Speaker 1: 0:01

Okay, hello, and welcome back to another episode of Train for a Great Life, another hosting episode. I'm a podcast host. Now I've got John Wells with me, owner of CrossFit Aries near Boston in Massachusetts. Whenever people not from around, I meet people from the States. Where are you from, near Toronto?

Speaker 2: 0:25

Yeah, you're either from Western Massachusetts or near Boston. There's only two places here.

Speaker 1: 0:29

So what actual town are you or city?

Speaker 2: 0:32

We're in Wilmington, massachusetts, so it's about 20 minutes north of the city. I can be in the city in 20, 30 minutes, depending on traffic. Cool, so tell us a bit about yourself. What's your quick intro? Who are you? All the building that happened in Boston and the boom in early 2000s and then getting into the 2014, 1516 I was a part of that, which was really cool at a point in my life, but it also led me on the direction and the path that I'm now, which I am super thankful of that, and now gym owner, husband, father-to be and just looking to find all the awesomeness in life and continuing to learn every single day.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Yeah, father to be July, july 25th, july 25th. Okay, awesome man, that's going to be a whole new chapter and, like I don't know, just knowing you for a while, you're going to really enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 1:46

It's crazy how excited I am for it, Like ready.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Yeah, yeah, and like dad's role is kind of interesting, for I mean I've got an eight-week-old as of yesterday. I mean I'm starting to spend a little bit more time with him here and there and like he's starting to like kind of squeak and make little noises and whatnot and like he'll smile but like it's, it's, it's mom right now, you know. So, um, dad's role gets really fun a little further down the road. Um, just maybe a quick backstory on like how we got uh introduced to each other and like hooked up as well.

Speaker 2: 2:25

Yeah, they kind of matched us up together, but it was a match made in heaven. So I joined Two Brain God three years ago now, maybe two years ago, two and a half, something along those lines and when I joined Two Brain Mentorship, jay was matched with me as my mentor. It's very important to me to find a fellow CrossFit gym owner and someone that shared a similar mindset and, honestly, I think from the first call that we had together, riffing it back and forth and then going even deeper into things later on, it was just a perfect match and you've been a friend, friend, role model, mentor to me since day one and, uh, excelling and graduating into the tinker group um, where we can shoot things back and forth. But you know we still get on calls and I still look at you as a mentor to make sure that I'm staying on the straight and narrow cool.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Well, hey, we're done here Pumping my tires, thanks. I fully agree on everything being a really good match. I've mentored a lot of people. At this point now you can just tell sometimes when things are just a good match, I think I told you probably on the second call is like you're gonna, you're gonna do some things like I can, I can see it, um, which which is really cool. And then, like you know, seeing that all play out and and whatnot is, uh, even better, right, so, yeah, what? Um, maybe before we go into like gym ownership, like what was your first exposure to fitness? Like when did it start to be part of your life?

Speaker 2: 4:05

oh, that that's a good question. So I mean, I've always been in athletics since, you know, as early as I can remember and through that whole endeavor, from, you know, childhood sports to high school, to college, like fitness, was always just a means and methods of prepping for the season. So as a child, I played football and baseball and then, as I got into high school, it was football predominantly. I played baseball for freshman, sophomore, junior year and then my senior year, I left baseball and I played lacrosse for a year and then, going into college, none of those things were going to be like collegiate level sports. So I took up rugby and I played rugby for three years in college.

Speaker 2: 4:59

So a lot of different variety in terms of sports, a lot of different demands in terms of sports, a lot of different demands physically and athletically. And honestly, like coming up like fitness was just what coaches told us to do. Oh, you have to get stronger. Why? It'll probably translate to the field. But there was, there was nothing really attached to it, but I was always passionate about it. It was always something that was fun to me. I always, you know, wanted to try to get stronger, wanted to try to get bigger, and as soon as sports ended I would still go to the gym, but it didn't really have a meaning behind it. I would notice that I would go for like three months very consistently, drop off a little bit, go back, and I was never like extremely out of shape. It was just something that didn't have a purpose or a North Star at that point in my life. And then eventually that started to come about when I found CrossFit.

Speaker 1: 5:51

I feel you on that man. I found CrossFit 16 years ago now, finished up university sports, like not the greatest exit out of it. Like I had trouble with my feet, like I broke my feet multiple times and just like you know, when you're a long sprinter and you have a broken foot you can't really do anything. So, um, I tried to hang on to it. You know I'd come back and I'd be like slow and out of shape and it's not fun. Um. So anyway, I really like the last couple of years university sports was like kind of hanging on. And then once but I still had like the team around me and I was, like you know, one of the years I barely even raced. I was still a captain of the team. But then when that all went away, like all the structure went away too and it was like probably a year and a half gap before finding CrossFit. And it was like CrossFitcom, like going to the website and like what are we doing? Like what is the posted workout for tomorrow? Okay, cool, that looks interesting.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Or like easy, get caught in that trap um uh, but like as soon as I found that there did feel there felt like purpose, a little bit like there was a task to do and they were all very different and sometimes there was even notes of like how to go about it and all that stuff.

Speaker 2: 7:12

But that year and a half sucked like sort of that, like missing that piece of identity you know, you see that a lot and I feel like when people do find CrossFit after athletics, it gives them that feeling of being an athlete again.

Speaker 1: 7:29

And it's a whole second life of athletics yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:32

And, like you usually start off doing it by yourself. So you're like, oh, like, I feel athletic, I feel like I'm doing something, I feel like I'm training for something and I have targets. And then you wander into an across your affiliate and all of a sudden now you have that team aspect again too, where it feels like you're surrounded by other people that are working towards similar goals. And those are two big pieces coming out of being an athlete. That that I loved about CrossFit and I know a lot of people coming in and it's not everybody, because not everybody has that athletic background, but a lot of people do have it. Even when they come into the gym in like their 40s, 50s and 60s remembering back to being in the locker room with their team they get that similar vibe. And I think it's a really cool aspect of it because you know, as humans, we like to have community, we like to have a team around us, we like to be a part of something, and when people start to get that from their fitness, as well.

Speaker 1: 8:30

You're hitting two big pieces. That is just very at human essence. Yeah, we need to have it. I mean, yeah, I don't think people realize how much, like you, know what's the one of the biggest forms of torture is complete isolation yeah right.

Speaker 1: 8:44

When I I meet with people, I obviously this is very generalized, but like I kind of see them falling into two buckets. One I call like the ex-athlete and, like you know, and when I say that I'm like I don't, I'm not trying to like, label you with that. You know, if you're like 26 years old, like you know, if someone called me an ex-athlete at 26, so old, like you know, someone called me an ex athlete at 26.

Speaker 1: 9:05

So I'm like right, but the point is like, okay, we're past most of our lifetime of like organized sports. We didn't go pro, you know, maybe we're playing in like a beer league or something like that, um, but it's that that person, the whole team environment and, like hard training, it grabs a hold of them so fast, like I. I remember, like when I finally like I messed around with cross it for I don't know a few months and then, like the summer, you know, I did it loosely and then when I, when I really like put my foot down and and like started hard on it, um, no, this was the first week, yeah, yeah, okay, this is a long time ago. It was the second workout. I did this because I remember where I was and it was in the track and field football training center at university. It was Elizabeth and it was programmed.

Speaker 1: 10:03

So it's cleans and and ring dips, right, and um, back that I didn't have rings. I didn't, didn't never seen rings before. So I did parallel bar dips, um, and I had, uh, I was used to doing cleans with straps on, like that's how you got taught in football, right, and I wasn't going full depth. So I basically did these like and I wasn't going full depth so I basically did these, like you know, ugly as sin, power, cleans and dips, but I had enough fitness Like I was able to do, like I strapped in, did the thing unbroken in like three and a half, okay, like you know, I've worked up to two plates on a clean Like.

Speaker 1: 10:47

That can't be that bad and just that moment of like.

Speaker 2: 10:54

I haven't felt this in a long time and that moment for me was in a globo gym, surrounded by people that just were not a part of that, and that's a unique experience too. But but yeah, that's exactly what it is. You don't expect it, and then it's almost like everything that you loved about training before just comes rushing back to you and you're like whoa, this is awesome but you can't give that experience to someone who's like 40 and 50, 40, 50, 60 and deconditioned. No Right.

Speaker 1: 11:24

And, like you know, someone there's I'm sure you've had this too Someone walks in there 50 years old and this is like their first gym. Yep, right, like that type of person. What I've seen, at least, is it can really grab ahold of them too, but it takes time. It takes time and it takes a little bit of achievement and it takes, like you know, maybe a retest of something and like, oh my god, I can't improve, like, and.

Speaker 2: 11:51

And then you start to see that that like, maybe a little spark of like I get why other people do this now, yeah, I think that it's like it's a certain type of person that you'll find a lot in athletes and that's why our minds typically gravitate towards that. But even in the non-athletes, like the 40s, 50s, 60s getting into it for the first time I find that those people just have this little bit of a mental edge that they just don't like to take no for an answer. They want to be a little bit better than they were yesterday and they understand, understand and they're not afraid of a little bit of hard work now like maybe that they've applied that elsewhere, but not here yet potentially, yeah and and like.

Speaker 2: 12:33

Sometimes it takes a little bit of massaging that as they start to come in, because they're going to feel what hard work feels like when you do that in a gym setting, which probably they've never felt before, and it could be scary to somebody at first. That's that's doing this for the first time. Sure, 40 and 50. But as soon as they start to see the progress that's being made and they start to see they start to turn the corner in their fitness and it applies so much to that inherent mindset that they have that they want to be a little bit better. They're curious about what that potential looks like. That's when it starts to really hit the ground running for these people and I think that's across the board everybody that comes in and you can take 10 people and they can have different backgrounds completely people that have been in the gym, people that have played sports, people that have done neither of the two and maybe have sat for the last 30 years.

Speaker 2: 13:25

But there's something inherently in the mindset of the people that have been in the gym people that have played sports, people that have done neither of the two and maybe have sat for the last 30 years. But there's something inherently in the mindset of the people that gravitate towards what we do, that keep them coming back and that defines the success and the health and fitness that they get out of it.

Speaker 1: 13:38

And it's awesome because when you surround yourself with those people but also see the different backgrounds, that's what makes up the CrossFit community and it's a beautiful thing, mm-hmm it's funny, like you mentioned your first experience with it being in like a global gym and mine was I didn't step foot into a CrossFit gym until over a year of doing I traveled across the country and been to a regional before I ever stepped foot in a gym. And and I wouldn't, I just know myself back then Like one, I didn't, but I know I wouldn't have started in a gym. I wasn't of the mindset of like I didn't have the money but, like you know, didn't have the money you make. You know I was spending it on other things, right, like you spend money where you value it. Spending it on other things, right, like you, you, you spend money where you value it.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Um, but I think sometimes people can get caught up in like I'm not knowing at all, but like if you have a lifetime of fitness experience, like and and like you have a, you have a coach in your sport, but you didn't necessarily pay for that coach, right, and then they tell you to work out, and so you just go work out, right, and you're maybe given a program or whatever. Um, but now, like paying for a fitness coach, like I didn't do it, but but I the going back to like I'm. I'm always impressed with younger people that just yeah, do it right. I'm so impressed with it because you're just going to improve faster than people around you and you'll see it, when you're that young too and you're paying for someone else's knowledge and not making mistakes and getting better at things quicker, that translates to other areas of life. For sure, for the people that are 40, 40, 50 and coming into a gym like I, can appreciate how um intimidating that is. Not because I've done it necessarily like I haven't, that's, that's not me, but like I can.

Speaker 1: 15:38

I can see your face, I can feel I can feel how uncomfortable you are with some of this and but, like again, you, you need to do this. You need to strength train, you need to get strong. I mean you don't need to, but you're going to benefit greatly from it in a lot of ways. And what's the worst thing you can do If you have no knowledge on this stuff is probably go and try it on your own, or, like, watch a YouTube video with no context. Watch a YouTube video with no context and you know so, like I would say, good on those people as well, to like, seek out guidance and instruction.

Speaker 2: 16:10

Yeah, and I think this feeds into, like my biggest purpose why I wake up every day and do the things that I do at the gym to make sure that it's successful for the people is that, to no fault of anybody's own, fitness has never been defined for the general population. It's like, if you think about the trajectory of it, or bodybuilding came out in like the 80s and 90s and that's what they saw as fitness and they were like oh, I know I need to do this, but I'm not really sure why people tell me that I need to, but also I don't want to look like that person either, like I don't want to look like I'm massive with muscles and veins like it's easy to look like, yeah, and that's the perception that people get and, you know, I feel like that kind of feeds into the reluctancy of somebody to get into a fitness routine.

Speaker 2: 16:59

And when I found CrossFit, yeah, it started as like the athlete piece of it and I enjoyed the hard work piece of it. But when I started to get into the methodology, the videos on YouTube, and then going to my level one, I started to understand the purpose of fitness truly, what it was for, and that was to increase your health over the course of your lifespan so that you could live a kick ass, high quality of life. And it wasn't just going into a globo gym and doing bicep curls and leg presses, it was. I mean, the world is an athletic place. You have to be athletic to live in the world, so you might as well get exposure to all these things.

Speaker 2: 17:36

But also, how does nutrition play into that? Because there's nobody in this world telling us how important that stuff is. And then how does your lifestyle play into it? Everything else your sleep, your stress, the relationships that you have all of this stuff combined makes up your health.

Speaker 2: 17:52

And when you can look at what you get offered in a CrossFit style gym setting and it doesn't have to be CrossFit, but someone where there's a coach that cares about you and can guide you along that path you start to see these other areas of your life start to come up and in my eyes, that is what fitness is for, that's the purpose of fitness. So when I can change that for somebody coming in and get them to understand that, and then they come to me and it's not, you know, I lost 10 or 20 pounds, which is really cool, but they have like another win somewhere else in their life that you could probably directly correlate back to starting this. Like that's amazing, because that's exactly what this is for. Like I'm training to be a kick-ass grandfather whenever that ends up happening, cause I don't want to have to take this life and sit down on it Like I want, up until the last breath, to take it for everything that it's worth. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:47

I thought of a couple of examples Like I've. Two guys came to mind, well, one and then the other one, and you'll see why. So one was this was like pre pandemic, but he was able to, like you know, he loves getting getting out cottage, getting out on his boat and stuff and like he was able to get up on water skis again and it had been years and if that's something you enjoy, like that is a very physical thing. Yeah, you need to be strong and you need to have balance. You need to have all sorts of different things and then follow the skiing. There's another guy who, um goes on ski trips, went on ski trips with his family and would literally have to like sit out skiing, like I'll see when you get back, and like he was just ruined, like his legs were not strong enough to go down a hill and he could do that again. I talked about this with Dan previously, that the losing 10, 15, 20 pounds, 50 pounds even, is like a byproduct. Yeah, it's part of the journey.

Speaker 1: 19:52

Yeah, it's funny. I had a lady come in yesterday and she was having a peek at where our in-body machine is. There's some before and after photos and I said it's funny, like I. I could tell she was like kind of like wow, like those are some impressive results. And I said those, I haven't put a new one up there in probably five or six years. And I can tell you why is that what? What is an? What is an after? Yeah, what is it right? Because I can point to any one of those people and like that person's still on the path, that person's not that and like so the you know, showing people this, like before and after, it's just not. That's not what we're, that's not what we're trying to do and I think, I think it just it sets up the wrong idea.

Speaker 2: 20:41

Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more. And I tell everybody that's in the gym on a regular basis I go, you're in the top 5% of the population and they look at me like I'm crazy because they think top 5% it's this crazy, unattainable thing. But like if you Google or chat GPT with the top 5% of the population in terms of fitnesses for someone, like in their forties and fifties, it's literally exercising five days a week, eating clean and like getting seven to eight hours of sleep. Like that's the top 5%. And when you walk into my gym you see people of all walks of life. You'll see twenties, thirties, forties, you'll see fifties, sixties, seventies. We've had eighties before. We've had, you know, larger bodies, smaller bodies, you name it across the board people that do a whole bunch of different stuff.

Speaker 2: 21:29

And to someone that's, you know, not experienced with what we do, they would walk in there and be like, wow, there's a lot of diversity in this gym and I'd be willing to put the fitness ability of any one of those people up against the regular population and I think a lot of people would be very, very surprised and it's like, yeah, there's a lot of those people that have lost weight and they have had some aesthetic transformation and that's awesome. But, like like you said, it's a part of the journey. It's not where we're trying to go. You're going to get that by improving your life through fitness and searching for your why, searching for the water skis again, searching for whatever it might be Like. You're going to get those other things along the way, but it's important to get out of that superficial piece of it and dig deeper.

Speaker 1: 22:14

On the onion, I got curious and while you were talking, I just typed into chat GPT, what? What is the top 5% of fitness in the general public and what would they be able to do? Read it, I'm going to read it. It's interesting. Okay, the top 5% of fitness in the general public.

Speaker 1: 22:34

One move their body daily and consistently. They have a routine around movement. Four to six sessions a week of strength conditioning, mobility or sport. It's not a grind, it's just part of who they are. They can self-regulate, knowing when to push and when to pull back. I love that one. If you don't have that piece built in, your time is limited. You'll get injured. And then the hardest part of an injury is the mindset. Number two they display real-world strength and capacity. They can deadlift one and a half times body weight, squat their body weight and press overhead with control. Notice how it doesn't say you're in the top 5% of your CrossFit gym's leaderboard when that's tested. We're talking fractions of a percentage there. They can carry heavy groceries. They can lift their kids or grandkids and help a friend move a couch without worry. They can go on a hike or play rec sports without thinking twice or needing a week to recover. I love this Three, prioritizing recovery and nutrition.

Speaker 1: 23:39

They sleep seven to eight hours consistently. They start their day with protein, eat whole foods most of the time and don't panic about bad meals. Our nutrition coaches over the years have had this saying called baseline healthy right. Go to your niece's birthday party, have a piece of cake, don't be a psycho, yeah, and then just get back to baseline healthy right. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1: 24:04

You have to do that for you know you're not going on a binge. Understand how to recover from hard work, both physically and mentally. That's a good talking point. Number four they have longevity markers in check, resting heart rate, blood pressure, body composition and blood work all trending in a healthy range. They don't get winded walking upstairs. They're injury resilient and maintain good joint mobility into middle age and beyond. Love it. And five, last one mentally and emotionally engaged with the process. Fitness is not punishment. It's part of how they show up in life. They have a clear why. But man, this is so good. They have a clear why behind it, whether it's being around for their kids, staying sharp at work or just feeling good in their body, and they've made peace with not being perfect and they keep showing up anyway. That is the again. Those are all so good, but what are we talking about? We're talking about the top 5% of the population. So you line up yourself in any 19 people beside you on average in that subset there's only one of them doing that, which?

Speaker 2: 25:11

is wild when you put it into that context. And you look at you look at the people that are in our gyms that you know this is also the piece of it too. You'll get that person that gets frustrated when they're in the gym and they're on that journey and they're like, oh, I'm not improving as much as I thought I was. And you know, when you're in a CrossFit gym you're kind of in an echo chamber of that top five percent, that's a bubble, yeah and it's like, go to the grocery store and line up 20 people.

Speaker 2: 25:38

You're gonna be the one person and it's crazy like my mom god bless her. She in her seventies. She stands at Costco and waits for older people that can't pick up stuff and she picks it up for him Like she loves, loves doing just a flex. My mom's crazy, but you know she's been training with me for four or five years now and she's increased her bone density. She's active three to four days a week. She doesn't let life get in her way. You know she's working on her nutrition from a years of not understanding. You know, rightfully so, what that looks like, but man, she's healthier than she's ever been in her seventies, and my dad too, and it's everything that you just laid out right there.

Speaker 1: 26:18

A lot of the like. There are not a whole lot of like. There's some objectives there, there's some objective measurements. So there was like the squat your body weight, deadlift your body weight 1.5 times your body weight. There was no, you know, sleep seven to eight hours consistently, healthy range for longevity markers. Where my mind goes is like how long would it take the average person and again, what the hell is average but like how, how long would it take, you know, to get into that Like? My mind goes a year maybe. Like you could be pretty darn unhealthy and get into that top 5% in a year. Everybody probably not, but like you know that's. People ask me sometimes like, oh, like how long? Like I have a hundred pounds to lose, I have 50 pounds. How long will that take I go? How long does it take to get to Toronto? Yeah, I don't know. Well, how are you getting there? Where are you right now? Are you, are you here or are you in Vancouver? Are you flying? Are you walking? Yeah, what are you willing to do?

Speaker 2: 27:32

Yeah, and I think it's important to understand too is a lot of people coming into that situation. They look at it as a very definitive end line. They're like, oh, I'm going to go from not fit to fit, and what does that look like? It looks like all that criteria that you just listed out to them, right. Then what I try to explain to people is that it's a sliding scale, right.

Speaker 2: 27:53

If you start coming into the gym and you start exercising with a good, solid routine three to four days a week, you're going to start to move up that scale. Maybe your sleep isn't perfect yet, but maybe you're starting to eat a little bit more protein. Move up that scale. Maybe your sleep isn't perfect yet, but maybe you're starting to eat a little bit more protein. And then you go to the doctors or you get your blood work done and some of your metrics start to move in the right direction. Some of them may be still a little bit off. With all of that stuff together as a sliding scale, if you take the average of that, that's your fitness right, and it's only going to go up the more you continue on that journey. It's not really going to start to slide back unless your lifestyle starts to change.

Speaker 2: 28:31

So what I try to tell people is that there's no definitive end. Like you're not just going to be deemed fit now, right, it's this whole process of life of making sure that we're doing the things that we need to do, especially as we age, to keep these things in a range that we know is going to benefit us long term. And it's like the journey's never over. Like my mom's 70 and she's still learning things about nutrition, but those things about nutrition are naturally making her healthier every single day that she does them. So to tell somebody hey, you're going to go from not fit to fit. In a year you're going to be fitter, but I would say over the next 30, 40, 50 years, if you keep at this and learn these little things and be willing to learn new things, like you're just going to go on a trajectory that you never even thought possible.

Speaker 2: 29:18

Yeah, yeah, I think people have a very and it's okay for things to slide sometimes too, because we can always bring them back.

Speaker 1: 29:25

It's not perfect. I mean that's, that's naturally going to happen. I mean, you're going to have ups and downs, right like I. I, on monday, I I've hurt my leg. Um, I'm trying to get myself, uh, ready, I'm doing that big hike again this year, um, so I've been trying to, like, get my legs a little bit more conditioned. So saturday and sund, I threw a 30-pound backpack on. I did 250 step-ups to a 20-inch box. Let's put a little bit of volume into the legs.

Speaker 1: 29:52

Then Monday we squatted heavy, built up to a five-rep max. Then the workout after that was short. It was some calories on a machine, some bar muscle-ups and then heavy double 70-pound kettlebell lunges. And I got close to halfway through and I just felt my left adductor like pop, like it was not a good feeling. I knew right away. I was like, okay, I'm done, I'm not going lighter, I'm not trying to finish anything.

Speaker 1: 30:19

But what did I do the next day? Tuesday is normally a workout day for me. I'm not looking to have a zero day, right? If it was worse, sure, I again, everything's got context. Um, but I came into the gym and I modified things and, like I, the workout the next day was like I couldn't do any of it. So I did some pushups like some like diamond pushups and strict pull-ups and like just moved, you know, and it was easy, it was pretty low intensity and then yesterday it started to feel a little bit better. I was able to ride a bike and like actually put a bit of pressure through the, the ground, I can go up and down stairs again without having to just go like one leg, one leg catch up, one leg catch up still couldn't do. You know, burpees were in the workout, couldn't do them. Can't get into that like hinge position where you're kind of like in the middle of getting down and ups. So do what you can.

Speaker 2: 31:11

Yeah, I think this is important too and I'm curious your thoughts because, as people that have been in the athletic place before at one point in our lives, we feel something like that and we can very quickly assess it. We can be like, okay, like I can't do that, but I can do some other things. I know how important it is to continue to keep the ball rolling. Plus, also, it's so much a part of my life that I'm going to go into the gym and still do what I know I can do, even if it's not the thing that's on the board. But you take that person that's in their forts and 50s that have never done this before, and they get that pop feeling or that twinge feeling somewhere in their body. That's, that's intimidating, that's scary, that's the unknown, and you know it's important for people to know that as you start to go on this journey towards better like there's no point in which you just feel nothing.

Speaker 2: 32:05

It's what would you rather, right? Would you rather the sedentary lifestyle and the things that come with that? Because that's going to be health metrics that are off, that's going to be sickness. That's going to be pretty sure, like the number one cause of a herniated disc in someone's back is sitting too much so like, okay, that's over there too. But when we start to train like things are also going to come up and you just have to be aware of them. It's never going to be a perfect journey, but it's checking the box every single day and understanding that it's okay that you have that twinge or that feeling in your shoulder or your knee for today. As long as you keep up with it and assess the situation for the day and continue to move forward, you're going to be a more resilient, stronger human being down the line. There is no piece of this where you just feel nothing, like there's pain and things on both ends of that spectrum.

Speaker 2: 32:57

It's where you want to be Plus. People come in at 50 years old and they haven't done anything for 30 years. It's not the exercise that's causing things to pop up, it's it's the red flags that you created along the journey of 30 years, and it's like we have to work our way through those. It's going to take time, yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:14

There's an, there is a line where you just at some point it's out of the fitness coach's hands I mean maybe you need to go see a physio or a doctor, right, and like I'll be the first to recommend that. That's, I think, that the less awareness someone has of their own body if they can't really describe to you what it feels like or what's happening. If it's very general, it's just like like my arm hurts, like what part of your arm? Like when you do what I don't know, my arm hurts yeah okay, we might need to investigate this a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 34:05

Um, in terms of training and coaching people on the floor, um, where I see people get into trouble, is they test it way too quickly? Yep, right. So like yesterday, I I did a couple of burpees in the warm. I was like, no, like the moment I felt anything, I was like not ready to do that because I'm going to get myself into a poor position. I'm going to, you know, I want to feel some intensity. I felt that I. So it's an adductor, right. So on a bike it's just pretty cyclical. It's like there's not really like a. I coached this morning and I was demoing some rope climb stuff and like there was a couple positions, like you know, kind of pinching it on the rope, where I was like, oh my god, oh, I got a little zinger there. So, like you know, I'm I would not be doing that today.

Speaker 1: 34:57

So, when you do come back from an injury, is testing first is don't do anything to cause any pain, give it some time and, depending on the severity, like when you return is when you almost forget that you had the pain. When it's like, you know, when I'm like kind of bouncing around the house and running up and down the stairs again I'm like, oh yeah, I hurt my leg a few days ago. Maybe I can try squatting. And then like, when I try squatting next week we have a three rep max. I'm not going to be doing that.

Speaker 1: 35:28

Yeah, that's, that's foolish. What I might do is load up to like 50% of my squat, maybe if everything goes well, and then like, do a very low amount of volume and then just see how it feels the next day. Right, so, like testing. And then another thing I've said this thousands of times is choose to rest a day or you'll be forced to rest a week. Choose to rest a week or you'll be forced to rest a month. Choose to rest a month or you'll be forced to rest six months, kind of like. You know, extrapolate, extrapolate that out. And just you got to live somewhere between like this like patient which is very hard, because again we've talked about this like driven, gritty type of person, right, we know you have that.

Speaker 1: 36:16

The hardest part is like that in between space, where you like can't keep up with everybody and you can't do the thing.

Speaker 2: 36:22

Yeah, and something that I've noticed too, and across the board, I feel like most adults get to a point in their life where they're just reluctant to be bad at something or they're reluctant to experience a setback in life. And you know I don't know if that's you know as a trajectory like you go through school, you go through sports, you go through college, you finally get the job. You grind through those first couple years of a job and maybe work your way up the corporate ladder and then things seem to be all right and then you come into a setting where you have to challenge yourself and you have to expose yourself to things that you might not be good at, experiences that you might not have had, or things like a twinge or a setback with an injury or something that you might have done 20 years ago shows its face again, and in that moment they look at themselves as failures and you forget that failure is a very big piece of learning and going forward. So it becomes a big piece of the mindset of adapting and training for a really good life, that understanding life's not gonna not throw you curveballs, they're gonna be there and when you come into the gym setting and you can experience these things and be okay with having a little bit of a setback and slowing yourself down, knowing that the end product is going to be greater. That's going to translate back into everything else. Product is going to be greater. That's going to translate back into everything else that you do too.

Speaker 2: 37:48

So I think that's where most people start to see the challenge when they come into our spaces is you know, if and when that does happen and come up, they're very reluctant to feel that setback or that failure and it freaks them out. And that's where it comes into coaching. More than just the fitness, it's getting their minds ready for, hey, this is a bigger picture. Here. We're after something that's greater and it doesn't need to look like what's on this whiteboard. It doesn't need to look like you have to do these things. There's no exact recipe. It's how do you show up every day for yourself. That's what's going to build the person in the future. Become a curveball hitter. Become a curveball hitter. Sit back on it.

Speaker 1: 38:29

Hit that curve. Funny, I was meeting with a lady yesterday about joining and the whole strength training, crossfit, all that stuff very new. She's run around the bay which is like a 30 kilometer road race around here. It's what. I think it's the oldest race in north america.

Speaker 1: 38:48

Um, you don't run 30 kilometers without having some like some mental toughness and you know whether you just whether you trained for it I mean that's teaching you to show up, which she did or whether you're an idiot like me and you just try to go do it and get through it and figure it out. There's some mental toughness there. But we were kind of walking around the gym and, like you know, we were just watching, you know, showing her around and, like you know, class was in the middle of stuff. I'm, like you know, talking to her. It's hard work and I know you're not. I didn't even think about it but it just rolled off my tongue. Next I said are you afraid of being a beginner? Again, and she said no and I said that's probably actually more important than not being afraid of hard work, you with the hardest variation of something. But like right, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 39:47

I think, like speaking to what we were talking about like we've been talking about it for a little bit like I think people exist in but it's funny like people exist in between like this, this space of like underestimating themselves, maybe, like the example I use sometimes is like if you took a kid and you, you give them piano lessons for 10 years, what, what do you think is going to happen? They're going to get better. They're going to be pretty good, right. Like they're going to be able to make some beautiful sounds out of that thing, right? So there's this like underestimating ourselves and what we're capable of. It's like I did this um, I'd already been doing this stuff for a while a competitive background. I came into CrossFit with like 400 meter background. I could do handstand push-ups right away. Olympic weightlifting, snatch especially, was very new to me and I remember I think I was at like a 140 or 150 for a max, and I remember this is 2010,. I remember setting a lifetime goal.

Speaker 1: 40:55

I'm like my lifetime goal is 185. Lifetime goal I hit that. I'm good, I'm done Right. Yeah, I surpassed that. Whatever. Again, was I so focused on that number or did I just love the process of getting better and I end up getting almost a hundred pounds beyond that. Like it was 2015, I hit a 275 right, which is like you just don't know where it can go. It's like that's like a kid the kid playing the piano expecting that six months from now is the best I'll ever get Right. So there's that. And then there's the other end of it where, like you know, it's like a long weekend at a cottage and the guy's like hold my beer, let me try that. And you just see people attempting things like what were you possibly thinking that this is something that you could do? And fill in the blank, cause we, you know, spend three minutes on Instagram or YouTube and type in fails and you'll find all sorts of beautiful stuff year because I wanted to put myself in that feeling of what a lot of my members were feeling.

Speaker 2: 42:09

I wanted to see what that was like again because, just like you, I came into CrossFit. You know I couldn't do everything but I could do some things because, you know, I was coming off an athletic background. I was still kind of in the gym. It wasn't. You know, 20, 30 years later I'm getting back into the gym, which is a lot of what you know. I'll see when people come in.

Speaker 2: 42:30

So I was like, all right, I need to be a beginner again and I want to see how this feels, going somewhere from all aspects of it, so I can coach and hold these people more accountable, knowing where those, those, those pieces are. And I still get my ass kicked when I go into those classes. But there's little glimmers of hope every now and then where classes will feel good. But then I'll go back in and I'll feel like I know absolutely nothing because it's so technical and there's so many pieces behind it and what. I'll be honest, it's hard to keep that consistent in the routine.

Speaker 2: 43:06

When that's how you feel when you go into it, when you feel like you suck at it, I know that that's valuable, so I keep going. But I also see the value in the coach being there as a guide too, because if I'm feeling that and I got a text from somebody that says hey, how you been, haven't seen you in the gym, why don't you come back? That is so important and you don't. I don't get that at jujitsu, but I know I do that for all the people in my gym and that's why I do it, because I know what that feels like and it's like it sucks to be a beginner at something. But you're going to get two camps of people. You're going to have the one camp that doesn't want anything to do with it, because they feel like they're defined by being a beginner and that they suck at it. And then there's the people that understand that you have to suck at something and you have to be a beginner to ultimately be really good at something and have it be valuable.

Speaker 1: 43:57

Yeah, that's that's pretty cool that you're doing that. Um, let me ask you this If someone walks into your gym for the first time and I don't mean like to meet, I mean like, let's say, within their first couple of days of their first week like what do you hope that they feel or experience?

Speaker 2: 44:16

Ooh, that's a good question At first. I hope that they feel how much we have their back through this process. So, through our conversations, through our coaching, through the experience of when someone walks in the door to when they leave like I always tell my team, everybody should leave smiling, regardless of how the workout went Like I want you to know that this is a place where you can, you can fail, you can succeed and we're going to have your back through all of that. So that's number one. I want them to know that this is a place where you can, you can fail, you can succeed and we're going to have your back through all of that. So that's number one. I want them to know that we, we have their back.

Speaker 2: 44:52

Number two as they start to get into these workouts, I want them to almost initially feel where they're at currently, because I think that that's valuable to a lot of people will come in and be like, yeah, you know, I work out, I go to home gym or I go to the planet fitness or whatever it is, and then, like we'll do the most basic workout and they'll be like what just happened.

Speaker 2: 45:15

I want a little bit of a reality check to say, hey, you know this is fitness as I see it, and I know how valuable it can be to your life. I want you to know where you're at and I also want you to know where you're going and then, as they progress, it's just, it's a lot of interaction, like I have a lot of checkpoints to make sure that. I emphasize point number one, because the most important piece when somebody's starting something new is knowing that there's people that have their back through the process. They don't feel alone, because the first month's gonna suck, you're gonna not know anything that's going on. You're gonna feel like, oh my god, I can't do a snatch yet when it's one of the most technical things that a human could possibly do and it's like it's okay. But we can take it to a point of are you just moving your body today?

Speaker 1: 46:04

it's an olympic sport and the best in the world, go and miss yeah.

Speaker 2: 46:08

And it's like usually the first week someone will come in and be like I'm so sore, this feels so good. And then, somewhere between like week two and three, when that newness starts to wear off and the habit should be starting to kick in, you start to see a little bit of doubt and having a checkpoint there, knowing, hey, I got your back through this. This is normal. We're building a foundation right now that we can build on for the long term. If you have any questions, if you need anything, just let me know. And then really just emphasizing quick wins, like showing them areas in which they are winning and not just failing at something. Yeah, not just struggling.

Speaker 2: 46:45

They're going to feel struggle. They're going to feel failure. Failing at something because it's not just struggling, they're gonna feel struggle. They're gonna feel failure.

Speaker 2: 46:49

If I can show them hey, you made it six times in the last two weeks like that's awesome, congratulations and like right where you want to be yeah, giving them that quick win and later down the line we can get into the mindset and everything like that, the bigger picture stuff of you know what I hope for them to feel in and outside of the gym. But for the newbie coming in, just someone that has their back and that it's okay.

Speaker 1: 47:14

Yeah, I like that really similar. Like I want someone to just feel like this is the place for them. You know, whatever intimidation you felt, hesitation, concern, I want all of that to just kind of wash away, even when it's hard work and even when your body is like it's a shock to the body, those first like first day or two or a shock to the body, and then you know soreness kicks in, you're adapting and all that. But I just want them to feel like I like being here, I like being around these people, you know, hopefully, like they know what they're talking about. I know that is the case, but more just like I feel comfortable here and I think it's. You know, feeling like we've got their back is a nice little way to say it.

Speaker 1: 48:04

Let me ask you this one I had this happen recently. So like I had someone that signed up um and in the, in the signup process, um, years of a couple years of being deconditioned um, telling me I'm gonna be here five days a week, right from the get-go, and I said I don't, I don't actually recommend that you do that. There's a reason and I, you know going through and nope, jay, I will be here five days a week.

Speaker 2: 48:36

I want you to just take a guess at what happened from here, play it out he probably did that for two weeks, and then you stopped seeing him or he injured himself.

Speaker 1: 48:47

First of all, it was a she, so you're dead wrong. So there was not one week, that there was more than two times. Okay, and quit by eight weeks.

Speaker 2: 49:02

Yep, I have the same conversation with people that come in. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:05

Why? Why do you think that is Like what, what? What about it? Cause it's such a red flag.

Speaker 2: 49:10

But why it's excitement and it's like it goes back to someone needs to want to make that change. In order for it to start to fuel that process, and in order for somebody to want to make that change, they have to have an epic realization that there is a problem. To make that change, they have to have an epic realization that there is a problem. So, for some of those people that have that realization that there's a problem and they are kind of that go getter style person or maybe they were that go getter style person yeah, they're like all right, this is it. I'm making the change, like I need to get my life back in order. They come into the gym. They're like I'm going to be here five to six days a week. This is how we're going to do this thing. I need to fix this problem and get myself to this point. Granted, they don't realize they haven't done this for 1020 years. So I say the same thing to people. I go hey, I'm going to be completely honest with you. I've seen that movie 100 times, 1000 times, and it doesn't end the way that you think it does. And I go let's do foundations, couple one on one sessions to get acclimated and understand how we do things. And then I'm going to start you with our lowest tier three days a week and we're going to do that at least for the first three months. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 50:25

And the biggest thing that I tell people is I go. You need to make sure in the beginning that you're leaving here feeling like you could have done a little bit more, yep. And when people do that and they take that advice, at some point they're going to come to me and they're going to be like hey, what do you think about four days a week or five days a week? And usually my benchmark I tell them I go. If you are asking me, I know that you have the feeling that your body can handle that, but the worst thing that could have possibly happened was that you start your first week five days in a row. You debilitate yourself. It's a terrible experience for you because you for some reason, didn't see how that was going to play out.

Speaker 2: 51:04

And then, if you want to talk about building a habit and a routine, which is ultimately our goal, the workouts don't matter, like whatever's on the board doesn't matter. The goal is to get you in here consistently, repeatedly, so it becomes a part of your life and if you do that three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, and you get to the point where, if you don't work out on the day that you normally work out and you're missing your workout, we've nailed it. Now we can start to look at how we can develop ourselves in different ways. People think it's the fitness. People think it's the workouts that are going to be the magic. It's making this thing a part of your life and having it work it's the identity that comes with it.

Speaker 2: 51:42

Yeah, yeah, you need to, you need to, and this is atomic habits. You need to, you need to, and this is atomic habits, one-on-one. It's like you need to identify yourself as a healthy and fit person first and do the things that those people do, and then everything else behind that is going to start to change.

Speaker 1: 51:57

Yeah, that five days a week there's just nowhere to go but down, down. You know, and and she, she absolutely was that like driven go-getter, like in business, in her the matriarch in her family, I could tell.

Speaker 2: 52:10

That's usually where you see it right, Because that person has that mindset somewhere. It's not just going to come out. Because you take the average person that walks in, they're petrified to even walk through the door. Forget about five days a week.

Speaker 1: 52:21

Yeah, yeah, it's almost like when you said that they so the way that I think of it, I think we're arriving at the same conclusion, just different words. It feels like they've given themselves credit for doing it already. Yeah, a little bit right. And what you said was they don't recognize that there's a problem, right, and it's the same thing.

Speaker 2: 52:48

Well, I mean, that's human nature, right. You decide that you're going to make a change and you get a dopamine hit. That's why it's so important for, when someone makes that decision, for them to come in and get started. Because I mean, you know, if somebody comes in, they have a consultation, they leave and they don't make that decision and a week goes by. What's the chances, the statistics that they're going to actually get started? Because they had that dopamine hit.

Speaker 1: 53:13

It pulled them into the gym and then, if they start to let that wear off, they feel like they got the success by making the decision without ever even taking that first step yeah, and then we have to wait for them to get super uncomfortable again six months, eight months later, and then you get another message yeah, if you leave without actually pulling, I get that there's people that are collecting information. We don't display prices on the website. Could we display group? Probably, but then it's a bit of a sticker shock when, like hey, we're going to start one on one and you know if you're not expecting that, I really just prefer to meet with people and dig into that. It's been working fantastically for the longest time service and a guide.

Speaker 2: 54:11

Yeah, we're not just offering exercise classes. Exercise exercise to me is you go to something for an allotted period of time and you get the dopamine hit of your heart rate getting up. Fitness to me is you do that repeatedly in an organized fashion that leads towards something greater. And like. I had that realization probably about a year ago when my buddy brought me to a lifetime fitness with him for a hot yoga class. It was great, like I had a blast, it felt good after. But where does that lead? To? Nothing other than another hot yoga class or maybe a different class. Like they're just these little segments of exercise that give you a dopamine hit, they make you feel good and then you can continue to do them and you can get that dopamine hit.

Speaker 2: 54:50

But what we do that's different is that we're taking you on a journey towards a higher quality of life. Right, we're going to combine these little dopamine hits of exercise, we're going to structure them so that you start to get stronger and you feel better and your body works for you and that you're able to handle the demands of life that are unpredictable. But we're also going to have the chats about nutrition and how do we improve your overall health, from blood markers to making sure that you have enough fuel in your body to do these workouts and not feel sluggish or not get injured. And how's your lifestyle? How's your stress? Your stress, how's your sleep? You don't get that at an exercise class or a spin class. We're guides on this journey and it's different because people don't necessarily see that right out of the gate and that's why it's important to get that face to face to make sure that they understand that, and then they're usually going away yeah, some of those, some of the higher skill stuff.

Speaker 1: 55:45

so I've been around this stuff for a long time and I see sometimes people moving away. There's a reason that some people being able to execute Olympic lifts with some skill and precision, like there's so much value in that. Like you know, how many crossover workouts have you done? How many have I done Like would I still be due, would I have gone to 6,000 spin classes, or do I eventually just be like that's kind of boring? Yeah, no, I mean.

Speaker 2: 56:27

I've done that before too.

Speaker 1: 56:28

It's got to lead you to, like, you know, circuit racing on a bike or something. Like you got to get an actual bike and like, manipulate it, go mountain biking or something. I don't know. That's just me, and that's not just me actually. I see a lot of people come from you know, boot camp style gyms that they feel like they've just outgrown it and can you still continue to get fitter? Absolutely what have you not outgrown, though? It's like we're doing sort of the same 40-minute, some intensity, and it's not to downplay, that's a great workout, but not every day. That's not an everyday workout. You're only going to take that so far.

Speaker 2: 57:13

At a basic human piece. You need to have something that you're striving for. You need to be able to feel that you're making progress, to stick to something. And that's where CrossFit comes in. And even look at martial arts studios like something as simple as going from a white belt to a blue belt will keep somebody coming back because they're working towards something and it's like yeah, you can make it, like you know 250 classes or something like that. That's cool and like that's an achievement.

Speaker 2: 57:40

But when you start to talk about something greater and you know you have somebody lift 200 pounds off the ground for the first time, or like you get somebody back up on water skis for the first time, or they go for a hike for the first time, like that's working towards something and it starts to open your mind up to what else is possible and that allows you to stick to something for an even greater amount of time, because there's a purpose behind it and and you need that purpose to do it.

Speaker 2: 58:08

And even you know I'll hear people talk about the higher skill stuff and they're like oh, you know, older people don't need to be doing snatches or muscle ups or anything. But take that very basic standpoint. What are you doing when you snatch? You have body coordination. If you trip in your kitchen over your pet or something, you're going to need to move your body pretty quickly and I can teach you that, whether it's with a PVC pipe or 185 pound barbell Ring muscle up. If you fall down to the floor, you got to pick yourself up and get yourself to a standing position. We're essentially pulling and pressing back up to an upright right. That's valuable for everybody across the board.

Speaker 1: 58:45

Now my little guy does a foot-assisted muscle-up to get onto the kitchen island. He just figures it out. It's how he gets from place to place.

Speaker 2: 58:54

You take that basic piece of how it applies to somebody's life and then you show them a trajectory of how you can get better and strive for something in those things that makes it really cool. At a baseline, you're a healthier human being, but now we can do these things that are making us healthier and more capable out in the real world, and we can do it pretty damn cool. Oh, I snatched a hundred pounds over the ground, off the ground over my head, or I got up onto these rings and look at me, I'm stabilizing. Like that's a trajectory that you can go on.

Speaker 1: 59:28

I mean those are, those are the PRs and everyone, like there's a thing, because those the movements happen with with such speed and power, right, it's, it's. It's similar to like when you just get a hold of, like you hit a home run or you just get a hold of a golf ball, right, like if you're a someone that like maybe once around you hit the ball 300 yards and you know when you just got a hold of one, because everything it's like the speed, the timing right, like it just works right, and that's what it feels like to stick one of those good lifts and it takes a while and like, but the thing is you could do that with 45 pounds. I'd rather you look amazing. I'd rather I watch you lift 45 pounds. I'd rather you look amazing. I'd rather I watch you lift 45 pounds and I could throw you on the hook grip Instagram channel next to like a world champion and like you look pretty similar. Now they're doing it with 380 pounds, right, but like do you see the similarities here? It's relative, it's relative. There's also, like when we talk about what's the value of them, you know when we go.

Speaker 1: 1:00:28

I mean this is back to, like CrossFit L1 stuff, but like fitness. There's 10 recognized domains of fitness, right? Speed, uh speed, stamina, endurance, flexibility, right. These are the, the organic changes where it's like training. You can train to be stronger, you can train to have better endurance, trained to have better flexibility, stamina. And then there's coordination, balance, uh, agility and accuracy. You can't necessarily train those, you have to practice them. It's neurological, right. So like, yeah, so this morning, um, we're, we're doing like.

Speaker 1: 1:01:03

We had a day where it's really good to just practice rope climbs within the the workout. So I had a couple people that were like really beginner to the rope and I had them trying to like lock their feet, but then I just had them like, hey, we're gonna do wrap and then literally just stand there with the rope and just do the little swivel with your leg and bring the rope with you. Okay, to see how that kind of was kind of clumsy and the rope fell off your foot. Now lift your toes, do it again. Oh, hey, it came with you. Do it again, do it again, do it again, do it again, do it 10 times in a row. See how now your body just kind of knows what to do Now when you go on the rope and you go to inch up the rope's, just there, right, and you're not now like fumbling and and now, oh, I can't hang on.

Speaker 1: 1:01:43

And then you fall down, right, it's like there's no amount of just training harder. You have to figure out your body. It's a motor pattern, it's your nervous system figuring it out, right. And then back to Olympic lifts. They are just this beautiful marriage of the two speed and power. Right, so speed and power are the final 10, right, so again, I'm not going to name them all again, but that is the. So. Like the sea of machines, you know leg extensions and all that. You can get wicked strong on all that stuff, but no amount of those are going to make you more agile.

Speaker 1: 1:02:19

If you trip and like I literally last year, it was like seven in the morning and I was taking my dog outside and I tripped on our stairs I went down probably 6 stairs, I don't even know I rolled my ankle in the process, like it was pretty spectacular and I didn't hurt myself and I mean I wish I had a camera set up where I could have seen it, because, like, it's like one of those things where you don't even know what happened.

Speaker 1: 1:02:48

You just you're like on the ground, not your lace, like you're okay, I'm like, yeah, I think so, yeah, uh, but like stuff happens, man, like you, you trip and fall and like how do you land, do you land in? And part of that is like, are you doing athletic things, are you practicing athletic things? And and and like you don't know where they, where they'll come into play. All that aside, all the falls, and like you know, just let's, let's not talk about falling, let's talk about, like maybe 60 years old and like prevention of falling, just having better balance. No amount of leg extensions and hamstring curls are going to make you more stable walking downstairs right or like on an uneven surface.

Speaker 2: 1:03:33

The biggest cause of death after 65 is a fall, whether it's immediate or whether it's 12, 18 months after the fact. Right yeah, you don't fall.

Speaker 1: 1:03:41

You don't necessarily die from the fall, but you lose your mobility, you lose your leg strength and then from there I mean it's dead, it's downhill.

Speaker 2: 1:03:48

Yeah, and like this is the thing that fires me up every day with what I get to do, and it's changing the narrative of what this stuff is for. And you know, you said it beautifully with the 10 domains of fitness. You have the physical side that people predominantly perceive as fitness. You're like, oh, I'm going to go run, I'm going to get my cardio in and I'm going to do my strength training. And it's like what they don't realize is the other piece of that.

Speaker 2: 1:04:13

The neurological side of fitness is very important in a piece of the pie to becoming a capable human being.

Speaker 2: 1:04:21

And, like we said earlier, like life's going to throw you curve balls it's not going to be forgiving in any realm, like stuff's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 1:04:29

And when you start to train these things and understand that the slower days that have a lot more practice to them and just getting them down and how they apply to just your normal mental habits and your movement patterns, and that becomes muscle memory, how important that is to being a healthy and efficient human being, not just today, not just tomorrow, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 40 years from now like practicing those things and combining it with the strength and the cardiovascular piece of it. Fitness makes you an elite human being, prepared for whatever it is that life throws at you, so that you can dictate how this thing plays out and you don't get told how it happens, and like changing that narrative and getting people to understand that that's what we're doing literally every single day. It could be the worst day and I'll wake up and I'm fired up to do it again Like it's. It's awesome, in fact, that my mom can go to Costco and use her legs first and then pull something into someone else's carriage. I love it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:05:33

We talked just before we hit record about the pillars of a good life. I think this really rolls nicely into one of them understanding your why. I want you to talk about that a little bit. Tell me what is your why and like, how has it cause? Like your why is going to change right? Like I can tell you how mine's changed too. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:05:54

Oh it's. It's changed throughout the years a number of times, but I think as we get older and wiser, we start to really hone in on what the actual why is. So, you know, if you want to look at from a fitness and health perspective, like early on, it was just to perform on the field. There was really no you know plan behind it. I just did what other people told me to do to get stronger so that I could show up on Friday night and perform the best that.

Speaker 1: 1:06:19

I possibly could and win it was all about winning. Contribute to winning.

Speaker 2: 1:06:24

Yeah, you start to get older and maybe the sports aren't our part anymore and you know, truthfully, you just want to look better. When you look better you feel like you get more attention from girls or guys or whatever it might be, and you know that kind of becomes your why, but again, still very superficial. And it was like as I started to get older and understand and see the decline in my own parents and their health and their physical capability, and then I started to feel it in the differences not playing sports anymore and feeling a little sluggish, not looking in the mirror and being happy with myself or anything like that. But now even take it a step further.

Speaker 2: 1:07:03

I want to show up for my wife as the best husband that I can be. I want to show up as the best son that I can be. I want to show up for my wife as the best husband that I can be. I want to show up as the best son that I can be. I want to show up for my son that's not even born yet. Like I went to Dick's and I bought a baseball glove the other day and I'm already breaking it in why? Because I want to never have to say no to that kid.

Speaker 2: 1:07:21

If I ever have to say no to him, that's, that's the worst thing that could possibly happen. And then, you know, it'll probably change again when he's growing up and, you know, maybe we're looking at becoming grandparents Again. I don't want to have to say no in that situation. So you know, over the years my why has changed, but now I think it's defined by never having to say no to anything in life. I don't want. I want to do everything that I possibly can to put myself in the position to experience everything that this thing has to offer. And if something comes up and I have to say no to it because of something that I didn't do on my own, that's going to be the worst feeling at the end of the day for me. So it's it's. It's never saying no to anybody and everybody in my life, including myself, first and foremost.

Speaker 1: 1:08:08

I like that man, I feel that I, I, I, I mean I, my wife knows, sort of knows me as someone who will say yes to just about anything you know in terms of like going and doing something physical, even stuff that I won't, you know, do, stuff like the, the hike that I'm prepping for, like that's not with her, not necessarily her thing, but yeah, very, very similar. Like the sports that I was involved in early on, very physical track and football. I mean, if you put in the work in the gym, like there's only so much you can do on the field and on the on the track, you put in the work in the gym as well. And and I remember reading, um, I don't know if it's like a muscle and fitness or men's health or whatever, but it was like I wasn't super into those magazines, but I remember there was one that had, um, michael johnson and maurice green you remember those guys from back in the day, right, dominant American sprinters and it had like their you know their workout routine. So it just had like a couple of days of like whatever they put together, a workout that like those guys would do. But I was like, okay, I'm going to buy that one, I'm going to start putting in some work and you just see the benefits and then like again getting into like losing.

Speaker 1: 1:09:30

We talked about losing that purpose and then getting into it again. The first little bit was just like finding, like find, just explore, reigniting, reign that, that athlete a little bit and and just like it was, there was stuff that would come up that I was like not used to, not the type of way that I trained, you know easy to. If you start cherry picking, like you know, that's sort of that's not a red flag, yellow flag, it could be the beginning of the end, right? Um, I remember there was days that didn't quite make sense to me early on. I remember, um, it was like do an inverted hang on the rings, so like upside down, feet straight up, and then lower yourself as slowly as possible. Do that 10 times with whatever rest you need. I'm like that's the workout. Yeah, that's the workout right, yeah, that's oldschoolacrossfitcom.

Speaker 1: 1:10:34

But then when I found out you competed like ignited the whole competitive fire. Nowadays it almost feels like back to the early days of just not not necessarily I'm I'm not even interested in competing anymore and like I'm less and less interested in the competitive crossfit as well, uh, even like watching it, like I still watch it here and there, like I just the games have been, you know, I know when they're on every summer, but like I'm not interested in, like like I used to be, just because I feel like there's been such a divide that's kind of slowly happened over the years of like what the sport is and what the you know, the methodology and the community is, um, but something like like having having kids and especially, like I'm turning 41 in May, having kids a little bit later in life. There's, you know, there's reasons why all that happened. Um, it's hard for me not to play out like, okay, if Leonardo has kids at the age that I had him, I'm like 76 ish. If Calvin has kids at the age that I had him, I'm like 80, 81.

Speaker 1: 1:11:44

And and look around, like there's a lot of examples of people, one that don't even make it to that and two that just don't have the health span that gives them any type of quality of life, and I mean, I think we're in a different age these days. I mean, I think that there's a lot of good, healthy mindset stuff on on, like I mean, all the stuff that we're talking about it's it's what a lot of people need to hear. Um, and, and we can speak to this with confidence, cause we've been doing it for so long and we we've seen people succeed and we've seen people struggle right like our parents didn't have that. They didn't grow up in gyms and they didn't grow up with like watch a youtube video or listen to a podcast on someone who's like an expert in the in the subject matter.

Speaker 2: 1:12:38

Yeah, and I think it's important to note too that it's it's never too late, like yeah, they didn't they didn't. They didn't get that, but, like you, can still start today. My dad was the same age as you are when he had me, so we're in the same boat. I'm having my first kid and he's 74 years old. He's healthier than I've ever seen him in my entire life at 74 years old, and he started five years ago. Not a coincidence, right it's?

Speaker 1: 1:13:06

it's like, yes, we're changing that, we're showing people what's possible, and it's so important the um, the longevity piece is like it's it's important and it's, but it's like it's also for, I think, for most people, it's not enough because it's so far in the future, right, right, so like that's not the thing that, like you know, it's, it's a thing, that sort of lives somewhere in the back of my mind, but it's not the thing that like gets me to the gym when I'm kind of like feeling sluggish and it's not the thing that makes me like go hard when I'm like really feeling like pushing. It's like I, I just like seeing what my body can do, I like seeing, I like inching closer to potential and I like just challenging myself. Yeah, so, um, that's that's a bunch on on understanding why leading right into like taking care of yourself you name that as like another pillar of a good life.

Speaker 2: 1:14:15

Yeah, so talk about that. You're going to have the number one North Star is your why. Right Now it becomes. You know, how do I get these other things in my life organized to support following that North Star? And that's where the lifestyle piece comes in. And that's going to be having a routine of something consistent in your life going and doing it on the days that you just don't want to do it and getting something done. But then also on the back end of that, you know, are you eating and giving yourself nutritious foods that are are fueling this and keeping you healthy? Are you sleeping? Are you keeping your stress in check? Are you keeping your stress in check? I think the next one is relationships, but that's a big piece of the lifestyle too. It's like how and who are you surrounding yourself with and supporting everything that it is so that you can continue and stay on that journey towards the why. Like, in my eyes, that one pillar is the big one that you look at and then these other pillars are the things that allow you to stay on that journey, to continue to follow it, and if you start to fall off on these, it takes you further away from from where that, that destination or that.

Speaker 2: 1:15:14

Why is so? You know, it's important to enjoy life. Like you said before, if you go to the birthday party and they have ice cream cake, eat the ice cream cake. Oh, it's ice cream cake, I'm having two. Seriously, I'll eat the whole cake.

Speaker 2: 1:15:29

And I tell people that and they're like, oh, you're eating ice cream cake. I'm like hell, yeah, I'm eating ice cream cake. Like it's delicious. But everything that I do Monday through Sunday outside of that ice cream cake, lets me just go dive into that ice cream cake and enjoy that and know that everything that means a lot to me is still in check and it's not perfect. Like I'm not eating chicken, rice and broccoli with no flavor, like that's disgusting. That's the old school mindset. But you know, making sure that you're just nourishing yourself and fueling yourself properly to do the things that you want to do in life, make sure that you're getting your rest when you need it, because your body's going to tell you it's not going to discriminate when you need to take a rest. It's going to throw these red flags up and it's your job to listen to that or not, and if you don't, it's going to throw you a harder red flag.

Speaker 1: 1:16:22

Yeah, the relationships around you is interesting. Like I don't think people necessarily give it enough credit of how much it can shape them or that they can change it if they want to. It's uncomfortable sometimes, right, like realize that how like your mind is I mean, we'll go a little existential here, but like your mind is like the portal of your existence, like it is how you experience everything, it's how you interpret everything. Like 10 people will listen to this hopefully more but like a group of 10 people could listen to this and all have different takeaways. You have 10 people do the exact same thing and notice different things about the experience and tell you different things about it. Right, we just experience things differently and with the people that you're around and how they influence you, it's going to have an impact on that.

Speaker 2: 1:17:22

Yeah, I think people don't realize how much their subconscious plays a role in this one. And you know, when you surround yourself with people that you know don't strive for more, or they complain about things a lot, or you know, whatever it might be, you're inevitably going to adapt to that. Like that's what you're going to become the more that you're exposed to it. Like that's what you're going to become the more that you're exposed to it. So, when you expose yourself to people that you know are on the trajectory that you want to be on, then you're going to start to become that too.

Speaker 2: 1:17:56

And it's important to have these deeper relationships with people, to be able to have these deeper conversations with people to, you know, get yourself out of the career aspect and the personal aspect and, you know, go on a date night with your significant other and just genuinely have fun. Like human connection is such a big piece of it. But also human connection to a point of making sure you're around the people of they're going to get you to where you want to go. And you know, I use the perfect example, like all of you and everybody in the Tinker group, like as role models, as parents, like I could ask 10 people out in everyday life. You know about parenting. They're like oh, watch out, your life's going to change, things are going to suck.

Speaker 1: 1:18:39

Just highlight the negative.

Speaker 2: 1:18:40

Yeah, just like you know, get ready to never be able to do that stuff again. And I'm like, ok, I get it, it's hard, like you don't have to tell me that having a kid is hard, I get it. And when I say I'm ready for it, I mean I'm ready for the challenge because I surround myself with so many people that look at that role and they're just so fired up to be in that role, the good and the bad. It's not easy, it's going to be hard, but I'm so excited for that challenge because I know it's going to give me a deeper purpose in my life and that only comes with putting myself in the position to be around all of you that that have those viewpoints.

Speaker 1: 1:19:20

Yeah, that that parenting one kind of like gets me, um, I mean, I I have to like kind of go easy on it. But like our experience of getting to the place of having kids was, is is not different than everybody because, like you know, once, once you you have trouble having kids, um, you start to realize that it's actually pretty common. But all of that said just to quickly gloss over it. We had four miscarriages before going down the route of fertility clinic trying to figure everything out. Then we got some bad news that she's got what's called a unicorn uterus. Basically, one side is like not fully intact quite there, um, so left side of the reproductive system, which doesn't have a left kidney. We figured that, found that out at 32 years old. Imagine that like that's not right. So anyway, found that out. The stats on it are not good. So it's like that's dark, you know, um, especially when you like you're living this life together and this is a piece of it that you want. We never had the discussion of like maybe we won't don't want to have kids. That was never on the table. Um started looking at all the options, uh, her again talking about this with family and like we finally kind of brought up. Where we're at, her sister like throws her hand up. She's like I'll do it right, and they talked about that like um, the greatest gift you know you could ever receive. And that's how leonardo was born. She carried as a surrogate when he was four months.

Speaker 1: 1:21:02

We knew that it was not going to be easy to find another one, and so we started on that journey, signed signed up for um, uh, surrogacy online Canada, which, like you just don't know what you don't know about this stuff. Right, like I thought there was like assistance, government stuff. It's it's all private, it's all we basically paid. It was like $8,000 a year to be in a pool of intended parents and surrogates and like it's got to be very protected. Right, it's different in the states. Like I think you can, you can like pay people. It's like, yeah, it's different, it's different. Um, there's lots of great about the states, there's lots of better things about canada in terms of some of our systems. Um, but, uh, you just, I mean it was expensive for us, but, like in the states, if you don't have money, like it ain't happening. Right, it's not, that sucks. You know that. That can. That's crushing, um.

Speaker 1: 1:22:00

So, anyway, we went down that route, matched with someone it didn't you know, miscarried with her twice. It didn't work. And then miscarried again last year, around this time, got a dog and, uh, you know, for alina to have a little companion, and then lisa got pregnant and carried full term. We have calvin right. So like that's a, that's a.

Speaker 1: 1:22:20

That's a very short description of like a long journey over, I don't know, eight years or something like that, a huge part of our life. But when someone's like oh, you just wait till they're, like like shut up, like I just I'm not here for that, like I had every chance in the world to not have kids and and like you know the, the first one is like wake me up in the middle of the night, don't care. But there's also like back to like understanding your why is like there has to be a shift that it's not about you anymore and it's hard. It is hard sometimes, like you know, leonardo's in a phase right now where, like he's, it's taken sometimes an hour, hour and a half to to like go to bed and and like he's got all his, his little things that he wants to do right, like he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll have a little ball like a bubba. We write a little milk bottle, right, and he'll drink that.

Speaker 1: 1:23:27

And then the first thing is he comes out and he opens our door and he wants us to pretend to be asleep, and so we have to, and then he'll sneak around to the other side of the bed and pretend to put it over. He'll put it over on lace's side and then he'll sneak back and then he'll say here it is, and he'll have an empty hand. He's like it's over there, right. And he's like tricked you, right. And then, okay, let's go back to bed. And then he's got this little kitchen set with all these little foods and you're like is he asleep? Oh, 10 minutes later I hear the door open and he comes out and he's like I cooked something for you.

Speaker 1: 1:24:03

And sometimes he's got a little chef apron on and like he's not. Like I mean, I don't know, he's wired sometimes he's just not tired. He's like still napping at daycare. Sometimes he never naps with us. It's been like two years, yeah, he has napped at home, um. And so he brings all this in and then he'll he'll like ask if we finished it, like did we eat it right? And then we're like yes, we had and he goes okay, and now that you finished that, now you get this and he brings in like this second thing and it's like dessert and toys and like back to it, like so again, all this stuff is cute and whatever it's like. It's way cuter when it's your own kid I don't you know hearing stories, but other people's kids I get it Like okay, that's cute, but it's different when it's your blood.

Speaker 1: 1:24:53

I saw a post the other day that said don't be your child's first bully and I was like, holy shit, like that that's going to hit some people where they're not ready to feel it, so like and I'm not saying that like just shooing them to bed, but like it starts somewhere.

Speaker 1: 1:25:18

It starts with like, okay, maybe we can do better winding him down for bed, but this is a really normal thing. He's three and a half right and so just not hearing him and like, hey, this stuff doesn't matter. I said, get to bed right. I just don't want to get to that point of raising my voice with him and sometimes I'll tell him hey, you've come out like seven times, it's 1030 at night. If you come out again times it's 10 30 at night. If you come out again, I'm gonna lock your door. Okay, we have a lock on the outside of it. Um, you know, there's good and bad uses for that too. But, like, sometimes, I'll do it and he'll get really upset and I'll let him just scream and bang for a few minutes and then I'll go in there and I'll calm them down and I'll hug them and I'll just lay with them for a bit and then calms down. Right.

Speaker 1: 1:26:11

Um, and there's I don't, it's like that that that North star of, like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and I mean there's going to be all sorts of new stuff. Like the, the ex is like oh, you, you know, you've to happen. Maybe you were, you were a teenage boy, I was a teenage boy. You get yourself into some shit, you know, and and uh, but I'm here for and I'm here for, like, not just, it's not just me, it's. I'm trying to, you know, give you enough freedom to make some mistakes and whatnot. But like I'm, I'm, I'm hopefully gonna impart enough wisdom into you that, like you know, back to the gym thing. Like you know that I have your back. You might not agree with how I do it all the time, but I'm not a stupid person. And even if I was a stupid person, I'd still like, I want, you need to know that I have your back right.

Speaker 2: 1:27:22

So, like, yeah, that was running through my head right when you got to know that I have your back right. So, like, yeah, that was running through my head right when you got to the end of that I was like, oh, this is very similar to when we said when somebody comes in to know that you know we have their back, and it's true. And like I've seen things where it's like you know you spend 85 percent of the time that you'll ever spend with your kids in like the first 18 years. Oh, oh, those graphs are like yeah, and it's like yeah, think about that.

Speaker 2: 1:27:48

And you know, no one's saying that this journey is easy, but you know, we get one life. We're here for 8090 years if we're lucky, right. Such a big piece of this is taking another human into this world and raising them with the experiences that we've had and shaping them through that and being on that journey of good and bad, and then they go off onto that real world and that becomes one of the coolest projects that you've ever done. And like we're business owners, we're proud of the things that we've built. Like, looking back on that, that's going to be the greatest thing in my eyes looking at what we've've built and letting that person go out and kind of handle the world on their own. And it's like. In no way shape and form am I, you know, sitting here four months before having my first child saying that I'm ready, it's going to be easy, I got this, hell, no.

Speaker 2: 1:28:42

I mean you can be ready, but like, like you don't really know what ready means yet right like you, you know and and here's the thing is like what we expose ourselves to on a daily basis and not being afraid of challenging ourselves and not being afraid of being a beginner and having those workouts where you're in the middle and you feel like quitting and you don't having the days where you don't want to show up and you do.

Speaker 2: 1:29:05

All of this stuff starts to mold us into who we are, so that when these moments come up in life, like there is no chance that I'm going to quit, like there is no chance that I'm going to say this is hard and I'm out and I'm just going to go take care of myself, like the hard things that we do every day and this is the important piece of what I try to tell people in the gym, way beyond the exercise, is when you're in a controlled circumstance and you're exposing yourself to challenges and hard things, it affects you when you go outside of the gym. So when I say that I'm ready in four months when he comes into this world, it's I'm ready for the sleepless nights, I'm ready for the unexpected, I'm ready to not have anything under control and be a beginner at something again.

Speaker 3: 1:29:57

Yeah, You're ready for new experience. Yeah, that's what you're saying. So excited you don't know how to be a dad yet.

Speaker 1: 1:30:03

But you're ready for a new experience and I'm gonna figure it out.

Speaker 2: 1:30:08

But yeah, I'm not terrified to be a beginner and I don't believe that it's going to change. It's not going to take me away from being who I am.

Speaker 2: 1:30:20

It's going to define me more and that's what I'm excited for, yeah absolutely yeah, some people will be like, oh my god, like you know, once you have kids, your life is over, and it's like, no, no, no, I think we're just starting a new chapter. You're doing it wrong? Yeah, you're maybe you're doing it wrong, yeah, and, like, I guarantee you that kid's going to teach me some things that I don't know right now. And that's just the next chapter, and that's what I'm excited for. I'm excited for the unknown Because, again, it's what I've exposed to myself to get to the point that I'm at now, that when I see that out there, I'm like this is going to be good, because I know what the other side of that looks like.

Speaker 1: 1:31:00

Yeah, that was a lot on relationships around you. I mean we could do an hour and a half just on that Happiness in your endeavors. What about that?

Speaker 2: 1:31:18

I read in a book one time and I don't remember what book it was, but it was the key to happiness is being content and I don't like the word content, because we're always striving for more.

Speaker 1: 1:31:31

And I think from like a good enough, like I'm good enough, I don't need to improve type thing.

Speaker 2: 1:31:36

I hate that and it's like I think every human being needs something that they're striving for yeah, Especially men.

Speaker 2: 1:31:43

Men need something that they are working towards to better themselves, whether it's internal or external.

Speaker 2: 1:31:50

And, you know, I define this as being happy with where you're at right now and appreciating the journey that you're on, so like you can always wake up in the morning and wish you were somebody else and further down the line, and that's just going to inevitably lead to, you know, being unhappy and not being, you know, fulfilled with yourself, and just resentment for yourself for not probably doing something that you thought that you should have done.

Speaker 2: 1:32:26

Very moment right now, like I couldn't be happier being on this podcast with you. I couldn't be happier living in this house with my wife, my dog who's barking every now and then outside on the deck, and the two cats that are super annoying all the time. Like I wouldn't choose anybody else's life over this one right now. But I also know that there's things in the future that I want to achieve, and being where I'm at and continuing to work on those things every day to get to whatever it is that I want to be, that's happiness to me. Don't forget about this piece here and just think about that piece. You need both of them.

Speaker 1: 1:32:58

Yeah, learning how to be happy with what you have, with what you have um.

Speaker 1: 1:33:08

I saw, I saw a quick clip of um chris williamson, modern wisdom guy um, talking about like he talks a lot about your happiness and like the the um, insecure, overachiever, and you know that's I think that's kind of his avatar that he speaks to a lot.

Speaker 1: 1:33:22

But but the whole idea that, like you said, you would be happy with all of the things that you've achieved at this point, like no one's happy all the time, like that's you can't. That's not how happiness is is not a state, it's it's a feeling, that kind of comes and goes sometimes. You know, I'm sure it can be defined better than that but like we have times when we're sad, we have times when we're sad, we have times when we're angry, and it's not just happiness, bliss all the time, but to attach those things to achievements and external things, that's not going to produce it and then saying I'll be happy when it's like you're just moving the goalpost, you're just kicking that can down the road, right. So I think I think that's what you're kind of. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's what you're trying to get as like just learning how to be content with enjoying what you have.

Speaker 2: 1:34:20

Yeah, you know, comparison is the thief of joy, right, that's the age-old one and, like two of my favorite books ever is the courage to be disliked and the courage to be happy, which is kind of like the sequel and that falls into, like Ed Leary and psychology, which is, you know, kind of like the hell's angels of psychology back in the day, and essentially what the whole premise of that is is you have a choice in your life, right, you have the choice to be happy.

Speaker 2: 1:34:46

You have the choice to be the person that you want to be and inevitably that might make you disliked by other people and that's okay. Whatever your circumstances are, whatever your experiences are and whatever point you're at in your life right now, you have the choice to be happy when you appreciate what's around you. You look back at how far you've come and you also look at where you're going. This is the biggest piece. Like a lot of people will forget this piece. They'll look at their past and then they'll look at where they're not at and they forget this one right now. Yeah, but it's like when you make the choice today to to see like what you have from a very genuine standpoint don't look at what you don't have, look at what you do have and like that's where happiness comes from to me like, yeah, where the mind goes, energy flows.

Speaker 1: 1:35:38

Right if you're constantly thinking about what you don't have. Yeah. Um, it, that's where your mind is. It's, you know, and it's like it's, it's, it's, it's, I don't know like what's going to follow with.

Speaker 2: 1:35:52

That is like you're not taking care of insecurity and all sorts of just negative feelings Right and again, if you're not happy, you can make that choice to be happy, right? You just have to take a hard look at what you're doing right now and just make those changes in your life. You need to identify yourself as a happy person. What does a happy person do? And it's like you're in total control of that. It's nobody else. It's you, at the end of the day, to make that choice.

Speaker 1: 1:36:24

Yeah, it's you, at the end of the day, to make that choice. Yeah, um, like, I mean, you can think of different people in all walks of life, but a recent one is, uh, on the way back from nashville I had a absolutely miserable flight attendant and it didn't help that like her and I kind of butted heads a little bit. She got me in trouble. I feel like a freaking child on this plane. It was hilarious for all the people around us. It was not a full flight whatsoever. There was empty rows and whatnot.

Speaker 1: 1:36:58

I was in, I think, row four. You met Tyler right, he had upgraded to like the. It wasn't like first class with, like, the curtain across, it was literally just like a little bit more leg room and whatever. And I didn't realize that it was even like business class or whatever. So I just went up and sat beside him and she's like oh, no, no, no, no, no, sir, like you know, and just get your ass back to there. I was like oh, I was sorry, I was just trying to sit beside my friend.

Speaker 1: 1:37:29

Um, meanwhile I was in a. I was in a row of of three people and I was on the aisle and beside me was like a fairly large gentleman, like not not you know big fat guy, so to speak, but like he's just a bit overweight, but just a large human being. Like even if he lost 50 pounds, he's still a large human being. It's probably not super comfortable for him to have people on either side of him. So I was like, whatever, I had my iPad, I wanted to do some writing and stuff. So I was like I'm just going to try to find another seat. So I go to the one directly across from me, right, and I get in trouble again. Oh my god.

Speaker 1: 1:38:10

So now guys like a couple rows back are like oh, she got you again, man. So I tried another time and again, and she's like you can go back to the rows back there. These ones are like these are premium seats. I'm like what is? I just want to know what's premium about them, because it looks exactly like mine. It's just on the other side of the aisle, yeah. And then so, um, I, I did, I did test her a little bit. I didn't move, but I moved my stuff over onto that seat just so like I didn't have stuff all at my feet. I was like I'm not gonna get you, but this, this wasn't the point, was like, and it wasn't just like her and I was just a funny interaction, but uh, she was not super pleasant really with anybody. But like, what is it about?

Speaker 1: 1:38:55

you know, we've all seen or been on a flight where the person is just like they just bright your day you know, and you're like I, you know, like you tell five people after the flight, you know, maybe when you, you know, and you're like you know, like you tell five people after the flight, you know, maybe when you land, or the two you're like I should have seen this person, like they were incredible. Yeah, right, and what is it about them? Right, yeah, they're choosing to be happy. Yeah. Right, they're not. They don't want to be somewhere else.

Speaker 2: 1:39:31

They're in it, they're connecting with people, right? Yeah, I think it's important too to you know, know, put yourself in somebody else's shoes.

Speaker 2: 1:39:35

You never know what somebody's experiencing, but again 100 like I mean, we know as coaches, it doesn't matter what's going on in our life. If we step on that floor to deliver a product to people that are coming in, to leave with a smile on their face like I'm going to choose in that moment to be the best version of myself, and if you take that same idea to everything, like it doesn't matter, stuff's going to happen in life. It's inevitable, right? How are you going to choose to show up every single day? That's what it is.

Speaker 1: 1:40:05

Yeah, I mean that whole journey to kids that taught me a lot about like everyone's got a story, Everyone's got stuff going on that you have nothing about and just to to sometimes don't ask questions like it, so sometimes be curious and but just to like understand that like where they're at might not be exactly what's going through your head. So I'm sorry for telling that story about you, Miss Flight Attendant, You're a lovely human. The last piece, actually before we do, because we'll touch on this, some of these. So I had this. I knew we were going to talk about some of this stuff and I don't know why it popped into my head but like, do you remember how old are you? 34. 34. Okay, so a little bit younger than me. Do you remember ICQ way back in the day, Like the messenger app?

Speaker 2: 1:40:59

No, so we had AIM.

Speaker 1: 1:41:03

Aim Okay, like internet messaging yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, it was like this flower, this this little like the logo was like this little flower and and anyway, you, you could set your status and all that. And you had a profile. When I was 16 years old, my profile, I don't know what I, I don't know what like sort of of wisdom I was trying to impart or whatever. A lot of people had song lyrics in there and stuff like that. It was like you know who broke your heart, right, but mine said I still remember it. It said find something you love and do it. Eat healthy, ask questions, complain less. That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 1:41:48

I think it is your teenage self literally hit. What a good life is on the head.

Speaker 1: 1:41:56

Well, because I felt very purposeful. I was driving towards something that I cared a lot. I mean in my head I was trying to make the Olympics. Yeah. And now there's other pieces, the relationships around. You know I had a lot to learn with some some stuff there, um, taking care of myself, maybe in other ways, like you know, I have awareness on things that I just don't now, but, um, that that one's kind of stuck with me, that, like there are some things that definitely hit the nail on the head.

Speaker 1: 1:42:23

Um you know, I think the I think the eat healthy is kind of like a bit obvious. But I think finding something that you love and doing it because we're talking you know we're talking about CrossFit and fitness it doesn't have to be that you know it could be playing the violin and like I still think you probably should do some fitness, but like, if that's the thing that, like you know I do some fitness but like this is the thing that just oh, you should see me with the violin, like hell yeah, man, right. I think the ask questions is kind of like not necessarily you know, just be curious. Like you don't know everything. 100, be the beginner, right, and complain less. I don't know. I love, I think where I got that was my mom. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:43:19

When I think back of my childhood and stuff, I just don't really ever recall her being like a complainer about everything. And it's not like you know things to complain about like it's it's, it's a mindset, it's a way that you live, right. There's people that should be super happy and are just freaking miserable to be around, right.

Speaker 2: 1:43:42

Yeah yeah, and I just't her. I have a very similar story. Dude, I have to run to the bathroom really quick. I hope that's okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:43:51

All right, I don't know how to pause here. Oh yeah, I can pause.

Speaker 2: 1:43:55

I want to get this one out because it's important.

Speaker 1: 1:43:57

Hang on, let me pause.

Speaker 2: 1:44:01

Yeah, yeah, say that again. I said people take bathroom breaks on rogan all the time.

Speaker 1: 1:44:06

That just means you're an elite podcast, absolutely. I mean we're at an hour 44. This is, this is long form um, in the spirit of keeping things raw and real, we will, we'll, uh, we'll, keep that that's it.

Speaker 2: 1:44:16

We won't edit anything out. It's human, it's human, um. But I love what you just said because I think I have a very similar experience. I grew up where my dad owned his own business and I watched the rise of that business and I also watched him lose that business. My mom she's had MS since I was born never let it stop her, never complained about anything, just continued on with her life. Never let that thing define her.

Speaker 2: 1:44:47

And to this day, the biggest lesson that she ever taught me and I'll never forget this one as long as I live is at Little League Baseball. Right, it came time when people got picked for the all-star team that would go to Williamsport and inevitably, hopefully, you get to go to Pennsylvania to the Little League World Series. Right, that's the trajectory of it. And I didn't make that team and you know I was good at baseball. I thought I should have made it and it was crushing for a little kid to have that first experience with disappointment.

Speaker 2: 1:45:20

And she looked me right in the eyes and she goes listen, you're going to be disappointed a hell of a lot more in your life. You're way ahead of the game because you're experiencing it now at 12 years old and these kids are going to have to experience it later on in life and it was like zero hard feelings, zero, anything like that. She taught me that lesson right there and it just showed me do not complain, just get back to work, control what you can and let go of what you can't. And that has led the trajectory of everything that I've done in my life. Up until this point. I've never let something or some sort of setback define me, but I've also had the role models of two people that never complained about anything. They just showed up. That was it.

Speaker 1: 1:46:11

Yeah, I'll tell you a cool story here before and we'll hit on the last piece. Um, so I actually just recorded it yesterday as like a, a quick cast, like one of these like three to five minute episodes. Um, so, are you familiar with kids strong? Probably not. It's like, basically, little kids crossfit right, so like we take leonardo there and they're so good at creating moments for people, and like they name a class captain and then the captain walks up and down the row of all the kids and, like handshake, introduces themselves with eye contact, like they're just they're, they're weaving in a lot more than just like hey, like run around and get tired.

Speaker 1: 1:46:47

Um, at the end of the class they also do awards. So they'll do like a coach's award, for they'll name a kid for you know, whatever reason, and I know they like to spread it around too. Like you know, there's, there's, there's kids that are just going to be quieter, that aren't going to get noticed, and there's kids that are just going to be quieter, that aren't going to get noticed, and there's kids that are always like in your face. You know just how they're, they're wired, but, um, so there's that. And then there's like a parent strong award where they're like hey, who came here with you? And like this kid standing up in the box, you're like mommy and daddy. They're like bring him out here, right.

Speaker 1: 1:47:19

And then, like you know, the kids up for the awards, their pitcher goes up on the tv right and like so it's another little moment too. Like they're standing on the podium. Some of them are so shy they don't even want to do it, because if it's a big class, there's like 10, 15 kids and their parents there. It's like this audience, right, yeah, um, like there there's. And the way some of them get up, I'm like, oh, my god, I wish I had that back then. Like I needed that. I was the kid that was like I don't want to get me out of

Speaker 1: 1:47:47

here, I don't want to go up there, right? So anyway, leonardo's gotten his fair share of awards and like he'll like dress up in his like lion costume and like do the whole class in the lion costume and he's just drenched in sweat underneath. And he'll do it in his chase costume, paw patrol, and like he's just, he's very confident in himself and like just does his thing. Um, but I've noticed recently, like maybe the last two months, that he was getting upset toward the end of a class if he didn't get an award right, and he would say, like I want my picture up on the tv and like you, you know, he would say, like I want my picture up on the TV and like you know he would go to the truck and he's like I didn't get an award.

Speaker 1: 1:48:28

I'm like, you know, like, but look at all the other kids, not everybody got an award. You get them sometimes not all the time. I said, if everybody gets an award all the time, they don't mean anything right, it's just they just don't. And, like you know, you're having this sort of like moderately high level conversation with a three-year-old and like just wondering how much of it lands right. And then last Saturday we're walking out and he just says it very matter-of-factly he goes Daddy, I didn't get an award and I'm like ready to kind of hop in and and say, and he goes, but that's okay, I, I go, I was like ready to be, like I'm so proud of you. And then he goes and I'm not crying and I'm like, oh my god, like this is such a win. What you described it's happening to some degree with him and it's like you can't just jump in and save people. No, it doesn't help and don't willfully push them into harm, but you have to let them experience things and it's not necessarily like the, the, the trophy, it's, it's learning the absence of it and it's like learning to have the joy of just doing that thing. It's like, okay, you didn't get picked for the team, do you quit baseball now? I had I had a similar thing happen and it didn't go my way.

Speaker 1: 1:50:05

So, grade nine basketball um, I was good. I was a good athlete. Basketball wasn't my sport. Like you know, for all the like, my dad never missed a football game. He took work off, he videoed our games, he coached my little league baseball teams Like so good, I wasn't the greatest basketball player. I was athletic, I could jump, I could shoot the game not my thing and I remember the drives home from basketball not super fun sometimes, right and um, I still played like elementary school basketball and all that pretty high level stuff we're talking right um. So anyway, we, we went.

Speaker 1: 1:50:44

I went out for my grade nine basketball team and, like our basketball team did it go in and win like provincial championships, like there were some very good athletes in in my, in my school, um, but I got cut. I got cut from the from the grade nine basketball team. I've never been cut from a team before but even now, as I remember it like it wasn't, it wasn't like how I thought about it and how it was like sort of in my sphere of people was like. So it came down and and, uh, a guy who was a buddy of mine mark adams was his name like he's, he was better basketball player than me. Like I, I think there was. You know, I could, maybe it could have gone either way, who knows but like I didn't take it as like me needing to get better and like it was like a him versus I mean meanwhile there was a whole list of the other team and like, but that's what it came down to for the last one. So it was like that's an example, like there's an example of like me not taking it very well and maybe people around me sort of reinforcing that too.

Speaker 1: 1:52:02

Right, didn't play basketball. I didn't go out again. In grade 10 I did sort of narrow in on some sports that I was, you know, better at, but like you know, it doesn't. It doesn't always go that way and like you know, so that it's, it's a, it's a good, it's a good lesson to learn and, just like I did, enjoy basketball, yeah, you know those lessons.

Speaker 2: 1:52:24

They're so important and, honestly, like you sit here and I tell mine like I didn't learn these lessons or realize they had value until I was in my mid to late 20s way later, yeah, and like even for an example, my first year of Pop Warner football, I quit. I got hit for the first time and I quit and I'll never forget that experience because later on I was so frustrated with myself that I let it go. Yeah, because I picked it back up in high school and I loved it. Yeah, and it was like I let. That little bit of adversity of getting knocked on my ass once yeah, once yeah, caused me to go away from something. And that was another one of the biggest lessons of when I was a kid that I didn't realize until later and it's like, okay, not everything is going to be perfect. You're going to be a beginner and you're going to socket things in the beginning yeah, but give them a chance and it could be the thing that really fuels your life and there's like a number of these little things.

Speaker 2: 1:53:26

I also got cut from basketball. It's not my sport, but like I was getting ready for baseball. Baseball was my passion. I made varsity when I was a sophomore and then that led to senior year. I quit baseball because of a stupid reason I was frustrated with the coach. I picked up lacrosse, I had a great season, but to this day, because the stupid reason I was frustrated with the coach. You know, I picked up lacrosse, I had a great season, but to this day I regret quitting baseball because it was my love. And then later on I was like damn, there's that lesson again. But now I like I have a second purpose in life because I just bought a baseball glove. I get to do that with my kid, hopefully when he's born.

Speaker 2: 1:54:01

But it's like these lessons that you don't realize are going to be such a part of, like, your life. They show up later on and it's it's. I think you have a choice of. You know, this is something that I've been exploring lately. It's like when you get put in these circumstances of adversity, you can either look inward or you can look outward. The people that are going to grow are going to be the people that look inward and be like okay, why do I feel like this? What's going on right now? And then, what can I control and how can I correct it? And then you grow as a person from that and you get the other people that look outward where it's like you can blame everything and anything around you for the circumstance that you're in. You don't grow from that, you don't. You don't become the next level of yourself from that.

Speaker 1: 1:54:43

Yeah, back to like the sports. There was one that came to mind when you were just talking there and I think it was sort of like one of my earlier, like what you can and can't control. So I started playing football in grade seven and anyway, there was this minor football league. It was like grade six, seven, maybe they don't, I don't even know if they took grade sixes, but seven, eight, right, and it was like. So I grew up playing like schoolyard football, like I.

Speaker 1: 1:55:16

We played every recess from grade four onward like I didn't do anything else, like we had a football in our hands and like I was, I was a track athlete.

Speaker 1: 1:55:25

So like, especially as I developed and I got older, um, I mean, when I touched the ball we scored right and it was kind of like it was cool. But but like there was other kids that were super fast too, that were like that and like it was just like we challenged the hell out of each other, like it was this, like we were just in this bubble, and then when we got like we challenged the hell out of each other, like it was this, like we were just in this bubble, and then when we got to like all be on the same team. When it came to like high school, it was like magic. But anyway, this is all to say that, like in grade eight, when I was like the upper year of that minor football, like I was pretty much done growing by the time I was in grade nine, like I, you know I was not a huge kid, but I was, like you know, I was in like the, the back row on the in the elementary school photos, even though I'm not a huge person now, um, and I was, I was a pretty muscular kid, so like, anyway, um, we started the season started, scored on the first play of the season, scored, I think, four touchdowns first game, three in the second.

Speaker 1: 1:56:28

And then I fractured my fibula in my leg at practice. Like I don't know how exactly that happened, we think maybe like someone was tackling me because like from behind and like my heel came up and so like it hit him in a spot on his shoulder and like his shoulder was destroyed, like it was pretty spectacular and I had like a hairline fracture in my leg because of it. Like talk about high impact of some yeah 13, 14 year olds.

Speaker 1: 1:56:58

But like anyway, um, we didn't know what it was. I thought it was just painful in my leg a little bit, and so, like we didn't know what it was. I thought it was just painful in my leg a little bit, and so like I was like I can't run, like I can't, I can't perform. So they're like, okay, we will still put you on the field. And so they put me at like tight end and I remember having to try to block a defensive end, like literally on one leg, and I remember he at one point he just literally like ragdolled me, threw me to the ground and I landed and my leg just started like shaking. I was like I think I'm done, guys. And so found out we got, um, it didn't show up on an x-ray, it showed up on a bone scan. But it's like, yeah, you have good, got a crack in your leg there. And, and fast forward to the end of the season, we get they did awards at the end of the season.

Speaker 1: 1:57:44

I still I won this award. It was what was it called? It was like the offensive MVP, it was like lethal weapon award or something like that, because I think I still had the most touchdowns on our team of like in two games, but it was. It sucked. I was so ready to just, I was looking forward to that. So much, man, so much, and I had to just sit on the sidelines and watch it happen without me and sometimes watch us lose and watch, just yeah, I couldn't help, I couldn't do it and yeah, that that that sucks, that good. But like there's you know what I think of how many things have come up in my life, I mean, since you're like 13, 14 years old, like a lot of things that you can't control. And yeah, I mean that's that. That? That pretty sort of harsh reality from your mom is like it's true and it's, it's needed.

Speaker 2: 1:58:53

You need to hear that yeah, and you know you take that later on in life and you choose how you want those lessons to fuel you. You choose how you want those lessons to fuel you. You choose how you want those lessons to mold you into who you are. Like you know, if you don't reflect back and see that stuff and look at the experiences that you've had and then apply them going forward, like I think that there's just so much missed opportunity there, like I could when I was younger, my mom taught me that lesson I didn't pay attention to it, right Going back and reflecting on those circumstances and those situations and being like, wow, like that was a pretty big piece of my childhood and I'm going to give it the attention that it needs because it's molded me into who I am today, consciously and subconsciously, it's like wow, that's really cool, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:59:46

The last piece. So I asked you pillars of a good life and you mentioned like a financial piece. Let's, let's unpack that a little bit.

Speaker 2: 1:59:56

Yeah, I mean like money can cause stress. Right, life can cause stress, especially you know economic state that we're in right now. People are stressed out At some point. It's an undeniable fact that you know money can either cause stress or it cannot cause stress, depending on how you set yourself up. And I think that you can go in one of two ways. You can either, you know, accumulate to a point of you know you don't have to necessarily worry about those stresses as much, or you can take a look at your lifestyle and just live within your means so that, again, the financial piece of it doesn't cause as much stress to you on a daily basis. I think it has the power to do that because it literally runs everything that we do, everything that we get from a basic human standpoint food, water like it's going to cost money. And when people kind of live in that gray area in the middle where they either don't seek out how to accumulate more or live within their means of getting to a baseline, you just have this unnecessary stress on your life that's going to affect you in so many different ways.

Speaker 2: 2:01:14

So I do think it's a piece that people don't like to talk about necessarily, but it is very important and you know I say this from experience because when I bought my gym, like I left my career making six figures and I downgraded my life to a coach's pay Right. I did that for a year until I was financially in control of the gym and then I had to grow that gym in order to pay myself and it's like the biggest thing that I did there was I just took what was important, the necessities, and I was like, okay, this is what I need to live. And again, I also did that while being happy because I was okay with where I was at that point, knowing I was striving for something greater, even though, like I wasn't going out and eating and you know I wasn't buying a beer or anything like that and you know, drove my truck to 350,000 miles, like that's just what I did yeah, said no to a lot of things.

Speaker 1: 2:02:15

Vacations, what, what, what is that?

Speaker 2: 2:02:17

so I took the life that I lived for eight years, making a great salary and benefits in this career, and I immediately just dropped it down to what are the bare necessities that I need to live, and I didn't have that stress Like. I allowed myself to be like okay, from a basic human perspective, I'm meeting these needs. Now I can put my time and energy into growing this thing that I'm passionate about, and I think a lot of people miss that because they just get caught in this wheel of it's never enough, because when there's more, they just upgrade their lifestyle to more and they're always trying to make it meet and they're very afraid to go backwards and that wheel too, to be like okay, what's necessary here and what does that look like?

Speaker 1: 2:03:02

Well, sometimes backwards is not in your control here, and what does that look like? Well, and sometimes backwards, is not in your control. Yeah, like you know, it's different in canada than the states, but, like you, you can't renew a mortgage past a certain term and so, like, your mortgage comes up and they're at new rates yeah right, like, like you know, can you that that's hard to plan for?

Speaker 1: 2:03:25

Yeah Right, so it's so. But anyway, the point is that that, like, I think there are things out of your control, so control what is in your control, what? What are a couple of things maybe that have like served you well financially Learning how to budget Okay.

Speaker 2: 2:03:41

Learning how to budget. Okay, like hands down, knowing where my money was and where it was going and what it was going to, and being very in tune with that. I honestly think that like that's one of my superpowers. And to my own detriment, sometimes and you know, kenny from Tinkers, if you're listening to this, you know this as well too Like I'll stress myself out sometimes because I will budget so meticulously that I'll feel like, oh my God, I'm not going to make ends meet.

Speaker 2: 2:04:13

But that's just how I budget and I know that it's okay at the end and understanding like there is no extra dollars that are going to something that it shouldn't be. I took that from those bare bone days of of of buying the gym and growing it, and I just kept it. Yeah, and it's like I, I always keep that there, and then that's just how I live my life, because I I know my basic needs are met and if we need to go above and beyond or if we need to have another expense coming in, especially with the kid coming in July, like I can adapt to that much easier because I kept myself so strict in that realm.

Speaker 1: 2:04:53

okay, um, how old were you when you learned about investing? And when that's a pretty broad question, like even yeah, investing as a term is pretty broad, right, but like, when did that whole sort of like mindset open up to you Early?

Speaker 2: 2:05:08

So my best friend to this day that I went to preschool with all the way through high school, Mike, I think it was probably in our college years we got into like real estate and real estate investing, and it was just us two. I don't even know how it happened, but we both started reading, uh, bigger pockets when it first started and, like you know, looking at investing in real estate for passive income and stuff like that, that was the first exposure I had to it. So it was probably early twenties and that led me to. You know, once I was out of college and I had a job, I bought a condo and I flipped it myself like late nights, bottom floor of a condo, building people trying to sleep, and I'm really into things and like I just yeah, I didn't, I just was trying to make it work. I had no, no one's strapping it.

Speaker 2: 2:06:01

Yeah, that's it, that's it. And you know I did that and I sold it and that led me to purchase the home that we're in now, which is a multifamily. So me and my wife live on one side and I have a tenant on the other side Nice and then eventually what that's going to lead to is I can rent out this side when we decide to move out and find our home. That's going to be long term for the family and find our home that's going to be long-term for the family.

Speaker 2: 2:06:26

So it was very early on that I was exposed to it and understood that bootstrap and hard work does actually pay off. But you also have to take a little bit of risk, and my biggest mindset that I've had since the beginning on that is I'm willing to bet on myself 10 out of 10 times to make it work. And even the investor profile DNA that we did in Nashville, like it, told me that I was very analytical and I like to understand things first, and I think that's why I'm very confident in betting on myself, because I know that I look into the ins and outs of it. But really more exposure to a bigger world of it was when we started talking and when you became my mentor, psychology of money was a big piece of that whole thing. Great book.

Speaker 2: 2:07:14

And then coming into Tinker and just getting exposure to other people that were involved in different things started to open up my eyes to the world that it is.

Speaker 1: 2:07:24

Yeah, started to open up my eyes to you. Know the world that it is? Yeah, um, you're familiar with the rich dad, poor dad term.

Speaker 2: 2:07:29

Like mind your business, yeah that was kind of like what it starts with. That was one of the early books that that me and my buddy, mike, had read, and that changed our perspective too. We're like, whoa, oh, this, this is a different way of thinking than I've always been exposed to yeah, it's funny, mike is the name in the book too.

Speaker 1: 2:07:45

Yeah, I feel like I understand that more than I did reading it. It doesn't mean you own a business, but treating your financials as a mind, your business. Understand what's going on, understand that you can do things and put it to work.

Speaker 2: 2:08:10

And it's like, as business owners, if we don't know the things that in and outs of our business that are making it run, like if we don't know where those dollars are going and where they're coming in, we don't have a grasp on how to get a handle on that and grow it. It's the same thing in your life, like you know whether you're in tune with business or not, like it's the same principles If you don't know where the dollars are going in and out and you don't understand that at a basic level. Like yeah, it becomes a business, life is a business.

Speaker 1: 2:08:45

Yeah, the idea so like it's not to confuse your job with your business, right, and it's to keep building assets while you earn a paycheck, right. So did I ever tell you how the story of how I got into investing? I don't think so.

Speaker 1: 2:09:00

No, you did you did, losing track of all that money, and then it just came in. Yeah, from the payment. Well, it just came in. It was sitting there the whole time, but like I actually recorded an entire podcast on it, so it's way back somewhere but I'll tell you something really funny before you start yeah go me that story.

Speaker 2: 2:09:17

I always log into my processing profiles and just hope that I missed something.

Speaker 1: 2:09:23

Right, yeah. So for those that haven't heard it, I'll just go over really quickly. It's the first three years of business running the gym. There was a lot of up and down in terms of money in, money out. Lace and I were living in her parents' house and had no expenses. Then we had a gym a little bit of money coming in, had some more expenses along with it. Bought our first house, which again expenses. Gym. Started to do well, teaching, we're teaching more.

Speaker 1: 2:09:55

Anyway, when you don't pay attention to this stuff, it always seems level right. I was not the budgeter, I did not go nowhere. All of our money was going at all budget. I did not go know where all of our money was going at all, and so, anyway, when I set up the initial business accounts, I did test payments out of my own accounts and everything, and what I didn't realize until two and a half, almost three years later was that credit cards were put directly into our account, like when they got processed, and then bank accounts went into like a holding account, like a PayPal, so it was called VersaPay, so I had to log into VersaPay and then, hey, okay, transfer this money in. Didn't know that and initially not many people were using that either. Because people we didn't have online banking where it's just like, oh, here's my transit numbers, I can just log in. It's like, do you have a void check on you? No, okay, here I'll just take your credit card, yeah, right. And so over time, more and more people, they were shifting and then I started paying more attention to things.

Speaker 1: 2:10:57

Anyway, I realized something was wrong. I didn't know what it was, but some investigating and I found $77,000 in that account that like I mean and I I've told this story, I don't, but anyway I'll bring it back to like the point of telling it again but like it wasn't. Like, oh, that would have been nice to have. It's like if we had it, it would have been gone. We didn't do Christmas that year. Year we paid our mortgage with gift money from our wedding. Like if we didn't get married the year before. Like we couldn't pay our affiliate fee. I emailed dave castro and I was like dude, I, I love this stuff. I can't pay this. Like I just don't know where it's coming from yeah um and and anyway.

Speaker 1: 2:11:39

So the point of telling the story again was that the point of telling the story again was that, basically, we executed a savings plan that was wildly aggressive. So, if you don't think you can save, yes, you can just do it automatically. Start with putting away 2%, 5%, whatever, build it up Right, and then, and then live within what you actually have in your account, right, and so, anyway, what? What happened with all? That was like it was. We were, this chunk of money was dropped on us, and so, like we wiped out student debt, we wiped out credit card debt, we wiped out everything, the plan.

Speaker 1: 2:12:17

Even way back then, we bought the house for the property, right, it was like a teardown cottage, it was. There was so much that you could have. It needed a lot I say so much you could have done with it. It was a knockdown. We didn't. We put a little deck on the back, we bought, we put some new carpeting in and we bought a TV. That was it. So pretty, pretty minimal in terms of like renovations, you know. Um, and so we were left over with like just over 30 grand, and so I had a buddy that I knew knew a heck of a lot about investing. So, lo and behold, now he's like in line to be the next CEO of Brookfield, like wow, yeah, ridiculous, um, and he sort of gave me some basics and show and just gave me confidence in it. Right, like, if you, if you go to the wrong person, like, hey, I want to do some investing, like when I'm talking, I'm talking stock market, uh, they're like, whoa, risky, risky, really, whoa, you're going to lose all your money, not necessarily. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:13:19

Right, like, and that has not been my experience, so. So, yeah, I mean there are risks associated, but, like, let's assess your risk tolerance. And really, what your risk tolerance is is like, when do you need the money? And I was like, well, I've been living like I didn't have it this whole time and our gym is gradually doing better, so I'm just gonna, I don't need it. Okay, so cool, you can be more risky if your timeline is whenever, right.

Speaker 1: 2:13:46

So really, when you talk about different types of investments in a stock market, there's target date index funds that if you're 50 and you're set to retire at 60, they're going to get more and more conservative toward that date. Right, so that you don't lose that. It might convert to, like you know, more conservative things or bonds or whatever. It is right, um, but anyway, for like again to tie this back to the financial piece in the mind, your business build up like that. That are, those accounts are assets for us now and I don't have any plans to like, pull money from them. I'm, we're young enough that like that's. I don't, we don't have pensions or anything like that, we don't have benefits. It's like that is our future, right, that's one piece of our future.

Speaker 1: 2:14:33

And but even realizing, like I didn't grow up investing my family doesn't, my dad doesn't, I think he mutual funds, but it's just like what was set up through work and all that. I think what I'm doing, what I've done, is outside of what he'd be comfortable with. Sure, I've landed in the seat to do it in a very peculiar way, untraditional way, right, but what happened? But when you start to play the game of it, when you start to see a hundred dollars turn into 150 dollars and you didn't put in hours to work for it, my god, like that, that's a game that I want to play yeah, I want to figure out how to do that.

Speaker 1: 2:15:25

I love what I do, right, but like you, you mind your business. You have to figure out some. You don't have to. But, like we're talking about how to build a great life, is for me money, having enough of it. So, like past the point, like I've lived with financial stress and I've lived with less of it. So, like past the point, like I've lived with financial stress and I've lived with less of it, I would say sometimes, at times without it more, probably more times than not, just less of it. Right, there's always something, um and I mean it it dictates your thinking from day to day.

Speaker 1: 2:16:04

But I also noticed something too, that once I realized our business is doing a little bit better and that we had that, and just our financial landscape changed like literally overnight. I didn't want things that I wanted before, right, like once I knew I was like I could buy that, okay, that's fine, I don't actually need it. And I and it, and I think it was just knowing that I couldn't have it maybe, and it was like you know, I was so like in the bubble of our gym. It was like I want nicer equipment, I want, I want a needle bearing bar, I want kilo plates, I want little toys and this and that. And then, as soon as I was like once I had the money to buy them, I was like it's probably not the best idea, like I could do something else with it.

Speaker 2: 2:16:46

Yeah, I think it's important for people to never stop learning and educating themselves and exposing themselves to different things. Right, because it's going to change the way that your mind works entirely when you start to learn about this stuff and not be afraid to just dip your toe in the water and get exposure from somebody who's a little bit more knowledgeable and like. That's what changed for me, and I know it probably changed it for you, because, up until you know, I found Two Brain and Tinker and all of you it was my previous career oh, put money into your 401k and then maybe, when you hit a certain age, you'll have a certain amount of money and that's what you retire on. And I want to give credit where credit is due. My first Tinker meetup in Vegas Coop's talk oh, dude, changed my life, changed the way I looked at this stuff, changed my viewpoint. It was like when I found CrossFit and fitness started to make sense. Yeah, that talk made money and finances and investing make sense so.

Speaker 1: 2:17:55

So like I know you're not going to be able to regurgitate it and paraphrase it perfectly, but like, what was it about it? Like kind of outline what it was and what what hit so hard for you?

Speaker 2: 2:18:04

yeah, so essentially like, the premise of his talk was like Zenit zones or like blue zones, right and increasing your you know quality of life, the amount of not your lifespan, but your healthspan. How many years of your lifetime do you spend doing the stuff that you want to do and intend to do? And basically what he did is he took a number of factors. He took basically the profile that an insurance company will do on you to estimate how many years you're going to live based on your lifestyle habits, which they do do that and then he took in the health and fitness piece of it how strong are you? What's your VO2 max? How in shape are you in taking care?

Speaker 1: 2:18:45

of yourself Deadlift, overhead, press squat and VO2 max.

Speaker 2: 2:18:49

Yep. And then he took whatever that estimated lifespan was and then if you have really good fitness metrics, that adds to that couple of years because you're doing yourself a favor there. It's never going to go in the opposite direction unless you don't take care of it. Then the final piece of it was you know well how much money do you need on a yearly basis to live the lifestyle that you're comfortable with? It's not I need two or three million dollars a year. It's where are you happy, where are you comfortable? Like, what do you need to live the life that you live? Right? Then you take that and it did this whole math problem in the Excel sheet and it spat out a number of a net worth that was kind of like your target, so that when you get to a certain age, if you have this net worth, it should be able to support the lifestyle that you are happy with and comfortable with.

Speaker 2: 2:19:42

And I was like oh, investing isn't about becoming the richest person in the world. Investing is about learning these different avenues to accumulate things, to get to a point in life where I've accumulated enough that it supports my life now and I don't have to worry about you know working, I don't have to worry about this. I don't have to worry about working, I don't have to worry about this. I don't have to worry about that and I'll probably still do it, but I don't need to.

Speaker 2: 2:20:10

I have that choice and it was like it's not an astronomical number. It's based on how long are you going to live, how healthy are you and what you need to live a comfortable lifestyle, and that's different for everybody. And then I was able to take that go different for everybody. And then I was able to take that, go back to the drawing board and just create a plan of how I'm going to save, where I'm going to put those savings dollars to, so that, hopefully over time or not hopefully, like I have the plan, I know, over time it's going to lead to this.

Speaker 2: 2:20:37

I have the blueprint to achieve that, and then at some point, that's it, I've hit that goal and it has a purpose to it yeah, and then what do you do?

Speaker 1: 2:20:48

is I mean, all the stuff that we talked about? Like, do you have still have a north star? Like it's not, I think? I think people have have been set up with this lie that, like you know this, this retirement 65, oh, I'll live my life then, I'll do all my traveling then and, like man, we've seen that play out so poorly. Um, you know, so many times, and I think this is just like a different way to to think about it, um, and I mean really for for what we do, where this stuff is not taken care of for you yeah um it, but but again, that doesn't mean that you need to be a business owner or an entrepreneur or whatever to to to do some of this stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:21:27

Like, like I like talking about this stuff so much because it is what I needed to hear X amount of years ago. You know, I've been doing it for um 10, 10 years now, you know, and it's served me really well. Like that's, that is a piece where I can. I can, like I know, as long as things progress in a certain way, like we'll be fine yeah, you know and and that that.

Speaker 1: 2:21:52

That one more piece is like. That gives me the peace of mind to like not make decisions out of fear, right and not, and just like, not. Like I'm a better gym owner, knowing that I have some other things set up that are going to serve me well over time. Yeah, I'm nicer, I'm more understanding, just because I don't have that scarcity mindset of like, like, what am I going to do? How am I going to be taken care?

Speaker 2: 2:22:20

of right. You nailed it it's. People often think of accumulating wealth as like, I'm striving to be rich. And when you say that, like really what you're saying is I'm striving to live a $10 million a year lifestyle and it's like that's Instagram. Have good luck and have fun with that. That's Instagram stuff. It's a false, false thing. Really, what you're doing is you're fulfilling your basic human needs of comfort, like Maslow's hierarchy theory of needs. That's still true to this day 100%. What you're doing is you're looking to build yourself to a certain point where those needs are met. And when those needs are met, you can start to look elsewhere and how you can serve the world better. You're not worried about, you know, surviving or how you're going to survive next year or whatever it is like. That's the goal of wealth accumulation. And if you need $100,000 a year to do that, cool. Then you have a target that's set to make sure that you get yourself to a point where $100,000 a year can come from the things that you've put your money into to allow it to grow. And you know one other thing that I wasn't expecting to change my perspective on this, but it certainly did. And this is really cool. You should look into it.

Speaker 2: 2:23:38

I got this thing last Father's Day and I forget what it's called. It's like story something and forget what it's called. It's like story something and essentially what it does is it asks my dad a question every week for the whole year, he answers it via email and then this Father's Day that book will get printed with all of his oh, that's cool and I'll have it. And one of the last questions that it's asked in the last couple weeks is you know, if you all of a sudden had all this money, what would you do with it? And at 74 years old, he said I would give it away.

Speaker 2: 2:24:13

And he just named off a couple different charities that you know kind of mean something to him and he's like I've realized that you know, this life isn't about accumulating this stuff, like if I had it, I would give it to people that could use it and need it more. And again, that just hammered it home that people think money is about getting rich and being a rich person. It's like that's not the case, because most of those people probably live paycheck to paycheck too, or like up to their means. It's setting yourself up to where, as your basic needs are met so that now you can give yourself to the world in a different way. I think that's what it's all about yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 1: 2:24:57

Is it called um story worth? Yes, okay, I just uh, I just typed it. I was like I, this has got to be it.

Speaker 2: 2:25:04

Um yeah, and you can. You can change the questions in there. It'll give you prompts if you need it. I honestly plugged it into chat GPT and, you know, messed around with it a little bit, so I got to ask him the questions that I wanted to ask him and it took the trajectory from like early childhood to to now being 74. Yeah, and it's just cool.

Speaker 1: 2:25:23

I mean, there's a part of me that, like I want to have those conversations but they're hard to just arrive on. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:25:34

You know, yeah, and I think this is like it's allowed us to break down that barrier, because now, when I have that printed book, I can be like Dad. You know, you said this here let's go fishing, let's talk about it.

Speaker 1: 2:25:47

Yeah, man. Well, two and a half hours in, I hope people listen to the end to get that little nugget, because I appreciate that one big time. Cool man. I think this is probably a good spot to wrap up. I appreciate taking up this much of your time and doing this and, you know, maybe we'll do this again once you've had your boy and we'll talk all things.

Speaker 2: 2:26:10

Yeah, man, yeah, I enjoyed it so much, man. Thank you for having me, and we'll for sure do it again. All right, appreciate you, man, you too, man.