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
Braeden Cordts: Chasing Lions & Building a Life Through Risk, Growth and Obsession
Hello, welcome back to another episode of Train for a Great Life, another one I'm excited for. We're going a little bit more long form and I have Brayden Quartz here with me today. Am I saying your last name, right? Yep, yeah, you got it. Okay, I mean, we've been knowing each other for a little while now and I mean I don't say your last name necessarily out loud to you, but just making sure I got it. Brayden, we're going to get into all sorts of cool stuff here. Let's start with just a little bit of background on you, like who you are, what you're up to these days.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think, to start it out, I got a little girl, blakely. She's about 19 months now, married to McKay. We got another baby on the way, due in January. I'm the owner and founder of Core Fitness and Performance. I'm also a doctor of chiropractic. I am starting my training to become a two-brand mentor what else Just bought into another gym and more of a kind of mentorship role for that business, and I'm also currently training for my first marathon. So that's kind of a quick sum up of all the things going on, what I've been up to, all that fun stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so we're going to. I'm going to kick this off as, like, you have resume of a 50-year-old and you're a little bit over half of that Yep 29.
Speaker 2:Just freshly 29.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay. So I know you're a humble guy, but I'm going to pull this stuff out of you a little bit. We've been working together for a year or so, a year or so and, um, yeah, I remember the first thing that that sort of impressed me about you was just this capacity that that you had. Um, if we, if like, let's, let's go back, let's go back in time a little bit, you know, cause I'm sure it's you don't just have these opportunities and starting all these things, it doesn't just fall into your lap. So talk to me maybe about hard work. Who's been influential in your upbringing and where you are right now? How's that sort of been shaped and influenced?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I would just start with my parents. I mean they've been and always have been my biggest influence and like we didn't grow up very close to the rest of our family, the rest of our family is down in Illinois, so like we didn't, where are you now? For everyone, minnesota, we're in Minnesota. If the Minnesota accent didn't just come out there, it does. And then the rest of our family is in Illinois. So like my parents, we didn't have like they couldn't quickly just drop us off at Grandma and Grandpa's or at an Aunt and Uncle's. So like from the start, my dad has worked with 3M now for his entire life and they're currently in China because of that.
Speaker 2:And my mom was a full-time daycare provider out of our house so she could help raise me and my two younger brothers and the beauty of that was my mom would go at 5 am, get her workout in, come back before her daycare started and before us boys woke up, and so like I've had one fitness and hard work like instilled for me just watching my mom um, immensely right. And then kind of the business ackerman. I mean we have a few different entrepreneurs in my family, so we have my dad's parents own Quartz Heating and Air Conditioning in Illinois and then my uncle ended up taking that over and then for the first time they just sold that to someone outside the family. And then on the other side of the family my uncle owns an electrical shop commercial, and so I mean, and they're extremely successful. So like I've been surrounded by people that mom and pop shops, if you will, so kind of that grit of doing your own thing for yourself.
Speaker 2:But I mean my parents from the start, and I mean my dad beat it into me, especially with sports. So I played hockey, baseball, soccer and I still remember what he would always tell me is like, no matter what you do, do it the fullest of your capability, and if you're going to do something, do it right so you don't have to do it again, again, whether that was just doing chores or whether that was playing sports right. So like I got to see my parents and their work ethics, but also they've instilled a lot of really good habits into me up until this point. So, um, I guess I had some good role models in that sense yeah, that's cool actually.
Speaker 1:So I, I mean, I don't think we'd gone into that before, but like there's definitely some similarities. Like my mom ran a daycare out of our home and for a bunch of neighborhood kids, so she could be around and do that for my brother and I, and some of the words that you just got said you got from your dad, like it's like word for word, like similar, right. So, yeah, yeah, that's cool. I, you know, it might, might give a little bit more insight into, like, how we understand each other, right, so what? Like again, so let's, let's talk about how you built some of these things up. Like, let's, let's maybe start there. Like, yeah, because you built some of these things up, like, let's, let's maybe start there. Like, cause you and I think we're going to have to go back to like you went through school, what was the vision with school? Like, cause I think the gym came along later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'll take this all the way back to high school, Um, because I think a lot of this journey starts back then because I didn't know who I was in high school. Um, I think I was trying to figure that out, um, and I mean, most people don't know who they are in high school college but, like for me, I think I was really struggling with the fact of, like, I didn't fully fit into, like a friend group and when I was playing sports, um, I loved the weight room, I loved the working out and I got made fun of and was called a try-hard because I wanted to push hard.
Speaker 2:It was stupid, right, but it was the idea that I loved the weight room and no one took it seriously. And it's ironic now that I own a gym. But so when I went to NDSU, which is in Fargo, north Dakota, it's about three and a half four hours away from my family, and I never drank, never did drugs in high school and I opened both cans worms of those immediately when I got to college and I would say I probably wasted about three years of my life trying to do mechanical engineering, falling into drugs, alcohol, all these different things, and just trying to fill this void of who. I was trying to do mechanical engineering, falling into drugs, alcohol, all these different things, and just trying to fill this void of who. I was trying to be okay.
Speaker 2:And then along came CrossFit, figured out that oh, like there's a bunch of people that go to a gym and work out and they don't get made fun of for it. Like this is kind of cool and I can lift heavy things, I can run fast, like I was kind of starting to fill the void of I'm no longer an athlete, I'm no longer playing sports. So it helped me fill that void. What year?
Speaker 1:When was this?
Speaker 2:Probably 2017 is when I so. 2014 is when I graduated high school and then later 2014 is when I started. 2014 is when I graduated high school 20 and then later 2014 is when I started at NDSU. So 2017 was kind of, at this point, okay.
Speaker 1:Luckily there's similarities there too, and like I'm sure myself and you that uh and I'm sure that you see this bringing people into your gym, I call it the ex-athlete. That's kind kind of like, and I say that with discretion because, like, there's still the athlete inside of you but you just don't have the outlet and CrossFit tends to take a hold of that person very quickly.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was a recipe for success, especially if anyone has a lick of competitiveness. Yeah Right, I mean it's funny. Now, like how many people do you find that Like they say they aren't competitive and then you find out like they play cards on the weekend and are the most competitive person and they fall in love with CrossFit. They never played a sport in their life, but because of playing cards with their family they're super competitive. So now they're competitive in CrossFit, or just within their hour that they work out.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, right. But like, so I was lucky enough that I got into an internship somehow some way even like I wasn't focused on school at this point and I was able to afford to go to CrossFit. And then I was like, okay, this is cool. And then someone told me I should go get my L1 so I could coach and then work out for free, right, as a struggling college kid I'm like, ok, perfect, I'll go pay for that, go do that. So I ended up falling in love with CrossFit and just the gym space.
Speaker 2:At the time I was studying mechanical engineering and my dream was to do biomechanical engineering. Just because I've had multiple surgeries at this point because of hockey, um, so, and multiple broken ribs and clavicles and all the fun stuff that goes along with playing hockey. So I kind of like the medical route, um, but my internship showed me that I hated sitting behind a desk, hated it, so, um. So I still remember this. I was telling my mom I'm like, I'm struggling, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I love this CrossFit thing. And her first thing was like, okay, how can you make money in that space? Like number one thing, like, how can you make money and I'm like well, I always liked going to the chiropractor growing up. Well, I always liked going to the chiropractor growing up.
Speaker 2:So, basically, I dropped out of mechanical engineering school in 2017. And three years in, three years in, I had a year left. Yeah, I had a year left and I was just. I'm like I view it as like I probably saved myself, because I think if I would have gone through all the way, I don't think I ever would have like been down this road, right, yeah, so when I say, yeah, like that's, that's the typical response Like I, I, I get it.
Speaker 1:Man, like sunk cost, you get to tell the story of all this. Now how many people just. Well, I'm three years in, I better finish the fourth and then I better. You know, like I, yeah, uh, you have options.
Speaker 2:Like you're not a tree, you can move so I'll put it this way my dad and my dad's and my relationship at this time was very rocky, and you could probably imagine why he was. He was in, uh, germany. Oh, it's all my fault. I will 100 take ownership of well, you're young.
Speaker 2:You're young and trying to figure it out right, yeah, I was stupid as shit, so, um, arrogant, all those fun things. But he was in germany and I called my mom and I was like, hey, mom, like I'm gonna do this. I got accepted into northwestern health science university. Um, back down in minnesota, um 20 minutes away from home. I'm like, can you call dad and tell him? I need him to come pick me up because I was scared to call my dad and so we luckily, like him and I can look back at this conversation and laugh now. But he was in Germany. He stepped outside of his conference room, he was in and he's like hey, bud, what's up? I'm like, hey, dad, I'm dropping out of mechanical engineering school. I got accepted to Northwestern Health Science University. I need you to come pick me up and bring me home. And he's like well, I'm in Europe, so I'm not in Europe for a week and I can be up there, and probably eight days, nine days. And so I had to wait.
Speaker 2:I dropped out of school, was waiting up there for that long, and that was. I still remember the fear I had waiting for him to come pick me up and to face that. Pack up the vehicle, drive down. We drove in silence for about four hours and that was. It was like there was post hockey games that scared the shit out of me, but this took the cake. I was never more scared in my life because I had self-doubt. I was not confident in my decision. I just made it.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like this gut feeling that you just had to go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And then one of my biggest role models, who was probably extremely disappointed in me at this time, and he's like what am I going to do with him? He's dropping out of mechanical engineering school and my dad's an engineer, so I was following in his footsteps and he's like he's going to go do this, start this thing. How long is he going to last in? This is probably what's going through his mind and, by all means, I agree with him. So we get down back from Fargo. I jump into this, but I think one of the biggest things that I haven't mentioned yet is I met my wife shortly before this, um, so before making the decision to drop before before making this decision and, uh, she still jokes about that.
Speaker 2:Uh, my dad was probably thinking oh, he just met this girl, he's right canceling school because of her and coming home.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say how, shortly before and like was this.
Speaker 2:It was a few months.
Speaker 1:It was a few months.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah. So, there was a lot of different dynamics and different changes going on in my life at that time. But, like I read a book called Chasing Lions and then or Chase your Lions, and that really put me on the trajectory of like, okay, I gotta do something. That scares the shit out of me, and this 100 scared the shit out of me and um it. And then meeting mckay and then having this epiphany driving home, starting this, and yeah, it was. It was a huge, huge catalyst for where I'm at.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, um, I think we'll jump back into this because, like, let's, we'll talk about chiropractic and and then the gym and everything, but I think there's something in there, like you know, you hear the cliche of like do something every day that scares you, or like, basically, like it's leaning into you know, having courage and not being afraid of things. I like to sort of think of it as betting on yourself as well. Right, it sounds like this, like it sounds like that mindset has really has played into where, like the catalyst to, to, to get you on the trajectory that you're, you're on and I'm sure it's still. It's still pushing you forward quite hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um yeah, you could say that the and I I mean I that One of the projects I'm starting to work on is I open up an LLC called Chasing Lions. Do I know what I'm going to do with it? Yet I have absolutely no idea. Probably some sort of media or some sort of just leadership point. But for me it's like in the book that I read.
Speaker 2:It's a little biblical and it's about the story of Benaniah, who was one of King David's mighty men and he to prove himself to King David that he was worth it to be on this group of King David's mighty men. He chased a lion on a snowy day into a cave, killed the lion to prove himself worthy of King David. And to your point of like to do something hard every single day, I mean, granted, every single time when you and I wake up, we're probably not going out and physically killing a lion near death experience to prove ourselves to someone Right. So, but for me it's like, if my dreams don't scare me, right, if there's no, if there's no sense of failure, why? Why am I even doing it Right? Like it, to me it's not big enough. Like, and this whole entrepreneur journey that I've been on since little did I know I started this back in 2017. Right, there's zero. Like I didn't know, I was an entrepreneur, probably until 2020. But I started this journey in 2017.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we've kind of come to this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got the story of of leaving a I mean, I tell it on this podcast, many, many. I think it's like an episode 19 or something like that, the catalyst of uh, or like how I got into the fitness industry industry. I kind of fallen into a job that was like serving to pay the bills and I actually, like I probably paid down 10 grand of student debt in a year, which was like, oh my god, like it's the start of adult life. But it was like a job that I was not built for, I was not made for. I came out of teachers college there weren't jobs and and I did it for about a year and a half before I just kind of like I knew I had to get out and this job had, so it was a service job going through, like literally going through restaurants, taking their stuff, going through shops, taking their shop towels, changing out floor mats, changing out uniforms or sintas if you know the company right and, um, you know they do, they do like bathroom stuff. Now, too, you might, you know, could use them in your gym. And I remember one of the spots on a route that I had had me going through a gym and I just couldn't stop thinking like it'd be cool to just be here instead, like spend my day here, and I don't know what that looked like. But uh, again it's. It's kind of like the roots of of this entrepreneurship and figuring it out and and scary, like, scary, scary I I think I might have even paid off more than that. Um, I was living with my roommates and again I started to like I did lean into that job pretty heavily. I learned how to like re-sign accounts and I was like that's where you really make the money. Because you're making money for the company, they'll give you a good little kickback. But yeah, I left that and I made 53 bucks in a month, my first month in a gym.
Speaker 1:When I left, and you, you know you're thinking like what have I done? You know you've got this like yeah, I don't know, almost like this time counter, like counting down on you in a way, or like, um, I was just playing video games with my son this morning and like side scrolling ones where, like you have to keep up with it, type thing. I imagine something like that. Right, but at the same time I was just like I was happy, it's happier. You know, there's a lot of similarities in our stories. I think this is pretty cool. Yeah, I agree. So let's, let's jump back into the. You know, take me through like a little, you know chiropractic, and maybe to the point of like opening a gym.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when I got back home I was coaching at a gym in Woodbury, pretty close to home, and waiting to start, start with chiropractic school, start, um, start with chiropractic school. And then, um, I I wasn't clicking with the owner at the time, I was, I would say I was kind of like a general manager at that point and he, he viewed a lot of people just as numbers, like it was. There was no personality, there was no community Like, and I get, trust me, I 100% understand revenue, profit, all those different things, but if you aren't serving first right.
Speaker 1:We're in the business of relationships.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a service industry, so you have to start there. You can't view people as numbers when they walk in the door, you have to meet them where they're at, and I just didn't click with it. So, and uh, someone I had recently met because of, um, my wife McKay, working out at a different gym, um, he told me he was opening up a gym and he needed a coach, and so I started coaching there at the same time that I started chiropractic school and um, so chiro school kicked my ass. From the start. It was just it was 32 credits a semester, um, which the average college student, I think, is like 14, 16. So it was like double the load, kick my butt.
Speaker 2:Um, and I had to really relearn how to, how to study. Um, I mean, I did mechanical engineering, so mathematics and science was coming naturally and all this histology, just biochem, like all this stuff I had not learned yet. And some of these people had exercise science majors or even pre-med. So I was in a room of people that I'm like, okay, help me. Like I have no idea. So like that was my first instance of asking how to help, asking for help, and so we went from that and then, starting at the gym, was called, made to live at the time.
Speaker 2:And then we get to COVID and I kind of I still remember this the, the owner of the gym, was on a cruise when Minnesota shut down and so, yeah, perfect, right. So I was trying to make all these changes to make sure that we could stay open, all these different things, and then they get back and then we try to survive the gym and him. We try to survive during during COVID and I'm still taking classes now remotely. My wife at this point had started the core method, which was a nutrition company, and so she was kind of the first one out of us to to become an entrepreneur or work okay, yeah, I didn't know, yeah, so she started.
Speaker 2:She started the trend and then so she had a business partner with that and they were doing really well. Mckay had over 40 clients for nutrition coaching, was doing really well. She was also a dental assistant and during that time, you guys just stack things up both of you. Yeah, yeah, you can say that. So I mean yeah, up both of you. Yeah, yeah, you can say that. So, yeah, I mean yeah.
Speaker 2:So for us it was really trying to figure out, like, what do we want we? This was our first time of asking like, okay, do we want to work for someone else for the rest of our lives, or what do we want to do? And so mckay decided this was towards the end of covid or maybe in the middle right Is, I think it was 2021. And so she steps away from dental assisting, wants to go full into nutrition. So her, her pay was kind of about the same from each, and then I was getting paid from coaching at two gyms at this point one close to school and then one back home.
Speaker 2:Um, so, and I was stacking up hours and that was helping me get through get through school, and I was also a teacher's assistant, uh, for our adjusting classes. So I was kind of doing everything to help survive all that fun stuff. And then I find out the owner, um, is wanting to sell Um, um and I was a little pissed because he didn't come to me first, um, but he ended up coming to me and I was able to get him at a price that we could kind of jump into this and full circle. Um, I needed financial help because I was a broke-ass college kid at the time and I was what, 20? Just I think when we signed everything I just turned 25. So all the negotiations were kind of happening when I was 24. And we bought the gym when I was 25. But I basically went to my dad and said Dad, I need financial help to be able to make this happen.
Speaker 1:Um and so another sort of like you know whatever you want to call a curve ball for him.
Speaker 2:Correct, yeah, and I said, hey, I know I'm in chiro school, but I think I can make this work. I think I can go run this gym and I think there's a huge opportunity here for us and for me. It was a huge, huge full circle where he was probably beyond disappointed, had no idea what to do with me when I was leaving NDSU. And then we get to a few more years down the road and the only thing he asked was what's your plan? Okay, that was all he asked. I gave him my plan and basically I mean, at that point it was a shit plan.
Speaker 2:Now, now that I'm back, like looking at it, now that I know what I know, but it was like at the point I was like I'm just going to invest in the community, that is all I'm going to do. I'm going to feed the community and we're going to do this the right way. And us feeding into the community is going to grow our gym and when we started, um, we had 28 members and now I just did our numbers we have 217 and we just celebrated four years and, to your point of when you started at the gym and made what 53 your first month yep, no.
Speaker 1:So this is that's like personal training at a yeah, gold's gym, and and I think I made that money from attending like two meetings or something because I didn't have any clients yet yeah, and then we threw me a bone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's nice of them, uh, yeah, but we I didn't make any money from the gym for almost two years. Um, because every dollar we got we invested back into the gym. Yep, um, and at that time, like I couldn't ask for help when it came to like mentorship or anything, and I literally just absorbed all of Chris Cooper and two brains free material. Okay, that's kind of what got me from zero to two years that free material at that point was quite good.
Speaker 1:I mean, when I was actually I didn't really consume free material. I mean, he, he did have that the blog going back then, but like there just wasn't much. I mean we're talking 11 years ago now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so huge full circle.
Speaker 1:When we were buying the gym and and yeah, so it's.
Speaker 2:there was a lot that happened from leaving school to going to that point, Um but that's a cool.
Speaker 1:that's a cool um, sort of your, your dad sort of threw it back to you. I was thinking, like you know, when I said you threw him a curve ball, like you can learn how to hit a curveball, I feel like you were throwing him knuckleballs.
Speaker 2:You just said uh-oh, what do I?
Speaker 1:got here. What do I got here? What do I got?
Speaker 2:Which way is it going to go? Not the easy child at that point, during those years.
Speaker 1:To go along with the analogy of the knuckleball, some knuckleball pitchers are really effective and you've clearly done some really good stuff with this. It just takes some time to figure things out, like we the idea of our. So the gym wasn't our idea. It was. It got like put onto us by people who were in the gym that Lacey and I were coaching at. Like it wasn't our idea first. And and it just kind of sprouted from there. And then we had a lady who was a member of that gym ask us out for coffee, showed up with a five, five thousand dollars in cash in an envelope, and she's like you need to go do this. And it was like, oh, my god, okay. And it was like this is not a repayment. If you tell anyone about this, I'll just deny it, uh. But also like just have some respect for what I'm doing here and don't tell anybody. I mean I'm not mentioning names and it's also like way down the road now, but uh, yeah, I mean it. So what I'm what I was getting at was like it wasn't necessarily our idea. And then, once it was our idea, um, lacy's parents were not on board with this like we. We had just both, like there's so many similarities here. We had both gone through school to teach. We'd just come out of she was going yeah, she was going into teacher's college. Then she was still trying to get in.
Speaker 1:I had come out of it and teaching in Ontario, like in the States, you know, it's kind of like dog shit money for what the job actually is. In Ontario it's the States, you know it's. It's kind of like dog shit money for what the job actually is. Um, in Ontario, it's good money, man, it's good money. It's. It's the best pension in North America pretty much. And, um, it's very stable. And there was, there was friction. There was definitely friction there. They didn't, they didn didn't believe it, they didn't believe in it. That she doesn't come from a fitness family, um, really, which is funny, we've got some of them doing it now and everything. But uh, yeah, it was, it was, it was tricky. It was tricky getting started. I feel like we were throwing knucklers around as well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, how many people do you think at that point we're telling you to don't do it, like it probably extremely outweighs the amount of people that told you to do it?
Speaker 1:Um, it's funny, Like there there was there's two sides of it. Like we were getting a lot of like do it, do it, do it from people that we coached and people that were in our sort of yeah, um, ecosystem there right, and like I have stories of you know the gym that I came from. There were times when I was like you're just looking at everyone as a dollar sign right now and and like there were some. There was a few things I learned along the way where I'm like that never do that Right. Like you just it takes whatever 10 years to build someone's trust and 10 seconds to lose it, type thing.
Speaker 1:There was that influence, but then it was like the people like closer to us not that we spent time with everyday coaching, but like you know family and you know they don't, they don't necessarily see the side of you that's in it and the passion with it. They, they, you know, quote unquote want the best for you, but like they have a sort of a, a picture, uh, you know a picket fence idea of what the best is and like sometimes it just doesn't work. It doesn't work for everybody to to do that right. And it's funny because, like lacy's side of the family is very entrepreneurial and, um, we were kind of getting the pushback on that. But again, I mean, I don't know, years later we've clearly figured out some things along the way. So you know, I guess give ourselves credit from that. But there's definitely both sides. There's both sides of influence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm trying to think back because, like so, mckay's dad also, he, he built and then sold a fire protection company, so sprinklers, all that fun stuff, um, for commercial purposes, and he, um, he's, he's a very quiet guy but, um, luckily I, I think I can say that I cracked him, which was good. There's a whole story to that, we'll send him this episode and see if he agrees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think he was the only one on her side of the family that was like he didn't really say like go for it, but he was like he, he, what. He didn't really say like go for it, but he was like it's going to be hard, but like it's going to be worth it. Yeah, yeah, like it could be worth it.
Speaker 1:But we had.
Speaker 2:I mean, but the amount of people around us that I mean just were like you can't make money as a gym owner, right, like this is gonna be hard, you're gonna be working a lot of hours. I'm like, yeah, okay, that's fine, right, like we can build this as it goes. Like there was a lot of people that were like like, just focus on being a chiropractor. When I told some of my teachers or professors at school, they were like no, they most of them hated the idea of CrossFit just because of being chiropractors. They're like high intensity, no, you shouldn't be doing that, you shouldn't be telling your patients to do that. And I'm like, okay, we're not aligned. And but like the amount of people that, yeah, I mean obviously the people we were coaching and training, uh, at the time, were like dude, you would be awesome at this, like you're already the face of the gym, but everyone else in the circles kind of. I mean I think that was one of the biggest things that helped really close our McKay and I circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's cool man, yeah I. So I've, I've probably mentored a hundred gym owners now at this point for various lengths of time. Um, uh, for sure, actually more, more than that. If you, if I think about all all of the different um, like through growth, tinker, all of that stuff, for sure over a hundred, um, for sure over a hundred, um, I can just tell very quickly, like even over a call like this, an intro call, like there's just an energy to people that are leaders, that are like true leaders, you know and and and how you know your vision will change. For sure, for for this gym. But if you're, if you know the people and and how you know, your vision will change. For sure, for for this gym.
Speaker 1:But if you're, if you know the people said the same thing, like, oh, you know long hours you're not gonna make money this and that, like, I'm going to do what I want to do Like, I like, I like the, I like the actual doing of that work, and it's just a shame to not go for it sometimes or be talked out of it because not like the people. The world needs people to like lead things and create things right. So where I was going with. That was like the. I feel like I can spot that person very quickly now in a gym owner where I'm like, oh, we just got to. I mean, my ideal person to mentor is someone that is that person already. Where I'm like, oh yeah, I can see, you're magnetic. People are going to follow you and do what you show them, but you just need to learn some, some business and how to like actually run a gym.
Speaker 2:Do you think you can? No, yeah, do you think you can create that? Or do you think that's something that you have like from your experience and all these hundreds of gyms that you've mentored? Can you create that? Or is it just something that like, okay, I'm born with this, or like you fall into it Right, or is that something that you can practice at and be like, have that vibration? I mean, I'm a huge Ed Milet listener.
Speaker 2:And, like these high performers have a better frequency or higher frequency, not better, higher frequency, right? So it's like, and you're going to track people of higher frequency to you, can you train yourself and your mind to go at a higher frequency, or are you kind of always just like, okay, here's my frequency and this is where I'm going to be?
Speaker 1:I think both a little bit. Um, I don't think you can completely change who you are, uh, in terms of that type of stuff. Like, I don't think you know, if you get someone where you're like, you're like, oh my God, this, this dude, this girl is 10 out of 10. Like right, and I run into those people sometimes and I what's in sort of in my mind it might be messy to get out, but, like they, there's sort of like a baseline and obviously like, if you, if you get away from yourself, if you go down the road of like not taking care of your own habits and like not sharpening your own ax, like you're, you're not just going to sit at a 10, you know, you, you can fall pretty, pretty hard too. Um, so there's like a, there's like a baseline, there's like a basement and then there's I I mean, sky's the limit, kind of for that person.
Speaker 1:I think, with someone who is struggles to, you know, is, is not that person like, I think you can change a lot, but I think you're just gonna have a a lower baseline of you know, frequency, vibration, these things you're talking about. Um, I think the basement is probably about the same, right, uh, and I think the ceiling is a little bit lower as well. Like I, you know, I, I don't know if that's it's messy, it's messy to try to get out of my head, but uh, I don't know. Man, you, you can, you can definitely do a lot of the right things to. I don't know. I think these people are just made sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I get where you're going with that. I think, too, it's like when I got into Rain's Tinker Group, the mastermind, like one of the biggest things that I realized was well, I mean, the first day or the first meetup was at Rogue and first of all, it's just intimidating. Yeah, very grand it's like wow, damn right, you're walking into Rogue, which is intimidating in of itself. It's like a business pinnacle of like wow, this is how you should run any kind of business, right.
Speaker 1:A million square feet, this just absolute excellence dripping off the walls. And then you're like this guy in, like you know work boots, just walks up. He's like hey, I'm Bill. And you're like, oh my God, you started this thing in your garage and now it's yes yeah, 100.
Speaker 2:So like, like I go to that and then like I'm intimidated by that factor.
Speaker 2:And then I'm intimidated that it's my first meetup.
Speaker 2:I'm one of the two youngest people there and I'm like, oh my goodness, I don't know what to even ask and like I don't know who to connect with.
Speaker 2:It was very much one of those things. But the point I'm trying to make here is, like, I think it to your point, if you have a certain frequency level, right, and then you surround yourself by a huge group of people that vibrate at a certain frequency level, right, and then you surround yourself by a huge group of people that vibrate at a different frequency, right, it's the same thing. When it comes to the financial wealth, like it, it's your fight, you're the average of your five closest friends, net worth or even just success or whatever you want to accommodate it. Or maybe even health, right, if you want to look at it from a health perspective, fitness perspective. But like, if so, like being in that room, right, feeding off of all these people, like I get, I got back home and I would definitely tell like I'm vibrating at a higher frequency because of the conversations that I had, right you and I.
Speaker 2:I mean, I mean at that point like we were just getting to know each other and I think you, matt Machard, and I'm going to blank on who the fourth was with us, but we were out until 2 am.
Speaker 1:Oh, nick, nick, Redmond, nick yeah thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so all four of us. We were just out having beers until 2 in the morning. Yeah, I hate that.
Speaker 1:But it was great. It was great all four of us. We were just out having beers until two in the morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was great. It was great and it was great, but like we were all just like the frequency level that we were vibrating at was phenomenal. And then I get back home and then I go and have conversations with people that are not trying to achieve what we're trying to achieve. They're just working on their, their nine to five, punching in for their 401k, all those fun things, right. And then fucking different man and I'm like I'm like, oh shit, there's people that do that are not on the same vibration, right, and it's trying to like figure out, okay, like I need to remember, even though from a business perspective, like I need to remember, even though from a business perspective, like I'm trying to vibrate up here to match these other people and try to strive to make the best business possible, but also it's like I think I think that it is something that you can learn how to vibrate, but it's something that you definitely have to practice with.
Speaker 1:It's like yeah, yeah, I mean, you can, you can learn in the doing, for sure. Let me ask you a question, because you keep mentioning vibrations and stuff I've got. Where did it go? I've got these books behind me. I'm really interested if you've, if you've heard of these. So I was on a call last week where these got mentioned, or a couple of weeks ago, three weeks ago maybe, and they got mentioned and it was within a whole conversation of this type of stuff. The first one is I don't even know if I'm going to say it right Kybalion, this guy right here, yep, I've never even heard of that one, hermetic philosophy, seven laws of the universe.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was sort of warned with this that it's like it's a little bit like heady, you know, and out there. And then the other one is thought vibration, okay.
Speaker 2:I have heard of this one, william Walker Atkinson.
Speaker 1:I have not read it though the law of attraction in the thought world. Okay, and again, I have not cracked them. I'm I. I'm the kind of guy I've got like a couple of books going at any given time and sometimes I'm smashing through them and other times they just sit there for a little while. Oh, I got like four I'm working through right now too. So, yeah, shocking, we're similar there.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, so these, these, these two books, and the first one especially cut cut ballion. I believe it's based on texts from like a long time ago, like thousands of years ago. I could, I could be wrong, I know it's, I know it's a long long time ago. Um, and it's written in a way it's kind of like cryptic a little bit too. But basically, like the thing where I was like, okay, I'm just whatever, I'm just gonna buy these and we'll figure it out later, the guy was like the guy that was really talking about. He's like I've leaned into this stuff hard for like the last five years and it's's like absolutely changed the course of my life and also to that point he's like this stuff was all just like ideas, unproven ideas, for a long time. He's like the things that we're doing in quantum physics now are proving this.
Speaker 1:And again, I I'm not the person to explain that to you or to myself, like I don't again, I just I. I I listened, I was intrigued, I bought the books. I think it's one of those. It's kind of like I'm not like a woo-woo guy I don't think you would describe me as that, um, but there's things like this that when you have enough experiences in your life that you can point to where you're like how I think and how I show up, because I mean, I, you're how you think, is that's the basis of everything, right, yeah? And and you just stack up enough evidence that you're like there's, there's, there's something to this, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:And and like going back to that the whole rogue thing, like I didn't realize it at that point. And then I've listened to Ed Milet and Ed Milet, he's referenced the second book there, so that's how I know that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean Ed Milet. He's a Christian, he's a religious guy, but he does believe in that this frequency and I and I'm on the same page as him and but like I think this is too like I'm an. A lot of people will characterize me as like an older soul, especially when it comes well, especially when it comes to my, like, my music taste, for one, okay, but like everything else, probably um, but like with I don't know. So like I've always connected, or I would say probably since I made that switch of coming back home, um, from NDSU, I've always connected with people that are um, they work for themselves, right, they're um, they have their own business, they're doing something, they're, they're an executive of some sorts. Like we've had clients come into the gym that are executives and I'm like, oh, you and okay. I'm like, okay, you're you. But like I think now you can summarize it and like it's a similar frequency, right. So like, sure, being 29, right, and how old are you, jay, 41, okay, but like, to my point, you and I have a very similar frequency, right, this is why we get along so well, right, like I met, we've had maybe what is it? Two phone calls and then at Rogue, you and I were having beers until 2 am, right, yeah, like it, like. And that's why I believe, like, especially when it's like it doesn't matter, like the background of these individuals that are your five closest friends or who you talk to the most, it's what is their frequency, what are they doing right, and I think that there's obviously this is a little jumbled right now because I don't think I've ever actually talked about this out loud, but I think, to our whole point, to put a bow on it, right, it it's.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think there's a lot to dive into or unpack there, but I think, just finding people that have that frequency as you, I mean, yeah, I'm, I've, I think since 2017, I've been motivated, right, I've had a lot of discipline, I've practiced it.
Speaker 2:I've probably have read hundreds of books now Right, I've practiced it. I probably have read hundreds of books now right, but, like, for you and I like, every time I got on a call with you, getting mentored by you, I felt elevated, right, I felt like okay, I'm ready to go, like I feel like Jay brought, like, whether I had a shit week or not, like my vibration went up, like I feel better, like I'm going to go and do what I'm supposed to do, right, and like we feed off of each other and like you and I will make each other better because of that, and it doesn't matter that I'm 29 and you're 41, right, not at all, like those things. Those things don't matter and yeah, I think to put a bow on it, I mean, that's the, that's the beauty behind all those things yeah, I think that there's something like to to just shift course really quickly, to like our gyms too is like.
Speaker 1:I think that there's just that, when you get that vibration, you know to stay on that of, you know you show up multiple excuse me, multiple times a week and you just get that thing, that that feeling, that vibration around just these people that you just don't normally have like it, that's it. It's life-changing. You know, it's not just the workouts, it's that's the whole, it's the whole thing as a package. Right, what, like? What's something that people at your age you know I will mention the age thing, yeah what's something that you believe about like success or mindset that most people your age might?
Speaker 2:disagree with.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think I think the biggest thing that I would go to, that people would are maybe scared of um is being obsessed like I. I will fully say like I am obsessed in three things my family, my fitness and my business. And I think a lot of people are scared of whatever success may bring right. I think they're scared of what it takes to get there. I mean, how many people my age do you hear must be nice? That is the most excuse me BS thing I've ever heard on the planet earth is must be nice, right, and I like I hear that so often, right, yeah, what do you hear it about?
Speaker 2:Um, I mean, so, uh, a couple of phone calls ago with you, you and I were both talking about golfing on a was it tuesday? And you and I had a call on wednesday or something like that and, um, it was like a tuesday morning and I was out golfing and, uh, I got two messages saying must be nice and and I'm like I'm, like y'all didn't, like I'm not. I'm trying to be more active on social media, like that's something I'm working on. Um, I, a lot of times it's just like I forget, but like um, all my runs now I post on uh social media and then. But like I, I get those messages that it's like it must be nice. But I mean those individuals, I mean they didn't see the three and a half years. I mean, and there's a lot of people took a lot longer to get to that point, to be able to go golfing or going doing whatever they're doing on a um for someone to say that, but for me and that's, that's probably not like.
Speaker 1:I mean, I know, I know you that's not every week, and if it is, then great you know, if you've, if you've been able, if you enjoy golf and it's like the thing that people don't get sometimes with that goes along with obsession, which you just talked about, is it's you don't just get to turn it off either.
Speaker 2:No, is it's. You don't just get to turn it off either. No right, no, no like, and I think with my marriage, that's one of the like. One of our biggest talking points is I don't have an off switch and and it's something I'm working at right this is always something that I'm like like I'm trying to figure out. How can I be better, so, like, when I get get home now I have to put my phone, my Apple watch, anything like I have to make sure my to do list was done Everything off to the side to initiate family time and it's.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think that's one of the hardest things that I've had to learn is that it's really hard for me to shut it off because there's always one more conversation I can be having to get a new member, there's always one person I can be checking in on, there's always a mentorship opportunity with my staff, right, there's there's always something next that I'm working on and, and I think and if, when, when you have enough, when you, when you've leaned into it enough, you, you know you've done it and like it's not just like, oh, those things you have to check the box, it's like those, those are the things like you, you've seen them give you this life that you have desired, yeah, and like there's like a friction that happens when you think about them and don't do them Right, yep, so I don't know Like I get it, man, like yesterday it's, I mean, you're probably getting some super warm weather here too, or there too it's been really hot, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so we're super close to the beach and Lace's siblings have houses just on the lake around the corner here. We went down there for I don't even know five hours or something like that. I don't bring my phone. It's just better if I don't. I know that I can keep it away, but sometimes I don't, and you know it's like it's just not, it's not time for that. Um, you know that's the same with.
Speaker 2:so, like with McKay's family. They have a boat on the river Um, it takes us about what? Probably 25, 30 minutes to get there. But like well, like, as soon as I get on that boat, like I take my phone, it goes right into like a little drawer and I won't look at it until later. Same thing when we go up to my parents' cabin, like I won't know where my phone is until Sunday. Like we go up Friday Don't know where it's at until Sunday. So, like I've learned but I mean back to like original question on this of like what people don't know about success, right, it's, I think. I think people don't realize like you have to go all in. Like when, when we started this journey I mean we I was in fricking flight or fight mode for two years. Like I had zero income, I was getting paid to coach and then all of a sudden I took over the gym and I'm like wow, they didn't even have money to pay me.
Speaker 2:and they were paying me right, and McKay um stopped dental assisting was like survival of her own right doing her nutrition um business. And then we were doing this now together. Right, you have to. Like I know the cliche of burn the burn the boats, right, but like I didn't realize at the time, we burned the boats and we went all in and like we're better about it now.
Speaker 2:But I think so many people my age are like, okay, okay, I need to go get a nine to five. If I want to do something else, that's great, I'm going to do this side gig over here, I'm going to put kind of a little bit of effort into it and if it takes off, it takes off. They're like waiting to get lucky. They're not truly obsessed with doing this thing that they actually love. And then they're like, oh, after a year it flutters out. They're like, oh, okay, it's just oh, maybe I'll get to that tomorrow, right, and they just ended up not doing it, and and then they just go back to their nine to five that they're not actually truly happy with.
Speaker 2:And so for me it's like my dad has worked for three and forever. He he's had so many opportunities that he probably could have gone and helped out other companies, businesses. I mean he gets head hunted all the time and I'm very proud of my dad, like I mean, and he's a huge role model for me but like, is he truly happy? Has it been beneficial to his health? Like, I think part of part of the reason I stopped mechanical engineering was watching him. And now I live this life that I'm trying to make people fitter and healthier and happier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was?
Speaker 2:it about watching him.
Speaker 1:What did you see?
Speaker 2:Just, I mean, I mean I took away his work ethic, but, like you also, there's a consequence to work ethic sometimes. And I mean, during COVID, he was in a respiratory products for 3m so he was on the phone with China at 5am and then he was on the phone with China at 11 o'clock at night, because that's the difference in time, yeah, and so I watched him and, like his calendar, he has no control of his calendar, so his entire calendar is controlled by his supervisors or people that are reading him. Like he has zero control, and that's what corporate life is like. Is that you? You have to meet these demands, otherwise they're going to. You're another number.
Speaker 2:Someone will someone will and then someone will do it so like. But I think for so many people it's like they're, they're scared of actually doing what they love, because you have to make this huge jump, this huge risk, this leap right Burn the, burn the boats and try. And here's the beauty about being young that I don't think people they're going to regret down the road is that when you're young is the perfect time to fail, because you can restart again and that, that is.
Speaker 1:I think that's. I think you've kind of come around to it. That's probably a, to me at least, that's a that's a bigger, that's a bit of like okay, this is the age gap and, like you know, you've built up some good stuff At this point for me, you know, I mean you've got young kids, but I'm a little bit further down the line in terms of age and what we're trying to build. The further along you get, I think you get a little bit more conservative with that. I don't want to be starting over, but you definitely can do that in your 20s. It just feels like I don't know. There's like a failing isn't bad.
Speaker 2:It's not bad, do you think let's go this route? If, for some reason, you lost your gym, could you do it again, sure?
Speaker 1:yeah, and probably faster.
Speaker 1:Uh, for sure, faster yeah yeah yeah, yeah, I might, I might do it. I might do it a little bit differently, I'm not sure, but like yeah, if we had to do it again in the same area or do it again somewhere else, like that's, that's the everything that I've learned up to this point. You can't take it away from me, right, you can take away the things. You can't take it away from me, right, you can take away the things, but you can't take away. You know, in this, in this example, what I've learned how to do and build.
Speaker 2:And that is why you are the most valuable asset, right? Yeah, yes, and I think that's also something that people my age do not realize.
Speaker 1:Right, I think there's also something that people my age do not realize. I think there's a lot of people that want to be farther than they actually are, so they go and buy things To make it look like they're further along.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to make it look like it. Dangerous path Versus. As soon as we had money from the gym, I bought mentorship, because I've always heard that the saying of the business can go as far as the leader, and so my my mind was like I'm going to read every book I possibly can. I'm going to get mentorship.
Speaker 1:I'm going to keep elevating myself, because if I keep getting better and better and better, the business will yeah, I think, contrasted against that, like you did start making money, so like there is sort of the you know, and what if it's an, what if it's enough that you're like it's more than you've ever come into. You're like, oh, that's, we're good. Yeah, right, it's funny. The first time that we came into it again I've told this story way back was when we'd sort of like executed that super aggressive savings plan without realizing it, found that account full of money. We were already in mentorship, right. So like I mine wasn't like we have money, let's invest it into mentorship. It was like we reached sort of that invest into mentorship. It was like we reached sort of that critical point where it was like I don't know what else to do. I don't know, I don't know what to do and I need I, you know, I'm just gonna trust, I'm gonna trust this, and in it it was.
Speaker 1:It was tricky because I there was early, early on, in the gym, I think, before we'd even opened it. I was like searching for there were like you can find grants to help open your business, you know, like essentially sort of some free money and to develop and do whatever, whether it's like for equipment or training, develop and do whatever, whether it's like for equipment or training. And I I can't remember exactly what what it was, but I paid like 800 bucks, which to me at that time I don't I wouldn't even know the equivalent now but it was like I didn't have that. Like I think we opened our gym on like 15 to $20,000. It doesn't happen that way anymore. Like we, we ran out of money and so we only have floored half of the gym for a while and then, when we had a little bit of money, we floored the rest of the gym to have floor space and when we had a little bit more money, we bought some more kettlebells and we had, I think, one, one rower for three years, two years, why? So that I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Man, like I, it was the start of more, but, like I think you know, it was like if we had to run an open workout and like qualify for regionals, we could do it, something like that. Anyway, yeah, anyway, to bring to bring that back, like the first time that we had money I started to learn about investing. It's a different way to look at, but it's like I'm not just going to take this money and like I've worked so hard for this. It's mine. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to spend 95% of it today, or like within the next week, like this thing that I've been eyeing. It's like there's, there's a sense of like you're not there yet and there's so much to learn, or there's, or you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you and I had a wonderful conversation on what is enough. Can you identify it? And I think one of the things that has helped me because, like, and also to kind of bring it back to when we were this was when we started making money was when I invested in mentorship, like we were not making it by any means, like we were still scraping by, but like now to fast forward to where we're at now, like I set goals and then I hit them like it's just, it's just become this thing, and then I would set these, uh, these effort goals and I would hit him and I'd be like, okay, well, maybe that wasn't high enough. And then it was just like okay, keep hitting all these different goals. And so, like I tried to do the a reward system. So like when I achieve something that way, I actually feel like I truly, like I can celebrate, because I think that's something that I've been terrible at is this idea of celebration. So, like when I um, bought into this other gym, I got myself a new putter, like I told myself, like when this was all all done and said, like I'll get myself a putter, yeah, right, um.
Speaker 2:And then when I became or got accepted to go into two brain mentorship training. Um, my wife and I we went to our our favorite restaurant and celebrated like we've started these little things and like to like what is enough or when can you like slow down, or any of those things. It's like I don't know, because there's always another level to to all of this, right, and like there's a whole game, right, and I think, like going back to to my first time at rogue with all of you guys, right, I probably I was one of the two youngest probably had the lowest net worth out of everyone in that room Right, like, especially fresh out of a chiropractic school with $300,000 of debt.
Speaker 2:Right, so it's like like I'm like okay, cool, like this is a really good group for me to be in and like you constantly get will be elevated to figure out. I think when I bought the gym and I can see where my life is now, I would probably say this is enough, we could slow down. But now I'm like no, I want to be able to get to this next point because of the impact that I can have on more people If I get to that next point, right, and I I think that's like what's enough, or when is it enough? I don't, I don't know if, especially at my point in life, I can't define that Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I want to come back to that, but I want to just make sure people heard that you've had 300, have had I know you're paying down some of it but $300,000 in student debt sort of the right group mentorship of, like you know, being in the being around, the right vibration to be able to like, yeah, get out of that quicker. Right, it's not just like, okay, here I am, now I'll be a chiropractor and I will. I don't know how long that would take you to pay down, I have no idea. I mean, that's no, that's, that's up to you. Know, it's your path. But, like the the to, to bring it back to your, your point of like, enough, it's fun, it's fun to dream, it's fun to, like you know, think about things that you want to do with your life. I mean and I very intentionally say things that you want to do with your life, not things that you want to buy, not things that you want. Um, you know, and and it's important like, if you're going to dream, if you're going to do these things, I think it's important to ask yourself why you want them.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, one of the things that that Lace and I have been talking a little bit more about recently is we. So our home is built. Now We've been in it for like two years and this could change. But something we've talked about is we want to do like the home exchange, right when like. So it's a program called home exchange and you can, you, you, you basically like rent out your house in this small community of like it, and so it's not necessarily like I take yours, you take mine. Like, if we're going out, if we're going somewhere else for a week, we could put our house available for the weekend and build up credits and then so we can use those at a later date. But but it's it why we want to do it. Um, I think.
Speaker 1:So, to tie it to this idea of like I, I don't love how long the winter stretches on here where we are, and I would love to just go and live somewhere else for a month, you know, in like February, march, april-ish. You know what? The summer's too nice around here. I love it. But that's a big thing to first just to say out loud, because it's like then you have to figure out okay, how do, how do I do that? You know how do I put those pieces in place and why we like the home exchange.
Speaker 1:I mean one you can just travel a little. You know you can travel the world a little cheaper, cheaper accommodations because like we built a nice house, like it'll be, it's between Toronto and Niagara Falls, it's near the lake, there's lots to do, like it would, I think it would be a desirable spot for people to stay um, but also it just plants you not in like a touristy area, in a hotel or or like and then I know you can do Airbnb. But this is just a different, a different thing. But like I would love to know what it's like to to live in a village in Switzerland for a month and like you know what I mean Like it's long enough to like you're not just, you're not just doing it for a week and sightseeing, it's like you have enough time to kind of settle in which, um, and why we want to do that.
Speaker 1:I mean I I love experiencing different culture and like just picking up on, like the feeling and the rhythms of the of the people and cause it's. I don't. I think there's a lot that's not quite the best about North America and the way, the way we live and the way we're doing things and and it's just neat, it's just neat to do other things, right, so, but again it's. It's like that wasn't something that was in my head five years ago, three years ago, right, like it's. It's you, you're allowed to think of the it'll never happen. If it's not in your head, it'll never happen. It's got to live there first.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, well, I think something too that I've been thinking more, more about is like, if you're not contradicting yourself, right, you're not learning. So if I said something three, three years ago and now I'm doing that thing that I said I wouldn't do, it's because I learned something along the way. I love that. So to your point of like, yeah, it's probably not something I thought of three years ago, but great, I'm here now and this sounds like a cool experience, and especially as your kids get a little bit older and it's easier to go and do that, I mean that's going to be a really cool experience for them during the summer or sorry, during the winter to go somewhere.
Speaker 1:That's a little, yeah, different, yeah, and and like my. You know my thought. I don't want to be chained to the idea of like, okay, we go do this in the summer. It's like, no, the summer, like you got cousins all around here, it's beautiful around here, though in the summer I want to. You know, it's like we'll figure out how to like whatever homeschool for a month if we have to Like I don't necessarily want to do that all the time.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that there's value to just the system that is created and you know, I think that it could be better, sure, but like that's not the point, um, but it's something that we could do. And like I, I would rather do it in a time when school is going on and I don't want to take the kids away and like have them come back all behind and just like neglecting what needs to happen for their development. It's like, no, we're gonna, we're gonna hammer that stuff and you know it can probably be done in an hour and a half. And and then you're just learning, you're getting experience, you're getting experiential learning that you don't get otherwise.
Speaker 2:Do you think you would ever homeschool full time?
Speaker 1:No, I don't think so. Um, I, I, I don't think it's a crazy idea. If you asked me about homeschooling 15 years ago, I'm like that's okay. Yeah, like I don'tious people that I don't know. You know how good of a job are they doing? You're going to have to wait and see. You know, 20 years from now, their kids will have a good idea if they're messed up or or like, if they've done it the right way. I've seen it. I've seen it done the right way. I've seen it it the right way. I've seen it. I've seen it done the right way. I've seen it done the right way.
Speaker 1:And I think that, like to your point, if you're not contradicting yourself, right, like I believe that it can be done well and I believe that they're. You know, I don't think that all students are going to thrive in the system that is created. I think that it's. There's a lot of it that's kind of antiquated and even just types of kids, types of learners. They're not going to thrive. They're going to be kind of like spat out the bottom of these classes, right, and they're going to be labeled. They're going to be labeled as like whatever, not a good learner, a a clown can't pay attention. You know, sometimes that might even go as far as like being labeled with things that they don't necessarily have right.
Speaker 1:Again I'm. I won't take that any further because I don't. I again I'm talking, I don't know, that's not, those decisions aren't for me to make Right, but I, I don't. As a longer answer, I don't think I would, I just I don't, I don't think I would do a great job of it. Like again, like that's, that's not. I don't think that that's something in my life right now that I want to be obsessed about yeah.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking.
Speaker 2:You know, I was just thinking about that because I mean I go back to what my like. I always think about this. Like if I should do something, like, can I do it to my, to my standard? Right? That's a lot about what I think about. So when I bought into this other gym, I was like, okay, do I have the time to have the patience? Do I have all these things? Can I do this to my standard and hold myself to it, right? And? And if the answer is yes, then great.
Speaker 2:And then I mean, if you're going to do something, do it right. Right, that's what my dad always said. So to me it's like, okay, if I can do that, then I'll do it. And like McKay and I, right, our daughter is 19 months. And like we've talked about the idea because we're going to be moving, we have land that we purchased and we're sitting on to build, and I mean we've talked about the idea of homeschooling, but I mean both of us are have kind of shied away from it because of because of that factor, I don't know if we can do it to the capability that we we would for our kids.
Speaker 2:But that's also something that one of the reasons why we decided for McKay to be a stay-at-home mom and that she led this uh, led this push too was, um, to make sure that our kids were being raised the way that we want them to be raised. Um, because, I mean, we've read plenty of books that the first four years are instrumental in a kid's life, right before they even get into a school system. So mckay and I decided that daycare was not going to be the best thing for us and I got nothing against daycares obviously my mom did daycare very, very well for 18 years and but we decided that that it's going to be best for our kids, for McKay, to stay home with them until they go to preschool kind of garden or whatever they end up going to, yeah.
Speaker 1:And to contrast that that does something that we have had Leonardo do. It started, really, uh, we started with like one day a week, um, and yeah, I think we started with one and then went up to like two, three, four, five, and we I mean tomorrow, like especially when it's nice out like tomorrow he's not going. Last week I think there was like two days he didn't go. You know, we did a four-day camping trip Friday, monday. He didn't go. We're not and we're also like I see kids that there are days. There have been days that we got we have to drop them off a little bit earlier, like we never want them there all freaking day, right, like I really think that there there is value to just being socialized and and like you know he's, there was at one point he, he got taken out of a class that he was like kind of friends. He had this little group of friends, like it. It happens when they're like two years old, they just gravitate toward certain people and not to others. Uh, and he got moved out and we didn't. We, you know as much as you want to be, hey, like what's going? Why my kid? It's like maybe because he's pretty easygoing and like he's just gonna make friends in the new one more than other kids would and like I don't know if that's the answer right, but it's not. It's not untrue that that's like that. That's what happened, is he? He's just, he still has those friends. He hasn't seen them quite as much. They play outside. He's got new friends now and everything.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I, I've seen kids that get dropped off at like. I think they open at like seven o'clock and they close at six o'clock. That is a long day, man. Our mornings are pretty flat and we've again we're it would look different years ago um, we've crafted, architected this life where we can bring him, oh, and there's days that don't quite code these rhythms too, but most days he's gonna, he's to spend the morning here for a while and he's going to go and he's going to get there at the earliest, two hours before lunch maybe.
Speaker 1:Maybe like 10, 10, 930, 1030, sometimes 11, sometimes literally right, oh, my God, we got to get him there for lunch, get there for noon, right, and and then some days we'll pick him up at three, some days, four, some day. You know, today, uh, it's a little longer day because we're picking him up and we're going straight to t-ball from there. Right so, but it's, it has it's been. Um, I don't have an a separate experience where, like, we kept him home every day and like, look at this kid versus this kid. Like I mean, you're just doing what you think is, is, is best, and like will lead to their best development. And also, within the constraints of like, what can you actually do and what are your needs?
Speaker 2:like we, we need time to be able to you know make our world go around as well right, make our world go round as well, right, well, and I think, too is like um, I just hired a?
Speaker 2:um personal assistant for, uh, the businesses, and she's also, she works at a um, um, like a preschool um daycare kind of thing and um, so, like, we've had her kind of basically nanny, um, we've started to um, incorporate that into her role a little bit and I mean that way mckay can. Mckay loves doing social media stuff for the gym and, right, she loves our, our newsletter that she gets to do for the business. So to your point of making sure that, like, you have time to go and do what you want to do, right, mckay and I sit down every Sunday and we go through and say, okay, this is what the week looks like, I'm training for a marathon, so which mornings am I running? And for her, it's okay, what mornings or when do you want to go work out? Right, and making sure that we have this good balance and good communication.
Speaker 2:And back to kind of like comparing kids, whether you were at home or whether you went to daycare. I mean that's parenting in a nutshell. We're just going to do what we think is best for our kids, right, I mean? And that's the huge conversation with um, not to turn that political side, but like the vaccination versus non-vax, right, I mean, you're just doing ultimately what you think is best for your kids and, and as long as you have that, first and foremost, that I'm making this decision cause I think it's best for my child. I don't care to to for me right, cause, like, if that is truly where you're coming from, don't give me the science, don't give me anything to back it, just tell me that, like that's the reason.
Speaker 2:Then, by all means, I think that's great and and I think, to make sure, like, if anyone listens to this, that is either just becoming a parent or anything, making sure that you and your spouse are on the same page and you are making those decisions together is going to be the best, whether it's homeschooling versus being in school, vaccines or no vacs, or someone staying at home or they're in daycare, right, as long as both spouses are on the same page. To me, that's that's where the the win is. And if your kid is, I mean, there's going to be a lot of influences on your child, right?
Speaker 2:As they get older, right? So? And I mean you can't control it all? No, you can't. So I mean, as long as you think you're making the best decisions for them, that's all that truly matters at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yep, yeah, and, and so what I picked up on there too, with your wife McKay, like you mentioned, like you use the label like stay at home mom, but also like she's she is actively doing things in the business. So like that's just that that label, like that's that whole, like it's never completely turned off, like it just it. It looks different, um, when you it's just her role, might, might, that that might sort of be the secondary role for her.
Speaker 2:It's, you know, like there's, there's multiple, multiple hats to wear and she's still like um, and luckily, um, when my parents get um back from china this week, uh, for the next couple months she'll be able to go to our coaches meetings again, cause we have those at McKay's or Blakely's bedtime and so, like for like, she'll be able to go back into the business a little bit more in some aspects and, like, she can coach when she wants to coach. Right, if she tells me she wants to be on the floor, great, like, I know she's going to put our standard of a product out there, um, right, so I think, I think that's the hard part when it comes to labeling or not labeling anything, cause you want to always generalize something. But yeah, she's uh, like, if you want to, at the start of this I gave all my titles like you want to give hers. It's, I mean, she's a stay at home mom, she's a nutrition coach's, um, the house manager, if you will. I mean, she keeps our life together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, that's a huge. There's people that hire that out, which is a crazy thing that they actually have like a someone that manages their house, like a business, like there's there's, I mean, however many different things you want to give her a title, for I mean she does it all, and I mean being a full-time stay-at-home mom is just a. I mean you're working overtime on that, that's not a nine to five. Shut it off, that is overtime. And then she does the social media and all the other stuff that she loves to do Right. So I mean to give her credit where credit's due. I mean she does a lot Right and no, there's probably not one title to say, yeah, this is what she is.
Speaker 1:No, it's all wrapped up in. Oh, always, yeah, yeah, what did I ask you? A couple more little questions that, before we kind of wrap it up here, um, what, what's? What's one thing that you would maybe like tell your? You know, 10 years ago, 19 years old, something that you would tell your 19 year old self to start doing, stop doing and keep doing.
Speaker 2:Start, stop, keep um 19.
Speaker 1:Start believing in yourself, believing in who you were, in who you are Like real belief, Because you did say kind of like that cocky, arrogant, typical 19-year-old man.
Speaker 2:But I was like to my thing. On that. I think I was trying to fit in, yeah, like I was being cocky and arrogant to try to fit into certain groups, sure, or things along those lines. To like I was not truly who. I was being cocky and arrogant to try to fit into certain groups, sure, or things along those lines. To like I was not truly who I was and I was always trying to fit into what I thought at the time was probably the cool group and that was something from high school into sophomore year of college. So, like, I never.
Speaker 2:I don't think I truly loved myself. Like, if you want to get really deep on that, I don't think I truly love myself. Like, if you want to get really deep on that, I don't think I truly love myself. So, like, instead of believing me, I would say, love yourself. Like that would be the number one thing that I would tell myself to start doing at 19 was to love myself for who I am and that no one else's opinion matters, unless I do that first Um and then keep and then stop. So I think at 19 is when I started CrossFit started working out. So the number one thing I would say there was I mean keep, keep going with that baby Keep that one rolling Um.
Speaker 2:Stop trying to fit in that would be the last one. I can smash the first and the last one there, but stop trying to fit in what's something, maybe, that you've picked up from me over the last year?
Speaker 1:I mean, this is just out of a curiosity thing, oh that's a, that's a loaded question Cause I don't know what, like I don't.
Speaker 2:I have no idea what it's going to be.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's so many business things that I've picked up from you. What are the top 10? No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 2:Just one, just one, I mean whatever, no, no, no, I'm trying to think of, like the biggest thing, but like, um, so one of the you okay, I think this is one of the biggest things that I've taken away from you is you work in your business. Yes, and I think one of the biggest things I took away from you was that, like, as you grow your business, it's okay to still work in it. Cause I think I was under this when I got into the Tinker group, like I was going to hire a GM and I was going to start slowly exiting my business and have someone else run it in my stead, and then then you became my coach and you're still doing, you're still in the trenches. If you will, if we want to use that, saying Sure and like I think that is one of the biggest things that I've learned from you is that, like I can still be in my business, still sit in the seat that I want to sit and still live the life that I want to live business, still sit in the seat that I want to sit and still live the life that I want to live Like I.
Speaker 2:It's a, it's a much bigger thing that I think I took from you and I don't think I took it from just one call or over. It was probably over the span of a lot of calls, but, like, I think you and I have very similar goals for our lives. We both have young families, right, both growing families. So I think for us it's right, like, we love business, we love fitness and we love our families first and foremost. So it's making sure, like I, you're feeding into each one of those the amount that you want to feed into them, right, and I don't know if there's like, again, this is just spinning off, but I think this is like the biggest thing that I've taken away from you is that I can be obsessed with all of these.
Speaker 2:It's not just I need to be tunnel visioned on just my business, because I think that's something that, like I, it was very easy for me to do is like okay, I want to be the best CrossFitter I possibly could. Okay, tunnel vision, I'm going to do that. Okay, I want to run the best possible gym. I can Tunnel vision, but there's other things that are going to suffer, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure you can't do it all.
Speaker 2:No, there was plenty of times that like, like I would focus on the business a little bit more than I focused on school. School suffered, right, and then the business did well, and then I would not focus on the business, focus on school when it came to finals and midterms right, and I didn't have staff in place yet to be able to like, okay, you need to onboard this person, you need to do this sales call, you need to do this and that right. So, like, things suffered a little bit. And, of course, like McKay and I have had plenty of hard relationship or hard conversations throughout our relationship. But to the point of this, I think the biggest thing I've learned from you is it's you can do it all right, but I'm not to the point of being a Jack of all trades, but, like you can do a lot of things really, really well and effectively. I think that's something I've learned from you.
Speaker 2:One of the biggest things I've learned from you Cool Business. I mean there's been plenty of things in terms of numbers we can get into and analyzing, but I mean, in a nutshell, like outside of my business, that helped me the most and I think that's what Tinker is about is elevating yourself as a person, family and fitness and then business. Right Is you and I I mean you help me elevate in all these different spectrums versus just my business. And I think when I got into Tinker it was reclaiming my own fitness, because I obsessed over the business so much that I lost a lot of my own fitness right and my own self. And now, because after a year with you, I've dove in into so much more of those things, yeah, that's, that's good.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. I'm not like teeing up for some answer. Yeah, me on the back, it's not it at all. I'm just curious. And I love that answer because I think it can be really damaging actually to. I've seen it to.
Speaker 1:You know, the expectation at a certain point is you get out of your business and you hire people and it's like, okay, what next? Yeah, which is fine, that's a fine path, like there's nothing to. If that's what you want to do, that's fine, but it doesn't have to be that either. And and, uh, you know, I think it's um, you can't just look at what other people are doing and building and think that that's the right path for you. Like, you have to ask enough questions, have enough experiences along the way to know what, what you want, what you don't want, what you value, what you don't value, and, um, I mean I want to build a life of, of abundance and and that that I have there's.
Speaker 1:There's things that have to happen for that um, for that to happen. But, like I I want to, I don't want to lose sight on sort of like the main thing, which is like this gym and community, that that that Lacey and I have built over 13 years now that if that continues to go really well, it's enough to sort of siphon off a little bit here and there to like we're not old, we're not super young anymore, we're not in our 20s anymore. But I want to find things that are more passive. I don't necessarily want to find the next thing that I have to be obsessed about because I'm in the season of being obsessed about my family. Yeah, waited a long time to be to, to, to be there, you know, and, and I'm like I mean, I feel we understand each other Like I have to learn how to do that too. It's new. It's new for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's a cool piece for you and I to feed off of each other is that we're both learning that at the same time. Right, the whole family piece? Yeah, because I asked you the question earlier could you, if you lost the business, could you go and do it again? And you said, yeah, you lost the business, could you go and do it again? And you said, yeah, right, but if you lost the family, that's, that's a whole different ball game, right, right.
Speaker 1:So there's the analogy of like juggling the ball, like all the balls and like that one. Some of them are made of rubber, some of them are made of glass right. Some of them you can draw, others, others you cannot. Some of them are made of glass right, some of them you can drop. That's a great analogy. Others you cannot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that's a great analogy. So I'll turn this on you because I think this is going to be very interesting. What's the biggest thing that you've taken away from me at?
Speaker 1:being your mentee for a year, um, um, it's going to be something to do, I think, with like I I said it early on that I'm so impressed with your capacity that it doesn't seem like you're. I mean, I'm sure you've had times where it feels like you're sort of suffering to to put everything in place, a little bit Like I'm. I'm sort of meeting you in the era of maybe starting to get to the other side of that, where you don't have to suffer quite as much. But I'm still like I'm inspired by the amount of things that you're willing to take on. I think you have more of that than I do and it's funny.
Speaker 1:You talked about some of the challenges you had younger. I think you just learned some lessons earlier on in a meaningful enough way that, like you know your late twenties, like to the I'm not even average person, to like the person who's really taking a look at you, is like you're pretty fricking dialed. You know and and and um. I think I I've had to, I don't know. I think I've had to learn some of those lessons, maybe along the way. I don't know, I don't know, like I, I don't know exactly. I think I've had to, I don't know. I think I've had to learn some of those lessons, maybe along the way, I don't know. I don't know. Like I don't know exactly.
Speaker 1:I think it's capacity. I think it's capacity related, yeah, right, of the things that you're willing to take on. And it's funny enough that you sit with the man in the arena poster literally sitting right behind you. You know, if you're listening to this like I, I do. I am recording these with video. Um, just future proof, I might throw them on youtube. You know, for now they're spotify and apple, um, but that that quote is befitting of you, yeah, um.
Speaker 2:so I've to your point of like feeling that or it seems like I have it put together or I'm dialed in. Um, I think a lot of that has come in the past year, especially being coached by you, cause I think when I was in um the year, the year prior, there was a lot of growing pains um, a lot of really hard conversations with McKay and I think I've said that multiple times but like, yep, we're doing things that our families have never done, which is someone that's not working right. I mean, she is working in the business in a sense, but it's one income, right? It's not right, it's not multiple incomes.
Speaker 2:So like um, and I think for like, so, like um, and I think for, like the past year McKay has, I mean, and she's right, and I mean she'll probably clip that and post that, but um, like I coached, cause I loved coaching and I would. I coached this past year still probably about 12 to 15 hours a week and I was coaching the evenings, I was coaching the mornings and then um, cause I loved it. Right, that was just what I thought was what I was supposed to be doing, and then we started bringing on more coaches and then I was able to get um away from the evenings. I still coach a couple of mornings, but like, that way I could have family time like she this is something we learned too was like she told me she's like I want you home for dinner every night and right.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say did she have maybe you know you said she was right about this like, did she have more of an awareness of this type of stuff than you?
Speaker 2:yeah, and I think, with her being home, right, I mean she need, she needed me to come home, have a a little relief, right, but, and there were some days that I was, I was at home in the morning until nine 10. Like, I really enjoy my mornings with them, to make the cake, coffee, to do my run, have breakfast with them, but to her right, asking her what her most important thing is, and that was the evenings and dinner and putting Blakely down to bed. And she's right, and that was one of the biggest things that I had to learn in the past year. But I mean, there was there's always so many growing pains that people don't see. And to the point that we were talking about earlier, where the question about people, my age and people saying it must be nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because a lot of times I mean, you see someone else's life as a social media reel, right, and you're like, oh shit, that looks great. He started a gym. They don't even know how long I've been a gym owner, right, and they're like, oh, look at his gym now, look how many people are going there. Oh, he's golfing on a Tuesday. He's right, he's um having breakfast and coffee with his family until 10 AM on a Monday, right, right and like right. And now today it's um 1115 and I'm doing a podcast with Jay right On a Monday. Like this is absolutely fantastic, so. But there's so many people that will say that but they don't see the growing pains right and the tough conversations that are behind closed doors. And I think that's the beauty of of this journey that you and I get to be on and and I think and I think it's so fun, especially getting into these groups and having coaches like you is. I mean, you feed off of each other so much and in so many different ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got a jet in a second. I just my wife's at the gym and she was she's had someone just show up an hour early, so I got to go pick up a little baby Calvin up, uh, little baby calvin, uh, but I'll. I'll end on this with the the must be nice. Is that nothing that is actually nice or built to last, or whatever the fruits of your labor?
Speaker 1:However you want to say it, there's, there's undeniable ways that things are built, and it's usually not just handed to you, right, like. There's the example of like what is it that hard times build strong men and that easy times build weak men? And there's this rhythm of back and forth, back and forth, right, back and forth, back and forth, right, um, also like people that are just born into wealth and riches and like extravagant life and not necessarily taking, like taking things for granted, not not understanding what you have to value. And then the other side of that is people who are sort of more like self-made and have the stories and the scars from like getting where they are.
Speaker 2:like that applies to to time freedom, that applies to relationship uh, your relationship as well, and, um, yeah, that's something that people should understand I mean to your point I mean that is exactly the man in the arena quote is like you have to fail to succeed, like if you're not failing, you're not succeeding. Right, and most people are don't have what it takes to truly fail, and I think that's it's a really hard concept for some people and I'm very thankful that McKay got this for my birthday and, um, I mean it mean it's something to live by. Exactly what you just said in that quote of the man in the arena.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what? Let's send it off this way. I want you to turn around and read it to us All right, the man in the arena.
Speaker 2:It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is mirrored by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know defeat or sorry, no victory. Nor defeat Teddy Roosevelt, so fail, that's what that says. There it is. Go stay in there. Yeah, yeah.