:But back when we started, there were when we, when you started your fitness journey, there were two, two girls in town and that ran, and that was that when you saw him, it didn't matter if you were a mile down the road. If you saw people on the road running, you knew who it was gonna be, because that's how little fitness was was really in our town. Mm-hmm, yes, there's really came a long way. Now you can. I can remember used to we'd gone vacation, we'd be places and people were walking and exercising and running and everywhere, and I would just think, like how there's people at work out everywhere, where, when we were home, you knew the ones that worked out, whereas I think over the time that we've had even just having the time of synergy fitness, that you you'll see people everywhere you're, it doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna know who they are.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm yeah, i mean you're right, there was just two ladies and they were the runners and everybody knew they ran and it's really be. I mean, i think, and you're right, we knew all the runners, we all knew the cyclist. We really started a big group of cyclists, started a big group of runners. That would really get people together, people would run, we start doing races, we. I'd like to think that synergy fitness was kind of responsible for growing that community of running and cycling and being active. But, like you said, now you might see somebody out running or riding or being active and you not necessarily know right, and it would that's way different. I mean we have tons of different groups now that that get running groups together, whether it's from a women's running group to guys, to whatever you know and it just makes your heart just a little bit happy to see that all mm-hmm to go on and, and you know, think how it's changed mm-hmm so what do you think have been some of your biggest successes?
Speaker 1:I would say definitely that would be one was you know that there's more activity in our community, there's more awareness, and because now you know you can get when we started with only place, now you have an option of. You know, now there's two gyms in town, there's a boxing gym, there's a yoga studio, there's other personal trainers in town. So you know, you know, think, as a gym owner and personal trainer, oh, that's competition. No, for me, again, you know, realizing my purpose in the last, just the last couple years is that is, to change lives. So if that truly is my purpose, then I'm excited about there's a place for people to go. You know, because as a business, as we've talked about before, i'm not for everybody. Synergy fitness is not for everybody, and that's okay. You know I've had clients that say, oh, i want to train with you. Or I go to the other gym and say, hey, that's fine. If you're getting exercise and you're actually utilizing it, then I'm super happy for you. What I love? your business, sure, but my purpose in life is to change lives and if that's to encourage you to go wherever you're comfortable, then that is, that is, that is the goal, and and it doesn't have to be trained with me, work out here.
Speaker 1:Yes, we have a great culture, we have a great environment. We have a supporting, loving environment. We have a family environment. We have a place where you can come and feel accepted. That is, that is our culture. But again, that culture has changed over 16 years. I had no idea 16 years ago what a culture was of a gym, of a business. So some of our successes is we have created that culture of people feel comfortable. We have we have clients that have been here since day one, that have been with us at synergy fitness for 12 years, have been with me. Training for 16 years was doing classes with us. You know, 14 years ago that had been with us through the the whole journey and still still with us because they're they're part of our family and to me I think that's a huge success when you know people that had started out and I can't believe people actually came to me in that metal building for personal training.
Speaker 1:That is can't believe it, but they followed us through the journey yeah and they're still with us and and and I try to be open and honest with people, whether it's you know, about the gym, about training, that you know. Whether it's I have bad food days, you know it always feel good. They've seen me go up and down and wait over the years, Still kept the weight off, you know, but there's been 20, 30 pounds gains lost because that's just who we are. It's not so you would think. How can an overweight guy that grew up all through junior high, all through high school, be overweight? I'm not an ideal looking personal trainer. How can that person be successful in a business that requires you to have a certain look? And I think that's a success because you know it's sometimes I'm something, I am where a lot of people are And it's not that I'm. I have the and I hope that they see that I don't have the perfect physique as a personal trainer, But I'm always working towards it. Same as I taught the kids that if you have a goal, keep working towards it. That goal is sometimes hard to achieve, but keep working towards it, And I think people in our community see that, that I am always wanting what's best for them, whether it's through the gym, whether it's through this podcast. My hometown is all about getting people to know about our businesses, to know about the owners and their hearts behind it. So the success is in too.
Speaker 1:Synergy has led me to be able to do other things. It's allowed me to have influence, Influence, putting on 5Ks, Our Synergy Shuffle. We did for what five years? Through Synergy Shuffle, we were able to give well over 12 or $13,000 to our local PE programs. You know, a few years ago I joined up with Seth Johnson for Backpack Buddies and we have now moved that 5K into an all-for-one community. 5k Gathering all-for-one community is our sponsors but really hosted by the other places in town, like the Dominion, Good Vibes, True Health and Wellness, True Health and Fitness And you know all-for-one community because we want to make it healthier.
Speaker 1:So now that we're going into our third year for that 5K And so it's really having influence over our community of we want to give back. And I think that's definitely a success that we have is being able to give back to our community, because it's great to have people come and make money, that's a great thing, but we've got to give back to our community And so at Synergy Fitness, just like one of those things we've did a few years ago, we'll start our circuit room for our seniors.
Speaker 1:Where if you're 16 over, you pay $10 the first month and then after that you come for a donation only. And because I wanted to give it away for free, but it was like you know, it has to have some value. And so I said you know how can I do that? It was $10 the first month. After that they give a donation. We collect all that donation at the end of the year and we give it to our fire department for their toy drive at the end of the year. So we collectively, by giving a little, we can make a big difference. I think the last couple years we've given, you know, well over $1,000 to the fire department.
Speaker 2:And so the circuit room is utilized for the, is it 60 and over 60 and over. And then you also have the, what we call the shaker class for 60 and over, and it's a free class two days a week. And the reason why you want to do that for the seniors in our community and to have them be able to utilize that is for what reason.
Speaker 1:So really, you know it all started seven years ago, I think seven years ago this summer. It started because you know they need to move in, our moms need to move some, and so, you know, had a client at the time and and you know I've been tossing around the idea and she kind of pushed me to that. You know, again, it goes back to sometimes those things that you know, those things we have in our life, that, whether it's a bike wreck that changed your life, whether it's somebody that just gives you a little nudge to do something, and that class we've been doing for the last seven years And I started out with our moms to keep them active, started out paying, you know, charging $5 a class And, you know, before the pandemic, i think before Yeah what before the pandemic?
Speaker 1:you know, i thought $5 a class per person wasn't going to make, wasn't making a big difference in our life. So I said, you know, let's do it for free. And our class number soared. We went from five or six Our moms, you know, making up most of that and to well over 40. And then the pandemic hit and we dropped. You know, we took off a month and they were brave enough to come back And we started with you know it took off longer than a month.
Speaker 2:It was a couple months, i mean.
Speaker 1:we took off for the required time that we could not be open for that Yeah So anyhow, but they, they made it back, They made it back And we started back with with 10 people, and, and we continued it on And now we're back to a full 20 to 30.
Speaker 1:Every every every class men, women And we've seen great improvement in balance. In some you know that can't get up and down. I have a chair, very easy. Now do exercise at the chair. It's all body weight. Sometimes we use light dumbbells, bands. The first Tuesday of the month, you teach dancing in the chair, so we do all that from the chair. It's most popular day, but it just makes a difference. They have better balance And even more than the exercise. Again, it's about changing people's lives. It's the community, it's the connection they have with each other.
Speaker 2:Right. They built their community within that class And they all talk and they and sometimes it's, you know, not.
Speaker 1:some of them may not get to see other people, so it's really a nice time for them to get out and visit with each other and and kind of keep tabs on each other and have a community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you talked about some of the members that have been with you since the beginning of synergy fitness and even those that have been with you since the beginning in personal training I call those the OG members And those those people have been. I mean they watched our kids go from children to adults to to parents. now We have a, we have a grandchild, and they have been able to witness that through the joys of social media.
Speaker 2:now, since our kids are mostly away, but and I just think that's a crazy thing to think that they started coming when our kids were young and now we have our own grandchild. And so with saying that, that about having a grandchild does, does time. is time different for you now, when with a grandchild than it was when our children were small? as compared to like with I can't get my words out but like with having the gym, are you more apt now to say I'm gonna go do that, whereas when the gym, when we, when the kids were young and we had the gym, i have to be at work. So is there different? is that a little different now? Can you see? see things differently, do you think?
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, when I started the gym I was 32, i'm about to be 48. And so you're younger, you're in that mindset of I gotta make a living. I want to, you know, start a business thing. I'm gonna get rich. Get rich, that doesn't, didn't happen, doesn't happen And it's. And, like I said, you know we have.
Speaker 1:You said, well, we have games or we have this, and I was like, well, i got to go work. I don't know what to tell you. I guess you got to do it. I guess you got to figure out how to be four places at once because I got to be at work. I don't know what you're gonna do. Good luck with that. You managed well, perfect, i raised up. Yeah, time has definitely looked different. One is because I'm older. One is because I look back and see all the you know, hindsight's, 20-20. I look back and see all the ways I messed up not being there, not doing those things, not being able to experience those things. And so now, when with our, with Cal or Grandchild, it's like you know, i get almost like a do over. So it starts to change the way I actually do business. Now I'm very thankful now that we have a 24-7,.
Speaker 2:You know where I'd said before, never gonna do that.
Speaker 1:But now we can go see him. I'll now rearrange clients, so if he's here visiting, i'll go home for a few hours, whereas you know I'd be like, oh, i gotta work. And I realize that some of those things I need to work on they can wait. They can wait till the next day or they can wait till the next week because he's only gonna be here for a little bit of time And I won't get, i may not get that do over again.
Speaker 1:And so it definitely changes the way you know, the time I make, and I think that would be my advice to business owners, especially younger ones with kids. You know, yes, you gotta put the work in, but also you have to find the time for the kids. You have to find time for spouses, for relationships. There has to be, i hate to say, balance, because balance means the scales are equal, and the scales are never equal. There's gonna be times when you're a lot of time with your family. There's gonna be some time when you're a lot of time at your business, but over time those should balance out For me, for us, our scale was never balanced, it was always at work.
Speaker 1:Now I'd say, now it's a little more balanced. I take off by noon on Fridays and I still work those hours Monday through Thursday, but on Fridays I take off and I'm off all weekend and we'll go do things. I don't mind taking vacation and doing things. So it has changed partly with age but partly also experience of business and knowing what works, what doesn't work, knowing people, knowing customers It's just knowing differently.
Speaker 2:How do you think that your entrepreneurship character I think is the word I'm looking for has impacted your family?
Speaker 1:The characteristic of entrepreneurship?
Speaker 2:Yeah like of you being an entrepreneur. They're mostly laugh that they can remember of growing up. How do you think that that's impacted them?
Speaker 1:I don't really know. That's a good question.
Speaker 2:Thank you, i like that.
Speaker 1:Thanks, it's nothing I would hope. I don't know if this is the case, but I would hope that they notice the hard work, that they notice that I have a bad habit of not thinking things through and if it sounds like a good idea I'm gonna go for it. You're more of a thinker. You're gonna think all of it through, all the reasons why it may or may not work, all the limitations that there may be.
Speaker 2:Where you're just gonna jump off the cliff and say we're gonna figure it out. And I said no.
Speaker 1:I think it's a good idea. I hope that it's taught them to try new things, and we've encouraged our kids to try new things. We encourage them to, since this is my hometown podcast. We've encouraged them to move away from our hometown. You know we live. Our house is a 10th of a mile from where you grew up. I live two miles from my parents where I grew up. We've encouraged our kids to move away, and I think every parent in our community should highly encourage their kids to move away, because this is the norm for our kids, this is what they know every day And if, unless you move away, you don't appreciate what we have, what we have in our hometown, and so that's why we do encourage our kids Now. We encouraged them. None of them come home, yet They're still gone.
Speaker 2:Well, they did come back, and then they left again. One of them, and we have one that's still here.
Speaker 1:So But they do appreciate when they come home.
Speaker 2:They do.
Speaker 1:Because they always say I'm gonna move out of this town, i'm gonna get away from this town, but when they come home, there's things they wanna do, things they wanna see, people they wanna see. When they come home, they always wanna drive through town. Yeah, they love driving through town. They come home.
Speaker 2:We have some that when they do come home they take the long way around and they go all the way through the town. We have some that go straight to the local restaurant to meet me there because I went and eat there. But when they are home they wanna know all the happenings of home and they wanna drive around and check out all the things of home. And it's home to them.
Speaker 1:It's home to them And they wouldn't appreciate that if they were still here. Right, you and I don't drive around town that often just to see what's going on, but to them, they wanna see what their hometown is looking like. Is what's changed? who's moved in? what new stores are there, what's? So I'm going back to that. I hope my entrepreneurial character and it has changed, even more so than when our kids have been home, because since our kids have left, i mean I'm a more different person than when they were home.
Speaker 1:Maybe a little more easier going.
Speaker 2:Melode out a little bit.
Speaker 1:My attitude, my mindset has changed from those years And again, that's within the last few years of realizing my purpose And realizing what synergy fitness is for our community, just like other businesses have mentioned on the podcast, there's not a day that probably has gone by that. There's not days I think about closing, even within recently. There's not thoughts that say man.
Speaker 1:I'm out, i'm out. So you know, i like being open and honest and because I think that's important and I think that's important for people to understand. So I'll just share a quick story that my dad shared with me about synergy. I always ask him for advice, my dad. He never gives advice unless asked for And so, again, i carry that on with my kids. My kids will never get my advice unless it's asked for. But you know, i've asked my dad about synergy, fitness, and you know what I should do.
Speaker 1:My dad oftentimes would say you know, get out of the business, run for the hills, because I always complain, always. You know this. I don't know. You know all this, and you know. I asked him just recently. He told me the same thing you know, go back. You know, not go back, but go to teaching. And after student teaching I realized that wasn't for me, that's not a change I could make, and that's you know. He said the same thing you know, get out, leave. And you know, within a couple of weeks we had a conversation again and he shared with me and he'd never told me this before And he said you know, instead of getting out of the business, he said, think differently about your business.
Speaker 1:You know, what brought us here were missionaries. Translating, you know, the Bible into other languages. Brought us here was missionaries. And and going back to what my purpose is, he said look at synergy fitness as your mission field. And I thought about that and I thought, hmm, we often think about missionaries that come to our churches and visit. They've been to Africa, uganda, all these cool places, but can't we do missions in our hometown, can't we be? because he talked about if he had to write down all the people's lives.
Speaker 1:He touched my dad as a missionary and a former preacher and all these different things he'd done. And you know, he said, i start thinking about you, talking about me. What if you put down all the people in your community that you've touched? He said your number would far outnumber mine. And I didn't. I haven't been a missionary anywhere. I haven't been to Mexico. I went to Mexico with my parents.
Speaker 1:But you know he was a missionary, he touched all those different people. But yet in my hometown I had the opportunity. Because of synergy fitness, because of a bicycle accident, because of I can't say no, because of I don't like conflict, because of well, it's too late, just let's keep on rolling because of I didn't listen to my dad's advice when he said get out. I look at it now and this was just a month ago that my dad and I had this conversation that you know I look at my business differently, that it is a mission field, and there's people that I haven't touched yet, that I haven't come in contact with, that maybe haven't come into the door, they haven't listened to something I've recorded, something I've written, and maybe there's still something I am to write, there's still something I am to record, there's still something I am to do to be able to meet that person, cause that person is there. I just haven't found a way to meet them yet.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice. So I have, I think, maybe a couple of questions and then we'll be done.
Speaker 1:Could be our longest podcast ever. I know.
Speaker 2:Sorry about that, but you in your intro we have written down Ryder and you have alluded. Is that the word?
Speaker 1:Reference Related.
Speaker 2:The word that you are Ryder. What are you a Ryder of, besides words?
Speaker 1:What do you write? I write a lot of words. So a few years ago probably three or four, now probably close I started. It's always our running joke that on Fridays at the gym at CERNGY Fitness, it is the slowest day, and so our joke always was because I'll make the story quick when Morgan, our oldest daughter, was six, five or six, she could read She could read, she could read We had a book sitting on our coffee table.
Speaker 1:That was the days when you had coffee tables and books and it said have a new baby.
Speaker 1:Have a new child, have a new child by Friday, and so she was super pumped because she read that and thought we were having a baby on Friday, and so that was always our joke. And then on so to the gym. At Fridays being the slowest day, my joke was always everybody must have gotten fit by Friday. So a few years ago I started an email on Mondays that's an app called Fit by Friday, and if Fit by Friday wasn't necessarily and it's not necessarily about you're gonna be Fit by Friday, it's the same as that book Have a New Child by Friday. It was about teaching your child things and disciplines and a mindset, and so that's what started Fit by Friday. That comes out Monday. It's a mindset, so I share.
Speaker 1:On Mondays, i share a little story about something that happened to me the previous week and a lesson or discipline that was learned from that, and then I share. Then I challenge those reading to do that, and so then that turned into a blog that is on my website, which is errandeaglercom, and for a short time I wrote for the Buoy News. It was called The Hard Truth. It was basically what it was. It was the hard truth that sometimes we don't wanna hear, and I shared that on a that was on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1:And so, again, those things that I write write online, whether it's for social media, i always try to. When I post it needs I always try to add value to somebody's life, that I always wanna write something or say something or do something that adds value to others. I never want to post something for me personally on social media platform. That is just all about me, because that's not my purpose. If it's to change lives, i have to share what value that can bring to the people. So the emails, the blog, the hard truth, those are all things that will help me to write a book eventually multiple books, but it'll be writing a book. So, and writing with words, it's something I enjoy doing, so it's just so. Again, not everybody likes to listen, not everybody likes to watch, some people like to read. So if you like to read, then there's a place.
Speaker 2:So this isn't the normal question on the My Hometown podcast, but it is a question that was asked when you interview people on your other podcast, Mind to Body podcast.
Speaker 1:The Mind Body podcast. Thank you.
Speaker 2:It's new. It's new I've never heard of it.
Speaker 1:It's only a few years old. I've never listened to it. You go check out the Mind Body podcast.
Speaker 2:I get my words mixed up and everybody knows that. But you're on your porch in your final days And you look back over your life and what success is it? What success is it? How do you wanna be remembered?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the question is. So the question I asked those in the Mind Body project is your The Mind Body project? Yeah, the Mind Body project.
Speaker 1:I know that We come down every week and go check it out, have a lot of good interviews on there. As you know, in your final days you're sitting on your porch, you're in your rocker looking back over your life, and you look back over your life and say it was a successful life And what does that look like? And so if I'm thinking about that and I think I've written my eulogy, i have a eulogy written because I believe when we write our eulogy, it all came from, again, an assignment that My dad gave to his English class in college. One of my clients had taken that class and had written her eulogy and had been talking about it, And so it inspired me to write my eulogy And I wrote that eulogy and I still believe it's true today. So when I'm gone, that's what's written about me. That hasn't happened, but it gives me a goal, it gives me something to work towards through my life, towards that eulogy. And the eulogy simply is about the biggest thing is making an impact, making an impact globally, making an impact on the world. And if I could have made when I make, when I do make an impact globally, and I look back and I say you know, i've touched every corner of the world, i'll be successful. And it seems like a tall task, a tall order, and I've talked about it before, about impacting the world.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons that my hometown podcast has been started is because of a book I read by John Maxwell, his. The title of that book was Change Your World. I'd always been focused on changing the world and making impact on the world And I realized through reading that book, it's change your world. When we so, i changed some of those words and say I want to make an impact on my world. And what is an? I can't make an impact on the world until I make an impact on my world. And my world starts with my family, it starts with my extended family, it starts with my friends, it starts with my community. I can't make an impact on the world until I make an impact where.
Speaker 1:I live And that's really why my hometown podcast started, because I want to help other business owners. I want to help other organizations, other charities, other people understand our community. So is that still living up to my eulogy? Is that still living up to sitting on the porch and looking back and saying success? Yes, because if I didn't have, if I hadn't written my eulogy and realized that I want to make an impact, i would have never. I could ease my. My life would be so much easier, owning synergy, fitness and personal training. My life would be so easy. I'd come in my gym, would run itself. I'd train clients for 10, 12 hours a day. I'd have three and a half maybe you know two and a half three days off a week. My life would be easy. But that's not the life I've chosen, because an impact doesn't come by just sitting at home.
Speaker 1:An impact means putting out a podcast. It means putting out two podcasts. It means offering a class to our seniors for free. It means doing something that gives back to our kids in our community. It means putting on a 5K that raises money for kids in our community. It means helping our local businesses do better business. It means making doing all these things that I don't get. I don't get money for They, but yet it allows me to have influence And to make an impact.
Speaker 1:We have to have influence, and influence is not a bad thing. It's, you know, a leader. As I said before, a leader is simply having influence over one other person, and if you have influence over your family, you're a leader. If you have influence over your community, you know one person in your community, you're a leader. And so I sit on the porch and I look back and I say if I've impacted the world, i'm a success, but that there's dots to that world. I have to first impact my family, have to first impact my community, have to impact my state, have to impact my country, then I can start to impact my world. Okay, so if I've done that, all those dots have connected.
Speaker 2:Okay, and the last question Why do you call Bowie your hometown?
Speaker 1:Well, i'll call Bowie my hometown, which I ask everybody. Hopefully the answers I've given lately would, in the last 10 minutes or so, would explain to everybody why I call it my hometown, because I love the place Most. Everybody that has been on the show has said love the people, and that's true. The people. it's just like a church. The church is just a building. It's the people inside that make it what it is, and the same is true for our community. It's the people in our community that make it what it is.
Speaker 1:My passion, my hope for this community, for our community, because it is my hometown is that when people come into our community, they feel a sense of it being different. They're not sure what's different. It's just like I've mentioned before. It's just like the field of dreams, when all the cars are pulling up and James Earl Jones says people won't know why they're here, they're just here and they're going to hand over money, because it makes them feel away. And I call it my hometown because of that, because of the people that make up this community, because I call it my hometown because it's where I feel home. You and I have traveled all over the world, and what is always the best feeling after a trip?
Speaker 2:Getting home, getting home.
Speaker 1:There's never a time that we've been like, oh man, we're back to Bowie again. It's always been, and this is home. Same thing as when our kids come home. They drive around town to see what's new in our town, And it's just like when we go to our parents' house. You and your moms meet my parents. You just sit down in a chair and it's just like. You just feel like, oh, this is the place to be And that's the way I feel here.
Speaker 1:And since it is my hometown and it is my place, that's why I want to have a show like the my hometown, because I want to make it even a better place to live And for more people to come to our town and go. I want to make this my hometown. And if you ask me, how do I decide? if I'm sitting on the porch into my days and say, was my hometown podcast a success? It would be because somebody listened and said I listened and I came to this town and I made it my hometown, And then we can share our hometown with other people, because we do want more people to make it their hometown, because we don't want to hide a special thing we have. That's kind of being selfish. We just kind of cover it up, But we want to say it's my hometown. I want you to have what?
Speaker 2:I have. Okay. Well, I appreciate your honesty and answering all the questions that all the people have for you today And also so, if people are wondering how they can find out information about Synergy Fitness or your blog or all of your things, how would they do that?
Speaker 1:So, like I mentioned before, you go to Aaron Degler A-A-R-O-N, d-e-g-l-e-r dot com and that has it all there. You can go to Synergy Fitness. From there You can find my blog, you can find podcast. We're on YouTube. Aaron Degler is the channel. So in social media you put in my name and you'll find me on any one of those. Okay, and you'll always find me at Synergy Fitness.
Speaker 2:That you sure will All right. Well, thank you so much for having, for being a guest today.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and thank you to each of you for stopping by and visiting with us a little bit today, and we're looking forward to seeing you around my hometown.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to AaronDeglercom or find him on social media as AaronDegler on Instagram, facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you have enjoyed this show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcast. We greatly appreciate that effort and we will see you around in my hometown.