Train For A Great Life
A Great Life doesn't happen by accident.
I'll share my own experiences, thoughts on training, mindset, life and how to build a great life of your own.
Train For A Great Life
Erik Zeyher: From Celebrity DJ to Fitness
Okay, hello, welcome back to another episode of Training for a Great Life. I have Eric Zier with me on today. We've kind of run in similar circles for a little while with the whole gym ownership and mentoring thing. So, eric, welcome, great to have you. Just tell me, tell us a bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jay, thanks for having me on. Man Gym owner out of New York in upstate New York, so not too far of New York City. Poughkeepsie, yeah, poughkeepsie.
Speaker 1:I looked it up. There's a spot nearby called Kingston I grew up in Kingston, Ontario, Okay and there's also a Kingston, jamaica too.
Speaker 2:Yes, which is very interesting. Yeah, so gym owner in New York York, played D1 soccer in college.
Speaker 1:Somewhere in between I had a career in nightlife and DJing and producing, and here I am kind of like living a pretty awesome life that stuff and you sort of sent me some pillars of like how you, you know, how things that you build a great life around and I'll ask you some questions on that. The first thing the nightlife thing and the DJing, like you know, you kind of just it's easy to just gloss over that, but like I know, like I've known you for a little while, like I know you do things at a high level and uh, thanks, but some. But before we hit record you were like telling me some some of the djing stuff, like yeah, just talk about that, and like how did? How did? First of all, just it's interesting, how did you get into that?
Speaker 2:so it's so funny. So I actually started my first like entrepreneurial journey when I was 15 by starting a dj company. So I started with my cousin who's my business owner he's my co-owner at the gym and just kind of fell into music stuff and did it throughout college, Got done with college and was like I had an opportunity to intern with a celebrity DJ. So I graduated like summa cum laude or whatever the fuck it was and had a degree to teach ready to rock and roll and I told my parents that I was going to go work in New York City Nightlife and DJ and intern for a little bit with some guys.
Speaker 1:What was the initial reaction to that? My mom freaked out.
Speaker 2:It was unbelievable. She's talking to my cousin. She's like you have to talk him out of this. I can't believe he's doing this. And he's like you only get this opportunity once. He like you only get this opportunity once. Like he'll be fine, he'll learn a lot. He'll he's moderately successful at what he does. He'll he'll be okay.
Speaker 2:Um, like I was also student body president in college too. So like to go from like student body president honors in my class and then be like I'm gonna go intern. Like people are like what the fuck? Like it didn't make any sense to most people, but like what that did was it was really cool One. It exposed me to hospitality and people that I would never would have been around and experiences that I never could have like paid for access to at the young age of like 22. So, like I'm in, how old are you now? 38. Okay, yeah, and I had seven years of DJing before that that. So it was just like a little bit seasoned.
Speaker 2:Um, but like in these rooms, like you got people spending 80, 90, 100 000 a night on booze celebrities. Like this is like this is new york city, like this is the big leagues and I'm out like six nights a week, just trying to be a fly on the wall and just take it all in. Yeah, I'm understanding like who runs what door, what people you need to know, and, before I know it, I'm actually sitting in eugene rem's office. Eugene owns uh m group. He's one of the partners helping put music on his computer and fix it. So this is a guy that grew a company from five million dollars to 20 million dollars during the 2008-2009 recession and I'm helping this dude with music on his laptop. I'm like how the fuck?
Speaker 2:did I get here from Poughkeepsie, new York, um, but it just exposed me to some really high level stuff. So I was really fortunate to get in like the right circle of people, um, and with that like got exposed to like DJing celebrity parties. So like I did like Usher's birthday, uh, kid Cudi's album release party, nas's album release party, nas' album release party Just got to be in the right room with stuff for Floyd Mayweather, the cast of Glee. I saw that kid that was in the wheelchair actually can walk, which I didn't even know, so I'm dancing around. I was like, oh my god. I was like that kid looks really familiar. And I'm like, oh my god, it's a kid from the cast of Glee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tony. Yeah, kevin from the Office is like one of the nicest human beings ever, and like Craig from Hot Tub Time Machine. Again. Those two would just come out and party all the time.
Speaker 2:But just like you realize that, like, people at that level are still just humans. Okay, but that introduced me to a level of hospitality that I then was able to implement at least a fraction of it into my own business, okay, and gave me a really good understanding of like man, like this is what they do at the highest level, and then how can I back into that for what's appropriate for me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. I like you know, I like what you said that people at all different levels I mean I, you know what. I don't even like what I said there, because we're talking about success financially and building businesses, which is a very small part of what makes up a person, right, quote-unquote successful people is that they have a few things figured out maybe, but not always everything, and they have the same problems that are sometimes similar that everyone else has, and sometimes even more than you realize. I've been digging into the Modern Wisdom podcast. Do you listen to it?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, he talks quite often about the you know he calls it the champagne problems about like getting famous. But, like my God, some of the like losing your privacy and stuff like that. That level does not interest me whatsoever.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, and that was part of like the cool part Like I dj at a bunch of parties for jeter like he would come out in the regular, but like in those rooms they're just treated like normal people yeah, because like it's not people like their cell phones out, like like oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Like there's derrick jeter, it's like cool, like he's a part of the, he's a part of the crew. Everyone's here hanging out. Let the dude have a good night and enjoy the stuff with his, with his team or with whoever he's with and like. Let him be a human.
Speaker 2:Yeah kind of get the closed door yeah, and one of the other really cool parts is like people kind of only saw part of that. They saw like the part when, like you made it and you start to do the cool shit but like for 18 months I interned, right, so like I, people don't. This story with this is crazy. So I live with family in queens and for me to go from queens into manhattan I got a bus from queens at 8 25 in the morning to the seven train. It's about 25 minutes. Seven into manhattan, into times square, it's like 45 to 55 minutes. The one of the two, uptown to 52nd street, got off there it'd be like 10, 25 ish by the time I got in. Stop at starbucks, grab like a hot chocolate because I don't drink coffee because I'm a weirdo.
Speaker 2:152nd Street Got off there, it'd be like 10, 25-ish by the time I got in. Stop at Starbucks, grab like a hot chocolate because I don't drink coffee because I'm a weirdo. Go into the studio from like 11 to 6 and like work and intern and do all like the grunt work that I'm supposed to be doing From there, like leave the city, go back, do that whole thing in reverse One to the Times Square, times Square to the 7, 7 to the bus and then the bus back to where I was staying with family, and so I get back at like 8-ish. I would like shower, take a nap, eat, do like a little bit of like practice work for the night, for like DJing. Then I would go out from 11.30 to 4.30 to work again.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And drive into the city and then I'm in Queens. So it's another fucking 15, 20, 25-minute drive. Drive back at 4.30 in the morning, sleep from 5 am till 8 in the morning, get up and do it all again. So like there's like a hustle culture with that. Yeah, like I sat in shit for 18 months For sure, like dude, it was incredibly difficult.
Speaker 2:So now, like when I got into the gym world, I was like oh man, like, oh man, like this is a, this is a relief. It's still hard at times, but it's like it. The level of people in nightlife is really difficult because you have, like, people that don't operate by the same business ethics and standards with some venues. You're dealing with promoters and owners and all sorts of egos, I'm sure and like no actual payment system, like everything is like here's the invoice.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'll get to you when I get to it. So, like it's just a crazy style, when you get to this this, where the gym ownership is a lot more consistent, man, is it a big relief where you know the money's coming from. I can appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Um, I think they made a movie about you, the pursuit of happiness. I don't, I've never seen that movie. Dude, that's, that's, uh, it's. It's kind of like that, that grind where you know, like it's you just gotta kind of sit in the shit for a while. You know, not everybody can do that. You have to be able to keep your head down and just work and not know when sort of the you know the quote-unquote payoff is is coming, but just you I. One of the first things you said was like trying to. You know people trying to talk you out of it, but you know, like not everybody understands, like when you're driven to do something and passionate about something, like you can't just put that flame out of somebody. You know like they're going to do what they're going to do and not everybody has that in them to to do that, whether it's 18 months or double that Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, did you have any stories like that where, like you had to like grind it out for a period of time where you were looking at it.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, um, so when, before we hit record, like I said that I'm, I try I want to have like conversations and where me, as like a 20, 25, 30 year old, could be a fly on the wall and just listen, right, um, I I didn't know what the heck I was going to do with my life. Like I really did not. I I I knew I wanted to go into kinesiology. I was really interested in like the body and biomechanics and like performance and stuff like that. And and I was really interested in like the body and biomechanics and like performance and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And I was a lifelong athlete and as I got further and further into kin, I just it was getting more and more sort of narrowed down and I just didn't. I was like I don't know what I want to do with this. Like I was like I kind of thought I wanted to be a physiotherapist. I was like I kind of thought I wanted to be a physiotherapist but the my brain doesn't. Like there were, there were people that were like becoming physiotherapist, that were like on the track with that, and like our brains just didn't work the same way in terms of like diagnosing things. Now, when it came to like biomechanics, I had the highest mark in our book about 500 person biomechanics class. Oh, no shit mark in our book about 500 person biomechanics class.
Speaker 2:Oh no shit, you're smart who?
Speaker 1:knew. Thank you, um, but it makes sense now, like when I, when I coach people I've been coaching people in weightlifting for a long time and like I'm literally look at them, looking at them, and I see like I see the stick figure, kind of Like I don't see their body. I see angles and I see, you know, like that's just what I see and it's I don't know. So, anyway, fast forward, like I end up doing some coaching and like working with kids' camps in the summers and it's like maybe I want to be a teacher. Teacher right in Ontario, teaching is a great, great gig. You know, you get obviously you get summers off, but they get, you get paid. Well, after 10 years you're making a good amount of money.
Speaker 1:I don't I mean I do not envy teachers right now, just in the landscape of how things and kids and parents and everything is like changed. But, um, I went through that and I did. I did do that for a while. So, um gosh, I don't want. I mean I feel like I could tell a story for a while, but yeah, basically, like I, I worked, I fell into a job that was not anything to do with gym or anything, like I just needed a job and I went away for a summer after teacher's college and I came back and I was working for syntas, the company that was like outsourcing, like uniforms and floor mats and all that stuff. I was literally like literally driving a truck around to doing that.
Speaker 1:I had to go through five interviews to get that job really yeah, uh, and, and I had my ups and downs there, you know know, I was like the new excited guy, but like they're like shut the fuck up, basically like you're on the bottom of the totem pole, and then. So I was frustrated there and then I learned, okay, just keep your mouth shut, do your work. Um, right around the time, like within two months after my dad got really sick with a blood infection like nearly killed him down to 120 pounds, um, yeah, and so just something I had just found, crossfit. Something sparked in my brain where I was just like I'm, I am not on a path right now that I want to be on. I am wasting my myself, my potential, my, my gifts, whatever you want to call it. And I, just, I, just, I just quit. And I went to a gold's gym and I made 53 bucks in my first month. Um, oh shit, lace and I were living together for our first year. We were on the hook for rent, um, and you know I talked her into like a little bit bigger apartment, like you know, two feet longer. It was like a little bit more expensive and like, okay, now, now I'm like not making any money, um, but I was happy, I was happy, I was sleeping at night again.
Speaker 1:And and then the early days of the gym too. Um, this is a couple of years later, like we did not have it figured out, and I was, I was, I was teaching probably four days a week, as much as I could. You know, some days five, some days three, you know, when I couldn't find any jobs. You know, because you'd have to like wake up in the morning and search for jobs and whatnot if you didn't have them booked ahead of time, I didn't make any money. And then we had the gym going, which was pretty small in the early days, really kind of ran like a hobby gym, so I'd like one foot in each pool. For, like, I taught for eight years and six years of that was the gym, and especially the first like four. It was like wake up, go teach, come home, catch a quick nap depending on what time school got out If it was the later, later schools, you know, no chance and then we were at the gym from four till basically nine every night.
Speaker 1:Come home, yeah, you know argue about right and argue about cooking dinner, go to bed, do it all over again, but like also kind of loved it because we had our own thing and like I knew where my passion laid and I knew where my heart laid and the more I taught, the more I didn't want to do it. So, yeah, I know those times, long way of getting there, but yeah, yeah, you got to figure things out. I mean you're just forced to. I don't think everyone, I mean you know, so you're just forced to.
Speaker 2:I don't think everyone. I mean this is probably a little bit hard to understand, but like it's always on everyone's different timeline and they don't always look the same and a lot of times people try to compare. But there was a time where, like I mean, I started my first business when I was 15, continued the DJ stuff till like 28, maybe 29. When I like the gym's about 10, 11 years old at this point um, so there was a small overlap, like I was doing both, but like I quit one basically to do the other. But like there's like a a year period where I was like fuck, what do I want to do after I'm done with nightlife? I was like I know I'm coming to an end, I don't want to do it, so like let me figure this thing out. But like that timeline looks different for everybody. For you, you figured it out maybe earlier on, right? Like maybe it was like 25, 26.
Speaker 1:For me, no it was probably I let my teaching credentials go in 2018, which I would have been 34.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm no spring chicken. I'm 41 in a couple of weeks. Yeah, dude, I wouldn't have guessed that.
Speaker 2:I thought you were somewhere between like 35 and 40. It's my white beard, right that's right, the blondness you mentioned.
Speaker 1:So I mean working nightlife and owning a gym Very, very different. But I'm sure there's like kind of contrast those two, because on the surface they're very different. But what kind of things did you pick up from that? You mentioned the hospitality thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean like understanding that, like how to help, how to basically see what people need before they need it, right.
Speaker 2:So I essentially was a fly on the wall and the best nightclubs in the country for 18 months. And I mean like a fly on the wall, I mean like I literally was like hanging out in the booth and like don't touch anything, don't fucking mess with anything, just hang out Like you're you're blessed to be here, right, and like everyone was always super kind about it. Super kind about it, um, but like I made note of everything, like the guys when, like a glass broke on the floor, like how quickly it was cleaned up, like the how many bottle servers they had, what came out, who put was put where, all those things, right. So, like, when it comes to the gym, like how do you line up a room? How do you make sure like people are getting what they need as soon as they walk in the door? Right, because like that experience doesn't start like when class starts at the whiteboard absolutely that class starts when you pull in the parking lot, yeah, right, so like.
Speaker 2:And it starts when they open that door, like if the door's stuck shut, like it's a different experience versus being greeted and being like. So like. I was really fortunate to just experience um so many great things in hospitality from the guys over at M group and strategic in New York city that, like it made it really simple for me to go. Cool, like, just treat people really well so that they have a great experience, cause they made me feel that way. Right, like you walk in, they're like E, what's up? Man, like, come on in. Like you're good to go, is anybody with you? Cool, like, you know what, make sure they're taken care of. Like. Even like the bartender Rick Rick's like yo, you drink anything tonight. I'm like just the normal. He's like yep, got it, no problem, those two with you. I'm like yeah, they're with me. He's like cool, whatever they need, just let me know and I'll make sure they're taken care of.
Speaker 1:So like stuff that like makes you feel good.
Speaker 2:It makes you feel great, but like. But, like most bars, like you go to like a local bowling alley and it's like a luxury, nicer bowling alley. Right. Like you got to go up to the bar to get service, like if they had a hostess or a server that came around to your lane you'd probably have a better experience. You'd bowl more, they'd bring you your drinks to where you're sitting at. It's actually like a simple thing, right. Like most businesses either understaff it, don't know how to invest, invest in it, don't understand the expense and or the return on those things versus like. I will happily spend more money on food and drinks if I don't have to go walk away from my friends and someone just comes over and brings it to me. Lucky strike gets it right, spins, bowling alley doesn't. So you start to see, like these things in hospitality that you just can't unsee, um, once you're exposed to it at that level.
Speaker 1:Cool, love it. You sent me a list of pillars of a great life or great habits mindset, so let's start to dig into these. So the first one was health first. What does health first look like for you, like kind of in your day-to-day life and and like, oh, maybe also like where do you draw the line? You know, because you can go like crazy, what's? There's a guy there's like a really famous guy I can't remember his name, but he's like trying to live forever type thing with his habits and like, yeah, you're so into your habits you never actually do anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, I'm looking so like yeah, yeah, functionality in life, so I can like literally do whatever I want whenever I want in terms of like health, right, like, if I want to, if I need to, like jump in the back of a truck, like can I get up and jump in the back of the truck, right, can I like go and play golf with my friends, can I like shoot hoops without like having to warm up, right, like, just like in terms of health piece, like being able to train on a consistent basis and still not just be like average but be optimal. I think is a really good part of that. And again, like that kind of runs through seasons. Um, you've trained for a really long time and I think I mentioned this to you the other day.
Speaker 2:Um, there was like a week peri-rided outlaw and I almost fucking died like I, like I, I didn't under. I think we hopped in like the middle of a straight cycle and like we didn't even. We're like, oh, percentages, it's fine, and we did the percentages of whatever was listed didn't modify anything like complete shitheads at like 23, 24, and I was like, oh man, we're gonna, I'm, I'm gonna die. I think it was broken within like nine days, um, and I went back in a calm train, which you're young and stupid. What do you know, right?
Speaker 1:So I mean for those listening like Outlaw, I mean my shirt on right now if you're watching the video. Outlaw North is my gym. I followed a training group training program called the Outlaw Way back in what, 2011, 12, 13, so I hung around a little bit longer than yeah.
Speaker 2:I still have the red shirt from regionals with, like, the eagle on the top of it. I think I still got that fun, or I was 14 actually. Yeah, that was at regionals four years.
Speaker 1:So so yeah, it was. It was like a competitors blog type thing and it was a big one back in the day. Uh, and yeah, we did some. We did some tough stuff. Man. If you jumped in in the middle of like you know, we were doing like that small off junior and like hatch squat, like not normal, like with crossfit and anything as anything as a fitness program. Great, when you make the decision to compete and you're going to try to do that at a high level, you're going to start to sacrifice. So again, we're talking about health first. Like this is where you're sort of bending the needle past that health point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 100 and so like. Um, I think recovery is a really big part of that. I do a little bit of mobility, probably like 20 minutes every day. Um, sleep is a huge part of that for me. Um, I've been really fortunate where I'm not waking up at 4.30 am anymore. I kind of just kind of like wake up somewhere between like 5 and 5.30 and 7.
Speaker 2:Somewhere in that realm to kind of like get my day started Eating Super clean.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I am unfortunate where, like I'm allergic to fish and I don't do dairy very well, like I'm allergic to fish and I don't do dairy very well, uh, so like that basically leaves me with like lean protein, chicken, fish or chicken steak, vegetables, fruit, and like I don't handle carbs exceptionally well, like processed, uh, gluten stuff, um, so it leaves me with basically like those three things and then chocolate, so like it's kind of hard to up, I think at this point. Um, so like, I think in terms of like health, it's a matter of like me feeling really good, me maintaining probably like a fairly lean body composition. Um, if I had to put like metrics to it, it's it for an extended period of time. It's probably still dead lifting, you know 365, 40, somewhere in that realm, running a sub six, 30 mile, being able to do you know 20 to 30 pull-ups. Um, I think none of those are like out of the realm. I think they're all like just pretty standard things and I want to keep that as long as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean they're. They're definitely going to put you in a. Uh. What was funny? When I recorded with John we, we were curious. Like it came up like what's the top 5% of people in in the world, what's their fitness look like? And it was like it was eye opening. I you know, I think what was it?
Speaker 2:How bad was?
Speaker 1:it, I mean go back and listen to the episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We'll, I'll, I'll. Yeah, we'll have to look it up. That would do it. I've got the list somewhere, but it was. It was really interesting, um, cause it was like, oh man, um, it was. It was a whole bunch of stuff, but it was like the stuff that you just said is like realms away from it. And, like you, you've done this, you've you've had a higher level of fitness, but, like you know we're talking about, you want to maintain like a pretty exceptional strength level and be able to run a solid mile, but, like, none of these are like unachievable for someone who's been doing fitness for 20 years. Yep, and you know lifting and running and has a soccer background and maybe some um, genetic potential to be strong. Right, it's so's so funny.
Speaker 2:So, I've actually like as much as like genetic potential plays a part in that. Like dude, when I first started CrossFit, like my max clean was 135. Like I was weak as shit. Like I had to bust my balls for a decade, and even in soccer, like I was good at soccer but, like man, I had to work so incredibly hard and I think people don't recognize like it's a and track taught me me this. I might have taught you this too. You can be a mediocre athlete and still be really good, not sprinting, not so much, but like. If you're a mediocre athlete and you just train a lot for a moderate distance, you're gonna be okay. Like I think I was running at one point like a 64, 68, second 400, which is garbage. I got it down to 54 by training up a bunch of mileage. It's not like I'm a genetic freak, it's just the fact that I just put in more work than everybody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was a 400-meter runner, I mean, I ran track for a long time and there are, like, on the lower end, there are the genetic, there's the guys and know, there's like the guys and girls that can just, they have to keep their body finely tuned, but if you train them too much, they're almost not interested, like the, the true elite sprinters, right, like and, and they don't want to have anything to do, like you know. It's like you want to put them on a four by four relay and they're gonna, they'll do anything to get out of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like four by one, please, four by two, right.
Speaker 1:They're the high performance like. They're the F1 car, like they got. You know, rip it and then put it back in the garage, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I wish the average person understood that. Like you don't have to be a genetic freak, you don't have to be exceptional, you just need to, like, put in enough volume and do it for a long enough period of time. Just keep showing up to move that needle in the right direction, because it's unbelievable. I mean I was putting in somewhere between 50 to 80 miles a week.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of running.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of running, but guess what? I got really good at running, I got really fit from it and I went from a mediocre soccer player and athlete to a really good one because I improved my fitness.
Speaker 1:I love it. I have a conversation with people from time to time coming in when I can kind of like pick up on, like they just don't know where they're, like how far they can take things, and like I, this is anything. If you sit a kid down and give them piano lessons for 10 years, what do you think's gonna happen? They're gonna be able to play a lot of things, like especially you know, we're not talking lessons, we're not talking just sitting down and banging on a keyboard.
Speaker 1:You know yeah um, like they're to be able to play most things, maybe pick up stuff by ear. Like you know, are they going to be selling out concert halls? Probably not. But that's not the point. The point is you can get better through doing things right. People quit far too early, right? I mean back to the. The people see your success. Once you, you know, once you're successful, they don't see the grind Right. But, that's in terms of like health.
Speaker 2:That's what that stuff means. So basically, like being able to do what I want to as long as I can, feeling really good, looking fairly decent, you know. If you can keep abs as long as possible, I think that's a pretty good indicator, cause I mean there was a period of time where, like I didn't look fit, but I was really fit.
Speaker 1:I mean I feel like we've we either know people or have all kind of been there ourselves I felt that, yeah, yeah, you know, I didn't have, I haven't had the best of habits, you know covid times and I'm getting better at it a little bit more recently. But, um, yeah, I feel you there, like be not not saying no to things, right, like, hey, you want to go for all. Right, you want to do a 10k race next week yeah sure let's do it right.
Speaker 1:Um, I got my backpack loaded up here to go on that big ass I quit there. In what three weeks again?
Speaker 2:now you're wild for doing that. I don't know how you do that. That's like that's another. Do it. Yeah, just do it you just do it?
Speaker 1:um, aside from the nightlife season time, have you ever sacrificed your health for success in another way? And like how did that? How did that kind of turn out?
Speaker 2:I mean I would, I would. If you look at how extreme the crossfit stuff is, like I definitely over-train. Are you competing? Yeah, I definitely over-train to compete at some of that stuff. I did it with college soccer.
Speaker 2:Anytime you compete there's a risk of over-training, an injury. Most people that have played a sport know that there's an inherent risk of doing that. It doesn't matter the sport. It's not really a CrossFit thing, it's more or less a sport thing. But like I mean, when I played soccer, like I blew up my knee three times like and me going back like an idiot. I'm like I'm gonna go back and play again like I want to play, put me back in coach. So like I go through six months of rehab, blow up my knee again eight months later, I'm like cool, this is so much fun, let's do it again. Like I didn't the first time, I had to do it a second time. You know what I mean. So like I mean, and even with like the running stuff, I looked at it in hindsight and like while I was, I mean I ran a 450 mile which went from like I don't know like a 645 to 450. But like I felt depleted. That was what eventually led to me blowing up.
Speaker 2:My knee was just a muscular imbalance I just didn't know any better, because I was 18 years old or 16 years old, 17, whatever I was, yeah, um, so I definitely sacrificed that in terms of, like you know, um health, for for being fitter and faster and stronger okay, it's a very athlete answer.
Speaker 1:It's like I went on the versus going the other way with it right versus like you know, kind of you know burning the middle of building your business and like not working out.
Speaker 2:I've whenever I own the business. I always worked out, I made it a like a point, even if it was like only eight minutes. I'm like I just gotta check the.
Speaker 1:And that's just me being as special as I am, I guess, and special Um but I think that like, yeah, that's listen, I don't know, hey, I'm, I'm the same man. I don't know how people, like people in general, don't work out. I mean, I people are wired different I would go nuts. But um, gym owners, like I know, I know that as a gym owner, you don't just have all day to work out. That's not how it is, you know, that's not. If that's a perception, it's not a thing. But you have time just like everybody else. And what the hell kind of example are you leading? You know, and we've both seen lots of it.
Speaker 2:And that definitely rolls into like that second kind of like pillar of mine. It's like you got to lead from the front. You have to, and like I still take classes with everybody I happen semi-privates, Like it's all that stuff that like I still focus on my nutrition, I share the tips and things that I'm doing with my staff and with members. I'm active, I post Bright Spot Fridays in our community group. Like you know, we do it within Two Brain and within Tinker stuff.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, give me some examples, but that's like bang, bang, bang. You just did.
Speaker 2:Even, like you know, it was funny. So at one point I didn't like fully understand nutrition and I was down at Guadalupalooza with one of my athletes and he goes to walk-in athlete village and I go to walk-in with him and they stopped me, like you can't go in, stop. And I was like what do you mean? They're like he's an athlete, you're not, and I'm like did this guy just call me fat?
Speaker 2:and I looked back at myself and I was like he's right, I'm fat, I'm overweight. So I hired a nutrition coach. That Monday when I got back and I dropped 30 pounds and I was like I gotta look like I, like I'm fit, like I'm leading from the front. So I'm like I have a community of people that depend on me to do that. And if I don't know the answer to it, who's going to show them the way?
Speaker 2:right and like we see this same thing in our, in our mastermind group, like we have people that break down those barriers first so that everyone else can follow in his flip shoulders. It's so important because when one of us gets better, everyone else levels up along the way. You've been in the old school CrossFit gym where you turn over like hey man, how did you break that up? What did you get for your time? I don't know if this happened in Canada, but the US would be like I'm not telling you Go take a hike. It was said in a colorful language in that right like that's just how.
Speaker 2:That's not my gym man yeah, so this wasn't my gym either. Like that's just how it was. It was like, hey man, like how'd you break out of it? I'm not telling you, figure it out for yourself. Good luck, beat me today and like that. That was just like the culture of competition and I still feel the man.
Speaker 1:When we go like I, I don't do competition seriously anymore but when we go to like a team, like kind of a big team competition, it's not even like there's for most people. It's like it's kind of like a festival day. It's like it's an event, right, and then you've got people that are like you know, some people are competing for the top spot, the whole, just energy. It's. It's cool, but it's not. It leans more toward that a little bit, I think, than like my gym and the culture that we've tried to create right. Here's a question for you how do you balance, like so I think it kind of plays off of that well, like, how do you balance humility with authority when leading others?
Speaker 2:um, I think, I think that if it more or less comes from like a place of like curiosity and understanding, um, the I think the goal being is, like I always look at kind of like two things, and I borrow this from dan martell it's either a process problem or a people problem, and very rarely for us is it a people problem. I believe that most of my people like are really like getting 110 and like are not trying to do it because they just like they want to be upset about it or whatever goes on with it. I think that, like most of the time when we look at stuff like it's a process problem, so like in, in terms of like humility, it's just trying to understand what the pain point is from like an analytical standpoint, like what do we have to adjust? And then we'll make the adjustments from there. Um, I am very much like black and white with stuff in terms of that, like it's not like man, like let's get upset about it. It's like okay, cool.
Speaker 1:What's the problem?
Speaker 2:Tell me what the deal is. Let's figure out the solution for it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to poke and prod you with questions and you're going to have to think about this a little bit because I'm not going to give it to you which my staff doesn't like, maybe not in the moment but if you don't challenge people and let them grow too, I think anybody just has sort of a finite time where they can just be doing sort of like the same thing and not growing, even if they're not super like growth, growth oriented, you know.
Speaker 2:And and I I mean like I don't know what you were like I don't believe that anybody that's doing CrossFit doesn't want to grow and get better. I would agree, sure, like if you're if you that's doing CrossFit doesn't want to grow and get better, I would agree, sure. If you've been doing CrossFit for an extended period of time, you've proven you want to improve, you've improved that you want to get better. You've done this for long enough to know those things. So I think, when a lot of it comes down to it, the humility part I think just happens from being a kind human but trying to understand, like how we can actually help people move forward and get better, okay, yeah, so just doing things from coming from a good place yeah, I mean just just understand.
Speaker 2:Like if somebody screws something up like it's not, it's usually not meant in like a mean way. It's like either it's a process problem or people problem. And I look at them like this definitely isn't a people problem, like it's, it's not. This like person either doesn't understand or the boundaries haven't been set or the SOPs suck or whatever. Haven't we reviewed it before? Or some people just can't read in between the lines. But I think for the most part it's just kind of like helping people out. What do you think on that perspective or topic?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really agree with the if it comes from a good place. I don't know why this is a part, why this is who I am and why I'm wired the way I am, but, like, whenever I do something, I always kind of want to bring it to other people. I don't know when it started happening. I mean, it tells me I'm kind of I feel like I'm doing the right thing with my life. But, um, there there is this weird balance between like, being humble and relatable, and like just someone that people don't mind listening to but also have it. Also, you know, they're like oh, this guy fucking knows what he's talking about, you know, and like, you know.
Speaker 1:So, um, I, I to to to hinge on the word curious like. I think I think when you have the to hinge on the word curious like, I think I think when you have the ability to do that with people and like and to lead others, is it's not, it's not about you, I mean, there, you know, it's about, it's about other people and it's about being curious and it's a it's about like. Okay, you want, you want to do this or do try this thing that I've done or whatever it is. Want to do this or do try this thing that I've done, or whatever it is um, why, why, like, what, what, what excites you about it?
Speaker 2:what, what, what scares you about it, you know yeah, um, have you ever? Have you ever heard the comment before? People that are optimistic are usually late.
Speaker 1:No, are you normally late on stuff like no, are you always on time? I mean I'm not always, but yeah, I think maybe. I mean I do not like to be late for things. I mean I kind of think if you're on time, you're late.
Speaker 2:If you're like, you're like Lace, I'm getting home, I'm going to be home like at eight. Are you like home at eight or is like eight or five, eight, 10, you roll on the door or whatever. Whatever time you get home, no-transcript are normally late because they think that they have more time than they actually do right so they're optimistic about it. Um, okay, because, like, I'm definitely one of those where I'm like man, I'm running five, ten minutes late.
Speaker 1:Man, like I thought I could slam more shit than I could I mean I think, I think, I, I, I think I'm a fairly optimistic.
Speaker 2:I mean I would have to agree, you are. I'm just curious if this is actually true.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, but I mean like when we're, when we're like getting our little guy to like kids strong and swimming lessons and stuff on the weekend, like I'm hopefully she in the room late, but like she can hear you, no matter what it is. She's the one that makes us late.
Speaker 2:So maybe she's the optimist, optimism person so maybe she's the optimist.
Speaker 1:Optimism, yeah, um, in my mind I'm kind of like I'm like we're gonna hit traffic or something's gonna happen. I'm also not the one that like I don't I don't necessarily look that up, I just I just assume something's gonna kind of go wrong and we're gonna need a little bit more time you know, I like to be comfortable with the time, and comfortable to me is not like rushing it Coming out of Nashville or no, go to Nashville.
Speaker 1:That was in the connecting talk that I did. Where I had to, like I literally I probably ran like a six minute mile with a bag and with like a backpack and a rolling bag, like it was legit, uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:Dude, I'm one of those people that like tries to time it at the airport. We're like I, they just start boarding and I'm parking in the parking lot. I walk through, I go down the stairs, like I walk through the tsa pre-check because it's super short. Where at my airport, where I'm at, and like they're on group c or d and I'm like cool, grab my water from the little mini mark yeah, you stress me out, yeah dude that like. That's how I, that's how.
Speaker 1:I operate, I like airport days, I like kind of sitting down and just having an hour and a half to two hours. Well, if I'm flying internationally, like you, you can. That's different. You need, yeah, you need time. You need time, okay. Um, how about this one Purpose? The next one was purpose over comfort.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where's your mind?
Speaker 1:though, with that.
Speaker 2:It thinks about like making an impact and not excuses. Okay, I like it Right. So, like the the purpose being like, hey, listen, we're going to, we're going to get this stuff done, and like we're going to move the needle, we're going to move the mountain, like we're going to do what we need to do in order to make the greatest impact and sometimes those things are super uncomfortable in order to get to that level. Um, so that just kind of like where my mind goes with that, like anything that's like really great that you've accomplished, like it's most of that not going to be easy and it's not going to be comfortable and you have to be okay with being uncomfortable in that position. Um, but like that, the main goal is impact. So part of that has to do with purpose.
Speaker 1:Okay, how do you stay connected to that when comfort kind of creeps in? What type of comfort would creep in for you?
Speaker 2:what type of comfort would creep in for you. It could be just staying in bed a little bit longer, it could be falling asleep on the sofa, it could be watching Netflix, it could be just being distracted by doing something else. But there's a level I feel like whenever you're doing something really exceptional, there's got to be a level of discomfort with that, and like the longer that you can be uncomfortable with it for and still make progress with it, I think that like it ends up having more of an impact, right. So like, go back to the nightlife thing. Like I was uncomfortable for, I mean, the first month, I didn't really care because I was so excited, but like that's where my
Speaker 2:mind went to. I was uncomfortable for 17 months, like sleeping on a pull-out sofa in a bedroom that was like 10 by 10 feet, Like not really having my own stuff. Like and traveling back and forth. Like it was uncomfortable. But like, because of that, like it gave me like that education, like that street knowledge, it's like worth millions at this point to me. It's like worth millions at this point to me.
Speaker 2:Um, like I like if I had to put a number back when I would pay to like have access to that stuff, knowing what I know now, like it'd be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, hundreds. And like people were vying for that spot. To like be the intern and I'm like well, like I got a college degree and I'm not a, I'm not a shithead, so like I'll do it, I can, I have, I have a little bit of social skills right. But like that comfort piece again, it could be pretty much anything. Like everyone's going to have their own little comforts with it, but like I think that, like the impact of what you want to do, there's got to be some level of discomfort with it.
Speaker 1:Have you ever had to walk away from?
Speaker 2:something that was kind of like a good opportunity to stay kind of more connected to that purpose.
Speaker 1:Um, you mean, like in overall, like in general I mean physically or just like pass on an idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I feel like I do so I kind of have like a whole like litmus test, for I think we talked about this one time in like a breakout group. Um, if I have an idea, like the first thing I do is like basically look up the domain, if it's available and if I can buy the domain and own it like that's where I start right, and then I'll sit on it for a little bit and also like check all the other social media stuff to see if I can like own that whole brand and then I'll, like I'll start playing with the idea of it.
Speaker 2:But like I pass on shit all the time and like we, I ran a nutrition company for the better part of four or five years. Like we shut down because, like it wasn't worth everyone's time to be a part of this thing. Like so, like that was part of it. The other part was I got asked to coach high school soccer again at one point, like I love my local high school, like those guys are awesome. But it was at the point where, like I have a gym to focus on, I have a business to focus on and I knew, thanks to coop and those guys where I was, like this is where I need to be right now I don't get distracted by other stuff on the outside.
Speaker 2:I said no to that and because of that, like the business grew, so it was a matter of me like focusing on what I needed to, and that was a hard no because, like I had, my friend is the head coach. This was like a varsity b team and he's like, man, I really need your help. This season I was like, dude, I can't do it, I don't want to um, so like flexing that no muscle definitely has to happen in order to to grow I feel you on that one.
Speaker 1:I I always thought and saw myself like, especially when I was teaching, right, coaching football coaching track, like I just. And then you know adult life and the gym, and I just knew I was like I don't have volunteer hours right now in me, like I won't eat, my life will fall apart. Right, I won't eat, my life will fall apart. I'm fortunate enough now to have enough flexibility that you know Leonardo's getting to an age where he's playing t-ball for the first time this summer. I don't know what that's going to look like, but I do want to be a dad that helps out with his teams and you know Calvin will be in his, in his footsteps before long. You know we're talking probably a few years before any type of like. You know, like we're talking real sports right now. It's it's play and learning and stuff.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah, I feel you there Did you, did you have a guilt when you kind of like stepped away from some of the gym stuff and turning down some of those things to then like spend time doing other things? Turning down what like maybe it was like hey, I'm not gonna coach classes, I'm gonna go like spend time with my kid, or like take time for myself, just take time for yourself like, did you like yes and no I.
Speaker 1:I want to create opportunities for our staff and, like you'll know this, but maybe everyone listening won't know this but, like, employing people in the fitness space is not easy. When you have a great thing going, it might look easy and stuff. But, but, like, employing people in the fitness space is not easy. When you have a great thing going, it might look easy and stuff, but like, if you go to, like the big box gyms, you know personal trainer like that is one of the most transient jobs. Like you, line everyone up, no one's there a year from now, right, so you get people that are not they're not career coaches, right? So I I want to find career coaches and and just build a team and and I knew that, like, like, so we did hit a point where, like, I think it was late 2017. There just weren't enough hours in the day, lace and I were doing everything. We didn't have a staff that wanted to do anything more than, like, very minimal, and we just we needed to change directions. This is before family and everything too.
Speaker 1:When you get those things right like own, like owning something it can get really good where, yeah, you have a, you have a bit more freedom on your calendar. But like you also don't, some like you don't all the time, and like you don't get to put it away, you're like you don't get to not ever think about it and you don't get to, you know, maybe not answer the phone or, uh, sometimes you're thrown back into it a little bit more than you've been expected to as well. So, like I don't know, I don't know if that answers it Like yes and no. Like when you talk about, like family, no, I don't, I do not have guilt because I know that things are getting taken care of. If things weren't getting taken care of, then maybe, yes, I would. But I don't know. Like we've worked incredibly hard to get the thing, like it doesn't get to where Jim's at without a lot of um, a lot of work, you know, or the sweat equity and what all that, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 1:Um but we've also had a hell of a journey in building a family and like it's time to do like that's. It's. That's the season of life that we're in Um, where I have worked a lot and I've spent a lot of time in that grind and now I'm getting to enjoy a little bit more flexibility and like be present with my young boys, which is like you don't get to replace that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think most people realize, like, how low the average income is for a trainer, right. So like the average income being like twenty nine thousand dollars a year. And like people want world-class service. Meanwhile, like you have people like the globo gyms and most facilities being underpaid, right, and they're like. And meanwhile, like we're trying to create career coaches and people that stay there for extended period of time because we know if we keep the coaches there, the members end up staying longer and you can actually affect change in their lives, right. But like that was one of the reasons why I picked two brain because, like, out of all of the companies I felt like they represented making the, the profession more professional like the 100 professional like that and that was like that was my big shtick, was like man.
Speaker 2:I was like because I came again, I came from that nightlife background, right, and I was like man. I wish, like I wish we did this at a fucking professional level, this like I know that I'm trying real hard, but it looks like dog shit sometimes and I wasn't happy with it and that was my business and I knew I was like man. I need more money in order to make this thing grow the way I want it to. Like it's not like I'm going around like driving a Ferrari, right. Like most of the money that I take I invest it back in the gym or I invest it back in the staff or invest it back into training for the coaches, or like like the insurance goes up or like the rent goes up. Like I don't think people comprehend that they just see like the bottom line, it's not really their concern, but at the same point, like it is because if you want great coaches, you have to invest in them, and that's what, as owners yeah, to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need people that are. I. I mean that just, you need great people. That that, what, what are great people? Well, they're people that have experiences and and skills that are going to be helpful to you, I guess. And then you want them to have enough security that they're not just like living in fear, sort of. And then, yeah, I mean there's a lot of layers to it. I think that the big box gym, personal training, like that whole system is sort of broken and there's a reason why you don't find the best coaches there. You just don't. But yeah, I mean what?
Speaker 2:year did you jump into two-brain?
Speaker 1:2021. Oh, okay, so it's been pretty recent. I was one of Chris's first guys. I was working with him pre-Tubor, like for maybe a year, like when he was with 321GO. So I didn't even know what I was walking into really and like it took me a while to like learn how to be coached. Like I was probably the typical like bad client. I was like, oh, we don't really do it that way, what are you talking about? But, lo and behold, you pay all this money out and you got to look yourself in the mirror eventually and be like nothing's changed. Who is responsible for this? My famous quote early on was like, okay, I paid Chris and I feel like he's going like swoop in and save me. Not how it works, and that's not how any type of coaching or mentoring works. Right, no personal responsibility. But but yeah, the people, the people who are doing it right, we, we really are changing an industry Like we really truly are. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:And professionalizing it. My gym, like the culture in it now, from just a standpoint of like, if I think to 10 years ago, where, like people would try to haggle with you on the prices and like just do things that like they wouldn't do with professional, a professional service and like a you know, a gym that like knows, like just knows better, right, and that doesn't happen now. And that doesn't happen now it's over a long timeline. But I think that's what professionalizing an industry is. You'd have people literally walking into a CrossFit gym trying to tell the owners how to run a CrossFit gym and it's like what are you here for? Yeah, right, it's easy to look back on now, I mean, when you're like a young kid I got we opened when I was 27 and I, you just don't know better so it's funny.
Speaker 2:so one of my buddies will get a kick out of this story. So he's a pro race car driver and came over to us from the uk and he like I want to come in and try a class. And I was like no, I was like you sign up for all three on ramps, or you to take a fucking hike, he's not going to just do one. And I was like listen, this is not how we do this, buddy. He's like I'm a pro race car driver, we're going to go fuck who you are.
Speaker 1:I'm like this is if you don't like that, go go to somebody else and he's like there's some lower standards down the street, so he ended up signing up for all three.
Speaker 2:He goes. If you only made me do one, I never would have came back, he goes. The fact that you made me do three made me fall in love with it, and he's a good friend of mine. He's won le mans three times like he's one of the the one of the best race car drivers in the world, and I.
Speaker 1:I didn't know it at the time, I was just like dude, I don't know, you're in my fucking gym.
Speaker 2:I am the subject matter expert and I actually learned that from one of my college professors. He's like you need to, and this is my dissertation. He was like you need to know this material so well that you are the subject matter expert, where if anyone comes up, you know either the answer to it and or how to answer those things to help people solve what they're looking for. So, like I learned that skill when I was 21 years old of how to become a subject matter expert, not to like the point of like cockiness or bullshit, just to the point of like hey, listen, like I need to know this this well and this is my subject and this is what we're talking about and this is my paper. So when it came to that confidence, it carried over to nightlife, it carried over to fitness, it carried over to running a business. And if I didn't know it, that's cool, I'll go and do some research on it.
Speaker 2:I was a history major. I know how to do research, I know how to do it very well, but there's a skill set within that.
Speaker 1:This leads into and I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump down the list, we'll come back to it um, high standards, big heart. I think that that leads into that really really nicely. Um, so how do you hold high standards, you know, in your own life or or or for those around you, without kind of like being too too, too rigid or or, like you know, cold, or like unlikable type thing, you know?
Speaker 2:I think that there's a way to deliver it where people still understand where you're coming from and if you can explain the benefits to them for why you're holding that standard, I think that it's way more relatable versus just you know, when people my dad used to be like I'll be like he's like you need to do it this way because I said so, because I because I said so I'm like that doesn't, that doesn't fucking count.
Speaker 2:I was like that doesn't, that doesn't, like don't turn the lights on and off because it costs me more money. I go that's not how science. This is me at 12 years old. That's not how science, how science works. It's connected and then it's not connected. How does that cost you any more money? It's an open and closed circuit. It's the same thing.
Speaker 2:I'm sure he wanted to punch me right through a wall, but I'm like that doesn't make any logical sense to me. And he's like oh, you're so analytical, this is so annoying. But I think that if you can explain the relationship to people about how it either improves them, relates back to their goals, to help them understand where you're coming from, I think holding the standard is way easier. And I'll use a really simple example. The other day at the gym I'm watching the Legends class workout, older guy he's doing box step-ups. He's not opening his hip at all. He's literally like this here's his hip and he's just stepping up and down the box. There's no hip extension. I come over to him and I'm like Andy Poke him in the hip. I'm like what is this? I'm like open it all the way up. He's like I'm just trying to move really fast.
Speaker 2:I go do you know one of the first things that you get older? And he's like what? I'm like hip extension. You want to walk around like this for the next 30 years.
Speaker 2:He's like no, I'm like, you want back pain with that thing?
Speaker 2:He's like, no, I'm like, just stand all the way up. If you do that, you'll get stronger and use all the muscles on your backside, which is what we want anyway. And uh, he kind of laughed a little bit, like it wasn't like me being an about it, but I was like if you can convey what you want them to do and get them to create buy-in with it and there's a ton of different ways to go about this thing, but I think that's part of the standard. And if you're doing it from a point of caring, I don't want Andy to walk around with a fucked up back and with no hip extension for the next 30 years. I'm like dude, I want to see you move better so you can keep going. So I think, between having the big heart and caring and then communicating those standards effectively, I think and that's just one example I think it goes a really long way oh yeah, as soon as you said that, I was like that's, that's coaching while people are moving.
Speaker 1:I mean, I coached a class last night and actually we had a. We had a, uh, a coach shadowing their first class, like not at the point of even leading anything, but like.
Speaker 1:We had a 40 minute imam workout of like it was like ball balls, then a couple barbell lifts and then rowing and a couple couple barbell lifts, and I was just like that type of workout. It's so easy for a coach to just like, okay, once the clock's going, like I'm just gonna chain myself to the board and just not pay attention, but like that's, that's, you're not doing anybody any service at that point. So I was like what do you do? There's so many opportunities to just move around and make sure people are moving well and make it relatable for them. That was a great example of just like it's you holding him to a higher standard, so he's better for it down the line. And it's just like you'd it's. It's it's you holding him to a higher standard, so he so he's better for it down the line, you know, and it's just like you'd have fun with it. You can poke him and you can be like what is that?
Speaker 1:What is that Right? Like I'm pretty sure I did the exact same thing, Like I can't remember. I there was one of the movements last night.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I just say what, what, what is?
Speaker 1:what are you doing right now?
Speaker 2:Right. I think it connects to two other things too, right. So it connects to like leading from the front, cause imagine, if I always move like that and then my coaches move like that, and then the members move, then it's just acceptable across the board, right? So part of it is like leading from the front, I think, which is a really big part of that thing.
Speaker 1:Or your action speaks a lot. I can't hear the words you're saying. If someone sees you move like that all the time, yeah, game over. So it was really good. I was kind of saying to her it's like okay, we're 10 minutes in and these guys have been through two and a half cycles of this thing. I was like what I'm watching for as a coach right now is 40 minutes is a long time to work Like. This is a lot of work we're about to put these guys through. So I'm looking right now. I'm looking for body language during the rest time. I'm looking, I'm specifically looking at the paces on the row. I'm looking to see if they're starting to fall off their numbers early. I'm looking, I'm watching the face. Someone can hide it if they really know, but if they don't know you're watching them.
Speaker 1:They can't hide the pain face, you know and if you start to see a pain face a little bit, you know, 15 minutes into a 40 minute workout, like we need to. We need to maybe adjust things, cause like the whole goal of that workout was not to like die across the finish line. You know, it was just consistent effort across the board and I you know it's funny that you mentioned that.
Speaker 2:But the other part that I pay attention to and I even think about the faces. I listen to the breath rate, yep, right, like if I'm hearing a double breath, like one of those guys. I'm like, oh man, you are. You are not gonna hold that up for another 90 seconds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right. So, like, if I can hear a nice cadence of breathing and they're under control and they're in a good spot, I know how long you guys can hold that, for it's probably a very long time. And there are certain times where, like, yeah, we're going to hold onto it for 90 seconds, we're going to see what happens. But, um, that's definitely part of of what we're looking for and listening for, and I think at this point I'm less watching the members and more or less watching the coaches, right To like give them the feedback on those things. And it goes back to the point I said before is it a people problem or is it a process problem? Right, because, like you and I do this stuff instinctually. We're looking at split times and faces and I'm like man, like how do they not see these things?
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm like man, like how do they not see these things? Well, they just haven't been explained.
Speaker 2:It's instinctually, or like after how many thousands of hours, like yeah, a lot of training, maybe you, because you've made those faces yeah yeah, yeah, well, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, do you find like, what's the hardest part about like holding people to standards? Do you think the hardest? Part, just the discomfort, like my mind just goes to like the discomfort of like communicating sometimes.
Speaker 2:So I mean, it definitely is, and it's not like we're trying to time it, but sometimes like the timing of it is important, right Cause, like I think Hinshaw explains this really well, the goal of of coaching an athlete is to want them to buy in and perform, for you to come back the next day, don't want to do it again. Right, and like it's the same goal with a coach. We're going to want the coach to come back and or perform it better and or create buy-in by what they're doing and, like some of the best coaches in the world and I've been really lucky where I've had a few of them that have coached me were like, because they're your coach, they make you want to perform for them. Absolutely, I'm like you've got to coach, that's what you say, that's what I'll do, I'm in. So getting that same buy-in from staff is really hard and I think that's probably one of the most difficult parts. In order to do that and if you can and you can deliver that feedback how they hear it and see it, so that they can then make the improvement effectively, that's coaching of coaches.
Speaker 2:Again, we're still coaching. It's just the staff. That's probably the hardest part for me. All my staff need something different. One of them I can deliver it like a fucking soldier. He's good to go, there's no emotion. The other one I'm like man. It seems like she's having a tough day. That's not my problem. I still need to deliver the feedback and it still needs to be effective and it needs to be happening now, it's not like 30 minutes from now. I see a problem now. I have to deliver this thing now and they're not used to some of those things.
Speaker 2:But here's the other thing that I do. That we do and I just remembered we set guidelines for giving and receiving feedback and I borrow it from the book no rules rules netflix, and they have basically like how they give feedback and how they receive feedback and what that looks like, and we review this probably once a year. We go over all the new staff but like actually implementing it is very, very different. But wolf again, give them very specific feedback from the beginning, just to get them used to getting that feedback. So like when they get it on the floor and they're done with training, they actually can put it into into play and it's not like this thing they've never experienced before because it doesn't always feel good it's hard right, yeah, yeah, getting used to giving and receiving right.
Speaker 1:Um, another one of these pillars was growth. Being growth obsessed, what's? What's an area right now that you're pushing yourself in?
Speaker 2:uh, the two would be like leadership and wealth. Okay, um, I'm I'm probably spending six hours a week on like leadership, in terms of like reading, practicing, taking a course and then putting into action stuff that I'm learning and like teaching it to my staff every single week. I know that, like if I can invest in that piece and like become obsessive over it to the point where, like man, like who is the best in the world that is doing this thing Right? And like, again, if you can learn from the top three people in the world what they're doing in terms of leadership, and you learn the top three people in terms of wealth and how you can apply some of that stuff to you, like you're gonna make progress now just, can we do it long enough to actually see some return on it? Can I practice it with enough reps to do those things?
Speaker 2:Um, and I think a part of that too, with the growth obsessed, is like being okay with delayed gratification. You, you've got to be okay with being smacked down. It's kind of like golf man I fucked that up again. All right, let's swing again. All right, fuck that up again, let's try it again.
Speaker 2:You keep going after rep after rep and you know that if you do, it might not be 10 reps, it might not be 50 reps, it might not even be 100 reps, it might be 1 thousand reps. And then you start to see some return on that thing, but knowing that, like the focus is not in the winning of it, it's in the process of all those things, and that, like that's the return on that, and I don't really care about the timeline of it. I do care about the intensity and how many reps I do. But I think that, like I never want to stop learning, I always want to continue to grow and evolve, and like I also don't plan on ever stopping on working, I just plan on working on different things, right, right. So like I think all of that is just a form of growth.
Speaker 1:Okay, do you ever I mean, you're a busy guy, you got your hands in a lot of things Do you ever struggle with any type of burnout or needing to recharge things? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:I've probably struggled with burnout on three different occasions. I didn't recognize it until after the third one. It takes reps. It takes reps.
Speaker 1:What was the first part of that question. Can you ask that again? Um, like, just how have you, how have you struggled with, like, with, with burnout and like, how do you, how do you sort of like, take time to, um, to recharge things?
Speaker 2:Well, and even like the directions right. So like part of it right now is just me doing less in order to do more, and that's part of my 90-day sprint. So that's why today I just went and played golf. Yesterday I went for a walk. I don't always need to be growing stuff and doing things, because I think it will give me some clarity on those things.
Speaker 2:But I've dealt with burnout in three different situations. I was really involved in student government in high school and I was done with the fact of student government high school and I was done with the fact of student government. I didn't want to touch it in college and I took two years off from doing any part of that. I was like literally like I was like I'm done with this fucking thing and then within two years I ended up being like some vice president and student body president of college. So somehow I fucking that was.
Speaker 2:So what happened was I ended up being done with soccer and I needed, I wanted a different outlet. I was like, well, if I'm ended up being done with soccer and I wanted a different outlet. I was like, well, if I'm going to be done with soccer, I might as well put my effort into making the school better. So I dealt with burnout from student government high school. I then dealt with burndown in the nightlife scene. As you could imagine, running six days a week, 19 hours a day, living in Manhattan in New York City and running around half drunk, if not fully drunk, four days a week, 19 hours a day, living in Manhattan in New York City and running around half drunk, if not fully drunk, four days a week, like it's going to lead to some sort of burnout, of which, like it took me 18 months to kind of wrap my head around the gym and like putting into action before I stepped into that piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So like what I heard in terms of like the um, how you recharge is just sort of structuring your, your days so that that's part of it.
Speaker 2:Um, and this is one of the things I'm like actively still working on right, because, like, at some point, I feel like most people will probably reach a level of burnout, the. The question is, how do you rest versus quit Right? So with like, and this is one of the things that was really hard for me so with student government, I quit. I was done. I was like fuck it, I'm out DJing. I had a. I had a pretty successful DJ career and like was making really good money and I was like I had a record deal. I quit the record deal. I was like I'll finish it, but I'm not re-signing anything you couldn't like. You'd have to add a zero to that number on the end of the page. I'm not doing it. Um, so like, rather than rest and build that brand and like try to find a way to recover, I just quit.
Speaker 2:And it got to the point during covid with the gym, where that same thing almost happened. Dude, like, you can experience this. You're beat down from members, finances, staff, all the stuff that goes into it. It felt like I was like. I also went through a divorce during that time, so I felt like I was on my own on an island. I'm just like dude. My business partner moved to Florida Again. That was a planned part of life for him, which is cool. I'm trying to keep this thing together on my own. I don't want to be anywhere within fucking 50 miles of the gym and I'm trying to keep this thing afloat. And I'm like dude, you just got to stay in it long enough to get it back up. You got to just stay in it long enough to get it back up. You got to just stay in this thing and with you know where I was. Like cool, we have a little bit of breathing room.
Speaker 1:We got enough of a runway for me to be like, cool, we're not going to crash and burn. That's a valuable lesson learning how to take the time off and just not hit the pause button, but just find ways to first recognize the path that you're on. But before, before you quit, do the other thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now, like you know, thanks to some of our fantastic people that we get to work with, like I understand what overwhelm looks like. I understand what decision fatigue looks like. I start to recognize some of these triggers and like the fact that I start to set some of those boundaries. Again, people don't like them, but like, I'll give you a great example my mom was texting me the other day and I just got done with a flight.
Speaker 2:I had two meetings back to back and she starts spewing off with me about something I love. My mom and I was like I put it on pause and I text her back and I was like I don't have the bandwidth for this conversation right now because, again, it's not going to gonna be upset, I'm gonna be pissed off. I had another meeting and I was like you know what, I don't have the bandwidth for this, I'm gonna push this to next week sent a message in facebook, was like, hey, I need to push this meeting to next, next tuesday. I don't have this in me right now. Like, but like recognizing those pieces rather than burn the candle at both ends sure, because people aren't going to get your best.
Speaker 1:like like that's it. That might feel kind of shitty to send that to your mom, but like I think it's. Perhaps I mean again coming back to what you said earlier about it's how you know, it's how you say things Right and as long as she's coming from a good place, but like, if you're not giving her your best, and you know it's.
Speaker 2:And I think the hard part is the balance of like, where do you, where do you go between giving your best and where do you go between pausing? Right, because there's certain times you're like fuck, I know that this is really uncomfortable and I know that I have to just get through to this next part and there's going to be some sort of penalty for it, right, like I know that, like, again, me doing all this work for 18 hours straight the next day is not going to look as good as it should. So it comes with one, understanding that piece, but two, just the balance of it all. And knowing, man, if I step on this gas today and I do this thing for four hours tomorrow, I might have to make an adjustment. The rest of my day, I might have to make an adjustment. My relationships, those other interactions with other people, like my fuse might be a little bit shorter, but, like, that's definitely something where I've tried to rest and recover rather than just stop.
Speaker 2:Carrying the weight of the gym definitely helps sometimes. And again, like I don't know how you felt during kobe, but with me, like, when we um kind of like got back in the swing of things, I was like we have to build the team better. I'm like I can't coach 30 hours a week on the floor and like, carry this what felt like an 800 pound gorilla on my back. I was like I'm not doing it. I want to break and like if I break, the whole ship goes down. So like we talk about this thing for longevity and you know it's p again, like I, I don't tell anybody this shit, I just sit there and I suffer. My staff doesn't know about it. My team, like most of my coaches, don't know about it. Something like as a business owner, like you, some you try to be vulnerable with those pieces, but like it's not their burden to bear, at least in my opinion. Sometimes right?
Speaker 1:no, I didn't sign up for that. 100 agree. Yeah, your, your, your members are not there to be your therapist no they're just not have you had any experiences like that?
Speaker 2:like what is that?
Speaker 1:um, I mean when you talk about covid like that, like what is that? I mean when you talk about COVID like, yeah, a lot of things, I mean our team changed a lot. Yeah, I mean there was things like I've talked about. So I was in Ontario so we got shut down four separate times. Like toward the end of it it was like kind of getting ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Like the third one it was like kind of getting ridiculous like the the third one. People are like what? Like we had just had a christmas party with like 80 people like packed together face to face literally two weeks before, and then we got shut down again. The fourth one it was just like I don't even know, like people were just so over it, but early on it was, it was dicey and a lot of so like I kind of knew that we just had to kind of like get through it and and just understand there was a lot going on. I mean we were right in the thick of like miscarriages and like trying to figure that out and like surrogacy and all of that.
Speaker 1:So like there was a whole nother layer of like learning, like what you can control, what you can't control, right yeah um, so, like code wasn't even the hardest thing that we were going through, because we, like you know, but but yeah, the team, the team did change. I mean we had, we had, we had some coaches that just like you could tell that they just they between like us, sort of pushing this decision along maybe sometimes, or like they just kind of fell off, like it, like they just weren't necessarily interested in like actually like actually helping people and coaching people through that like it was a weird time, like it wasn't. It wasn't time to like cut off all your connections and like your gym buddies and all that stuff. It was a time to like you had to hang on to the things that you had. I think at least right and and I think the people who got through it is the best sort of did that? Um, but yeah, it was, it was, it was an interesting time, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, it's funny Like a lot of times when I even like thinking about like recharging. I definitely do well with time alone. Like as much as I'm like extroverted and enjoy being around people and like it, I'm good with it, like some of that stuff, like it.
Speaker 2:It takes a lot so like I just need to go walk in the woods sometimes yeah, I mean like I'm happy, like driving to an airport and like listening to some tunes and like going through my thought process and hopping on a plane and throwing an air buds and sitting in my seat not moving for three hours, yeah, and then be like, oh cool, I can go home now like like just that, like that time, completely turned off and like a.
Speaker 2:I think a different environment for me is actually really important. When I used to produce um, I would use different studios and if it was, if I was in the same studio, to rearrange the studio so it felt like a different space, so like certain tracks, certain feelings, certain emotions, certain like that creativity stuff comes with space. I moved my office, my old house, three different times. I had one spare bedroom I got done with it with a bunch of tracks in there like moved it downstairs in the downstairs studio, like it's a different creative space, and then at one point I moved to the upstairs other spare bedroom, like another studio so like having those different spaces to be able to like think creatively at least for me is has been kind of like a little bit of a hack.
Speaker 2:I'm a little bit of a weirdo with those things but, like you know, when I travel and I see things differently and I have different experiences, different sites, different smells, different setups, like I get to go through and the brainwaves work a little bit differently.
Speaker 1:I don't really know. There was something that I had touched on kind of recently that you know how people say time kind of speeds up. When I think time kind of speeds up when you don't have differences in your days, you know where just every time kind of compresses. But but I think when you do have just different and new experiences and you know sort of like landmarks of time that you can point to, like you remember a lot of details about those time periods, I don't know, I think it's like I like that, I like the restructuring and reorganizing for creativity. I think you can kind of get caught up in this rhythm of I don't want to say life passing you by. You might really enjoy your days. I don't know, I know that's a thing. Though when that like you know it's like, oh, that last 10 years felt like nothing, you know it's like, well, what did you do? Like were most of your days just kind of the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again it goes back to that balance of like there's some points in life and certain seasons where, like you need the same structure, you're going to do the same thing for three, four, five, six months. You're not going to go on a vacation, you're going to do what you need to, you're going to, like, you're going to save every nickel and dime. Like we've all been to that point and like you got to make sure that you get what you need to to operate at that level, get what you need to to operate at that level. And at the same point, there are certain things where, when you step out of the environment and just breathe some different air, where you're like man, now I can see things a little bit differently. Here's the next part of this thing.
Speaker 1:There's a couple more things, but there's one like I think we're getting, or I mean we're approaching 90 minutes here. There's one that I want to kind of dig into a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you got?
Speaker 1:And it's grit over glamour, right? So like from a guy that DJed Usher's birthday, right, how do you, how do you like? How does where does grit over glamour come in? Because I love that, like we're kind of in a world that's focused so much on objects and it's just so much bullshit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you knew how hard it was to take shots with those guys on his birthday, that's pure grit. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:You're a brave warrior.
Speaker 2:Someone's got to do it, Someone's got to drink the Jameson. I mean, you've got to kind of earn your stripes right and like the grit for me came before on multiple levels, whether it was like training for soccer, whether it was the commute back and forth to the city, whether it was at one point I pulled up our old gym schedule a little while ago because like it was the 10-year anniversary party a little while ago. Because it was the 10-year anniversary party but we had classes at 5.30, 6.30, 7.45, 10, 11, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Speaker 2:I used to coach all of them except for two a week. Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I did that for probably two and a half years.
Speaker 2:Were they all busy? There's no way. Some of them were one or two people, some of them were filled with 10 to 12. But like again, like I always brought my a game like it was. It wasn't like you're like sitting down coaching on your cell phone like dude. Like I knew what it meant to be a world-class coach because I that's your thing like I was, I was coached by really great coaches. So, like people don't see that grit beforehand, it's also still there if I need it. Like you got to make sure you still. Like you do it on your hikes, dude, like that's grit. You have the glamor of like the life and the kids and the house and all those things, but like, dude, you still go out and you like eat shit for three days in the woods with a 90 pound pack and like it's a different kind of grit, but like you still got to flex that muscle and still test it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I think discipline like grit discipline, you know, you can kind of package those all together a little bit in a way. I don't. I think that discipline carries over from one area to another, to another, to another. I don't think that you can really be truly disciplined if there's areas that you're like and sometimes there are areas that we hide or we don't like to talk about, right, but if you're truly like, kind of not like, it bleeds into other things. But but if you're, if you're truly like, kind of not like it's, it bleeds into other things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, A hundred percent, and I think I mean even within that piece too. Right, Like a lot of people are built from setbacks and those scars, whether it's like a knee dislocation for me, right.
Speaker 2:Like I wouldn't change that story for the world, like that was. That's part of my journey, that's part of my history, right? Um? So like built from setbacks and then kind of like powered from resilience or powered by resilience that probably make more sense. Powered by resilience, um goes a really long way with like that grit over glamour. At some point you're gonna have glamorous moments. Capture them, take them in. You gotta be long way with like that grit over glamour. At some point you're going to have glamorous moments, capture them, take them in. You got to be okay, though, with like playing in the mud.
Speaker 2:You got to be okay with with things being really hard and that's it. I mean, that's that's where the most growth happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or even just like when you say playing in the mud, I think like looking silly too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, like you can't be afraid of what people think. I mean, we're putting this conversation out here Like there's someone listening to. This is like I fucking hate both of those guys. Yeah, 100%, that's fine. Don't listen to it. Go listen to someone cooler, yeah 100%, Definitely someone cooler out there.
Speaker 2:But I mean, that's kind of like what I mean by like the grit over glamour. You got to kind of like earn the stripes. You're going to be built from some sort of setbacks. They're relative to everybody and then it's powered by resilience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's definitely. So, like again in training for a great life the name of the podcast, right. I want to kind of talk to people about what it means. What does it mean to them and how do they get there, how do they arrive at that, what are some things or some things that they focus on, some pillars of that, and like there's going to be a constant theme of like setbacks, resilience, reps right being scared, doing it anyway, all of that. Um, is there anything that that maybe hasn't come up, that you thought maybe would be a cool idea to talk about, or anything like? I mean, feel free to shoot. You can shoot a question at me too.
Speaker 2:We talked about like. So you ask yourself about like curiosity and tactical, like you know, questions that matter right. Like you know questions that matter right, how do you apply that to work into life?
Speaker 1:can you give me like more specific like I my, I my mind's going a couple different places, but like the quick ask, like in terms of asking yourself the questions that matter.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, I mean, sometimes you have to be able to step back from yourself a little bit, I think, at times, I think you have to be able to give yourself a good, honest look in the mirror. Um, I think you have to be able to give yourself a good, honest look in the mirror, be able to confront things that are maybe not ideal. You don't necessarily know how you arrived at them. People you trust that you can kind of like ask, like you know, just give me some honest feedback, like how am I doing with this? Or like what am I? Um, like, what am I not seeing with this right? So like I can give you, so, like again curiously tactical, like I can give you an um, an example of one that, like lace and I are really digging into right now.
Speaker 1:So, I'm on some like pretty, pretty good habits. Um, so we, we've fallen into a habit of like drinking too often. Right, just like, and I'm not talking like getting drunk, but I'm talking like you know socially. No, no. So I mean like. I mean like having a having a drink while like cooking dinner, type thing okay right, um, which it's like.
Speaker 1:It's like harmless once, but then, like you know, it's like it's nice, it's sunny, there's good weather, I got good music on, but there's always a fucking reason. There's always a reason if you, if you start to so like again, that's something that like and and we've been lifelong athletes and it wasn't it. There was like a time during covid that we kind of slipped into some bad habits there, where it's just like there was just nothing to do for a long time. We were, we were still working out, we're still like operating things, I think at a really high level in terms of like how a gym functioned during COVID, but like we just didn't have to be anywhere the same way and we didn't have to be up in the morning for things. And it was just like you want to have a couple of drinks and make dinner and like it's harmless until it's not right. It was just like you want to have a couple of drinks and make dinner and like it just it's harmless until it's not right, until until you're you have this until it's a bit more of a habit and you start to realize like there's like a little itch at like six o'clock or five o'clock or whatever the heck it is Right. And so, um, and that's been like we've done.
Speaker 1:You know we've been been a fair amount better with it, but still it would kind of I mean, she, she was pregnant for and had, you know, for, like the last you know, nine months and Calvin's nine weeks old today. So like she's, that's fallen off the map for her but and I thought it would for me, but it didn't as much during during her pregnancy and um, and and so anyway, what with the, the curious, the curiously tactical, like we're, we're really leaning into that now. Like I'm eight, nine weeks into, um, maybe, maybe a beer a week, which is like I mean, that's that, that's, that's nothing you know, um, but like at times it will, you know it's like it's like one or two drinks, and if you do that four or five nights a week, like that's, it's funny because you can justify it, because it doesn't, you're not getting drunk off of that, but like it's not, it's not a good habit at all, it's not helping you no, it's definitely not, but like you can, you can like, you can like get through it.
Speaker 1:And yeah, it's not gonna like, it's not gonna like I, I shouldn't say it won't ruin your life because it's a slow, it's a slippery slope, right like you go to bed. You know you go to bed a little bit more, just more disconnected from your partner. Um, you have young kids that, like they are, they're they're they're paying attention to you all the time and they might not know exactly like what's, what's going on or what's different. And I've tried to have some conversation with with um, with people about this recently, like friends, family members and you know, extended family stuff. Like, basically, like it's, it's not, it's not like a, your everyday conversation, but like at a at a party I'd bring like I might bring a beer and then I'll bring a couple non-alcoholic and I'll see someone. I'll just talk to them about it yeah like what are you?
Speaker 1:you know how you feel about all all you know it's like people think about this stuff. They just don't talk about it too much, right, and so that's the. You know, I've I've seen, I've seen good, I've seen very good come from it. Um, I mean, physically, I feel I feel great. Uh, it's funny. Like, um, on sat, last sat, saturday, I had two, two tall boys, so it's probably like what that's like three standard drinks. Maybe my mood was just off the next day, like I was just irritated and like I'm not here to like we had, we had old fashions at that steakhouse in Nashville and like that was the other night that I drank, basically, aside from, you know, the last two months or so, um, yeah, it's fun it's fun.
Speaker 2:It's fun, but like I do, I can't. I mean, I'm 38 now and I can't have three old fashions and I'm like, the next day I'm shot, like it doesn't even work anymore you ordered that third one. I did not, I did and I did and I was like you know what I'm going to pay for this, but I'll do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but there's that. So anyway, like what I'm, if you pick your spots, it's like you could you know that. That's that basically where we're at right now.
Speaker 1:So again about leaning back back into the curiously tactical, we were setting boundaries where, like, we're not here to demonize alcohol completely right yeah we're like, if we go out, get, get a drink, if you, you know, if you're, if we're hosting people, have a drink, but like we're just we. We kind of have have made a um, a boundary for ourselves to like. Just not, we're not gonna like have it on a random night because it's just, it's just too easy to like, it doesn't seem like anything but it's, it's so easy to to form a habit and so like, we will lean into this, like you know I'll, if she'll see an Instagram reel of like or a a post, a meme or something like that where it's like you know, a mom posted something like the kid kid at school was like, draw a picture of your mom and it's like a late, it's like a stick oh yeah at a table with, like, a glass of wine and like that, that stuff.
Speaker 1:You know, if you're, if you're in the headspace of like recognizing that that's not who you want to be, that's going to hit. That's going to hit. I had that conversation with someone recently and he hasn't had a drink all year.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so it hit home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's kind of the same thing. He's getting ready to go over to his brother's place before Christmas and his young son was like, why do you always bring pops everywhere? And he was like, just, uh, like what do you answer? You know? What do you? What do you say to a young kid?
Speaker 2:as, as a dad, you'll get a kick out of this. So when I was in kindergarten, the idea was to say, oh, you shouldn't be drinking and driving like, and I didn't comprehend it was alcohol. But yeah, my dad drinks and drives all the time in kindergarten and they're like, excuse me, I'm like. And then, like they dove a little bit deeper and I was like, yeah, he drinks a coffee and soda. He drinks it while while he drives. You said no drinking and driving, so meanwhile the school is calling home and be like. Mr Zire apparently is an alcoholic.
Speaker 1:Multitasking is dangerous.
Speaker 2:So realize what is portrayed to your kid. Again, very analytical right From the start. In kindergarten Didn't get it, but I'm sure you'll have some really funny like that with Leo, oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:He's hilarious man. I videoed him. I took him to the park yesterday after daycare pickup and he's there's like a 180 meter paved, like I walked it out. Because when I was a little kid, when my parents got me new shoes, our house was like. It was like when I, when I was a little kid, when I, when my parents got me new shoes, our house was like there was, it was like a circle kind of connected, and I would just run laps and I ran them in the direction of a track and my parents always kind of like were like why you always run that way, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Um, but he just he ran four laps of this thing and like I'm talking sprinting it, and I I like walked it out to see how long it was. But I noticed the one time I'm videoing him and he's like run, run, run, run and then he does this little weird like jump step. And then he this little weird jump step. I'm like what are you doing, buddy? And he's like that's Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. He's playing the video game, so he's jumping hurdles.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In his head. He's three and a half. He's jumping hurdles in his head Right. I'm like, oh my God, I was like you know, dad used to do that.
Speaker 2:Save it, save it, get it on video. You'll save it for later. That's awesome, yeah, so yeah, that's something.
Speaker 1:Oh, speak of the devil. Hey, come here, buddy. Hi, come here here. Come here, buddy, say hi to Eric Hi.
Speaker 2:Hi, hey, what's up?
Speaker 1:bud, I heard you're quite the runner. Well, he can't hear you because I got air.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:This will be great for an audio podcast. I'm going to come see you in a few minutes, buddy. Okay, I was telling him about your running. I'll come see you in a minute. Okay, go see mama, not yet. Not yet In a second. We'll wrap this up in a second because Dad knew what he was calling.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that was something that we're really leaning into and that's just one example. Leaning into it, that's just one example. But, like, there's a couple a couple I can't like Instagram accounts that just they just they'll just post mindset on stuff about. About that, specifically as it relates to like alcohol and like how, like what, what it can, can do, and and it's just, it's something that, like we're just in a place where we didn't want to be with it. Like you know, like fast forward 10 years. Like this is what you want to do for 10 more years. Like no, no.
Speaker 2:It's so funny that you mentioned that because, like, when I was leaving nightlife, I literally like I remember the day when I quit nightlife I was in my apartment in New York city. I had like a like a month to renew my lease. And I looked in my apartment in New York City. I had like a month to renew my lease and I looked in the mirror and I was like this isn't who you are and I was like you used to treat your body like a fucking pillar. It's time to get back to it. Like at that point, like I flipped a switch, I went and ran five miles in Central Park and I literally was like I'm not renewing my lease. I told my buddy who I was working for and I was like I'm done, I'm like I'm out of New York city after this month. And he's like what, like, what do you mean? But like the alcohol piece, like that was enough for me to change it.
Speaker 1:Um, you got to ask when you have those, those, those, those thoughts, you have to act on those things. What are you going to say?
Speaker 2:Um, I'm curious for you. I read a decent amount. What book is your?
Speaker 1:favorite book Just open-ended.
Speaker 2:Open-ended. What book is your favorite book? And the other one is what book have you been meaning to read but actually haven't opened up that you think will be really good?
Speaker 1:Ah man, okay, I mean I have a lot I heard think will be really good. Oh man, okay, I mean I have a lot I I I heard. So. Someone said to me years ago that he never deprives himself of buying a book that he wants I do the same thing I was like that's a funny thing to say, but I get it now. You know, I I haven't read them all, so I don't what's, what's?
Speaker 2:uh, oh man, um, because I have a lot of those same dude. I literally have like the obvious choice right here. Oh, it's like right, right in front of me, I got.
Speaker 1:I literally have beating unicorn right with me right here so like it's a lot of the same so I'm curious yeah um, I'm gonna look on the shelf here too for a second my favorite I like. I mean, I hate this type of question. I hate putting a label on it, throw it out. It's so hard. No, I mean there's one on my shelf that I read a long time ago Sidney Poitier the Measure of a man.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I remember I read it like a long time ago I'm talking like probably before I really started diving into like personal growth. I don't even know, I think I bought it in an airport one of those moments, but I actually read it. I was like that was so good, like I should probably read it again. Um, the go giver is really good that that one resonated. I've read it probably four times.
Speaker 1:Um, that was one that was recommended, highly recommended, like early two brain days of just like kind of understanding the whole, like giving, receiving and like just you know it. And it's a bit of a longer title, soachman, um, it's called, it's so it's like a novella, it's like an hour hour long, uh, it's called, and every morning the way home gets longer and longer. It's basically like about um sort of like generational, like a young, it's told through like a young boy, his dad and his grandfather and his grandfather's kind of going through, like like an Alzheimer's dementia type thing and like that's the whole idea is every day the way home gets longer and longer. Like you don't kind of you don't, you don't really get back to who you were.
Speaker 1:I listened to that while walking my dog and there was points where I was, just like tears coming down my face, dude. Like you know, I came home and just like gave Lace a massive hug and kiss and just like it just made me grateful for like my life and like the little, the little moments of it. You know that was a cool one recently. Uh, one of the shelf that I've been meaning to open, um, yeah, or that I that I would like to, right at the bottom here, poor charlie's almanac okay right?
Speaker 1:um, so that's, uh, that's charlie munger, right? So I remember like ordering this one and I mean this thing is just going to be full of so much wisdom, um, and I haven't cracked it yet, but I feel like it's one that I, like you, could kind of keep it out on a coffee table and read a couple of pages a day and just be like I'm I'm open, this one, yeah yeah, dude, those are awesome.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I always appreciate people sharing books and going in and I tried to give you some like non-obvious answers. I mean like dude, like three out of those four I've never heard of before.
Speaker 1:So that's what I tried to give you, because I feel like we do have a lot of probably similar books on our shelves uh, probably yeah, yeah, um, I love this one too, just for like, uh, the daily dad, you know. So it's, it's uh, ryan holiday, so it's basically like. It's like the daily stoic type thing I love the principles of stoic philosophy, uh and it basically like weaves it into like a one page, like even half a page, just one thing for the day, um, weaves it into parenting it's pretty cool, that's awesome, yeah, yeah yeah, I'm sure all that stuff is transferable and like applicable to so many different things absolutely, I'll go through phases where, like I don't, I don't, I forget it's there and I don't open it.
Speaker 1:But I'll also go through, you know, weeks at a time where I, like I'll just read the one, the one page every day. It's a book that, like you can, you can come back to the idea that you never step in the same river twice, right, like you can read the same page a year later and it's going to hit you differently definitely yeah, yeah, cool man um anything else no, that's great.
Speaker 2:Um, if I was throwing out for a few books for your listeners, yeah sure, do sure.
Speaker 2:Do it. I would say Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Like I've probably read that like three or four times over and it just depending on where you're at, you can kind of like reapply some of those things and just change what you want to go towards. Keep Going. By Austin Kleon Okay, I've heard that one, Austin's like an artist, that is, I think he's out of Texas.
Speaker 2:He has like a whole three series of of like um, keep going, uh, show your work. And there's like another book in between there, uh, or it's it's called steal like an artist. So all three of those books are pretty awesome. Um, tools for Titans. And like the tribe of mentors I actually want to do like a tribe of mentors, but with my gym members, and like create our own interview process with that. And then probably like the infinite game, I just I think Simon, so like on point, I usually listen to like some sort of Simon before my staff meeting, which allows me just to like to be in a better place. I think that like his leadership style, his listening ability, just I think like just I don't know, just hits the certain wavelengths a certain way where I'm like, oh cool, like this, this makes sense.
Speaker 1:Can you hear my dog going nuts in the background?
Speaker 1:Barely just a little, my little guy's playing Time to go. There was one thing I was going to add in. When you said, like that moment when you just decide to leave new york city, um, last year I had a a choice between going on that hike, which is the first time I had done it. Now it's like I'm not gonna miss that. Uh, so it was either that, or there was like a big there. There was a big dinner that Lace's dad was doing and like it was like a Lord Nelson steakhouse, like $250 a plate, all taken care of, party all night. Like I came home to some freaking wild story. Oh really yeah, just like they turned it up that night, I was like I need to be on the trail right now. Oh really yeah, just like they turned it up that night, I was like I need to be on the trail right now. I don't need one of those nights, I just need to go out into the woods and get my ass kicked. Yeah, I don't regret it.
Speaker 2:I don't think there was a wrong decision on either one of those things. No, it's cool that you did that.
Speaker 1:It was fun hearing the stories from it. I appreciate you uh connect soon.
Speaker 2:You're going to chicago yeah, definitely in chicago, would love to connect. Let's keep, uh, keep chatting. I got some fun things in the work that we can chat about offline, but uh, yeah, you know, we'd love to pick your brain on stuff again. Absolutely appreciate it, man. Yeah, you got it.