2960: How Three Personal Trainers Built the Most Downloaded Fitness Podcast in History — The Origin Story

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in history, approaching over half a billion downloads. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, Adam, Justin, and myself talk about how we got into the fitness industry and what it looked like back in the 90s, early 2000s, and what it looks like now. Look, this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, Legion Supplements. So Legion makes high-quality supplements for athletic performance, muscle building, and fat loss. And one of the reasons why we work with Legion is their integrity. Every product is tested by a third party. Every bottle has the ingredients list, and they don't use proprietary blends, so they can hide things, right? They show you exactly how much of each ingredient is in the bottle. Legion also only uses compounds that have data supporting their use. They don't waste time with things that sound fancy or that are trendy, unless there's data that shows that it works. Legion is one of the most high-quality supplement companies in the world. That's why we like working with them. And if you go through our link, you can buy one, get one 50% off. Go to buylegion.com slash mindpump. Use the code mindpump for that discount. Also, this is crazy. Now, MAPS abs and butt is still on sale, but that's not all. Right now, to kick off October, every single MAPS program, every MAPS program bundle, every guide, everything on the site, 40% off, 40% off everything. It doesn't matter how many MAPS programs you buy, you can buy them all. Every single one, 40% off. And it's only happening for the next 72 hours. You have three days to- To take advantage of this right now. Go to MAPSfitnessproducts.com. Use the code SCARY40 for the discount. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. Look, we've been doing this for decades. Now, I don't just mean professionally, definitely not the podcast. It's only been on air for a while. We've been doing this for decades. Now, I don't just mean personally. We've been on air for a little over 10 years. But I mean personally. We've been in fitness since we were kids. And so, we thought we'd do an episode where we talked about how it started for us, the mistakes that we made, when we learned how to do things the right way, and what that did for us, and maybe even get into how we got into the fitness industry. So, we're going to talk all about that right now. Let's go. You know what makes me feel really old when we think about this is when we have trainers and staff that work for us now that are younger than the amount of years that we've been doing this. Like, oh, man, that's great. That's wild. Isn't that wild to think that? Like, some of our top trainers are younger than the amount of years that we've actually been doing this. Well, dude, I've been personally into the fitness. Yeah, you're the longest. For 33 years. So, for 33, that sounds like crazy. And that's counting like when you started. Started. Yeah, even as like a 15-year-old. Yeah. In fact, I was telling this story to my son the other day because he's like, how did you start? And so, I remembered exactly actually how I started. The first thing I did, I asked for dumbbells. And I don't remember what it was for, Christmas or my birthday or something. And I got these two plastic green dumbbells, the sand-filled ones. And it came with this sheet that had like six or seven exercises on it. So, I'm maybe 13 and a half years old. And I just practiced the exercise. I just copied the pictures in my bedroom every single night. And then when I was 14, my dad had a weight set in the backyard, which that's a great story in and of itself. He had this guy that worked with him who lifted weights, who bragged about how much he could bench press. My dad, you know, he's a Sicilian immigrant, never heard of bench press. But this guy talked about it so much that my dad wanted to try it. So, I actually went out, bought a weight set, practiced bench pressing for a few months, was able to bench press 300 pounds. I'm the one that spotted him. So, picture a 13-year-old kid spotting his dad at 300 pounds on the bar. At the time, you weighed like a buck 50. Yeah, dude. I'm not going to be able to save you. And so, then when I was 14, I started working out in the backyard. And that's kind of how it all started for me. How did you guys start? I mean, I was lifting weights a little bit in high school, but not really. You were interested in sports. Yeah, I was more interested in athletics and performance. I mean, there came a time where when I was lifting in my buddy's garage, started my buddy Ryan's garage when we were in high school, I cared about the way I was skinny. And so, I was insecure about being a skinny kid. And so, I wanted to lift, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was nowhere near obsessed about it like you were. I was like reading magazines yet or anything into it whatsoever. I was definitely more into sports. I really kind of fell into fitness. I really, of the three of us, I mean, you guys are the better trainers by far, far more knowledgeable, done more clients than I have. I'm where I'm at today because I've had the privilege of leading a lot of brilliant trainers for a really long time. And so, I learned along the way, but it really wasn't like this crazy passion for me that like, oh, I want to train people. And I was so like, I fell into it when I moved to the Bay Area and with my grandmother. Now, I liked kinesiology. And so, that's what I had fallen, but I thought it was going to be like physical therapy, chiropractor direction. At this point, are you like lifting weights? Kind of. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I am, but not like- At a gym at this time? Yeah, yeah. So, remember the first gym? The first gym we ever shot at, MAPS. Oh, that's the one. Yeah, yeah. So, right before I had moved here. So, that would put me at 19 years old. 19 years old. I'm in junior college. Big basketball guy. Yeah, yeah. I'm playing basketball. I'm wakeboarding. I'm doing snowboarding. I'm doing a lot of things like that. And I'm lifting weights sporadically, trying to build a little bit of muscle, not having a lot of success with it, you know, because I'm not really doing a lot of things the right way. But I'm interested enough in it and that like, okay, I want to learn a little bit, but I wasn't like, oh, this is what I want to do, you know? And when I came to the Bay Area to come finish my degree, I walked across the street because my grandmother lived across the street from a 24-Hour Fitness and I went to get a membership. And when I was filling out the application, there was a place in there like, how do you hear about us or something like that? And I knew that at that time, I was looking into like national search and stuff like that. And I'd heard about 24-Hour Fitness that way and I kind of wrote that down. And like right away, the manager came over and was like, oh, you want to be a trainer? I'm like, oh, no, like I don't have any certifications. I'm trying to go do my degree. And this is what I, this is, you know, maybe that would be something I would do in the future. And they're like, well, we can train you. Back then they had the 24-Hour Fitness. They had their own cert. Yeah. So I like, that's kind of how I fell into it. And even when I, when I like said, okay, I would take this test. He's like, take this test. If you pass the test, then come back for an interview type of deal. The thought process, this was really, oh, I get a free membership and I could finish school. And this is something I could do part-time while I go finish my degree. I didn't know that how much I was going to fall in love with the culture. Like I just, it fed a lot of things that about me that I was aware of. I was competitive. I loved moving the body and exercise. I loved improving myself. I was definitely growth-minded. I was a lot of those things and personal training kind of checked a lot of those boxes. And, um, even though I wasn't very knowledgeable, uh, I was pretty successful, uh, pretty, like right out the gates. And it wasn't again, because I was knowledgeable. It was because I was personable. Like I liked, I liked people. I like being around people, comfortable talking. Likeable. Yeah. And, and so, yeah, it was, I just, people gravitated to me. Uh, I've also, I also was, as soon as I did learn something, I love to give it, give it out and teach it. And so even though I didn't know a lot, the few things that I did know, um, I could communicate to people like, Hey, I just learned this. I always think back, you know, like, uh, I remember I didn't know what the core was, you know, when I first, it was a big thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Late nineties, early two thousands, like core training was everything. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I had this whole spill of like, you know, that's, you know, it's the most important muscle in your body besides your heart. Yeah. Yeah. Without your heart, you're dead. And then, and then I go on this whole thing on like, and most people, they don't even know what it is, much less know how to train it. Yeah. It's the most important analogy, which I stole a few times. Oh yeah. The whole, I did the whole pen analogy I had like, you know, and I don't, I wish I could credit the person who first shared all that with me, but that's what I was good at. I was good at somebody would teach me something and I was like, Oh, I understand this. Um, and I could communicate it in layman's terms to the average person and it was helpful. And so it just kind of took off. And honestly, the only reason why I, I like, I dropped out of school was I came from the Val central Valley where I made $4 and 50 cents an hour and worked my way up to $7 an hour. So I've never at this point in my life made more than $7 an hour and personal training back then you made like $25 an hour plus commissions and sales. And so fortune. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It would take me a summer to make what I could make it a paycheck. And my, and every paycheck for those first few months grew. It was just, and I was like, and it actually got to numbers that were more money than what I was, my parents made. And I was like, maybe I should And the boss at that time is telling me, hey, I think you'd be really good at this. You should do this full time. It never even occurred to me that this could be a career. And I was drawn to it. I was drawn to that aspect to it. But more so the business side of it, the financial ability, which is ironic because personal training is not something that we tell people normally is that you make a lot of money in. And then shortly after, I realized another side of me that would really favor my success early on, again, not anything to do with the typical things that make a successful trainer, wasn't knowledgeable, wasn't good at any of the things really related to being a personal trainer, my natural business acumen. As a young kid, I had an entrepreneurial spirit. I read Entrepreneur Magazine. I was into that stuff. I was drawn to that. And back when we all started, making money and being successful in fitness was kind of taboo. In fact, it was looked down upon like, you don't do this to make money. You do this to help people change lives. And that's the type of people we want to attract. And I was naturally drawn to being successful at business. And I wanted to be good at business. And I wanted to make money. And I was starting to see I was making more money. And so I kind of like really gravitated to that. I hung out with like all the sales guys, the GM, even though I was a fitness guy, I was attracted to more of the sales side and the GM side, the operations, the business side. And I had a knack for that. And I had the ability to help my peers with their business. And I knew my lane. I didn't try to act like I knew more than you were the next guy. I was like, oh, yeah, he's way smarter than I am. And she knows way more. I was comfortable with asking you questions and like, hey, I got a client and they've got this problem. And how do I help them? I don't know what that is. And that's how I learned was just being open to doing that. And I became an okay trainer doing that. But I quickly moved up to management and leadership and fell in love with that side of the business, which explains a lot about how all this happens. Because I know sometimes I get roasted on the podcast or on content that we do. I never thought of myself as this brilliant, great trainer. That's not what I hang my hat on. I hung my hat on, if you were a trainer and you worked for me, you made more money and you were more successful working for me than you did anywhere else. And that being said, the gym culture is such a great, fun, if you love it, and if you love business, you love fitness, it's a fun culture to be in. Yeah. And there's so many directions you can go with it too. Totally. Now, how did you start? You were in football. Did you start lifting because of football? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. Initially, like really getting after actual weight training was because of football. But, you know, before that, it was, I was just addicted to sports in general. Like I was so competitive and I've, I've thought about this because we've all done like individual podcasts where we kind of tell our story and whatnot. And like, I always like mine, I kind of add to it as I'm like, ah, what really was the root for me? And the root for me was like my dad's six, seven. He's like this skinny kid too. Like I, I, it wasn't like I, I think you guys, you guys tell your story a lot. Like you're these skinny kids that became, you know, uh, Well, in your family, you were the runt too. I was the runt in my family. Yeah. So I was like, I was like the small guy and I got picked on a lot. Um, and I was always like, just trying to prove myself, you know, I was like that classic kind of younger brother syndrome, where it was just like, I just felt like I had the whole world to prove, uh, I had this chip on my shoulder that was huge. Um, and I was like, I was like, I was like, and I just, that, that kind of led me towards like, I wanted to be stronger. Cause I felt like if I'm not going to be taller, I gotta be stronger. And so that just kind of like, and I took that energy with me into every sport that I did. I was just like, I want to just figure out, you know, I'm not, I wasn't like, I was naturally gifted in terms of like movement and ability, but like, I was never like, I was like the star player because I worked my ass off to become the star player, you know? And I knew like, I kind of started to figure out certain things, um, and of course that didn't last, you know, forever. There's a limit to that. Like, especially when I got to college, it was like, Oh yeah. Everybody's genetically gifted and they work just as hard as you. And now you're fucked, you know? So, you know, that, that was definitely eyeopening for me, but like, yeah, I, it was really like, once I got to high school, uh, started taking lifting weights seriously because I was intimidated. I was very intimidated because a lot of my friends, even like in junior high, I was playing basketball and I was friends, you know, with a lot of the athletes and, uh, they're all doing pop Warner and everything. And I, you know, my dad wouldn't let me play. And, and so they already had like a good understanding of the sport and they were all like, you know, getting muscular and, and bigger. And I was like, man, like I was just super intimidated getting into freshman year and like behind everybody else. So I just stayed in the weight room and I was just like, all I knew was like from Arnold and from, you know, that era of like, you got to eat a lot of protein. I listened to all the, like the WWF wrestlers, like I was just, all my information came from TV. And so I was just drinking like every protein shake I could like pouring eggs in it and, uh, you know, peanut butter and whatever I could to get calories. And, um, so yeah, I just, I started to kind of figure out how to get stronger and then they would, they would group you up, uh, uh, for football. And so I was like, I started out in kind of the, the smaller skill position, group, uh, worked my way to more of like the linebackers and the, the running back group, and then actually moved out of that. And now I'm working out with like the biggest guys on the team. And so I just, I took a lot of pride in that. And I was always like, I wanted to be stronger than, you know, the strongest guy on the team, which, you know, it was just something, I just had this like angst and that, that angst turned into anger and all this stuff I had to work out. Thank God for football. Cause it was a great outlet for that. And so I could come back home and I was calm and, you know, but, but I, I really did have like a lot to prove. And even when, when I got into to college, that was like that, I was like, this is what I have to do when I work out. I have to have this kind of like anger every time and angst in my workouts to get any kind of like progress. So, you know, it was a big learning curve after that to realize like, Oh, you, you don't have to destroy yourself and you don't have, you don't really have to like maintain this. And honestly, it's not even beneficial. To me, uh, to keep pulling that lever. Doug, I want to know when you, cause you actually have a long history of strength training too. I mean, we talked about how you hired me to train you, but you, I was not the guy that introduced you to lifting weights. You had a history of lifting weights. Yeah. So when I, I believe I was 16 or 17, my dad purchased a membership at a local club, a lifetime membership, uh, for a club that didn't last very long. You know, those are illegal now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can't think of gyms would do that. I remember. And so I started working out at the, at this cloud, I think I was 16 years old. And, uh, I really started getting into it. I ordered muscle and fitness magazines. I ordered a bunch of the supplements out of the back of the magazine. I mean, I took my savings and did that. And then around that time, I believe it was Rocky three that came out, or maybe it was Rocky four. I can't remember. It was probably Rocky four, actually. They came out and I saw Stallone. And then I went back and watched Rocky three. And to me, that was like the ideal physique. That's when he was like shredded. That was like totally shredded. That's when he was like, Oh my God, I'm going to be like, Oh my God, I'm going to be like, Oh my God, I'm going to be like, Oh my God, I'm going to be like, Oh my God, I'm going to be like, but, but for me, it was first side dog. I felt like that physique was attainable. You know, look at muscle and fitness and those bodybuilders were not attainable physiques. Not one. I really was that interested in having, but the Rocky three Stallone look was definitely that. Uh, and so I started doing my best to build my body. Uh, unfortunately I was following the routines out of the magazines and I hit a plateau. So from that point, forward, um, my, my working out, you know, as far as strength training was concerned, I'd be a few years on a few years off. So I went back and forth, uh, with that over the years. And then when I, uh, was in my thirties, I did the muscle for life challenge. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, that was, yeah. And that actually went well for me. It's three months. I think it was three months. I was living in, you know, in, uh, Tahoe and, uh, there was snow out in that time. So I'm out doing the sprints and everything in the snow. My lungs are burning, but yeah, in three months I did some good transformation there for sure. But then again, you know, I hit this hard plateau every single time. Yeah. That's, uh, it was some of the most brilliant marketing was, Oh, they did so good. Such a good job. I mean, he did such a good with all the transformation photos. He was the first supplement company to do a hundred million dollars. They killed him. It was the first, they killed him. When you guys look back at like, uh, you know, the, the whole path, right. If there was one thing or, that stands out to you that like, that was the biggest regret or mistake, or if I could go back and change how I did that, like what comes to mind for you? Like when you go back, like one, you only get one, it's the biggest mistake or regret that you have on your training journey. I know how important the journey is. And I recognize that the one that comes to mind for me has given me the ability to communicate certain things. And because of it, I've turned it to a good thing. But if I could go back and tell myself, I would have done this thing different. Like what, what comes to mind for you guys? That's tough. That's really hard because it all led to so much, but I'd say the, you know, not taking advice from a wise bodybuilder who told me exactly what i should have done i've told this story many times but he was this jacked guy he was a chiropractor friend of the family i couldn't wait to take him aside to ask him how should i work out at this point i'm probably 16 years old and he said and i remember my dad told him hey you know sal wants to meet with you to talk with you about like how to build muscle he's really into it my son's really into it he's been working out for two years so he came over had dinner with us and then we sat in the in a separate room and he like sat down to give me attention and i'm like this guy's gonna he's gonna tell me the secrets he's and he goes i'll never forget he goes this is what you're gonna do it's like you want to build muscle i said yeah dude i want to build muscle he goes this is what you're gonna do train your whole body three days a week eat a lot of food and a lot of protein and go to bed early every single night and i was so angry i'm like my dad told you to tell me that you are you're not telling me the truth like that's that's not how you build a lot of muscle and i took didn't take his advice yeah had i taken his advice uh i would have written maps anabolic you know 15 years earlier yeah i would have figured it all i would have figured it all out earlier but i just didn't take his advice because i thought it can't possibly be that it was so huge mistake it's kind of well somewhat similar because you know that's what led you to write maps anabolic and then you know for for mass performance like if i'm to kind of dissect like the biggest regret or like um something that i should have incorporated was uh mobility practices and mainly because of my movement ability like while i was gaining strength and size like i i remember having to deliberately gain it was somewhere of around like 30 pounds uh to play inside the backer in college and it was like over a period of how long drastic summer right that was a good prescription he's like a year come back 30 pounds heavier right yeah yeah so yeah such terrible advice like three to four months you know i had to like they're just you have to get bigger and that was the only parameters like and i didn't realize how much that was going to affect my speed athleticism speed like like movement ability agility you name it all the things um and i just i was so mad at myself because i was out on the field and i i literally felt like flat-footed slow uh i could still hit hard you know yeah but if they only only if they came to me i just i couldn't go get them yeah i couldn't go get them you're gonna outrun me uh so it just it's frustrating because the potential like you know i could have i could have done so much better and like like finished my years out like um feeling more accomplished i remember finishing my years out feeling like i lost the love of the game and i felt like pathetic you know and that sucked so but it's again like i learned a valuable lesson like once i started to work with these other trainers and and you know really started to understand like there's all these other things to account for and there's there's ways to train to to build better movement patterns and i was like wow it's just like unlocked all these things for me do you have a regret oh yeah i mean i could totally relate to the i didn't even think about the athletic thing but i can relate to the wishing i knew what i know now like with basketball and wish i would have swam i wish i would have like oh yeah oh yeah you didn't do the one sport i mean we're like man i wish yeah i mean i was i was like an okay athlete with just the effort i put in not having zero knowledge right of both what i should have been doing and then both what sport i should have been doing and how i should have been training for basketball but the one that comes to mind for me for sure is i took steroids at a really young age um and it was it was shortly into my training career uh when in the arrogance of thinking i knew you know so obviously when i talk about i know that i know i knew nothing is that's hindsight i look back right that like i wasn't uh that knowledgeable i wasn't that good of a trainer but i thought i knew like i thought like and i believed at that time this is like my early 20s i'm probably 23 ish maybe 24 when i when i first uh messed with steroids and i was convinced that the reason why i couldn't look like the cover of men's health all of us were that those guys took steroids that's the difference is and that's the difference i trained hard i ate i ate the food you know i did all the things i thought i took all the supplements you know and they look that way because they got steroids and i don't and that was the answer and you know again it was for reasons of the podcast and education and helping others there's i can put a positive spin but i really did a lot of disservice to myself a change because it didn't just start with me taking some and to me it was some and then it was oh the answer must be anything more or a different thing and you know what i what i learned the hard way was they're they're not as magical as people make them think uh you think like if you don't have good programming and you don't uh eat properly uh you get shit results and that's what i got i got shit results um i saw strength like immediately like you pump a young kid something yeah you pump a kid full of you know double or triple the testosterone you should have and like instantly i was like felt stronger in the gym and ah more anabolic but the my body was what i wanted i want my body to change i wanted to build i wanted to have this this impressive physique and uh i didn't get any of that i didn't get any of that at all and i spent a lot of money and took a lot of different things uh in pursuit of that and it wasn't till significantly later probably my late 20s mid to late 20s uh did i really start to hone in and understand diet and nutrition and it was so ironic because at that point i'm like coming off of taking the steroids and i'm like dialing that in and realizing how much my body is starting to change when i really started to figure out like oh i was so over trained so underfed not hitting protein intake poor programming like i mean i checked all not sleeping well like i mean i checked all the boxes of all the things what not to do and i was athletic and fit um but i wasn't building a body that i i wanted to build uh and i really thought steroids were the answer and then it really ended up doing so much harm to my body and i was like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm because later on in my early 30s i already had you know testosterone of a 60 year old because of all the anabolics that i'd taken and so if i could go back you know i would go back and and tell that kid differently and for sure have dialed it in um now granted the hard thing is would you have listened i know right because i i'm sure somebody probably tried to tell me that otherwise um and i and i didn't listen so would i have listened to myself i don't know did it has it helped me like be able to communicate like that yeah i think it's like i can spin it on why it's it's been positive but yeah if i go back again i would have done that i've got some like really interesting as we're talking i'm thinking of like some like moments in my you know strength training career workout career or whatever that were just stand out like i remember i was a kid so i'm 14 years old i'm in the backyard working out and i did not know that working out to music made a difference i had no way so i'd work out just to just nothing i'd work out yeah and i'll never forget this i got a boom box for i don't remember it was for a birthday or something or maybe i already had it remember the old ones where the speakers attach and the middle is like a tape deck okay and you can you know you can listen to the radio and uh i somebody gave me a cassette tape it was a single so back you know remember back in the day you get a cassette it would have one song on it because it was really cheap so you could buy a single and i listened to uh metallica uh master puppets and i put it on and i started working out and i remember being like what this changes everything and i just listened to it over and over and over again yep and i made the connection between working out and listening to certain kinds of music and it was just it was so incredible you know what's funny about that i really do feel like that's where my love of metal came from lifting weights yeah it was because it started out as acdc back in black then it was like metallica then it became like sepultura and then it just progressively got you're like the angrier this gets the better i am at this year like oh i just put like more weight up the crazier it gets yeah and you know when i worked to that when i worked in the gym it's so funny i was literally telling my son all this this whole origin story like literally two nights ago i you know my first day so i walk in by the way the guy that hired me sean uh what's his last name sean winters um the guy that hired me recently uh came to a bible study that i i had at my house yeah i was walking uh where was i was in campbell and i ran into him and i'm like oh my god and you know he looks the same which is wild the guy doesn't age and so uh and i remember i was telling him the story and i'm like dude do you remember this he oh yeah i remember i walked into the gym and what's what's funny about this story i don't know where i got this i don't know if you want to call it confidence or ego or just ignorance but i walked in to to this gym i'm 18 years old i love lifting weights i'm like i want to work here i walk into the gym i walk up to the front desk and i said i want to talk to your manager and they're like oh is everything everything okay i said yeah no i just want to talk to your manager because i want to work here so like okay out comes sean and i'll never forget he's wearing shorts you look like a runner he's coming and i go up to him and i give him this like like right out the gates i go and i shake his hand like this i said i want to work here i want to be a trainer here he's like oh well hold on a second bro do you have any experience said no but i'll do it i'll do whatever you tell me i love fitness and so i must have you know my energy must have been you know must have sold me so i said yeah i'll hire you so he hires me and as soon as i got hired i remember what it was like the like maybe the week after when i could start there was their top trainer had me shadow him throughout this. So that was how I got trained. So Sean goes, Hey, follow. I don't remember the guy's name. I remember he had long hair, looked like native American dude. He goes, follow this guy around. He's going to do fit starts. So back in the day at 24 hour fitness, the fit start was if you bought a membership, you were with a trainer and the trainer showed you how to use a bunch of machines. That's all they did. And now the idea was maybe hire a trainer, but that's what you did. So I followed him around for three fit starts. And all I did, I was quiet and I watched the whole time and he's showing them how to use this machine, that machine, this machine. So by this point, this trainer is like, I want to bounce. So he looks at me and he goes, do you, can you, do you think you could do this? There's two more appointments. I said, yeah, I'll do it. Oh, that's so I didn't know this part of your story. Yeah. And so I said, yeah, I'll do it. So this kid comes in, it's an appointment. He's a young kid. He was probably my age comes in and I take him around. I take him to the desk and I tell him that, you know, basically sell him that he needs to hire me. So he's like, okay, I think I want to do this. He goes, my mom's about to come pick me up. I'll be right back. Walks out, comes back with his mom, buys 10 sessions. I don't even know what the price is. I scurry. I find a sales guy. Hey, how much does personal training cost? Brings it out. I sell him 10 sessions. Hey, can you write this up for me? I don't know how to do any of this stuff. Writes up the 10 sessions, kid leaves. Next person that comes in as a woman, same thing. I take her and show her maybe two or three extras. I bring her back to the desk, sit down. She hires me. I think it was 10 sessions again. The next day, this was a day one. And Sean remembers it. Found it immediately. Next day, the guy that I had shadowed comes in, looks up on the board and I'm ahead of him for the month. And he's like, what happened? I'm like, oh, these two people came in and they signed up. And he's like, I knew I shouldn't have left. He thought people came in and just wanted to buy training. I knew I should. That same day, I sold another three packages of training. The general manager, Darcy, Darcy Klein, that was her name, brings me in the office. She goes, Sal, can you come to my office real quick? She goes, what are you saying to these people? And I'm like, oh, I, you know, promising them. I just want to, you know, I just want to train people. And by the way, I had no certification. I had to wait. These people had to wait a couple of weeks for me to go do the 24-hour fitness cert and hopefully pass. She's like, what are you saying to them? I'm like, oh, I'm just telling them to hire me as a trainer. She's like, yeah, but what are you saying? I'm like, oh, I'm just excited. I have a lot of energy. I have fun. I don't know what else to say. I just enjoyed this. I want to talk to these people. And that month, the, the top trainer ever, I think had sold like, remember this is 1997. So these numbers are not very impressive, but the top trainer would sell like $3,000. That was a big deal back in the day. Big deal. Like the whole club's goal. So the whole club's goal was $13,500. That was the AAA club, like $13,500. Three grand was like a big deal. That first month, and it was like two and a half or three weeks left in the month. I think I sold 7,000 or $6,000. And everybody was like, what are you, what are you doing? Like, what are you saying? Like what's happening? And I was just like, and I felt like I belong here. I love this. This is the best thing ever. Like, I never want to leave. And I just felt this feeling like, like this is the best place I've ever been. It trips me out that we've been doing this for so long together and you still tell a story that I, it's, there's so many parallels that you and I have in our story that always trips me out. Like it's, it's almost identical. We talk about our college dropout, the whole thing we went through, even the way you, your, your experience at first starting. And it's so funny that, that I've never heard that part of your story. So the, the, the, I same thing I'm, I'm being trained. Um, I'm shadowing a buddy of mine, Rick, Rick Wade, and he is, uh, taking me through the fit starts and I'm just same thing. Just sitting back watching the fit start card. Yeah. And I'm, I'm, I'm watching the big purple. Yeah. And so, uh, I'm watching how he's doing everything, just kind of, kind of figuring it out and stuff like that. And, uh, the, the next day he's got, uh, he's got a 6.00 AM fit and he don't want to take it. He's like, Hey, you think you're, you think you're ready to take this? And you're like, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I'm excited. And he's just like, yeah, I get to sleep in and I'm going to take this free appointment. Right. And so I, and it was a, you know, she must have been 24, 25 year old waitress that I took at six o'clock in the morning and gave the best fit of my life at that time. You know what I'm saying? And, and I didn't know, I didn't know packaging that come back and I had sold her like 36 sessions and I, and I, and I come back and I had to have the, the AGM sign it all up. I'm like, Hey, yeah, she needs, she wants 36 sessions and this and that afford this much today. And I come back and tell him all that. And he's like, Oh, okay. So he goes and he signs her up. He rolls into work at like nine in the morning, gets on the computer and looks up because in the computer, you can see all the people that sign up for the day. And he sees my name on there. And like, you know, 36 sessions is a big, is a big rip. That's a big rip now. Yeah. A couple of, yeah. A couple thousand dollars coming from a 20, 24 year old waitress or whatever. And he's like, what did you do? And I'm like, well, I just took her on the same thing. You know, I just took her on a thing. I didn't know what I did. I didn't have like some, some sales pitch or something like that. I was excited to teach her the, I taught her core. I taught her the one thing I knew. She didn't know what the most important muscle in her body was besides her heart. So I sold her, I sold her on that. I sold her on, I can help her with that and how important that was. And she signed up and, and like, I remember him being so pissed off that he did that. And I had no idea at that time either. I was, I was naive what he was really doing. Like he was really like the closing rate on fits are so low. This girl knew she was young and he's just like, I ain't getting up to take this free appointment or whatever. It's six o'clock. But it was the best lesson, uh, as a new trainer, uh, because, because of that, the way that I experienced at the beginning, I took everything. So I, I, I gladly, uh, would take Saturday, Sunday, early morning, late night. What like you guys don't want to take the appointment. I'll take the appointment. I'll take it. And you know, I didn't get them all. I trained people at 3am. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't get them all, but, uh, I got a lot of practice and I learned a lot and I wasn't afraid of that. And it was like, uh, and I loved it. I really, I really, uh, I really enjoyed it. But I'm remembering the first person I ever fired just right now. I was, I was, uh, I just became a fitness manager. So it's just four months into becoming a trainer. So I was a trainer for four months and they made me a fitness manager, which by the way, was irresponsible of them. They, they promoted me because I could sell better than anybody. I had no idea on anything. I'm just four months working in the gym. They're just like, this guy's selling more than anybody. Let's make him the manager. So I'm like, let's go. So I get in there. And again, I don't know where I, I don't, I think back to him. Like, who did I think I was? I'm like going in there, like pissing vinegar, ready to go. There was this trainer there that was probably in his late twenties, bodybuilder looking guy. He'd been there for a long time. Super resented me. Did not like the fact that this 18 year old kid is his boss who just started working here. And I'll never forget. I gave a meeting and I stand up on the desk. I do my things. I'm hyped. I give this meeting and he's kind of like, doing this thing, which kind of rolls, whatever. So everybody leaves. This was no joke. This was my first probably week working there. So it's, Hey, we're all done. I said, Hey, come on in, sit down for a second. I said, do you have a, literally I said, so do you have a problem with what I said? He's like, yeah, you shouldn't be a manager. I said, Oh, I really, really. How come? And so he tells me why I said, well, I'm glad you said that. Cause you're fired. And I didn't know I could fire people. I didn't know I could fire people. He's like, you can't fire me. I said, I just did leave. So he left. And then I told the general manager, Hey, I just fired so-and-so. Yeah. Actually we need to document this kind of stuff or whatever, but I got away with a lot because of how much I could sell. Justin, you have a different story when you started. Cause you started and you were not like the typical, like Adam and I very loud. I got it. Yeah. No, you guys, it was like fish in the water, you know, right away for you guys. It took a little bit for me to kind of break out of my shell, but like what started that was me leaving my comfort zone here in California and going to all the way to the Midwest and like, I knew nobody. And so it's like, for me, like the, the, the main story for me is like this entire, like reinvention. Like I totally reinvented myself. I went out there, I had to make all new friends. Uh, and, and then like, as far as training goes, I always, I was always passionate about, you know, improving myself and getting strong. And I love the gym, dude. I would live in the gym all the time. And it was funny. Cause like I had a roommate who's like my lifelong friend now, but like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Like he, he would never go to the gym. Cause he was just like this genetic freak. Like he's huge. You know, he, he just like, didn't even need to work out. He was just like incredibly strong, you know? And so my entire job from the coaches was to get his ass in the weight room. And so I was trying every move I could to like pull him in there. And like, I would like take his food and like, you know, try to entice him, you know, into the, into the weight room. So, you know, Half of the time I was, I was already, and I was managing the weight room sometimes. So I lived, I lived a lot in the weight room and like knew all the athletes on campus and all that. And, you know, of course it's a good way to meet girls and all that kind of stuff. And I found there, there's this one, it's like an exercise lab. And so I was going through the whole kinesiology stuff and got the opportunity to test everybody out. And so I tested everybody on campus, like, you know, the sit and reach and like, you know, circumference measurements, body length and all this kind of stuff. And, you know, I had a kind of a knack for that. And like, you know, the, the actual like statistics and like, you know, I was charting everybody's progress in the gym and like, you know, doing all kinds of, I was like geeking out and all that. And I thought for a minute, like I was going to be like a physical therapist and like, I'm like, maybe I'm good in the clinical setting. And I'm like, but then I got to the clinical setting and I was doing my internship. I'm like, God, this is so boring. This is awful. So I just like, was like, wow, I don't know if I want to do this. Like, I really thought I was going to be able to do this. I was I was gonna come back home and do construction 'cause that was kind of like, Like I knew just enough, you know, to kind of jump into that. Uh, but I, I came back and, um, I didn't know where I was going to go. I didn't know what I was going to do. I, uh, thought, well, sports management, like I have like some in with trying to get into like a, I, I'm, I think there was this ad for, you know, some agency that would, um, it was like for the sports team. And like, you had to, I didn't really know what it entailed. And so I'm like, I put the suit on, like, it was a suit that didn't even fit me. Right. It was like wool. Like it was like super hot. Right. I'm like, I show up to this interview, just like super decked out, like a three piece suit that was like old. It looked like probably like a homeless person, like trying to look nice, you know? And I get there and this guy's just like, wow. All right. I like, you know, he's like commenting on my suit. Like, oh, you're all dressed up for this. This is great. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'm, you know, trying to make a good impression. And, uh, Turns out, dude, this, this job was basically, he had all these flyers and he just gorilla marketed. That was your job? You showed up in a suit? I showed up in a suit. I probably didn't tell you guys this. He's into a stack of papers. I had. Go door to door now. Literally had like, you know, dress shoes and everything. And he's like, just keep up. I'm like, oh, he's flyers. And he's going into like, you know, uh, like, like a mechanics place. And he's like, here, he's like handing him all these like flyers. And he's like, oh, it was so, and you know me, dude, like, this is so uncomfortable for me. Like, I'm like, I don't want to hassle people and just like, you know, hand them flyers and try and like pitch this. God, what I'd pay to have a video. Oh, I was, I was so pissed off. And I was, I was fresh. I'm like, I went to college and I'm going to do this. You know, it's bullshit. And so, you know, I got home and I'm fresher. I'm telling my parents about it. I had to go back home. I'm living at, at my parents' house. And I was just like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going to do. You know, and then I saw like they're in Santa Cruz is a 24 hour fitness there. And it used to be like this car lot. And so I just kind of randomly walked by and like, they had like a job opening. And so, you know, I got, ended up getting a job there and worked there maybe for like a week. And they're like, you know what? We don't really have a lot of business coming through here, but we know, you know, if you're willing to commute, like you can go over the hill and, you know, you can make your way over there and, you know, there's some business for you and we'll set you up. And so I ended up going over the hill. And that's where I connected with Adam and I, you know, started training out of Hillsdale and, uh, and so from then on, it was like, I was just like, and of course I was very reserved. Like whenever I start something new, I'm very quiet, reserved, like I'm very observant. I'm like just trying to like take it all in and I don't want to say the wrong thing. I don't want to fuck things up. Uh, and so that was like, and I'm sure Adam was like, oh my God, dude, this guy doesn't even talk, you know, this is like a personal business. Like you have to like interact with people. Like he's like, he's like, he's like, I get a last. No, I didn't feel that way. I was, I was hopeful for Justin, you know, he's sports management. He was knowledgeable. Um, he was professional. Um, I saw that stuff right away. Like I wouldn't, I w he wouldn't have lasted if I, if I thought he was going to be bad. I admittedly talk about how I thought the other guy was going to be, but the other guy hired him with another guy. Yeah. So Justin and him, Nick came on the same time. And granted, by the way, I mean, this is what, 25 years ago or whatever, 25 years later. Nick has his own studio in the Bay area and still, so he's a, so he's a, he was a good trainer. So it's not like I was comparing Justin to somebody who's like some, you know, I thought, oh, just as I'm going to be better, like this guy was good too, but he was way louder, more charismatic. And so Justin was quieter and more observant. And so I just naturally judged like, oh, this kid's probably going to do better than this guy. And it wasn't true. I mean, it wasn't, but they were both really competitive early on. And so it was like this and then, yeah, and then justice started beating Justin just was considered always. Consistent. Like, well, I mean, Nick was like, you know, would have, would be decent. Uh, but then Justin was just getting better and better and better and was consistent and quietly consistent and not loud about it. And just, you know, and then it was, I can't remember how quickly you became my assistant. It was pretty, it was, it was pretty quick. It's probably a year. Was it a year in? Yeah. Because I remember I was just like, I'll take any appointment. I'll do like, I was staying. I just basically stayed there. Cause it's like, I remember I had to commute. And so it was like, it wasn't even worth me like taking any time off in between or anything. I was just like bell to bell, you know, and I'd get there even earlier. I was taking 6am appointments all the way till, you know, it closed down. Well, you, Justin really shattered my paradigm on what I thought like a really successful trainer needed to be like. That's right. Yeah. Um, and that was what was, he, he played a very pivotal role in my, in my journey and leadership because at this time I'm already this, I'm at Hillsdale. So I'm already, uh, three, four, four. Four years and you're experienced. Yeah. I'm, I'm experienced at this point in management and, and had good success to, to be at Hillsdale. If you're running Hillsdale, uh, you're probably one of the top guys to get that club. And so I've, I've seen a lot of trainers. I've had a lot of great trainers work for me at this, at this point, had some great teams. I had a great team there. Um, and I really hadn't had somebody who would become a top guy that was like Justin. And so it really reframed how I looked at, at there is like, and, and at that time still, I I'm still. I'm, I have some experience and I'm, I'm mature, but I'm still immature in what I think, uh, building a, cause I don't come full circle till Santa Teresa and the team we build there. Like when I, when it all kind of aha moment for me, I'm still running from a place of I'm trying to find a bunch of me's or build a bunch of me's that's kind of how I had success was just like, I find characteristics in you that were like, like me. And I would lean into that or turn you into a me, and if I only needed a few of those and we could go hit goal and be successful. And. That was exhausting. Exactly. I was just going to say that cause I did the same thing. Yeah. And it, but it got me far, um, but it wasn't until him and I, and he, this is when he's fully my, and then again, he was a bit, this is why he was such a crucial piece to my story is because I'm starting to learn that. And he was the first like door that opened that for me of like, oh, like maybe I shouldn't be looking for a bunch of me's maybe I need guys that are actually different than me that compliment my strengths and maybe that's a way better team. To build and like, man, we built a team later on. Oh, it was, it was a powerful team. And it's, it's funny. Cause it like that sports background for me, it was like, I, I knew guys like you, like I, I, you know, every team I had, like I was around killers all the time. And so I, and when you, when you're around like winners, like it doesn't matter what it is in business or whatever. It's very similar, you know, that dynamic and like the, the way that you can weave in and out and take on responsibilities and pick up slack where people are leaving it, um, you know, that was something that. Like we had a lot, like when I was playing and, um, so anyway, so that was kind of the first thing I was attacking. I've, I try to tell our trainers this whole time and we're bringing it up a lot now, uh, was I was attacking those phones. Like I was calling all those cold leads and, and, you know, one thing that, you know, I always like to reflect on is like those first 10 calls I made, I had as lifers. Like I had them forever. Wow. Yeah. The very first 10 calls I made. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. As clients from then on out. So that's rare. Yeah. It was, and I was tripping on that cause in two, well, one of them was, you know, turned out to be my wife, but you know, so that's a full on life creating other lives, you know, as a result of that. So, you know, it might not be selling, you know, the, the, the craziest record, but, but two, I did break records and I did do, you know, in the sales world and all that, but like, you know, obviously, um, you know, some of the stuff we teach them, like, it's so great. Cause yeah, it comes so easy from you guys and that's like your strength. And so it's like, we have to like lean on strengths and that's the thing, highlight the strengths and then, you know, push it out. There are definitely different kinds of trainers that can be very successful, different personalities, different kinds that can be very successful. And it's important to know that because I did the same thing you did. Yeah. I would hire and train and develop a bunch of me's and we did really well until we got exhausted. Yeah. Cause all we did was run. All we did was run and burn and energy and hype and whatever. And when that would burn out, it was like, I got to go to a new club or, or change the environment because I'm losing steam. It's so crazy that that light bulb didn't go off sooner for me because I had the athletic background like Justin and just like he's alluding to is like, that's exactly how sports are. Like, uh, a football team doesn't work if everybody looks and plays like the quarterback or looks and plays like, like you need position players and that's what makes a team so successful. And so a hundred percent, I'm, I'm used to that goal yet. I, I, at this time, this is also why like one of my favorite books is, uh, Mark Cuban's, uh, a book on business. And it's like the, I think it's the book title is like the sport of business or something. And, and that like, that's the whole message behind that, which of course I read way later, uh, which I read back then is just like how much like the, like business is like sports. And I wish I would have looked at my team like that of like, Oh, I don't, I don't care that this person isn't very good at sales or I don't care that this person maybe not be knowledgeable nutrition, or I don't care what this person may not look the most jack. It's like, I need someone, I need someone who's great at this. I need someone who's great at this. That's right. Great. This. And together, if we can build a machine, yeah, we lean into those strengths, which again to the, when I talk about the best advice ever given to me, uh, was given to me by my buddy, Mark Baker before we were buddies. And I've told this story a long ago, um, before. And it was, uh, after I had one of my first six, very successful months as a, as a fit early on, it's like month two. Uh, and I crushed goal. And the, the bosses had come in to come see me the next, you know, the, the VP was coming down, the district manager, uh, we're, we're coming in, uh, to come see me. my club and i was like all you know just puffed out they're coming down to tell me how good i am this is gonna be great you know i'm saying i'm young and i'm like all ambitious and excited and uh they did like a full audit on me and they just tore me apart you know it was just like i'm not doing this i'm not doing that i'm not doing this and i was just like you know and and i'm uh this is back to my athletic background like you know tell me i suck tell me i'm not good it's like i'm not the type to tuck my tail and go home and be like oh for me i'm like okay i can fix this right you know and so like next day i'm like back there building the systems and highlighting the books and doing all the things i'm not good at but i'm like i'm gonna i'm gonna solve this problem and i'm doing it in the middle of the day or like prime time hours five six seven p.m at night and mark comes back there what the fuck you doing i'm like well they came down and they told me i didn't do this and that i'm getting my followers and he looks at me like and he just you know i'm like i'm not good at this i'm not good at this i'm not good at this i'm not good at this i'm not good at this i'm not good at this i'm not good at this i'm not good at this and he looks at me like and he just he clears my desk off throws it off he goes listen you're in this position for a reason at this young of an age you are good at what you do stop focusing on the shit that you're not good at focus on the stuff that you're good at and be great that's what i want you to do and that was like that's a that's a that's a key bro coaching thing mind-blowing mind-blowing for me to get that permission for somebody i respected because he was already a killer at that time in business great advice and for him to see that in me and and to give me that freedom as a leader of like i don't need to worry about a lot of these things like that i need to really lean into the the few things i do well and be great turn that into and be great and that permission allowed me to be like okay i'm gonna i'm gonna double down on the things i like to do and like i'm out on the floor now i'm talking to everybody i'm being like and like man we crushed i mean we just crushed i you know i loved the you were talking early about not leaving i loved the gym yeah yeah so much that going home sucked leaving sucked all i wanted to do and i was be there all day long i had no i had very little concept of money or what was good or not based i just knew that there were goals there were numbers um even how much money i made so i wasn't really super conscious of like is this a lot of money or not because i didn't never grew up with necessarily needing we were we were not by any means stretch the means uh of imagination wealthy we were you know you know immigrant family but i didn't grow up with that kind of like um you know they did they saved their money they worked hard they didn't spend a lot of money i live with my parents and so i'd get my paychecks and it was almost like just numbers and i deposited in the bank and it wasn't about that for me which is a little different than your story for me it was i loved selling period i love selling ideas i still love selling i just on the podcast like if i have an idea i love to communicate it uh so that you're as excited about it as you are about as i am so i just loved doing that and then when i got into management i love to inspire people this is what this is how i manage is i love to inspire my staff i love to build things with them and this is what drove me the whole time but i literally had no concept of and this is this is how i stopped i decided not to go to school is i was a fitness manager i was about to maybe become move into sales because they were they wanted me a bit a general manager and i'm like i need to work less hours because i'm going to start going to school and my at the time my manager was don cardona which you guys know and he goes why would you do that and i said well i just want to be a physical therapist he goes you're making more than a physical therapist is now yeah and i had no idea i had no idea what that meant so he's like can i can i and i'm like my parents want me to go to school it's really important neither one of them went to college and he goes can i come over to so i said okay so i invited don over to my house and he literally sold my parents on why they should let me take a year off of school and he brings out my paycheck and he shows them and that was one of the first times my parents saw my paycheck and the look on their face was like and i mean i'm 18 years old at that point i'm still a fitness manager i think i'm projected to make like 80 or 90 thousand dollars which in 1997 was a lot of money that's like 300 000 i think if you control for inflation it's like 300 grand something like that it's like 200 grand something like that and so my parents were like oh my like you make this much money and then my mom was used to was asking a question she was like well what if you need something to fall back on and then you know don you guys know don don's like fitness industry's growing this is the the fastest growing company in the fitness industry there's so many opportunities and the experience this and that and he said if just give him a year and then he'll know and my parents just said and it was my paycheck that sold my parents because they saw obviously they support a family so they saw how much money that was and they're like okay you get a year yeah and i was like yeah let's do this you know i've thought long and hard about like uh because we share we all share this too with the like i stayed till 11 o'clock midnight okay oh god like every night oh god so fun long after i had my last client could be at like 8 p.m 9 p.m and i'd hang out hang out in the back and i'd be talking to my peers and trainers and stuff like that i'm like you know what what was that first of all i love the culture i love that and it's like i also really like different than you where like you love to inspire others i felt so appreciative of any of the anybody who ever spent time and taught me or gave me something i was so appreciative that i wanted to uh to pass that on and i'd love to like because i appreciate it so much it was like man someone get like would like mark giving me that that bit of wisdom like i love to share that because it was so it was life-changing for me and so i feel like man if i could gift that to somebody else that's so rewarding for me to do that and so i know that's what always that's what like drove the the late night share like if i learned something that worked on a presentation with a client or i learned a new thing uh whether it's related to nutrition or you know anything related to science that someone taught me or was a sales thing or something like that i would love to share that thing it was like man i immediately i wanted to to teach it to somebody else and and then then it dawned on me after doing that for like years like that i had kind of hacked into something too it's like oh the more that i gifted this and and gave to others and taught others the better i got at understanding it and communicating really learn it though and and so it was like oh this is like a like a hack to like really sharpening my own skills and so then just lean to do it even you guys have any embarrassment i have a couple embarrassing i just just popping in my head like when i first did started doing body fat test you guys remember the old body i don't know if they change it by this point because later on the body fat test was the same for both men and women yeah yeah but there used to be the women yeah there used to be a body fat test for men and a body fat test for women and the one for men was upper pec scapula i don't remember it was like three points but one of them was upper pec yeah i had a woman okay she was fit and she wanted a body fat test and i'm checking i'm testing her boob because i put upper pec dude and i'm testing her and her body fat's coming through the roof and i keep looking i don't want to tell her because there's no way she's 35 like she's late dude and i keep going up and pitching up here i'm 18 year old kid i'm like oh i'll do this thing oh my god and i'm looking at the number i'm like this doesn't make any sense and then i flipped the page and i saw that it said men and i got hot i got hot and embarrassed and i immediately went you know oh oh i gotta try a different way and i never told her but man that was like such a such an embarrassing moment though for me i think it was uh one of my clients like she's a sweet lady but um like and she warned me ahead of time um but we were doing crunches and like and you know she's a big lady and um she started doing crunches she totally just blasted one at me and like i i'd never like and she's like oh honey you're gonna want to leave and she's like oh honey you're gonna want to leave and like i was like what do you mean and so i'm like coming in closer you know and i was like i almost died it was so bad and like what'd you do just pretend like it was i just stayed there trying to pretend like it didn't affect me the whole time i was just like my eyes were like tearing up you know it was yeah well that was gnarly but like yeah she warned me ahead of time and everything but i it's funny like interacting with people like more on a personal level like there was a lot more like two obviously stories and and things and like struggles people are going through that they're just like unloading on me i wasn't ready for that dude yes i don't get to that level with even my friends yeah and so that that totally like threw me off like that was that was another like there's it's so interesting how the first time a client cries yes that too so let me cry you know there was there was a period of time uh and so i don't know if i've ever shared this with you guys so when i was so i'm when i was working in the dairy again i'm in like mid-teens mid to late teens um the husband and wife which is so funny because i i think they were i thought they were so old they were like 30 like they were 30 yeah yeah so 30 was so old right and uh of course because of my history with my family and stuff like that i had a lot of experience in therapy and counseling and stuff like that and they were having like marital problems and uh i remember like sitting down with the husband and the wife and like helping them through like yeah yeah and so there was a period of time where um i thought i wanted to be a counselor and so i never pursued that um but i i know that i felt like oh maybe i you know i've got some experience in this and obviously if these older people are listening to me and i'm like a teenager maybe i have a thing here i had no idea that personal training would be such a big part of that oh yeah and so it was like another one of those like so it had to tick so many boxes with the the sales thing uh the competitive side to it the energy and culture and being around people the counseling like how much the job is like therapy and counseling and stuff like that i just i didn't know any of that was going to be a part of the job and so it was never a thing that i was like oh wow these are there's a lot of things that i love or i've never actually kind of gravitated to that it checks all those boxes and then later really falling i fell in love uh of all the things of those things i leadership i love the most like there's nothing that um i'm nothing makes me more excited than like running a team or running an operation like i've always said even on this podcast like i'd be the first one probably to bow out on being in front of the camera and live like like i get my thrills off of how the thing goes you know what it does and everything and so um that that became like the next layer or level for the business for me was like i love training it ticked all the boxes i love figuring it all out i liked all aspects of it and then it became like another thing to be like oh man i love do you have uh like you guys have favorites were you only ever at santa teresa or did you go to another club too uh well i started at hills then went to santa teresa yeah do you guys have like a favorite club that you guys worked at well i'm partial to santa teresa because of uh yeah because of the team that justin and i have been with for a long time and i've been with for a long time and i've built we built a team like i it was it was wild to experience um as many years as i did uh leading teams and i mean i probably had i mean i had hundreds of trainers over the course of my career have worked for me so i've had a lot of trainers and you know you know that when you run a big box gym they have kind of a standard number of trainers that should run yeah should run that place and we broke the mold at that facility so for a triple a box they typically want 15 to 20 plus personal trainers there and um we broke records with eight you just had eight good trainers eight master trainers all masters and uh and but we built we we cultivated that team like we i used the i had a couple trainers that were going to go to school for their doctorate that were brilliant and again this is this is post justin like learning like like how to lean into these like i had these trainers that were terrible sales but man they were brilliant educated so what i do i i pay them to teach my other trainers and educate them to get them better and higher certification that was such a hack oh it was one of the greatest hacks and it was breaking the rules by the time by the way too like i remember uh matter of fact it was there's a great book i read at that time it was uh called first break all the rules and it reminded me of like you know here's one of these situations where it's like better to ask for forgiveness than permission like we had you know we had a fit budget which was i had an allotted amount of money that i had to distribute amongst all my trainers which was i had to distribute amongst all my trainers which was floor hours that they were to work and uh try and get new business and i sacrificed that for like three months we took a hit of not generating a lot of new business uh for me to pay my trainers to get educated and if they would have found that out they would have kiboshed that for sure but what ended up happening was they all leveled up inserts they all started making more money they were all educated better trainers and then all of a sudden we were just like and that was the like that time of my life was like a lot of time and i was like i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do this and that was the easiest time i ever had and from that point on to be honest like i went from being the guy who was grind took like i took a lot of pride in like grinding and like hustling and like energy and like oh dude i coasted like i just i just cruised and just had this badass team that's sustainable oh man and it would just it was a new unlock in business for me of like oh like this is how to become a better operator this is how to scale you can't do it the way like i i came from a class of like speed of the leader early on and find other guys that were like me and and like you know but it was boy exhausting yep you know and can't sustain that and not scalable that's right it's exhausting and it's not scalable but this new unlock of like building cultivating a team um and that was scalable and that that taught me so much that was one of my favorite times i have such good memories from all the different clubs that i that i worked in the salinas was the first so hillsdale's where i started as a trainer and so i have different experiences with hillsdale because the original hillsdale was not where it is now it's where the home depot is that was the original hills so that's how i started as a trainer i've got great memories there as a trainer a fitness manager and then a senior sales counselor uh when i worked uh under dawn so that's a great memories there i just fell in love with it i had so much passion just so new it was exciting the team i don't remember a lot of the team but i remember the atmosphere and i remember my own excitement then from there i became his assistant manager at sunnyvale and sunnyvale was uh really developmental for me this is when i was an assistant general manager i wanted to become a general manager and don and i were insane it was like who can work the hardest and the longest is essentially what it became and don and i are very similar in a lot of different ways and we would butt heads um in a lot of different uh ways i may have some great stories of like uh like i was not the most organized i know you guys it's hard for you guys to believe that but i was not the and it used to piss don off because we would have these sales meetings and we used to have these planners uh that 24 fitness gave us and he would this is how you manage your sales team and you bring out your planner well i'm the agm i'm the top guy below the general manager and my planner i don't even have it i don't even know where it is okay and so it made him look bad and i'm the top guy so and don he would sit me down sal you have to do this you're leading the guys you got to at least do some of it to show them and i was like hard-headed and i'm like yeah i'll do it and i just forget and i'm you know scatterbrained or whatever and i remember one time we were in the meeting and he's like that's it he got so pissed off and he stood up he's like that's it you're not going to get any walk-ins you're not going to get any guests the only people you're going to see are people that come in because they say your name at the front desk and i was like oh so mad i pissed i went downstairs and so i figured out how to get people to come ask for me by name so next thing you know people are walking in with guest passes that say sal on them and i'm taking one and i sign them up and i take another one and i sign them up by the fourth or fifth one don's like where are these guest passes coming from well i was in the parking lot i could see i could see when somebody was not a member because they don't have a gym bag so i'd hand it to them and then you're here to the front desk and he threw a calculator at me he got so mad at me he threw a calculator at me and i ducked it and i left and then we made up and became friends again and i came back but that i had crazy memories there then salinas was my first club because uh that's when uh mark the master off who who you know the founder of 24 he came in because he sees this kid at the time i'm doing like 40 to 45 000 and commissionable sales and at that time the top that they'd ever seen was like 25 so i'm doing like that didn't make sense so he comes in he wants to see what i'm doing i give him a tour again i don't know where i get this confidence from i think it was just ignorant i'm like oh the founder i'm going to show him how i do this and i give him this crazy tour he comes up he goes you did a great job i'm like good i'm like awesome thanks mark make me a general i talked to mark master off make me a general manager and he's like he kind of laughed a little bit he's like well i can't do that yet you know you don't have an experience i said mark i'm beating everybody i beat everybody uh in your company you should definitely make me a general manager and he goes sal you know you're young i said it's because i'm young i said i'm going to beat them so bad that you have to make me a general manager and so i did i don't remember how much longer it was after that and they said fine you want to run a club you can drive your ass over to salinas and take that you're like sure and i'm like give it to me so i drove my ass to salinas this was a club across from the rodeo so he has no salinas oranges for a member bro you're selling i've got six oranges can i get a membership the whole club's goal are they good do you know what the club goal was the whole club sixty thousand sixty thousand dollars was the club goal do you know we were hitting a hundred and twenty thousand dollars so and we were yeah we were doing great and so then they gave me i went from salinas to sunnyvale which was like their big flagship club and i had such great memories there and that's when i quit ran out and came back to hillsdale that's when i re-grand opened it that's when i met larry i was like oh my god i'm gonna be a star i'm gonna be a star i'm gonna be a star yeah and you know more coochie uh you know we worked on it and it was just uh it was just such great memories and each time was so different because i had to learn how to be different i started out as just all this energy all this excitement this confidence that didn't come from anything other than who knows because i didn't know what i was doing and then little by little it turned into experience and knowing what i was doing and it was just this whole process and it was just this whole process and it was just this whole process and it was just this whole process always still to this day i mean we all probably got offers from clients to go do things i got offered all the time jobs where i could make double the money i was making i remember like it was uh i mean it was really what the there was a big number that made me finally uh leave fitness because i'd get offered these jobs that were really good jobs and it'll be more money but i was like man i love what i do so much like it'd have to be a number that like i'd have to be crazy yeah like yeah and that was finally what it took because it was like i was like i'm gonna do this it was like man and i look at i still found my way back because of how much uh i love this you know seeing our um our team now it's it's really cool i feel that energy like i feel the i mean these guys and stuff are in here until you know seven days seven days a week they're here i'll come roll in here sometimes on a saturday at five or six p.m there's always somebody in here they're in here working out together and on the computer working on stuff like it's i get a little bit i'm doing this love you guys love what we do but i'm a little envious i could not imagine being a because i love the gym so much as a young trainer working in here uh because this the integrity in here is so much better early days fitness let me tell you it was like working in a different culture different culture but there was good parts to it too but like i i'm like man could you imagine because a lot of these trainers live together and then they come here and they work together oh yeah how fun oh no that would have been that's the best i mean we really we really love doing this i love doing this i love you guys love what we do but i'm a little envious - We lucked out that, like I was just at a, a meeting last night I had a dinner with some other like entrepreneurs and stuff and we were talking business and I said you know they're asking me all about the podcast and our kind of the origin and everything like that and like the training side and all how that's I said man one of the things that I feel so lucky and blessed I had no idea how that like this was going to play I wish I would if I would have known I would have leaned into it sooner with the business was that the podcast would serve as this culture building uh side before we ever like yeah like everybody who works here was a fan of the show most of them fans of the show for years because it takes when you when someone works for you it takes months oh it takes months to years yeah to build a culture and then and then you're always putting out fires like so as you're as you're creating this this beautiful culture you're always like and you you learn how to do this and that's why you cut it up you have to cut like as soon as like you learn like oh he or she's not going to fit this don't let him attest yeah you got to cut them out before they poison the culture and that's that's a journey in itself learning the hard way that you got to do that because I went through a process of trying to save oh me too and it ended up losing me too so like like learning that is already a skill like building a culture is hard it takes time and and then no matter what there will be people that come in and and potentially poison it and you're going to be fast to cut them out and then to keep going and so it could take years to cultivate like this beautiful culture and then you got to protect it with everything right and that's difficult um and and I think few entrepreneurs get there uh and the podcast it like automatically builds it so we have we have we have kids that work for us or young men and women that work for us that are in their mid to late 20s that have been listening to us since they were 16 yeah you know 19 years old like and like every like bought in like every episode and and and they're they might only be a one year or two years into being a personal trainer now but I listen to them communicating to a trainer and I'm like our client took me five years and I'm like that sounds better than me yeah that sounds so like they like you they have they have taken in everything that we have put out for so long and it's like man what a blessing and a superpower that is for cultivating a team what I I love I love the fitness industry so much there's so much potential in the fitness industry you know we if you think of the so many of the challenges that people face today from anxiety to depression to obesity poor health or whatever a lot of the answers lie and maybe not the perfect answers I don't think it's the answer to everything but there are a lot of answers in the fitness industry now the problem is the fitness industry is also got a lot of poison it's got a lot of lies it's also body obsessed it's also you know it's also sex obsessed it's also all this but there's this in the fitness industry and the in the in the in the culture that you can run into uh when you go into a good gym that for me I have such a passion that I want to spread like I really want it to spread like if the average person who could care less about working out but just wants to feel better walked into a gym with that kind of culture it would change their life it would change their life and so I feel like I have such a passion for it I mean I feel like we're watching this unfold right now I mean uh these gyms they're not going to be able to do it they're not going to be able to that are starting to turn into like these places of hanging out and uh yeah i mean the industry is only growing it's it's a hard industry to make a lot of money um but it's an incredible industry to work for and uh it's incredibly rewarding and the potential is huge and it's only getting better and so uh it's it's been an incredible ride um very few things in my life i've done for this long and have enjoyed it as thoroughly it's it's still i pinch myself when i think man i still still my favorite thing i i mondays i can't wait how wild is that isn't that funny same thing i can't wait for monday yeah can't wait for work can't wait to see everybody um i hope that never ends um and i hope everybody finds that right and you know if you ever thought about you know working in this industry it's hard um it'll take a lot of work you may not make a lot of money at first or ever but it's extremely rewarding thank you listening to mind pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted rgb super bundle at mindpumpmedia.com the rgb super bundle includes maps anabolic maps performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by sal adam and justin to systematically transform the way your body looks feels and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos the rgb super bundle is like having sal adam and justin as your own personal trainers but at a fraction of the price the rgb super bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com if you enjoy this show please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on itunes and by introducing mind pump to your friends and family and we'll see you next time family we thank you for your support and until next time this is mind pump