Roots to Revenue
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Roots to Revenue
Why Motivation Dies… And What Actually Gets Results
Ever felt like you’ve hit the wall in business or life? Like, no matter what you do, you're stuck? In this episode, we’re talking about how to push through the wall That moment when most people give up. My guest, Joe Kennedy, is a fitness coach who trains people for ultramarathons and helps them build unstoppable discipline. The same mindset that gets runners through mile 40 is precisely what business owners need when motivation runs out.
We cover:
✅ Why motivation always fades
✅ How discipline and daily habits win long term
✅ What “the wall” really is – and how to break through it
✅ Why quick wins hurt your progress
✅ Lessons from fitness that apply directly to business
Whether you're just starting or you're feeling burnt out, this episode is your reminder: The wall isn’t real. Keep going.
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Many people hit the wall in different areas of their life. How can people push past that like an athlete would? The physical way of hitting the wall is when someone does really well to begin with. They come to that part where they, they've been extremely extreme dieting where they've done something ridiculously like low calories, carnivore, diet. People who try those things get instant wins. And then once they get past that and they find that they want to get back in their normal balance where they eat their pizza, have their beer, et cetera, and that's when they find that's the wall that they hit. And they don't lose weight anymore. But when you turn it into that sort of lifestyle where it just becomes normal everyday thing, it starts to become normal. Then just have to see the delayed reward, which is way down the line that you can't see anymore. Then fast winds are gone. Don't just give up because it's stopped. Just keep going. Knowing that it will pay off eventually down the line.
Robbie:Have you ever felt stuck? Like no matter how hard you try, you just can't break through to that next level, whether it's in your business, fitness, or life. Success isn't about working harder. It's about thinking differently. Welcome, I. The roots to revenue. In this episode, we're exploring motivation, mindset, and that mental toughness needed to overcome challenges. Join me today is Joe Kennedy and he knows all about it. But before we get into that, let me tell you about today's sponsor. The channel is sponsored by Jobber. Jobber is my go-to software. Not only does it do all my scheduling, my invoicing gets me paid faster and my customers love it. If you're a busy business owner and you don't have any free time in your business, well then there's lots of things that can be automated and that's where Jobber comes in'cause it'll help you get a lot more done, free up time, be to make more money in your business.
Jason:Don't forget about the link. It is Premier Loans. Link slash jobber, and that gives you an exclusive premier launch discount with a 14 day free trial. In today's podcast, we'll tackle some big questions. What holds people back from success? How do you build discipline when motivation runs out? And what lessons from fitness can be applied to business and life? If you're ready to break through barriers and start thinking like a high achiever, you won't want to miss this one. Let's get into it. Joe, can you introduce yourself?
Joe:Yeah, my name's Joe Kennedy. I am father fitness professional. I run my own small business. It's JK Coaching. However, the program is modern Day Warrior. It's more properly known as we help men get into the best year of their lives, and we've basically been from a couple of people up to 60 plus clients at the minute. So it's went from Azure Standard, face-to-face personal trainer to. Having Moon Gym Moon set up my everything. Moon bricks and mortar building, you name it, all the way to having moon staff members know that as well. Something that comes up all
Robbie:the time in this channel mindset and being able to push through and there must be a lot of challenges that you have to get your clients to overcome. They've pushed through to do older marathons and even just to do fitness in general. Course I have a few pounds I can maybe do with your, your services. We'll speak after. What role does mindset play in achieving success and how can, let's say business owners or just anybody in general adopt a growth mindset? Because you push people to, you push people to push through their discomfort. So let's talk about that. What key lessons can anyone apply to overcome those challenges?
Joe:I think when it comes to like overcoming any obstacle mindset's, so important, but people just throw the word mindset out there. The minute, you know, mindset need to be strong mindset. What does it actually mean? What does actually involve and. To me, having a strong mindset really focuses first on your body, like how you believe things. If you have like a strong body that keeps on pushing through, um, your mind will eventually just keep following that and it becomes better at adversity. So whenever you're getting struggle, your things are coming against you. You know, that just builds up over time. And when it comes to the actual mindset, there's no like. There's no like secret formula, like you just have to take the digs of everyday life. Like at the end of the day, the life is going throw the the shit at you over and over again. It's gonna hit you over and over again. We're all gonna get it. Everyone sitting here gets it. At the end of the day. You just have to keep on dust yourself down, getting back up and doing it again. And that over time builds a stronger mindset. Your brain's actually like, oh my God, this guy's not actually gonna stop. He's just gonna keep on going here. He's gonna keep on going. Here he is like, right, let's go. Once you get that going, then I believe that you believe your own shit almost. You don't believe yourself. It's like. I actually can do this. Would you be telling your clients, you can do this, you can do this, let's do this. To a degree, yes. To a degree, yes. But they have to show themselves, you know, at the end of the day, I can only show them the door. They have to put the whole thing down. You know what I mean? You can
Robbie:lead a, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it
Joe:100%. Like end of the day, you can only do so much for people. Like you can't do, you're there as a support. You're there as to push them. Yes. To, to make them do work. But it's, that's only so much the battle, like. If they don't believe in it themselves. So my job is to get inside their head and kind of make them see that it's not sunshine and roses for everybody. You know, we all have it hard. Like we all, we're all gonna, I'm gonna hit a shit band very soon too, and it always does happen. That's getting them guys to see that. Once they get through it, they actually learn more from their losses and they welcome their wins, and that's what gets them through the mindset.
Jason:Motivation comes and goes. So how do you develop consistency and discipline to keep motivated?
Joe:When it comes to motivation? You message that comes and goes. It will be there for potentially a couple of months if you're lucky. And when I think of this, it's the most important thing to keep people focused on track, to know that motivation will go. Remember that no matter what you do in life, there will always be a last time. So whether that's playing football, going rugby, potentially tucking your daughter into bed, potentially going somewhere doing something, there's always gonna be spend that last time, that last holiday. There's always gonna be a last, and you have to make the most now of the time that you've got, because if you accept the fact that there's gonna be a last time and don't fear it, then that gives you way more power to kind of like. Take responsibility to drive through. We talking mindset, motivation, motivation will go, but the mindset will drive, will inspire you to be the best version of yourself in the time that you do have, knowing that the, the reality of life is there will be a last time we do everything for people. And at the minute, my daughter always comes in my bed at the minute and that's why I always think, I'm always like, you know what? This, I can't sleep. It's hard work. I feel like I'm going a million times in the middle of the night, but one day she'll not wanna be there. One day she'll be like. No, what are you hugging me for? Yeah. Drop me off around the corner with my friends. And when that day hits, I think that will hit way harder than motivation drive and stuff like. So remember, it'll always be the last time you do something. So that will be the big thing that drives you through.
Robbie:So just think about, at some stage it's gonna start at some stage, I'm not gonna be able to do this. Yeah, at some stage
Joe:you have to have that purpose. Now
Robbie:I always, I always think as well. If I put it off tomorrow, if I, if I do it tomorrow, if I can't be boil on today and I do it tomorrow, well then the stuff that I've got on tomorrow, that's all gonna get impacted. And it's not long before everything's impacted and you're way behind with everything. Yeah. So if you can do it today, do it. Yeah. I should
Joe:say that's a snowball sort of effect. Snowball effect starts to go slowly, slowly, slowly, all of a sudden avalanche your beat. It's no longer
Robbie:to say, let's say you're a farmer and you've too much on, and you're, or any business and you're drinking away and you know you're drinking to cover the stress or you're drinking'cause you're maybe don't have enough money coming into the business.
Joe:Yeah.
Robbie:And then things don't get done. It's not, it's not the drink in an actual fact, it's, it's not the drink that ruins the business. It's the fact that you're just not doing the tasks.
Joe:Yeah, you're not implementing and implementing is so important when it comes to small business. When it comes to revenue earning money. Like I've done this for a long time. I don't remember all the personal trainers I on the course all with years ago. None of them do it now. And I remember speaking to them at time saying, you're gonna have to do the boring stuff over and over again. You're gonna have to post on social media. You're gonna have to take stories, go do videos and see if I celebrate videos. At the time, 90% of said I'm not doing videos. And see, as soon as they said that, I was just like, you're gonna lose. You're'cause people will do videos. People will do videos. People put themselves out there and the ones that don't will end up losing.
Robbie:Videos are really powerful for any business.
Joe:Yeah. Any business like gets the personality over.
Jason:Yep. Or lack
Robbie:of.
Jason:That's what's awesome. That's the thing. Social media is everywhere these days, so you'll be a fool not to end the day. It's a free
Joe:advertising platform for a lot of people. And we've talked about startups, we talked about everything. Like if you have. Free advertising to at least Northern Ireland or UK from where we we're based. Like then I wouldn't use it. I always talk, I have a fist for a video. I.
Robbie:Always wondered, you know, if it was a better looking guy. When I get more views,
Jason:really not. It's a good job. It's a good job. This goes out on audio as well. Then
Robbie:that's why they do better, then that's better.
Jason:So many people hit the wall in different areas of their life. How can people push past that, like an athlete would? There's
Joe:two forms hitting the wall for me. There's one which is just a physical way. So the physical way of hitting the wall is when someone does really well to begin with. Someone gets into fitness, does really well, extremely, you know, loses the weight. And then they come to that part where they, they've been extremely extreme dieting, you know, where they've done something ridiculously like low calories, carnivore, diet, you know, sip diet, anything like that, you know? People who try those things get instant wins. And then once they get past that and they find that they want to get back in their normal balance where they eat their pizza, have their beer, et cetera, then that's when they find that that's the wall that they hit and they don't lose weight anymore, we gain weight. And for me it's about finding balance to that. So if you find the balance and still do the things that you don't wanna do, like the get out for the walks, people don't want out for a walk, it's freezing. It's, you know, it's raining outside when ideally just go back out, you know, and you just get up and go. And people always find a reason not to do that. And that's when you hit that wall, um, you're not really, you think you are because the weight's maybe stopped a bit. Um, but when you turn it into that sort of lifestyle where it just becomes normal everyday thing, then the, you don't really hit a wall. You know? Yes, everything's slowed down, but it starts to become normal then. And it's, we use a couple of words called trust, the process in fitness. And it's one of the things where you just have to see the delayed reward. Which is way down the line that you can't see anymore. Then fast winds are gone, well gone. You're not gonna get any more of them for a while. So you not have to see where you're gonna be down the line by implementing the few early things you did earlier in that process. Like a KI getting for more walks, going the gym a few more times. Don't just give up because it's stopped. Just keep going. Knowing that it will pay off eventually down the line for me. The other one is when you hit a wall, when it comes to like business or. Even life. Things like careers. They don't have to be like own. Your own business could be in life and you hit that wall and you see the walls coming in, the demons are coming and you feel like you're a bit stuck. For me, like friends and family key friends and family will take the burden off you. You know when you're, don't
Robbie:be afraid that for help. Yeah.
Joe:When you're in adversity, when you're, you know, you literally feel the walls coming in at you. You're unsure what to do. We're all very. We all think we know what to do. We all think, well, you know, you know what? I know what I do. I need to do this better, or I need to do that better. Um, no one's really to turn around and be like, what do you think about this? Can you gimme your opinion? Or, here, I'm struggling at the minute, um, with X, Y, and Z. What's your advice on this? And just, it just opens a conversation and all of a sudden just having that conversation, it might only take 20 minutes of your time with a coffee with sub people, and all of a sudden that we in the world can just be feel lifted. And that will just give you the opportunity to get past the walls then. And it's really relying on leaning on people who have either done it before. So even if you don't have, um, experience with people that potentially have been in that situation, you know,
Robbie:stress for a lot of small business owners is a real issue.
Joe:Yeah. Stress is big time. And that's because it's relentless. It's relentless. It's over for over again. Like there's no days off. People think you go self-employed, you've, you're gonna live a life of luxury. But I've never worked hard than have now.
Robbie:Yeah. Now it's your choice to work seven hours a week. I know. No, that's my choice. I know. I used to complain. It, it's meant to be your choice. I don't know if it is, but I used
Joe:to complain about working about 40 to 50 hours a week. I think it was, uh, in my old job, I used to do security a long time ago and I used to do nothing walking about security. And, but I didn't think, my brain was never thinking, you know, it was just do my job. Once I walked out the door, my brain could just go woo
Robbie:way to go in the pharmacy land.
Joe:Now,
Robbie:now you've a lot to consider being a small business owner.
Joe:Now you lie in bed sometimes being like, oh God, what am I doing next? What's the next, what's the next angle? How am I gonna keep people happy? How am I got more clients? How am I gonna build, how am I going to, you know, provide like end of the day? I used to always use the quote protector and provider. I want them to be both them from my family, my friends, uh, even my clients. You know, I want to make sure that they have the best service possible. Uh, and that all comes from adversity. That all comes from learning off others. I've invested in people that have done it before. Um, I remember one time before I was really struggling, um, in January, a couple of years back now, um, had to about three years back, maybe four. Um, I was really struggling and I was like close to the, throwing the tile in and I woke up one morning, I woke up the Saturday morning, I remember, and uh, I seen one of my friends posting. About personal training and I was like, if he can do it, I can do it. You know, if he can do it, I can do it. And I just jumped on, I'd done a couple of videos, a couple of stories, and posted and made more enough money that weekend to get me through, you know, next two or so months. And then what I'd done with that money was I invested it in someone that had done it before. And once I invested that money and at the time I was rigging myself for the money'cause I was like, money's tightening off as it is. I've just went through that big period there of that, I'm go do this. And then I remember speaking to my wife, she said, do it. And then I was like, what was
Robbie:you invested in? Was it, was it a course? Was it time for yourself? Yeah, it, so
Joe:it was a, I don't, people might know Phil Graham from Nor Ireland, who's big health fitness entrepreneur and I invested in his first program. Um, it was just like a stepping stone program in this bigger one. And it's shot my business forward about two years and just from earned that, from spend that money like.
Robbie:Sometimes you have to invest in yourself to grow.
Joe:Yeah, I am 100%. I never would've been like that back then. Um, I'd have been like unsure. I thought people scam me online. No, you're unsure of your money. And once I invested that, I learned what he knows and that skyrocketed ever. And
Robbie:have you done it, have you done any other courses since then?
Joe:Yeah, I've done his, I've done others as well. So that's, tell me a bit about courses you've done on High that have helped you. So the courses have done probably the, the biggest one would be Phil Graham's Authority Network. That's what we've done. So it's all about how to implement systems into your business, how to take the stress off so that if, for example, you came to me after this program, after this WeChat and joined, then it would all be implemented. I just sign you up and it all just goes seamlessly, and then you know exactly what you're doing right away. We have a call slate in the line. We get you set up, we get you in the gym. And everything's easy peasy. Like at the start, if some, if for example, you had a team in with 10 clients, to me I'd been like sweating going, how am I going onboard 10 clients? When I ever came with 10 clients, I would just be like, yeah, gimme it. I'll it done in 15, 20 minutes. What
Robbie:processes are you put in place without giving too much away?
Joe:Um, well, I can give all those, um, we have all sorts of emails. So for example, you gimme your email, boom. In the system, it goes, it triggers all the Zapier, away it goes, and it goes through a big system. You don't have to do that. If you ping through Stripe, then. Again, as soon as that payment hits away goes, you send your emails, your welcome emails, so as soon as you go off the phone call with me or the chat, whatever it is. You open your emails, there's emails going, welcome to Modern Day Warrior. Boom, here's a welcome thing. And then here's all the packs, you know, you get through. Talk me
Robbie:through what happens whenever you first join then. So get the emails. I feel like you wanna know without
Joe:being, um, it'll just be straightforward so you get a welcome video. I try not to be too overwhelming at the start either, so kinda get stripped fed in.
Robbie:Do do, do you give that advice too?
Joe:Yeah, I give that advice. I don't do diet plans because I believe they're. Nonsense, really. Um, like I was mentioned before about quick wins and stuff, like at the end of the day, if I can't teach you how to do it, there's no point. There's no point in, you come to me. Like if you come to me for, say, toxic six months. Yep. And you join and you do really well, and then after that six months I, you say, oh, I wanna watch, I away off my own. And I see you a year and a bit later and you're ballooned out. I feel like I failed as like I should be able to teach you. What I do or what, but there has to
Robbie:be a certain amount of motivating yourself to get there.
Joe:Yeah.
Robbie:And that's why you don't do the, that plant.
Joe:Yeah.
Robbie:Like at the end of the day,
Joe:you have to be, you have to want to change. And once you turn it in a lifestyle, a lifestyle, once you get that, you've got it. Um, and just know this is just the way I am.
Robbie:So
Joe:that's a
Robbie:really good, if we twist that back to business owners, if. If you're really struggling to get through and you're trying to hit that you're hitting that wall and you don't have the motivation, then if you just take, this is where I want to go, this is where I'm gonna get there, I'm going to follow those steps to get there, and eventually, eventually
Joe:I'll get there. It's the vision, like as you say, that if you have that vision, please, you'll get there. And it's the, it's the boring stuff. I would love to be on this podcast telling you all the class secrets of the day. But there is none. The sad thing is like it's post on social media when you couldn't be bothered. You have no ideas trying to inspire yourself to think of stuff. It's trying to think of what people out there would need to see, and it's doing them things on repeat to try and help people. I think that's one thing that's really seriously lost. Everyone just wants to make, IM personal train. Everyone wants to make 10 grand a month. It does my head in and like everyone sees, it's the magic number. Oh, you'll be happy at 10 grand a month, you know? And. At the end of the day, as long as you help your clients, as long as you get them in shape and you get'em in shape quickly, and you help them, you help them improve, help them meet, move the needle forward, then that is it. Word of mouth results like authority will grow and your name will get out there way faster
Robbie:and i's going to also say. A bit like that. We're gonna, so again, bit pushing through the growth mindset. The guys in the gym are nearly like a networking group'cause they're gonna help motivate each other.
Joe:Yeah.
Robbie:And so it's like us, if you're a business owner, whenever, like me bringing lots of, last year we brought team businesses, we all over the uk, they partner a podcast and they say we're doing something similar. And I'm surround myself by people that want to push their businesses forward by even coming and doing a podcast, even like yourself. So the guys in your gym. They're all going through their own challenge, but they're all motivating each other as well. So that whole group thing.
Joe:Yeah, 100% groups. If you're by yourself, you're gonna suffer more if you're gonna, yeah. Mentioned about the burden and all before the weight, the shoulders, like if that's separated among people, it's way, way better. And like we always call what we do as like a brotherhood. So I said like, we're all there, we're all fist bump. It's, it's a man because like. At the end of the day you can maybe I can just go in, like go into the bar with load their mates. You can go in, you know you're gonna go to the gym. Yeah, it's gonna be hard work, but it's gonna be a good crack. Go meet people that are like-minded. You're gonna open your up self up to different networks, like you mentioned different friends and I know people that like have left my program, still dream with each other. You know, I think it's a brilliant thing. They've gone away as like we partner of two and they still train with each other and it's that relationship, that environment that really, really helps. You go next level'cause say, problem shared. It's problem half. That's it. So also really good for stress
Robbie:relief too, I would imagine. Oh, I, yeah. Yeah. Having a hard day in the house, or kids are going nuts. Sorry,
Joe:Mrs.
Robbie:Gotta go to the gym. You take over you guys. You guys typically train. Do you guys train in the morning, evening.
Joe:Morning and evening. So we've got a complete choice whether it comes to us that you've got. Flexibility for more nor even. Um, at the end of the day, that whole nine to five working is out the window now.
Robbie:Like I've interviewed so many people then this year and last year, and they go out training at six o'clock in the morning. Then they go and do their normal business work during
Joe:more popular now, especially for like your own, own business and stuff. See business owners, they wanna come in, listen, if I could be there at 5:00 AM they would be there at 5:00 AM You know? So they had more time to get up in the morning, go train, knowing that they can go do all their work. I. And then that's it. Go home and have spend time with their family and stuff too. So it's a win-win that way.
Robbie:Something that seems to be really big in the fitness world. What's your take on morning routines and daily habits, and are they really the key to success or is it something that, other than that,
Joe:I believe it's a key to success. I never used to be a morning person and when I started just doing the hard stuff and getting up earlier. I got way more done and I used to always put it like this. I used to always think in my head being like, if my competitor gets up at six, I'll get up at five. That gives me a hard headstart on them. No matter what takes, I'll go always to go and try and get ahead of someone, and it really depends on who you are and what sort of, like if you've got a high performing business, at the end of the day, you probably don't have to go a party. Know about if you're a small business. I believe getting up early, especially with kids, you know, you gotta get up before they get up, gotta beat them to it so you can get more work done before the high school's. Mental, everything like that. And getting up early, getting a routine could just be a simple getting up, get a coffee, go for a walk, something simple like that will give you more energy, more drive, and all of a sudden you feel like you can get way more done by most people getting outta their bed. And for me, a morning routine is very key to towards doing that even deeper. I don't think there is really deeper to it. I think it's just more. Like you have to get up because
Robbie:you have to get up and get get. I think it's
Joe:competition. The other thing, this is like a competition, like if you want the best, like, and people will slag you off. Other, other personal trainers will talk about you behind your back. Oh, alright. For him getting up are already okay for him. We all doing that. At day. They're not ones paying your bills. They're not the ones like, come and do you for, for money, for business, et cetera. You know, you need to get up and do what suits you. And that means doing the hard stuff over and over again. Hey, okay, getting up. Get good morning routine in, get the coffee, get the training done, whatever it takes to get it done and then get up. You're, I always find if you're more, you're more creative in the morning, like if you set about, you procrastinate, scrolling your phone over and over again. Turn around the clock. All of a sudden it'll be 11 o'clock in the morning and you've nothing done.
Robbie:One in their last thing. A lot of small businesses have interviewed in the last couple of years, so many of them say, get up at six o'clock in the morning. Do their, do their exercise, sets'em up for the day
Joe:and then they're off. Anyone I know, even in my group, my clients, anyone that runs their own business, they have new baller showing up at 6:00 AM new baller, and they never miss a session. They show up every single time. They do it on repeat. The people that. Have normal, regular jobs struggle to do that. They like, why would I go six? And I asked me the same. To be fair, I never used to start if like eight or 9:00 AM in the morning. I was like, I could never, if you had to asked me six, seven years ago, I be up at 5:00 AM religiously evening in holidays. No, because it's just time programmed now. Then I told you, you're nuts. You can train yourself to do it if you can. If you want it, you can go get it. If you don't. You won't go get it. Just sit in bed. Well, if you've got trade
Jason:kids, they train you to get up at that time. Oh, they train you that. I know. They train
Joe:you. Get up. Yeah. Not
Jason:worth
Joe:it. Say don't hit the snooze button either.
Jason:Not worth it. Definitely not. I find it getting up before the kids, getting yourself ready. Then you have time to to get them ready if you are getting ready and trying to get them ready at the same time, same nightmare. That free time, the mornings. Gold dust
Joe:to me. Gold dust. We coffee in the morning, chill out, you know, maybe listen to a bit of a podcast, you know, something like this. And then, uh, you can completely chill out. You got a bit of time to yourself, and then the chaos starts. You know, you try doing everything like work, et cetera. You know, yourselves, if you have kids, I. You're chasing your tail and then all of a sudden you get yourself annoyed. You get annoyed at the um, you get stressed and you're like, last thing. The small business release is more stress as well.
Robbie:You, me, you mentioned listening to a podcast, so if you're watching this on YouTube, it also goes out in Spotify, apple Podcast. Anyway, you get a podcast and then you get a podcast. You'll find this here. Or alternatively, if you're listening to this on a podcast, we're also on YouTube. Don't forget the smile leg button and leave. So we review.
Jason:Yep. The reviews really help. Yeah. When you are feeling stuck or motivated, what's your go-to strategy to keep yourself going? I never really feel
Joe:stuck or I. I'm unmotivated all the time. Like I, people seem to think my wife get hates this. She always, she hates this'cause she's like, how does Joe stay so positive and so energetic all the time? She's like, he has nothing like that in the house. Nothing like that at all. It's like, it's almost like you have to do that. You have to bring the energy, you have to bring the best version yourself for clients, social media, et cetera. But at the end of the day. I'm unmotivated all the time. I can't remember. I can't remember the last time even. I haven't been mo motivated this year. I can't remember last time, last year, maybe before a run and last year motivation was there. But even getting stuck, like if you get stuck and you get in your own your own way, you have to do basics. That's what I do. Like if I'm stuck that I'm like, why am I not posting on social media? I'm like, I'll just force myself to do something, anything. Throw some sort of content out there. Um. Something to get the needle moved again, instead of me just saying, oh, you know what? I'll just leave it neither rest of the week. Oh, I know. Sure. I haven't posted January yet, so just leave it for January. Where a lot of people just do that and stick their head in the sand and there is no, there's no way, like motivation doesn't get you there. Like motivation's not gonna build your business for you. It's not gonna make you the freedom, the authority, the power, et cetera, they want. It's just not gonna get it. Like at the end of the day, you have to just show up, do the things over and over again. The discipline to stick to it.
Robbie:That's the way I look as well, and I constantly look at what's down the road, what's, where am I going? Just constantly. Anytime you're. Sometimes you do get this stage of sort of feeling wee bit like outta a minute because I've got so much on Yeah. And you and the motivation is hard. Whenever, whenever you, you, whenever you are really super busy and you've been just pushing through for a while.
Joe:Yeah. I think a lot of people can get stuck to in bottlenecks, like a bottleneck like you business, your bottleneck, your business, and you get stuck and stuck and they find that the, the person who is bottlenecking is yourself. You know, you have to get outta your own way. You have to get outta your own way to either make that higher or. You know, invest in that, you know, mentor or something like that. And that's you getting outta your own way then, um, and that will, that could potentially help you get unstuck, I suppose too, where people just think small business, you know yourself, you feel like you have to do everything yourself. No one's gonna do a good as job as Joe. No one. And I think that's just you getting outta your own way. Like that might not be the case, but there's somebody out there. It will be. And in fact, there's somebody there will do it better than you. So it's making that higher, um, to kind of get that bottleneck outta the way to your, whatever that might be. It might be an investment, it might be something different, or
Robbie:did a podcast last year with a guys and from Henry from Grid Up three and. They're part of a network group called The Three to Five Club, and that's all about can you, how long can your business run without you being in it? Yeah. And it's learning to let go. It's learning, delegate, it's learning. Jason does a lot more now than at the minute I'm teaching him edit. And so at the minute, Jason's gonna be at, in this book, right? This podcast, and it just takes the load off myself. So it's like learning the, as a small business owner to give up some control. One of the big lessons
Joe:I learned to from investing myself was, how long does your business last without you? If you take yourself out of it, how long does it last? And be, be honest, I can at least, I can at least now say mine will last way longer than the probably one day it would've lasted maybe even a year ago without me.'cause I now have guys that work for me. I. End of the day, like if I go on holiday here, the week side for, you know, pretty much two weeks, I know it'll all run smooth. You know, it doesn't need me there anymore.
Robbie:A lot of that's from the processes you've been Well, yeah. Processes
Joe:that you learn, systems, processes. Having good staff, you know, not everyone's good staff and of the day. I'm lucky enough to have them so far, so yeah, I'm, you're right. Hire.
Robbie:I'm blessed with good stuff. Barriers. Following on from that, what's the most common excuse that you'll hear from people whenever they, they're just struggling. Give it a guess.
Joe:You go ahead. Give it a guess. What's the most excuse?
Robbie:I can't be bothered. I can't be bothered answering your question.
Joe:Um, not quite. Can't be bothered is one. But the biggest excuse you get and the one that kills me the most is time, time. Joe, I would love to do it. Don't have the time. Like I ask people for three to four hours a week to train the gym, don't have the time seeing people can spam Netflix, do whatever, chill out. You know, tell me about all these things I've watched, et cetera. And it's the biggest excuse. That's just, that's only people know that too. I think they know that deep down it's just an easy way out. And my big thing to them is time waits for nobody. There's no way for nobody. That world is out there spinning no matter what happens to you, no matter what happens where I decide to go for a walk, where I decide to sit in the house, watch Netflix. Time goes on. No matter if, if, if you even know yourself. Like when you lose loved ones, friends, like everyone's dead shocked at a time, really, really shocked if a sudden death or especially, or sudden loss, even dogs, animals, et cetera, we all lose them. We all love them, but time goes on. Time goes on regardless. And that's when it keeps on going. Like when you realize that and you accept the fact that time goes on, that it makes you more actionable to do things and you're like, you know what, if I don't invest in my health when I'm, I am 20, 30, 40, then I am not gonna have a good 50, 60, 70. And I have more people come to me now that are about 50 years old now going like, Joe, I do something. I used to play sports. It's the rugby be. And that time wait for nobody. So if you don't invest now. Or you don't look at your health when you're younger, which a lot of people wish to be fair. You often
Robbie:look back on your health from 10 years beforehand and think, God, I wish I was there. Oh, 100%. Anybody that says that they don't look back 10 years, won't say, I wish I that healthy. It was 10 years ago and it didn't appreciate how healthy
Joe:it was then they do. Uh, I don't, I look back now on myself 10 years ago. I'm 30, come 39 now, so I look myself at 29. I, like, I leave my 29-year-old self in the ground, like no bother. Stronger, fitter, faster. But I do understand where a lot of people that don't exercise, don't train or maybe don't do a lot of it. They'll look back at theirself and be like, or an old photo. No, an old photo and Facebook memory. Facebook memory comes up and they're like. That was 10 years ago. Was it less wrinkles, more hair, less belly. And I think it's, I think it's when you realize that, I think it's when you realize that, that, like I said, you have more time taken on, time taken on, and uh, that's
Robbie:good motivation to even in itself. Yeah.
Joe:Yeah, it is. When you see something like that, I've had loads of guys. I've had, one of my guys, actually one of my staff members now, um, said to me he was gonna join me before he was going to join, the year before he didn't. And he said not to bother. And then a year later he, uh, got a photo taken of himself on holiday and he went, oh my God. And as soon as he came back from holiday, signed up right away, he's like, I had to do something about this. And now he's the best shape he's ever been in. That's brilliant. It works for me. Win-win.
Robbie:Well not win for me, like, well, I suppose another key takeaway for that, if you need some motivation to push through different challenges, is to look at where you've come from and how far. How far you've got.
Joe:Yeah,
Robbie:big time. Look at your past and think, well, look where I am now. If I don't do this now. I'm not going get to where I want to tomorrow. I used That's, that's great.
Joe:I used to, I used to be just like that. I remember I had said before at the start, it's like I used to have like five clients and then I kind like can't wait to get to 10 clients, can't wait to get the 20 clients 30, you know, can't wait to have my own facility and. You always go further. You always have to have that vision. You always wanna go further and further and further. When you look back and see where you come from, you're like, you know what? See, if I had seen this three years ago, I'd have bitten my hand off for this. And even now, I still worry. We still think, like, I always believe that everything just disappeared. No time, like it'd all go to crap. I'd have stopped working and if I had have, when I started this full time in 2020 just before COVID hit. So I went full time personal training one-to-one, two months before COVID. Great choice there left pa job. Uh, so I was fully on myself by myself at that stage. And, uh, if I look back the end of where we are, it's only five years later now, like I have more freedom now of, of more mind I've ever had, ever I've ever had now like I would've dreamed of back then. I really would've literally have dreamed of it. And if I look back to that COVID time. I remember like when COVID hit, I remember I just, I sit at my desk, I was like, I could have broke down to tears. It was that hard. I was like, the gym had to close, everyone was closing. I was like, I have no income. And people would talk about bounce back loans all the time. I didn't register myself as a business, so I wasn't eligible for nothing. So I remember going to the government and asking, um, you know, what can I do? So I had to do universal credit. And because my wife was still working in the bank and she wasn't earning a lot of money, like. She come home by 1600 pound a month and Universal Credit told me they gimme 60 pound a month. And I was like 60 pound a month. And that was one of the big moments that made me go, I need to do this myself.'cause like we had, we Girl Perry just born we had was three at that time. Um, steps on Ethan in the house, you know, me and SA house four people. On what with not much coming in under two grand and like including the mortgage, including everything else. I was like, we'll never be able to survive on that. So I was just like, know what? The government's not gonna help me. I just go through it myself and see from that moment. I just haven't stopped from that moment. It's been like went online. It's like, no, what? Go do online trading, go do this and go do that. Launched it instantly next day, launched it and yeah, got me through COVID on
Robbie:and I think a lot of small business owners listening that right now will appreciate that story because I'm sure there's quite a few people that are listening saying that they really, really struggled during COVID and it was a really challenging time for a lot of, especially there was a lot of limited companies that didn't get any support. If you were limited, you, you just got your 12, you got your money off to 12 grand because. You're getting the dividends. I didn't pay nothing. There was a lot of small business. I knew personally that totally felt hung out to dry.
Joe:Yeah.
Robbie:With the whole thing.
Joe:Uh, I say at the start, I, I've never been anywhere near since, thankfully, but at the time I, I remember like going to bed and I going like, what am I going do? Like I, I actually left my best paying job at the end of that 2019. Yeah. I left my best paying job where they gave me the full power to do whatever I wanted. No hassle. It was a great job. You know, pretty much going when I want, go home when I want. No. And did you think about
Robbie:going back to
Joe:it? Uh, no. I didn't think about going back to it. Um, if I had to find a way to make it work, um, I just have to find a way. I make sure I give up my all first. If it ever goes to crap, yes, I go back, get a normal job, but then I would come back again and try something different or similar and see what I'd done wrong to go further forward. I did, I never considered actually doing this with online as people just jumped online straight away with me. Obviously people sat in the house and they, their health and fitness looked after as well. So those ones took advantage of that too. Um, so it was a great opportunity to get going actually. So actually thought it was gonna be failure as they trying into great opportunity.
Jason:I suppose. A lot of people think when COVID hit all the people that go to the gym regularly, then obviously looking for somewhere to get their fixed from the gym without going to one.
Joe:I think there's a lot of people too that were like stuck in the house by themselves. Yeah. You know, would like potentially just live alone. You know, you imagine living by yourself, but. Not having any contact with anyone. And those people then joined online communities, you know, bit of crack, bit of live fitness, you know, and I know some people weren't even in this country. It was a girl in particular. Um, I think her name's Lisa and I haven't talked to her ages and seen her in speak at the time. And she told me that I got her through COVID and I remember that it was like class and she never paid me a penny. She never paid me a penny at all. She always just lived off my free stuff. So I would do free live trainings, free live videos, et cetera. She still follows me to stay and still affords me to stay and all too. And it's just nice knowing that you helped other people that were stuck in that sort of situation and me thinking I was stuck. They, they needed me to help them get out. It, so was sprinting
Robbie:one of my clients, uh, Caroline Garvin, right? We've looked after her garden for a long time and she, she really sorted our YouTube thing over. That's right. Over. Over lockdown.
Joe:Those things took off over lockdown because, but she's very easy now.
Robbie:Oh yeah. A lot easier now than me. You know, my back, my whole second. I looking for more views, you know, probably
Jason:more less. Do you mate? I'll, maybe not. Can you share a real life success story where somebody changed their mindset and saw massive results?
Joe:I, I have countless of these, um, and it's really hard to di dial down to one. Um, I ever do remember, um, years ago when one, well, first when I first opened the facility, um, a guy came to me who was unsure. I remember having to chat with him on the phone and you could tell he wasn't in a great place. Um, I'm not even use his name just in case. Um, and it wasn't a good place because I. He just felt like he wasn't doing what I've mentioned before about being a provider for, you know, he felt like he just wasn't it. He felt like down the dumps. He felt like he just let himself really go. And even if to look at him, you probably wouldn't think he was that bad physically. Like if you saw him out the street, he'd be always be that smiley guy chatty to you. And he didn't really know the inside. He was suffering. I remember having quite a long conversation with him, um, about where he was, why he was struggling with his, like depression is definitely the word I would use. And I remember when it came to it, I was like, listen, let's get you on board. Let's go for this. And he'd never been to the gym before. He'd never done fitness, never done anything like that. And he went and spoke to his wife about it, and his wife was like, listen, it's a lot of money, but I need to support you. You're not in a good place. And we managed to get him from. In the gym, feeling intimidated to come into the gym. Never been before. You know, something completely new to him to stronger, fairer, healthier. He did a photo shoot, so if you go on my website, you could see maybe eyeball him, pick him out, maybe there, there a few in there. Um, but he ended up doing a photo shoot. It was so out of his comfort zone, like, but I remember his wife turned around to me and saying the best money he's ever spent, because it brought out his personality. She felt a much better connection with him, you know. They end up having a child. And all recently, you know, and that's another thing that really drives men on is that confidence. That belief. Like mental wellbeing. Yeah. Believe in yourself too though. Like, and other people around you bounce off it. Like the amount of people that come to me in a really negative way, low energy, et cetera, they end up having kids, et cetera. I'm like, no. It gives you more confidence, gives you more confidence to like be more intimate with your partner or, you know, just makes you, makes you believe a bit more about yourself and like he's done extremely well in that period of time. And I remember like. Even that year I was doing like an award for who done the best and like that year as well. I give it to him as well.'cause people were a bit shocked and I was like, but you, you don't see behind the scenes like I do. You only see the before and after photo. You know, you don't see the the what he goes through. You know, if he suffer, he's gonna message me and say like, oh, I'm struggling with this, that, and the other. And people don't see that behind the scenes, especially online, especially with before and after photos, et cetera. You only see the before and after. You don't see the journey. And that's the great thing about being a coach is you get to see where people have come from to where they are now. And that's the real, like, that's the real joy I get out of it. It's like, it's incredible to see where some comes from and then when you see them at school, when you see'em like down the line, you're like, it's hard to believe. You used to be like that. You know when you look back and see an old photo, like it's hard to believe. You used to be like that. And it's great to see. And that's the best thing about the job, seeing just the changes. The change. The change people like
Robbie:tell people bit the photo shoot. And you mentioned there's something photo shoot. Tell, tell us about your photo shoot.
Joe:Yeah, well we do photo shoot, so we run a couple of photo shoot a year. And I think it's a great challenge for men in particular because it helps'em get in shape. It helps give a bit of confidence. They all hate getting a spray, huh? That's the best thing about it. You have to do a spray tan. Gotta do a spray tan.
Robbie:I'll better work.
Joe:But it's a great thing. It's a great challenge. It's outta comfort zone, you know what I mean? And a lot of that guys who go over their hoods up into the spray, tan and flee of all,'cause they don't wanna be seen all. But at the end of the day, I don't know any of them will come out. Right. Done their photo shit and not went. I love this. Right on. You know, it's brilliant. Makes it, makes you feel better. And if you're doing something like the gym, et cetera, it makes you feel good about yourself. It makes you feel more energetic, makes you feel good, look down, and you go like, you know what? I actually feel good about myself for a change. Or I can take my top off at the beach. I can go swimming when we're child. Like I've had a conversation with a guy before who like wouldn't take his children swimming.'cause he's too embarrassed to go in and do a swimming pool. And I'm like, so your family are suffering. Your children are suffering fun time, the swimming pool because you haven't looked after yourself. Um, so you're giving them a, like a lesser quality of life. I see it as, um, and if that's their case, you need to do something about it. You need to do something about that. And like, it's not fair. Get to stage now where it's almost like selfish. So you need to look after yourself and say, even going back to that guy, like he's got kids now. He's a good example to them. Um, he still keeps up fitness all too. So
Robbie:Good.
Joe:It's brilliant. It's life changing
Robbie:with photo, photo shoots before and after
Joe:photo shoots. Before and after. Yeah. Uh, people love it. People love it. Um, I just like photo shoots because it gives you that next level. So if you like to go, if you like to be in shape, you know you like to be strong, a photo shoot just helps you go that little bit. I. Deeper and that helps you with your mindset, I think too, because it, I suppose
Robbie:as well, you know, whenever you're hitting that wall, like you say, so early on in your challenge, early on in your journey, you're doing all of that.
Joe:Yeah.
Robbie:And then. You hit that wall.
Joe:Yeah, your diet
Robbie:should be your diet. But, but then, but then you can look back and say, well, there, there I was. That's where it was two months ago or three months ago. Yeah. And this is where I am now. And you can, that'll help you push through it. But even like that,
Joe:you're, you're almost like pushing'em down the line. So it's like at the start you're doing the diet. Now it's a diet. The diet's just you, what, what you eat. We're all a diet.
Robbie:So what's your, what's your thought on that then? Let's, so earlier on, you mentioned the carnivore diet and you mentioned different dance. Is there, it's just be a, we want. For certain reason. Are you, are you on the carnivore diet yourself at the minute?
Joe:I've done it before. It's little balance. I've done it before. You get good results, right? I suck up for about six weeks, done it for about six weeks, done really well, and then realize that, well, I'll eat all the nice stuff. I was like, at the end of the day, as long as you have that balance with diet, you'll be fine. As long as not, as long as you're not like gluttony. As I always say, it's the biggest problem, right? People say greedy, like it's not gluttony. People go and get like, instead if one bit of bar chocolate, they just go and buy the share bar. You know what I mean? If you've got a share bar or a share bar a pound, go at that and then go home and eat the whole thing and then they're still not done. Where if you just have a bit of balance, the whole thing, I'm like, don't be wrong. We still might eat the share bar each one time. You know what I mean? But it's just realizing and be like, oh God, you know what? Oh well, wife would stay it clean and just go get the next day. And if you get that, we nice balance and it, you're laughing. The problem is people see the word diet as a negative thing where we're all on a diet. That is what you eat. Yeah. You know, so it's just changing habits and routine to that and then you're good to go for life. And I think as we see it down the line, like you mentioned about business ee, a good direction, having purpose ee and that if you see this as like a, a long term for you're in this forever, then you're laughing. You're like, know what? I'm in this weight training, walking, et cetera for life. That's a bloody long time. So if you get a nice balance of that, then you'll stick to your diet. No problem.
Robbie:To wrap this up'cause we like to give lots of actionable tips that people can follow on the podcast. Take away from the podcast. If there was one piece of advice that you would give our our listeners on motivation and mindset, what would it be?
Joe:So one bit of advice I would give is as a quote that I love by Chuck Yeager. With Pilot, it's when you're trying to break the sound buyer, that's when the cockpit sees the most. And that's when everything in life being thrown at you. And that's what becomes of health and fitness and all too, when you're trying to break down them. Barriers. When you're trying to get in shape, you're waking up every day, you're doing the walks, hitting the gym, you're sticking the diet, and you feel like you're going nowhere. People around, you're questioning. People are saying like, you know, why are you going to the gym? Why are you doing this? You know, you're sacrificing time of your family with me in the evening time. You don't eat proper dinners anymore, and that's when you feel like everything's coming at you at once. It's when you start having to come at you at once is when you keep on sticking to your diet, keep on sticking to your routines, your habits, and that's when you finally break through that sound bite. That's when you finally break through. That's when you wake up the next morning. You're like, damn, it's all been worth it. And that's the big advice I would give. Like thanks very much. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you.
Robbie:Thank you very much, Joe for coming on. Oh,
no worries. No worries.