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Trombone Dropout to Fitness Guru with Ryan Golec · The Heart-Led Business Show

• 0:01
  Speaker: Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
• 0:09
  Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
• 0:20
  Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
• 0:29
  Speaker: So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.
• 0:36
  Tom Jackobs: Welcome back to the Heart-Led Business Show.
• 0:38
  Tom Jackobs: Today we're diving into the dynamic world of Ryan Golec.
• 0:42
  Tom Jackobs: A powerhouse personal trainer and strength coach who's been sculpting bodies and hearts in Reno, Nevada for over 25 years from transforming his own journey as a high school teen into a thriving business.
• 0:55
  Tom Jackobs: Ryan is on a mission to help clients move better and live pain free, all while mentoring the next generation of trainers.
• 1:04
  Tom Jackobs: Plus he's a passionate advocate for our four-legged friends, and we can see one right there to do if you're watching on YouTube.
• 1:11
  Tom Jackobs: So get ready as we explore Ryan's heart driven approach to fitness and entrepreneurship.
• 1:16
  Tom Jackobs: Ryan, welcome to the show.
• 1:18
  Ryan Golec: Thanks Tom.
• 1:18
  Ryan Golec: Appreciate you having me.
• 1:20
  Tom Jackobs: I'm really excited to, chat with you'cause I obviously came out of the fitness industry myself, and I'll always love to connect with other fitness folks, but I'm really intrigued by how you are mentoring the next, generation of personal trainers.
• 1:35
  Tom Jackobs: So I think that's gonna be a really good part of the conversation and how you balance that and making a profit.
• 1:41
  Tom Jackobs: So, but of course the first question I always like to ask is, what's your definition of a heart-led business?
• 1:49
  Ryan Golec: I think the important thing we have to address in, especially in the customer service world, is if we're not looking at the individuals we're working with, then we're doing a disservice to whatever our product is.
• 2:03
  Ryan Golec: And in the fitness world, it's very easy to get caught up.
• 2:08
  Ryan Golec: And I especially still fall victim to this, where I get caught up so much in what I'm presenting as a product, as fitness.
• 2:17
  Ryan Golec: Someone's here, they're paying me for the strength, they're paying me for the programming, and the more I do this, you would think I would get smarter, but I don't because I see these, people come in and they really, they need to connect.
• 2:32
  Ryan Golec: They need to vent, they need to be heard.
• 2:36
  Ryan Golec: Sometimes they need advice, and a lot of it is not fitness related.
• 2:41
  Ryan Golec: And as much as my goal is to create a product where someone moves better, feels better, lives better, that's interconnected through our entire neurologic system and for us to not address somebody personally through compassion and love and understanding, then we're only looking at half of the picture of what wellness is.
• 3:07
  Ryan Golec: So when I look at the definition of that, I need to see that you care about the individual by more than just what your product is.
• 3:19
  Ryan Golec: And within the scope of that, now you have a business that people want to come back to.
• 3:24
  Ryan Golec: 'cause no matter how much someone dislikes a workout or dislikes that environment, they're gonna return if they feel like it's a safe space for them.
• 3:33
  Ryan Golec: If it's a space where they can unload some of the stress and the traumas of what's going on in their life, just even if it's for an hour.
• 3:43
  Ryan Golec: So that's really how I see a heart-led business in my world being done.
• 3:49
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 3:50
  Tom Jackobs: Now I love that, definition as well because it's, it's so applicable, especially in personal training and health and wellness.
• 3:57
  Tom Jackobs: I, I see it all the time, working with a lot of the cash pay doctors that I work with now, and they, the patients, when they come see, them, and they actually get seen and heard for more than five minutes in an exam room.
• 4:11
  Tom Jackobs: You know, it's, it's shocking to a lot of patients that, you know, this doctor would spend an hour going through their labs or whatever it is that they're doing, and.
• 4:21
  Tom Jackobs: That's what people want.
• 4:22
  Tom Jackobs: And that's, I think that's, that's a great definition.
• 4:25
  Tom Jackobs: And definitely in personal training as well.
• 4:27
  Tom Jackobs: You need to be half psychotherapist and half personal trainer at the same time.
• 4:31
  Ryan Golec: Exactly.
• 4:34
  Ryan Golec: Yeah.
• 4:34
  Tom Jackobs: So tell us how, how did you get into, your personal training business?
• 4:39
  Ryan Golec: So I was young.
• 4:41
  Ryan Golec: I was always kind of the on the smaller side when I was in school and my first exposure to strength was when I was in ninth grade and I had been in the band for a long time and it wasn't really a passion of mine and I wasn't really that good anyway.
• 5:00
  Ryan Golec: And our zero period was either banned or if I wanted to do weights, that was when it was offered.
• 5:05
  Ryan Golec: And although I disappointed my band leader, when I told him I was giving up the trombone because I wanted to go get stronger, it was an important transition for me.
• 5:16
  Ryan Golec: And I went into the first day of this strength training class and it was primarily athletes.
• 5:22
  Ryan Golec: There's a lot of football players, basketball players, and I was significantly smaller than everybody there.
• 5:29
  Ryan Golec: And I was kind of taken under the wing of the strength coach at the time who was, I say strength coach.
• 5:36
  Ryan Golec: It was the PE coach that, you know, was in there.
• 5:38
  Ryan Golec: But either way, the, it was a very basic, rudimentary setup, but it was good for me because I didn't fit with a lot of the groups that were in there.
• 5:48
  Ryan Golec: Everybody was kind of matched up by strength or size.
• 5:52
  Ryan Golec: And so the first year I was in there was.
• 5:56
  Ryan Golec: Really, encouraging and confidence building because I was directly fed the coaching and the connection with the coach.
• 6:07
  Ryan Golec: 'cause I was the only person that could be there and spot me or, or make it easier for the transitions.
• 6:13
  Ryan Golec: And relative to the size I was, I got a lot stronger in that first year.
• 6:19
  Ryan Golec: And the second year I, I grew a little bit and I had gotten a little stronger, so I started to fit in with a couple of the different groups and then it was a different experience and it was kind of the social aspect and the little bit of competitiveness and a little bit of banter that went along with that gym scene.
• 6:38
  Ryan Golec: But it made a key point in my mind how strength at the dwell, I should say this, Tom, at the time, I can't say that it made this key point.
• 6:47
  Ryan Golec: As I look back, I go, oh, at the time I was like, I'm just getting strong and I'm hanging out with friends and doing this.
• 6:52
  Ryan Golec: But when I look back at it now, I realize that there's a big piece of comradery and understanding that goes along with that and seen and as childish and as boyish as it looks from the outside when you're looking at that demographic, it really does have a connection to this inter like strength that you build amongst other people.
• 7:16
  Ryan Golec: When I looked at that from a future me looking back, I realized that that was the big turning point for me as I continued my strength journey.
• 7:25
  Ryan Golec: Because if I would've just had a solo experience there, I wouldn't have really understood what it was to go to the gym with somebody or have a training partner or know what that really meant to anybody.
• 7:38
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 7:38
  Ryan Golec: So as I continued into college and occasionally worked out by myself or worked out with friends and just stayed along that line, I got my first fitness training certification.
• 7:48
  Ryan Golec: I was a kinesiology major.
• 7:52
  Tom Jackobs: Oh.
• 7:52
  Ryan Golec: I had intentions to go to physical therapy school.
• 7:55
  Ryan Golec: And that was still my path, even when I got my fitness certification Came outta school, started working at a local hospital in their outpatient clinic for physical therapy as an assistant.
• 8:09
  Ryan Golec: Building experience was gonna apply at the time.
• 8:12
  Ryan Golec: It was very competitive, difficult to get into PT school and even harder to get a job when you got out.
• 8:18
  Ryan Golec: Now, you get outta school and there's 15 job offers.
• 8:21
  Ryan Golec: There's so much need for physical therapy now.
• 8:24
  Ryan Golec: So as I did that, what I really got turned away from was the bureaucracy of the hospital setting and the insurances, and there was this piece of me that knew that.
• 8:39
  Ryan Golec: This was an afterthought.
• 8:40
  Ryan Golec: These, the physical therapy, these were things that were happening after the fact.
• 8:44
  Ryan Golec: I'm already injured, I've already had surgery, I've already done this, and I wanted to know if there was a place for me where I could work towards the preventative side of this.
• 8:58
  Ryan Golec: So, although I was young and I was, all of my programming still looked very bodybuilderish.
• 9:03
  Ryan Golec: My intentions had always been on this improved movement, reduce pain, empower people to kind of get their lives back.
• 9:13
  Ryan Golec: So naturally, my demographic tended to cater older as I started to build my business.
• 9:20
  Ryan Golec: But I stepped away from the physical therapy idea, put myself fully into personal training.
• 9:26
  Ryan Golec: And it took me a while to build up a steady clientele to where I was busy, but I was able to build that over the next few years.
• 9:38
  Ryan Golec: And as I've adapted my style and look back and say, Hmm, you know, I wouldn't have done this with handful of people now.
• 9:47
  Ryan Golec: I always felt like the, the, the heart-led side of it was there.
• 9:50
  Ryan Golec: Like I was always interested in the person and I was always interested in their goals.
• 9:55
  Ryan Golec: And I've just, I would like to say gotten better with people and the training has been a secondary side of that because the continuing education side of things is very important to me for both my brain and improving the people I work with.
• 10:10
  Ryan Golec: But working the more people you work with and the more voices you hear and the more bodies you have, the easier it is for you to find some of this compassion.
• 10:20
  Ryan Golec: So that's what's led me to, as you said, 25 plus years down the road and still being able to do it.
• 10:29
  Ryan Golec: And in this industry, if you can make it past five, you can probably make it.
• 10:32
  Ryan Golec: Most people get to two, three years and they're grinding and they're not finding that success and it's difficult.
• 10:40
  Ryan Golec: So I'm happy to have spent the time to get here and pleased with how I've ended up.
• 10:48
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, I mean, it's a testament to be in the industry for, like you said, more than five years.
• 10:52
  Tom Jackobs: I think I heard a statistic that was more like two years, for most personal trainers, once, once they get certified, they last about two years before they, go out.
• 11:01
  Tom Jackobs: But when, when you started, you didn't work for another, like a big box gym or anything like that.
• 11:07
  Tom Jackobs: You just went from being a PTA to then, training people at a, were you renting space or how did that the business kind of form?
• 11:15
  Ryan Golec: I did the traditional, path, which if I recommend it to anybody else.
• 11:19
  Ryan Golec: That's the best way to go.
• 11:20
  Ryan Golec: I was working actually at the physical therapy clinic and in the evenings I started working at a gym that's now gone, but it was Lakeridge Tennis Club at the time and it was a little higher and, and I was taking a handful of clients from the referrals that I was getting just because I was only there a couple hours a night, and I stayed there for another two years after I left the, physical therapy clinic and the environment for me wasn't spectacular.
• 11:55
  Ryan Golec: It wasn't, the gym was good that, you know, I mean, you know how the box gyms work.
• 11:58
  Ryan Golec: There's some demo, there's some dynamic in there that usually isn't comfortable.
• 12:03
  Ryan Golec: But Yeah I spent a total of three and a half years there.
• 12:08
  Ryan Golec: And honestly, I walked out of that gym and then moved into a, one of the only private training facilities in the area at the time with five clients.
• 12:21
  Ryan Golec: And I was young.
• 12:21
  Ryan Golec: I still wanted to adventure, and I ended up like taking a month off, five weeks off.
• 12:26
  Ryan Golec: Not much after that and went and traveled Europe with a buddy of mine that graduated from college.
• 12:32
  Ryan Golec: And I came back and that's part of what took me so long is that I really did not come with a book.
• 12:38
  Ryan Golec: I stepped out and I had a handful of people and I was reliant on a couple referrals here and there.
• 12:45
  Ryan Golec: And then the gym, the four trainers I was working with.
• 12:48
  Ryan Golec: The owner at the time was able to feed me a little bit here and there.
• 12:54
  Ryan Golec: And there was no social media.
• 12:56
  Ryan Golec: There was no, you know, if I really wanted to do it, there was mass marketing, so occasional walk-ins.
• 13:02
  Ryan Golec: It took me the better part of five years before I was make where I felt like I was making a living.
• 13:09
  Ryan Golec: And to, to your point with the two year window, I easily could have stopped at two years.
• 13:14
  Ryan Golec: I mean, I had very, I lived with two roommates and I had very low expenses and I figured it out.
• 13:20
  Ryan Golec: But in today's economy and with online presence, two years is honestly probably generous for a lot of people.
• 13:28
  Ryan Golec: It's challenging.
• 13:29
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 13:30
  Ryan Golec: But I did end up in the private training sector and I indirectly, I did go back to a big box gym after I left that I went in as an independent contractor, but it was more for the space.
• 13:45
  Ryan Golec: I did get a handful of referrals if I needed them from there, but I went in with a pretty full training book and it was a mutual agreement where my people joined the gym for their monthly, and then I only paid a nominal fee to the gym monthly.
• 14:01
  Ryan Golec: And that was good for a while until the same type of stuff happened.
• 14:05
  Ryan Golec: And then I ended up with, working with the, the man that owns the gym I'm at now, and we've worked very closely together to expand this gym.
• 14:17
  Ryan Golec: We're now in our fourth facility.
• 14:20
  Ryan Golec: He started in a spot that was about 900 feet.
• 14:23
  Ryan Golec: We, we moved together into a spot that was about 1600 feet.
• 14:28
  Ryan Golec: Our last space was, just under 5,000, and the one we've just moved into now is, almost eight.
• 14:36
  Ryan Golec: So it's been, it's been a pretty exciting adventure to see the growth of the facility and the business and keep doing what I love doing.
• 14:46
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, that, that's awesome.
• 14:47
  Tom Jackobs: And is it just one location or, or do you still have multiple locations?
• 14:51
  Ryan Golec: No, we have, we have one primary location.
• 14:53
  Ryan Golec: We have a entire physical therapy group that's on site as well.
• 14:58
  Ryan Golec: So we have about 11 trainers and seven physical therapists
• 15:02
  Tom Jackobs: Oh, wow.
• 15:03
  Ryan Golec: work with a handful of anything.
• 15:05
  Ryan Golec: I mean, our entire facility caters to young, young kids, athletes, you know, standard gym goers.
• 15:13
  Ryan Golec: And then, actually pretty high demographic of baby boomers.
• 15:17
  Tom Jackobs: Okay.
• 15:18
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, that's good.
• 15:20
  Tom Jackobs: That's a great demographic as well because they, they definitely, one, they have the disposable income, but they also have the desire to stay active and stay mobile
• 15:29
  Ryan Golec: Their goals are reasonable.
• 15:31
  Ryan Golec: And when I was, you know, I'm, I'm older too, right?
• 15:34
  Ryan Golec: So when I was in my twenties, of course you wanted whatever your other trainer wanted, you wanted these young bodies that wanted to get really strong and fit and do their thing and said, some of them were, oh, well I can't really afford that this month.
• 15:48
  Ryan Golec: Or, I don't want to do this when I'm not gonna do the cardio, or I'm not gonna do, and I got really, really tired of, I felt like I was more somebody's mom than I was their trainer.
• 16:00
  Ryan Golec: Like I'm constantly on'em about what are you doing on your own?
• 16:03
  Ryan Golec: And I still have to do that a little bit, but I said in the older demographic, it's really about moving better and being able to maintain some semblance of what they used to do.
• 16:16
  Ryan Golec: I have a guy who's 77 still playing tennis.
• 16:19
  Ryan Golec: I have a 90-year-old that's still golfing, and you really see that some people they don't want to give up on life.
• 16:27
  Ryan Golec: They don't want to be the couch surfing and be like, I retired and I'm doing this.
• 16:31
  Ryan Golec: You see the deterioration of people so fast and even the people that I don't have that are active sports or athletic people still want to keep that, still want to go camping or you know, they want to go travel, whatever it is.
• 16:50
  Ryan Golec: They want to be able to keep moving or they think they need to.
• 16:53
  Ryan Golec: You know, I get the couple people who are like, well, I wouldn't come here, but I know I need to.
• 16:57
  Ryan Golec: And I go, well then that's probably true.
• 16:59
  Ryan Golec: Yeah, that demographic has, has always been one of my favorites because you just see, you give people back a life oftentimes that they thought they might not get.
• 17:12
  Ryan Golec: and the younger it's, we all take it for granted when we're younger and every year is another ache or a pain.
• 17:19
  Ryan Golec: And you help people understand that.
• 17:21
  Ryan Golec: it's not about being pain-free as much as it's like, all right, well, let's move through this range of motion comfortably, and let's accept that every once in a while you're gonna wake up and you're gonna have a stiff back or a stiff neck.
• 17:34
  Ryan Golec: But that's just the general physiology of a human being as we age.
• 17:38
  Ryan Golec: But can we get up?
• 17:39
  Ryan Golec: Can we move?
• 17:40
  Ryan Golec: Can we sit down?
• 17:41
  Ryan Golec: Can we stand up?
• 17:41
  Ryan Golec: Can we get off the floor?
• 17:43
  Ryan Golec: It's a pretty amazing thing to see somebody that just comes in and goes, oh my God, I, I did that and I didn't think I could do it.
• 17:51
  Ryan Golec: I feel like that's more rewarding.
• 17:52
  Ryan Golec: It's someone's like, oh, I bench pressed 300 pounds.
• 17:55
  Ryan Golec: That's cool, but where does that get you at the end of the day?
• 17:59
  Ryan Golec: But if someone can push themselves off the ground, all of a sudden they're like, oh, Wow.
• 18:03
  Ryan Golec: I stood up, which seems so nominal and silly to everyone else, but when you see it over and over again when people can't do that.
• 18:11
  Ryan Golec: Now it's getting up off the grounds of one of my standard assessments.
• 18:14
  Ryan Golec: I have someone to come in and be like, all right, lay on your back and show me how you get up.
• 18:19
  Tom Jackobs: Wow.
• 18:19
  Ryan Golec: And I mean, there's a couple people that will look at me and be like, well, I can't do that.
• 18:23
  Ryan Golec: But even the people that do like the, the way that they have to manipulate themselves and the ground to be able to get off is you go, okay, we take this for granted.
• 18:34
  Ryan Golec: This is a general task and a need.
• 18:36
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 18:38
  Tom Jackobs: I always had clients that, the older clients that I had, it was like, yeah, I have one goal that nobody else needs to help me get off the toilet.
• 18:45
  Tom Jackobs: I wanna do it all by myself.
• 18:46
  Ryan Golec: I had the same client.
• 18:47
  Ryan Golec: I had a client said, I need to get off the toilet at 90, and he was about 67.
• 18:52
  Ryan Golec: And I go, okay.
• 18:54
  Tom Jackobs: Oh, wow.
• 18:54
  Ryan Golec: I go, all right, that's what We're doing
• 18:58
  Tom Jackobs: We're doing squats today.
• 18:59
  Ryan Golec: Mm-hmm.
• 19:00
  Tom Jackobs: Every day.
• 19:02
  Tom Jackobs: So let's shift gears a little bit into the business side.
• 19:06
  Tom Jackobs: How you balance making a profit in, in the business and still being heart-led?
• 19:12
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 19:13
  Ryan Golec: This is, this has been a struggle for me for a long time.
• 19:16
  Ryan Golec: I appreciate loyalty as I think anybody should in this type of business because I look at personal training and massage and I dunno, maybe acupuncture, even doctors, you know, even your concierge doctors or your concierge level physical therapists, like you're relying on people to consistently come to you for a long time to maintain your, your business.
• 19:42
  Ryan Golec: And I appreciated that for a long time.
• 19:47
  Ryan Golec: But the truth is, if you look at in 25 years, what something cost 25 years ago and what it costs now is a pretty big skewed line.
• 19:59
  Ryan Golec: And my people that I've had, and I have a lot of long-term people.
• 20:03
  Ryan Golec: I have 10 to 15 people that I've had 10 years plus.
• 20:06
  Ryan Golec: I have one client I've had for 22 years.
• 20:09
  Ryan Golec: Of those people up until about two years ago, I had raised their rate one time, and then I started seeing the skewed line between what people were, the rate I was having people come in at, like if they started today and where I had these other people.
• 20:26
  Ryan Golec: And my biggest fear was to lose the people that were consistent because I looked at my business and said I'm reliant on them.
• 20:34
  Ryan Golec: Like someone comes in and trains with me for six months at the new rate and they're like, oh, you know, I can't, or it's not worth it, or whatever it is, I lose that person.
• 20:41
  Ryan Golec: The person I've had forever has been there and will stay.
• 20:45
  Ryan Golec: But I had, and I've had to have that conversation with myself several times before.
• 20:49
  Ryan Golec: I eventually did raise it and I go, if people are loyal and they appreciate you, they're gonna appreciate you at what your value should be, and my value needs to be at what my lifestyle needs to sustain in today's economy.
• 21:03
  Ryan Golec: So I made a pretty nominal bump the first time.
• 21:07
  Ryan Golec: That was about two years ago, and then this year I also made a little bump, and for the most part, I don't get a lot of kickback.
• 21:13
  Ryan Golec: I have a couple very frugal people.
• 21:15
  Ryan Golec: They're like, well, and I just try to have the conversation if I need to, where I say, listen, what does it cost you to get a banana today versus what it cost you to get a banana four years ago?
• 21:27
  Ryan Golec: I said, it's not about me trying to gouge.
• 21:30
  Ryan Golec: The people that I'm with, it's about me trying to make my business match exactly what everything else is going.
• 21:36
  Ryan Golec: And I understand that just like when I go to the store or I go to a business, everything's higher.
• 21:41
  Ryan Golec: So when I ask someone for more money, they're like, something else that's higher.
• 21:46
  Ryan Golec: But that's the nature of the economy.
• 21:48
  Ryan Golec: And it would be cool if it wasn't, but I have to match my output and I have to match where the world is going.
• 21:55
  Ryan Golec: And at some point, I'm almost 50, and at some point I'm not gonna want to grind out, you know, eight or nine straight hours of clients for five days.
• 22:06
  Ryan Golec: I'm gonna want to scale that back, and for me to scale it back, the numbers have to match.
• 22:12
  Ryan Golec: And so every year I slowly raise up my rates on incoming people.
• 22:19
  Ryan Golec: And then I just try to keep the real consistent people I have at a discounted rate relative, but something that consistently makes me feel like I'm getting my value when I'm with them.
• 22:32
  Ryan Golec: And I'm not cheating the people that are also with me, that are paying a sig, you know, a fairly significant amount more.
• 22:40
  Ryan Golec: And when I started doing that with the minimal amount of kickback, I got more comfortable with it.
• 22:48
  Ryan Golec: And also having a community of trainers that I work with that are also in the industry a long time and having the same struggles.
• 22:58
  Ryan Golec: We've all kind of talked to each other and be like, well, this is, this is something we need to do.
• 23:02
  Ryan Golec: This is something we need to consistently do.
• 23:04
  Ryan Golec: And when you price somebody out, you can make the decision, is this somebody that I really care about, that cares about being here, that cares about the results, and I'm willing to make the adjustment for this person?
• 23:17
  Ryan Golec: Or is this someone that can get as much out of what I'm giving them somewhere else where they feel that they can get a better rate?
• 23:24
  Ryan Golec: I don't wanna say it's, it's selfish, but you look at, I have a couple people or have clients, my colleagues that look at their clients, they say, oh, I'm gonna have someone that's gonna argue over me bumping their hourly$5.
• 23:35
  Ryan Golec: And they roll in, in their, you know, their brand new BMW, that they just pulled off the lot and they just came back from, you know, two weeks in Italy.
• 23:45
  Ryan Golec: I'm like, well, you know, it's a lot of times it's prioritization just like we all have.
• 23:50
  Ryan Golec: If this is important to you and you feel like the benefits are life changing, at the end of the day, you are gonna value it.
• 23:59
  Ryan Golec: And if it's more valuable that you travel or save money for your, save more money for your children, or you want a new car, then that's where the priority's gonna lie.
• 24:08
  Ryan Golec: And I wish you luck and I hope that you find a place that you get the results you want at the price point you want.
• 24:15
  Ryan Golec: My important thing is, if you value me, I value you.
• 24:20
  Ryan Golec: And the more that people just go, great, I mean, I also have the people that are like, why are you only raising it$5?
• 24:27
  Ryan Golec: I'm like,
• 24:28
  Tom Jackobs: Exactly.
• 24:28
  Tom Jackobs: I was, I was actually gonna ask you that.
• 24:30
  Tom Jackobs: If you had clients that said, well, it's about time, Ryan, that you raise the rates.
• 24:34
  Tom Jackobs: Like, like, but only$5.
• 24:36
  Ryan Golec: Yeah.
• 24:36
  Tom Jackobs: You know,
• 24:37
  Ryan Golec: Or I've had one, yeah, I had one client.
• 24:39
  Ryan Golec: It's like, just raise me to whatever your current rate is.
• 24:41
  Ryan Golec: I was like, great.
• 24:42
  Ryan Golec: Spectacular.
• 24:44
  Ryan Golec: And actually had, yeah, yeah.
• 24:46
  Ryan Golec: Alright, if you say so I did, this was probably 10 plus years ago.
• 24:51
  Ryan Golec: I had a former golf pro that I was working with and he was the first person to look at me and go.
• 24:59
  Ryan Golec: I'm not gonna pay you this.
• 25:00
  Ryan Golec: He goes, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay you like, I think at the time my private rate was 60 bucks an hour and he goes, I'm not gonna pay this.
• 25:07
  Ryan Golec: I'm gonna pay you$75.
• 25:09
  Ryan Golec: And I was like, Oh okay.
• 25:11
  Ryan Golec: I'm like, cool, that sounds great.
• 25:13
  Ryan Golec: But it was the first time when I really felt like somebody looked at me and goes, you're undervaluing what you do.
• 25:20
  Ryan Golec: And if you don't feel in the business world, if you don't feel like you have value or a certain value, then it's gonna, it's gonna bleed out to the person you're working with.
• 25:31
  Ryan Golec: They're, they're gonna look at you and be like, well, that's what he's charging me.
• 25:33
  Ryan Golec: So that's the service I'm getting.
• 25:36
  Ryan Golec: And when I, when you talked about mentoring.
• 25:39
  Ryan Golec: And I have some of these, a lot of'em are coming in, maybe in a potential employment in the facility we're in.
• 25:43
  Ryan Golec: But when I talk to people there's a weird disconnect in the youth of this market today where they really come in with zero experience with this over visioned idea of what their value is and I had a young guy who had got a three day training certification and hadn't trained one person.
• 26:08
  Ryan Golec: He was 22.
• 26:09
  Ryan Golec: He goes, well, you know, I'm at work.
• 26:12
  Ryan Golec: I'm not gonna really start before eight or nine.
• 26:15
  Ryan Golec: I like to, you know, I like to sleep and get rest and get started in the morning.
• 26:18
  Ryan Golec: I think I have to charge about 125 an hour and I go, okay, there are people out there charging that.
• 26:27
  Ryan Golec: I said, why, you know what?
• 26:29
  Ryan Golec: What are you bringing to the table at$125 an hour?
• 26:33
  Ryan Golec: And if you can't give me an answer, then you can't charge$125 an hour, even if you fake it because you're not there, and therein is the disconnect to the heart-led side, right?
• 26:45
  Ryan Golec: I'm just charging a big amount of money because I think that's what I need to be charging.
• 26:49
  Ryan Golec: Or even what you're providing them.
• 26:52
  Ryan Golec: Like if I've got tens and 20 thousands of dollars into different continuing add things throughout my career and I did my master's later in life and I, you know, I've done mentorships and long certifications.
• 27:08
  Ryan Golec: I've done everything to try to bring whatever I can to improve the people that I work with and to say that I can walk out the gate and be like, well, this is my rate.
• 27:18
  Ryan Golec: It feels disconnected to me.
• 27:20
  Ryan Golec: I want to know that that person knows they're getting the value.
• 27:24
  Ryan Golec: And so when you look at it, when someone looks at me and says, that's awesome, I'm happy to pay it.
• 27:31
  Ryan Golec: That makes me feel like I'm in the right spot when I have someone else that goes, Yeah, I don't know.
• 27:37
  Ryan Golec: I go, I, I totally understand.
• 27:39
  Ryan Golec: I'm, I'm not offended.
• 27:40
  Ryan Golec: If you need to leave, but I'm not gonna make you a special rate because you don't know if you, if it's worth the value, because I want you to see the value in it.
• 27:48
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 27:49
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 27:50
  Tom Jackobs: And that's, that's the, the whole crux of any business and especially heart-led businesses where I think a lot of business owners struggle with showing the value and, you know doubting, own horn, so to speak, in terms of, promoting themselves in terms of they, they, that they deserve that amount of, that, that rate that they want to charge.
• 28:13
  Tom Jackobs: And they undervalue themselves too much because they don't really look at the value that they're providing to their, to their ultimate client.
• 28:21
  Tom Jackobs: It's an interesting dynamic for sure.
• 28:24
  Ryan Golec: In our economy, there isn't a standard, right?
• 28:28
  Ryan Golec: Like with medical care, there's a standard, either it's dictated by what insurance payouts are.
• 28:35
  Ryan Golec: So when you're talking about concierge doctors that you work with, they're paying a certain, they're charging a certain amount because that's what other people are charging or relative in that window.
• 28:45
  Ryan Golec: Massage, when you're looking around town, there's gonna be a skewed amount, but if you have, you know, your rolfing style body workers or people that have a very specific style, there's a, there's a rate, and the fitness world is so skewed by what the product is.
• 29:04
  Ryan Golec: That It's really hard to know by, you can see it a little bit by region, but if I have a really experienced one-on-one trainer that's gonna charge X and then the box gym is charging Y and then the group instructors are charging, you know, Z, and those numbers look so different that when someone doesn't know any better, they're gonna walk in and be like, oh my gosh, no.
• 29:29
  Ryan Golec: And the other part of it too is to take yourself outta the equation, because I'm not, you know, I'm not coming from a financial background of whatever you're charging.
• 29:39
  Ryan Golec: I'm paying, like, I look and go, if I was paying for it, what could I, what could I reasonably afford?
• 29:44
  Ryan Golec: What would the value be to me?
• 29:45
  Ryan Golec: And I have to take myself out of that equation because I'm not.
• 29:48
  Ryan Golec: I charge myself zero to train myself.
• 29:51
  Tom Jackobs: Right, exactly.
• 29:53
  Tom Jackobs: Well, and I told, my employees at the, fitness centers, like, well, you know, I wouldn't pay this because I don't need it.
• 30:00
  Ryan Golec: Yeah.
• 30:00
  Tom Jackobs: But our clients need it and we provide a great value.
• 30:03
  Tom Jackobs: And that's why the price is the price.
• 30:05
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 30:06
  Ryan Golec: Right, So I think it's, it's really understanding that the value of your service is more than the value of what you would pay personally.
• 30:15
  Ryan Golec: But
• 30:15
  Tom Jackobs: Yes.
• 30:16
  Ryan Golec: when you're looking at who you're working with, there is always gonna be an exception of someone that's like, this person really needs what I'm providing and I would like to help them out.
• 30:28
  Ryan Golec: Like, that's an understandable thing.
• 30:30
  Ryan Golec: But if you are just sitting there going, I, I can't charge that much, I'm gonna lose people.
• 30:36
  Ryan Golec: That's an undervalue of who you are.
• 30:38
  Ryan Golec: So I'm happy to put myself into scenarios where someone, I'm gonna help somebody out if they need it, if I really think that they value what I'm doing and they're getting a lot out of it, but when it comes down to it, the business still has to be the business, and I need to provide something that when I go home, I'm paying my bills, I'm taking care of my family, I am taking care of my needs, and I'm giving myself an opportunity to not have to do this until I'm 90 years old.
• 31:07
  Tom Jackobs: Exactly.
• 31:09
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 31:10
  Tom Jackobs: So, such, such good advice.
• 31:12
  Tom Jackobs: And I know a lot of heart-led business owners, whether they're in the personal training space or the medical space, really do struggle with that value.
• 31:21
  Tom Jackobs: So thank you so much for, for sharing that, that piece.
• 31:24
  Tom Jackobs: With the audience, how can people learn more about you and your facility and the training that you do?
• 31:32
  Ryan Golec: You can find me on instagram, which I am not a spectacular poster, but I've got a handful of content on there.
• 31:40
  Ryan Golec: And that is, movement, M-O-V-E-M-E-N-T, mechanx, M-E-C-H-A-N-X.
• 31:51
  Ryan Golec: I don't even know how to spell my own, my own handle.
• 31:54
  Ryan Golec: And then, I work out of a facility called performanceEDU.
• 31:59
  Ryan Golec: And you can find that at performanceedufitness.com.
• 32:04
  Tom Jackobs: All right.
• 32:05
  Tom Jackobs: Cool.
• 32:06
  Tom Jackobs: Well, Ryan, thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing your wisdom and your, you know, 25 years in the fitness industry that that's, really quite the accomplishment.
• 32:15
  Tom Jackobs: So congrats on that as well.
• 32:17
  Tom Jackobs: And thank you for sharing your, your wisdom with us.
• 32:19
  Ryan Golec: Alright, thanks Tom.
• 32:20
  Ryan Golec: Hey, I've had a great time.
• 32:21
  Ryan Golec: I appreciate it.
• 32:22
  Tom Jackobs: No worries.
• 32:23
  Tom Jackobs: And thank you listeners for listening to the show or watching the show today.
• 32:27
  Tom Jackobs: We really do appreciate it.
• 32:28
  Tom Jackobs: So make sure you're checking out everything that Ryan is doing.
• 32:31
  Tom Jackobs: We're gonna put all those links down in the show notes, so make sure you're checking that out.
• 32:35
  Tom Jackobs: And also, while you're down there, if you could share the show with a friend or family member that could use this advice today, that would certainly help spread the word that heart-led businesses can make a profit and still be heart-led.
• 32:48
  Tom Jackobs: So until next time, lead with your heart.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.