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117: Balance Urgency & Importance w/ Matt Reynolds · Harder Than Life

• 0:07
  I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living.
• 0:22
  Today on the Heart and Life Podcast, we welcome Matt Reynolds, an innovator in strength and fitness coaching. With 25 plus years of experience, he founded Barbell Logic, a global leader on online strength and nutrition coaching, making expert training accessible to everyone. His mission, to redefine personal training through simplicity, effectiveness, and cutting edge technology. Let's dive in, brother. Let's dive in.
• 0:48
  What's up, man? Thanks for having me on the show. Excited. It's pretty rare that I get interviewed by someone more jacked than me. But that is the case today. I just turned 49 and we're going to talk all about this. As we did in pre-show was voluntary hardship, man. That's right. I was this morning doing things for legs that just would kill most people. With 38-pound kilogram dick.
• 1:15
  dumbbell or kettlebells doing step ups. And I'm like, shaking. And, uh,
• 1:23
  You know, I don't know why I do this crap, but we're going to talk all about it. Listen, I got your book up front. We finally got it. We didn't get to read it because it was such a snafu. We just got it yesterday. I am so looking forward to this. We're going to talk about it as well. I did pre-show prep anyways because it really looks like an amazing book. You and I connected through mutual friends, and we're going to deep into this stuff. What you're doing is fantastic. So let's start right off.
• 1:51
  And tell me about this. Just give us a real quick, the book, Undoing Urgency. It'll be available on the day that the podcast airs. It's Reclaim Your Time from What Matters Most. What's it all about? Yeah, man. I think when I started to think about putting this book together and the stuff that was really kind of taking up bandwidth,
• 2:12
  in my brain, it was that over the years, I was a competitive power lifter, a professional strong man, a business owner, ran what became the largest privately owned strength gym in the country, and now Barbell Logic, which is a mid eight figure business. And the thing that I found that I was constantly struggling with was drowning in urgency.
• 2:33
  And I think that's just like everybody's life now, right? Like when you ask, like if somebody asked my dad in the 80s or 90s, like, how's it going? Which is still a question we ask today. The kind of traditional answer was good. And now when you ask almost anybody, how's it going? The answer is busy.
• 2:53
  I'm just, I'm so busy, right? And it's when the holiday season, I'm busy. So the book is really about how to not drown in urgency and pull the weeds from the things that are urgent, but not as important. So you can focus on the important stuff that's almost never urgent. And that really is an idea that I first heard about from President Eisenhower. I heard about it, I think Stephen Covey wrote about it in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Eisenhower said, I have two types of problems, urgent problems, which are almost never,
• 3:23
  important and important problems, which are almost never urgent. And what ends up happening, I think in our life is we drown in the urgent crap that doesn't matter.
• 3:32
  And we often aren't able to do the things that we really want to do that's most important. The thing that will leave a legacy, whether that's... And I think the core values for people can be different, but whether that's family or fitness or health or faith or even like being a CEO in my company and working on the business and not in the business. So the book is really a how-to get rid of urgency in your life so you can focus on the stuff that actually matters. It's not a time hack book. I want to be clear. It's not a book full of hacking.
• 4:02
  It's a book more about values and how you want to set your life and the actions and tasks that you do on a daily basis around your actual values. Because what ends up happening is if the most important thing in my life is to be a great husband, great dad, great business owner, you know,
• 4:19
  fit, all of those things. But I spent all of my life drowning in the urgency of the business and the day-to-day grind and the holiday parties and the like, well, then I'm living a life that isn't in alignment with my values. And so that's really what the book is about. It's about identifying what your core values are and setting your action plan in place to pursue that.
• 4:41
  So when you say it's not a time hack, it's not like 10x is greater than 2x, it's easier than 2x, and it's not like buy back your time and time machine from all the... You know the authors. Yeah, and I actually quote Dan Martell in the book because I think there's some really good pieces of buy back your time. I think in a place where, like Martell talks about, there are a lot of things that we often do. We don't think about hiring that
• 5:07
  job out. So for example, tomorrow, I have a bunch of guys come to my house to take all the lead. We have 16 trees in my yard. I'm not clearing the leaves, right? That's now I'm in an HOA. And if I don't clear the leaves by the end of the week, I'm probably getting a letter from the HOA.
• 5:23
  And so that's an urgent thing, but it's not an important thing. I don't need to be the guy clearing the leaves. And I would argue for anybody, like, I don't care if you're broke and you're 18, you probably should not be going grocery shopping at this point. Like, you can have any amount of groceries delivered for $10 to your house. Well, anybody's time is like, I don't even understand how that works with the grocery stores. So I'm not going to go grocery shopping. I'm not going to mow my lawn.
• 5:50
  I'm not going to pick up the leaves. I'm going to hire a housekeeper for when I can. And again, I understand I'm in my mid to late 40s, like you are mid to late 40s, like you are, Wink. Pushing 50. And so depending on where your finances are in life, like there's certain things that you can hire out and certain things you can't. There's stuff that I can hire out now at 46 that I couldn't when I was 18. But I still think the concept is what's really important is that we often drown in the stuff that's not important. Right.
• 6:19
  We don't drown in the stuff that is important. And so we want to pull the weeds on the stuff that's less, that's more urgent and less important. So I'm going to try to summarize this. I believe that the buybacker time and time at Chris Krohn's time machine and 10X is easier than 2X are...
• 6:39
  time hacks. It sounds like you're saying put most important things first. That's what this book is about. Okay. Cause I can tell you in my business, in my life and, and, and probably every type, a personality entrepreneur, everything's important. And when everything's important, nothing's important. That's right. And you wear yourself out. I am like, I just got back from a vacation. I'm three days back into it and I'm exhausted because it's right back on the
• 7:08
  So what would you say to a guy like me who literally I'm launching four massive, massive initiatives right now and all four are important. So what's your advice? I'm sure you get into the book of that. Yeah. So what I would do first and I think probably quadrant one, which I'll talk about for a second, I think applies less to guys like us and the type A guys, but I would define quadrant one as not urgent, not important things. So this is like binge watching Netflix. Yeah.
• 7:37
  Porn, video games, doom scrolling, social media, they bring zero value to your life. And that quadrant one, not urgent, not important, that stuff should be completely eliminated from your life. You should purge it if you care at all about this stuff. And then quadrant two are things that are urgent, but not important. Getting the leaves picked up, having the groceries delivered, whatever. And I want to delegate or automate those things as much as possible.
• 8:04
  where guys like you and me often struggle and fail is in the things that are urgent and important.
• 8:12
  And the things that are urgent and important, we have to spend a lot of time on. When you're a CEO of a big business, when you've got a bunch of employees, when you're launching big initiatives, that stuff matters. But the key to be able to do that is unbelievable focus and efficiency. And so I have, like this morning, I got up, man, in my task list. There are times where I've done a ton of podcasts, of course, talking about this very thing. I just want to be vulnerable and honest for a second. Dude, there are times I do these podcasts where I'm like, I am such a fraud.
• 8:42
  I like I am drowning in urgency right now. This morning, I'm in a really good spot right now. It's it's it's noon central time for me. I've been up since 345 this morning working. I had a task list that was so long that I started to have almost like an anxiety attack. It was so long. And I was like, this is exactly what I wrote my book about. So to be clear, I wrote the book first for me. I'm preaching to me on the things that I have to do better. And so here's what I did.
• 9:10
  I sat down with my wife. I sat down with my family. My sister works for me. My daughter. And I said, here's the deal. I am getting crushed. I'm going to go upstairs and close the door. And I'm going to do what I call pomodoros. I'm going to turn off all the notifications on my phone. You will, if you text me, if you call me, I'm not going to get it. The notifications on my computer are turned off. And I'm going to hammer the tasks as hard and fast as I can so that I can work as efficiently as possible on those things that are urgent and important so that tonight, I'm going to
• 9:39
  When it's time to sit down and have dinner with my family, I'm not still drowning in that same task list. That's the point. And so for guys like us, it's about doing it efficiently. It's about, you know, I work and you probably do too. I work when other people sleep.
• 9:54
  I'm working at four in the morning. And I don't set my alarm for that. Now, listen, my IQ at 730 at night is about 80. It just drops all day. So there's not a lot of great work going on at 730 at night. But you know what I can do at 730 at night? I can be a great dad and great husband. I can have dinner with my family. I can go work out. It doesn't require a ton of brain cells to do that. I can do those things that don't require me to be at my best mentally.
• 10:21
  So when I need to be at my best mentally, I better be really efficient. And it's so easy to grab your phone, the notifications pop up, the texts pop up, the base camp project management notifications pop up, and it pulls you from your task list. And you've got this massive list of things you're trying to do, just like I do. Those things have to be done incredibly efficiently if we're ever going to be able to get to the stuff that actually matters.
• 10:46
  I just noticed that your name is actually Ryan Reynolds. I know. So there's a story behind that. So I do go by Matt Reynolds. I'm Ryan Matthew Reynolds, Ryan Matt Reynolds. And the website is RyanMattReynolds.com as you can get the book at. But yes, there is another guy that you've probably heard of. His name is Ryan Reynolds. He has better SEO than I do. Also married to beautiful Blake Lively. And there's actually another Matt Reynolds who I share. I have as good, if not better SEO than he does. But he's an infielder for the Cincinnati Reds.
• 11:16
  And so when the publisher and Forbes got ready to publish this book, they were like, you got to own your name and you can't really own Ryan Reynolds and you can't really own Matt Reynolds. So it's Ryan, Matt Reynolds. So thanks, mom and dad, for calling me by my middle name. So, yeah, the author title is Ryan, Matt Reynolds, but I go by Matt.
• 11:33
  When I was doing show prep, the baseball player kept coming up. So I was like, what is this? Yeah. As he just said, RyanMattReynolds.com is the website. You can get the book there. It's right in front of me here. Yep. And I promise that once I read it and I will binge it and I will do a review and tag you. I'm reading books like that.
• 11:56
  crazy. I need to read this right now because there are no coincidences. Everything is, is we're relaunching the website. We're, we're adding some things. We're changing the brand. I'm pushing the cybersecurity that we're doing huge. It just, I have four massive projects that I'm just getting crushed. And, and I just,
• 12:14
  Hey, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So I cannot wait to dig in. Let's do let's do an activity for a second. So, OK, you talked about like a rebrand or pick one of the four major initiatives that you're doing. Let's let's hone on one for a second. We know you have to do all four. Pick one and we'll dive in a little bit. Well, we are we're relaunching the website. We're not. I'm sorry, not the website, the the podcast. OK, so we've got a podcast relaunch.
• 12:42
  And so that would be the thing that we dive into in the second half of the book is what we call the game plan, which I'm always a little bit with like acronyms and business. It's a little bit cheesy, right? But if you've read other books, there are things like called OKRs, like objectives and key results. Well, that sounds very corporate-y and that's not me and I don't think that's you. So what we did was we developed over the years something we call the game plan, which is just goals, actions, metrics, execution.
• 13:10
  It's just an acronym for the word game. Okay, so we are going to relaunch. We want a completely revamped website. That's the goal.
• 13:19
  Then you have to pick what are the three to four, probably no less than three and no more than five, major actions that you have to complete that you can say yes or no, let's say by the end of the year, early December, by the end of 2024. What are the three, four major actions that must be complete for you to accomplish that goal?
• 13:42
  And those are the major actions. And if you're not careful, you'll end up with a list of 25. No, it's the most important three or four that if you can answer and say, did I do this? Yes or no? And the answer is yes for all of them. You will have accomplished the goal. So that's the action piece. Then we have the measuring piece. Again, you're a lifting guy.
• 14:00
  What's the most important thing that we do in the gym? We measure constantly progress. What is your waist measurement? What is your load lifted? What's the volume? What's the tonnage? We're looking at PRs, not just for the squats and the deadlifts, but we often look at that stuff for anything, for the leg press, for the Bulgarian split squat, for the curls. It's the same thing here. You have to figure out what metric tells me that as I'm completing those actions, I'm moving in the right direction.
• 14:29
  And then the execution is just the day-to-day checklist. We literally just make a checklist for the staff in chronological order every day that says if we complete all these things, we know that we're one step closer to completing the action. And with each action we complete, we're one step closer to completing the goal. And so what it makes you do, to come back to the focus of the book,
• 14:50
  You could probably do four initiatives. Four initiatives you also know is not sustainable. You cannot do four initiatives all the time, 365. You can't do that, right? But right now you can. But if you do, you cannot have any of the non-important urgent shit in your life. You can't.
• 15:10
  Like it's that remember you've seen that video of the professor and he puts like the golf balls or the rocks in the jar. Then he's like, is the jar full to this college class? And they're like, yeah. Then he put and then he puts pebbles in and he fills it with pebbles. And he's like, is it full now? Like, yeah. Then he puts sand in and they're like, is it full now? Yeah. He keeps putting stuff in. Then he puts water in it and fills it up. Is it full now? OK, now it's full. Here's the problem.
• 15:37
  The idea there, it's like the big rocks idea. There are times in your life, and I would argue right now with four big initiatives, there can be no pebbles, no sand, no water. Big rocks only. Break the jar. That's the deal. And that's what you have to do. Because right now, if you have four initiatives and all four are important, then everything else has to get pushed to the side. You have to pull the weeds on everything else, on all the pebbles and all the sand and all the water.
• 16:04
  So you're a married guy. I have a girlfriend. So you were like, that sounds like you were just in our conversation over the holiday, over Thanksgiving. I looked at her. I said, I have no time, no energy, no bandwidth for anything that isn't these four initiatives. And boy, did that start a freaking argument. Yep. Let me ask a question. How long have you guys been together? We're coming up on a year.
• 16:30
  Okay, so it's still relatively new. Yeah, so she just didn't understand that I was going through literally this game, goals, actions, metrics, execution, and I was doing that. I think this is what...
• 16:44
  type A entrepreneurs do automatically. Like when you said that I'm laughing, I'm like, I'm doing this, I do this. I can tell you the goal of all four projects. I can tell you the actions, the three actions that we have to do right now before the end of the year. And then the metrics that say that it's success. And then now we're in the execution base right now on all four things.
• 17:08
  So it's funny when I just said, I have to clear out the rest. We were working on some real estate projects. We were working on some, I said, this has all got to be pushed, everything. And she's like, why did you change your mind? Because I realized I not. And that's what comes with age, Matt.
• 17:23
  We used to go and try to do everything. Yep. And finally, with the experience and with the wisdom, realize I can't do everything. I like to say I'm super. I can't. I run out of gas. You said your IQ is 80 in the afternoon. I might be eight. I've never been tested. I might be eight. There's certain times where my daughter knows because we have a sit down dinner every day.
• 17:45
  And I can't enunciate words lately at the end of the day. And I get angry because the most important thing for me is my family and is my daughter and is my girl. If I get that wrong, I'm always going to make money. I don't want to expend all my energy at making money because I'm going to make it. I'd rather expend my energy from my family than...
• 18:10
  And I got to fix that, but I will. But it's, well, who do you want to be when you're 80? Right. So the thing is like in, you know, 31 years when you're 80 years old, what's the legacy you want to leave? And it's, it's probably not being remembered by your followers. It's like, what is the, what are the values I instilled in my family and my community? And, and you don't arrive at the goal, right? Like the, the beauty is in, is in the 60 years before that.
• 18:36
  of work that you do. Now, here's the difference between the situation you're in, which I think hopefully if everything works out well, then your girlfriend will learn a lesson from this. I've had to do this multiple times in the last 10 years, and I've owned business for almost 20, where I've had to sit my family down and say, guys,
• 18:53
  I'm not going to be very available for the next two months. It's going to be really hard. I'm going to work 18-hour days. I'm not going to be a great dad. I'm not going to be a great husband. But here's what I promise you. If you'll support me in this, this will just be a season. I'm not going to go from one crazy...
• 19:08
  season of life to another crazy season of life. And because I kept my word on those things, now my family trusts me. So I mean, I sat down again, my wife and my daughter and my sister this morning and said, I need help with this, this and this. And a lot of this stuff is not typically your responsibility, but I need help. We're leaving for Mexico in five days. And I'm like, I got to get all these loose ends tied up before we leave the country because I want to go on vacation and enjoy my family. I don't want to work on vacation. Wait a minute, you're going
• 19:39
  Yeah, I'm going to be gone during the same week. Talk about, you know, all the podcasts come the week before. So like now I'm just going to sit there and I'm just going to I'm just going to continue to refresh Amazon and see how it does that week. So, yeah, that's I got to tell you, I had that conversation. And then, you know, I think that there's voluntary hardship. And then I think just God is giving you hardship to make sure that you earn it. Because right now, I wish I had a conversation with my girlfriend and my daughter and both of them.
• 20:08
  are not complying and it's not because they don't love me they just i didn't do a good job of explaining it in the kelly siegel sort of way so i'll you know you inspired me when i leave when i get out of here i gotta go pick up my daughter i'm gonna ask her again hey i need i need things to relax she's turning 16 in a month and a half and i got a 19 and a 14 year old daughter so i
• 20:38
  babe, I promise you I will take care of everything, but this is just secondary for a second. Like you said, it's a season, not forever. So it's, um, I'm being tested, which is what I want. I'm dying to get this question out for 20 minutes now is we've talked about voluntary hardship and I, I've gone through a lot of involuntary hardship, which I would tell you is God,
• 21:01
  training you and preparing you for the next level. So putting yourself through voluntary hardship, how has embracing this voluntary hardship shaped your life and the way you coach others? And then for those of you that don't know, tell us your philosophy on this voluntary hardship. Well, yeah. And thanks for asking that question. I mean, this is a major core tenet of our, of our company is voluntary hardship. And the,
• 21:25
  The very thing that we're trying to do with our clients as strength coaches is strength training and fitness and going to the gym. That's a thing that is voluntarily hard. Nobody's going to make you put a bar on your back and squat. You have to decide to do that. And that's not the only thing that's voluntarily hard. There's all sorts of stuff that you can choose. Sometimes it's having the hard conversation with a staff member, with an employee that you don't want to have to have, but you have the conversation. Right. So,
• 21:51
  What we do is we choose voluntary hardship because we think it refines us. We believe it refines us and makes us better if we're doing it for the right reason. And the connection, and you touched on this, is that we are certain that we're all going to experience involuntary hardship. We just don't know when it's going to come. We don't know what form. Somebody could get cancer. Somebody could die. Somebody could get divorced. Like, there are so many potential tragedies that...
• 22:20
  You and I will and all of the listeners will go through in their life when we train ourselves to handle voluntary hardship. I would argue that there is a much greater potential for when involuntary hardship comes for it to also be refining.
• 22:37
  But involuntary hardship is not always refining because we know this because guys go to prison, which I would say is involuntarily hard, and they often don't come out better. Sometimes they do. Most of the time they don't. Right. Some people get cancer and they beat it and they get better, but sometimes they're jaded and sometimes they're dead.
• 22:56
  And so there are all these things. Sometimes people get divorced and they never let themselves love somebody ever again because of the pain that occurs. When we choose voluntary hardship, when we choose the hard thing, and that could literally be, they don't all have to be like these grandiose. This is what I love even about like, you know, cold plunges or sitting in a sauna for as long as, like I sit in a sauna, I sit there and watch my heart rate. And rather than trying to stay through the longest time I can, I try to break my heart rate.
• 23:24
  record. I'm like, oh man, my heart rate is at 178 in this sauna. Well, in the grand scheme of things, is there a tremendous physiological benefit to the sauna or the cold plunge? I hope so, but maybe not. I don't care. It's the mental thing that it does for me. It's the same reason I squat heavy. It's the same reason I don't just screw around in the gym and exercise and play and get hot and sweaty, but I'm actually working towards a goal. When I do those things, when I
• 23:50
  on my relationship with my wife, when I work hard on my relationship with my children, when I have those conversations that I hope they're going to remember their entire life, when I have hard, awkward conversations with staff members or family members or church members or friends or family, every one of those awkward conversations makes me better and better prepared for the next awkward conversation I have to have.
• 24:13
  That's the voluntary hardship way. And then when involuntary hardship comes and knock on wood and please, Jesus, don't send it to me right now because I don't, you know, you are better prepared to handle the involuntary hardship because you have prepared yourself via voluntary hardship. That's the that's the reason. Thank you for explaining the harder than life brand to a T.
• 24:33
  literally that's why we do what we do right i grew up so much involuntary hardship that when things do get hard it's like oh this is easy it's just simple but um i put up a post this morning just said most won't i will i i put a post i showed the gym today at 5 18 and usually there's a lot of people there was one other person in the gym one december and it's like are you kidding me and i'm gonna a big gym so there should be a lot of people so guys if you uh
• 25:03
  Matt Ryan Reynolds dot com. And then Instagram. I'm sorry. Ryan Matt Reynolds. Yep. OK. So fair enough. And then guys, Instagram Reynolds strong Reynolds with an S. And then here's the big one. It's barbell dash logic dot com. All of these are just barbell logic. We own all that. So if you just Google barbell logic, it'll pop up. Cool. It's all been the show notes. But what makes.
• 25:30
  Matt special is what we're about to talk about. There's a million online coaching firms, but what you're hearing about, you're hearing the difference. So what's one overlooked benefit of online coaching for clients that most people wouldn't expect, especially with Barbell Logic? Yeah. Again, thanks for asking that. I think the big differentiating factor for us is that I would
• 25:54
  And I think most people, when they think about online coaching, fitness coaching or what, it's, it's, sell me a program.
• 26:01
  Let me pay 50 bucks for a pro. Well, like that's not that. And I wouldn't even argue that that's morally wrong. I just argue that's not coaching. That's just, you're just selling somebody a program. Well, the problem is, is that people are human and people deal with voluntary hardship and involuntary hardship. And the types of people who will pay for online coaching often travel for business or travel for vacation or get sick or whatever. And if you write them this very cookie cutter template program,
• 26:28
  That's not coaching, that's just programming. And so the thing that I wanted to do when I launched the online coaching business in early 16th,
• 26:34
  was we wanted to actually coach personalized programming. We literally break down. So our clients video their lifts, every lift, every exercise of every workout, every day. And within 24 hours, their coach fully breaks down the technique of everything they do in the gym via integrated screen recorder on the app. And so I would say what we're doing is we're actually coaching. So that's number one.
• 27:00
  And then number two is because of that and because of the nature of what we've built, when I owned the gym in my first business where I owned an actual physical location gym, I often felt like I was in bondage to the schedule and the location of the gym. I live in Southwest Missouri, man. I live in the Ozarks. And one, the client pool is not very big. And while I did quite well as a coach, the only way to make more money was to work more hours. Yeah.
• 27:26
  There was no way to get outside of that. And so there was very little freedom. But it wasn't just for me. That was the case for the client. Again, somebody who's going to pay me in the Ozarks in 2009, 2010, $600 a month, $800 a month, $1,000 a month. These are the types of people who go on vacation, go on cruises, go to the resort, go to Mexico, travel for business. And when they would leave, they wouldn't train.
• 27:50
  And if I went on vacation, I didn't get paid. And so I think the thing that we did at Barbell Logic is we allowed everyone to have access, all the clients get access to some of the most world-class coaches on the planet. The coaches get to expand their client pool to the entire world.
• 28:07
  And both get freedom where the client gets to train anywhere they want, anytime they want with the equipment they have, whether that's the home gym or the big box globo gym or the resort gym or the whatever. Right. Or I don't even have access to weights this week. I'm out in a cabin in the woods, but I can do bodyweight stuff. We can coach that as well. And so the client gets that freedom, but the coach gets the same freedom. I talk about not working when I go to Mexico. When I say not working, what I mean is I'm not doing anything.
• 28:33
  12-hour, 16-hour, 18-hour days, I'll still get up and sit on my deck every morning while my family's sleeping in the condo. And I'll look at the, watch the sun come up over the ocean and I'll break down videos of my clients and I'll still get to coach and still get paid from anywhere in the world. I've done that in Scotland. I've done it in England and Mexico and Seoul, South Korea. Like,
• 28:53
  That's what I love about Barbell Logic and our system of online coaching is it gives freedom to both the client and the coach. It's way cheaper for the client and the coach makes about 10x per hour for what they would compared to in-person coaching because now it doesn't take, if I were going to coach you on a session and it's an hour workout for you, it's an hour session for me. But if I were coaching you online, it's still an hour session for you, but it's on your schedule, but I can break down all your videos in under five minutes. Yeah.
• 29:22
  So now I can coach 20 clients in the hour instead of one. And so that's the advantage to both the client and the coach. I would give you, I would challenge you a little differently. I would say it's your, I mean, what other online gyms have written three books? What other online gyms talks about starts off with the mental preparation. Sure. Just the conversations we've had with voluntary hardship. And then my next question of simple, hard, effective.
• 29:51
  These are not things that you're going to hear from Sally who has a trainer eyes at. They're not sexy. Yeah, this is a company. This is a man who is tremendously successful. So people listen to him. So again, can you share an example of how your simple, hard, and effective model works in practice and why simplicity is so powerful? Well, it comes back to if you're selling a program.
• 30:21
  And that's all I do. All I'm doing is selling a program. I've got to make that program complicated because if you figure it out as a client, you'll fire me, right? And here's the reality is that AI is already able, if you know how to prompt it, is already able to write really good programs. And the day is coming when it's going to put all program writers out of business.
• 30:38
  The difference between what we're doing with that simple, hard, effective concept, we want training to be really, really simple, but not easy. I think a lot of times people compare. They're like, oh, it's simple. No, it's not simple and easy. It's simple and hard. And the combination of simple and hard is the most effective. Anything that's got value in life.
• 31:01
  was hard to achieve. It took a lot of work to get there, but it doesn't necessarily have to be wildly complicated. So it can be very simple, very hard, very effective. And then what that allows is because it's not, because complexity is seductive, but it also often takes a ton more time, because what we're doing with our clients is simple, hard, and effective, it also allows us to take time to talk about the very things we've talked about on this podcast, about voluntary
• 31:31
  health and the things that actually will meet those important things that are, you know, like, listen, we all just lifted for just like the beach muscles when we were 19, 20, 21 years old. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to look better. That is totally fine. But ultimately, I just want my life to improve. I want my client's quality of life to improve. I want their health metrics and markers to improve. Those things really matter. So when we focus on that,
• 31:56
  What we find is that we build a lot of great relationship and trust between the client and the coach. And that's the other thing that I think most online companies can't do. What AI cannot do is it can't build relationship and trust between two humans because it's not human. AI can write the program, but it can't create the trust. It can't build the relationship. It can't build the accountability with the client. And so we have, I mean, man, our churn last month was 1.8%.
• 32:25
  In fitness with no contracts, 1.8% of our clients, the average fitness churn is about 30%. Anything 10 and under is like lauded as like, this is incredible. Ours is under two. Nobody leaves. People stay for 60 months on average, middle of the bell curve. Why? Well, because they build a relationship with their coach. We're going to get into the AI a little deeper, but I want to tell you my simple heart and effective. Literally, I eat a lot.
• 32:53
  I work out heavy and hard every day. That's it. Yep. Rinse, repeat. What do you do for this? That's it. I just told you. I do not get cheated. I go into the gym. I do not freaking mail these days. I work out every day. I'm not telling you you have to work out every day. I'm telling you what I do. You ask me, this is what I do. Well, don't I need rest days? Maybe you do. I don't.
• 33:15
  we also have a relatively small pool of exercises that we use and i don't think there's anything wrong with using a lot of exercises but i don't use 100 exercises when i'm coaching my clients i don't do the same i i pick the most effective exercises that's why we focus on the big barbell lifts it's squat and the deadlift or variations of these things squat deadlift bench press overhead press big body weight movements chin-ups pull-ups dips
• 33:41
  Bulgarian split squats, heavy leg presses, heavy barbell rows. That's it. That's what you do. I got a funny question for you. Because back in the day, when we were building and we were going to the gym in our teens, and really just 20s.
• 33:57
  I have to lift, I got to lift free weights. But now with the advantageousness and the technology of some of these machines, are you seeing just a complete doesn't matter whether it's machine or whether it's dumbbell? I think for you and for me, it doesn't matter.
• 34:18
  I think to the 19-year-old kid, it's still free weights. Because I think there are dues that need to be paid in the trenches of the gym. And that when you talk about simple, hard, and effective, there is nothing harder than putting a bar on your back and squatting.
• 34:33
  Now, you can squat incorrectly and you can screw your knees up for the rest of your life or your back. But like if you've got a good coach, you're not going to do that at 19, 20, 21, 25 years old. Once you've built a base of strength, and I have this conversation all the time with my clients. Train a client for, let's say, two years, three years, whatever. Yeah.
• 34:50
  And they are strong enough for anything that life could throw at them. And we also, we train just like normal gen pop people, man. Just, you know, business executives and soccer moms and dads. That's who we primarily train. And we've got some strong power lifters and bodybuilders and crossfitters and stuff like that. But for the most part, it's just middle of the age, normal bell curve type people.
• 35:08
  And what will tend to happen is you build this base of strength, and then you're able to, once you hit that base level of strength where you're strong enough for anything life can throw at you, I have a conversation with those clients, especially if they're guys in their 40s, and I say, do you want to keep getting stronger? Because if you want to keep getting stronger, now we're going to start walking the tightrope of potential injury. Like, okay, they can squat.
• 35:32
  you know, 350, 400 pounds. They can deadlift over 500 pounds. They bench press 300 pounds. They overhead press over 200 pounds, let's say. So again, they're not world beaters, but they're the strongest guy in their office. That's for sure, right?
• 35:45
  Most of them want to keep getting stronger, but the ones that don't, and they're just like, I just want to get leaner. I want to add muscle. That's when we start to convert people over and you start to go from barbells to dumbbells to machines to still very hard work, maintaining a lot of that strength, but continuing to build more hypertrophy, lose fat, lose weight.
• 36:05
  add a lot of conditioning in both, you know, hit level conditioning and, and like LSD, like long, slow distance stuff, a couple of times a week, things like that would build up their heart, cardiovascular capacity. That's the kind of stuff that we do. But for that 19 to 25 year old kid,
• 36:20
  That guy still needs to squat and deadlift. Well, let me add my heart of the life Kelly Siegelism to that. And what I would say is I've been lifting for over 30 years. And what he means by that is my grip, my wrists, my elbows, my shoulders, my knees, my hips are tremendously powerful. And those are from lifting...
• 36:43
  heavy dumbbells and barbells for years. You're only as strong as your weakest link. So if you just go and you get big chest or big biceps, you might have skinny little wrists. And if I ever get my hands on you, you'll understand why I have a death grip. My daughter says it to me all the time. She says, dad, you don't realize how strong you are. And that's from the years of lifting dumbbells.
• 37:06
  I still do it. We've added some crazy things lately where we do one-arm dumbbells. I just posted yesterday. I was doing one-arm dumbbells with 120s. If they had 135s, we'd go up there. But 120s an arm, single arm, single arm, and then press.
• 37:22
  That's what I mean by heavy weight, man. We've talked a lot. So you went down the AI thing. So I want to talk about it. I own an IT company. I love AI. I think that it's going to level the playing field, but separate the playing field at the same time. For sure. I love it because it brings all our knowledge together, but it also then gets on your actions and your metrics and your execution to use your game stuff. So what would you say...
• 37:49
  What would you say to online coaches relying solely on templates who fear AI might make them obsolete?
• 37:57
  it's true you'll be awesome you're going to die like your business is going you may I mean we're all going to die in the grand fit but you know your business is probably dead in the next couple years if that's what your entire business is built on if your entire business is built on selling cookie cutter templates AI can already do that it can already do it really well as a matter of fact we just got a big contract with the military man that's literally what they're paying for is the build out for our automated programming for we coach a lot of the air force
• 38:27
  And the Air Force isn't going to pay $300 a month per client for online coaching or 225 or whatever. But what they need is they need a coach to be able to look at a client, look at an airman, a soldier, and say, okay, this guy can squat. Let's say he's weak. Well, most of them are when they come in. Let's squat 135, right? And they're deadlifting 175 or whatever. Yeah.
• 38:51
  We take the basics of what they can lift and it will just automate the program and fill in and add, you know, five pounds each workout, whatever, each week. If that's the kind of thing you're selling, then you're in trouble. Right. And so, again, I would the thing that AI does well and what it has already done well with with developers. We've got a big development team is that it makes a good developer a great developer. Right.
• 39:13
  And it makes a great developer a world-class developer, a 10x developer. Well, I think it can do the same thing for a coach. It can take a great coach and allow you, or a coach you could coach 100 people online. And you can coach 500 people online. We've got coaches that are making $500,000 a year. They're working two hours a day, two and a half hours a day, because they're able to delegate and automate that administrative task work
• 39:40
  The stuff they don't want to do, the point of sale, the bounce credit cards, the typing in five more pounds. Okay, now they got to go to 225, now they go to 230, like whatever the thing is. That's where AI is fantastic. And it allows, I think, both the coach and the client. It allows the coach to do what they do best, which is coach.
• 39:59
  It allows the client to do what they want, which is to interact with their coach and build that trust and relationship. So we want to leverage AI as much as we can to do the things that...
• 40:11
  that it can do, but that, and so that the humans can do the things that only humans can do. So that we can connect with people. So that we can help them improve their quality of life by helping them experience strength. Not just give them an Excel spreadsheet or a cookie cutter template or even a fancy app
• 40:30
  which still doesn't build a relationship. And so that's, yeah, man, we love it. I mean, I think automated, guided programming, nutrition, conditioning, all that stuff, we've already, that's already a beta test for us. Even technique stuff, even a lot of technique stuff, like Bar Path,
• 40:47
  Bar path software, velocity software, we can test and see the end cap of a barbell is the same. It's like 1.9 inches. And so it knows based on your camera on your phone, knows how far away that barbell is and can tell you exactly what the bar path is, what the velocity is, what the max velocity is, what the drop-off velocity is. If you're trying to do time under tension, three-second eccentric, two-second concentric, let's say whatever.
• 41:13
  AI can automate all that stuff. What it cannot do is provide the relationship and the trust and the accountability that keeps the client month after month after month, year after year after year. And this is a long game for us. When somebody signs up, we're not looking to keep a client for a month or two. We're looking to keep them for a decade or two or forever. I would tell you that all that information is important. And the coach that explains it to me why it's important, because I got to tell you, in the last three months, I've added 10 pounds of muscle at 49.
• 41:43
  And it's because I've been training with this monster who, if I said his name, you'd know him. He's trained many bodybuilders. And he's putting me through the worst time of my life because he makes me slow down every single rep. And I'm not talking about going real, real slow. Just because what I've learned over the years to cheat is to go fast.
• 42:05
  and powerful. He's got me slowing down and going full range of motion. And all of a sudden, every part of my body is getting bigger. So if you told me that, hey, here's your range of motion, here's how long it's taking you, the optimal would be this, which is 30% slower. Yeah.
• 42:27
  Yep. That would be paramount. That's where AI is going to going to change things for me. But I want to talk about the transition because I'm an old school guy. I like to get up and go to the gym, lift heavy things and we'll come home. But I have a gym in my house. I can go outside. Plus, I have multiple gym memberships. So talk. I, in a million years, would never have
• 42:50
  do an online training unless it was the only thing available. I'm one of those old school guys, but there is a lot of people that can be swayed. So talk about the transition. What's the biggest mindset shift you have to make when moving from in-person to online coaching? I think it's professionalism, which I think the fitness industry doesn't have much of.
• 43:11
  I think we know this because the big purple gym that shall remain nameless is full of 19-year-old kids with purple polos with a name tag that says trainer and they don't know what the hell they're doing. And so I think even if you live in a city that has access to those big box gyms and even decent trainers,
• 43:28
  The vast majority of the United States, the vast majority of the world, lives in rural areas where they don't have access to a good coach. They don't have access to great gyms. We are very pro-home gym, and we're very pro-professional coaches. So we treat our people, our coaches are, dude, I'm talking about, I have surgeons that are coaches for me, PTs, PhDs, a guy that just got a job at Neuralink as a PhD. I mean, these are my strength coaches.
• 43:57
  And they're not just smart, they're strong. They walk the walk and talk the talk. They've written the books. They've written the published articles. But they also are really freaking strong by themselves. And here's the deal. The vast majority of people don't have access to people like that. And so if you are, you know, a guy like you, you probably don't need online coaching, man. You've lifted for 30 years. Like, you know the form, right? And yet, you still have found a coach in your city who's still somebody who can push you to a place that you haven't been before.
• 44:27
  okay, now do that again, but now you're in rural Southwest Missouri, an hour outside of any town that has 10,000 people. The Walmart Supercenter is 35 minutes away. Now what do you do? That's where the online coaching comes in. I take it a step further. My view from the cheap seats, Matt, is accountability. Accountability.
• 44:47
  is I can, I can just, I've the little bit that I've met you, you're accountable and it's from the top down every single person because that's literally what we need here. This entire country lacks accountability. Sure. So when they come to you, I'll give you a, for instance, and I'm not going to,
• 45:02
  This isn't going to come across great, but it's just going to make a point. There is a trainer at my gym that works out with a gentleman that I've seen for years, and he's getting bigger, but not in the right way, not in the muscle way. He's getting bigger in the waistline. And at some point, you got to look at somebody like, hey, listen, this is you're a reflection of me.
• 45:25
  And if this is what you're going to do, uh, we can't, I can't continue to coach you, but yet he still takes their money. And now I don't know the whole story. There could be a thyroid issue, but I see him. I was talking about the other day and I'm like, man, if somebody did that to me, I would be like, uh, we can't work together because it's, this is, this is, it's poorly. I have to deliver results and that's how I feel you are. So I,
• 45:49
  And this is the thing I love about our software. Turnkey Coach is the software we use, is that it automates every single metric. And so the two things that happen with accountability is that one...
• 46:01
  When you have to hit record and you video yourself, even if you're in like your barn gym out in rural America, and you have to film that and then upload that to the app and you know your coach is going to see it and break it down, there's accountability there. Wait, hold on. I have a dumb question. Yeah. You go to gyms nowadays. Everybody's got a freaking tripod. Yeah, yes. Is that what you're telling people to do? Bring a tripod if you're at the gym?
• 46:29
  Yep. Little, as a matter of fact, little $10 Amazon tripod. But I will say about 65 to 70% of our clients actually train at home. I love it. And so, you know, or train in gym bases, you know, and you're training Kuwait or God knows where in Tunisia, you know? So, I mean, that's the thing is that, yeah, they set their phone up and they video themselves and we teach them the angles to shoot their videos at for the different lifts. So shoot it at this angle about this far away. And, you know, and of course I've seen all kinds of, you know, terrible camera work.
• 46:56
  But there's some accountability there for the client that when they have to hit record, they know that their professional coach that they've got, they're paying hundreds of dollars a month for is going to see it and going to break it. If they can't sandbag, if they sandbag, they're going to lose some accountability. But the other thing I love about that
• 47:10
  is that everything that we do on the app has automated metrics. So, you know, I know what most of my clients squat PR or deadlift PR is, but I don't know what their three sets of 10 curl PR is. Again, you just don't remember or whatever. Like their Bulgarian split squat PR. Like I don't, but the app immediately tells the client when they hit a PR, congratulations, you just hit a PR. And it doesn't just tell them, it tells you. Now, here's the thing. So we'd go back. Let's pretend I have a similar client, middle-aged guy.
• 47:40
  His goal is to put on some muscle and lose some fat around his waist, right? We're going to track his weight. We're going to track his waist. We don't just track just the load on the bar. And we're going to track his performance. Well, if he wants to lose weight, his waist better be going down. Like my goal is, you know, kind of painting with a broad brush. I want them to lose an eight to a quarter of an inch on their waist every week.
• 48:03
  And I want them to lose one to two pounds a week. Now, again, 300-pound guy different, 140-pound guy different. Let's say you're 225 pounds to 230 pounds with a dad bod. You could lose one to two pounds a week sustainably over a long period of time while continuing to lose eighth quarter of an inch off your waist per week. No problem, quarter of an inch. But your performance has to also continue to improve.
• 48:25
  And if any of those fall off, if the performance goes up a lot, but you gain two inches on your waist, we go, well, hold on. I thought the goal was to lose weight. I thought the goal was to lose body fat. I thought the goal was to recomp. And so you're exactly right. It's still, we still, that accountability is still everything in online, just like it is for the in-person, just like it is for the in-person coach. The difference is, is that you now have access as a client to some of the best coaches in the world and you can train anywhere you want.
• 48:53
  We got about 10 minutes and I got some fun questions at the end, but I still I got some questions I want to get through. This isn't quick one. So if you had to explain why online coaching is more cost and time effective than in-person training in just one sentence, what would you say?
• 49:13
  Kind of like your client has the freedom. Yeah. Well, the client has the freedom to train anywhere they want, anytime they want with the equipment they have. And the coach can break down your video in five minutes. So you're not paying the coach for an hour of their time, just five minutes of their time. Anywhere, anytime, anyplace. That's right. Boom. There you go. That's good stuff, dude. Again, barbellogic.com. So we've been dancing all around this, but I want to hit it again.
• 49:40
  With so many online coaching types emerging, how can a coach stand out without overwhelming these potential clients?
• 49:50
  That's a great question. I still think content is king. I think what you're doing here, what we do, we put out a ton of high value content. Now, ours is highly produced content as well. I don't think it has to be highly produced, but it better be high value because otherwise you cannot stand out in a crowd. And by the way, that content game is not a two-week game or a two-month game or even probably a two-year game. It's like a two-decade game, right? It's the thing that sets us apart is that we've made content multiple... I mean,
• 50:19
  Multiple pieces of content every day since 2016. And so we're going on 10 years of doing this thing. And that's what you have to do to set yourself apart and be recognized as an expert in the field. And then here's the goal. Here's the key. You can't be full of shit. Yeah. You got to actually be an expert. One more thing. Like you can't just put out junk. Yeah.
• 50:39
  One more thing is thick skin, man. There's always going to be somebody sitting on a freaking bean bag, eating Cheetos, freaking knocking you. I had a guy yesterday just say, dude, I actually have been in your commenting on you for years talking about trend. And I realized you're a really good guy. I apologize. I go, buddy. I go, did I ever respond? No, because I don't.
• 51:03
  You know, haters are just undercover freaking fans. They're just waiting for the right time. And you just have to be okay with... You're not for everybody, and that's okay. Like, again, I think if you play that game of, like, if you stand for nothing, then you cannot establish yourself as... Like, people are not attracted to...
• 51:24
  a brand. They're attracted to a founder story, the creation story. And the creation story of the brand is the creation story of the founder. So there better be a real story there. There better be authenticity there. If you protect everything, in the beginning of my book, you'll see in the introduction, dude, it is hard. It is vulnerable. I talk about infidelity. I talk about all kinds of really hard things, some of the hardest parts of my life. But there's humanity in that. And I want people to be able to relate to me.
• 51:52
  So many business books, I'm sure you've read them. They just, they just, they spew this, like everything I've ever done, everything I've ever touched has turned to gold. Dude, I've learned way more lessons from the failures and from the successes. Getting sued in federal court in 2019.
• 52:08
  unfaithfulness in my marriage on my behalf, then thank God our marriage was saved through that and was able to get through that. But times when you couldn't make payroll or you had to pull money out of your own checking account to make payroll, those are the lessons that you learn. Well, those are the lessons you have to tell
• 52:26
  And if all you do is tell about like how awesome it is to own business, you're not telling a true story because sometimes owning a business sucks. And so that's, you know, I think that's how you set yourself apart. You just have to be real and honest and vulnerable and transparent. And that's terrifying for a lot of people. But the reality is, is that nobody cares about your brand. They care about the founder. They care about you.
• 52:47
  So just so I'm clear, this will be available on Amazon when it's available. Yeah, it's available now on Amazon for pre-war. Oh, it is nice. Guys, it's a quick and easy read. I'm looking at the chapters. They're real simple, real easy, and point it right to the point. Goals make it the game plan. It's pretty much what we talked about on this podcast unknowingly. Actions focus on the game plan.
• 53:10
  metrics, execution, putting it all together. He's got some massive people endorsing it. This dude is the real deal. Go out and buy this book. If you guys are watching this on YouTube, I'm doing urgency. I'm showing it up right now. It'll be in the show notes. Sorry. I was walking away. Two more quick questions and then we'll get some fun ones is what's one lesson from your journey that you wish every coach knew before they started their business?
• 53:37
  That every coach knew before they started their business. That you got to learn how to sit down and write systems and standard operating procedures. And no one wants to do that, including me. Like at some point, you actually have to have a system for all of the things. Or all you'll ever do is be a technician in your business. You'll never get to be an owner. At some point, you have to delegate it out. You work in your business forever. You're never able to work on your business.
• 54:01
  I got to tell you, this is so true for just regular business. Everything you're saying, all the vernacular you're using is for regular business. I have the joy of doing both. And at my IT company, National Technology Management, it's like I resisted building standard operating procedures and training and coaching and just going, we'll hire good people and they'll figure it out.
• 54:23
  for years. And it isn't until we, we, we put in these that we started experiencing massive success. It's I'm like you, I resisted it, hated it. And then, uh, now we're doing it. So let's talk about the future last questions. If you could redesign the fitness coaching industry completely, what would it look like in 10 years?
• 54:44
  Oh, Lord. Just a lot more. So a lot more authentic people. I think one of the things that technology is going to do is it's going to be able to connect the right people together. And so if you're in a city, even if you're in a big city and you've got a you've got a membership at a gym, your pool of coaches or trainers is limited to that number of people in that in that city.
• 55:06
  One of the things that I think technology is going to allow us to do in the future is connect the right people. So for example, I've got a, I was talking about a surgeon, but this surgeon that coaches for me, and he really only coaches people over 60.
• 55:17
  Well, how many coaches do you know that are just great strength coaches? I mean, we've got a lady, Miss Odella. She's 89 years old, man. Oh. Doing online coaching. Like squatting and deadlifting and doing that kind of stuff. He is the only coach, Dr. Sullivan. Shout out, Dr. Sullivan. He's the only coach on the planet that could really coach her and coach her well. And so I think that's the thing that technology, I want it to get rid of the charlatans.
• 55:39
  I want the cream to rise to the top. And then I want it to connect the right people together. I want the types of clients that I want to coach. And I want the types of, I want clients to be able to find the types of coach that they're looking for. That is key is that connection that you make because all of the rest of the technology are things that are going to be able to be automated out. And so it still is about personal connection and accountability. So that's what I think it will look like in another five to 10 years. Matt, who's a coach that you...
• 56:06
  that inspires you that not one of your coaches, but somebody that is out there just, just to get a mindset, man, I've learned so much. And I talk about, so Louis Simmons from West side, I was an early Louis Simmons guy in powerlifting. Dave Tate also came from that background. Jim Wendler from that background. I was an early Mark Ripoteau disciple. Bill Starr,
• 56:26
  who Ripito came from, you know, like I learned so much from those guys. And I think being able to pull from all of those things makes a, makes a more well-rounded coach. And so I, I've been able to not fall into any individual, like, like,
• 56:41
  you know, hardline dogmatic stance that we can only do this and we can't do anything else. I think when you learn from everybody, that's a big advantage. And then one of my favorite coaches right now online, his name is Anthony Deal. He's a big jacked bodybuilder guy. He was America's strongest man. Big time powerlifter, super jacked, mid 40s, you know, like us and gotten healthy. But the guy's like crazy jacked. He's really smart. It's the kind of stuff that you were talking about. He's taught me how to lift slower with the accessory movements, more controlled. You know, powerlifters try to lift as fast as possible.
• 57:11
  And so learning how to control the weight and go like, hey, you've ripped both pecs off the bone at this point. You know, I've had all these injuries as power lifter and strongman. And so now learning how to take care of my body and lift in a way that's going to give me longevity, I think, is really key as well. I also really I like Peter Atiyah and some of those guys are looking at the longevity game. And I think that's going to change a lot over the next five to ten years as well.
• 57:34
  I pick up some of the stuff from the craziest ones. Like the rock will sneak in something that I – I didn't even realize this. It was a great advice because I travel a lot. And it's like right when you land, no matter where you're at, go to the gym. And I'm like, oh, that's a great idea because you end up going and having to do your things. And then you just get slammed and busy and you miss it. And it's like that's –
• 57:58
  And it gets rid of jet lag. Like we found it like, you know, even if you're just traveling like two time zones, let's say, it gets rid of jet lag. Like we land, we find, again, and we'll find the big giant big box gym and rent the car and the staff will land and we'll all go to the gym and we'll hit the gym together. And it's maybe not the best training session you ever had, but you feel a million times better, especially after being in an airport, being in an airplane, sometimes eating airplane food, airplane drinks. And then you go to the gym and you work that out. It makes a big difference. I have never left the gym feeling crappy.
• 58:28
  No, I've gone to the gym feeling crappy a million times, but I got to tell you, I walk out. If I could bottle that feeling, that euphoria while I'm at the gym, I have some of the most profound. If you see my phone, I make note after note after note breakthroughs while I'm at the gym. That's my sanctuary. That's just, I have got to do it every day. Yeah.
• 58:50
  Let's ask, well, you know what? You can, you guys want to hear more of Matt. He's on, he has two podcasts, Barbell Logic. And what's the second one it just launched? Build Your Business, which is part of the Radcast Network. And where we, my brother and I talk about how we built our businesses over the last, you know, almost 40 years of business ownership together. He sold his business for even a lot more than mine is worth. And so younger brother, but even more successful. And he's our CTO now and does a lot of work for us. It's been a blast. It's funny.
• 59:20
  How the more jacked you get, the more successful you are in life. Those are principles of doing hard things, consistency and discipline day in and day out will transform to your business. And that's, I'm sure what you guys are talking about. All right, fun stuff. What's the weirdest thing you've ever lifted for fun?
• 59:39
  So that's a great question. What is the, um, well, I pulled an airplane, um, which is pretty crazy. Um, so that was, that was a lot of fun. Um, yeah, that's probably the weirdest one. I mean, I've done a lot of like big, you know, I've done, uh, I'll tell you one of the really weird ones is I, I did stones, you know, the Atlas stones at a Phillies game around the base path. Um,
• 1:00:03
  And at the seventh inning stretch. So they put the stones home plate, first base, second base, third base. And I was I'm never terrified. I get those good nerves. But that was a lot of people to be loading stones and the stones were on the dirt. And so you're trying to hold on to the stones. But it's got that red dirt from the from the baseball field. So that was pretty nuts, too.
• 1:00:24
  Wait, you're from St. Louis and you were in Philly's. That can't be good. I was at a Philly's Mets game one time and thank God I'm a big guy because it was dangerous. This was America's Strongest Man. And so they actually had on they had all the guys from World's Strongest Man were there. We were all competing against each other at the in Philly all weekend. Did did several events out in front of the Philly Art Museum with the Rocky statue in the background was pretty cool.
• 1:00:49
  Um, so yeah, I've, I've had a lot of really cool experiences lifting over the years for sure. Pulling school buses. That's another fun one. That's crazy. What's a go-to cheat meal for you? Go-to cheat meal. Um, you know what, man, I, it's, uh, whiskey bourbon. Can I say that? I'm not, I don't have a sweet tooth. Uh, I mean, I like kind of all food, but man, I really, I like a good steak and potato, you know, oysters. Yeah.
• 1:01:17
  seafood stuff like that like it's not the food that is my problem it's the drinks that are there that's where the calories come in for me and so for me i would much rather sacrifice you know i maybe i eat a lot of like lean meat and so maybe it's a ribeye as opposed to you know as opposed to like a tenderloin or something so maybe that's more the cheat meal but uh no it's the three it's the three bourbons afterwards that is the uh that's the cheat meal for me
• 1:01:40
  I will tell you that is the cheat code for me that I gave up booze. Ever since I've done that, I've more ripped. I'm 49-year-old six-pack abs. I can tell you it's literally because I don't drink. Yeah, I know. I get my sugar, though. The sugar, man. I crave sugar because I don't get it from alcohol anymore. Yeah, that makes sense. But I got to tell you, the biggest thing was the inflammation. My elbows, all my pain went away.
• 1:02:05
  once i gave it up you should try it for 90 days and just you'll be like oh i i totally and 100 agree with you all right funny last question i know it'll make a big difference yes sir which fictional character would you trust as your coach um woodrow call from lonesome dove i don't know what that is
• 1:02:25
  lonesome dove yo your people are gonna kick you with the nuts man for not knowing that lonesome dove's one of the greatest books ever written fictional book cowboys uh texas rangers made they made a famous mini series out of it um yeah this is how childish i am i'm thinking like popeye or he man oh that's yeah
• 1:02:46
  I want to pick somebody that I can actually trust long term. So, yeah, you've got guys that are really strong, really jacked. But I want the guy who actually can teach, who can actually train, who can actually and does it in a in a way that only a mature man can do it. I like that idea. So, brother, is there anything I haven't asked you to feel compelled to share? Yeah.
• 1:03:08
  No, I think this is great. I really appreciate it. I mean, I think it's always fun to talk to somebody who's kind of cut from the same mold that you didn't know in the past that preaches a lot of the same things that we talk about, that those ideas of voluntary hardship is like, that's why we do what we do. Right. And that's that's the thing that we choose every day in order to live a life of the legacy that we want to live.
• 1:03:28
  And I think when you combine that voluntary hardship with understanding what's important in your life and what's urgent, learning how to pull the urgency to focus on the important and the importance often harder. But that's that voluntary hardship that I think is it's not just about accomplishing the goal when we're at 80, but it's actually enjoying the ride between here and there. I think it's really important.
• 1:03:47
  I'll leave it with this. Hard times make hard people. Hard people make easy times. Easy times make easy people. Easy people make hard times. So it's a circle. So if you can choose easy or hard, choose hard every time. The growth will be worth it. You'll thank us for it. Buddy, have a great time on vacation with the family. Thanks for the time.
• 1:04:09
  I wish you a successful book launch. You're doing it the right way. After I read it, I'll either come on your podcast or I'll just do a IG live or whatever. Sorry for not having it done. It literally just snafu. The printer just got it in. I mean, it's not even released yet. So we got you. We got you an early one, but yeah, I cannot wait to read it. It's like you said.
• 1:04:30
  like attracts like and we are we are cut from the same cloth so i got a new you got a new friend in me if there's anything i can ever do for you just reach out and and where are you going in mexico by the way riviera mayo just just south of cancun yeah kind of tulum area so we've got a couple resources we really love down there enjoy it my brother thanks for playing thanks for being on a harder to life podcast thanks buddy thanks for having me
• 1:04:57
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.