Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 102. Joe Yoon, Massage Therapist @JoeTherapy

Transcript

102. Joe Yoon, Massage Therapist @JoeTherapy · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Stretching is just part of the pie, you know, the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: healthy life pie. It's not just one thing. It needs
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: everything to make it work.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hey Hardler's Emily a body here with episode one hundred
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: and two of Hurdle, a woneless focused podcast where I
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: sit down with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: their big wins to how they've gotten through some of
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: life's toughest moments. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs on what it really takes to follow your passions.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: My mission is simple to inspire you to be your
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: best self, move with intention, and have some fun along
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the way. This week, I am chatting with Joe Youn
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: He's better known to his more than one million Instagram
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: followers as Joe Therapy. Now full disclosure, this was recorded
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: last month before you were all staying inside. I feel
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: like that's kind of a disclaimer that needs to happen
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: when I'm bringing you new content. So just for the record,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Joe is a certified personal trainer. He's a licensed massage
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: therapist and his client roster includes everyone from Olympic gold
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: medalists to NFL Pro Bowl players and championship bodybuilders. In
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: today's episode, we talk about everything from how he actually
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: got kicked out of his major in college and how
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: he rebounded from that hurdle moment to find a career
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: as a fitness professional. We also talk about what it's
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: like to be a new author. Joe just released a
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: book called Better Stretching, which I think is something so
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: so many of us can really benefit from right now
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: as we lounge around the house day in and day out.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: In that book, you'll find a lot of jo including
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: three different thirty day plans designed to give you max
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: flexibility results. Yes, please, before we get to it today,
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  Speaker 2: As always at Emily a body at Hurdle Podcasts. If
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: you have a hurdle moment of your own to share,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: you just want to say Hi, I'm always here to listen.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: You can email me over at emilyat hurdle dot us.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Hope everyone's staying safe. Sending you love from my home
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: to yours. With that, let's get to hurdling today. I'm
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: sitting down with Joe Yun otherwise known as Joe Therapy
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: on Instagram. A massage therapist, a personal trainer, a jack
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: of all trades. If you will, how you.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Doing, Joe, and well, thank you for having me.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I feel like you might be the first person that
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I've sat down with that I feel like has an
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: extraordinary podcasting voice.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I get that a lot. I don't know if I've
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: bought in yet, but maybe I've been hearing it a lot,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: so maybe I'll get into it.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Maybe soon, you too, like everybody else, will launch their
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: own podcast, Joe, What brings you to New York? What
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: you got going on?
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  Speaker 1: I have a book coming out and it's called Better Stretching.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: So just meeting up with a lot of my friends
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: who live in New York and doing some podcasts like
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Hurdle podcasts and just trying to get the word out.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Awesome. So let's talk about why this book? Why now?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: What's going on?
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So one of my things is a lot of
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: people know me for Instagram and doing mobility exercises and stretches.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: But I kind of live in that bubble, you know.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I live in that ig bubble where you know, I
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: think I can reach so many more people. And one
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: way was a book. And some people like to watch
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: videos to learn, some people like to read books, some
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: people like to listen to podcasts to learn, And I
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: just thought it would be a great way to help
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: more people move better and feel better.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I love that on Instagram you have a casual one
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: point three million followers. Does that ever, like feel sort
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: of weird.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Very weird.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I don't think I realized how big it is until
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: my friends tell me about it, and then I'll get
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: randomly stopped on the street in different areas. Yeah, and
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like, and I actually had a freak out moment
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: this trip where I was getting some body work done.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm a little bit more well known in the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: massage therapy field too, because a lot of those guys
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: follow me and the therapist was like, oh my god,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: are you Joe Therapy and just start freaking out. And
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: then when the owner asked me if you know who
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I wanted for a therapist, I was like that person
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: right there. And I heard she was very nervous when
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: she was working on me after the session.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Because the first thing you're gonna do is could cheek
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: everything that she's doing.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm so chill. Everyone's go, oh my god, Joe,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: it's a master massage therapist. And I'm just like, I'm
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: so chill. You just step on me, press on me,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and I'm a happy camper.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Does it ever feel sort of weird that people refer
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: to you by your Instagram name?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: People are like, oh, your last name is not Therapy,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, no.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine? Yeah, it's creaty, legal, legal last name.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Well, maybe I'll have to change it because everyone knows me.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: But I made sure I put my real name on
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the book so people important. Yeah, people start calling me
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: by my real.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Name, Joe yun Okay, well, Joe, talk to me about
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: life before you were Joe Therapy. Growing up? Where were
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: you born, Where did you get your start? Yeah.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: So I grew up in southern Maine, south Portland, Maine,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: was born and raised there, did some sports, kind of
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the typical life, right, It's just you start with soccer
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: and then you branch off into your other sports. And
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I really start to get into lacrosse and golf at
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the time, and I really loved that, and then ended
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: up going to college in Connecticut. So I've been a
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: little bit all over the Northeast, and this is probably
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the first place where I guess you could say I ad
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: my first hurdle was you know, I struggled in school.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: A lot of people think I'm a physical therapist on Instagram.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I think I've gotten kind of caught in that bubble
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: of the rehab niche with all these videos, and of
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: course when you're a physical therapist, you have to have
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a very high GPA to get into school and get
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: into graduate school. I did massage therapy after the fact,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: but I struggled in school and actually got kicked out
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: of my major senior year, which was very devastating because
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: not only coming from a stereotypical kind of like the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Asian family, where you know, you want to be very
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: good at your schooling, you know, I felt pretty much
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: like a failure and like, what am I going to do?
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: You know, growing up it's all about college. You know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: no one was really entrepreneur back then. No one was
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: really doing their own thing. It was like you go
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: to college, you get a good job, you get married,
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  Speaker 1: and then that's kind of the progression. But yeah, I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: went to college and did not do great, great at all.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so when a couple of things. First of all,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: what was the major that you got kicked out of?
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So it was called Diagnostic image, so it was doing
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: X rays and then you would specialize in doing like
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: MRIs and CT scans. And I ended up getting three
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: c's throughout the whole program, which if you got three
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: c's on that third one, you got kicked out of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the major. And the funny thing was, now looking back
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: at it, I did great in the things like clinicals,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the labs absolutely crush those. But when it came down
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to a little bit more like the textbook and test taking,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I realized that was just way more difficult for me.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And looking back at I was like, man, I probably
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: should have maybe picked a different program, not maybe go
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: to a university where it was very textbook based or
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: maybe you know, go to like a technical school or
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: a hospital to actually get that profession or get licensed
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: for that profession. So it was interesting looking back at
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: it now when you're in there, you're just like, why
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: can't I figure this out? Why can't you know? I'm
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: studying for so long and I still can't pass the test?
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: You know? Back then, it's it was kind of like
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: an uphill battle.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Before you said, a lot of people think that you're
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: a doctor of physical therapy. Do you ever experience imposter
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: syndrome with what you're doing?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent? Uh? And more so before before when
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I was trying to and this is another thing, trying
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: to be something that I wasn't and looking back at
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: that college experience, you know, trying so hard to be
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: that textbook you know, textbook you know learner and learn
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: as much as you can and be basically at the
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: top of you know what you're doing. And I started
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: realizing as I started doing my Instagram posts, people started saying,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: you make things so easy to understand, and in my brain,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, that's great, but I also want
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to be the smartest person, right. I think everyone just
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: wants to be the smartest person to outperform everyone else
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: in their field. And then I just realized, you know what,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: that's probably not me. Uh, I speak a little bit different.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I speak in a lot more simple terms. And also reading, reading, reading,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know that wasn't the most important part
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: for me. It's making sure people understand what I'm doing
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and so they can benefit from it. So the imposter syndrome,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I've heard this a lot. It's like, oh man, I
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: don't think I belong in this field, but I almost
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: have tried to put myself not in like a medical field,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: but also but just below it where it's more personal trainer,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: massage therapists. And I let all the people who went
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: to graduate school and invested four extra years of their
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you know, of their time and a lot of money.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I hear a lot of debt stories from my my colleagues,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: so I let them take care of, you know, the
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: very complex issues that you know what, that maybe they're
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: better off handling totally.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: And I think that it's really valuable that you just
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: own your skill set right exactly. I think a lot
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: of the time it's easy to get trapped in that
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: compar garrison hole and I can only imagine with the
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: more and the more eyes on you, it can feel
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: a little bit daunting.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: It's very intimidating, and it's very crazy getting comments from
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: everywhere that's unsolicited. You know, they just come out of
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: left field. Why aren't you teaching this? Why aren't you
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: doing that? And I'm just like, wow, that's social media
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: is great, but you also get a lot of critiques,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of negativity, and when you start getting all
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: these people watching you and following you, it becomes significantly tougher.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: One of the things at the beginning was, you know,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I really try to ignore all the people who are negative.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: You know. I think a lot of people say, you know,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: just take all the negative people out of your life,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of what I did on social media.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Also in real life too, but on social media there's
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: just so many more people unfollowing a lot of accounts.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: You can now mute accounts so you don't see it,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and that will very difficult because when I was getting
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: all this negativity, and I also starting comparing myself to
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: other people, which I think is it's tough. When you're
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: starting to grow something, or you're starting to grow a business,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: you look at someone who's probably not in the same
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: position as you, maybe further down the line, and they
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: might be doing cooler things and looks like they're more successful,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and you start comparing yourself to those types of people
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: and it really messes with your brain. It really messed
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: with my brain at the beginning because I just started
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: and I was looking at these people who were, well,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: it's ig world anyways, but you know, flying to places
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and with celebrities and doing this and this. I'm like, man,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I'm doing nothing compared to this person. So once I
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: realized that's just concentrate on what I'm doing, I'll cut
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: those people out at least not look at their stuff.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And it's crazy how much more focused you are and
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: how fast you grow. Yeah, it's wild.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's wild. So talk to me about what happens
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: after you get dropped from your major senior year.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that was tough because I mean it
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: was that big failure moment, and it was probably the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: worst thing that could ever happen, because you know, all
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: your friends are starting to graduate. I graduated, but it
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: was with a generic bachelor's degree. It was health and
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: science studies. Sounds all right, but you couldn't get a
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: job after school with that, So I did have my
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: bachelor's degree, which was you know, it was okay at
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the time, but you know, seeing all your friends, you know,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: finishing college and starting to get their jobs and starting
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to make a decent salary to provide for themselves and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: move to cool places, you know, I struggled with that.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: You know. It took about a year off just to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: kind of just regroup and kind of see what I
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: was wanted to do, also applying for jobs to see
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: if anything a bit. But that's right. When I started
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: to get into working out, I was, you know, doing
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: athletics in high school, but just going to the gym.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: You do your cable curls and your bench press and
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: get the hell out of there. Yeah, that was it, right.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Beach muscles, Yeah, beach muscles, no warm ups.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: I remember. I remember I went on a date with
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: someone years and years ago and I asked him what
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: he liked to do in the gym, and he just said,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: you know, just like the beach muscles. And I had
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: never heard that phrase before, and I walked away from
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: that conversation always just having such an appreciation for the
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: beach muscles.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Just the front side. Yeah, just the pecks and the
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: biceps and the shoulders and that's it. That's it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Okay, So you are used to working the beach muscles.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what I grew up on. It's like
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: you look at those the bodybuilding magazine. It's all about
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: aesthetics and trying to pick up chicks. So, you know,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I was working on like high school and college, but
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: in college, closer to senior year, I start to actually
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: dive into you know, not just you know, chest and
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: biceps every single day. You know. I started to go
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: on in the forums a lot. That's what I think
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: was popular back back in early was there, like two
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: thousand and nine twenty ten. You know, we didn't have
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: social media, so people would go online and read blogs
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and go on forms to learn stuff. And I was
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: really getting interested in that. And then I would watch
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: these YouTube videos early YouTube days on trainers that would
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: coach people, and I'm like, you know what, I'm really
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: getting into working out. I think I could train people.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Let me try my certification. I think that would be
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a great at least career choice for now while I
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: figure stuff out. Right, So I ended up doing my
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: personal training certification and then moved to Massachusetts, just outside
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of Boston and worked at my first big box gym,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of how it started.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: And once you started working at your first big box gym,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: did you know right then and there that this is
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: kind of the path that you wanted to pursue or
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: was this still kind of just something maybe you were
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: doing on the side.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: It was a work in progress. A lot of people
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: think I'm extroverted, and I'm actually introverted, maybe introverted extrovert,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: where half the time I want to be alone and
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: then half the time I love being around people.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Isn't it funny that we feel that we need to
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: designate exactly what it is that we all exactly.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Everything needs a label, Everything needs a label. And when
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I started to, I mean I really had to step
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: outside of my comfort zone when I did that, because
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: my manager would be like, Joe, you see that person
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: down on the floor, go talk to them, and I'm like,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: crap in my pants. I'm like, I don't know what
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: to do, what to say, and I got really anxious
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: and nervous. But that was really important time because it
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: first got me out of my comfort zone. So I
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: felt a little bit more confident. It was also helped
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: me build rapport with people and build relationships with strangers,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: which I do all the time now and that was amazing.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And then as that started to progress, then I could
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: see it being a viable future and there was something
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed, which was huge.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Plus, I think it's also important because so often when
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: life isn't going as we thought that it would, we
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: are so hard on ourselves, right, And you start to
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: do this occupation and you start training and you start
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: to realize that you like it, and you have to
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: give up what you thought would be to enjoy what
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: it is that you have sometimes and so for you
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: you're just you know, doing the best you can with
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: what you have. And I think that's so important.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really cool. It's you go into college
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: thinking one thing and it's like you have to do this,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: and then graduating without a job and going into something
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: totally different than what you thought you would and enjoying
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: it and seeing, okay, there's a lot of potential Here's
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: it was really cool. At the time. It's really cool,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: but the pay was still shitty, but it was I
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: could see it going somewhere, so.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about what happens after this first job
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: at the Big Bops gym. Yeah.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: So when I was at that Jim, I had the
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: opportunity to shadow someone in Florida that was a golf
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: fitness trainer but also therapist, so he was also a
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: massage therapist. So I went down to Florida had the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: opportunity to shadow him at a golf academy, and that's
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: where I got exposed to the soft tissue side of things.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: He would have a student or a client working on
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: their golf swing and his coach would be like, you
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: can't get into this position. Go see the trainer therapist
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and see if we can get you moving a little
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: bit better. So I was watching that and he would
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: just do a little bit of soft tissue work, some
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: movement work, and then significantly better could get into the
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: positions that the coach wanted him to and then go
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: up back onto the range fixed. And that's where it
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: really sparked my interest. I'm like, what are you doing.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: He's like, I'm doing this technique gets them into a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: better position and it really benefits these athletes and players,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: And that was kind of the light bulb moment for me.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: It's Oh, I can do this in real time. If
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I'm training the client and maybe they can't get into
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: a certain position like an overhead press, maybe I can
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: do a little soft tissue work to help improve that
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: brane of motion and then they can do that exercise
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: more efficiently. And I thought that was just mind blowing.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I'm like, Wow, that is so cool. And then after
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I ended up enrolling in a massage therapy program that
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: was part time, so I would train at five am
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: am in the morning, train clients, go to massage therapy
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: school from when was it ten to two pm, and
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: then go back to the gym to train the rest
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of my clients. And I did that for about eight months.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Eight months. Yeah, I was actually talking to someone who
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: is writing their thesis for a master's program, and we
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: were talking about how difficult it is to have a
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: job while also having a side hustle, if you will.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: I remember when I was studying for my personal trading certification.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: I would do my nine to five. I would take
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: an hour break to eat and commute home, and then
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: I would study for another three hours and just by
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, when you're up so early
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: to work out and then you're working, and then you're
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: working again. It just it's a cycle that feels like
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: it never ends. How did you not get burnt out
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: during this period?
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: A lot of naps, and it was tough because you know,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and you have the hours that people don't work right.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: And I had a client that wanted five am, five
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: days a week, and I couldn't say no because he
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: was the majority of my income at the time. He
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: was a great guy, which made it way easier. But
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I would wake up at four every single day train
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: even if it was just that person. I would drive
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: twenty thirty minutes to the gym, train them. Maybe I'd
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: work out myself some days, and then I would drive
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: back and then I would wait around go to school.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Then this is where my nap came into play. Also,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: massage therapy was cool because we would work on each
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: other and then you had probably forty five minutes to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: just relax and I would pass out and just start
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: snoring on the table and a lot of people did too. Yeah,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and then after, you know, I would just maybe take
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: a nap and then go back to the gym till
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: maybe like four or five to you know, eight pm,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: nine pm, and it's very tough. I give props to
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: anyone trying to do a career change where they're just
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: unhappy and they want to do something that they love
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and going back to school for it, because you know,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: it's like I didn't have kids or I don't have kids,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and I'm still struggling to balance everything. So it props
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: to people who have way more responsibility trying to change
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: their careers totally.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: So you go to school and you graduated from school,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: is there a proper graduation for massage therapy school?
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: It was like we go out to we went out
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: to dinner and then give us our certificate and I
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: was like, bi's out, I'm out.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I'm ready to do this. So how do you start
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: implementing this into your day to day?
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was cool because I went into massage there
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: be kind of knowing what I wanted to do and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: how I wanted to format, you know, my sessions. So
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I ended up going right to Florida for the opportunity
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: at the Golf Academy so they had an opening and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: stayed connected with them throughout Massage Therapy School and actually
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: just kind of implemented and inserted myself into their golf school,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: so it was really cool. So I was doing my
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: fitness training and then anyone who needed therapy or anything
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: on the side, they would hop in and see me
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: or the other therapists. So it was very easy transition.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: And that's where I start to learn a little bit
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: more about how to structure things, how to have a
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: good workout program. It's a little bit more next level
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: thinking than just you know, bust out. You know, three
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: reps or ten reps of bench press and going to
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: this exercise was really cool. Learned a lot about, you know,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: assessing people.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Right, and so when you're doing this, do you have
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: an idea of where you want to take this aspect
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: of your career or are you just completely content at
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: the golf situation or what do you have going on.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: At the time. Golf was great because I grew up
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: playing golf, really loving the sport, and you know, there's
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of different I actually took a position up
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: in New Jersey. I lived in Morristown actually not too
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: far from here for a little bit to take another
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: golf job opportunity, and I thought everything was going great,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: but there was just a cap and ceiling on. You know,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: it's not all about money, but you have to make
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: enough money to live, especially up in this area. And
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I was just capped working for someone. And then that's
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: when things kind of pivoted a little bit with my career.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: It was I really love this sport, and I love
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: the training and therapy aspect of it, but right now,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: it's just not paying the bills, right, So I felt
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: like I needed to pivot a little bit.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, so what happens in the pivot?
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: So I became an entrepreneur, which was probably stupid at
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the time but great now. I figured I was like,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I can't make enough money working for someone, especially in
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the training industry. I think a lot of people in
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the fitness professional world, they know if you're working for someone,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: it's a lot. It's probably a little bit easier because
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: it takes the responsibility off of you, you know, like
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: overhead and brands and everything, but you're kind of capped
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: at how much you can make. And that could be
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: good for some people, but it just wasn't for me.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: I was I wanted to kind of do my own thing.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: And you also have to rely on not saying anything
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: stupid because you represent a company now. And I was like,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I just want to do me. So I decided to
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: quit and I moved back down to Florida to become
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. And then this is where I got that
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: nice kicking the ass, like what the hell did you do?
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I thought everything was just going to go back to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: how it was before I left, and I would get
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: my old clients back, I would make the same amount
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of income that I did, and I was totally wrong.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Everyone else had their own trainer, everyone else was part
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: of academy who already had a staff, and I could
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: not pick up clients at all. So this is when
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I realized being an entrepreneurs way harder than it looks,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and you should probably have a plan going in because
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I kind of wung it or it wong it.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I get a lot of questions actually from people that
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: are looking at what I'm doing, and they say, I
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: really want to do my own thing. I totally all
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: of the perks that you mentioned. I don't want to
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: have a boss. I just want to report to myself.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: And I feel as though while everyone could try to
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: do it, there are definitely certain types of people or
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: certain personality types that, when presented with the opportunity to
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: become an entrepreneur, they would thrive versus sinking. There's nothing
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: wrong with being the kind of person that thrives in
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: an office environment.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no way. Like a lot of people talk about, oh,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: you have to be an entrepreneur, entrepreneur, I'm like you.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I have so many friends who crush it in their
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: jobs and they are doing very you know, awesome things,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: making great incomes. But they work for someone. But you know,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I think for some different for different industries, it's a
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: little bit different.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So how do you get out of the hole? Yeah?
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was that was the tough part was
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I had to pivot a little bit and back in
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Florida because a golf thing wasn't really working. I decided
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: to pivot to more of the massage therapy side of things.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: And it was a big bodybuilding community down in Florida.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Everyone's a fitness competitor and the gym I was going
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to is you know, everyone was just pumping iron down there,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: and I realized a lot of people they didn't really
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: do too much recovery work, and there was only maybe
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: one or two people who really specialize in working with
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: athletes or bodybuilders to make them feel better, you know,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: while they're training or prepping for some sort of competition
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: or an event. So I'm like, you know what, maybe
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I'll start working on a couple of my buddies. And
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: this is where my Instagram start to come into play.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Because I'm in debt. I have no money at all
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: in the bank. How the hell am I going to
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: get the word out? So, of course, do all the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: referrals from friends. But I decided to start using Instagram
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: as the big marketing driver for my business. So I
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: would just be like, hey, hey, Mike, can I work
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: on you at the gym and record just a couple
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: pieces of it? Like of course, yeah, it's you know,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: you're giving it for free, and you're also my buddy,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: so yeah, of course, and then I'll post it on
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: my Instagram. And that's how it kind of started, and
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I was getting my books slowly started to fill up,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and it was really cool. I mean, it's unbelievable how
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: you can create something from nothing, and yeah, it was amazing.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: It was really cool.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: What do you mean, though, something from nothing in this instance.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just going from literally no clients to actually having
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: you know, a little side business. You know, I wanted
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: to be my main business. But you know, I think
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of people struggle with how do I gain
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: client tell in this type of business because I have
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: zero connections. I just don't know where to start. And
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I was like, I just posted on Instagram and I
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: kept doing it in hopes that other people would see
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: that I worked on their friends. And that's what happened,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: and it's one of the reasons why I actually got
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: one of my top high profile track athletes was kind
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: of through social media. It's very cool and I know
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: you did a podcast with Hastings.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Natasha, Natasha.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: So I work with a guy named Justin Gatlin and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I travel with him and one of the reasons why
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: was because of social media. I worked out with it's
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: his wife now, but we worked out at the same
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: gym at five am in the morning and she had
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: no clue what I did, so we were just past
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: each other, not even say hi. But she worked with
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: one of my trainer buddies at the gym, and then
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I did a session with someone else from the gym.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: He reposted it on his page saying great things about me.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: She saw that and said, wow, I didn't know you
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: do therapy and you work on athletes. You know, do
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: you travel? And I was like, I can travel.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: I am capable.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: I can do that. He's like, oh, well, you know
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: my boyfriend, he's an athlete and you know he's looking
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: for someone right now. Maybe I can get you a
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: trial run. And that's how it started. Yeah, you never
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: know what you're going to get. Even if you have
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: ten followers one hundred followers, you never know who's going
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: to see that one post, which I think is very valuable.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Everyone's looking for that. I need to have a million followers.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: I no, you don't just need one.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to give a shout
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: out to LinkedIn when you are ready to find that
• 30:25
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• 30:30
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• 30:35
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• 30:42
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• 30:46
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• 30:49
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• 30:59
  Speaker 2: to get fifty dollars off your first job post today,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: let's get back to it. I mean the important message
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: there is that for one person, you could be making
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: the biggest difference. And I think sometimes we can feel
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: paranoid or worried about being vulnerable or transparent because we're
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: scared of what the bigger audience will think. But when
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: you dial it back and you realize that you have
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to help other people, to instill change in
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: other people, that's when you really home in on your message.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: That's when you kind of grab life by the horns
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: and you're like, Okay, like, let's make this difference for
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: this one person and then see what happens from there.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really cool. And then, you know, working
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: with the people in my local community that was huge.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: It's you know, I'm starting to build a business. I'm
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: helping these people achieve their goals of competing. And that's
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: again now I kind of pivoted it again because I
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't reaching I felt like enough people, or I wasn't
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: helping enough people. Because people would ask me, Joe, I
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: love what you're doing, but I'm not in Orlando. You know,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: do you recommend anyone I was like, geez, like everyone
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: keeps asking me that. That's when I start to shift
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: my Instagram to more educational stuff where people could do
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: things on their own at home, and that's where this
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: kind of tennis ball thing came about. It's how can
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I self massage using a tennis ball? And I started
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: putting that out and start helping more people that were
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: not local to me, and that's kind of what started
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: that big burst of growth.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: So the tennis ball was the first like instruction video you're.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Saying exactly, So I used this when I started a
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: lot of it's stretching. Now that's what people see. But
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: when I started my social media, it was just self
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: massage techniques because I was like, I'm a massage therapist.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I'll keep it consistent and I would wave the tennis
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: ball saying, hey, you just need a tennis ball for this,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: and you just have to place it on this body
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: part and just start moving it. And that started to
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: gain a lot of traction on social because I think
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: it's something that people didn't see often. It was a
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: lot of fitness and then there was like a lot
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: of yoga, but there was nothing really in between. So
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: I start to get a lot of eyeballs on it,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: and start to get a lot of good feedback from it.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: I think the thing also that's really special about what
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: you're saying that you started with is like you just
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: started with a tennis ball. Yeah.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, very simple, I know.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: And so often, I mean, whether it's with a social
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: media account or whether it's with running or god knows what.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, we are so good at over complicating things, right,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Like people aren't going out there and again, like with
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: the running example, they're like, oh, I need these certain
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: types and this certain shirt, and if I don't have
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: these special sneakers, and I can't go for more than
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: twenty seconds. And the reality is is like you just
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: need a will exactly.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Everyone over complicates everything, and I think that's why I've
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: been successful. You know, if someone told me, Joe, you
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: make everything so easy, a six year old could understand it,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I never thought of it
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: that way, but I guess that makes sense. It's really
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: cool because not only do I keep it simple, people
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: who are not from the US or don't speak English,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: they can also understand a lot of the videos that
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I do because it's I'm demonstrating it, Yeah, but everyone
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: over complicates things. You don't need a It's cool to
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: have fancy stuff, don't get me wrong. I have cool
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: recovery devices and you know, cool shirts and shoes, but
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: also you can just use something that cost a dollar
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: or you probably just have one laying around and use
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: that to help, you know, make you feel better.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: You get hooked up with Justin Gallen and you do
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: some trout.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Where do you travel, So we've done We're probably gonna
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: go to Granada. So we did Grenada last year too,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: which is you know, work is hard, but it's also
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: nice to do it in beachy areas.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: So I've been to kind of Chech Republic with him
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: when he won the World Championship in twenty seventeen for
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: one hundred meter over in London, which was my first
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: time being in London, which was I love that place. Yeah,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: so just a little bit of everywhere and it's very
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: cool to see that side of things as well, this
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: high level athlete and what they do to prepare and
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: their mindset too. I love talking to people who are
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: at the top of their game because they're not the same.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: You know, they are amazing people, but their mindset is
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: just on a different level, and whenever I can pick
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: his brain on things, it's it's pretty crazy.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Can you let us in on any of the hot
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: tips that you've gotten from a mindset perspective.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: I think just the way high level people they analyze
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: things and how they can break down they're just obsessed
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: with their craft. I mean, if you look at and
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: I've worked with like NFL guys too, and some other
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Olympic athletes who are in different sports. You know, one
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: of his things is it's a nine second ten second race,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: but he tells me how he breaks down each portion
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: of the race and what happens if he doesn't do
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: great at the start, or maybe hey he does have
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: a great start, or that person has a great start.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, you're thinking of all of this in
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: that short of a time, literally split second. I can't
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: think of this stuff in the five minutes, and you're
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: breaking it down in just a split second. And just
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: being around these guys' practices, it's just a different work ethic.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: And I think anyone who's striving to be the greatest,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: if you hang out with people who are at the top,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: you will learn something. The osmosis or just seeing their
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: will it's unbelievable and you'll probably be like, Damn, I'm
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: not doing enough.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: I can totally relate with that. So are you still
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: to this day working out of the same gym or
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: have you kind of moved on to bigger and greener pastures.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: So I was just working out at this gym and
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: I've had I think this is my third clinic. And
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: when I say clinic, kind of like office space. You know.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I started just renting a room, which you know, I
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: had zero incomes. I just split. I was like, hey,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: here's a portion of my rent or a portion of
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: my sessions, and let me use your room, and they
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: were cool with that. Then I rented my own room,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: had another room, and now I'm in a little bit
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: bigger space, about twelve hundred square feet.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: We have.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Some power racks in their massage table, so it's very
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: cool space. So now I'm in Orlando with a nice
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: open area to work on people.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: When does the whole book situation come into play.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: For the timeline? I started my Instagram February twenty seventeen
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: from just a brand new account, the Joe Therapy account,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: to New Year's Day of twenty nineteen, so it was
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: just under two years I went from zero to a million.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I got approached and had the idea of
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: a book, but I wasn't really ready. It was about
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: the end of twenty seventeen. My business was just growing
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: and I was still really just concentrating on my in
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: person business and pushing social media content. And then about
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: a year later, I decided to you know what, I
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: think I'm ready for a book. I want to help
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: more people move better and feel better.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: How cool is that, though, that you're already reaching so
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: many people and in your head you're like, I want
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: to help more.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: It's really cool to actually get this these comments that saying,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: hey Joe, I just did this one thing and I
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: feel so much better. Or I was in just a
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: little bit of pain, but you helped me relieve it
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: a little bit just from this one video, so I
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: can go work out tomorrow. It gets addicting, and I
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people who go into personal training.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know about now. I think it might be
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit different with social media. But back in
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: the day before social it's like we did it just
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: because we really love what we're doing. Right, it's not
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: about the fame, it's just about to help people. So
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: when I started getting these messages, I'm like, wow, maybe
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: these simple videos that I'm putting out they're making a
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: bigger impact than I actually think they are. And again,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: you know, some people don't know who I am. It's
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: just on social they do. But I want to reach
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: again another demographic that might want to read instead of
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: look at videos.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Just for some background, for someone who has never looked
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: at your Instagram page, what kinds of videos really are
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: they finding now?
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's a lot of self massage techniques and
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: well that's how it started. But probably you see more
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: stretching and mobility videos and I try to blend in
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: a little bit of strengtheners as well. And everyone sees
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: stretching on my page and almost think that's the only
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: thing I preach. But I want to remind them that,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: you know, I started as a trainer, so I know
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: how important strength training is. You know, the self massage
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: technique also diet, which I don't talk in the book,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: but I bring up it's stretching is just part of
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the pie, you know, the healthy life pie. It's not
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: just one thing. It needs everything to make it work.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: So that's where you see my social media now, a
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: lot of stretching, mobility exercise. That's primary solve massage techniques,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: and then a little bit of those active stretches or
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: active mobility exercises.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: I thought it was funny when you walked in here,
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: you said, one of the biggest misconceptions about me is
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: that people think that I'm super flexible. Why aren't you
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: super flexible, Joe?
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: So for me again, yeah, everyone's like college Joe does
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: yoga all day every day. He must be just like
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: gumbeing Doe the splits. But for me, the most important
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: thing is is being able to give into the positions
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: that you want to. So being in athletics, especially starting
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: in that golf, it's like they only have to be
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: as flexible or mobile as they need to be to
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: complete their golf swing. If you're a powerlifter, you just
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: need enough mobility to be able to squat in deadlift properly.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: If you want to be a yoga instructor or you
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: want to take it to the next level, then you
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: need a little bit more mobility. For me, it's can
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I work out and do my exercises properly without compensating,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: and that's enough mobility for me. I'm probably a little
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: bit above average mobility level, but I'm definitely not doing
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the splits and I'm not doing these crazy movements. But
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: that's just not my goal. And I say this in
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the book. Every person's body is different, every person's goals
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: are different. So if you see something doesn't mean it's
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: right for them. It just depends on what they want
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: to do.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: What would you say? Why is flexibility overall important?
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Again? One of those big things is being able to
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: get into positions. So you know, I've taken a lot
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: of group classes, I've trained so many people. And the
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: hard thing is we see so much information out on
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: social on YouTube, and you see your favorite person squatting,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: You're like, ooh, I got a squad like that, and
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: then you squad you look nothing like that. You need
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: to know where your limitations are and if you can
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: improve them, and then if we can improve them, that's
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: going to make that exercise just way way better. And
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: same with the athletics. You know, just taking track for example,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: if they can't do a certain movement or they're feeling
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: tight in a certain area, it's going to affect their race,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: and at that level, it's not you know that one
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: small thing, one tenth of a second could be the
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: difference between gold, silver, or not even being on the podium. Right,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: So it's very important from that, you know perspective.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: What would you say life looks like for you these days?
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: These days, so just trying to figure out how to
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: reach more people to help them. You know, I got
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the book coming out. I don't know if I'm going
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: to hit the podcast scene yet sneak peek with sneak
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Peek exactly, you know, continue to do this, you know,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: I have some other things in the works where maybe
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: working on educational stuff too, because I do get asked
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: that a lot. And again I think that's also helping
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the professional side to to kind of sift through all
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: the bullshit that's out in the fitness market just because
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: again the social is very good social media, but there's
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: also the downside because if your intentions are not good
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: with your marketing, then you're just spitting out really bad
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: information for the dollars.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's also really impressive because if you look
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: at your growth over you know, this short amount of time,
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: and you look at your product it's like very streamlined content.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: It's very informative, helpful content, and that's why it's so engaging.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: That's why people are sharing it because it's stuff that
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: everybody could use, whether again you are that elite level
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: athlete or your Emily sitting in her fourth apartment in
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: New York City, which is great, which is great, it's
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: a testament to you.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: I want it to be very accessible to everyone. And
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: you know, a stretch for you might be the exact
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: same stretch as someone who's not as active as you,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: or then maybe Olympic athlete can use that same stretch.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: So I want to show people that it works for
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: everyone and it can help everyone differently.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: These days, life is is a little bit different than
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: it was a few years ago. You feel like you
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: have a little bit bigger of a sense of purpose.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Perhaps you want to help more people. Obviously in doing that,
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: you probably have people that you look up to. When
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: you think about some of the best advice that you've
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: been offered as an entrepreneur, what do you think.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Of, as cliche as it sounds, as be yourself. When
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: I was growing in the industry, I think you try
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: to latch onto certain methodologies and you look up to
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: certain people, but then the creativity kind of goes away,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people think you have
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: to be this person to be successful, me included. I
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: remember looking at all these trainers back in the day,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, I have to be charismatic like this
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: guy to be successful. I got to do my business
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: that way to be successful. And when I started to
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: emulate this, it felt really uncomfortable. It just did not
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: feel natural, and I didn't feel like I was getting
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: anywhere either. And I spent a lot of years doing
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: that too, until I became an entrepreneur. I finally was like,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: you know what, let me put up the social media
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: posts and if they don't like it, then they're probably
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: not the right demographic for me. So I started to
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: just be myself, talk the way I usually talk. You know,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: I think I'm I'm a little goofy sometimes on my
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: ig stories whatever. But then people start to like me more,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: I feel like, and then my growth continued to go up.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: So I think that is one of the biggest things is, yeah,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: you can use a little bit of the model that
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: you know, the person you looked up to uses, you know,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: take pieces of what they do well, and then that
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: you think you can implement in your own business, but
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: be your own brand.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: What would you say has been the hardest part for
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: you in the last few years, now that you've really
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: established what it is that you're doing, what you're working
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: toward in your mission, which is clearly to help more
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: and more people, it's.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: The time management. There's a lot to do, and there's
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of moving parts, and you know, I'm very
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: proudful of being able to do a lot of this
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: stuff on my own. But I think there's a time
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: that you start to go little nuts and your brain
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: gets a little scattered. So I think right now is
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: trying to find a good team around me to help
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: support the mission and make sure that these people have
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the same mentality as me to help people and put
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: out good content for people to consume.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Have you come up with any good hacks for the
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: time management struggles?
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah. I mean I'm a sucker for buying
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: books or listening to books on productivity, which is probably
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: not the greatest thing because that just means that I'm
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: not being productive.
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think I think buying books on
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: productivity means that you're hoping to be more productive.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I think those are the only books I have, so
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: I think I just need to find the one that
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: really hit. One is doing It's like having a streak.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: It's doing a little bit of something every single day.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: I've been trying to do that more because I have
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: a tendency to I'll just leave it off till tomorrow
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: and I won't do it at all, and then that
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: might turn into I'll do it the next day and
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: just concentrate on one thing. So I like to put
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: up a list, maybe like four or five things that
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: I want to finish or accomplish, and I need to
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: at leayst do one thing for it a day. Another
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: thing is I think it's called Pomadora's or pomadoros. It's
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: you work for twenty five minutes and then you do
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: something for five minutes. You do just like something unrelated
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: for five minutes. And I think this is actually a
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: great tool for people who sit a lot, because you know,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: everyone's talking about the desk worker and their posture and
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: how they feel so uncomfortable. So I say, put some
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: water on your desk, drink your water, sip on that,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: and then work for twenty five minutes straight. But at
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: that five minutes, you're either going to have to pee
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: or I just want you to get up to walk around,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and that's probably going to make you feel way better
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: throughout your day and you probably be more productive. And
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: then you continue to do that. You just go back
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: and forth, and I've seen a lot of good result
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: in people saying, Wow, this is great because usually I
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: would just sit at my desk for hours and hours
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: and then my back starts to hurt, my low back
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: starts to hurt. But breaking it up makes a huge difference.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: And drink enough water because you get hydrated and then
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: it makes you stand up and walk around.
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: Important important. Okay, the way that I wind down the
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: podcast without fail. Right now, I want to ask you
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: you are looking back at this time in your life
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: when you are a senior in college, you got the
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: boot from your major, You're not sure what you want
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: to do with yourself, and you need a little bit
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: of guidance. See, you have an opportunity right now, looking
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: back on that hurdle moment, to offer yourself one piece
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: of advice. What do you tell yourself then.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Not to be so hard on myself? You know, things
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: are difficult, but it could be worse. Right, I still
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: had kind of a roof under my head, and I
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: think it's just being self aware at the time. Back then,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: I was so narrow minded. It's like I had to
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: go to college. If not, I'm a failure and there's
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: no other options. Looking back at it now, I realize
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: you don't have to go to college. Really analyze, you
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: know your life and what you're really passionate about, and
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: see if you can make a career out of it,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: because in this time of day you could make money
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: doing anything. You can have a career doing anything, which
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: is blowing my mind because growing up, it's go to college,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: be a doctor, get a good job. Now it could
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: be go to high school, go on YouTube or play
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: video games on Twitch and make millions of dollars.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: I mean that's extreme, but people are doing it, so
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: why can't you do it? So I would look at
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: myself to say, don't be so hard on yourself. Let's
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: just regroup here and we can figure it out. And
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: we have time to I'm just figuring out my stuff.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Just turn thirty three and just figuring stuff out now.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: Just figuring it out, figuring it out amazing. Well, thanks
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: so much for sitting down with me.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for having me. This is awesome.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: dot us. Connect to the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: at Hurdle Podcast. Joe. Where do they find you? How
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: do they keep up with you? Give me the details
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: on your book. I want to know everything.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: My first home will always be Instagram, so you can
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: find me at Joe Therapy, also Joe Therapy on YouTube.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: I have a website joetherapy dot com and you can
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: find the book at Better Stretching dot com. But you
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: can also find it out all of the retailers that.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: Sell books anywhere.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: Books are sold anywhere, books are sold.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: Beautiful. I am at Emily a body at Hurdle Podcast.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: Another hurdle conquered you guys. Next time
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Sh