Police, Pressure & Perseverance: A Story of Transformation with Mike Turk

In this inspiring episode of "Nice to Meet You | Behind the Scene Stories of Busy Professionals," veteran Los Angeles police officer Mike Turk opens up about his remarkable journey from rock bottom to peak performance. After 12 years on the force, Mike found himself struggling with weight gain, deteriorating health, and mounting depression. When a simple sneeze left him in excruciating pain and doctors warned of impending medication, Mike knew something had to change.

You can find Mike at: 

• https://www.instagram.com/hklub.fitness
• https://hklubfitness.com

A chance opportunity to attend an entrepreneurship conference in Salt Lake City became the catalyst for his transformation. Instead of business strategies, Mike discovered something far more valuable – the importance of personal discipline and physical wellbeing. 

What followed was an extraordinary year of change that saw him shed over 30 pounds, conquer Mount Whitney, complete a Spartan race, and discover a new purpose in life.

Today, Mike runs H Klub Fitness, helping others achieve what he did through his program "Helping Everyone Achieve Lifetime Habits." Through raw and honest conversation with his friend of 20 years, host Rob, Mike shares how his transformation went far beyond physical appearance, revolutionizing his mindset, self-esteem, and outlook on life. His story serves as a powerful reminder that it's never too late to rewrite your narrative and that true transformation begins with taking that first, difficult step.

This episode offers a candid look at one man's journey from crisis to triumph, providing hope and practical insights for anyone feeling stuck in their own personal or professional life.

Transcript

And 321. Welcome, everyone. It's nice to meet you. This is the show where we get to dive deep into the behind the scenes stories of busy professionals. I am your host.

Drum roll, please. But, yo, you could call me Rob. Before we get started, here's an interesting stat. Research shows that entrepreneurs and executives who focus on personal branding capture 82% of the market and are 74% more credible on LinkedIn just by having a consistent presence. But here's the thing, a lot of professionals skip out on LinkedIn because to them, it feels either boring and unnecessary or they're just too busy and don't know how to post or what to post.

If you're looking to grow and build trust in the market, LinkedIn is a no brainer. And that's where our LinkedIn ghost writing service comes in. So if you're interested in building that brand, building that business, but most of all building your trust, visit the digitalwritingfirm.com and see how we can help you build trust in record time without you having to write a single word. Let's get you out of LinkedIn obscurity and into the light with our LinkedIn ghost writing service. With that being said, our special guest today is a dear friend of mine who's been that friend for, I'd say, twenty years, man.

I've known Mike for a long time, obviously, and we've been through the ups and downs from being single to married and now kids and doing other things. So it's it's an honor to have him here because I know the quality of a man he is, and I'll let him share a little bit about himself. But, dude, appreciate you, man. Appreciate you. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for the kind words. Yeah. My name is Mike Turk. I'm 41 years old. I've been married for fifteen years.

I got three kids. They're 20, 12, and seven tomorrow. Oh, yep. Born and raised in Los Angeles. I've been a police officer for the last twelve years.

And, yeah, dude, we've been we've been friends for I wanna say it's been exactly twenty years. So So the structure of this specific podcast is it's called Nice to Meet You because I want other people to meet who you are and then hear some stories on how you got there and all that stuff. But to kick start the conversation, I wanna fill this out there. If your life in the last twelve months were to turn into a Netflix movie special, what title would you give it and why? Very interesting question.

Yes. Title, I'm no writer. But how about midlife crisis, a journey to self discovery? Yeah. That might that might be the title.

Okay. That's good. That's good. Journey through discovery. So that's assuming you went through a bunch of things.

Right? So before we we get there, let's get into your origin story. So we wanna talk about your fitness club and your fitness program because you actually put yourself through some some regress training. So talk to me about how that started. Like, where did the h club fitness come about?

Yeah. Definitely, man. So father of three, married, working a super high stressful job as a police officer. My health went. I was in really good shape in the academy back in 02/12.

And then from then all the way up to last year, '20 I was fat, man. I was just out of control, trying to cope with the different stresses and all that in life too. I was drinking a lot, which led to massive weight gain, feeling depressed, feeling down, low about myself. And then there was a couple other things that started happening 02/00 '20 03/00. For instance, I sneezed one day, and my whole body, like, was in literal pain.

Literal pain. Like, I had to sit down. My my body was hurting so much. I think that was just from inflammation looking back. But, like, stuff like that was happening.

I was having a hard time with my back just bending over. I started trying to go up the stairs in my house, do my left foot was just killing me. And then when I started just walking normal, my foot was killing me, and it it turns out it was, hyperplantar fasciitis or some some term like that. Like, super painful, man. And then I don't go to the doctor much, but I went to the doctor and they're like, dude, you got they did the blood work, and I had high triglycerides, which is fat inside of the blood, which leads to clogged arteries and all that.

My blood pressure was starting to rise. I've never had an issue, and they were like, dude, we're gonna monitor this. And if you don't get a hold of this and get control of your weight, you're gonna have to go on medications. I'm like, man, I don't want that, dude. So all that kind of stuff was going on.

And in the midst of all that, I've always been really heavy into, like, art and creating, and I've always tried to, like, sell my art and, make music, like, for for a hobby. So I've always tried to sell that kind of stuff on the side, and so I always have these little side things I always want trying to do. And I had this idea to develop courses that I could sell online. So I have this in my mind. I'm going to the doctor.

You're going on medication. You need to lose weight, guy. So I'm like, man. And then this page that I follow on Instagram called lions not sheep. It's Sean Wayland's entrepreneur.

He was having a he has a coaching business, and he was having his he has a conference once a year called the Lion's Den all the way in Salt Lake City, Utah. So I'm like, man, that's cool. I can't afford to join his coaching group. That's cool. Because he's always talking about, like, mindset and all all this kind of stuff.

Right? And, well, he was offering free tickets to his conference, to law enforcement and, military. So I threw my name in there, and I got picked in the lottery. Hey, dude. You won?

Free tickets to the conference. I'm like, sweet. Yeah. You just gotta get yourself to Salt Lake City. And I'm like, man, this is crazy.

And mind you, dude, like, I'm not in a good mental state. I'm, like, feeling low and bad all the time. And as a lot of people, man, just a family of five, dude, right, financially, it's a struggle. Right? So I'm like, how am I gonna get myself?

I can't afford a plane ticket. I work it out, take out some credit cards, bro. I get myself to Salt Lake City, Utah, and I go to this conference, and I'm like, yes. I'm gonna learn how to take this concept that I have for online courses. I'm not fitness related.

Right? This this was related to teaching something completely different. I'm gonna learn how to structure it and how to sell it here, and I'm gonna become a millionaire gazillionaire. I can become my own boss. I don't have to ask for permission to have a day off.

I can do what I want. I'm gonna if this is gonna change my life. Right? So I'm there first day, super excited. All kinds of people there.

He comes out. First thing he says is, I'm not gonna teach you how to be a millionaire. I'm like, man. He started talking about how what he wanted to emphasize was the person it takes to become a millionaire or to become a successful person. And it starts with your body.

Like, if your body is just out of control, sloppy, and messy Mhmm. You don't have the habits and you don't have the consistency. You don't have the dedication it would take to become a successful entrepreneur. So that hit me like a punch in the face. And then later on the day, he's talking about, man, if you're if you're, like, fat and out of shape and you don't have time to work out, like, there's no one else to blame except yourself.

You're just lazy. You need to get the work done. Stop making excuses. Get it done. If there's someone who has a physique you like, ask them how they got the physique, and they'll tell you.

If you wanna be a millionaire, go talk to a entrepreneur or a businessman who has a business model that you want to exemplify, ask them how they did it, and they'll they'll show you. They'll coach you. So that was that weekend. I left, and I was, like, just chewing on everything. And I was like, man, he's right, dude.

Like, I got no one to blame. It's my fault. I need to get my stuff together. I'm medically dude, I'm a mess. My blood pressure, all this.

Right? I I gotta get this under control. I was about to turn 40, and I was thinking to myself, man, 40 is like, you know, most men have their midlife crisis. I'm like, I don't wanna fall any further down this rabbit hole of depression and and low self esteem. I don't wanna get bigger.

Dude, my belly was covering my belt buckle. Like, I had never been that large before. Like, I'd I'd look in the mirror, and it was literally, like, over the the shiny part of the belt. And I'm like, dude, I was feeling so bad about myself. So I'm chewing on this stuff.

So I start looking at online coaches on, Instagram, and I wasn't really drawn to the guys that are kinda, like, always screaming at you type of stuff. I found a guy that I kinda related to. I liked his body style. He wasn't, like, super crazy, but he was, like, fit. And down to earth, he was always quote quoting bible scriptures and stuff.

So I'm like, alright, man. This guy is cool. So I hit him up and got off the call. I was like, let me think about it. And then about half an hour later, I was like, you know what?

I just need to do it. So I called him back. I'm like, sign me up, dude. Let's do it. Let's go.

And that's where I started that's where I started my weight loss journey and my fitness journey. So what are the results? I know you mentioned something about the depression, and how has things changed since you started your fitness program? Yeah, man. So I've during during the the the the training, the coaching that I had, I learned and developed the habits necessary to really stay consistent.

Right? So got educated real quick about food, which actually isn't very complicated. That was the easiest part. The hardest part was staying consistent, going to the gym, eating the food that I needed to eat when I didn't feel like it. And during that whole process, you know, I discovered a lot about myself there.

I got a lot more in me than I than I thought I did. And every every pound that was lost, I lost over 30. I I never I've never weighed my body mass index, but dude, we lost a bunch of body mass index, got in really good shape. And every single pound or every time I didn't wanna work out and I did, like, you just chalk that off as a win. Right?

So you just start stacking these little wins one by one. And what that does for you mentally, if you're dealing with depression or if you're feeling low, that you have bad self esteem, You start developing these so every day, it would be like a loss before I'd be like, oh, man. Today at work sucked. Oh, man. I gotta pay this bill.

Oh, man. I gotta do this. Well, now it's like, dude, I did twenty minutes on the elliptical today. The next day, oh, man. I I did 15 bench presses.

Oh, man. I I stuck to my middle today. It's like every single win, it changes your whole outlook and your perspective on everything in life. So that starts changing. You start becoming more uplifting, more enlightened if you if you wanna say.

And everything around you starts looking completely different to things before where you're like, man, I'm in a hole. Like, I can't get out of this or I can't do that. Now you're like, nah, dude. I can probably do that. Okay.

I'm here now. That's fine. If I just do this, then I could build my way up. Oh, my business isn't taking off. If I do this, I can like, you just start stacking those wins.

One win led up to another one, man. I started I started hiking. Once I started losing a little bit of weight, I ended up I ended up hiking Mount Baldy in the snow, which is 10000 feet. I ended up hiking to mount on the top of Mount Whitney in the snow, which is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States, 14 Thousand 14 Thousand miles up, I wanna say, or 14000 feet. That was extremely difficult.

Hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I ended up doing a Spartan ten k with the 25 obstacles. I did a Manhattan Beach 10 k on my 40 birthday to close out that whole year. I ran a I ran a half half marathon by myself, 13.1 miles. And, like, dude, I'm just looking to the future.

Like, just what else can I what else can I tackle? What else can I can I get after? Like, it it the possibilities are limitless. Everything I see, I'm like, dude, marathon? I can do that.

Triathlon? I could do that. Ironman? I can do that. So, like, my mind now is like it's a very positive mindset, which a lot of people, they think, like, a a diet or fitness is just about how you look.

Like, dude, it's it encompasses your whole person, body, mind, soul, spirit, everything, dude. So that that that's that's that's what it's meant for me, and that's what it's done for me. And then during the whole coaching process, I'm watching my coach and how he interacts, and I'm like, wait a minute. I've I have background in history in, ministry in the church. Twenty years, man, and a lot of evangelism and talking to people.

And people naturally, like, at work, I don't talk about it, but people naturally gravitate towards me, and they share their problems with me. And I counsel them. And not in a churchy way, but just like people just they feel comfortable around me. Right? So I'm watching the interactions and how he's interacting with me and all these things, and I love my coach.

But I'm like, man, I can do this. Mhmm. And I think I think I think I can probably do this better, than you can. Right? This is what I'm thinking in my head, and I'm like, dude.

Like, what what an amazing opportunity that would be to help people lose weight and improve their mindset. Like, everything that I went through, I want other people to experience this. This is something that this is something that I could really do and and be good at. So that's where the idea came from for the for the health club fitness. I was like, who do I wanna reach?

I wanna reach everybody. Who's my clientele? Everybody. I wanna reach everyone, and I wanna help them develop the habits they need to get through the program, but be able to maintain those habits after the program when they're on their own so that they can maintain the weight loss for the rest of their life. So it's not just like, here's a diet.

Here you go. It's actually teaching, instructing, developing the habits, and that's where the health club, it's a acronym health, helping everyone achieve lifetime habits. So so that's the vision. That's the goal is to help as many people as I can develop the habits necessary to, develop the proper eating habits, exercise habits to maintain a healthy, weight, for for the entirety of their life. So So I imagine that you have some people that you're working with.

Can you share a little bit about one person that's, experienced very similar results that you have? Yeah, man. Good good friend of mine that's on the program, David. He he's go he was going through some things, man. He's got a lot of things on his plate.

Right? Wife is pregnant. He has kid two other kids already. Wife is pregnant going through life stuff to do when they're pregnant. As as you know, like, women god bless them, bro.

Like, they go through a lot through pregnancy. So he's dealing with that. He was doing, like, a home remodel that was, like, lagging and coming up on the holidays and, like, stressing out because it's not gonna be done and just a lot of things going in life. And and he reached out, and he was like, man, I really need to I really need to get my health on track. And, also, I got all this stuff going on.

So I'm like, bet, dude. We got him on the program, and he's lost. He checked in yesterday. He just started month three, so he's two months in, and he's already down 18 pounds. And the messages that he sends me is what's even more important to me than the weight loss.

Because his his state of mind, like, where he's at, emotionally, and mentally, like, with the self esteem and with all the all the issues that are that are being thrown at him, like, dude is killing it, and he's he's his spirits are high. I don't I throw this out there. This is not my fitness program is not religious by any means, but I am definitely a Christian. I've been a Christian for twenty years. I would consider myself a very strong and devout Christian.

So on the side, he's like, dude, I wanna start reading the Bible. I wanna start learning about the Bible. Bet. Put him on a reading program that we're doing together. So now we're actually reading the bible together.

Hey. I got this bible study over here. I got this over here. Dude is joining, jumping on, getting involved. So it's not just, like, we're just gonna get you to lose weight.

It's like, I wanna be invested in you as a person completely. And seeing his progress is dude, it's so rewarding. It was like, there's no amount of money that can that can top it, dude. It's it's and that's my heart. Like, this the servant leadership model, just being there to serve the the the people that I'm working with.

Man, dude, it's it's almost makes me wanna cry, but I won't do it on camera. So how do people find you if they wanna check out the program or hear more about what's going on, with with the the fitness business? How, yeah, how do people find that? Yeah. Instagram, health club fitness or h club fitness.

Type in either one. It it should pop up. Has my picture in a hoodie. And then there's a h h club. I have a link.

It's, let me double check it. I wanna say it's just the h club. Yeah. H h k l u b fitness dot com. H club fitness dot com.

I wanna make sure it was the abbreviation and not the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. So that that'll kinda, describe some of the the the goals of the program, what you can expect, and then it'll have some testimonials on there. And then you can reach out to me through Instagram, direct message me, or leave a comment, and I'll reach back out to you, and we can talk about getting you on the program.

Cool. Well, dude, man, I appreciate it. I've heard bits and pieces of the story, but then now to hear the full experience from before, during, and then now after, it's pretty cool, dude. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

So I wanna thank everyone that's listening, but also you, Mike, because I know what it's meant to you and to your family for you to go through this transformation. And I also know for the bigger picture how important that story is gonna be to people that listen, hear, jump in, whether they jump in your program or they just start their own thing. Just the fact that you're being encouraging through your story is gonna be huge. The hope is that they reach out because what I do know is you can't be successful by yourself, and accountability is a lifestyle. So if you're listening, people, hit mic up.

Don't forget to go to h club k l u b fitness dot com. And if you're looking for a LinkedIn ghostwriter, whatever, hit us up, the digitalwritingfirm.com. I wanna thank you and thank everyone else. Your story is hard to ignore. Just make sure that you're not ignoring it yourself by not telling it.

So go tell somebody. Alright? Take care. Thank you. Everybody.

Thanks, mate. See you. Yep. See you.