Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2052: Chalene Johnson: Female Fitness Mogul
Episode Date: April 13, 2023In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin speak with fitness mogul, Chalene Johnson. “If there is a problem to solve, I will solve it and make some money.” (1:29) Capitalizing on her opportunities an...d choosing fitness. (5:36) Her rock bottom and why she left the fitness space. (16:20) You get happy, and you lose the weight. (29:05) Declutter your life, and things will fall into place. (38:11) Having the “Fonzie” attitude. (42:59) Fitness is a gateway drug. (46:41) Choosing family first. (48:27) Not working hard for the money. (54:13) The biggest roadblocks she sees with young entrepreneurs. (56:00) Her favorite revenue stream and why. (58:10) Sales happen when you know and trust someone. (59:00) Stay authentic. (1:02:19) Biggest business mistakes. (1:07:45) The most valuable commodity. (1:12:45) Has social media been a net positive or negative for society? (1:16:57) Where does she find peace for herself? (1:20:14) Being present with your children. (1:22:45) “Do for them what they can do for themselves.” Creating and building resiliency in your kids. (1:25:30) Relationship advise for couples. (1:35:10) Working through crossroads in a marriage and the value of therapy. (1:38:44) The evolution of her relationship with money. (1:45:19) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Vuori Clothing for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! April Promotion: MAPS Anabolic or MAPS Split 50% off! **Code APRIL50 at checkout** What Is an 'Almond Mom?' and How to Not Be One Mind Pump #2042: The Essential Habits You Need To Move Freely & Live Fully With Kelly & Juliet Starrett PUSH: 30 Days to Turbocharged Habits, a Bangin' Body, and the Life You Deserve! iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us EMDR Therapy: What It Is, Procedure & Effectiveness - Cleveland Clinic From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life – Book by Arthur Brooks Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources Featured Guest/People Mentioned Chalene Johnson (@chalenejohnson) Instagram Kelly Starrett (@thereadystate) Instagram Juliet Starrett (@julietstarrett) Instagram Bret Johnson (@bretjohnson11) Instagram Arthur Brooks (@arthurcbrooks) Instagram Jen Cohen (@therealjencohen) Instagram
Transcript
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If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.
Mind, hop, mind, hop with your hosts.
Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.
You just found the most downloaded fitness health and entertainment podcast in the world.
This is Mind Pump, right?
In today's episode, we interviewed a female fitness mogul, an icon, Shaline Johnson, very, very smart woman.
At one point, had the top informerial for fitness in the world.
She's been in the fitness industry for a very long time in the gym industry, then the
gym fitness business industry, selling fitness programs online.
She works with coaches and trainers and people trying to build their business.
She's no shit. She's straightforward coaches and trainers and people trying to build their business. She's
no shit. She's straightforward, honest, amazing. We loved her. Actually, one of our favorite interviews,
we know you're going to enjoy this episode. That's episode is brought to you by our sponsor,
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All right, here comes the show.
I wanna go back to, did you start working in the gym?
Is that your first, is that how you got
in the fitness industry, where you started working in the gym?
Yeah, I mean, I was an entrepreneur,
like I owned a car law at Michigan State,
that's how I put myself through school.
So I was just like kind of a hustler,
somebody who was always figuring out like, oh, there's a problem to solve,
and I'll solve it and then make some money.
I heard you talking about this on other podcasts.
I was so impressed.
You started learning how to, I mean,
like cars.
Your business acumen is incredible.
You started flipping cars in high school?
Yeah, you know, once my parents said,
we don't have money for you to go to college,
but I'm sure you'll figure out a way.
We can help you figure out a way to make money to do it. I was my dad's idea to start going to car auctions
at age 14, 15.
Yeah, and so I bought my first car,
it was a El Camino orange from the state of Michigan,
and I took it to Earl Shive, had it painted for 99 bucks,
cleaned it, you know, all the, so it looked beautiful,
and then resold it, made a couple thousand dollars,
and I'm like, this is a thing., so it looked beautiful and then resold it
made a couple thousand dollars and I'm like,
this is a thing.
And so then I started flipping cars.
And you did that through the change.
Through college, yeah, through college.
And I started a business at Michigan State
called the All Michigan Auto Swap Meat
and that's what I did.
What was the progress, yeah, what was the progression
like did you start flipping one at a time
and then you start doing two, like how did you scale it?
I was it was such a pain in the butt to sell a car
Privile so you have to schedule an appointment for someone to come and look at it
I'm a you know 19 year old girl at in a college town and I have people grown men coming
Sure, you know, and there's a cash exchange and sometimes they wouldn't show up
And I know like other people have to be dealing with this too
So I had this idea. Okay. I'm gonna rent a up. And I know like other people have to be dealing with this too.
So I had this idea, okay, I'm going to rent a piece of land from the state. That's got to be cheap, just a piece of grass.
And I'm going to call one by one every single person who's selling their car and say,
Hey, let's just all organize on Saturday to show up at the same place and I'll run an ad.
And we'll get everyone who's looking for a used car to show up at the same place.
I'll just take a tiny little cut,
but then you don't have to do this all the time.
And I had, and then I called the Lansing State Journal
and they did a story on it and it worked out well.
Brilliant.
Yeah.
That's absolutely brilliant.
Mom, dad, entrepreneurs were the company.
My dad, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Wow.
And so, and I, you talk a lot about having ADD and all that stuff.
Is, did that play, it like was that, like become a strength?
Because when I also have ADD and when you read about people with ADD, we tend to be entrepreneurs,
we tend to like to do sales.
Was that just, was it part of your, like looking back, we're like, oh, this, this was my
superpower.
For sure.
Well, and also my Achilles heel, you know? My dad has extreme ADHD too.
So my issue for the first, I don't know, you know,
25, 30 years of my life was,
every idea has a good idea.
Let's do them all at once
and not finish any of them all the way.
So, and let's not focus on just one.
Let's do all of them because one of them is gonna pop.
And that's kind of how I ended up in fitness.
I was doing the cars, I was working as a paralegal. I was selling ebooks online. I was doing personal training.
I was doing fitness. I was taking the LSAT to become alert like all the things. And I was
listening to an interview. And it was a gentleman talking about how he had been fired
from his job. And he took out a full page ad with all of the things that he could do.
I think he was a radio host.
And he took out this full page ad
of like, you know, he could do sales, he could do
just every piece of marketing,
he could do voiceover, all these things.
And put his address in there and people,
he thought would send him invitations
to apply for their jobs, whatever.
And he got one letter from a person
that on a blank piece of paper,
folded up in the middle of it, was just one word,
and it was focus.
And I thought, I know how to do,
like I feel like I can do anything.
Just show me how and I'll do it,
but I do not know how to focus.
And so it was in that moment that I thought,
what if I just focused on an opportunity
and put all these other things away?
And at the time, it was fitness.
And so I just decided, I'm gonna go all in
like for a couple of years and just see what happens.
Okay, so why did you pick fitness?
Because when you look at all these other industries,
I mean, it doesn't seem like an obvious money maker.
Not at all, making money and fitness, I tell people this all the time, it doesn't seem like an obvious money maker. Not at all.
Making money and fitness, I tell people this all the time.
You want to make a lot of money, fitness is probably
not the industry to get into.
Why did you pick fitness over selling cars,
over paralegal, over all these other industries and businesses
where money would have been much easier?
I saw a need.
So I was teaching fitness classes for a family fitness,
24-of-fitness at the time. And I was like,
this is such a money making a losing proposition. You spend hours and hours and hours creating these
workouts. You're paid less than minimum wage. You've got to come up with the music, the choreography.
And I remembered that my mom taught jazz or size in the 70s. And I'm like, that model was amazing.
They just shipped you the music, the choreography,
everything you just plugged in your personality.
And I'm like, what if I did something like that?
Like, because I've got this kickboxing format
that people are like, how are you doing this?
And so it was just an opportunity.
It wasn't the thing I was the most passionate about.
I was thinking in terms of an entrepreneurial pursuit. Like, entrepreneurial pursuit, like there is a strong need in the market.
Now people now hearing this probably don't realize
that this was a big transition in the fitness space
because so this was, when was this the 80s?
Late 80s early 80s?
No, this would be the 90s.
90s early 90s.
So back then, now when you go take group classes,
especially in gym chains
It's a structured format. It's owned by like lame lame mills owns like classes
They give you the music the format you just show up you're certified and you teach it, but back then
You as the instructor had you all that everything and so you looked at it and you said what if I designed so let me get this right
You said what if I designed or create something that then people can franchise or purchase and
just plug in. Yes, paint by numbers. Okay. And what was it that you created? I called it was called
Turbo Kick. And I was in all 624 fitness clubs like that because great timing. It was when
Tai Bo was the hot. So I really kind of capitalized on it.
And in fact, I called it Thai Box at first,
and I got a cease and desist.
So then we called it Turbo Kick,
and which was also a crazy story
how we came up with that name,
but it was solving a need for 24-of-fitness
because people were coming into the gyms and droves
and saying, do you have this typo?
I want to do typo.
And Billy hadn't licensed something at that point, so it was just really easy for me to
solve that problem for 24-of-fitness.
And then we had tens of thousands of customers who were instructors, and they were on a monthly
continuity.
Taking you through that pitch,
so you come up with the idea,
and now you're trying to bring it into
like a corporation like 24-hour fitness,
like who are you talking to, and like what is that?
Did you talk to Mark Masteroff directly, or was it?
Yes, sure did, yep.
At the time it was Donna Myers,
and Mark Masteroff, and it was just really, they just, it was Donna Myers and Mark Mastroff. And it was just really, there was nothing available.
And every single general manager was like, we need Ty Boe in these gyms.
And so, I have a great data gratitude to Billy because even though the programs are different,
it was kickboxing.
And because I had a lot of experience in group acts, I could create a format that had the proper warm up,
the proper cool down, the right beats per minute,
all the things that instructors needed,
so all they had to do is plug in there,
and it was free to the clubs.
So I did not license it to 24-of-fitness.
How did you get paid?
Yeah, by the instructors.
So the instructors were on a continuity program.
So they'd get certified,
and then in order to maintain their certification, they would pay
you.
And if they wanted to be, if they wanted to teach these highly popular classes, they had
to continue to pay you.
Yes, they got on a monthly, a monthly program.
So every month they would get a new set of workouts, it was $50 and, you know, we would
just give us $50 a month for each of the certification.
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Holy cow. So let me, okay, Yes, yes, yes. Totally, yeah.
So, let me, okay, so let's go back for a second because-
So the gloves love dust.
We didn't cost him anything.
And then less meals was licensing at the time.
He used to nap, that.
And I mean, it was like David and Goliath,
it was so hard to compete with them
because they had like all the money behind the marketing.
Did you realize how brilliant this was when you did it
or were you like, this sounds like a good idea
and now looking back
Well, because you're right the gyms paid nothing right so if I'm master off and I have less mills where I'm gonna pay them
Thousands of dollars and then I got you and you're like you don't have to pay me nothing, but your structures want this they'll pay me
Yeah, I mean did you realize like how
I don't know back and forth I used to think like I'm so dumb that we didn't license it to them because I knew what Les Mills was making.
Yes, sir.
But also, it really endeared me
to the culture of fitness instructors.
I was one of them.
I understood and I really worked closely with them.
And in the long run, you can't have any regrets.
So I started at 24-hour fitness in 1997.
This was right after they merged with,
they were notalists and they merged with
Ray Wilson's family fitness to become 24-hour fitness.
Yeah.
You started with Ray Wilson's family fitness.
Correct.
Okay, a lot of people don't know this,
but Ray Wilson, they were kind of the first,
some of the first people to introduce
paying through EFT.
I know Mark Maastrowf really implemented that.
They were the first ones to really create
like the business, the gym business.
Whereas before that, it was like need heads
that own gyms, it would make a lot of money.
What was the environment like in those,
because it must have been so, I hear stories,
and I'm such a student of the gym industry.
I hear stories about it. It must have been an amazing time.
Well, I was kind of in that transition.
So it was only family fitness for a very few years.
And then it was still though, because even early 24 was crazy.
It was crazy. It was amazing. Yeah.
Yeah, it was crazy. I mean, the things that the amount of hours I remember
putting in and just, you just did it because you loved it, you know?
And for me, then I was also building this business
at the same time in teaching these fitness classes
and it was just a wild time.
Like a group X was the hub of the gym then.
Yes it was.
You know, and now we were seeing people
like move into the weight room
and we're seeing group X is dwindling.
I mean, frankly, it is.
And there's, I think there's more knowledge now about the tons and tons and tons of
cardio. And it's just, it's a little less popular.
I have, so I have a speculation on that.
I love your opinion on the reason why I think group acts was the hub at the
time was because it was the way, if you look at consumer bases, women are much larger consumer based than men.
And Jim's had to figure out, how can we tap into this incredible consumer base because
if we continue to just appeal the man we're never going to grow as a business, and Group
X is what did it.
Now women are understanding the benefits of strength training, so now that's why it's shifting.
But I think that's why Group X was such a powerful draw
in those days because it attracted this consumer base
that would make you a successful business.
Am I on point?
I think so, and also I think the music and community.
So, I think guys tend to go the gym by themselves,
and it's just kind of a solo pursuit
and women want community.
They want to have fun.
They want to talk before they want to talk after they want to.
And I'm over generalizing, but like, and it's the music.
And, you know, for me, when I created my program, I didn't, my degree is justice morality
and constitutional democracy.
I know nothing about fitness.
You know, so I ended up there because it was an opportunity.
And I created this workout based on watching cheer competitions
on ESPN. And like when they would do like air jacks and they would be like, like, and I was like,
oh God, that would just, what if you just walked around and every time you punch, there was a sound
effect. So I learned to master the music and edit all the music myself and I would put in sound
effects where you did certain movements. And it just did something to people on an emotional level.
It was such a trip.
Was anybody else doing this at the time?
A cheer competitions, no, just that just,
just have time, yeah.
What was the peak of Turbo Kick financially?
What did it reach and how long it take you to get there?
I, I, I, let's see.
So we sold, I think, in 2010 to beach body
because we were kind of competing against each other.
Turbo, is that how you got into beach body?
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
So with, so I think my husband would have to quote me
on numbers, I'm so bad at remembering them,
but I would think we'd like 60,000 instructors
on a continuity program, or we had certified all,
I don't know, every state in the United States,
probably 50 different countries.
We had people who were teaching the format
to instructors all over the country.
So it would, and I had a clothing company
that went along with it.
It was big.
And I was running that that and all of these instructors
Didn't know who I work was really, you know what I mean? Like their students didn't know who I was
But they would help their students to lose massive amounts of weight and they would send me their stories and their before and after photos and
To be inspired I would keep all of those and I I kept them in this big, giant notebook,
all their before and after photos and their stories.
Wow.
The interesting piece though, is that we really,
I had no idea how much we were making
because of the time my husband,
who's now completely recovered, had a gambling addiction.
Oh, sports gambling?
Yeah, yeah.
Really?
Which works perfectly if you're married
to someone who has a work addiction.
You know, so we both had our addictions.
But anyways, I had this book and when Ty Bo had run its course,
all the infomercial companies started looking for the next fitness thing.
So they started reaching out to me and I would show up with this book and they'd be like,
they couldn't believe it. I didn't realize that it was like liquid gold.
That's what most infomercial companies people don't know this, They couldn't believe it. I didn't realize that it was like liquid gold.
That's what most infomercial companies people don't know thus, but they create a program
and then they spend about nine months getting, or six months at least, getting incredible
before and after stories.
So I had this book that would save them a year of production and probably a million dollars.
And yet I didn't know any of these people.
I didn't help them lose weight, but my programs had.
And so that's how I got introduced
to all the big, infomercial companies at the time.
So then I started doing infomercials
at the same time as running our businesses
and about killed myself.
Did you, well, okay, let's go there.
What do you mean?
It's just, I think now obviously looking back
in hindsight, you feel like whatever opportunity
is coming your way, you better take it,
you better cook while the pants hot, you know?
And we took every single opportunity without saying,
okay, this is a better one, let's put this aside, you know?
And I didn't know how long the infomercial stuff
was gonna run, so I didn't want to do anything
with our company. I had built this thing from the ground up and it just meant so much to us to take
care of these instructors. I had Turbo Jam, which was my infomercial, and then I had Turbo Kick,
which was our program. Then we were all bidding on my name and those terms for SEO.
So we're constantly fighting against each other
in these businesses that related, but also didn't.
Do you know what I mean?
I mean, they were very related,
but it was a lot of, I never slept,
I only worked out and consumer fitness
then really took a toll on my mental health for me.
Is this bad taste in your mouth with the space?
Yeah, for sure.
Did you consider leaving it?
Oh, I did.
Yeah, I absolutely did.
Yeah.
Okay, what did you do then?
What was the trend?
You know, there was a moment when I was on camera and there was a lot leading up to this. It's just, and this is just the industry.
I was in the industry too, right?
We were making fitness videos too, and so I'm not faulting anyone company, but it was
the industry at the time.
It was the leaner and smaller you were, the more marketable you were.
I remember my first time I showed up or was preparing to do my very first consumer photo,
what do you call it, photo shoot. And the producer had emailed me instructions on how to cut
weight and cut water before the shoot. And I was like, I never, I taught fitness classes,
but I was never in like the competition world. I don't know anything about this.
So I'm like, wait, and cut water.
So it's giving you this message, like, you need to do something.
And that was kind of a trip.
And then I just remember showing up to review the photos.
I just remembered this like last night.
To review the photos.
And there were two sets.
And in one of them, I looked really good.
And in the other one, I was like,
and I'm like, what are these?
The ones where I looked heavier, more like myself.
And they look, oh, we just, don't worry about that.
We just thought that would be funny to show you those.
And I was like, funny.
Funny.
And I literally didn't put together until last night
that that was probably, I was looking at the Photoshop
and the unphotoshopped, you know?
Because then later, I had a lot of experiences
where I'd be like, this is so photoshopped,
this does not look like me, you know,
and just comments, feedback.
It was rough.
This is the challenge I tell people who enter into the space,
who use their bodies or their appearance to sell products.
You eventually run into this challenge.
And most of us enter into the fitness space
because we have some kind of struggles with body
and image.
Anyway, I was like this.
We started this.
I was much older, felt like I had processed all my stuff.
I remember we put up a video and there was some comments like this guy
Did you look like he works out and I remember being like oh, they're yeah surfacing again. Yeah, so
It could be a really tough space from that standpoint
Absolutely is and you know that was the messaging. There was a time when
I make god there's so many things I could tell you so many things that were just incredibly unhealthy.
And I had never dieted.
And I'd never had body images because my mom doesn't have any body images.
I swear, I never heard her talk about her weight.
That's great.
Anything.
Until I started getting into consumer workouts and then everything, it would be, even if
it was a compliment, they would say, a cameraman would say, I like working with you because
you look normal. Oh, cool. I love that you know, I like working with you because you look normal.
Oh, I love that you don't look like a fitness person.
It's so cool.
And you're like, how do I process this?
Or the person who was like, so on camera,
we're seeing something.
So wherever you a little bit more covered up
and you're like, what are you seeing?
I'm a human. Where do you, like what?
It was just, you know, all the time,
every single shoot, every single photo shoot,
and the messaging was always, you know,
if you can get leaner and tighter things,
this program's one time,
one time I sent in my recordings.
These are the videos we're gonna film next week.
So I sent them the rough versions
of me filming them in my home gym.
So I could see the routines.
And they come back and I get a message and they said,
we've got a great idea.
We could use this footage as your before footage.
And we can delay the shoot and then come back
and you could be like the after story.
I'm like, wow, no.
But you know, it just one thing after another.
And then there was a time where my husband actually got
a phone call and they said, you know,
we don't really, don't wanna hurt Shlian's feelings,
but we really for the next series,
we needed to get leaner and smaller for the next series.
Wow.
And we just don't know if there's a future, really, if that's not going to happen.
So what's really crazy about your story is that we talk on the show a lot about our
insecurities and what led us to fitness.
So that's actually what drove me to the gym.
So you're kind of like the reverse of this.
It's kind of crazy to hear.
Most people I feel like,
you started getting like some of this after you got it.
Right, most people,
they're body, don't like the way they look,
they go to the gym and pursuit to change something
about themselves driven by an insecurity,
which we talk about all the time.
But you're probably the first story
that I've actually heard somebody who was in the industry for quite some time. And then it seemed
like it reared its head on you and probably created insecurities.
insecurities and orthorexia. And just feeling super duper inauthentic. So when my husband
got that call that I needed to get smaller, lose weight, get leaner, get tighter for this
next series or there wasn't going to be
another series.
I was really embarrassed because I never felt like I belonged
in the fitness industry anyways.
You know, we talk about in posture syndrome,
but I always felt like someone's going to say,
like, oh, you guys, we just found out.
She doesn't know anything about.
She's a car salesman.
You know what I mean?
So when I, in the back of
my head, that message would be like, see they know you don't belong here. But so when he
got that message, I was like, you know, there's so much riding on this. I have to do this.
So I'm going to have to go harder. I'm just going to exercise harder. So because we were
running the business and doing these consumer workouts at the time,
I probably spent five or six years maybe more,
getting less than four hours of sleep a night
and exercising, you know, three hours a day easily.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, easily three hours a day, if not more.
And then when I got the message that you needed to,
you needed to get smaller.
This is before.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
By the way, when they wanted me to be they suggest I be a before
image. I was
about
17% body fat and
You know under 115 pounds and do you think that?
Well, I mean, I think I know the answer this but do you think that the fitness industry has done as much harm as it's done good
with people because of how we portray health
and how we tend to sell it to people watching?
It's the marketing of it.
And I think social media has made it a hundred times worse.
So, and the photoshopping and, you know,
I think what we say is health is a look.
It's an image.
So when I lost all the weight,
I lost another probably like five or six pounds,
which when you're five, two is a lot.
You know, when I was already very small.
So I showed up on the set, I'm 11% body fat.
I don't like to save my weight
because I think that can trigger people,
but I was really low.
And I had been sustaining on nothing,
like chemicals, basically, protein chemicals
and no real food exercising for at least four hours a day,
at least, and not drinking water.
I'm just, all the things to just get as small as possible.
And I feel like I'm gonna faint
and I feel, I know I can't sustain this.
I know I'm killing myself.
I know that I'm constantly getting injured.
Everything hurts.
I can't think straight.
I'm irritable.
I don't have the same personality.
I feel like I'm my heaviest, which is so weird.
And I walk in on set and everyone's like, girl,
you have never looked better.
Whoa. And all the social media, everything's like, girl, you have never looked better.
You and all the social media everything was like,
hashtag Body Goals, what are you doing?
Is it this workout?
You know, everyone wants to know, what is the thing?
The thing is, I'm starving myself and exercising
for hours and hours and hours.
And now I'm on camera and I'm looking into a lens
and I know I'm talking to,
like I always think about the person I'm talking to at home
I'm gonna get upset and
I'm saying you can get these results in 30 minutes a day and eat delicious food and I'm like I
Can't maybe someone else can
Where how did I get here? How did I get here?
This is a lie when I'm saying is a lie,
I didn't formally leave,
but when I literally, those are the words
that came out of my mouth when I said,
I have to turn this all around, I have to leave.
Was there a moment?
Was that the moment?
Yeah.
That was the moment.
Of course, I didn't formally leave,
but mentally I was done. That was the moment. Of course I didn't formally leave, but mentally I was done.
That was it.
And I later did some infomercials where it was just me,
and I filmed the whole thing on my iPhone
on the wrong setting, not even 1040,
and for my PIO infomercial.
And that did really well, but I was completely in control.
There was no one telling me what to do,
no one telling me what to weigh, no camera telling me what to weigh, no cameraman there,
no hair and makeup, no one putting clothes on me
and telling me that I look heavy in them.
Just me, I'll do it if it's just me,
and I get to just talk to her.
But it was, I have a lot of guilt about it.
Because I felt like I let a lot of people
and I had a responsibility to wake up sooner.
Yeah, I think you should, yeah, I think you, you should definitely forgive yourself. Look,
we were trainers for, we talked about for decades. Probably the first 10 years I trained people
I was terrible. Yeah. Like terrible. I mean, I trained people wrong, too much intensity.
Yeah. I treated people like robots,
like they were all fitness fanatics. Just do what I tell you if you don't you're lazy.
I remember I tell this one story. And I say it so often partially because it's a good story.
I think it conveys what I'm talking about. But also because I hope and pray she listens to this
because I really feel bad. This woman I had this like what I called this come to Jesus talk with
her. And I basically called her out for lying on her food tracking and
She's not telling me and she's she left crying and I felt so accomplished like yeah, I told her and she never came back and she probably never
Try it again and that was all my fault
Hmm, so I think a lot of us who've been doing this for a long time go through that because you do this the wrong way
And then eventually come out the other end and go hold on a second, there's a different way to do this. I do think that that extreme
has caused an opposite and extreme reaction, which now is this distorted body positivity movement.
That's become so distorted where it's like trying to lose weight is fat-shaming.
And it's, you know, health at any size, that bedeal. And I understand where it came from,
but I feel like that's like the,
it's also an extreme and wrong,
it's just on the other end,
and it's a reaction to, you know,
kind of how the fitness space has been for so long.
And everything extreme is so polarizing,
whether it's politics or fitness or nutrition.
Like, and I just,
I want no part of anything that's that extreme
in any of those realms, you know,
like I just, I've learned that
the industry, health and fitness,
has really conditioned people to believe you won't get it right.
You need someone else to tell you,
I don't care if you're a neuroscientist,
you don't know how to eat or work out.
You need someone who's gonna put a program together for you.
And if you're not following someone else's program,
you've fallen off the wagon and you don't know what you're doing.
So at what point did you, I remember when I figured this out.
I remember, I think I heard this and then it clicked
and then this is when things sort of changed for me as a trainer.
I used to think you had to lose weight to get happy.
And then I realized you get happy and then you lose weight.
When did that happen for you?
Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. And then I realized you get happy and then you lose weight. When did that happen for you?
Yeah, yeah.
Oh my God.
So I don't ever since that happened, I don't weigh myself.
I have no idea.
And I got weighed this week because I had to go to the doctor.
And I was like, I'm two pounds heavier than I was.
I've got so much more muscle.
I like my body now.
I cannot believe the amount of time I wasted, the
amount of joy, pure joy from food and friends. And just the amount of time I wasted, sorry,
no offense, meal prepping and so worried about skipping my third workout for the day.
And it's just crazy how much life I missed out on
because I was so consumed by, I can't miss it.
I gotta do more work.
I gotta do more cardio.
Gotta do another workout.
And I can't eat that.
And it's just so much joy and my body composition,
everything is better now because I don't worry about it.
You know?
It's funny too because the people that get all the attention, especially with social
media now, they get the attention.
They're the ones that, of course, their messages are what go viral.
And they're communicating this message of like beast mode, never miss a day.
Food is just fuel.
You know, basically, fanatics and unhealthy in that sense.
Because they look a particular way,
they're the ones that are getting the message out,
and it's really hard to counter that.
It's hard to beat that message with,
it's like, oh, you lose 30 pounds in 30 days,
and we're like, no, I was gonna take you like two years
and you gotta change your relationship with food,
and you gotta like yourself more.
It's hard to beat that.
How do we market the right way?
How do we make it sexy?
This is a conundrum.
I don't have that answer, I really don't.
I don't purposely look at any of that stuff.
It's still triggering for me online.
And I can see, I know when that fitness person
is in it, they're in orthorexia, they're in a state,
they, and I can just see it.
And I feel sorry for my, I want to reach out to them.
I want to let them know like, man,
it's a scary place to be in where you are marketing your body.
I mean, I shouldn't say that.
Where what you're marketing is dependent upon your physique.
You know, that's a pretty scary place to be.
It's a very scary place to be.
It's an inevitable trap.
Like you're going to crash at one point.
I mean, I remember when we started this,
that was one of the things that,
obviously if you go and look on our mind pump media,
all of our social media, you don't see that of any of us.
None of us use our body as it,
because we all knew that at one point,
we're all gonna be 45, 50 kids,
other things are gonna be more important.
I'm not gonna wanna have to walk around
with 5% body fat just to sell programs or have a business.
And so I think we knew that going in.
And so when I see people that have built their brand
around themselves in their body like that,
I go like, man, even if you're doing well right now,
it's inevitable that life happens.
Life happens so well.
And life should happen.
Life is good.
And even I think about the impact I had in my kids, right? Like, so my daughter's 23 now. And she's suffered from an e-need
disorder in high school. Why wouldn't she? Here's her mom who gets super excited anytime
she finds someone who's lost a lot of weight. So I'm always celebrating, like, look at this
person, their transformation. You get all the mom's attention. Yeah.
You know, I mean, that was a subliminal message. And you can't, no matter how much you try to hide
it from your kids, I didn't want either of my kids to know how much I was exercising, how little I
was eating, but they see it. Sure. You know, so you can't hide that. No, you can't hide that. And,
you know, the whole conversation about the almond mom. No. Oh, it's just, it's't hide that. And if you were the whole conversation about the almond mom, it's just a trend that started
from one of the two Hedid models, the girls.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Well, their mom was on a reality TV show Housewives of Beverly Hills.
And there's a moment where one of the models is calling in and she's like, I'm a shoot.
And she's like, Mom, I feel so weak.
I'm going to faint.
I haven't eaten anything.
And her mother says, honey,
have a couple of almonds.
Choose them really well.
Wow.
You'll be fine.
And so now that's kind of the joke is the almond mom.
But, a lot of us in the 2000s parents and moms,
we were almond moms.
So it's like, well, just got a handful of all-mins.
You don't really need that.
We try to hide it with, well, that's
going to make you feel sluggish and slow,
but your kids realize what, it's just so much emphasis
on good and bad food.
And more so, it's what they observe how you talk about yourself
and how you are with yourself.
I think that has even a much larger impact
because it's, you don't realize it in your, you're talking about yourself and oh my god, I can't
wear this and I don't look good. And you know, your kids hear that and I can make it really hard
for them because they start to internalize it. How old were they when you were going through that?
Their entire childhood, you know, really. It's interesting because we celebrate fitness
for the side effects that it produces.
The side effects are how you look.
The real effects are how you feel.
So, and because we sell it through the side effects,
that's what everybody thinks is the main effect.
And the truth is, if you think that's the main effect,
if you confuse that as the main effect, if you confuse that as the main effect,
you will eventually lose all of them.
Because your health declines, you feel crappy,
you don't look good.
You know what irony of this is,
and I'm sure you've experienced this as well,
people can look a particular way in a picture,
but when you meet them in person,
I've been to enough fitness competitions
and figure shows and whatever.
You meet someone in person, they don't look healthy.
They don't even look good.
That's absolutely right.
The bags under the eyes, the super hollowing of the face
and the skulls.
Oh, yeah, hair, all those things and eyes.
It is sad to me that we take things to such extremes
and again, people constantly asking for six pack abs.
It's like, but do you actually know
what's involved for a woman specifically?
Like, what that's, no one cares or asks,
what is I gonna do to my hormones?
What if I stop getting my period?
What is that gonna do to my bone density?
Like, we just have a look and we want that.
You know, and I think social media obviously
makes that much worse.
But I also do think we're, I'm kind of a little concerned about this hyper fixation on all
these extreme little dials you have to turn for health.
Like you have to drink water exactly 30 minutes before this.
And then if you, it's sleep, if you, just everything that's so particular
that you can become consumed by that too.
You know why that's this?
We just had this conversation with
Friend of ours, Kelly Starrett,
was here him and his wife.
And we were talking about this exact subject.
And I think a lot of that is because most of us in this space
are speaking to our peers, not even the majority.
We're all concerned about what everybody else thinks about us,
and we wanted to outsmart the other trainer
and tout some new study that came out
or break down some new formula that gets the max results.
To do cardio, first thing in the morning
is a 5% increase in fat oxygen.
People are like, I don't want to do cardio for some time.
Meanwhile, we're missing 90% of the population
that gives two shits more.
Yeah, or more.
Yeah.
So I really think it's a lot of us
caught up in our own shit.
Our own insecurities.
People are so focused on rules.
They want to know the rules.
Like, what are the rules?
What am I supposed to eat?
What am I supposed to have coffee?
What does the dentists seem trifosophate?
Like, all of these things, like, they want to know,
what is the exercise?
What is the workout, what is the,
and it's like, well, it's just, we want it to be simple and it's not.
No, it's not simple, but it becomes automatic if you do it right and it takes practice
and it becomes, it's like any skill you have to develop.
Like, you know, when you first learn how to walk, you really have to think about every step
you take and you're going to fall and you got to pay
attention, you can't do anything else.
But eventually you just walk.
I can walk and talk on the phone, I could eat, I could, I don't even think about that
I'm taking steps.
I don't think about breathing, right?
It's all very automatic.
If you do this the right way, then it, and you develop the skill, then you have a good
relationship with exercise and nutrition, then health is automatic
because it's not healthy to have to constantly think about it.
That's not healthy.
I get that that's a step.
You have first, you may have to pay attention to learn things,
but could you possibly, who could live that way?
Accounting every macro, every calorie, tracking everything.
Well, fitness fanatics, but you try conveying that
to the average person,
they try, I don't wanna do this,
what the hell do you wanna do?
It's immediate deterrent.
You're a normal person, nobody wants to do this.
I actually heard you say something on an interview
that I thought was really cool.
Something that we talk about,
when we get somebody who wants to lose weight,
we actually don't diet them or restrict them of anything.
We actually add to their diet,
and it always blows people's minds like,
wait a second, this person wants to lose 50 pounds
and you guys add to the diet?
I said, yeah.
Instead of focusing on what they can't have,
we try and add things to their diet.
I heard you say something that I thought was really interesting
and I'd like to know where that came from.
And that was, you don't even want somebody on a diet
until they've like decluttered their life
or fixed other shit that's going on in their life.
Where did, and I totally agree with that,
because most people use food as a drug and they're
medicating because there's something else that's going on and they haven't.
And until you solve that, you'll never fix your problem.
Yeah, and not just regarding diet, it's just anything.
You really can't fix the things that are bothering you the most until you figure out, like,
what are all of these things that are distracting me? Even someone's home, I would say, like, if your home is really,
really cluttered, it hurts your brain. Your brain literally has to, every time it sees something,
it has to make a decision. Is that supposed to be there? Do I pick it up or do I leave it there?
You know, every single article that's not where it's supposed to be, when you see it, your brain has to make a decision. And that's exhausting. And so when you're this very exhausted state,
it's impossible to make good sound decisions. Your cortisol goes up, you then you start focusing
on things that don't matter, you know, as much. So a lot of times I will just tell people,
just start by decluttering your house and a lot of things will fall into place. Like your
relationship will get better.
Not like it's a miracle step, but it does make a really big difference because it helps
you figure out what's really important to me.
A lot of unhealthy behaviors are reactionary impulse and impulse-based.
When you can change your environment, the reactions and the impulses also change.
If you're stressed, if you're anxious, if things are disorganized, your impulses are going to be different than if things feel
better, feel good about yourself, more relaxed, I think everybody can understand that, right?
I think all of us know what that feels like.
So when Adam told me about that, he saw you talk about that.
Oh yeah, that makes spoken like somebody who's been doing this a long time and really understands
how this really works And I also feel a sense of responsibility again to those, you know
Whatever you want to call people who trusted me, right? And they saw me as their leader
I guess you would say in terms of health and fitness people who did my workouts for 20 years and now they're like wait
So we're all are all those workouts bad. I'm like, no, no the workouts are great. They're very sound
What I was doing wasn't healthy.
And what I was saying other people could do
to get the, what I was doing to get my results,
I wasn't telling people.
And so I want to be very honest about that.
I want to be very frank about that.
I mean, I was doing hit training six days a week
and also endurance cardio and lifting
and wondering why I couldn't put on any muscle, you know?
So it's, once I left the fitness industry,
I really made a conscientious decision to talk about
what I was doing to figure out what is health
and it's mental health, it's your sexual health,
it's your physical health, sure, and your weight, sure,
you know, it's all of these things,
not just what photographs well on Instagram.
You know what's ironic about this, too,
because you're talking about what you did back then
to look a particular way.
The irony is, if you do it right,
you look better at real-
You look better now.
Yeah, thank you.
You see, I mean, here's why I want to say that,
because there's someone listening right now
who has a bad, you know, maybe body image.
And all they heard was,
oh, that's what she did to look that way, I can do that.
But here's the truth, and here comes the sales part,
but this is true, it's not a lie.
You could look better by doing it the right way,
which is less work, healthy for your body,
you'll feel amazing.
So it's not like what you did was the only way
to look the way you did.
There's a better way to do it, also, which requires less, and it's better, what you did was the only way to look the way you did. There's a better way to do it also, which requires less and it's better and
it's interesting.
You saying that right now makes me realize maybe if I had only done it for 30 minutes a day.
You know what I mean?
Like I wasn't following the plan because in my mind more met more.
Like more met I would be smaller.
More met I would be leaner, tighter, you know.
Well, you obviously have this thing, I, you're extremely resilient because I've known people
to do what you did and didn't come out of it, like as well as you did.
I mean, that will really, most people will get well damaged, like sleeping four hours,
five hours a night, working out that way.
I mean, you do that for a few months and most people get sick.
Yeah.
Oh, I was a wreck
I mean, I couldn't go a month without an injury breaking ribs or pulling hamstrings or everything just every injury
Just it was like my accident prone like why and I just realized like you you're absolutely malnourished
But thank you for that compliment. So 2010 was when you sold your company now did you get approached or did you put it up for sale?
How did that?
No, we negotiated for many years with Beachbody.
Did they approach you or did you put it out there?
I can't remember.
Because we were partners at the time for the infomercial.
So I'd done three infomercials with them or maybe more at that point.
And they really liked the certification model.
So they wanted to turn their programs into gym certifications
and we had that certification model
for fitness instructors and the continuity
with the monthly programs.
So that looked like a good fit for them.
And then we consulted for a couple of years and...
Why so long?
What was the hang up?
Was it just true?
A tourney is.
Yeah, and then, yeah, of course.
Anybody who's dealt with that.
Right, a tourney is, yeah. So when who's dealt with that. Right, but there he is. Yeah.
So when you were going through that process,
we were like, when I'm done, when I'm done, I'm done them out.
Or were you thinking I'm going to come back and?
No, I wasn't saying that, but yeah, I knew that in my head.
I was just like, woof, because you know,
I never felt like I belonged there anyways.
And so I had this reason.
You do know you do belong.
Thank you.
Right.
Do you know that now?
I, yeah, Thank you. Right. Do you know that now? I
Yeah, I guess. Okay. And I don't know that I feel that inconsumer fitness. I don't like I still have some
angry resentment towards the industry. Sure. That I'm like, I, you're not getting me again, you know?
But I was so I always felt like a little resent I I heard the story about what's his name, played the Fonz.
Henry Winkler.
I saw Henry Winkler on the news once and they asked him,
how does it feel everywhere you go?
People say, hey Fonz, it's the Fonz,
but you're a writer, you're a director,
you're an entrepreneur, you've broadway actor,
you've done all these things,
but everyone still calls you the funds.
And when I heard this interview,
I was still in that place where I was a little resentful
that people were still introducing me
as a fitness, health and fitness expert.
When I'm like, I'm a business expert.
That's just how I did well in fitness
is because I'm a business expert.
And so I had this resentment until I heard him say,
no, I'm never resentful because it was a business expert. And so I had this resentment until I heard him say, no, I'm never resentful,
because it was a way for me to be invited into people's homes.
And I thought, oh, God, that's such a great perspective.
And so now I don't have that same resentment
when someone's like, oh my God, I know you from,
you know, your workouts.
It's just a feeling I have towards what I what I have to hold myself
responsible for the way I handled being in those environments. That's a great
attitude about it. I actually, it's funny you brought that up because I tagged you
yesterday. I was doing our day in the life and I tagged that you were coming on as a
guest. I shared you. Yeah, I saw that. And I got I got quite a few DMs from people
and people are so many very excited because people
listen to you and love your stuff.
And then some very confused, she's beach body.
Why would you guys talk to her?
Oh, wow.
Like, wow, you really, you identify her as beach body like that is it?
Like all the things that woman is accomplished and done and you just think that because she
does beach body and you've heard us say things about beach body that I can have a conversation
with her and I thought that was really fascinating how that happens.
But what a great attitude to have about that because if it wasn't for that, you know,
it's the faunsy attitude.
And I did, once I made that decision to leave, I didn't post any fitness to my social,
none.
I never talked about it.
I never had fitness people on my show.
I really wanted to make a clean just so that people could almost like cleanse their palate
and I could really help people in business,
which is what I love entrepreneurship.
I love helping people like, I've got this crazy idea.
I love helping people are easily distracted by everything
and helping them figure like, okay,
just hear the steps to start with.
So I wanna ask you this because,
do you see the parallels now or maybe, no, you this because, do you see the parallels now, or maybe don't,
I mean, you probably do.
Do you see the parallels in fitness and just
in entrepreneurship?
In the sense that you're, doing, you know,
you're working out, oh, I'm doing this, I suck at it,
I fail, gotta keep trying, gotta keep doing it,
I fail, and there's growth, just like entrepreneurship.
Yeah.
I mean, to me, it seems quite obvious.
I had a lot about that.
I think that's amazing.
No, I've always thought. I had a lot about that. I think that's amazing.
No, I've always thought that fitness is a gateway drug.
Because you realize, yeah, I can fail and I can learn something from someone and I can
get better.
And so a lot of people go from fitness to personal development and then they start listening
to podcasts and reading books.
And then that usually leads to like, hey, I could do something on my own.
You know, so it's like this journey that people follow.
100% because look at the commonalities, right?
It's like you eventually learn to be humble,
as entrepreneurship will teach you that.
Oh yeah.
You accept the fact that you're gonna suck a lot before you get good at anything.
You start to develop a relationship with failing that is different than most people.
Most people are afraid of failing.
To be a successful entrepreneur, you just start to look at it as opportunities.
What can I go from here?
What does this look like?
It's empowering.
You can't be successful in fitness or entrepreneurship without feeling empowered.
You can't sit there and be like, no, no, it's everybody else's fault.
And you have to have the attitude like,
well, what can I do?
Let me focus on what I can do.
So the commonalities in my opinion are incredible.
Especially the failure piece, right?
Like, I mean, you can't, you will not be successful
in any entrepreneurial pursuit unless you're really willing
to go like, oh, I just have to keep failing
any time it gets better.
Like with, you know, lifting every time I fail,
I'm gonna get a little stronger.
Totally.
At what point did you and your husband go into business?
Has he always been a part of it?
I know you talk a little bit about him being
behind the scenes and a lot of stuff.
Was he that way back in Beachbody days
or that happened after?
Oh, yes.
Oh, so over the then.
Yeah, yeah.
So Brett has always been the,
I mean, other than like the first couple of years
of our marriage,
but as soon as the fitness certification stuff started taking off, which was just a couple
of years into her marriage, he quit his job and had never had any experience as an entrepreneur.
And now he's in this very female dominant business where it's like, you know, women and all
getting certified in music and he doesn't know anything about a step touch or you know a 32 count phrase, but he knows numbers and operations and he's laser focused. So he has the opposite brain of
me. And so he always handled all of the you know strategies and the projections and the management.
And it takes he's a quarterback. He played he was quarterback at UCLA in Michigan state. So he's a quarterback. He played, he was quarterback at UCLA in Michigan State.
So he's a leader, you know, and so it took some confidence to be able to have me be the
quarterback, if you will, you know, and he be kind of the general manager.
So my wife and I have been together for 13 years.
She's been a part of four or five businesses that I built.
She's always been a part of it.
And she's always kind of behind the scenes. Extremely important, wouldn't be where I'm at
if it wasn't for her.
Love that.
What has, what have been some of the challenges of that?
Especially when I hear like, he's a leader like that,
which I know you're a leader too.
So I'd say there's some challenges that her and I,
she was, so was I.
And so what are some of the challenges
that you guys have had working together like that?
Well, we went to therapy for it.
Oh, okay.
So a lot of it was just learning how to communicate
to each other.
I initially would sometimes just like give him things.
Like, I don't have time to do this.
You do this, but he was like, I don't know how to do this.
Like, you're setting me up for failure.
And the language I would use, I would say, like,
well, in my business, or with my show,
you know, and he would be like, it's ours. So we got some help
there. And then it was just really truly having so much respect for the fact that I can't do what
he does and he can't do what I do. And really going like, wow, that is so, it's amazing you can do
that. I wish I could do that. And we both feel that way about each other's skills. And always knowing we're on the same team.
We are, you know, I never wanna say anything
that's disrespectful or to assume that, you know,
you're not looking out for my best interest,
even if you're questioning why we're doing something.
It's not personal.
You know, I love talking to couples
that are entrepreneurs that actually
built something together.
Do you actually know that statistically,
if you actually build a business together,
you're more likely to say that it's like 95% of couples
that actually build companies together,
actually are more successful in relationships.
Which you would think would be the opposite.
I know, I would have guessed that.
Yeah, yeah.
That's true, so it's 90% or 95% more likely to stay together
if you were able to create a business.
If you were able to create a business.
Right, well, okay, there it is. Definitely, it's not successful. The very strong will be successful either, more likely to stay together if you were able to create a business. If you were able to create a business.
Right, okay, there it is.
Definitely.
Yeah, but it poloed, so it's not successful.
The very strong will be successful either, but if you have a successful business
and you build it together, you're more likely to stay there.
But why I like to talk to a couple of things,
because most of them, in order for that to have worked or been very successful,
you have put together some hacks or boundaries or rules.
There's a lot of things that Katrina and I do
that keep the relationship balanced
to where there's our personal.
So what are some things that either you got from therapy
or that you guys have implemented over your journey
that has made the marriage successful?
Oh, this is my favorite topic.
Family first.
So any opportunity we would ask ourselves,
is this gonna take a toll on us emotionally
or our children?
And the answer then would be no, we're not doing it.
So when we negotiated contracts, part of the contract was I'm not doing any appearances
on the weekends.
Just not.
There's a minimum amount that I'll work as I want to be available for my kids.
I want to be there.
There's plenty of time.
Our kids are gone now.
We can crush it.
You know, so we both are very, very committed to have
what we wanted our kids to see and feel.
By three o'clock every day, work was done.
We had a code word.
So if he would start talking about work,
or I would call Kim Hans,
I'd say, well, that's interesting, handsome.
And he would know, like, okay,
we're getting too heated about work.
He would call me small.
So that was like our code word
for like, we're talking too heated about work. People call me small. That was our code word for talking too much about work.
And then just always prioritizing each other
and living over money.
Who cares?
Who cares?
And status.
I don't play that game.
I can make enough money.
And I'll find a way to do it that doesn't take me away
from my family.
For example, when I wrote my first book, Push,
the publisher, it's about family
and it's about how to prioritize your life.
And the publisher really wanted me
to do all these appearances during the month of December.
Chris, like, everything.
And I just thought, I can't.
I, that's what the book is about.
Can we do them in whatever, like January, February?
The irony of that, right?
You wrote a book about prioritizing your family.
The whole Christmas you'd be on tour.
I'd be a terrible idea.
So I did, and I only did one appearance out of all of them.
And they were not happy.
And they're like, you know, my PR agent is like,
you're probably not going to get another deal with them.
And I didn't.
But I did one appearance and it ended up being
a New York Times bestseller.
And because I had a strong community
and I stuck to my values.
And I think at the end of the day,
that's what people need to do.
Like we can get so caught up in like,
I need to do more and more more
because I see this bro over here, he's doing this and they're doing that. We need to do. Like we can get so caught up in like, I need to do more and more more because I see this bro over here, he's doing this
and they're doing that.
We need to do that too.
And it just impacts your relationship.
I just want, I want peace.
Now have you noticed a transformation and a shift
in your kids in terms of their behavior
and just them seeing that sort of change within you
and like deliberately prioritizing them,
have they like communicated that to you? Oh God, yeah. seeing that sort of change within you and like deliberately prioritizing them,
have they communicated that to you at home?
Oh God, yeah.
If I have pride for one thing, it is our kids.
They are so dope and they are so healthy.
And they both are entrepreneurs and they just have fun,
which I would have never.
I would have never, when we were in the thick of it,
I would have never dreamed of taking a vacation.
Are you kidding? Someone else could get a further ahead. Or even going to see a movie, I'm like, what, when I were in the thick of it, I would have never dreamed of taking a vacation. Are you kidding?
Someone else could get a further ahead.
Or even going to see a movie, I'm like,
what, when I've got so much work, go see a movie, what?
So to see how much they actually live life
and enjoy life and understand, you don't have to do it
the hard way, you can do it a smart way.
And it's not all about money.
Okay, so if this is a misconception,
I think a lot of people have about entrepreneurs
that the reason why they do it
is because they wanna make a lot of money.
I remember hearing this phrase once,
that an entrepreneur is the only person
that'll work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week.
What are you,
anybody who's been working for themselves
for a long time, tell me some truth there.
What is it about entrepreneurship? if it's not the money
What is it about it that you love so much?
Don't even get twisted. I love the money. Money's awesome. I just don't want to work hard for the money
Oh, well said, and I don't want to I don't want to do things with people I don't like
I don't want to be told what to do autonomy
Yeah, and I I want a lot of freedom.
And so I just look at every opportunity and say, is this going to add peace to our life?
Is this going to fulfill us in some way?
And of course, make us money.
And if the answer is no, then it doesn't matter what the dollar sign is, you know?
What are some of the biggest roadblocks you see in people?
Because I'm sure you have a lot of young entrepreneurs follow you or ask you questions,
where are some of the biggest roadblocks
that you see with young entrepreneurs?
Oh, easy, they don't want to delegate.
So they don't really, you have to spend money to make money.
You've got to hire, you've got to,
you've got to figure out how to get your money
to make you money.
So you actually have to have financial literacy.
And if you don't, then you stay in this kind of scarcity
mindset where like I'll figure out how to edit the music and I'll figure out how to code the website of financial literacy. And if you don't, then you stay in this kind of scarcity mindset
where like I'll figure out how to edit the music
and I'll figure out how to code the website
and I'll figure out how to build a shop of fine.
I'll figure out meanwhile, the only person who can build
the thing that it is you're trying to sell is you.
Let somebody else do all those other things
where they think, oh, I'm saving myself money.
And I used to have that mindset too.
Until you realize you just will work yourself into no life.
You just nailed what I think every six figure entrepreneur
gets stuck at in order to break the seven and eight figures.
Is if you, I think there's entrepreneurs out there
that this was me for sure through my 20s.
I had figured out how to build a business
and I knew that I'd always be able to provide for my family
and I could make a good income.
But to reach like the millions of dollars was always like,
I was hit that ceiling and a lot of that had to do
with letting go of these things that I built and created
that were my baby.
And I thought like, you can't trust anybody else to do this.
No one will do it as well.
No one will do it as well.
Right.
And I think 100% is the number one reason why
someone cannot scale a business is they cannot let go of certain parts
I mean we struggle with that even in here amongst the four founders is some of us are really or have a hard time with letting go of
Certain parts of our business and it's always what keeps that side of the house and that is because if you are truly an entrepreneur
You see details others do not
Mm-hmm
and so there are people who are great support staff
that don't see those details and that will always be true. So even today there
things I've let go of that I still know if I took it back over I might do it
better. But then I wouldn't be able to do what I do. I wouldn't be able to be
here. You know, you got to do what you do best and what other people handle the rest. And you just kind of like go around by the way.
What is it?
What has been your guys' of all the revenue streams, which by the way I list a long time ago,
I listened to an episode that you guys did, you both did I believe, or you broke down
like everything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And one of the things I appreciate, I really appreciate entrepreneurs that are willing
to share openly all that stuff.
What has been your favorite revenue stream
that you guys have created and built and why?
Probably podcasting because I love podcasting so much.
Even though initially we were like,
this isn't gonna make us any money.
This is just Shaline talking, you know?
But I just, I love it.
It fills me.
It gives me so much joy to connect with other people
and to be real and to make money doing that is insane.
So that's probably one of my favorites.
And then of course, our investment portfolio,
because I don't do shit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's, and that's, so with social media,
because obviously you started as an entrepreneur before it existed.
Social media, now all of us that exist, now it's like all these different opportunities and ways to make money. Something that I see is that people somehow think that the old rules no
longer apply. In other words, they'll have a thousand followers on a social media platform,
like, oh, I only have a thousand followers. It's like, if I owned a brick and mortar business,
and I had a thousand people walk through my like, if I owned a brick and mortar business
and I had a thousand people walk through my business,
that was a huge opportunity.
Or they'll say, oh, I've been doing this for six months,
you know, it's not working.
It's like, man, you gotta do this for a long time.
Yeah.
Like, do you see challenges like that with people
who they, now with social media,
they think it's somehow it's different,
like it's supposed to happen faster and easier?
Yes, and I also think that it's kind of like,
you know, diet and fitness where it's like, well, someone easier. Yes, and I also think that it's kind of like,
diet and fitness where it's like,
well, someone has to tell me exactly what to do
and I'm gonna make this stupid reel
where I'm lip-thinking.
I hate that.
And pointing, but first of all, it's someone else's voice.
So I don't even connect with you on that level.
And it just, there's no way to connect.
And anyone who wants to make money on social media,
that's about, if you want to monetize,
we're talking about sales.
And sales happen when we know, like, and trust someone.
I know nothing about you.
Well said.
When you're lip-syncing and pointing.
I know nothing about you.
If you're dancing, I know, like, I really,
the best place to monetize is in your stories.
It's where you are the realist.
And the people who are really doing that authentically
are winning.
And that's why all these major corporations now,
they don't wanna work with big influencers
because they know it's a, you know,
people aren't falling for it anymore.
Hey guys, I just wanted to pop on here real quick
because a lot of you've been asking
about no one's asking.
Oh my God, that's like, I, it's so weird to be a product.
Yeah, why looks radiant today?
It's so funny.
When we first started Mind Pump, we were trying to find ways to grow the business and we weren't
superverse in social media.
So what do we need to super?
None of us even had it.
None of us even had it.
I'm being nice.
Nobody had Facebook.
Nobody had Instagram, no, YouTube.
I use that as a lot of body together.
Did you lose yours?
Yes, he was gone for almost a year, eight months or so.
Yeah, I got kicked off there.
Didn't hurt the business at all, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Our business is not centered around that.
But anyway, we found somebody on social media.
You're too real.
This is the thing.
Who had a large following, it was a school that had large
following, and we thought, oh, she's gonna post
about mine pump, we're gonna get all these listeners.
It did nothing for us because people were only there
to look at her half naked photos,
and she provided zero value.
And then there was a, there was a,
there's a, a other young lady that,
she had lots of followers, she came out of the t-shirt,
I think she sold 20.
She had like millions of followers.
Oh yeah.
So I think there's a lot of confusion is,
you know, whether or not people follow you,
because I like looking at you,
or whether or not they find value in what you have to say,
and want to buy what you have to say and want to buy
We have to offer because of what I do. I know I can look at the account
I know that you've bought your followers and I can see that you're buying your legs
And I can tell that you're in an engagement
Yeah, and I can I can all of it and so it's so funny to me when I have these kinds of folks on my show or like they're connected with me
Like oh, we can do a this for. I'm like, yeah, cool.
If you don't understand, it is so glaringly obvious
and it hurts your brand.
Like, how can I trust you if you're buying your likes,
you're buying an engagement and you bought your followers
is not what's real.
Yeah.
All right, so can I ask you something selfish?
Please.
Because I really respect your opinion.
So obviously you're coming on our show. You listen to our show a little bit
Yes, yes a lot. So I'm sure you went through our stuff our social media. No, you didn't okay
No, I looked at them. I looked at um just stories I because I I'd like I just look at stories
But I will I promise I will I wasn't asking what you thought because obviously you came on the show
So you must have thought okay there. I just love you guys because you're so real and I am I don't do interviews. Yeah, why is that by the way because you've you've done them in the past
Yeah, not many. Yeah, why don't you do any and by the way, thank you for coming on here
Absolutely, I mean we're in Florida and they're like do you want to fly to San
I'm like absolutely because I love you guys because you're real honestly the reason why I don't do most is because a lot of people,
it's just like, I don't know, it doesn't feel real,
it doesn't feel, and it's like,
what is it gonna do for me?
I hate to say it, but I wanna just,
wait a minute, I wanna have my day free,
I hate having an appointment, you know what I mean?
So it's just laziness, that's all.
No, I don't mean laziness,
I think you're just smart with your time.
No, and it's been challenging. And it's all that. I mean don't think it's laziness. I think you're just smart with your time. There we go.
And it's been challenging.
And it's all that.
I mean, you obviously like us have been doing this for a long time.
I remember when we started to experience this when we first started, I almost every time
we meet somebody who we would get all excited to meet is it's always a let down, man.
Because they have built up this facade of who they are online.
And when they get there, it's like either one,
they're that character and they stay in character.
Oh, I know who you're talking about.
And you can't, and you can't, and you can't get them out of that.
You can't even know someone unless they who they were.
But we were all excited about interviewing them
because they were big on social media.
So back when we first started,
we did the recording, they're in their character,
turn off the mics, still, same catapult, same delivery.
And I'm like, you can turn it off, bro.
You wonder if they ever do.
I know, right?
If they walk around their wife or,
I feel like, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it makes you wonder.
No, I think they practice that hard
that they're in character all the time.
I really do think that.
And there's a lot of that.
There's a lot of that in this space, and it's unfortunate.
The other thing, too, that a lot of people don't,
I think maybe don't realize is,
if you are inauthentic or fake,
and you experience this, that's why you got out, okay?
Because if you are inauthentic and fake,
and God forbid you do become famous for it, that's torture.
Because now you gotta always be that love you
and for yourself.
Not you.
Right.
Like that's torture.
Only people realize that, like, not making it because your fake is better than making it
because your fake.
Then you're walking around and like,
all these people like me for that,
and that's not who I am, I gotta always be this person.
The thing I'm trying to work on myself personally
is I feel so triggered when people will start complementing
and going on and on about somebody who's well-known, well known or whatever, famous on social media for whatever reason.
And I know who they are.
Like I really know who they are.
And it just, I want to like warn the world and I'm like, why does it bug me so much that
the average person doesn't actually see through it.
The average person doesn't see through the BS, the snake salesman, the, or
snake oil, and just the phony, I cannot stand the stupid stuff I stand social media. I'm
like, this is, there's nothing real about this. Who is connecting with it? But a lot of
people do. And for some reason, I'm like, why, I need to ask my therapist, like, why does
this bug me so much? It's a, it's a, it's actually a reflection of ourselves. We have the
same thing, right? So there's a part of us, your motivated, very similar to we are.
We're motivated because we felt like we did so many people wrong for so long.
Whether it was intentional or unintentional.
I didn't know that.
And so that's buried in all of us.
It's part of the motivation of why we try and put out such good information, both of us.
But the part that brought me, brothers, that's as we still see a little bit of our cell,
our old self in that person.
All right, that's fair.
And that's what kind of triggers.
We use triggers just tactics, you know?
We knew how to move the needle and how to get people to kind of go into direction we wanted
them to and apply it.
But yeah, it's totally a guilt thing.
That started this and just our conversations with our clients of how to filter through
that and find their way towards what really works.
That was the motivation behind the show.
We're just getting data about information.
It really does.
Well, what we're hoping is that we can prove that you can do it the right way and
still build a business in the fitness space.
I almost didn't believe at first.
I said, okay, you got to be fake and whatever.
But we were at that point, we all had businesses already. We were all pretty secure. We're like, we're going to do it this way. If it works, it works, if said, okay, you got to kind of be fake and whatever. But we were at that point, we all had businesses already.
We were all pretty secure.
So we're like, we're gonna do it this way.
And if it works, it works, if it doesn't,
it doesn't, we're gonna have a lot of fun.
Yeah.
And it's working.
So I think you can do it the right way.
I think you can do it the right way.
You know, so you don't have to be that.
It doesn't happen overnight, but I absolutely agree with that.
You've got to be principled, you have to have your values.
And I think the average person feels like they see
a success story and they're like,
oh, so I'm just gonna get like a studio
and I'm gonna set up the mics and there's gonna be three of us
and it's gonna work.
And then when it doesn't in a year,
they think, well, why didn't it work for me?
But it really takes so much persistence.
It does.
And so much tenacity and so much like
just doing it every single day.
It was a slow climb for us.
People always think that we like exploded overnight.
It's like, nope, the business literally on all wine items
has grown 50% year over year since the very first day
we turned it on.
Wow.
Just, you know, it's not a...
I'm waiting for the hockey team.
Yeah, it's been an hockey team.
It's been an hockey team.
Salesmen say we're going to be the tosser
of the four days.
It's been a happy day.
It's been, yeah, steady.
And I...
And I do the next right thing.
And have you guys always, did you, oh yeah, you always did start with video, didn't just been steady. And I do the next right thing. And have you guys always,
oh yeah, you always did start with video, didn't you?
No, no.
Well, video deco, we never released it.
Cause it was just like, this is the most boring thing.
That was one of our biggest mistakes, actually,
there's two huge mistakes, which is,
let's get into this.
This would be fun to talk to you about this
cause of all your success in business too.
When I shared some of the biggest mistakes
we ever made, one, we actually thought email was dead
when we first started.
Okay.
When I was out in a state,
like Matthew is so wrong.
He's like, no, you gotta have, you gotta have.
Oh yeah.
So like three years in the business,
we had really thought at that time,
this is how naive we were,
we had thought that like,
oh, social media has now become the new medium
instead of email.
And so we were starting to kind of focus on that,
didn't do any email list.
So that was mistake number one,
mistake number two was thinking that,
who would wanna see three assholes
talking into a mic over two hours?
Like just sitting still, like there's no way.
So, and now obviously the YouTube channel
is continuing to work.
Yeah, but you know what, though, looking back,
oh, it all happened for a reason.
Yeah, because we weren't media people.
I mean, we don't know.
We're trainers, we're fitness people. So it's like,'t media people. I mean, we don't know. We're trainers for fitness people.
So it's like, we had to, I mean, we were to suck.
So bad.
Yeah, yeah, get it.
Yeah, and we did.
We did.
We were terrible when we first started.
Some people liked this for some reason,
but we were great.
If you listen to some of those first episodes,
please don't, by the way.
Yeah, yeah.
It's really embarrassing.
Don't put that up there.
So what were some of the, like, on your journey of scaling,
the empire that you have now, what have been some, like, looking back, like, oh, I fucked up there. I should have put that out there. Yeah. So what were some of the, like, on your journey of scaling that the empire that you have now,
what would have been some, like, looking back,
like, oh, I fucked up there, I should have done that sooner.
Oh, geez, so many, so many.
It's hard to remember that water bottles.
So I love making habits really simple,
so you don't have to think about it,
you know, habit stacking.
And so, for me, in order to get enough water,
I fill up three water bottles every day, you know.
I actually do it the night before, and I fill them up so that they're you know ready to go in the morning
And then when I'm done drinking all three I'm done instead of refilling refilling refilling and so I'm like
I'm gonna develop these the system a water bottle system
And there's gonna be a morning water bottle and they're gonna have different colors and then you buy all three and then
There's a backpack you can carry them in.
And you know, my most loyal fans all were like,
yes, the three water bottle system.
Not thinking like they could just go to Target
if I had three water bottles, right?
So that was a losing proposition.
But the biggest, which we probably lost
quarter of a million dollars in, is app development.
Oh, yeah.
And it's funny because I just, every single time we would have our meetings, I would be
like, God, I don't want to do this.
I don't know what they're talking about.
This makes no sense to me.
It just keeps getting further away from what I want it to be.
I'm so confused.
I don't know what you're talking about.
I hate these meetings.
This is not bringing peace to my life.
I just said to my husband, I'm like, can we just walk away from this?
And he's like, we have a lot of money invested. I go, I know, but I hate it. He goes, why do two?
I go, well, then let's just walk. That makes me feel so much better. I know. We only lost 75 pounds.
We had him with through that. That's like, it makes me feel a little bit better.
That was, before we all got together, Justin and I had, we're building a fitness app that, of course,
of course, we thought it was brilliant.
So this is what year?
This is 2007 years ago.
No, we've been doing this for eight,
it was two years before that.
Oh, yeah, 20, 15, probably.
Okay, so you were lost for a million.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was now, yeah, right?
Yeah, it was expensive.
We were building that and I mean,
no idea what we're doing.
And I remember just constantly throwing money at, like,
first it was engineers, right?
And then we find out, like, well, you need someone to design it
if you want to do that.
And everybody quotes you this, like, oh, we could do it for this.
But we didn't know.
Yeah, so they just do this.
They just do this.
They're like 20, 30,000 dollars.
But the lawyer frame, I'm like, I don't even know.
This is like French, I'm listening in on a conversation.
I don't know what they're saying.
I hate this.
So I'm so blessed that we had that experience back
when we didn't have the kind of money that we have now
because obviously we have the capital to easily do that now.
And I remember Justin and I being so staunch about, no.
Because everybody wants that, actually,
we have a huge audience,
it's like, when are you guys gonna develop an app?
Make an app, make an app, and like, hell, no,
it's such a terrible business.
We can deliver the same thing
and have a real good experience
without all the engineering.
Well, I remember when we met with somebody
and this was the moment for me,
I don't know what happened for you guys,
it sounds like just being frustrated with it,
but the moment for me where I was like,
oh, that was the aha was when I found out
that tool apps are virtually worthless
when it comes to making money.
And gaming apps make 85% of all revenue in the app world.
And I thought, okay, well, this is not a good idea to build some fitness app.
That's basically a tool for all of our audience.
And it's sure it makes their life a little more convenient easy, but dropping a half a
million dollars on something that's probably not going to get its ROI.
Do that Instagram subscription model is going to take a lot of apps out.
Oh, yeah.
A lot of apps out.
Because that's where people are.
You know, that's the thing.
It's like when you're asking people to leave a platform
and then open up a separate app to get more content for me,
that's an ask.
Yeah, I'm too big to say.
And do you guys have a Patreon?
No.
No, no.
That was actually a level of YouTube.
No.
No, no. So actually what was actually a level of YouTube. No, no, no. So we didn't, so
actually what made us start monetize for a year and almost a half, we didn't monetize any
of the business. The goal was, can we build it on? No ads, no nothing. Nothing. We turned
down. We wanted to build value. We wanted to create some authority. You know, like, see, like,
we know what we're talking about. Well, the goal was to prove that we all believed, right?
We all believe that we had something to give to people that was a value, but before we even would want to consider making any money,
it was like, let's go prove that. Let's go prove that we can provide so much good free content
that will build an audience of people. What made us turn on the monetization? Because
at that time, Sal and Doug, this is before we even met, had already created an online
digital program. So they had a program ready to sell and we did not promote it or talk about it.
Until we actually started to get DMs met
and this is where we always tell entrepreneurs
that are trying to build a social media business is
we actually got to a point where we were literally daily
each of us getting messages
of people trying to give us money.
Do you have a Patreon?
Do you have a shirt I can buy?
Like you have already helped me so much.
Wow, that reciprocity is there.
Oh, and then that was the moment we realized that.
We could literally sell anything now
because we've already built so much value in these people's lives.
You save people time and money when they can trust you.
Now I don't have to research.
I've outsourced my research to you.
I've outsourced the things that matter to me.
I know because I've got years of listening to you that I can trust youced the things that matter to me. I know because I've got years of
listening to you that I can trust you and that saves people time and money and it's so
valuable and people don't realize that one wrong move and you've lost people's trust.
And you just can't do that. You can't take that chance.
Yeah, and it's not worth the flash in the pan potential success of ruining your integrity
and especially nowadays. I remember when this switched for the gym industry,
back in the day, you could, you know,
you could finagle and do, you know,
people off or be a jerk or whatever,
and they might tell a few friends,
but no one's gonna find out.
With these days, it's all over the online.
You're one minute gold, the next minute zero,
because you know, you got some bad reviews
or you did something the wrong way.
So yeah, and that's kind of a scary thing, right?
Like people are really quick to cancel and quick to
put you on blast without looking at history.
But again, when it comes to trust,
I think if you're acting in a way that's very principled,
that's important.
Every single opportunity,
you know, I just had this conversation with my son,
he has a huge social media following
and somebody looks like a great company,
reach out to him.
And he's like, what do you think I should do with this?
I said, a lot more research,
because people really, really trust you.
This is a big payday, but dude,
you need to do so much more research on this company.
For me, before I'm gonna work with the company,
I need to know, how do their customer service reps
treat people when they call?
What is their history?
What's the CEO like?
You know, those things kind of matter to me.
Yeah, we want to meet all of them.
That's so, yeah.
I handle the partnerships out of our business
and before we do anything with anybody,
like we want to court them for like six months
and they're always, people always say,
well, we want to give you money for this,
like no, no, no, come down, come have dinner with us.
Let's hang out, tell me about your business,
how you got there.
I want to hear their story, like, that all matters.
Not just if they have some product that aligns with maybe something
that we value.
It's important that we understand them.
Because there's a massive supply of companies that are looking for people who have the most
valuable commodity, which is trust.
Right.
So, don't jump.
Do you think that that commodity is even more valuable today than it was before?
Because of the market?
Yeah, and because everybody's selling now, right? You know, your mom's a social media influencer.
Everybody is selling and so we've become very like, wait, is this an ad?
Are they getting paid? And so I think it's really important that we understand because now everybody's selling
and everyone's trying to get everyone to sell like micro and nano influencers, right?
Companies are no longer working with big, huge influencers because they would rather have
someone who's much easier to work with.
I don't have to go through their rep.
I can work directly with them and pay them directly.
And they have a loyal following that trusts them.
It might be a small following, but they're actually going to get a return.
And there's an unlimited supply of nano influencers.
If you define nano influencers, anyone who has over 100 followers, you know?
Wow.
Do you think social media has been, it's obviously changed a lot of things.
Do you think it's been a net positive or a net negative?
Oh gosh, that's a great question.
It depends on how it's used.
You know, because there's so many things
that I've learned from social media,
like it's just so great to be able to say to your audience,
hey, does anyone know what this could be?
And you get these great responses,
or does anyone know a great restaurant to try in San Jose?
And there's so many positives that come from it and there's
also a lot of negatives obviously. I think it's a net positive for people in like the room, but I
think it's a net negative for what they consume a mass for the general population. Because they don't
know how to. Yeah, because they're easily distracted. I would easily sucked into the rabbit hole. They're
easily marketed to you. So I would have disagreed with them a while ago, but the reason why I'm starting to agree
is because I've had this experience now
where I'm at home and the kids are down
and wife and I have like 45 minutes to watch TV
and I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu,
and I spend 45 minutes trying to find something to watch
because there's so much stuff.
So I'm starting to believe that now.
It's like now you're a consumer and it's like, oh my watch because there's so much stuff. So I'm starting to believe that now. It's like, now you're a consumer
and it's like, oh my God, there's this like
a limited option.
So let's see of information.
What is good, what's bad, is it just how popular they are?
Is it bad, they look like.
And if you have ADD or ADHD,
and you, everything is, information is dopamine.
It's like, I need another hit on you. And I can't tell you the number of times I've stood in my bathroom and I can't get in the shower until I have something
That I can listen to while I'm in the shower
Like so I have to find the right
YouTube because I can't take a shower and just shower. I can't spend three minutes without
Stimulation what's wrong with me? And now I'm late, like this makes no sense.
So it does create for a lot of people
that think they have,
and I think that's why there's an out-of-all shortage.
I think that's why so many people think they have ADHD
is because people are talking about being distracted.
Well, how could you not be distracted
when you've got notifications
and your phones zinging,
and you can play a podcast in the background
and YouTube's and Netflix and all of these things information overload and then we're wondering
why we feel distracted. Well, that's why. Have you ever done, do you ever do like tech fast where
you're like, okay, for the weekend, we're not doing, we're gonna turn everything off. Yeah.
Do you do that? Yeah, it's really, really hard. Super hard. Really, really hard. I don't like it.
Now, how do you feel afterwards or why do you keep doing it? Why do I keep doing what?
The fast, the tech fast.
No, because my brain hurts.
It's usually when I feel like there's just so much going on
and I need to, but because my job is today marketing
and social media, I kind of have to know what's going on.
At least that's my excuse to not take a fast very often.
But when I do it's
now I'm I find that every time I fast
It's almost like I eat less right so I every time I fast then I come when I come back
I consume less and less social media. That's a great point. So now it's I go on Instagram every day
I really
Intentionally say don't look at the Explorer page, just go directly to my DMs.
So that I'm going there to connect with my community and not to consume other people's content, because I'm too easily distracted.
You made such a phenomenal point, by the way, that this distraction is no longer an issue for people who are neurodivergent, right? ADHD, it's now an issue for everybody.
Yeah.
And I agree with you.
I think that's why so many people are medicated who probably don't need to be necessarily
because the world is just so crazy and everything follows you all over the place.
Where do you find peace for yourself?
Is there anything you do on a daily basis?
Like for me, it's actually working out.
Yes.
I identified this a while ago.
Like I work out for mental health.
Oh, yeah.
100%.
And everybody makes fun of me for how consistent I am
and how neurotic I am about it.
But it's like, if I don't do that, I go crazy.
And that's the only time when I put my headphones on
and I'm here.
Yes.
I'm here.
Do you have anything like that for yourself?
Well, for sure it's fitness, right?
So I won't listen to podcasts when I'm working out of just music just explicit rap music and yeah
yes or west coast or
yeah
and you hear it a little five or two blogs and the gangster rap people when they
asked for my Spotify playlist I'm like please don't judge me it's not
appropriate and people are really horrified I love that about you I have a When they asked her, my Spotify playlist, I'm like, please don't judge me. It's not appropriate.
And people are really horrified.
But you know, I love that about you.
I have a thing, I don't trust anybody that doesn't swear.
Okay, good.
Yeah.
That's a good one.
Sure.
So, and I love roller skate, I love to paint.
I love spending time with my husband.
We love traveling.
You know, it's, you guys are in the thick of it
because your kids are young.
But like, let me just tell you, it's over in a snap.
And I just remember thinking when they were little,
like all the sacrifices we were making,
like, I wonder if opportunities are gonna come around
when they're gone.
I wonder what life's gonna be like,
but because we were so in it together, the two of us,
and it bent through a lot of hard things together,
when the kids were gone, we were both so looking forward to
like just doing whatever the fuck we wanted to, you know?
And like we just decided we're gonna travel
for the next eight months, we're gonna go to Europe,
we're gonna go to Miami, we're gonna go all over
and figure out a place to live other than California.
And just have fun and like, you know,
we love snowboarding and I love to roll escape.
It's just doing things are physical is how, because if you're doing something physical,
we have to think about it or you could fall like snowboarding.
You can't be distracted.
It's just, but you're still having to focus.
And so that feels good to my brain.
I can't just sit and meditate.
I can't.
I'm not good at it.
Yeah, it's so hard for me to.
Now, okay, so was this a challenge
when you had your kids?
And let me go a little deeper.
So I have four kids, but the age gap is big between them.
I wasn't great with this with my older ones.
My younger ones, I became more aware of it because,
you know, I had...
Your wiser.
Yeah, like all of a sudden, I realized how fast things went.
Like, bye.
Oh my God, they're already like teenagers.
Like, I got these little ones now.
I want to be more present.
I had this moment I've talked about on the podcast
where my two-year-old, he was playing,
and he was, we were playing, and then he went off
to play on his own.
And I'm like, oh, an opportunity to like, go on my phone,
right?
And I said, and I was on my phone, I said, you know,
let me just watch him. Let me just watch him and just be here. And I said, and I was on my phone, I said, you know, let me just watch him.
Let me just watch him and just be here.
And I put my phone down and I realized,
and I don't know how many times this must have happened
before that I wasn't even aware of,
he would look back at me every once in a while
to see if I was watching him.
Totally, I totally missed that every time I was on my phone.
And so I was like, okay, did you have challenges
with that with your kids?
We're like, I need to be present.
Yeah, absolutely.
And a lot of guilt, especially as a mom,
you know, I was running my business from home.
We had headquarters, but I would work from home.
Because in my mind, then I'm at home with my kids,
but there was a time that I just realized,
I'm here, but I'm not here.
They're in the room, I'm at the baseball game,
but I'm also doing work in my head. Like, it was really hard for me to be present.
And I had to figure out how to change that.
And that meant doing less.
That's really when it forced me to delegate a lot more,
so that I could be present for them.
I think the greatest gift you can give your child
is your uninterrupted 1,000% your time.
And it doesn't have to be a long time.
It doesn't have to be an hour.
If you just tell, if you're kid literally
and you tell them, I'm putting my phone down,
this is just your time.
What do you want to do?
And if they want to build Legos or paint
or whatever it is they want to do,
you just sit there without asking them questions,
without having any intent other than,
I just wanna be with you.
I think that's the greatest gift you can give your child.
The best thing you can do for your kids
is give them confidence.
Don't do things for them.
Tell them they can figure it out.
We didn't buy our kids cars.
We could definitely have bought them cars.
But like, here I am 54 years old
and I'm still bragging about the fact
that I bought my first car. Like, that changed here I am 54 years old and I'm still bragging about the fact that I bought my first car.
Like that changed who I am.
My parents didn't say, you can't go to college.
They said, yeah, of course you can go to college and you'll probably figure out a way to
pay for it.
I didn't know it was a negative.
I didn't see it as a negative.
So I think the greatest thing you can do for your kids is to don't tell them, let them
learn and experience it.
You'll figure this out.
Let's figure this out. You. You'll figure this out, you're gonna figure this out
and to give them confidence is something
a lot of people don't do with their kids.
Let's talk a little bit more about that.
So this is actually on this top of mind for me right now a lot.
So my son's gonna be four.
I grew up far less privileged than he was.
And of course, as a young kid or young boy and teenager,
I had resentment to my parents for growing up that way.
As a 40 year old man and father now,
I'm so grateful for that journey
because it's what turned me into who I am today.
So one of the things I think about all the time is like,
okay, how do I create adversity in my son's life
that I had so he son's life that I had
so he builds the characteristics that I built
and with this privilege that he's in a girl,
he's gonna grow up completely different than I am.
So how did you guys do that?
You guys were very successful when they were probably
pretty young.
What are some things that you guys have done?
And did you make a lot of mistakes?
Did you guys think you guys did what are some things?
You did well, what are some things you didn't do well?
We'd have to ask them, but because I'm sure they've got a lot of mistakes? Did you guys think, what are some things you did well? What are some things you didn't do well? We'd have to ask them, but,
because I'm sure they've got a lot to say about it.
But we had them do therapy from a very young age.
Like we have my son start in therapy
when he was like six years old,
just because he was, I forget what he was obsessing
about people he would see on the street.
Like, well, where's their dad?
Like, you see a homeless person?
And I thought, well, you know, my parents started me in therapy
at a very young age.
I want to normalize that.
So they're mentally healthy and know that this is like going
to the dentist thing you should do.
But it's okay to do that.
Yeah.
And then in terms of the adversity, I don't know
that it's adversity.
I think it's teaching kids that they have all the resources.
It's helping, so for our kids, we would have them start little businesses.
But not like, now you've got to be the CEO and you've got to do this for nine months.
Just for a week, you've come up with a great idea and you can go to school and sell
this to your friends, that kind of thing.
So they would learn like, oh, I can make money.
And then when they would have problems, like, let's say, our daughter didn't want
to play for a particular soccer coach. We'd be like, oh, I can make money. And then when they would have problems, like, let's say, our daughter didn't want to play for a particular soccer coach.
We'd be like, all right.
So then how are you going to explain it to them instead
of going in and saying, and doing it for her, teaching them.
Like, you, this is how you solve these problems.
And let's, let's roleplay this and helping them
to understand, like, you have all the tools.
When our kids were old enough, they had to buy their own cars.
And I made them negotiate. And I made them do the research,
I made them like figure out like what,
how they could get scammed and all those things.
I think so we've been talking about this topic
for a while now and I've asked a lot of people
and one of the best answers I got was,
and it's right along the lines of what you're saying,
as I said, well, adversities is in life.
It doesn't matter if you have money, you don't have money.
There's all kinds of adversity
that it's exactly what you said.
Don't do for them what they can do for themselves.
Because what happens is parents try to remove natural adversity
or try to do everything for them
and then they never learn.
And that's where confidence, like exactly what you said,
confidence comes from.
It's like that they can fail, they can do something wrong and they could get back up
and try again, that's how they become confident.
Not by you telling them you're so great.
Yeah.
You know, you're awesome, you're great
the way you are type of deal, like that doesn't teach them
how to be confident.
No, and my parents were like completely,
I mean, they're just oblivious to the wild child
that they had.
And because they didn't drink, they didn't smoke,
it'll swear, you know, they're just like Midwest margin bill't drink, they didn't smoke, they didn't swear.
They're just like Midwest margin bill.
Well, if she said she was home at that time,
she was home at that time.
Oh my God.
So I was like out of control kid.
I mean, literally so out of control of things I did
were just, I don't know how I'm alive.
And it was just because I could.
You know what was fun?
I was a thrill seeker and I loved the risk.
I loved taking all those chances.
So I was on to my kids.
I'm like, oh no, your mom's a ninja.
But I wanted them to do those things because I know it's all going to work out.
And they didn't.
And I remember there was a time Brett and I were, we told Brock we're like, we will pay,
we're going to give you a bonus if you get C. Because he was so caught up in his grades,
we're like, dude, it doesn't matter.
You're gonna be an entrepreneur.
Like, you don't have to keep yourself.
Oh, it's easy, because he's giving A's at B whole time.
Yeah, all A's, you know.
Oh, I know, that's funny.
And we were just like, no, just live your life, you know?
And fuck off a glasses.
Yeah, we're, you know, didn't drink.
And none of them, they were like too good.
I'm like, guy, my thing, like you said,
the way I grew up, I'm like,
are they gonna be okay if they're not taking risks?
But what we've studied show today
is that kids stay aren't as risk taking as we were.
Because they've got social media as a dopamine hit.
And so they're drinking later, not all,
but most of them are drinking later,
having sex much later and not experimenting
with drugs the way we were.
I think it's a, there's like, we debate, we debate, we debate that actually.
Yeah, it's causing a fact.
It's like, there's a great book by Jean Torrey.
It's called Igin and it has like all the statistics and studies on what you're, what you're
talking about.
And I think it's because kids can are more informed.
They can Google it.
What happens if I get, you know, what it. What happens if I get married at 19,
and you can Google the likelihood you'll stay together,
or you can Google the percentage of people that get STD.
So here's the debate.
The debate is that there's that position.
I think I don't necessarily agree with that.
I don't think informing teenagers is what makes them
make good or bad choices.
I mean, we knew what was, you know, drugs are bad,
don't have sex.
I think what it is is we had to take risks
in order to be with our friends.
We had to take risks and do anything.
Now you can go online, communicate with people,
you could get pornography whenever you want.
So you got that sex hit.
Like when I was 15, like, and I wanted to be with a girl.
Like, it's like my mom's Sears magazine was about as close as it could.
Or I had to like get on my bike,
I had to go on my bike and ride and go meet
and like put myself out there and stuff.
And then nobody knew where I was and have a cell phone.
People aren't recording me.
So we just did, you know, so it's like,
it's like wrist versus rewards.
Like, you know, kids are more kind of like safe now,
but they also don't have as much connection, don versus rewards. Like, you know, kids are more kind of like safe now, but they also don't have as much connection,
don't have as much, you know, maybe toughness
around certain things, but they're also not doing
as many drugs and not getting pregnant as early.
So it's like, all right.
Well, and I think too, there's a big shift
in terms of the communication between parents and kids.
And, you know, in terms of like the,
my growing up, it was very authoritarian. Like, this is the way it is the way it is like it's black and white like there's no explanation behind it
You just had to do this or you can't do this or you can get kicked out of the house
So we were good kid because of that. I was I was very wild
Outside of their knowledge, but I was very good on the surface. So you're very similar to that. Yeah, they have no idea
They to this day to Yeah, they have no idea. To this day, to this day, they have no idea.
Okay, we want to like have stuff that,
yeah, I was part of.
But yeah, I honestly, I think that's part,
it's less something that I noticed about myself
and my upbringing and so like me now trying to at least
have these conversations with my kids ahead of time
and like not making so much weight behind the conversation
of drugs and sex has really opened up a lot more conversations
with them, which I feel like it takes
some of the air out of it a bit.
Yeah, we did a lot of brainwashing of our kids.
We would, so we didn't tell him you couldn't do something,
but we would be like, see those, oh, did you see that?
What a loser, I think I have a, they're smoking.
Such a loser.
You know what I mean?
It's work.
Because we were just trying to brainwash them,
you know, and it worked, I guess.
Is there anything that you and Brett talk about like now you guys lay in bed and you like,
look at your kids, I'm sure you guys do this right?
Look at how proud you are and all the great things.
There's things that you guys go like, man, we should have done more of that.
I wish we would have done that with this one.
There are things that you guys talk like that that you saw either worked and wish you did
more of or something that you thought we should have done that.
It's hard to say that because, you if my kids were to listen to that?
I mean, I definitely have regrets over some of things
that like I talked about,
that they were exposed to.
In terms of parenting, I think we did a great,
that is not perfect, obviously,
but I will die feeling successful
because we've raised to very confident, kind,
self-sufficient, amazing humans.
And that's all that matters.
That's wonderful.
So there are 23, your daughter's 23,
how old you're son?
26.
Okay, so looking forward to at some point,
relatively soon, becoming grandparents?
I don't know, you're really pushing itself.
Really?
I don't know if I'm ready for that. But then what, I tell you what, we're going to make a lot more money this year because
we don't have two weddings to pay for.
They both got married a month apart.
Oh, wow.
That's why he married?
Yeah, it was.
It was in the air.
It was wild.
Are they, do they live nearby?
Do you guys see each other a lot?
They, our son travels around and he just bought out place in park city
oh cool yeah in his wife Taylor and my daughter seer and her husband Roman live in Southern
California they live in LA oh yeah if we would ask them what if I were to talk to your kids and say
what did you learn what are some of the best things you learn from mom and from dad what do you
think they would say um I think they would talk about our relationship. You know, I think they would say that they knew that we were really into each other and
we were a team.
I think they would both say, because we've asked them, you know, every year, whenever there's
a holiday, we all go around the table and, you know, compliment each other and say what
the things that we love.
That's nice.
And I've also had my kids on the podcast without me there and just let them sit and talk.
Oh, really?
I know that.'m just pretty interesting
about what their experience is wearing.
And so it's, and I highly recommend that,
even when they're as soon as they're old enough,
like let them do that.
It's such a cool thing,
because we've done it over the years
a couple of different times
and just to get their perspective,
but it's consistent.
And it's very firming, you know, to know that like,
the things that we did with intention,
they picked up on it.
They knew that we made them number one and...
How long have you guys been married?
28 years.
Okay, so we got to talk about how to have a successful marriage for that one, because that's
hard.
I mean, you're not the same person today that you were when you first got married.
Right.
How did you guys grow together and get through all those tough times through,
you know, when your kids were infants and then toddlers and then teenagers and businesses like,
any advice for people listening right now who are just getting married? Yeah, go to therapy.
You know, I mean, I know I keep saying that, but like my husband had never been to therapy.
And I always felt like when we were first married, I was on eggshells with him.
Like I was really trying to manage his mood.
He wasn't, he would never yell,
but I could just, you know, you can tell
when someone's annoyed.
And he's a movie like me.
And he would call me a movie.
The movie on that everybody.
There you go.
And I'm as even as I come.
Really?
And so I always sense that there was like something,
and I was constantly saying like, is something wrong? What's wrong? And he would be like, I come. And so I always sense that there was like something, and I was constantly saying like,
is something wrong?
What's wrong?
And he would be like, I'd ask it so much
that he would say, just you asking that,
like if you would stop.
Sure.
But he eventually, like, I think it was a struggle
dealing with the gambling and his own issues
from his childhood.
And so when the gambling thing happened,
we were almost a half a million dollars in debt.
When I discovered it, yeah.
You hit half a million?
Wow. Wow. Wow.
You make me feel better about my issue.
That makes me feel a lot better.
And I thought he was cheating.
So I was like, oh, I'm going into PI mode
and you don't, like I'm better than the FBI.
How did you let a half a million go out the back door?
Good question.
Because I don't care about money. Obviously not. I mean, to me, that would be the testament. If anyone ever asks, like, I'm better than the FBI. How did you let a half a million go out the back door? Good question, because I don't care about money.
Obviously not.
To me, that would be the testament.
If anyone ever asked, like, there are things
that you're money, all about money, you'd be like,
no, listen, I let a half a million go out the back door.
Is it a relief to know that it wasn't cheating?
That it was that?
Oh, yeah.
But it also then felt like cheating, because then I had to put
the feet, like, when did this start?
So when you said this trip, when you were going here,
when you did that, when we had to,
and you know, so it was like piecing all these things together
and realizing like, oh, I didn't even know who you were.
And I thought we're on the same team and this resentment.
And then, you know, me feeling very like, oh,
you have an addiction and you have been gambling
and you are gonna go to, so I did all my research
and was ready to confront him.
Mm-hmm.
And I had my folder with all the receipts
and bank statements and phone records
and, you know, cell phone records, everything.
And I just sat him down and I put the envelope
or the folder in front of him.
And he was like, oh, like a relief.
Yeah, and that really made me mad.
But he was relieved and he was like, it's over, you know?
And I'm like, yeah, it's over.
Like in my mind, I knew before I confronted my made a decision,
I know who I am.
So if he says this, I do this.
If he says no, I do this.
If he says yes, like I had my three options
and I knew what I was gonna do,
and he chose to go into treatment,
and I decided to stay,
but what we didn't realize was that I really had an addiction to.
And so, he was like, my therapist thinks
you should go to therapy, I'm like, okay.
I'm gonna kill it. I'm about to be the best patient ever. They're going to be like, why are you here?
So you're basically a hard working woman here. And then to find out that I had my own addiction.
And it was deep. And it was a way to avoid. Any addiction is to avoid.
you know, it was, and it was a way to avoid. Any addiction is to avoid.
You know, I've, I've, I have friends
that have been married for a long time
and family members and almost all of them
went through some kind of a challenge like this.
I mean, not gambling, maybe not cheating,
but something that where it was like,
right across rows.
Yeah.
And the ones that worked through it
came out the other end way stronger and tighter.
Talk about that because there may be someone listening
right now that's going through this and they're like,
I don't know if we're gonna make it.
Do I work through this?
Like we have kids together, do I, what do I do?
And to fast forward the story, I wanna say that we are
in 2.0.
It probably took a couple of years though.
There's months and months of like, am I staying?
Am I going?
Like having to rebuild.
But almost immediately I was? Like having to rebuild. But I'm almost
immediately I was married to a different person. I was married to the person I thought I
had the potential to be, you know. And then he was a different person. He was funny. He was
relaxed. His mood was even. He was patient. He was kinder everything. I'm like, then this
was worth it. But I will say for those who are in it, if one party isn't remorseful and wants to fix it,
if both parties don't want to fix it,
it's probably not gonna work.
So I imagine something like gambling
is kind of a ripped the bandaid off,
it's an obvious problem, it's not a positive thing.
I would think that yours was harder and took longer because
it's easy to justify, you know, hey, I'm bringing money in and we're good. This is all good. So,
how did you, how did it take you much longer? And what was that journey like? I think I probably
still struggle with it where he doesn't struggle with gambling. I still struggle with it, but I think
what really helped was getting to the root core belief
that made me feel like I always had to work.
And what was that experience that made me believe that?
What created that belief?
Yeah, if it's not money, what is it?
What was the belief?
Oh, it was why.
So I did EMDR therapy.
Have you ever heard of that?
Oh my God, I'm about to do that.
Dude.
Yeah, so legit, huh?
What is that?
I'm about to go through that.
And rewires your brain? Yeah, it stands, huh? Yeah, what is that? I'm about to go through that. And rewired your brain?
Yeah, it stands for iMovement
Reprocessing Decentralization.
So what they'll do, I'm not a therapist,
but this is the layman's way of describing it.
They'll ask you to bring up something that's upsetting,
that makes you feel a scale of one to ten, maybe like a nine.
And then, you don't talk about it,
but just sit there and think about it,
just sit there and think about it.
So you bring up those feelings. And then you don't talk about it, but just sit there and think about it, just sit there and think about it. So you bring up those feelings and then they have you
watch maybe their finger going back and forth or a light bar, a bunch of different things.
And there's something about that that doesn't allow your brain to push it away. So you
kind of go back to the memory and you start working through it. And it feels like a dream
sequence and you're like, I'm not doing this right because now I'm thinking about that my kid has to be picked up. You know what I mean? Like your
brain goes everywhere like in a dream. And then, but what's happening is you've never really
processed that thing as an adult. You pushed it away as a kid and it just sat there and now
you're an adult. So you're going to kind of relit, not relive it, but you just kind of put the files where they need to be. And I'm interesting.
So for me, they just basically got to the root core of like,
why do I feel like I'm important
if I'm making other people money or making money
and working hard, right?
And I remembered a time when my dad was an entrepreneur,
he was a liquidator in Detroit.
So there's my Detroit necklace.
So he would liquidate big chains
when they would start to fail.
So he got this big deal.
It was called Robert Halls, it's like a department store.
And he and my mom took all their money
and invested it into this bankruptcy deal.
They got the deal, but it's in Detroit
where it was very cutthroat, like the mob basically. And so they got all of the deal, but it's in Detroit where it was very cutthroat like the mob basically.
And so they got all of the assets, they're all put into one building in downtown Detroit
and that night someone sat on fire.
So they were wiped out completely.
And my dad called me into his office the next maybe a week or so and he sat me down in an effort to teach me about interest.
He said, here's your bank book.
I don't even know how much one was in it.
He said, now you know your mom and I had the fire and we're going to be fine.
But what we're going to do is borrow this money and we're going to pay you back more.
And I'm like, okay.
And he's like, and you know, we're going to pay it back by this date and you want to
show me the schedule of payments. And it was like, okay. And he's like, and you know, we're gonna pay it back by this date and you want to show me the schedule of payments.
And it was him teaching me, and this is how you just
never know what your kids are gonna process things.
The message I received was, I'm a kid,
and I'm taking care of everything.
You're a preentified.
Yeah.
And, you know, from the, I was, I don't know,
maybe fourth or fifth grade, but I never asked for a dollar.
I didn't ask for lunch money. I didn't ask for lunch money.
I didn't ask for, you know, from that point on,
I'm like, this is why I'm important.
I am saving people.
So it was having to like reprocess that and go like,
he was just, I didn't even remember that it happened.
Oh, really?
No, until I did the MDR.
Oh, wow, it's wild.
Now, when you're doing that, is it like hard?
And in afterwards, do you feel like shit? You feelDR. Oh, wow, it's wild. Now, when you're doing that, is it like hard? And in afterwards, do you feel like shit?
You feel exhausted.
Oh, wow.
You don't, you process it and keep going.
So it's completely different from talk therapy
where you're like, I feel better after I left,
but then it comes back.
With EMDR, it is, there's a beginning, middle, and end.
And it goes, like that thing that triggers you,
no longer triggers you.
I've done it for so many things now.
It's really, you can do it for performance,
like you're like maybe are afraid to fly
or public speaking, it'll be gone forever.
I agree with what you said about therapy
because I was very like, no,
I don't talk to anybody, I handle my own stuff
or whatever.
My wife's very pro, like talk and communicate.
And in my opinion, the reason why it's so valuable
is because you don't know where to look.
You don't know what to talk about necessarily.
So then you sit down and you're forced to talk
to someone in their next part.
And then next thing, you know, you're looking
where you didn't know to look or for.
And so then that, and you just grow.
You just become, they connect the dots for you.
Well, or you connect them just by asking
some great questions, and the eye movement thing is a trip,
especially for people like I don't wanna talk about it,
you really don't have to talk about it.
Your brain just does these trippy things.
It's also a great way to accelerate growth
in the self-awareness department, which I think is the greatest skill that you could
ever develop. I mean, so I think I was blessed that I was in and out of therapy my whole life. So I
got to learn all that stuff early on, and so I'm super pro that. So I think that's incredible. So I
have a question then, a selfish question related to money, since we're around that subject. What has your journey and relationship with money
been like from all the way childhood
to kind of where you're at now?
And do you believe you're still evolving
and changing that way?
Or do you think you've kind of found?
Money for me is just energy.
And I, so I never worry about it.
You don't always like that?
Yeah, okay.
And I, just the way that you said,
I will figure things out. I'm, you know way that you said, I will figure things out.
I'm, you know, I'm going to hustle and figure things out.
I never worry about what's next ever.
I don't have a five year plan.
It's, I know I will make enough money
to live the life that I want to live.
That, once you make your first million,
everything after that is easy.
Because you, it's making,
feeling how to make your first million, that's hard, right?
I agree. And after that, you're like, there's so many ways and you just want to tell
everybody like there's all these different ways just be stick to one focus and today
I money is like we worked with this business coach a couple years ago and she was so annoyed that
I wouldn't give her a number. A dollar amount.
Yeah, that we want to achieve.
I'm like, I don't, I doesn't matter.
And she's like, this, this just won't work
unless you give me this number.
I'm like, I don't have a number.
It's like, I, I'm comfortable.
It's energy.
There's always more coming to me.
There will always be enough.
And that's it.
So I'm in this like mastermind type of group
where you get invited in and I'm
like a small fish on a big pond.
And one of the things we all go around and everybody wants to know about like the businesses
and the money you make and what do you want with that.
And everyone was so frustrated that I didn't have this like, it's okay.
Engle because I was like, you know, I'm just, I'm at such a really cool place that I get
to work with three of my best friends,
building something amazing, it fulfills me,
we all make plenty of money to do whatever we want,
and you know, I don't know if I want to sell.
I don't know if I wanted to do this,
and I know, and I've already learned that, you know,
I could go make more money doing this
or another thing here, but if it takes time away
from my son and my wife and the things I love to do,
then I don't really want to do it.
So yeah, I'm not sure why I'm here.
I actually just want to meet other successful people
and everybody was like, what?
Because everybody had this like,
I'm like, I'm 100 million.
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to exit at this
and I want to sell it for that.
But what they don't ever ask is,
are you willing to make the sacrifices?
You know, like, do you know, like vision boards
or whatever, goal setting?
So much of it is centered around a dollar amount and things.
But what cost?
And so that's why I'm not going to set an amount
because I don't know, I'll evaluate the costs
as I'm starting to experience in that.
Such a great one, 100%.
People look at Elon Musk and be like,
wow, a billionaire, do you really want to be Elon Musk?
Do you really want to be tormented like he is?
And have maybe no relationship with the kids. Do you really want to be Elon Musk? Yeah, do you really want to be tormented like he is and you know
Have them maybe no relationship with your kids like like do you really want that?
We do like anybody to do the same thing with like professional athletes
The when you were talking about the abs thing the first thing comes in mind too is like the way we
Glorify professional athletes and it's like do you do you know what it takes to be Steph Curry?
Do you know the amount of like sacrifice that guy had askeded and the amount of focus on his game to be that?
And talk about having an identity that is your identity,
but it's gonna come to an end.
Well, now what are you and who are you?
Yes.
Man, athletes really struggle with that.
Once they're out of it.
Tortured.
The pros.
Tortured.
Yeah, once you're no longer the superhuman athlete
because you get older, who are you?
Yeah.
And that's tough. Our good friend Arthur Brooks wrote a great book. Do you know who Arthur Brooks is? No, the because you get older. Who are you? Yeah. And that's tough.
Our good friend Arthur Brooks wrote a great book.
Do you know who Arthur Brooks is?
No, you would love him.
Yes, you would.
He is one of my favorite people in the whole world.
But he wrote a book about this and he says that,
because if you look at a chart of people
when they're successful and they retire,
there's this diverging line where some people become
sadder, more depressed, other people become happier.
The difference is that the doers that become happier after they retire become teachers.
So it's like, I do, do, do, do, now I retire, now I teach others to do what I did.
So fulfilling.
That's where they get the full film.
Do you feel like you're teaching every day?
Is it the full thing?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was interesting that you said your favorite part of your business was the podcast because I think that's what I don't think
I don't agree that if we were to sell other legs off or
This part of this part of it is the part that we would do for free. Yeah, so it's like is we really enjoy
And what a gift yeah, right? It's such a cool medium. Absolutely. You know, the best part is, we get to meet people like you.
Oh, thank you.
I get this wonderful excuse to invite people in that I'd normally would it mean literally.
Yeah.
It's the coolest thing in the world.
It's so awesome.
And I was so pumped up to be here.
I can't even tell you because I love your vibe and the realness and that to me gives me
energy.
It just sucks the lifeblood out of me.
When I'm doing, doing an interview
with someone, I know it's like, oh, this is so dumb and this is so fake. Oh, I hate it.
Like, just shoot me. And that's why I love doing solo interviews. I'm on my podcast. I solo
interviews with someone. I love just talking. But the interviews are tough. You know, unless
I get someone who can really just have a conversation.
I interviews perform worse for us than I was before you walked in and heard I were talking about this.
So now we only interview people where interested in talking about it.
So I won't take it personally if it doesn't.
I think you're gonna, I think you're gonna press shit.
No way, for sure.
Yeah, I'm much easier.
Do you, anybody, anybody that you've interviewed that changed your mind, blew your mind, or that you really fell in love
with afterwards, like I always looked,
like he brought up Arthur Brooks.
Someone I had no idea really about him other than his
documentary on Netflix, like fell in love with that guy
after we met him, would have never thought.
So have you had guests like that, where?
I've had, I can't think of like going all the way back,
right now, but the most recent one was like Jen Cohen.
Yeah, she's got that effect.
Yeah, she's just real. I really appreciate that.
And there have been some people who are just like
when they're super real, and I think it's,
oh, it's another book interview.
You know what I mean?
Like that drives me crazy, and now I just don't even
take pitches.
It's like, if I find the person really interesting,
and I don't care if they have a zero following,
like I found this gallon YouTube,
we had like, I don't know, 100 subscribers,
but she was talking about being an adult child of an alcoholic.
And I'm like, I just love the way she talked about it.
And I'm like, I gotta have,
like I like looking for people who are interesting and real
because you learn in this medium,
the person, the bigger the name is, you invite them in,
it's just a little bit more hassle.
And they're not gonna promote it, for sure.
And people see them on every other,
especially when it's a book.
Okay, now you're on 19 podcasts,
the same week, yeah, same book.
The same conversation.
I won't do it.
I don't do it.
I don't do it.
I feel the same.
Well, this has been awesome.
Thank you guys.
Yeah, I really appreciate that.
It's such a treat for me.
Super great.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Honor for us, for sure.
So thanks for coming on.
Thank you.
Absolutely thanks. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. So thanks for coming on. Thank you. Absolutely thanks.
Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.
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