When the chill of the ice rink first kissed my cheeks, I never imagined the puck would carve out a path leading to the gym and beyond. My venture from the competitive fervor of hockey into the disciplined world of bodybuilding and entrepreneurship is a narrative steeped in transformation, camaraderie, and the relentless pursuit of health. This episode is a tapestry of tales, from the echo of skates to the clanking of weights, each strand revealing the essence of dedication and the monumental shifts that shape us.
Strap in for an explorative ride through the trials and milestones of my life, from shedding the weight of childhood struggles to the realization that every choice impacts our vitality. Together, we'll traverse the landscape of personal growth, examining the tools and strategies—from hydration to sleep—that have become my blueprint for a balanced lifestyle. I’m not just sharing a journey; it’s an invitation to reframe your own fitness and health narrative, with actionable insights and real-life anecdotes that prove transformation is within reach.
We round off our time together with a treasure trove of wisdom, from the books that have sculpted my outlook to the heartfelt gratitude I hold for those who've been cornerstones in my journey, like Eric and Layne. Their stories interweave with mine, exemplifying resilience and the beauty of forging ahead despite life's icebergs. So, whether you're lacing up your skates or just looking for that spark to ignite your next chapter, this episode promises to fan those flames. Join me, and let's embrace the energy that life has to offer, finding joy in every turn and every triumph.
FYI OUTRO
When the chill of the ice rink first kissed my cheeks, I never imagined the puck would carve out a path leading to the gym and beyond. My venture from the competitive fervor of hockey into the disciplined world of bodybuilding and entrepreneurship is a narrative steeped in transformation, camaraderie, and the relentless pursuit of health. This episode is a tapestry of tales, from the echo of skates to the clanking of weights, each strand revealing the essence of dedication and the monumental shifts that shape us.
Strap in for an explorative ride through the trials and milestones of my life, from shedding the weight of childhood struggles to the realization that every choice impacts our vitality. Together, we'll traverse the landscape of personal growth, examining the tools and strategies—from hydration to sleep—that have become my blueprint for a balanced lifestyle. I’m not just sharing a journey; it’s an invitation to reframe your own fitness and health narrative, with actionable insights and real-life anecdotes that prove transformation is within reach.
We round off our time together with a treasure trove of wisdom, from the books that have sculpted my outlook to the heartfelt gratitude I hold for those who've been cornerstones in my journey, like Eric and Layne. Their stories interweave with mine, exemplifying resilience and the beauty of forging ahead despite life's icebergs. So, whether you're lacing up your skates or just looking for that spark to ignite your next chapter, this episode promises to fan those flames. Join me, and let's embrace the energy that life has to offer, finding joy in every turn and every triumph.
FYI OUTRO
you, you, you, you. Just a smile like I'm happy, just a man and you're good to go, all right. So many times it happens too fast. You change your heart and fall for me. You change your heart and fall for me. You move your feet on the trees like the grass. You are a spice, just to keep them alive. You think you're bananas, or? I don't wanna lose the tears of the night. I should've help At the trap of nomination. Thank you, publicist ghost of the hour, because he's crazy man. I'm pretty much in a corner of the sky, of the sky. I'm in the middle of the bass. I'm in the middle of the beat. I'm done with standing on the ground. I'm in the middle of the beat. I'm in the middle of the beat, just want to feel like you're behind. もっと 더 끊. Starter UCK and no less. No thought that I would find if I wonder if I'm doing the right way.
Speaker 2:The other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side.
Speaker 3:The other side.
Speaker 1:The other side.
Speaker 3:The other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side.
Speaker 2:The other side.
Speaker 3:The other side, the other side, the other side.
Speaker 2:The other side.
Speaker 3:The other side, the other side, the other side, the other side.
Speaker 2:The other side.
Speaker 3:The other side, the other side, the other side, the other side, the other side. Once you get good and play at a high level, other sports just seems slow and boring in comparison.
Speaker 2:I Love that answer. That's so, that's so true. Watching hockey is my favorite.
Speaker 3:There's no downtime, it's, it's just go, go, oh and the other thing that really that really drew me into it is, you know, hockey is a full contact sport and and it's it's really a sport where you can essentially lose yourself in in the playing of the game. It is very rough and you know, after getting into hockey you know I think I was joking with you last weekend about how I stopped playing basketball After fouling out of a game I told my dad I'm like dude, I don't think this is the right sport for me. And my dad's, like you know what, I think you're right and and my and my parents were not ones to just let me pull out of. You know, playing, playing sports, like once you commit, you commit type of the situation and you know, I, I think that you know, once I got into, you know the game of hockey, it's, it's just like you know, think of like full contact soccer or full contact basketball. You know you, you can hit people off of the puck, you know, and it's just played at such a high speed so it it really just checked all the boxes for me.
Speaker 3:You know, I was, I was one of those kids that you know I, my dad, would get home from work at six o'clock every night and I would immediately drag him down in the basement so that I could, you know, try and you know, wrestling for hours at a time, right. So it's like I just, like a lot of, you know, young boys, I just, you know, had that constant desire for, you know, physical exertion, and you know, still to this day, you know, for better or for worse. You know, exercises my main form of therapy, you know, and, and without it, you know, my mental health would not be as good as it is. So anyway, I definitely dove deep into the hockey realm and ended up playing at the you know, double and triple a level, all through high school Travel hockey. So I traveled all over, especially the Western United States.
Speaker 2:So you know from Boise what age was that, when you were a high schooler playing with that team, were you playing with older, older people.
Speaker 3:So locally here.
Speaker 2:Or how did that work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so so locally here when I was about 13, I started playing for three different teams.
Speaker 3:So I played for like an in-house league that was like all the local kids there's probably you know a hundred or so kids that played and then I played on the high school circuit, so all of the local high schools had a high school team together. It was just club, a club sport, and so as a 13 year old, I was playing with, you know, 18 year olds and you know, around our area. And then the competitive team I was on was in the travel league. That was a double, a team that was, you know, put together through you know, usa hockey and whatever you know read. They did it by region and so we would play teams from, you know, seattle, all over California, texas, colorado, there were some, and like Spokane had a team, las Vegas had teams, phoenix had teams, so really all all the major cities on the West Coast, portland we went to Portland quite a bit and that was by age, so it was, you know, to your increments. So basically like a u-14, u-16, u-18 type of the deal.
Speaker 1:And so that's what I did the most of.
Speaker 2:What was yours, what was your size at like age 13 and then like age 18? Were you, were you ever a little guy?
Speaker 3:I can't imagine like um so this is kind of the the interesting part of and I talk a little bit about this on my podcast. I kind of I've gone gone into details a little bit which you can find on YouTube and Spotify and things like that. It's just if you search the power of lifting podcast, I talk a little bit about this. But when I was, I Think my, my transitional years really for me was started when I was about 10 or 11 years old, when I actually Quit doing martial arts and I backed out of a lot of the activities that I was doing, and that wasn't necessarily for hockey at the time. I think my dad had lost a job around that time, and so there was just some activities that I, you know, didn't really want to participate anymore and my parents were like, well, we can't really afford to put you in them right now. So you can, you know, kind of back back away from doing those and I, I developed a Less than optimal physique, if that makes sense. So I definitely gained some weight.
Speaker 3:I'd never been really, you know, chubby as a kid, but I actually got quite chubby for a while. I had a belly on me, you know. I had, you know, too much body weight and I looked like a, you know, a pudgy, overweight kid, probably when I was around 10 years old, and I hated it. I can't. I Hated it, I hated it. I there's only like a few pictures that exist of me with my shirt off through that phase of my life and it was not like I. I mean, I distinctly remember going to like a basketball camp At local high school at the time and you know, back in the day, you know, doing shirts and skins, and I was a skin and I was like Completely embarrassed to take my shirt off and it was like you know that those are like.
Speaker 2:I never would have guessed this, bro. I never knew that that's yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know those are insecurities around that age.
Speaker 3:I was tiny, so I know exactly those feelings like take my shirt off, Shit no yeah, you know, and I was kind of like kind of a fat, out of shape little kid, which you know, and and the thing is at that time like I had no idea what I could do, you know, to really Fix that. You know, there wasn't a plethora of information out there, like you know. So I started going to the gym with my dad. My dad would go to the gym early every morning and you know, I remember going for a run with my dad one day and he was like dude, you are out of shape, you need to fix this. And I wasn't really doing a lot of sports at the time and I'm like man, I got to get my act together, like I remember thinking like being pretty down, and so I started definitely diving more into hockey and, you know, going to the gym and and lifting weights, you know, with my dad and just by myself. At the time, luckily, the gym that he went to allowed me to to get a membership. After, I think they made me like do a couple training sessions with a trainer or something, and then they're like alright, you're fine, you can, you know, work out, so I do that, and that kind of drug on until I was about about 13 and when I was 13 I went to a.
Speaker 3:I had started playing some higher level hockey and I wanted to get really serious into it. So my parents actually sent me up to Okanagan hockey school when I was 13 and my sister, shanna, actually drove me up there all the way up to Canada from Boise I've heard this story, yeah and she drove me and a buddy up there that's, that was from the area and and dropped me off. And that week, you know, I was with some of the best hockey players in the world that were my age and you know it was serious. Like there's pro scouts there. They're looking at kids that are 13 years old so that they can keep an eye on them as they play up over the years.
Speaker 3:And I remember that that was just a huge turning point for me. I you know as the first time I'd really been away from home for a significant amount of time. So I was up there for like three weeks and you know I was like that's it. You know they had some educational stuff on how to you know how to eat as an athlete and all these other things, some of the mental aspects of the game. And, you know. Plus, we were skating three times a day and doing dry land training and, you know, at the start of the camp I was like, you know, my hockey skills were okay, probably average as far as the camp went, but my, you know, my physical fitness was bad, my endurance was bad. You know, I'd just been sitting around way too much and watching too much TV and you know the typical things that kids do when they're just home and, you know, not really active.
Speaker 3:And so over that time period, when I was up there, I essentially, you know, made the decision that I'm gonna, you know, change this and I'm never going back to, you know, having any sort of physical anything be a shortcoming for me, because that's one thing that you can control. You can control how good a shape you're in. You can control, to a degree, how strong you are, like. These are all choices that you make and, you know, with discipline you can. You know you can do anything with your health and fitness. Really, you don't really have a limit per se. It's just how hard do you want to work and how much time you want to put into it.
Speaker 3:So, from that point forward, I essentially made the decision that I was going to dedicate as much time and energy as it needed for me to be. You know as good as I could be, essentially so. I probably lost about 30 pounds over the next month and by the time I started that next school year is between seventh and eighth grade. I ended seventh grade with a pot belly and I went back to school that fall with a full six packet. You know, 13 years old.
Speaker 1:Which is pretty funny.
Speaker 2:Your kids. They've got a little six packs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, and you know they're super active, so that makes it easy, you know. But going through periods of inactivity, especially as a kid, you know. And plus, what I was putting in my body, you know, before that I was going to bed, you know, eating a bowl of cereal at night before I went to sleep and like, which you know isn't good for anybody, and you know, just doing a bunch of the wrong things. So I actually, you know, started after that, I started drinking protein shakes, I started looking into, you know, what you have to do to build muscle and get stronger and all that stuff. And so, you know, from that point forward, I was lifting, you know, at least five days a week and you know, mainly playing hockey is my only sport, but you know lots of weight lifting and it was kind of at that time that I really fell in love with lifting weights and trying to get bigger and stronger, and you know all that stuff. And, of course, watching, you know, some of the pro athletes and you know, at that time, like the WWE, the rock was huge and all those guys were, you know, roided out and jacked, which I had no idea at the time. I just thought that was, you know, an achievable thing. And so, you know, watching all those guys, I was like man, like I want to have that, like you know, muscular physique.
Speaker 3:And so, fast forward, a couple years later, probably, when I was about 15, one of my best friends, tommy still probably my best friend to this day His dad gave us pumping iron DVD and he's like you know, we had been going to the gym and lifting because, you know, for for hockey at the time that he gave us this pumping iron DVD and so we watched, you know, the original pumping iron with Arnold Schwarzenegger and it was his run up to, you know, his second to last Olympia win in the 70s and you know we were just enamored by the whole. You know bodybuilding, lifestyle and culture and things like that. And so at that point I started getting into taking supplements you know, protein shakes and, and you name it and hitting the gym really hard. And so by the time I committed to play high school football my sophomore year, at the start of sophomore, I knew the coach.
Speaker 3:He was a long time family friend of my, my dad and my grandfather and you know he called me up before the season. He's like I know you're coming, you know, to high school this year. We I know your family is a big football family we really want you on the team. Blah, blah, blah. I kind of talked me into playing and so and I was in good shape by that time and so I went in and so if you're talking about like, how big was I at that age, when I was 15, going to turn 16 within the next like three months, I weighed in at, you know, I was in the sophomore year football at. I was probably about 58 or 59 somewhere in that region and I was 190 pounds.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you were stacked. You were stacked by them.
Speaker 3:Yeah and so so when we when we started, when we started weight training, you know, for football that year, you know we did maxes and so I think I squatted around 350, I benched around 250 to 27, yeah, like 250 probably, and then and then we did power cleans. Yeah, we did power cleans. I think I was like mid 200s on power cleans and push press at the time. Those are kind of the four that we did in high school at that time that they measured us on.
Speaker 2:I'm not like you're strong. Was there like a thousand pound club? I remember? Yeah, it was always like yeah.
Speaker 3:so I was part of the thousand pound club, you know the as soon as I did my first test for football. But, plot twist, I didn't end up playing football that year because, to like, basically the week after we started football practices that year, there was a huge hockey tryout because they were putting together a new, a new team that was going to go up a tier basically from where we the highest level we had in the valley prior to that, and there was a U16 team that I was trying out for. That was extremely competitive and you know, it was coached by an X in XNH Ler, and I ended up making that team, and so I had to tell the high school football coach that I couldn't play football, which was, you know, he was pretty let down, but that ended up being one of the best hockey seasons I ever had.
Speaker 2:so that had to have felt pretty cool though.
Speaker 3:I mean it was cool. It would have been cool to play yeah, it would have been cool to play a high school sport, for sure but hockey was just what I was into. So I ended up having to go back on my decision to play football. So that year was an incredible hockey year. I continued lifting at school during kind of an advanced PE hour, and I'd go to the gym after school and then go to practice and super, super active. But what's interesting is my lifts didn't increase at all that year because I was so active. And that's actually when I started tracking my nutritional intake too, and so you'll get a kick out of this. I was trying to eat 8,000 calories a day. What? How? It was a lot.
Speaker 2:So I would eat. It's like double what I try to do and it's impossible.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I mean I'd eat a weight gain shake in the morning and then I'd have a Costco muffin and a protein bar, and then my mom made me lunch. Every day She'd make me two sandwiches and a bunch of other stuff, and then after school I would either do two more sandwiches from home or I'd go to like Subway and get a foot long and all that stuff and then I'd do another shake and then I'd have dinner, was that?
Speaker 3:comfortable or did that hurt Like I? Just I have to-. No, I needed it. I needed it. I was hungry all the time.
Speaker 3:That's just how active I was, yeah, so really to relate that to everybody else, and I've helped a lot of kids through the same thing, young athletes I coached a number of youth cyclists in this area that we're actually doing, it's a league called ICON. They do cross country racing, so it's like mountain biking, but it's very much uphill and it's very, very difficult and metabolically demanding. And trying to guide them on how to get the intake in that you need to keep up with all the activity. But to relate it to where everybody and this type of realm would fit, like us normal adults these days, it just goes to show you how much your activity level reflects upon what you need to consume and eat, or how little you need to consume or to eat.
Speaker 3:And our bodies were made to move right and so the less movement you do, you just don't need the calories, essentially right. But when you move a lot and you're exercising a lot, you've got to feed your body or else things aren't gonna work correctly. So you have to really pay attention to that and what your activity level is like. But so to kind of backtrack a little bit, yeah, that's when I started really getting into nutrition eating a ton, we ended up doing really well that year didn't make it to nationals. We lost in the championship game of regionals in Dallas, texas. I got a concussion three over times in and we lost in a heartbreak over time like two in the morning four hour hockey game situation. It was like I mean, I can still replay it in my head it's nuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that seems like a movie script crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was pretty nuts, but luckily that was the only concussion I ever got playing hockey. Not everybody was as fortunate, but yeah. So after that I continued to play and I kind of fast forward to the end of my career, played a couple more years here for those teams at that U16 and then the U18 team here. After that I ended up graduating high school a full year early because I had taken a bunch of high school credits when I was younger and I was quite a bit ahead, so I only had to take a few classes extra. So I basically did my whole senior year in a semester during my junior year.
Speaker 2:This is a weird interjection, but did you ever like party or have like downtime? I know you had like your close buddies, but it sounds like you were pretty dedicated and really didn't have time to like goof around.
Speaker 3:You know, honestly, I almost never goofed around. I was so committed to playing pro hockey that I never once, you know when I never smoked pot, I never drank. I mean, I could count how many times I drank alcohol between the ages of 15 and 30. I could probably count the amount of times I drank alcohol on two hands.
Speaker 2:And is it just? Do you think it boils down to the nutritional aspect, or it just doesn't appeal to you really?
Speaker 3:You know, I just saw what it did to my peers and I'll give you a good example. When I was on that really good U16 team, we did a skills comp and the skills comp was basically a contest between every under 18 year old hockey player in the state of Idaho and it was for entry into competing in the ECHL all star games with the pros. Cause we have a pro team here, the Idaho Steelheads, that plays in the ECHL which is a level or two below the NHL, and they were hosting the all star game. So all the best players in that pro league were coming here and they wanted to do a youth outreach deal where they took five youth players out onto the ice and did the skills comp with them. So it's fastest skater, hardest shot, there's a puck handling one and one other, and so I wasn't even gonna really participate in it. I just had a lot going on. I wasn't really interested. But my one of my coaches was like now you gotta do this, you gotta try out for this, and I'm like, ah, I don't really have time. And he's like no, he's like this is important for you. If you want to play pro hockey, you need to get into this and do it and I'm like, ah, you know, whatever, I didn't think I was gonna like you know, do you? Super well, I thought you know I'll probably make it on the hardest shot because I was bigger than most other players, but I was like, eh, you know, anyway, I ended up basically beating every youth hockey player in the state, to include kids that were two years older than I was in every event. So I got to go to this skills comp deal and it was awesome, got to go and play with the pros and stuff.
Speaker 3:But the funny thing about that and why I bring that up is that after they did that testing it was just at the end of one of our practices my head coach he wasn't the one that recommended that I do it, it was one of our assistant coaches, actually the goalie coach that told me I need to do it and he was a. He had played for the pro team here and I did it and, you know, beat everybody by a significant amount in the fastest skater competition, which is basically you just skate all the way around the ice once as fast as you possibly can. And my coach was kind of surprised and blown away and came in the locker room and chewed everybody else's ass for basically being lazy and drinking on the weekends, because hockey players are notorious for being partiers. And he knew that I wasn't. He knew that I was in the gym and working out and you know I never came to practice hungover. We had a Sunday morning practice for two hours every Sunday at 8 AM and you know half my team would show up hungover to that practice and you know I obviously I never did, but that was kind of the you know the difference. That kind of allowed me to stay a step ahead of you know, a lot of the other players.
Speaker 3:Especially at that age people just didn't take working out and fitness outside of playing a sport very seriously, whereas you know I did. And you know that definitely translated when I started going to camps and looking at playing in juniors and college and things like that. I went to a bunch of camps over the period of one summer it was 20 or 2008 when that happened and got a bunch of offers and this is after I'd graduated high school. You know I was 17 and got a bunch of offers from different teams. I actually ended up turning them all down and then last minute applying for school at Boise State just because I didn't want to spend the money and the time and I was actually really dealing with hardcore burnout with hockey. I was at that point I was kind of constantly dealing with nagging injuries and the you know the nature of playing at that next level just kind of stole the fun out of it.
Speaker 2:That's interesting you bring that up. That was like. My next question with the whole hockey thing was like at what point was the transition? Did you ever have burnout? Did it start to hurt? Like what appeals to you as a kid, the older I get, it's like my elbows are sore from arm bars last night. You know what I mean. It just hurts and it hurts longer. So did you start to like see that? And yeah, so that's interesting that you mentioned that Burnout. You actually mentioned burnout.
Speaker 3:Oh, it was hardcore burnout. You know I was skating every day for you know a really long time, like years, and you know, honestly, I was sick of traveling, you know, constantly traveling all over the place. I was never home and I just, you know, my body just felt like crap because I just didn't have time to recover. And you know, I was just, I was never a person that kind of went halfway into something, and so it really got to the point to where I quite literally hit a burnout phase and so I basically quit playing hockey, called Turkey and started college, you know, a year early and I was going to, I went, started at Boise State and I was majoring in biology and the plan was to get into med school. At that point in time I, you know, had good grades, started at a good spot in college, was pretty ahead of the curve, and so I wanted to get after that and I was kind of, you know, just sick of living off of my parents, quite frankly. And no, I mean I couldn't have a job because of how committed I was to sports and you know, god bless my mom and dad for allowing me to do that for as long as I did, but I was. I was sick of it. So I went to school for you know, a semester.
Speaker 3:And then the start of the second semester I was like, maybe I'll get into bodybuilding, you know, as something to do, cause you know I had a decent physique at that point. Yeah, I've been training really hard. And so I talked to this guy here locally who was a coach and he's like, oh yeah, absolutely you can. You know, there's a bodybuilding show coming up. It's on this date, I can train you for it. And so I was like, shoot, sounds like fun. So I jumped headfirst into that and immediately applied, you know, the same level of dedication I did for hockey into bodybuilding and ended up competing in my first three bodybuilding shows that spring of 2009 and did really well. And at that point in time I changed my major to exercise physiology and I told my dad that I was gonna be a personal trainer for my career. And my dad about had a heart attack and told me that I was ruining my life. Ha, ha, ha ha.
Speaker 2:And fast, fast forward. I was at a wedding with your dad in Texas and an old friend of his was like hey, how's Eric's gym thing doing? And Bill just got the biggest smile on his face. He's just like it's doing well, too well, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha. Yeah, you can say he's proud of you for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So at the time saying that to my dad's credit I would have said the same thing to my kid. He didn't really know anything about training other than what he had experienced with people over the years. A lot of trainers are just people that didn't make it as athletes and think that, well, this thing's easy for me, I can teach other people how to do it, or it's a very transitional job to a lot of people. There's a lot of people that take up training and no criticism to these people.
Speaker 3:It's the right thought. You want to help people live healthier, better lives and there's definitely a place for that. It's not widely viewed as a career like a doctor or a physical therapist or another more legitimate career path has traditionally been. So telling him that he's like man, my kid's going to get stuck at a gold gym making $20 an hour the rest of his life. That's not a viable career. Knowing that I had really good grades and I was smart, I could basically choose what I wanted to do, he saw that as a gigantic waste. But what people don't realize is that there's levels to each game. So I set out on a mission to level up the game of what personal training should be.
Speaker 2:From birth of this idea? Did you think of your own gym, your own brand, what it has turned into? Did you see that from the get go or did it grow? A little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was always a thought Because growing up in the gym, spending quite a bit of time in the gym from when I was 12 years old, I definitely had a good idea of what good gyms did and did not have. So it was a thought. But at the time I was like I got to get this personal training business going, I got to get clients, I got to start making some money and keep going to school, obviously. So I ended up finishing my undergrad. It took me five years because that first year I didn't take many classes and I screwed around a lot, and by screw around I mean I spent a lot of time in the gym and not a lot of time studying and I just didn't take a lot of classes. Still no party. Still no party. Really, yeah, I really didn't do any party and I've never been.
Speaker 3:I'm not naturally a social creature. My friends that know me really well they see me in my current business Now and I'm talking to hundreds and hundreds of people all the time and they're like dude, you're a completely different person just because I have to be somewhat of a public figure doing what I do now. And growing up I was never somebody that was an extrovert at all. So I can at heart and that's another reason why, truthfully, I can relate to a lot of people that are in the tech space and the computer space and the work from home, do all of the computer type business stuff that are not highly social creatures. I totally get it because I am truthfully at my core. I am a nerd and I like to read and do nerdy things, but I'm also a meathead. But I'm not naturally a social meathead and even doing my podcast and doing a lot of public speaking that I have done is not something that really comes naturally to me at all because I'm not one of those people that needs that high social interaction in order to feel fulfillment. There's a lot of people out there that are the extroverts that need to be around people and like being around crowds and like being at parties, and that's never really been me. I'm happy hanging out with my dog at home or on my horse up in the mountains all by myself with zero people around, for however long I can be. So it's like I totally was not into the party scene for a lot of reasons. I mean number one, from playing sports to going into bodybuilding, alcohol and party and doesn't really mix super well with all of the other healthy behaviors you're doing, and I just also just don't naturally have that need to want to go out and talk to people.
Speaker 3:I'm not like the most social butterfly, but I will tell you that what did help a lot is in college. I got a side gig because I was buddies with these guys that owned a supplement shop in town it was actually a bodybuildingcom but the physical store here. So we sold supplements and I worked there for a few years just on the weekends while I was in college and it started out as me just helping them out and then they conned me into working a lot more than I wanted to. But I ended up leaving that behind when I graduated so that I could devote more of my time to my personal training clients. But that experience was actually an extremely valuable one because people coming into the supplement shop all day long, I was forced to have social interaction and learn how to talk to people and sell and all those things. I think I learned a big part of my skill set that I carried on from just working a basic retail job selling supplements, just like with anything else like with sales, if you believe in what you're selling and you're a student of the game, you don't really have to sell.
Speaker 3:And that's how I see health and fitness as well leading by example and doing all of these things. And I tell you all that I'm no different than you and in every way. I just have a set of guidelines that I follow in order to keep me healthy and fit and in shape because it's the right thing to do. There's no worse feeling than not being able to do something because you're physically incapable.
Speaker 3:If I want to go and hike a mountain and see other countries and do travel and all these active things, I want to see places of the world that require a level of fitness in order to get to those places. I don't want to have to worry about having a heart attack hiking at the mountain or anything like that at this point. So that's kind of where all that comes from anyway. So, yeah, I ended up getting through school and graduated with my undergrad in exercise physiology and at that time, I had a really good training clientele and I really started digging into the bodybuilding space because I had been very active in it and I competed about 20 times, from 2009 being the first one until the spring of 2014. I did my last one in Minnesota and then I planned to take a bit of an off season from that. I had gotten married in 2013 and my wife, who was a college athlete, started into competing.
Speaker 2:And fun fact, my wife Shana played Cupid a little bit for you two, right, she did.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So when I was in oh man, it was my second year of college this also sidetracked me from not being able to graduate in four years Shana had gone back to school and my wife had actually moved back here from running track in Kansas because she tore her semi-membranoscis and semi-tendinosis two muscles in her hamstring and her adductor and gracilis long jumping in college. And so she moved back here to go to school and my wife and sister ended up in the same biology class and I was also in that biology class, but I was at Boise State. They were at a different college in the area and they wanted me to help them study. But I really think that was just a ploy for Shana wanting to introduce me to my wife, which is all good, I am grateful. So, yeah, I end up meeting her and that definitely sidetracked me away from things, as you can imagine, for quite some time. I mean, it still does, let's be honest. But that's okay. That's a welcomed distraction from everything else I have going on. As a matter of fact, it's really become my priority between her and my kiddos these days. They take precedence over anything else that I do from a business or life perspective at this point, which is totally fine by me.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, so I end up at the time I graduated, I got married, graduated, bought a house and competed in a bodybuilding show all within the same two months in 2013, and then took a year off of competing, competed again in 2014. And then the plan was to take a little bit more time off from competing just so that I could focus on training my clients and growing that. And my wife was going to compete in the spring of 2015. She was a, she had become a professional at the time, and so we were getting her ready for a contest that was going to be in the spring of 2015 and we found out that she was pregnant. So that changed the game a little bit for us and obviously she ended up not competing, and that was kind of another big turning point for me. We found out that we were pregnant and which was completely not a part of the plan, but we were like man, this is like a kind of a life changing thing, right, you're like what the hell is that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly here we go. So it was actually at that point in time where I'm like man I got to get my life together, because at that time I was definitely doing well training clients. I was making decent money, all my clients were doing great. I was training some people that were competing in bodybuilding a few power lifters and then a bunch of just general health and fitness mostly business owners and then just your everyday people that just needed somebody to give them the right guidance and stay in shape. And the experience that I had coaching bodybuilders is very, very beneficial, because that's just really a little bit more of an extreme, I guess, setting for all of the same techniques and physiology that you know you would use with you know somebody that just wants to stay healthy. You just take it, take it a step further and then you have to learn, you know additional information. You have to have a deeper understanding of physiology, you have to have a deeper understanding of you know medicine, blood work, you know hormone systems, all of it. So it was really good experience.
Speaker 3:But you know, at that time I was basically coasting through and we found out that we were pregnant and I was like, oh man, I can't like continue working a million hours a week and staying up late and doing all this stuff if we're going to have a kid. And so, you know, take the next step. I had been looking into purchasing this local company that had four gyms and that ended up kind of falling through with a business partner that I had, and I was like you know what I just got to take matters into my own hands. I can't depend on other people to get this done, and so I that's when I started the Mecca and I, you know, kind of designed that brand and I found, you know found some real estate that I could lease and put the whole, kind of put the whole ship together pretty much by myself, and my wife helped me a lot with the logistics of, you know, everything really, from ordering equipment to, you know, getting a lease put together and signed and all that stuff and, so I was able to.
Speaker 2:You were bragging it all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, incredibly, yeah, incredibly, considering I was still, you know, probably training, you know, probably, 60 to 80 hours a week, on top of, you know, building a business plan and meeting with banks and doing all these things that I had to do in order to get, you know, funding and you know so I basically dumped my life savings into this dream and essentially gambled everything that I had at that point in time on getting this up and running it off the ground. But, you know, in my mind, it was so needed, you know, from the perspective of, you know, a lot of people don't do fitness right and so, really, it was an avenue for me to reach more people in order to, you know, spread the right ideology, the right type of fitness and, you know, real evidence based practices and really get good information out there and hire more trainers to work for me so that we could, you know, have more clients, so that more people could get a positive experience. And that was what it was all about, because a lot of people feel stuck, you know, when it comes to fitness and what they're doing. They don't know what they hear, that's right and what is wrong, and you know if they need to be eating keto or carnivore or being, you know, vegan, or you know, there's so many different things out there that are so polarizing that, you know, I really saw us as a light in the, you know, the health and fitness space in order to, you know, shed light on what the real important pieces are and, you know, help people. You know, weed through what's good information and what's bad, and you know, so that we can put good information out there and we can educate a lot of people. You know, and I can only train so many people by myself, but if I have a team of people working under me, you know that can, you know, multiply that exponentially.
Speaker 3:So that was the, the, the goal and the dream there, and so we ended up being able to open up the first gym about a month before my first son was born. And yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna lie and say that it was easy and it was all like smooth, and you know, all roses, but you know, because it wasn't, but you know we made it happen and you know, luckily, I had a really good core group of clients that you know we're on board with moving over to this new facility with me and you know. So I opened about an 8400 square foot space and, you know, filled it with, you know, the best equipment I could find and get a hold of and made it happen, and we were there for about seven years almost, and then in 2022 well, 2021, I worked on the deal, but 2022 we actually moved to our current space, which is three times the size. So we're about just over 23,000 square feet now and we've grown from.
Speaker 3:You know, when I opened the first one, we had a staff of I think we had three or four trainers aside from just me, and then, you know, my wife was helping us, and then I had a manager and then a couple other employees. To now, we have over 40 employees and we have about 15 trainers. We'll have 20 in the next six months probably, but currently, I mean, we have over 40 people on payroll that are just W2's, and then we have some 1099 employees that help us with various things, such as, you know, social media content and you know other things of that nature. But yeah, so in you know, we're going on years. We opened in 2015, so this beginning of November of this year will be at nine years we've been running the current business with a location change there a couple years ago that's a decade, bro.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. That's got to feel a little crazy.
Speaker 3:You're starting to experience yeah, I mean we were talking about that last weekend.
Speaker 2:How nuts it's been the amount of time that's flown by, you know yeah, that's crazy because that's that's almost identical to my compliance stuff, the whole timeline there. So that's that's a fun, fun decade to look at. So I I could go like a million different directions with you know business questions, fitness questions, nutrition questions. I really think you're man. I learned a lot of new things about you today, actually that that was a lot of fun to get your story and honestly, there's so many chapters in there that it's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa hold up. Like I know you were working with I forget his name. I actually met you before I met Shanna. That's such a crazy little fun fact. But like there's so many little chapters in there, right like where you could dive into so many details about like what you've learned, what, what butterfly effect type stuff made one domino knock over the next and and I love that you just kind of, you know, explain well, plans changed and we just kind of pivoted and rolled with, rolled with the changes and so, man, there's so much that I could dive into and ask you to get inspiration and motivation for, but a I I appreciate your time and don't want to. I told you an hour and then B for the sake of people getting to know more of your content where, where can people go? You know we've got people all over the world in in the web three space. Where can they go if they're not in Boise, idaho area, to take advantage of learning from you?
Speaker 2:And then the next kind of question to maybe have you kind of think about wrapping up some final thoughts type stuff. And because this whole conversation you've really littered it with some amazing little gems of of good advice and motivation and inspiration, I'm fired up or I want to go. I want to go work out right now and so maybe just think about business wise, what, what's something that you can just light a fire under our asses with, and and then health and nutrition wise, I think from the perspective of like not stuck or or even not just getting started, but just like, help us, you know, maybe assume that we are active and healthy a little bit. Give us that, you know, maybe that will will motivate some of us, as is that we're going to assume that role. We're ready to go.
Speaker 2:What's the motivation? Inspiration to just push a little bit harder. So I know that's a loaded question for, like some final thoughts to give us, but yeah, that's kind of where, where my mind's at I. I could ask you a million questions about jujitsu. You know we could go so many directions. I love talking to you, bro, so that would be amazing if you could kind of wrap up, give, give us some, some points of other socials where we could find your stuff. You already mentioned YouTube in your podcast, but, yeah, definitely she'll ask some of your other content as well.
Speaker 3:That would be awesome yeah, I would say the best is probably our social media. It's just at the mecha gym on Instagram and Facebook. Well, we're gonna get a Twitter going or, excuse me, an ex going and get that more populated, but definitely Instagram and Facebook are great, both great places to find content from us and reach out. You know, shoot me, shoot me messages. I am on acts a little bit more now, although I don't post a lot. I don't spend a lot of time on on socials myself, but I have a whole team that runs our mecha gym pages. So reach out on Instagram and you know, even if, if you want to chat, you know, let me know. Man, I'll message anybody. But I truthfully I can't emphasize this enough are my podcast that I've done. We're like I think we've got over 60 episodes and we've taken a bit of a hiatus. But I'm gonna get back to posting new podcasts up.
Speaker 3:But for those of you that haven't listened to any of them, I mean we have, you know, hundreds of hours of content on, you know, spotify, youtube, all those places with the power of lifting podcast, and it's not just me rambling on. I have some awesome guests from you know, business owners. I have Russell Brunson on there who started ClickFunnels. I have, you know, a friend of mine who's a electrophysiologist, so he's a cardiologist big time, big time brainiac heart doc on there on an episode of Dr Noonan he's awesome. I've got one of my past clients and now really good friend of mine, boone Barlamay, who was a high school football player that broke his neck and is now a quadriplegic awesome, awesome guy. That's an amazing podcast with Boone and so there's some really great content on there.
Speaker 3:If you kind of want to get into the, you know, the fitness mindset. There's also a lot of bodybuilding stuff on there if you're interested in that. But there's, there really is a good healthy mixture between, I mean, just your average everyday folk that are, you know, in our shoes, other business owners, people that have normal jobs as well. As you know, I have a pro triathlete on there who's been a client of mine and and several professionals in other areas, so that's a really good place to get knowledge and information from. We talk a lot about nutrition and all that stuff on there, but overall in terms of, like you know, business motivation and even with fitness, you know, I think that the big thing that I can't hammer home enough when it comes to just life in general, is you know your, your goal setting and your prioritization.
Speaker 3:I think that setting excellent goals and you know those goals being, you know, both realistic but also your dreams, you know you, you don't always know if a goal is is too high until you, you know you set it and try and get there. And so I kind of have the, you know the mindset that you know there's no goal that's, that's unachievable ever. You know you can't, you can't think that there's a limit to the things that you can do, and that goes with everything. So if that comes down to, you know what you're doing with business or financial, same, same rules apply between that and fitness. So you know, with business, it's the same thing. You know setting goals, you have to have things to work towards. You know I I can't preach that enough you know, with my own current business, you know nothing ever happens if I don't have a direction and a goal. And you know we need to do this and we need to figure out a way to accomplish that.
Speaker 3:And then you know the other thing with with business especially, is the emphasis in finding the right people and putting the right person in the right seat and in the right position. Sometimes you can find great people but they're not sitting in the right seat and so things don't get done. And so you know you, you have to make sure that your you know your strategies and your goals and how you're you know strategizing to you know, get from point A to point B is solid and and putting the right people in the right place. You know, I'm fortunate with my business now that you know, finally, after almost nine years, I get to, you know, be the one that you know pulls the strings and comes up with the goals and helps orchestrate the ship and not actually having to, you know, do a lot of the, you know the, the groundwork on those things. You know I have an amazing staff that you know I just cannot thank enough for, for everything that they do, but a lot of that comes down to, you know, us being on board on the same mission and having, you know, just a like-minded atmosphere and what we want to accomplish.
Speaker 3:The other thing with business is, you know, creating that culture. I think the thing that has propelled us, you know, further than a lot of other gyms get, and what continues to help us grow is our culture and how that is contagious. And you know, my gym is definitely seen as a more serious gym. It's a place for serious people that are really, you know, into say, bodybuilding or powerlifting or another. You know, sport, for example, might, might go, but that's how everybody should be, and I don't mean that that everybody should be competing, but everybody should take themselves seriously when they have a goal. So you need to be with other people that take themselves seriously, because when you see somebody else working hard, it's going to be contagious on you.
Speaker 3:So that culture, when it comes to, you know, company culture or the culture you surround yourself with, is probably the most vital thing besides setting that goal to begin with. So you know, I think there's a lot of people that are a lot smarter than I am that have said that you become the five people that you hang out with the most, and that I have seen to come true time and time again. So, surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals and being a part of communities like this that are challenging you to, you know, think outside the box and see perspectives that are different than your own. I cannot recommend that enough. So encourage that now in terms of fitness and to get down to the nitty gritty on. You know things that you should be doing.
Speaker 3:You know number one, just understanding the importance right and you know if you're not healthy, that's going to detract from everything else that you do in life. If you don't feel good, you're going to get less work done. If you get up in the morning and your back hurts, you're going to get less work done. You're not going to be as productive in whatever it is. That is your goal.
Speaker 3:So you're health and your fitness level should be your number one priority and the first thing you think of when you get up in the morning, because that's going to have a trickle down effect to how well you're performing in every way, not just physically but mentally being able to accomplish those goals. So if you set a goal, then the first step in being able to achieve that goal is making sure that you are as mentally and physically capable as you can possibly be. And that's going to start with either you know it could be just, you know taking more walks, it could be, you know buying a gym membership, it could be hiring a trainer, whatever it is. That is the next step from where you're at in your journey. Don't hesitate, just take it and keep walking down that path towards your goals. You know nutrition and diet.
Speaker 3:You know, monitoring what you are putting into your body right, making sure you're hydrated, getting in an ounce per pound of really lean body mass which you know may be tough to calculate if you don't have your body fat percentage on hand but start with just getting your body weight, cut your body weight in half and get that an ounces, start there and then go up a little bit more and get up a little bit more and you know you should end up getting about 75% of your weight in ounces per day as a minimum. So if you're a 200 pound male, you know 150 ounces a day is not overshooting it, especially if you're physically active and you should be physically active. So all the calculations that you want to come up with are assuming that you're physically active, because that's what you should be. You know steps are great. You want to be active. Get a standing desk, get a treadmill desk. You know, take walks, three 10 minute walks a day. That could be your baseline, right? Just starting to get those steps. 10,000 steps a day maybe set that goal.
Speaker 3:You know, tracking your health and fitness. I personally use an Apple watch because it's easy, you works really well and you can track your steps, you can track your workouts and, at least, even if the data is not accurate, it gives you a baseline and it's going to be accurate based off of itself, right? So if you're, you know, trying to get a certain amount of steps in, it's going to track your steps the same way it does every day. So, you know, even if it's not 100% accurate, it's going to be accurate based off of what you have been doing. Same thing with calorie burn and workouts and all that stuff. The other fitness device that I use that I recommend very, very highly potentially even more highly than doing an Apple watch or like a FitBet or anything like that is the Aura Ring. So the Aura Ring is just what it sounds like it's a ring and that you can actually track steps and workouts with.
Speaker 3:But I use it for its sleep tracking capabilities and it is one of the best sleep trackers that you can utilize. It monitors heart rate. It monitors respiratory rate, it monitors HRV heart rate variability. It'll measure your REM sleep, your deep sleep, your light sleep. It looks at when you go to sleep, when you wake up, how much total sleep you're getting and it even gives you recommendations on when to go to bed and when to get up.
Speaker 3:Monitoring your sleep and doing the best you possibly can to get good quality sleep is probably the number one thing that everybody should start with. Aside from just being more active throughout the day, that's going to. Actually being more active throughout the day is actually going to help you get better quality sleep, because you're going to be more tired when it comes time to shut it down for the night. So, emphasis on sleep. Make sure that you are doing your best to have a good bedtime routine. Don't be doing anything that's ultra stimulating within a couple hours of going to sleep. Don't eat a heavy meal right close to bedtime and focus a lot on that basic, foundational need and to couple with that, your nutrition and diet.
Speaker 3:Start by tracking your macronutrients, and it doesn't matter necessarily if you have goals or not initially. For all of my clients throughout the past you know over 15 years I've been doing this. The first thing I do is have them download an app. We have our own app now, but you can just download my fitness pal. It's super easy to use, you do not need the paid version and just track your calories. So eat what you would normally eat in a day and track that. Do it three days in a row and see where your averages are and then you can start to hone and say, oh man, I didn't realize I was getting that much dietary fat per day, or whatever the case may be. But you have to track your food and look at it so that you can see what each food is made up of from a macronutrient perspective. Once you get a better understanding of that, you can dive into the micronutrient content of the food. And the problem with a lot of the information out there is people get too specific too fast. You don't need to do that. Start off basic, start off calories first, then dive into macronutrients how many grams of carbs, proteins and fats are you getting? Then dive into the micronutrients. It's going to be difficult at first if you try and, you know, jump two feet in when you don't have an understanding of the basics. So just tracking what you are eating and then trying to make little changes from there, that's key, you know.
Speaker 3:The other thing is reducing stress. You know that's a huge part of both getting enough sleep and stress is going to relate to you know your dietary patterns, really doing your best to minimize your stress. I know that's a super loaded topic. I could blab for hours on just stress reduction. But figure out what works for you and try and manage your stress as good as you possibly can. But I can tell you exercising and sleeping enough is going to be huge contributors to managing stress levels. You can also add things like cold therapy. You can add things like, you know, meditation time, all kinds of things you can do, I mean shoot. There's things that are therapeutic, that you know. You don't even know are therapeutic necessarily. You know, take 10 minutes, pet your dog, don't think about anything, right, silly things like that. They go a long way. And I am not somebody that likes to over emphasize or exaggerate. You know the things like that. It really does help just taking a step back and gaining perspective and all those things are going to help.
Speaker 3:Just a better overall behavioral change, you know. And forming habits, you know, having somewhat of a structure and a plan to your day, planning your nutrition, because we are creatures of habit, but we are also creatures that are going to follow the path of least resistance. So make healthy choices easy. That's a very simple solution. If the easiest solution is also the healthy solution, it's going to be a no brainer to make that choice. So that comes down to what foods you're putting in your house and also preparing.
Speaker 3:Preparing food ahead of time is huge. Making sure that you know you have quality protein sources available to you. You know not keeping a bunch of junk food and chips and denser calorie items that are easy to snack on. You don't really need that. Snacks are not really necessary. Good whole food meals, good quality protein. You know meat, vegetables, you can do. You know oatmeal, rice, potatoes, things like that. Fruit is great. You know don't demonize anyone, health or one food group. You know, besides, that those are kind of the basics.
Speaker 3:In a nutshell, I would say you know I'll circle back to. You know community support. That's huge. You know set a goal. Tell people about your goals and have them help hold you accountable. You know reach out to us. We do online training. We hold people accountable right. Find somebody that's a friend of yours that wants to kind of tackle lifestyle change with you. Have them hold you accountable. Do it with your spouse. You know it doesn't. Healthy behaviors do not last long if your spouse and the people that you live with are not on board with your behavior. I will say that with 100% certainty that having friction and resistance in that way is a surefire way to have a plan go south quickly.
Speaker 3:So I would say, you know, whatever it is that you decide to do in terms of a behavior modification or, you know, dietary change, just reach out to family members. You know, your spouse, your kids, whoever you live with, and you know, say, hey, this is what I'm interested in. And I think this would be great that we you know everybody make changes like this. You know, I can tell you, you know my kids are. You know I've talked about them a little bit how active they are, and I mean my kids eat extremely well, and that's not to say that they don't get candy, they absolutely get candy, but you know they are eating good, protein rich meals every morning, noon and night. They're, you know, very, very structured in that way and you know it shows in their behavior and their attitudes. So it's also important for kids to be, you know, getting high quality nutrition and not just, you know, eating pop tarts and things that are very, very convenient.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, community support, finding a tribe, finding a group of people that you know can support you in healthy behaviors, and you know that kind of circles back to. You know me not being a partier. You know I have never really wanted to hang out with other people that are partiers because they're going to pull me into partying. You know you want to choose your circle wisely and it will be a benefit to both you and them to have that. You know like minded. You know goal oriented mindset and you know you work hard and play hard too.
Speaker 3:You know Fitness and health is just as much about play as it is, you know, the business end. So I strongly suggest finding hobbies and activities to do that you truly love and enjoy, that are also beneficial to your health. You know I had a professor in college that called it a movement playground. You know you want to find your own movement playground, whatever that may be. If that means you're going to go out and play tennis once a week, then do it. If that means that you're going to, you know, go out and ride your bike, then do it. But whatever it is that calls to you, you know I would implore you to pursue it and to pursue those things that are, you know, physically active, healthy behaviors, because it's going to positively impact every area of your life.
Speaker 2:Damn. There's so many good things. You just said there that I actually am really proud of myself. I'm really not proud of myself or a lot of them. So glad you mentioned sleep. I'm so glad you mentioned pets Speaking of, I'm letting Ku out right now she gets anxious. Dogs are the best yeah, my cats. I'll just sit there and I have always thought about it like that, like it is a form of meditation and they're per it totally just like puts me in the zone and I love a lot of what you just said and I totally lied to you. I do have one more question, bro, one last question. I promised, yeah, we do a book club. You're so well spoken, I know you're so well read. We're trying to come up with a new book here pretty soon. Do you have any favorites, any, any genre?
Speaker 3:Dude, I'm so glad you asked I have we actually. So in my podcast we ask every guest their favorite book, and so I. If I were to tell you I came up with all of these on my own, I'd be lying to you. But I have some. I have some great ones.
Speaker 3:I think one of my favorite books that sort of fitness related but definitely goal related is called with winning in mind, by a gentleman named Lanny Bassum. I recommended that to pretty much every client that I've had over the years. It's it's outstanding. It's an easy read, it's a quick read, but it's got more gems in it than I mean. It's just it's littered. It's littered with gems If you're talking specifically about the like the, the health avenue and medicine, and if you're somebody that's curious about, like longevity.
Speaker 3:There's a newer book out by a gentleman named Peter Atia, dr Peter Atia. It's called Outlive. It's actually like on. It's a New York Times bestseller right now. It's just he's. He's great. He's a great resource. He does a really super dry podcast. So if you're not into health and fitness, his podcast is a little bit research heavy, but it is. It is a really good book, it's very interesting and he definitely is a little bit more layman's terms about everything in the book. So if longevity is your thing, that's a really good one. It's. It's quite a bit of a longer read than with winning in mind. With winning in mind is much more palatable and easy to get through, but with so much good information. So those are a couple that are more in that realm. I'd have to say I'm kind of looking through it. Some of my other favorites here oh, this is good, I know you have a list.
Speaker 2:This is amazing, yeah.
Speaker 3:So if you're interested and if you have kids and want to read a great book to kids, the Warrior Kid it's a way of the Warrior Kid by Jocko Willink is amazing to read the kids. It's with lack of a better description. It's just about a young boy that's kind of going through some, some troubles and his uncle, who's a Navy SEAL, helps him kind of get through some of the challenges that young kids have. My kids love it. It's it's amazing and actually one of the more recent ones that I've read. That is an extremely quick read but it's also in New York Times bestseller.
Speaker 3:It's called Make your Bed by William McRaven. He's an admiral in the Navy and it's actually about this. He wrote the book from a speech that he gave at a university, but it actually is one of the most like impactful books that you'll read. I mean, he relates a lot of it to you know military and his experience in the Navy and things like that. But it's it's so good. His lessons that that he preaches in there are simple and it's it's really really quite good.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, there's a few. I have like a million. It's it's hard to it's hard to actually weed through all of them to to give you, you know, ones that I would recommend for this group. And if you haven't read it, even if you guys don't take it on as a book club one, the David Goggins book is phenomenal, can't hurt me, that's a huge one, especially when it comes to, you know, motivation, and you know motivation and just like, if you're kind of struggling and stuck, it's, it's a next, it's a next level, it's a game changer for for people that kind of feel like they're stuck. So, yeah, I mean I've got tons, tons of recommendations. My, you know, library of Apple books is ever, ever continuing to grow.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yes, oh man, I might have to refer back to your list in the future as well. I've got this recorded, so I am definitely referring to those goodies that you dropped. Thank you so much, eric. Oh man, I'm so thankful that you've been able to do this today. Really, thanks a lot.
Speaker 2:I have already decided I want to gift you. The perfect gift would be a book. This book by my seafood, chris Kent. He trained under Dan Inosanto, who was Bruce Lee's training partner. Oh heck, yeah, he self-published it, self-edited it. You'll read through it and you'll be like oh, self-published. There are some typos, for sure, but just know that. And this book is great. There's a workbook that comes along with it. I'm going to send that to you too. Love it. I would love to get your review, because I know you're so strong mentally and physically, what this is going towards. I'd love to get your review and I'd love to gift that out as well. Thank you so much for doing this with us.
Speaker 2:Man, I could just talk forever and ever about lots of topics, and it's a good thing. I've got you trapped in my life. I can use you as a good resource and reference for any questions throughout my life. I've got you. I've got your text message locked down. I apologize if I ever bug you about silly fitness questions. You're so knowledgeable. Thank you so much for sharing this with our community as well.
Speaker 2:Honestly, anything that anyone had questions about. You scratched the surface on so many things and you guys remember he's got some other socials that he made reference to. Please go check those out. Give him a follow. It means the world to me to see pan-to-fam community members on other social platforms as well. I know we're Twitter heavy here. Give him a follow on the other places. You're going to start coming to Twitter heavy with your branding and stuff too. We'll all for sure give a follow and support. We really appreciate your time today, eric, if you guys have any questions he said he's got different avenues to make those questions on the different socials. Hit him up and his team is awesome. Eric, we've also got, like I said, with our health perks, different things I need to explore, maybe even some coaching or online coaching. I know you've got all sorts of stuff and I love to make different resources available to my holders. I'm just excited and rambling at this point. I want to go work out. You got me all hyped up, bro. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let me know. Honestly, I would love to hear from the community here. If there's anything in particular you guys want to learn about that I can help with, just let me know. I mean, I'm writing stuff all the time, I'm doing content all the time. We, for our members at the gym, I do a newsletter, usually twice a month, sometimes more frequently than that. That's got different detailed health and fitness advice. We're getting ready to also launch an app to where you can go in and utilize training programs from us without having to have too much contact with anybody. You can just have access to all of our content.
Speaker 3:If you're somebody that's kind of a do-it yourself or needs reliable things to be able to trust and follow, that might be an option. I mean, I would love to put together some information just from this community. If there's something that people want to find more out on, just let me know. I'm always down for ideas. In my community here it's a lot of people that are already into the gym and things like that. If you're thinking like man, I'm not really a gym person or something like that, you're kind of the person that I do want to hear from, because I don't get to hear from a lot of people that are already in the gym. I've got dogs barking. I don't get to hear from a lot of people that are not a part of the gym community. It would be nice to get some input.
Speaker 2:I love it. Well, one of these days I might have to onboard you into our Discord. We've got a pretty awesome little health and fitness community channel. We have goals and daily logs, weekly logs, monthly logs. We're just trying to set goals, man. Everything we said today was beautiful, bro. I'm on cloud nine with this conversation. To top it all off, to hear your dogs in the background just brightens my mood even more.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much. This has just been so great. Oh yeah, a bunch of hugs. Thank you so much. I'll give you a big bro hug the next time I see you. I'm going to get some details from you to get that book and workbooks into you. I really hope you like it. I know you know Shana loves Bruce Lee and I'm so into martial arts and Bruce Lee. I'm definitely biased. Know that I'm biased. Chris Kent's just my mentor and I train with him. He's badass, as can be To hear principles of Bruce Lee stuff, how to apply it to real life. I think you'll really like it, bro, I'm going to get that too. Yeah, a million thank yous.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Guys Really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:We like to sometimes end our spaces with a little music. Eric, we do have a Pandemania anthem. I have to play this so that you can hear it. It's awesome. It's a hip hop song. We actually have another hip hop song in the works that I'm going to try as best I can to get my family members to rap on with me. Oh you guys, sorry, I did pick a winner for the giveaway. Thank you guys for participating in that, Andy XD77. Congratulations, I'll hop in your DMs. Thank you guys for being here. What a wonderful space. I hope you guys got motivated and inspired. This is my selfish personal excuse to sit down for an hour or so with my favorite people and be inspired and motivated. I just sure hope that you all can take that away as well, Eric. Thank you so much, bro. I can't wait to see you soon. I hope you enjoy. This is the Pandemania anthem done by Nessie the Rilla. Love you guys. Have a great week. Much love Eric. Thanks. Thanks, Lane, Damn dog Got the answer for you, bro.
Speaker 1:Damn dog Got the answer for you, bro, come and get some Pandemania. I promise that you'll treat me to see you. Come for you. Ever since I came in the lunch room to myself that I can always be who I want to be. Cut it, cut it. Cut it, cut it, move on, I got Pandemania, let's go.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody. Have a kick-ass weekend Recharge. Come back for another week. Let's kick-ass. Love you guys. Thanks, Eric, Much love.