GMG ThriveCast – Episode 003

Episode 003: Simplicity Wins: The Power of Consistency

📝 Episode Summary  

In Episode 003 of ThriveCast, Aaron Goodman and Austin Page explore one of the biggest reasons people fail to reach their goals: they make the process too complicated.

From fitness and nutrition to leadership and business, sustainable success isn't built through extreme effort—it's built through simple habits repeated consistently over time.

Aaron reflects on his own health journey, sharing how abandoning "all or nothing" thinking led to lasting results. Austin explains why imperfect action will always outperform perfection, why consistency compounds, and how focusing on today's decisions creates momentum that lasts.

The conversation also shifts into leadership as Aaron shares why Goodman Management Group invested in health coaching for its employees—not simply as another workplace benefit, but as a long-term investment in healthier people, stronger leaders, and a better company culture.

Whether you're trying to improve your health, become a better leader, or create lasting habits, this episode is a reminder that simplicity isn't weakness—it's the strategy that wins.

⏱️ Chapters

0:00 – Why Simplicity Beats Complexity
1:35 – The Problem with Extreme Diets & Workouts
3:00 – Imperfect Action Always Wins
4:05 – Stop Starting Over Every Monday
5:25 – Why Consistency Compounds
6:20 – Investing in Employee Wellness
7:30 – Building Simple Daily Systems
9:20 – Confidence Is Built Through Daily Action
11:30 – Winning Today
12:20 – Why GMG Invested in Coaching
14:45 – Healthier Employees, Stronger Companies
15:30 – Creating a Culture That Lasts

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Simplicity is easier to sustain than perfection.
• Consistency always beats intensity over the long run.
• One bad meal or missed workout doesn't ruin your progress.
• Confidence is built by keeping promises to yourself.
• Great leaders invest in the long-term health of their people.
• Small daily habits compound into better health, stronger leadership, and healthier organizations.

💬 Notable Quote

"Imperfect action is always going to beat you trying to be perfect."

👤 About the Guest

Austin Page is the owner of GymFlo, a coaching business focused on helping individuals transform their lives through fitness, nutrition, and disciplined daily habits. With over a decade of experience, Austin has helped hundreds of people redefine who they are by building structure, consistency, and confidence.

Connect with Austin:
https://www.instagram.com/gymflo_fitness/

About GMG
Goodman Management Group builds communities where people thrive—professionally and personally.

🎧 Listen & Follow
Follow ThriveCast for conversations on leadership, discipline, culture, and community.
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🔗 Connect
🌐 https://www.gmgva.com
💼 LinkedIn: Goodman Management Group
📱 Instagram: @goodman.management.group

💚 #WhereCommunitiesThrive

Transcript

0:05

I think the sexier I try to make something or the more complex I try to make something, the more excuses I find at the end of the day to not stick with it when it's come to my fitness and nutrition. And I do like it's not... I don't have to spend two hours in the gym every day to see results. I have to make some good different choices with food, and I have to spend even every other day, 30 to 45 minutes getting some workouts in where I've got 3 to 4 workouts a week, 6/7 good days of eating, where I've made healthy choices. And as impatient as I am, where I'm like, it would be great every week if I saw 5 pounds off the scale. That's not sustainable either. And you've worked with me a little bit to find those points where I've almost like subjected my body to, to low of food. Like, actually, you need to be eating here and you'll enjoy this more and you'll still have results. but be patient. Yes, over the long run. And that's what I was talking about. Like I think anybody can be like, all right, I'm going to eat less than 2000 calories. I'm going to work out seven days a week, and I will see results. And you will, but will you be doing that in eight weeks? Yeah, I don't think so. I think I'll even myself back when I was younger, like I was like, oh, if I just do a thousand crunches a day, I'm gonna have abs, you know? And you're just like, you stick to it to like, one day not doing 1000, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm going to just go balls out on this one thing and you never stick to it. Better yet, imperfect action is always going to beat you being perfect and white knuckling through it. So like even if you were to just do that ten minute workout every day, that's better than you doing one great workout every so often. Right. And then also, I think a lot of people will find themselves burnt out because they are trying to perfect all these little things. When in actuality, a lot of that stuff is splitting hairs that most people worry about, whether it's like, oh, I need to cut carbs, I need to cut this or cut that. No, we just need to restrict ourselves with a a caloric budget. Get some steps in throughout the day, drink some water like a human being, and maybe move our bodies 3 to 5 times a week with some strength training. That's it. That's like it's the perfect simple recipe. And think of it as a recipe. The cake. It's going to take some eggs. It's going to take some flour. You could call that the steps. Call that the strength training. We can call the sugar the water you know so on so forth. And then it's going to take 30 minutes at 350 to bake, not 500 at eight minutes to bake. You know, the cake can turn out like shit or it's going to get burnt out, right? 30 minutes at 350 and you got to let you have to have time. But while that time is passing, you can be aggressive with that time. So if you want that time to collapse, yet the more nitpicky you can be and sweating those little details. Yeah, you're going to collapse time, but progress can be made even with imperfect action. Well, I've definitely seen the best times in my life now, over the past two years of working with you, where I've seen the best results, it isn't I where I take these big chunks, you know, every so often after my fitness, it's I just set good consistency. And I look back six, eight weeks later and I can see the difference and how I feel, my mentality. Yeah. How I look in the gym, how I look to others. And I think that's where, again, you haven't overcomplicated the process. You've made it attainable. Simple to follow. And it's something you're not going to fall off the horse, you know, in 2 or 3 or 4 weeks. And even if you do there, it's just closing the door. If you did that one day, let's say you fell off Monday already. Right out the gate. Right. Fell off. Well, don't write off the whole week. No let's not. We can close that door, go to sleep, wake up. And we have a fresh slate. I feel like I've had this conversation where I feel like deja vu, because I definitely have had those weeks where I get to, like, Tuesday or Wednesday and I haven't had a good workout or I haven't even stuck to my diet. I'm like, you know what? It's Wednesday. I don't deal with this on Monday. And you do that enough and you're like, where is my, you know, my abs gone. So I was just not working, right? Most people, including myself for a long time and I think, for me, until I really buttoned down my nutrition, cutting back on alcohol, which alcohol is a big anchor for a lot of people. Not to say you need to be straight edge or sober, but for a lot of people, it's never serving you in the aspect of fitness, health, and or probably making your life better. Right? Is it okay? Sure. But when you start to focus on today and let me just not miss today, let me try and win today. And if I can stack today to Tuesday and string Tuesday to Wednesday, next thing you know, I have this compounding flywheel starting to spin. But if you're always taking maybe 2 to 3 steps forward during the week, and then when the weekend comes or Thursday, Friday happy hour, whatever, you're taking 3 to 4 steps backwards on the weekends, you're always going three steps forward, three steps back. So you're staying stuck. Or most of the time you're probably collapsing and going back even harder because you're that much more frustrated. And, don't feel that great about yourself. You're like, oh, screw. It's just not for me, right? And oh, it's just those choices. And that way of living isn't for you. You know? I think that is where, you know, I have been to I've been going to, in our industry events year after year after year after year. And, I've seen a lot of folks that I've worked with over the years. We've gotten older and we've aged, you know, and all of a sudden our metabolism is, nowhere near in. Just our body in general is nowhere near what it was when we all met in our mid 20s and we started working this industry, and now we're all early 40s and so putting some changes in our lives. I looked at my staff and, I was like, you know, I wish I had had just some investment a little differently, you know, when I was starting out in this industry. Yeah. Because, you know, community association management can bring I like to call them very simple stresses that, almost like they can compound over time. And then it's it's a big stress. Yeah. And part of the reason I wanted my staff to start working out with you and having this opportunity to both be, you know, mentored by you and glean these disciplines was I felt like ultimately a lot of them, if they have the opportunity to make some of these decisions now, they're going to look back in 2 or 3 years. And not only were their career and experience be where it's at, but also just their mentality as far as nutrition and health, just going to make them a healthier person down the road. And I think, I mean, that's true for any industry. Yeah, every company, every business, every job has these stresses and micro stresses that lead to breaking points, especially in busy seasons. And that's where the disciplines that you've put in place really need to be foundational and concrete. So talk a little bit about what you're doing right now with my staff to help kind of build that in their lives. So I like where you're going with that. And that's sort of I think back to me and sort of the, the lifestyle, the, the brand book that I live by per se. Well, let's say maybe core values that I live by, principles that I have in my own life are things that I try and lean into and things that I try to lean away from, like things I do and things I don't do, like a like a business brand book of some sort. Things that we do and things we don't do- things we stand for. And some of those things, involve obviously training my body, watching what I eat or being mindful at least. And I try and implement that into some basic sort of daily checklist with the group and, trying to make sure that they can focus on maybe the little things they can control, like backwards planning for that busier time of the week. Oh, Monday through Wednesday is going to be slamming so let me plan for it. Right. Let me plan my food out. Let me at least plan for most of the busier times of the day. So I'm not having to take the mental thought, like most people do and say, throw it up in the air. It's just a busy day. I'm gonna eat whatever that's around me. And that has happened in my life more than... Yeah, yeah. So if you don't plan for it, of course, winging it or shooting from the hip each day, like that's going to happen, unless you've been doing it for a long time to where you can be a little bit more intuitive. But out the gate it's trying to keep things simple, basic. There's the saying keep it simple, stupid. It's the same thing that I try and apply. At least most people keep it simple, as frictionless as possible out the gate, and then once you become disciplined with it over days, weeks, time thing, you can become more intuitive or get fancy with it if you have the time or the mental capacity for it. But most people, simple, things that we can control is I try and focus on them and me doing that for myself. Getting back to being able to manage more stress through your day or getting back to, feeling more confident with the task at hand or taking that next step in my life or any endeavors that I've ever done. Anything that I haven't been. There's no way I'd be in the point in my life that I'm at and not that I'm, you know, crushing these incredible feats in my life. But anything that I've ever done and people ask me, man, how did you do it? Or how do you do it? Why do you do it? It's from this, this confidence and belief that I've instilled in myself through daily action and showing up. And when I say showing up, not doing these long a** workouts, it's just holding word to that. I'm going to exercise my body, be accountable for what I put into it, and if you can, if you can start to show up and make these deposits into yourself, think of it as a game, like a video game, you know, NFL, I don't really play video games, but like like Madden NFL, I can think about that. When you get an athlete, they have speed points, agility points, power points or whatever. You know, they have these like these, tallies for their things. And each time you follow through on something or you do something tough, you're developing a point or a tally or something into your toolbox. So maybe mental toughness, being able to hold more stress, develop and be accustomed to it, to where simple daily things aren't making you have a meltdown and crash out. Right. Skill points of confidence every time you hold your own words. You okay? This is what I'm doing today. When I get that workout in, I'm a wake up. At this time. I'm a drink this water. I'm a stay away from that food that's in the the conference room. All right, I did it. Hell, yeah, I feel good. I feel confident myself because I was able to follow through on that. And it doesn't have to be these big again, mountain leaping things. It's basic things that most of the time are in our control. If we can just stick to our word and to those core principles that maybe most people don't have yet, but you know it can. It can be found through fitness, through health, through exercise. That's a great place to start that can develop the confidence, the mental toughness, the grit or perseverance that many people want to create or develop in their life for leadership or feeling more confident at work or at home, just overall making your quality of life that much better because a, a more physically and mentally fit version of yourself is always going be able to do anything you choose to do, probably that much better than your current version. Right? So I guess to answer the question, long circle back to that is focusing on the basics one day at a time. And if we can't, as to two worthless of stays of the year, the two most worthless days of the year, tomorrow and yesterday, because all we can do is with what we have today, right? So if we can't win today, how can we change tomorrow? So we have to focus on today what's in our control today. And if we can follow through on those things, tomorrow's going to be a lot better. Right? I think, you know, again, another aspect of what I went in putting this together and you and I talking about you working with my staff, I think good business owners are always looking to add value to an employee benefits package, not necessarily always stacking pay or cash bonuses on top of it. It's, you know, because, while that is important, especially to different people, different aspects of their lives, paycheck is very important. But I want employees to take a good look back and look at the totality of their benefits and say, hey, on top of the medical, dental, vision and life insurance and short term disability. And these aspects of working for a company where most businesses either cover some or all or a percentage, what is the outlier thing that makes us a little bit different? And, you know, we're small business. We've got 40 people that workforce were this a lot of this came from two was our medical insurance premiums that a company at our company, we got big enough to where we moved off of age base. And now they're looking at us as a group, not necessarily as individuals in our age in what our supposed health would be. And they told us in doing that, they're like, hey, your company is actually pretty healthy. When we compare it to all these national averages, you want to stay there, you know? And as you bring on more people, you want to stay healthier because the lower payouts, the, you know, the medical provider, the insurance company has, the lower your premiums are. And I'm like, well, how in the world do I do that? Do I just get everybody a $30 a month gym membership? Yeah, that has zero accountability. And I'm just like, go use the gym. I really wanted to do something. And I were small business, so I couldn't just put together space and outfit a gym in my office. That seemed completely undoable. So the next best thing was, well, how about a real live person that actually invests in them, is accountable to them, teaches them discipline, helps them create disciplines, and kind of follows them on this journey. Just I'm just kind of giving my feedback. It's more expensive, but it's definitely worth the results are more meaningful, and the results are going to make the cost not even a factor. Yeah. you know, when I looked at the cost that I could throw towards a more robust package for my employees and, you know, gym membership or free protein shakes from, you know, whatever company for a year. I really wanted to see some meaningful impact behind it. And you've been able to bring that. It's going to be exciting to see kind of the journey and progression that both we take as a company. And both of those are individuals take in their fitness and their nutrition value with you I just want to say thank you. Already I'm seeing the impact of your investment in the staff. I wouldn't say that all of a sudden, we've become this totally productive and efficient company, and we're all walking around ripped and in six packs, but I know, just like you're talking about the small choices that they make now, and their nutrition and fitness are going to pay dividends in the long run. So I'm really excited to see when we look back here two, three, four, five and kind of even like I look back on my company all the time is where we've come in the different stages of growth, being able to kind of have another landmark say, hey, do you remember the first year in 2026 when we started working out with Austin? And here are some of the stories from nutrition and their physical fitness and strength and where they've come. You know, it's going to be cool to watch this and then look back in a few years and see where people have gone for sure, and see where your business is going. Yeah, because I hope other business owners that are watching this can they can kind of grasp that if you want to just keep throwing these basic benefits packages and opportunities to employees, is that going to be a gripping piece of Velcro that keeps them with your company when other companies come knocking? But I can tell you this if another company comes knocking, but so-and-so loves working out with Austin and the benefit there, and they don't want to lose that track record. Yeah, I look at as a retention plan for keeping really good employees around because they see the value you bring, for sure. So I appreciate it. Yeah, man, I just want to say thanks and appreciate all your work. Thank you.